EY ES NEWS

EARLY YEARS

TODDLER - CHINESE LANGUAGE
Written By Ms. Bi Qin

Toddler 这学期学习了我的家人、五官，和了解关于中秋节的故事。在学习爸爸妈妈时，幼儿玩儿切果冻游戏，然后分享给爸爸妈妈，通过设置情景, 引导幼儿理解“我爱爸爸”，“我爱妈妈”的意思。在学习爷爷奶奶时，幼儿们愉快地听故事《拔萝卜》，唱儿歌，积极参与拔萝卜等活动，孩子们在潜移默化中学习中文。

Toddler class learnt about family, facial features, and stories about the Mid-Autumn Festival this term. When learning about dad and mom, children played a game of cutting jelly, and then shared it with their parents to guide them in understanding the meaning of "wǒ ài bà ba (I love father)" and "wǒ ài mā ma (I love mother)". When learning about grandparents, the children happily listened to the story, "bá luó bo (Pulling Radishes)," sang nursery rhymes, and actively participated in activities such as pulling radishes.

NURSERY - UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD
Written By Ms. Mary-Ann

The Nursery class learnt about the 5 senses and their functions this term. While the children were exploring the different sensory items, they enjoyed the multi-sensory experiences of touching, smelling, observing, and hearing, which allowed them to better understand the world around them. Engaging their hands builds their fine motor skills and helps them learn how to do more for themselves. Additionally, the children were taught how to keep their bodies healthy by identifying the items that are used to keep the specific body parts clean and bringing healthy food for the Show and Tell. The class also came to school wearing their aerobic costumes to perform simple exercises that kept their large muscles moving and developed their body endurance.

"Teaching little ones to love their bodies at a young age helps them grow into children who want to keep their bodies strong, healthy, and safe, so they can continue to do all the things they love to do."

PRE-KINDERGARTEN - PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Written By Ms. Sherly

Physical activities are important for the health of children’s bodies and minds. In Term 1, our Pre-K children started with developing their gross motor skills, such as walking, running, jumping, and landing properly. They also learnt how to stretch their bodies properly to improve their balance and flexibility. We loved to see our Pre-K children enjoying the different exercises as they help build and maintain healthy bones and muscles. It is also fun!

KINDERGARTEN 1 - LITERACY
Written By Ms. Klara

In Literacy and Phonics, the Kindergarten 1 students used language to express their thoughts, awareness of letter sounds and blending them to read words, and diving into reading more sight words. The students attentively listened to stories related to the letters every day. They moved along and enjoyed activities connected to the story. They learnt the Jolly Phonics letter sounds, practised writing them, and even started to write sentences using some sight words. At an early age, these K1 literacy skills promote print and phonological awareness.

KINDERGARTEN 2 - MUSIC
Written By Ms. Nathania

Music for Early Years focused on the development of musical sensory, which are developed through rhythm and melody (solfeggio). Students learnt to identify steady beats, which are important for children's motor development and body balance. Melody is recognised through hearing and singing. In Kindergarten 2, students recognise different pitches and the position of notes in the musical octave with the use of Curwen hand signs, which is very popular in Europe and is effective to help the students visualise the note. The rhythm is recognised by clapping different rhythmical patterns with percussion instruments. Students will create different note values and explore varieties of percussion instruments as they go through music learning in Early Years.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SWA - SNUES EXCHANGE PROGRAMME (SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA)
Written By Ms. Rhea and Grade 4 Students

The SWA Grade 4 students completed the two-part online exchange with the Seoul National University Elementary School in Seoul, South Korea. The SNUES Principal, Chief of International Programme, together with ten Grade 4 students and a Korean Language Teacher, spent their afternoon sharing the history of the Korean alphabet, called Hangeul. It was a simple, yet informative session and everyone did a good job of colouring the assigned worksheet with a Korean saying: We are more beautiful than flowers. Let us walk together on the flower road.

For the second half of the programme, our Bahasa Indonesia Teacher, Ms. Marcel, helped the SNUES students create a fun comic strip using the Bahasa Indonesia they learned through videos, conversations, and word banks. The lesson ended with a sharing, but the SWA and SNUES students will stay connected outside the classroom through email exchanges, which will allow them to get to know each other better. SNUES has been a strong partner of SWA for several years now and we hope to even deepen the relationship through more meaningful learning opportunities in the future.

I had fun and my favourite part was when the students presented about themselves. - Joannes

I enjoyed the Korean lesson because I learned about Hangeul dance. My favourite part was colouring the flowers. - Maurice

The students and teachers were amazing. I liked the presentation and the activity. I hope to see them again. - Reagan

SWA - RITSUMEIKAN EXCHANGE PROGRAMME (KYOTO, JAPAN)
Written By Ms. Rhea and Grade 3 Students

September 27th - 28th were busy days for the Grade 3 students as they juggled the online exchange with Ritsumeikan Primary School, in between their regular lessons. The SWA students bravely handled the task of presenting about Indonesian culture, and answering questions from the Japanese students all on their own, when they were separated into different breakout rooms. They each completed two sessions and the activity has shown the students' ability to think on their feet, adapt to challenges, and make the most of opportunities. Overall, the exchange programme in Grade 3 was a success and everyone is looking forward to many more in the future.

Juwon: I liked the Japanese food presentation. I also learned some Japanese words. I wonder if we can go to Japan next year. I wish I can go to Ritsumeikan Primary School and meet them.

Jennifer: I enjoyed talking to the students and they were very kind. I learned about their food and words. I was nervous at first but I got used to it and felt better in the end.

Aarohi: I love all the kids! I liked it when they taught me the Japanese language. I learned about their names and uniform, too. I think I should improve my voice next time.

Azka: I enjoyed sharing about my country. I wonder if I will be more confident next year.

Jeslyn: I liked that we did the cultural exchange. I am excited to meet them again next time.

GRADE 1 - INDONESIAN LANGUAGE
Written By Ms. Junita

This term, Grade 1 students were really excited to learn about "My Body" and "Good Hygiene". They learnt the parts of their bodies and how to take care of them. They also had to write and read some texts about body parts to improve their writing and reading skills.

They did some activities, such as cutting, pasting, and labelling body parts, to make a whole human body. The students were also expected to understand and apply their learning on how to look after their bodies. Upon project completion, each student presented in front of the class.

Health is everything and it is important to instill in students the knowledge of good hygiene and overall health, even at a very young age.

GRADE 2 - PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Written By Mr. Dominic

Tee ball is the sport that the grade 2 students are learnt this first term. They studied the rules and regulations of how to play Tee ball. They were also able to show that they can hit the ball like the new home run sensation, Aaron Judge. They had fun fielding the ball and catching outs. It was a fun experience for them to play Tee ball and learn a whole new sport that they can pick up as a hobby later on in their lives.

GRADE 4 - MATHEMATICS
Written By Mr. Christian

The end of the pandemic has seen people longing for travel and recreation. As seen in the past months, people are starting to travel and borders are opening for tourists. As our students in SWA are aware of current events, this term project helped them realise different aspects of traveling - from planning, researching, decision-making, to budgeting. Their activity was an application of the soft skills they developed through years of studying maths and the use of recent technology at hand. They were able to check on the costs of hotels, plane tickets, food choices, and different activities to be done at the destinations of their choice. They also identified different travel websites that could help them plan their trip. As they slowly put together the costs, important decisions had to be made on whether they wanted to do a budget-friendly trip, or go extravagant, and stay in a posh hotel. "Not worth it!" Raphael said when he found out that a single-person trip to New York will cost him 30 millions rupiah and will cost more for a family of 5.

The project truly helped the students appreciate maths to another level and understand its relevance to real life, which is crucial to the SWA goal of developing lifelong learners.

GRADE 5 - CHINESE LANGUAGE
Written By Ms. Guo

学习的目的是为了运用，如果只是知道而不去做，那么学习就失去了它原本的意义。同时，在运用所学的同时，又能加深我们对知识的印象，从而丰富我们对知识内涵的理解。五年级在学了“家庭树”之后，学生们还调查了自己的家庭成员，梳理出了成员之间的关系，不仅知道了成员各自之间的称呼，更是体会到了血脉之间的浓浓亲情。

The purpose of learning is to apply. If you just know and don't apply it, then learning will lose its original meaning. At the same time, using what we have learnt, can also deepen our impression of knowledge, thus enriching our understanding of the connotation of knowledge. After learning the "family tree" the fifth grade students also investigated their family members and sorted out the relationships among them. They not only knew the names of the members but also experienced the deep kinship between the bloodlines.

古诗就像璀璨的中国文化银河中的那一颗颗闪烁的星星。积累古诗，不但能增强孩子的记忆力，还能提高对语言文字的领悟能力，增进对中国历史文化的了解，扩大孩子的知识面，形成独特的审美能力。五年级的学生们了解了古诗，积累了古诗，还亲笔画出了古诗的意境，并写上自己心中的感慨。从学生们的“诗配画”中，可以看出他们对古诗学习的热情。

Ancient poems are like shining stars in the galaxy of Chinese culture. Accumulating ancient poetry provides many benefits: it can enhance children’s memory, it also improves their ability to understand language and character, increases their understanding of Chinese history and culture, expands children’s knowledge and creates uniquely aesthetic abilities. The fifth grade students learnt about ancient poems. They accumulated them and personally drew the artistic conception of the ancient poetry and wrote their own feelings. The students' enthusiasm for learning ancient poetry can be seen from their "poetry with painting".

KIDS AEROBICS
Written By Ms. Sherly

At SWA, students are offered a variety of fun, age-appropriate activities to keep them physically active. This year, Kids Aerobics was introduced as one of the 9th-period activities for Grades 1 and 2. Aerobics is a form of exercise that combines strength training and stretching along with rhythmic movement. Aerobics helps improve the cardiovascular activity of the body, thus, performing aerobics helps to improve heart health. Learning to move to music also encourages the students to express themselves and form friendships with their classmates.