Teacher Newsletter

November Newsletter

Dear Parent(s) & Guardian(s), 

Dates to Remember

HARVEST CELEBRATION – October 19th – NOVEMBER 6th

OFFICIAL SPLIT of CLASS - November 2nd, 2020

SINT MAARTEN – November 11, 2020

SCHOOL CLOSED – November 12, 2020

EVENTS

Birthdays Announcements

Nishanth – 13-11-2020 (5 years old)

Nitzana – 15-11-2020 (5 years old)

Aadvikaa – 30-11-2015 (5 years old)

***due to covid-19: NO gifts or treats can be sent to school. We do celebrate each birthday in a special way for each child during circle time. Thank you for your understanding in this matter***

Reminders

  • Please purchase a rod with light for Sint Maarten lantern. Keep in mind you need to buy the batteries separate. These lights can be purchased at ACTION, HEMA, INTERTOY. They sell out quickly.

  • Please do not forget to sign into EPIC Books to activate your child’s account. Read with your child as much as possible and have them find SNAP words and word family wods hat they know.

  • Please dress warmly for both outdoors and indoors. With the new COVID regulations we must keep the windows open in the class for proper airflow making it cooler than usual. Please ensure your child is layers and wearing long pants, long sleeves and sweaters.

  • On Tuesdays and Fridays, the children have gym. Please ensure students dress appropriate for gym on these days.

  • Send healthy options for snacks and lunches that have a balance of the different food groups.

  • Monitor screen time and the content of what your child is watching or playing on electronic devices. It is recommended that children spend no more than 20 minutes per day on electronic devices or one episode of an age appropriate show.

  • Reminder: If your child has one or more of these symptoms (runny nose, cough, fever, headache, trouble breathing) please keep your child at home until symptoms subside.

Announcements

  • Whole school assemblies will occur bi-weekly, starting the week of October 26th- October 30th. During these assemblies we will talk about different events and themes going on in the school. We will also celebrate a student from each class who has demonstrated outstanding efforts in building on their personal learning goals.

  • Next week’s assembly is about Harvest. It will be led by Ms. Jacquelene and the start of the Food Drive where we will collect non-perishable foods for people who are in need. Our class will be collecting non-perishable food items. We invite you to send in some food items to help out those in need.

  • We have started reading buddies with Ms. Lena’s class.

  • Yota will be leaving us on October 30th. We will miss him greatly! This Friday we will have a going away party and have a ceremony to officially separate into two homerooms but still work together on class projects during the week.

News

  • As of November 2nd, the class will be splitting into two homeroom classes. Group 2A will be with myself and Group 2B will be with Ms. Giovanna. Ms. Yolanta will continue to support in both classes throughout the day. We plan to go the remainder of the year as two separate homerooms, but we will teach the same concepts, do activities together and flow between two classes when appropriate. Please see class lists below.

  • We are noticing that some of the children are coming to school with toys from home. The toys are causing some distraction in class and disturbances at the children’s cubby area and during outdoor play. Please have children keep toys from home at home to avoid distractions and arguments at school. Thank you for your understanding.

Literacy

Reading / Phonics – The students have been hard at work becoming emergent readers. We have been:

  • Identifying beginning sounds and reviewing the sounds of the alphabet (4 sounds per week)

  • Learning how to read snap words

  • Decoding CVC word families (eg. -at words)

  • Reading the pictures in a story book and retelling the story in their own words

  • Finding word family words (CVC words) and snap words in a text (cat, fat, sat, mat, bat)

Writing

  • Learning and going through the writing process (e.g. thinking of an idea, drawing, writing a rough draft, edit and publish)

  • Writing simple sentences with inventive spelling, finger spaces and capital letters at the beginning and periods at the end of sentences.

  • Printing practice that coincide with the letter sounds of the week

Listening Linked to IPC Goal of Communicator

  • Listening to reading and responding to the text (e.g. participating in discussions)

  • Active listening in group discussions and talking ‘on topic’ and not repeating what others say.

  • Knowing the difference between a question and having something to say.

Numeracy with NUMICON

The students have been busy finding and building patterns in nature, numbers, shapes, music and movement. We went on a nature walk to begin discussions around patterns we see in nature and also in manmade objects. We have and will continue exploring number patterns with Numicon shapes further:

  • Even and Odd numbers and discussion the how and what makes even number is even and an odd number is odd?

  • Skip counting and the patterns we see

  • Number Bonds and the patterns we see

We will continue to differentiate lessons and activities to strengthen number representation and one-to-one correspondence

IPC - Let’s Celebrate!

In Let's Celebrate, we will be learning about celebrations as a hugely important part of human life. As artists, musicians, designers, historians and dancers, we will be exploring the ways in which all peoples and cultures, from every part of the world, take part in and hold celebrations to mark special events and special times in people's lives. Please speak with your child on the different celebrations in your culture so that they can share the different ways in how we celebrate.

Dutch Culture – Sint Maarten Celebration

SINT MAARTEN - On the early winter evening of November 11th, small groups of children can be heard going up and down the street singing songs and reciting poems. They hold small lanterns hollowed-out sugar beet or, more recently, made from paper on sticks in front of them as they knock on doors and sing songs or recite little poems hoping to receive candies in return. 

Drama – Winter Lights Celebration

The class will be involved in the Winter Lights Celebration. This will take place on December 10th. Please let us know if your child will be present on that day so we can plan roles for the show.

New Class Lists

Group 2A Ms. Annelies & Ms. Yolanta

  1. Daphne Barrabes Guardia

  2. Pritvik Satheeshkumar Sathyasheela

  3. Sadhana Shri Anabazhakan

  4. Daksh Prajapati

  5. Sanjanasree Jeyapaul

  6. Nandini Soin

  7. Daksha Kulkarni

  8. Dhatrisri Kakarla

  9. Keethika Tummala

  10. Perry Nasr

  11. Sanjeev Sivsubramani

Group 2B Ms. Giovanna & Ms. Yolanta

  1. Vivaan Mazumber

  2. Shlok Sharma

  3. Prayaan Thakur

  4. Nitzana Sargin

  5. Vaneesha Vinoth Kumar

  6. Nishanth Banka

  7. Myra Gupta

  8. Shreyan Chauhan

  9. Aadvika Amruth

  10. Ipsita (Starting November 2nd)

  11. Hannah Mary Raju (TBD: hoping to begin later in November)


Yours sincerely,

Ms. Annelies                                                                             a.derkinderen@ogamstelland.nl  

Ms. Yolanta                                                                                y.nalmpanti@ogamstelland.nl 

Ms.Giovanna g.cristalli@ogamstelland.nl

The AIS Team