EY ES NEWS

INFANT LITERACY
Written by Ms. Ruby 

Our topic for this term is about nature’s harvest and different senses. Their fine and gross motor skills were honed through music and movement activities. Their sensorial skills are pressed through touching and tapping activities. They explored the letters /c/, /a/, /t/, /p/, and /s/ through bubbling, touching, tapping, and tried to bubbled out the letters. Music Time is always cool as babies learn to utter sounds before they can talk. They moved with the music and explored some musical instruments. Physical development is as vital as the other aspects of a child's development. One semester was such a milestone for these little ones as they have shown continued progress in the tasks given to them.

NURSERY UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD
Written by Ms. Mary-Ann

Moo! Arf! Neigh! Baa! Quack! Oink! Did you hear that sound? 

These sounds echoed in the classroom every Wednesday of the week.The Nursery children were ecstatic in naming and following these sounds as they explored the world of farm animals this term. They learnt about the animal’s physical characteristics, food they eat, places they live, the movements, and the sounds they make. We read stories like “The Little Red Hen”, "Big Red Barn", and “Mrs. Wishy Washy”, that further supported their knowledge about these farm animals. After reading the books, the class explored the farm animal toys by putting them in the mud, washing them using soap and water, and getting them dry. It was indeed a messy fun activity!

Inspired by the barn model that they often play in the morning, they painted a mini barn box together with their partner friend. How lovely it was to see them work together! They learnt to trace their hands and fingers when making their chicken artwork. 

Additionally, galloping horses, walking sheep, running dogs, and paddling ducks were spotted in the classroom every time we exercised using the animal movements. They also had a fantastic day milking the cow.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN - PE
Written by Ms. Sherly

This term in PE, Pre-K children continue to develop their gross motor skills such as squatting, bending, and throwing. They started to engage in ball play as it helps children develop grasping skills, eye-hand coordination, and the ability to move objects. The Pre-K children enjoyed learning new skills such as moving the balls to different directions, and also throwing and catching. We are thrilled to see the improvements the Pre-K children have achieved so far. Excellent work, Pre-K!

K1 MUSIC
Written by Ms. Nathania 

Music in K1 is now focusing on singing techniques as we believe that every child is a singer by birth. Students learn to have breathing exercise and vocal cord warming up before singing. Warming up before singing is important because it helps the singers to maximize their vocal range from the lowest to the highest. Pretty much as effective as the warming up before physical exercises. In class, students learn to stand with the correct posture, and to be able to sing without screaming and shouting. Adults could somehow inspire the children to scream by asking them to sing louder. Unfortunately, “sing louder” for the children means screaming. In this case, children need to learn that the right way to sing is to open their mouths wider, and not to sing louder.

Link for K1 video- Skidamarink

Link for K1 video- Vocal Warming up

K2 CHINESE LANGUAGE
Written by Mr. Liu

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, is the most important and traditional holiday in China. Celebrated at the turn of the lunar calendar, it is a time for families to gather, exchange gifts, and enjoy feasts.

Chinese New Year is not only celebrated in China but also by Chinese communities around the world. Here in Indonesia, K2 students showed their love to the Spring Festival by singing and dancing in the EYES Chinese New Year celebration which was held on Feb 2nd, 2023.

Smiling is an important aspect of Chinese New Year celebrations. During the spring festival, families gather to reunite and spread happiness and joy. Smiling and laughter are seen as symbols of good luck and fortune for the coming year. K2A brought <You are pretty when you smile> to the stage to wish everybody a happy Chinese New Year.

Showing appreciation is also a crucial part of Chinese New Year celebrations. In Chinese culture, respect for elders is highly valued, and during this time, younger generations will often express their appreciation by visiting the homes of their elders, bringing gifts, and offering well wishes. There are many precious wishes offered by K2B kids along with the enchanting performance. 

GRADE 5 GRADE LEVEL ASSEMBLY

Written by Mr. Jay

“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” 

   - Confucius -

Perseverance is a key ingredient in the recipe of life. Grade 5’s theme for this year has been understanding and applying perseverance as they proceed towards their MSHS expedition. United as a class, they put together a detailed presentation and then a well acted play for the ES, teaching the importance of perseverance. The presentation focused on teaching to everyone what perseverance means, some examples of perseverance, why perseverance is important and what the benefits of perseverance are. They ended the presentation with their own personal story of perseverance.

Next came a well acted performance, that was broken into four different stages. Each stage exhibited an example of the adversity and struggles one may face in life, culminating at the end of each stage, the display of courage, grit and determination to keep going.  The first stage dealt with the demands of home life, such as an abundance of chores around the house. The next stage unveiled the elements of bullying on the way to school. The third stage illustrated the challenges and stress of student life with strict deadlines and teachers. The last stage portrayed the duress, fear and pressure of adult work life. In each case, they showed the importance of not giving up, but continuing to tackle whatever came their way and persevere.  Great job Grade 5! 

GRADE 1 SCIENCE
Written by Ms. Evi

This term 3, Grade 1 has been learning about weather and seasons, light and shadow. Seasons’ changes are very distinct in certain parts of the world. Learning the seasons of the year is a great opportunity to teach the students about time, as it helps the students to get a better understanding of time and how important it is. The students create pictures of things that represent the four seasons - a tree in each season (blooming flowers, trees with red autumn leaves, dried leaves, bare trees). They also learnt how seasons affect what they wear and the types of activities that they can do.

During our lesson about light, the Grade 1 students were given a challenge to create their own “bright and colourful light” using the torch and cellophane paper. They were also asked to explain how light helps us see by observing the “shoebox and torch” experiment. In this process, they observed, analysed and communicated their findings. They learnt how shadows are formed.  Learning hands-on science is tons of fun!

GRADE 2 INDONESIAN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Written by Ms. Junita

Days, numbers, and colours are basic vocabularies that should be known by ILA students, as well as Grade 2 students. Different worksheets and activities were given so that students could remember the words and apply them in their daily conversations.

GRADE 3 PE
Written by Mr. Dominic

The grade 3 kids split their time in PE practicing for their PE project and learning badminton. The project which is the chinese dance is a collaboration with the Chinese and Music Departments. Dancing helps develop coordination, rhythm, agility, and timing. And judging from their performance, it was truly a showcase of true talent and superb dancing ability. On other days, they were learning the basics of how to play badminton. They started off with learning how to hold the badminton racket properly. Then they practiced hitting the shuttlecock to themselves to practice their eye-hand coordination and to be familiar with their own racket. Recently they are able to hit the shuttlecock back and forth with each other a couple times which is a sign of progress and learning. They will continue to learn the basics and hopefully be playing the a match by the end of the term. 

GRADE 4 ENGLISH
Written by Mr. Marc

Always the students to take action and to try their best, the Grade 4 class is off to a great start this term in English Language class. 

Students chose a topic they feel passionate about and planned a 5-paragraph essay to persuade an audience. For example, Angel is persuading her parents to travel more on vacations, while Aby is arguing that students should get paid for achieving good grades. Haeyun is trying to persuade the school to let pets in school, and Dominic is trying to persuade his parents to let him play unlimited computer games on vacations.

Overall, it’s been a fun and informative process. 

GRADE 5 MATHEMATICS
Written by Mr. Christian

Diversity inside the classroom doesn’t only focus on race, culture and beliefs but also includes different types of learners. Our classroom is a perfect example of a spectrum of different intelligences working together. Like a kaleidoscope when hit by the ray of light will display a different spectrum of colours. Educators and Psychologists made different models and inventories of different intelligences and learning styles which is useful in making sure that schools provide the best education for their students. One of which tackles visual learning or others call it spatial intelligence. It is the ability to generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images (Lohman 1996). 

Several Math concepts to be understood need to be visually appealing so the visual learners will be able to grasp the concepts. Grade 5 students were able to come up with pixel artworks using a 10 x 10 grid paper to show percentage. They counted the units they used from the grid and later on wrote the percentage of the shaded and unshaded parts. 

Working with word problems can be hard when you don’t understand the question or you are having trouble visualising it. To understand the questions, Grade 5 students made a poster on the main features of the problem. Like drawing a garden in which area will be measured, orange juice being equally distributed to a group of friends and ribbons to be cut to decorate gifts. These are all done while still following the usual steps and procedures in answering them (models, number sentences, workings and answer statements). This way, readers will have a better understanding of the question. Building these skills will definitely enhance student’s thinking and problem solving skills.

“Logic will get you from A to Z. Imagination will get you everywhere” - Albert Einstein