Welcome Back!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

I really hope everyone had a nice, safe, and relaxing holiday break. I traveled to Taidong, Kenting, and Xiao Liou Chou island, just south of Kaohsiung. We took time on the first day back for everyone to share what they did during the holiday, which was a great chance for the students to practice speaking in the past tense. Thanks to Irene, Phil, and Albert for bringing snacks to share with the class. Yummy!

Thanks also to the students who have been helping Carson get around the school. He hurt his foot early this week and seems to be getting better. I even had to pick him up a few times and carry him around.

The students learned about weather and the water cycle in science class. They also learned about extreme weather, like floods, hurricanes, typhoons, droughts, and tornadoes.

We read a story called "Charlie Anderson" about two sisters who take care of a cat that appears out of the woods at their house. They feed the cat, it spends the night there, and leaves for the forest each morning. The sisters later learn that the cat has another home with a family that lives on the other side of the woods. The cat, Charlie Anderson, gets the joy of now having two families that love and take care of him. The sisters' parents are divorced and the father lives in the city with the stepmother while the kids live with their parents during the week in the country. I helped the students understand that even if the parents are divorced, it doesn't mean that anything is wrong with the kids.

Students were given new vocabulary to write in their book for homework this weekend. They also have to do their Student Journals. We read the story "An International Food Fair" together in class.

Today for Fun Day we will do one of the students' favorite activities - Lazertag!

I'm glad to have all the students back and ready to have another great semester together in Alien Class. Have a great weekend.

All the best,

Teacher Andy

End Of The Semester!

Dear Parents,

The Alien class just finished its first semester together and now it it time for a nice Chinese New Year Holiday. Although I see some students were lucky and got to begin their vacations early! In our last week of the semester, the students learned about salt water habitats and how to take care of our Earth. I feel it is very important for these young students to be aware of how they can be very helpful in protecting our Earth. If they learn and practice this now, hopefully they will turn into wonderful and caring adults.

The students got to watch another "Planet Earth" DVD produced by the BBC about the shallow and deep seas. They really enjoy watching these amazing videos and learning more this way about topics we covered in class. We enjoyed some healthy snacks and orange juice while we watched the DVD too, yummy!

They also took a Unit Test and Mid-Term reading test. This covers the grammar and reading skills they have been developing throughout our first semester. Students who missed a lot of questions got to go back and find the answers on their own.

For Fun Day the students went to one of their favorite outings: ice skating! I hope no one is still hurting from that.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Chinese New Year holiday. This is a great time for everyone to relax some. See you in a few weeks, ready to begin a new semester together!

All the best,

Teacher Andy