Dear Parents,
This week we read a story about sharks and the students learned that sharks have more to be afraid of from us than we do of them. People kill about 100,000,000 sharks a year! Compare this to only about 10 people deaths by sharks a year and you can see why. Sharks usually attack people only because they're hungry and confuse people for food. If we continue to kill this many sharks, some of them will be dead forever.
On Sunday I founds 2 beautiful 2-month-old girl puppies that some awful person left in a box on the side of the road. I took them home so they would not be left on the street but I must find a home for them VERY soon. Please let us know if you or anyone you know would be interested in helping to take care of these poor puppies.
This weekend the students do not have new vocabulary or student journal. They will take a vocabulary test on all the words from week 9 (Lemonade For Sale) to week 14 (Sharks) next week. They will also have another reading test next week.
On Wednesday I will go back to USA for 2 weeks for Christmas. I have been teaching in Taiwan for 5 years and this will be the first time I will get to celebrate Christmas in the USA. I will leave lesson plans and instructions with the substitute to follow while I'm gone.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas holiday and a Happy New Year!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Jamaica Tag-Along
Dear Parents,
This week the Aliens read a story called 'Jamaica Tag-Along' about a young girl that wants to play basketball with her older brother, Ossie. Ossie says Jamaica is too young to play with him and his friends and that upsets her. Jamaica then goes to a playground but gets bothered when a little boy tries to play with her. She then realizes that she is doing the same thing her brother does so she lets the little boy play. This story helps the students understand not to be mean to people just because they're younger or smaller. The early class got to go to the park to read this story on a sunny, lovely Wednesday afternoon!
In grammar we studied singular and plural nouns, proper nouns, and how to make nouns possessive. This is something that is quite tough for students to understand so we will spend some time on this.
We started a new chapter in science about land habitats. Different plants and animals live in different places depending on their needs. The students really enjoyed this lesson in science.
Today for Fun Day we will play pool.
This weekend the students must write the new vocabulary words into their vocabulary books. We read the take-home reader 'Jun and Pepper Grow Up' together in class. They are to finish the student journal and bring it back to class on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Teacher Andy
This week the Aliens read a story called 'Jamaica Tag-Along' about a young girl that wants to play basketball with her older brother, Ossie. Ossie says Jamaica is too young to play with him and his friends and that upsets her. Jamaica then goes to a playground but gets bothered when a little boy tries to play with her. She then realizes that she is doing the same thing her brother does so she lets the little boy play. This story helps the students understand not to be mean to people just because they're younger or smaller. The early class got to go to the park to read this story on a sunny, lovely Wednesday afternoon!
In grammar we studied singular and plural nouns, proper nouns, and how to make nouns possessive. This is something that is quite tough for students to understand so we will spend some time on this.
We started a new chapter in science about land habitats. Different plants and animals live in different places depending on their needs. The students really enjoyed this lesson in science.
Today for Fun Day we will play pool.
This weekend the students must write the new vocabulary words into their vocabulary books. We read the take-home reader 'Jun and Pepper Grow Up' together in class. They are to finish the student journal and bring it back to class on Monday.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Teacher Andy
Friday, November 27, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Dear Parents,
Today we will celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving at Tree House by having a traditional feast. We have read about how this tradition started and why we still celebrate it today. This is a time when families come together from far away - except for the teachers living in Taiwan - to share time together and things they are thankful for.
While the food is getting ready, the students will watch a classic Thanksgiving show I watched many times when I was a kid called "Happy Thanksgiving Charlie Brown".
This week we finished up our chapter about animals in science class. We reviewed a lot and took a test.
The Aliens had a lot of vocabulary this week. We reviewed the words and made sentences with the words.
THIS WEEKEND'S HOMEWORK:
1 - Read 'The Busy, Lively, Sleepy, and Quiet Pond' and finish the questions in the student journal.
2 - Study week 12 vocabulary words for 'The BF Club'. They will test on these words on Monday.
3 - Write the new vocabulary words for week 13 into their vocabulary books. They will test on these words next Friday NOT on the Monday test.
I hope everyone will have a great weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Today we will celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving at Tree House by having a traditional feast. We have read about how this tradition started and why we still celebrate it today. This is a time when families come together from far away - except for the teachers living in Taiwan - to share time together and things they are thankful for.
While the food is getting ready, the students will watch a classic Thanksgiving show I watched many times when I was a kid called "Happy Thanksgiving Charlie Brown".
This week we finished up our chapter about animals in science class. We reviewed a lot and took a test.
The Aliens had a lot of vocabulary this week. We reviewed the words and made sentences with the words.
THIS WEEKEND'S HOMEWORK:
1 - Read 'The Busy, Lively, Sleepy, and Quiet Pond' and finish the questions in the student journal.
2 - Study week 12 vocabulary words for 'The BF Club'. They will test on these words on Monday.
3 - Write the new vocabulary words for week 13 into their vocabulary books. They will test on these words next Friday NOT on the Monday test.
I hope everyone will have a great weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Friday, November 20, 2009
The BF Club
Dear Parents,
We read a story this week called 'The Best Friends Club' about 2 best friends, Lizzie and Harold. They start a club together but things start to become less fun when Lizzie gets jealous about Harold having other friends. She later realizes that having more friends is more fun than no friends and being selfish. This story is a good lesson to show the students not to be selfish and to share with others.
In science we studied how living things grow and change in different ways. We learned about bears and how caterpillars become butterflies.
The first class took their week 11 vocabulary test on Friday. The second class will take their test on Monday. No new vocabulary to take home this weekend! But they will still have to do student journals. We read 'Giving Thanks Around the World' together in class. This story tells how different countries have harvest celebrations. Next week is Thanksgiving and this story makes good comparisons between the American celebration of Thanksgiving and Full Moon Festival held in Taiwan and China.
Since the rain is spoiling our Fun Day at Da An Park, we will go watch a movie today!
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
We read a story this week called 'The Best Friends Club' about 2 best friends, Lizzie and Harold. They start a club together but things start to become less fun when Lizzie gets jealous about Harold having other friends. She later realizes that having more friends is more fun than no friends and being selfish. This story is a good lesson to show the students not to be selfish and to share with others.
In science we studied how living things grow and change in different ways. We learned about bears and how caterpillars become butterflies.
The first class took their week 11 vocabulary test on Friday. The second class will take their test on Monday. No new vocabulary to take home this weekend! But they will still have to do student journals. We read 'Giving Thanks Around the World' together in class. This story tells how different countries have harvest celebrations. Next week is Thanksgiving and this story makes good comparisons between the American celebration of Thanksgiving and Full Moon Festival held in Taiwan and China.
Since the rain is spoiling our Fun Day at Da An Park, we will go watch a movie today!
Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Friday, November 13, 2009
A Letter to Amy
Dear Parents,
This week we read a story called 'A Letter to Amy' about a boy who was nervous about inviting a girl to his birthday party. She would be the only girl there and he was worried about what the boys would think. I told the students they should not worry about what other people think about them and to be confident to do what they feel.
In science we studied how animals get the things they need to stay alive. They need to find shelter to stay safe from other animals.
We read the story 'Warm and Fuzzy' for the take-home readers. In the story 3 sheep help a giraffe stay warm by cutting off their wool. The students are to finish the student journals and bring them back on Monday. The students were given new vocabulary words to write in their vocabulary books. We read the words together in class.
Our song this week was a reggae song by Bob Marley called 'Judge Not'. This song talks about not judging other people because they can judge you too. It's not fair to judge people if you don't know about their situation.
This week was PTA week and I want to thank everyone who came to speak with me about their child. Progress Reports were sent home this week with each student for you to know how your child is doing in the class.
Have a wonderful weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
This week we read a story called 'A Letter to Amy' about a boy who was nervous about inviting a girl to his birthday party. She would be the only girl there and he was worried about what the boys would think. I told the students they should not worry about what other people think about them and to be confident to do what they feel.
In science we studied how animals get the things they need to stay alive. They need to find shelter to stay safe from other animals.
We read the story 'Warm and Fuzzy' for the take-home readers. In the story 3 sheep help a giraffe stay warm by cutting off their wool. The students are to finish the student journals and bring them back on Monday. The students were given new vocabulary words to write in their vocabulary books. We read the words together in class.
Our song this week was a reggae song by Bob Marley called 'Judge Not'. This song talks about not judging other people because they can judge you too. It's not fair to judge people if you don't know about their situation.
This week was PTA week and I want to thank everyone who came to speak with me about their child. Progress Reports were sent home this week with each student for you to know how your child is doing in the class.
Have a wonderful weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Friday, November 6, 2009
Lemonade For Sale!!!
Dear Parents,
This week we read a story called "Lemonade For Sale" about a group of kids that sell lemonade to fix their clubhouse. I taught them how to identify problems and solutions. We also got to make and drink lemonade and all the kids had a wonderful time doing this.
We learned about different animal groups in science class: amphibian, bird, fish, insect, mammal, and reptile. The Aliens learned special features for each group.
Students are to do their take-home readers and student journals for homework. They also have new vocabulary words to write into their vocabulary books. These should be brought back to class on Monday.
We will do science experiments for Fun Day. Most students get really interested in science so I hope they will enjoy this too!
Have a wonderful weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
This week we read a story called "Lemonade For Sale" about a group of kids that sell lemonade to fix their clubhouse. I taught them how to identify problems and solutions. We also got to make and drink lemonade and all the kids had a wonderful time doing this.
We learned about different animal groups in science class: amphibian, bird, fish, insect, mammal, and reptile. The Aliens learned special features for each group.
Students are to do their take-home readers and student journals for homework. They also have new vocabulary words to write into their vocabulary books. These should be brought back to class on Monday.
We will do science experiments for Fun Day. Most students get really interested in science so I hope they will enjoy this too!
Have a wonderful weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Friday, October 30, 2009
Happy Halloween!
Dear Parents,
This is one of our most exciting times of the year for the students: HALLOWEEN! The teachers have been working very hard to turn the school into a haunted tree house. Halloween was one of my favorite times as a kid so I hope our Aliens enjoy it too.
We welcomed Estella into our class this week and are happy to have her with us!
The Aliens reviewed vocabulary and took a test on all the vocabulary words they've had so far this year. There were 100 words on the test and many did a good job considering! I gave them back their reading tests and reviewed the questions that were missed. I like to take the time to do that so they understand why they missed the questions and how to take the test better next time. This test is very difficult for any student to get 100 because the tests come from an American textbook and not easy for 2nd language students.
Some of the classes did a Halloween crossword puzzle, a true-false Halloween quiz, made Trick-or-Treat bags, carved pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns, read the words and watched the music video of Michael Jackson's spooky song called "Thriller".
All the Tree House students went to neighborhood shops and went Trick-or Treating. It was nice to see the students dressed up and having fun.
The students do not have vocabulary or student journals this weekend but next week Halloween will be behind us and we can get back to reading more stories. Have a spooky and safe weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS:
Benson: Really improved from last week on his vocabulary scored very high on his big test! Keep it up and please make tine to study with Eliza so you can help each other.
Eason: Scored 97 on his reading test! Very impressive for this grade level. Does really well with vocabulary too.
Fisher: Did well on her tests and seems to really enjoy the Halloween activities.
Frank: Got a little scared when we watched "Astro Boy" last week, but he sat with me for the rest of the movie. Hope he enjoys Halloween!
Jerry: Did a really great job on his reading test!
Justin: Glad to see him back at school and feeling much better after the last week! Scored 100 on his vocabulary test. Needs to make up his reading test on Monday.
Phil: Scored a 100 on his vocabulary mid-term! Fantastic job!
Serena: Scored 98 on her vocabulary mid-term! Really getting better at studying, keep it up!
Stephanie: Likes to participate in class, did well on her vocabulary test.
Albert: Scored 93 on his reading test, which is a impressive score for his age! Keep up the good work!
Andrew: Had lots of smiles in class this week reviewing and doing Halloween activities!
Carson: Really gets excited about Halloween and had a great time this week!
Eliza: Try studying vocabulary with Benson, test was not as good as some of the other times.
Estella: Glad to have her join our grade 2 class! Seems very attentive in class.
Henry: Is having a difficult time learning the new vocabulary words. He really enjoyed the Halloween activities.
Irene: Very attentive in class, scored a 93 on her reading test. Fantastic job!
Tricia: Nice to see her back in class, really enjoyed Halloween. Scored 93 on her reading test! Great work and keep it up!
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