Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to K2 on their fantastic Graduation speech and ceremony, and for all the hard work they did this year! This is a special time, completing Kindergarten and embarking on a new journey ahead. Please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail any time, I will try to respond as soon as possible: emilyscott.jayne@gmail.com

Thank you to Fiona's father who has put together this great video from graduation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuGRZwXAjJU&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for the wonderful year and see you soon :)

Graduation

Graduation will begin at 10:00am this Wednesday. See you all then!

Mass Tomorrow

Students must wear their proper school uniform to school tomorrow for mass. K2 will be the class sponsor so they will be reading Prayers of the Faithful and brining up the Gifts of Offering. You are welcome to join us!

You're Invited...

Dear Parents,

I would like to offer an open invitation for you to join us for our classroom party tomorrow at 3:00pm. I would also like to invite students to bring in their favourite games or toys to play with. From 3-3:30pm you will have the chance to play games with the students and from 3:30-4pm we will play outside.

See you tomorrow!

I'm back after a couple days off healing from a sinus infection. Feeling much better after lots of rest and medication.

As the year winds down, I would like to ask each student to bring in a bag for their art work and books to take home. A sturdy, medium sized cloth or plastic bag would be great.

Also, for the graduation ceremony, we will ask one parent to walk their child to the front of the gym at the beginning of the ceremony. Please decide which parent will guide the student and be present and on-time next Wednesday.

Thank you!

Year End Schedule & Notices

In each students communication books I have attached their lines for the Graduation Speech. Please help them to practice these lines at home, speaking clearly and loudly.

This is a reminder than next Tuesday, May 20th will be a half day with classes ending at 12:00pm.

Next Friday, May 23rd will be the May Crowing/Closing Mass and K2 will be the sponsor class. Students will be reading the Prayers of the Faithful and bringing forth the gifts for God. Please feel free to attend the mass. It will begin at 8:30am. That afternoon K2 will have their year end party from 2-4pm. I will write a more detailed post on Monday to confirm details of the party.

The morning of Wednesday, May 28th will be the K2 & Grade 5 Graduation as well as Recognition Day for Honors Students. K2 has been working hard for this special day so I hope to see you all there!
This day will be a half day, with school ending after the ceremony. The following day, Thursday, May 29th will also be a half day and K1 & K2 will be going on a field trip to the Butterfly Garden that morning. Friday, May 30th will mark the last day of the school year and it will also be a half day.

Lunch will not be served Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (May 28th-30th) as school will be ending at 12pm.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Finally, as most of you already know, I will not be returning to D.I.S.K. next fall. Although my time here has been wonderful and it has been an extreme pleasure to teach your children, I have family obligations to attend to at home in Canada. With that being said, Taiwan is a fantastic country I now call home and I may be back early next winter. My e-mail address is emilyscott.jayne@gmail.com if you'd like to contact me. Please feel free to leave your e-mail address in your child's communication book if you'd like me to contact you when I'm back in Taiwan.

Thank you and Happy Friday!

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook page 121

Week 38 Daily Plan: May 12-16

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning Assembly Phonics: Long vowel a Dance  Science: How Things Move Music PE	Reading: Dr. Seuss Language: Final Copy Seed Stories Graduation Rehearsal  Social Studies: Heros Past & Present  Science: How Things Move  Music	Reading: Dr. Seuss Phonics: Long vowel a Social Studies: Goods or Services Math: 26-30 Writing: K & X Chinese	Language: Final Copy Seed Stories Library Math: Calendar-Using Numbers 1-31 Christian Living Art	Spelling Test Show & Tell Graduation Rehearsal  Phonics: Long vowel a Math: Count by 2s, 5s 10s Chinese PE

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook page 113

Journey's Reader: Read "Dr. Seuss" 2 times

Today's Homework

Phonics page 139

Choose the correct word for the picture. Circle the vowel that is in the word.

Today's Homework

Phonics page 138

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook page 111. Choose the high frequency word to fill in the blanks. Read each sentence 2 times.

Reading Buddies

Today's Homework

Phonics page 136. Choose the word to fill in the blank.

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook page 108-109. Choose the right word to fill in the blank.

Journey's Reader: Read "A Musical Day" 2 times.

Welcome Back: Easter Mass!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and a Happy Easter!

Tomorrow we will be having our annual Easter Mass, with the Easter Egg hunt following.

Please send students to school in their proper school uniform for mass. You may send their PE uniform in their school bag to change into later if you'd like.

Thanks!

Today's Homework

Phonics page 127: Choose the correct high frequency word to complete each sentence.
             page 128: Unscramble the letters to write a word from the box.

Today's Homework

Journeys Workbook pg. 106: Circle the capital letters and periods. Write the two sentences at the bottom correctly, using a capital letter to start and a period to ensld.

Journeys Reader: Read "A Musical Day" 2 times.

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook page 101 & 105

School Holiday

Just a quick reminder that D.I.S.K. will be closed from Wednesday, April 2-Monday, April 7th.

There will be no school for the rest of the week, I will see everyone on Monday, April 7th! Enjoy your holiday and Happy Children's Day!

Today's Homework

Phonics page 122. Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

Also, complete all Spelling Test corrections.

Return both tomorrow!

Field Trip Video

A huge thanks to Fiona's parents for putting together this fantastic video from our field trip to the Kenting National Museum of Marine Biology Aquarium last Thursday. It really captures the fun time we had together! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLaQ9NDlrkg&feature=youtu.be

Parent-Teacher Interviews & Half-Day

This is a reminder that tomorrow, Friday, March 28th will be a half-day with students being dismissed at 12:00.

I look forward to meeting parents tomorrow afternoon for our quarterly Parent-Teacher interviews. If you cannot meet tomorrow, let me know via the Communication Book, if you'd like me to send home your child's report card.

For those who have made appointments, in order to keep on schedule, please be punctual and remember each meeting is ~ 10 minutes.

See you tomorrow!

Show & Tell: Winston

Big thanks to Winston for sharing his Cars watch with us last Friday for Show & Tell! Great confidence and a nice variety of questions asked by the students! 

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook pg. 97: Choose the correct high frequency word to fill in the blank.

Have students make sentences using each high-frequency word (Her, Would, She, Today, Our, Now).

An Interesting Article I'd Like to Share:

A Healthy Brain Needs a Healthy Heart

by SANDRA AAMODT

FEBRUARY 17, 2014, 7:00 AM

Children need exercise.  Parents often worry that making time for athletics or even for just playing on the Jungle Jim is going to take away from their kids’ academic achievement.  But actually, the opposite is true.  There have been analyses of huge numbers of studies that all show that kids who are fit are better in school, get better grades, and have higher intelligence scores than kids who are sedentary.  And that is probably because across the lifespan, even into old age, there’s a strong correlation between a healthy heart and a healthy brain.  

The brain is the most demanding organ that your circulatory system has to feed.  It takes up a lot of the body’s oxygen and a lot of the body’s energy.  And unlike most of your tissues, your brain can’t live very long without that blood supply.  You cut blood supply off for about five minutes and parts of the brain start dying.  So clogged arteries and little clots that cut off blood flow to the brain in older people are a significant source of cognitive difficulty and cognitive deterioration with age.  And even in little kids, being physically fit clearly enhances intellectual performance.  

The other thing parents should be thinking about is that in childhood your kid needs about 90 minutes a day of active moving around, and parents should really focus, I think, on making sure that that’s fun, first of all.  You don’t want to institute exercise as punishment.  And you also, I think, want to have them doing something that could potentially continue into adulthood.  However much your kids like climbing trees, they’re not going to be doing that when they’re 40, not most of us anyway. 

And if you give them a sport or a taste for hiking or a taste for yoga, something that grownups do, you greatly reduce the chance that they’re going to be one of the large numbers of people who are active children who grow into sedentary adults.  Usually that transition happens around the age of 13 or so.

http://bigthink.com/in-their-own-words/a-healthy-brain-needs-a-healthy-heart

Sandra Aamodt is a neuroscientist and science writer, who takes the complexities of neuroscience research and whips them into fun reads that give people a better understanding of their minds and behavior. Her books Welcome to Your Brain andWelcome to Your Child's Brain (both written with Sam Wang) are designed to bring neuroscience to a general audience, and they've both been widely translated. Aamodt's science writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, El Mundo and the Times of London.

From 2003 to 2008, Aamodt was the editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience, a leading scientific journal in the field of brain research. She brings a significant scientific background to the task of explaining new research without creating neurobunk. During her career, she has read over five thousand neuroscience papers, and written many editorials on science policy.

Today's Homework

Phonics page 117-118

Page 117: Blend the individual letter sounds together to sound out the short vowel words. Read each word 3 times. Colour the picture that the word names.

Page 118: Blend the individual letter sounds together to sound out the short vowel words. Read each word 3 times. Draw a line from the word to the picture it names.

Please return tomorrow!

Show & Tell: Victoria

Thanks for Victoria for sharing her stuffed rabbit with us for Show & Tell last week! Excellent clues and good presentation! 

Clarification

This Friday, March 21st will NOT be a half day. We will have a regular school day.

Next Friday, March 28th WILL be a half day, with Parent-Teacher interviews taking place in the afternoon.

Sorry for any confusion!

Finally, please arrive at school by 8:25 a.m. tomorrow as we will be leaving promptly at 8:30 a.m.!
See you then :)

Today's Homework

Journey's Practice Book pg. 99-100

Read from the Journey's Reader "How Animals Communicate" 2 times.

Aquarium Field Trip

Here is a list of things to bring on our field trip to the Kenting Aquarium this Thursday, March 20th:

-National Health Insurance card (please send this to school with student Thursday morning)
-full Water bottle
-snack (fresh fruit)
-a hat
-sunscreen
-sunglasses
-jacket
-an extra uniform (shirt, shorts, underwear, socks)
-a towel

Students will be required to wear their PE uniforms to school on Thursday. We ask that you send an extra uniform and towel as there is a small wading pool that students may play in and get a little wet. Please ensure you are punctual, arriving at school no later than 8:25am.

I am looking forward to exploring the underwater world with K2!

Show & Tell

Thanks to Macarius for doing an excellent job on our first Show & Tell! Looking forward to Victoria's Show & Tell today  

Play Time!

Reminders

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow, Friday March 14th, will be a half day with students being dismissed at 12:00 p.m.

Also, third quarter Parent-Teacher interviews will be on Friday, March 28th from 1-2:30 (10 minutes each). Please write in your child's book what time you would like to come.

Thank you!

Today's Homework

Please complete Journey's Workbook page 94 & 95. Choose the correct words to fill in the blanks.

Read Journey's Reader pg. 43-56 "How Animals Communicate" aloud two times.

Return both books tomorrow.

Angel of the Week

Congratulations to our very own K2 Angel of the Week. Yun was chosen because she asked her classmates to quiet down in the halls due to elementary school exams! Thanks Yun and keep up the good work!

Todays Homework

Journeys Workbook pg. 89, 91 (not page 90)

Show & Tell

This Friday, March 7th, K2 will begin a weekly Show & Tell ritual as a way to promote oral language, group presentation and question/answer skills.

Each Friday, one student will be asked to bring in a special object (a toy, picture, souvenir, etc.) from home to share with their classmates.

The "Show & Tell Box" will be sent home with one student every Thursday. The student will choose a special object to put inside the special box so other's cannot see the item (SHH it's a secret!). Have the student think of three clues about the object. During Show and Tell time, the other students will try to guess what is in the bag based on the clues. For example, if the student brings in a toy snake, some clues might be "It doesn't have legs. It is green. It slithers on the ground."

Macarius has volunteered to be our first Show & Teller, so we look forward to what he has to share tomorrow!

Tonight's Homework

Journey's Workbook: page 83

     1. Choose the correct high frequency word to fill in the blanks.
     2. Make sentences orally using the high frequency words (animal, why, some, how, make, of)

Due tomorrow, Wednesday March 5th.

Today's Homework

Journey's Workbook pg. 80-81

Page 80: Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

Page 81: Choose a word from the box to name each picture.

Please return tomorrow (Tuesday, March 4th).

2/28 Holiday

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is a National Holiday and there will be no school.
Enjoy the long weekend and see you on Monday March 3rd!

Today's Homework

In your Journey's hardcover book please read "Jack and the Wolf" two times.

In your Journey's Workbook please complete pages 77-78 correctly.

Return homework tomorrow, Wednesday February 26th.

Sports Day & Family Day Tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Friday, February 21st,  D.I.S.K. will be celebrating Family Day and Sport's Day together!

Beginning first thing in the morning, we will have our annual Family Day Mass in the Chapel. Students need to wear their proper school uniform and black shoes to school (not PE uniform). 

After mass, we will begin our Sports Day activities. Please send student's Sports Day shirt, PE pants and running shoes in their school bags to change into after mass.

After the Sports Day activities, around 11:30, we have have our Family Day Lunch. Following the lunch, there will be games for students and parents to take part in outside. If you'd like to participate, please feel free to wear comfortable clothes and shoes!

Thanks and looking forward to good fun, good food and good company tomorrow!

Today's Homework

Journey's Pages 70 and 72

Page 70: Choose the correct ending (ck, gg or ss) for each word. Write the ending letters on the line.

Page 72: Write the words in the correct column: Words that begin with a vowel or Words that begin with a consonant

Please return completed homework tomorrow!

Today's Homework

Phonics page 101 & 102

Page 101: Say the name of the picture. Circle its name. (Hint: All answers have the short "u" sound)

Page 102: Draw a line from the baby cub to its parent by drawing a line following all short "u" words.
Write a sentence using one or more of the short "u" words.

Please complete and return for tomorrow.

There will be no spelling test this week due to Family Day & Sports Day on Friday!

Kindergarten Art Gallery: Chinese New Year Drawings

Week 28 Daily Plan: March 3-7

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning Assembly  Phonics: Short u High Frequency Words  Dance Science: Matter (Solids, Liquids, Gasses) Music PE	Language: Big Book Presentation Reading: How Animals Communicate Math: Subtract 2 from numbers 6-10 Social Studies: Maps of Countries  Science: Matter Writing: L & I	Reading: How Animals Communicate  Phonics: Short u Spelling Social Studies: Maps of Countries  Science: Subtract Pennies Writing: T & E  Chinese PE	Language: Labelling Pictures  Library Math: Subtract Pennies Christian Living Art PE	Spelling Test Phonics: Short u Review Storytime Math:  Practice Subtraction Social Studies: Maps of Countries Chinese PE

Today's Homework

Phonics page 97. Fill in the blanks with the correct word from the box to complete each sentence. Please return to school tomorrow!

Today's Homework

1) Please add Spelling List #19 words to "My First Spelling Dictionary" book.

2) Using the short story, "Fast Pig" write as many short "i" words as you can find in the story on the lined paper provided.

Lastly, please sign and return the Sports Day form tomorrow, along with the payment for the lunch buffet. Even if you will not be attending, still sign and return the paper.

Thank you!

Week 25 Daily Plan: February 10-14

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Language: Making a Big Book Phonics: Short i Dance Science: Measuring Weather Music PE	Language: Making a Big Book Reading: Jack and the Wolf Math: Practice Addition Social Studies: Family Trees Science: Measuring Weather Writing: w & y	Reading: Jack ad the Wolf Phonics: High Frequency Words Math: Doubles Social Studies: Family Trees Writing: Review Chinese PE	Language: Note Writing Library Social Studies:  Special Days Christian Living Art PE	Spelling Test Phonics: Short u Storytime Math: Illustrating Addition Science: Seasons Chinese PE

Welcome Back & Today's Homework

Happy New Year Everyone! It was a nice, relaxing break but it's great to see K2's smiling faces again!

For homework tonight, please complete Phonics page 92. Students need to choose the correct word to complete the sentence (Hint: Answer will have the short "i" sound in it). Write the correct word neatly on the line. Please return Phonics books tomorrow

Thanks!

Art Museum Field Trip!