Dear Parents,
This week the Egyptian Class took their end of the semester finals. The students took their chapter test in science. We spent time reviewing the material the students learned on the water habitats and taking care of the Earth. The vocabulary test was chosen from all of the words the students learned throughout the semester. The class did a number of review games to help them remember all their words. The reading test evaluated how well students understood readings, listening comprehension, cause and effect, phonetic sounds, and differentiating between fantasy and reality.
Progress reports for each student will be sent home on Friday, January 23 which will give you an idea of how your child is performing in the class, problem areas, and ways to make improvements for the upcoming semester.
Last Friday for Fun Day we went ice skating at the Taipei Arena. The kids and teachers had a fantastic time! I was great to see the students starting off with lots of falls and then being able to stay up later.
After-school classes will resume on Wednesday, February 11. I'm going on vacation to Cambodia and Vietnam. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful New Year Holiday and all the best in the New Year!
Teacher Andy
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Water Habitats
Dear Parents,
It is yet another long work week this week so we had time to do a lot of things this week in Egyptian class.
We read a story called "Nine-In-One, Grr! Grr!", a traditional folk tale from the country of Laos. I showed the students on a map that Laos shares a border with China, so it is a lot closer to Taiwan than America. In the story Tiger wonders how many cubs she will have so she travels up to the sky to see the great god Shao to ask. Shao tells Tiger she will have nine cubs every year only if she can remember that number. Tiger makes up a song to help her remember but a clever black bird hears the happy tiger singing. Bird learns from Shao that Tiger will have nine cubs each year. Bird finds Tiger, makes Tiger forget the song, then Bird tells Tiger her song was "One-In-Nine, Grr! Grr!" That's why tigers have so few cubs!
The students really enjoyed this story and the detail in the descriptions. I wanted the students to understand that the small Bird was able to beat the big Tiger by being smarter than the Tiger, not by being bigger or faster. I hope that they can begin to realize how important it is to learn and be intelligent people.
In science we studied fresh water and salt water habitats. Fresh water habitats are bodies of water with very little or no salt. Salmon live in fresh water and swim against the stream's flow to lay eggs. The ocean covers 3/4 of Earth and many living things live here. Coral is found in the ocean also. We studied a lesson about taking care of habitats and the Earth. This is something that I feel is very important for the students to understand and learn at a young age.
The students learned about synonyms, words that mean the same or almost the same as other words. Large, big, and huge are all synonyms. We also studied present tense verbs and how they must agree with the subject in a sentence.
Next week will be our test week so I want the students to spend lots of time this weekend studying ALL the vocabulary words they have learned in my class this year, from week 1 to week 20. The students will also take a science test and a reading test next week but we will spend lots of time reviewing also. Then it will be Chinese New Year vacation!
Have a great weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS:
Austin: Works very hard on assignments. Trying to get him to speak a bit slower so he pronounces words better.
Harris: Having some difficulty following directions when assignments are given. Listen carefully when instructions are given.
Lauren: Gets stuck when she doesn't understand assignments, try not to waste a lot of time and ask for help.
Lily: Participated a lot when we learned about taking care of habitats.
Allen: Showing lots of improvement in learning vocabulary. Still gets distracted easily at times but proud of his progress.
Arvin: Enjoyed reading our story "Nine-In-One Grr! Grr!" a lot. Great class attitude.
Chanel: Didn't do so well on her last vocabulary test. Be sure to spend time studying for our big test next week.
Chloe: Seemed to really enjoy learning about salt water habitats and the living things that live there.
Evie: Becoming much more comfortable in class lately! She speaks louder and tries super hard to figure out how to say new words.
Jade: Puts lots of effort into doing her assignments well!
Joshua: Got distracted quite a bit this week, try to focus more in class.
Sam: Great job of making up the work he missed from being out last Saturday.
It is yet another long work week this week so we had time to do a lot of things this week in Egyptian class.
We read a story called "Nine-In-One, Grr! Grr!", a traditional folk tale from the country of Laos. I showed the students on a map that Laos shares a border with China, so it is a lot closer to Taiwan than America. In the story Tiger wonders how many cubs she will have so she travels up to the sky to see the great god Shao to ask. Shao tells Tiger she will have nine cubs every year only if she can remember that number. Tiger makes up a song to help her remember but a clever black bird hears the happy tiger singing. Bird learns from Shao that Tiger will have nine cubs each year. Bird finds Tiger, makes Tiger forget the song, then Bird tells Tiger her song was "One-In-Nine, Grr! Grr!" That's why tigers have so few cubs!
The students really enjoyed this story and the detail in the descriptions. I wanted the students to understand that the small Bird was able to beat the big Tiger by being smarter than the Tiger, not by being bigger or faster. I hope that they can begin to realize how important it is to learn and be intelligent people.
In science we studied fresh water and salt water habitats. Fresh water habitats are bodies of water with very little or no salt. Salmon live in fresh water and swim against the stream's flow to lay eggs. The ocean covers 3/4 of Earth and many living things live here. Coral is found in the ocean also. We studied a lesson about taking care of habitats and the Earth. This is something that I feel is very important for the students to understand and learn at a young age.
The students learned about synonyms, words that mean the same or almost the same as other words. Large, big, and huge are all synonyms. We also studied present tense verbs and how they must agree with the subject in a sentence.
Next week will be our test week so I want the students to spend lots of time this weekend studying ALL the vocabulary words they have learned in my class this year, from week 1 to week 20. The students will also take a science test and a reading test next week but we will spend lots of time reviewing also. Then it will be Chinese New Year vacation!
Have a great weekend!
All the best,
Teacher Andy
INDIVIDUAL COMMENTS:
Austin: Works very hard on assignments. Trying to get him to speak a bit slower so he pronounces words better.
Harris: Having some difficulty following directions when assignments are given. Listen carefully when instructions are given.
Lauren: Gets stuck when she doesn't understand assignments, try not to waste a lot of time and ask for help.
Lily: Participated a lot when we learned about taking care of habitats.
Allen: Showing lots of improvement in learning vocabulary. Still gets distracted easily at times but proud of his progress.
Arvin: Enjoyed reading our story "Nine-In-One Grr! Grr!" a lot. Great class attitude.
Chanel: Didn't do so well on her last vocabulary test. Be sure to spend time studying for our big test next week.
Chloe: Seemed to really enjoy learning about salt water habitats and the living things that live there.
Evie: Becoming much more comfortable in class lately! She speaks louder and tries super hard to figure out how to say new words.
Jade: Puts lots of effort into doing her assignments well!
Joshua: Got distracted quite a bit this week, try to focus more in class.
Sam: Great job of making up the work he missed from being out last Saturday.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Welcome 2009!!!
Dear Parents,
I hope everyone enjoyed their long New Year's weekend and did not get hit by any fireworks. Now we have a long school week.
This week we took a test in science on habitats. We reviewed a lot so the students would be ready.
The students had lots of vocabulary to write along wtih example sentences to help them use the words in a sentence properly. As a review activity they students made up an original creative story using the words. The students will take a test on the week 18 vocabulary words this Saturday.
We talked about action verbs in grammar. Action verbs tell what the subject in a sentence is doing. We went over silent letters also.
This weekend the students will do their TOPS books instead of Student Journals.
For Fun Day this week we will dazzle the students with a magic show. I hope these little Harry Potters can learn some new tricks from their secret magician teachers.
I hope you can still get some enjoyment out of your short weekend.
All the best,
Teacher Andy
I hope everyone enjoyed their long New Year's weekend and did not get hit by any fireworks. Now we have a long school week.
This week we took a test in science on habitats. We reviewed a lot so the students would be ready.
The students had lots of vocabulary to write along wtih example sentences to help them use the words in a sentence properly. As a review activity they students made up an original creative story using the words. The students will take a test on the week 18 vocabulary words this Saturday.
We talked about action verbs in grammar. Action verbs tell what the subject in a sentence is doing. We went over silent letters also.
This weekend the students will do their TOPS books instead of Student Journals.
For Fun Day this week we will dazzle the students with a magic show. I hope these little Harry Potters can learn some new tricks from their secret magician teachers.
I hope you can still get some enjoyment out of your short weekend.
All the best,
Teacher Andy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)