March 2011 - Raffles International School

Arabian Ranches Edition
Arab
March 2011
March 2011
“If a child is given love, he becomes loving ... If he's helped when he needs
help, he becomes helpful. And if he has been truly valued at home ... he
grows up secure enough to look beyond him to the welfare of others”.
DR.JOYCE BROTHERS
Dear Parents,
I would like to start this month‟s newsletter by saying a big thank you to all of
you for making our International Day celebration extra special. The
contribution you all made was over whelming, I‟m sure everyone enjoyed
sampling the food from so many different countries. Surprisingly we have 25
different nationalities in our nursery and seeing them all come together and
enjoying the picnic on the grass was a memorable event for us and for our
children. The day set an excellent example of how we are embracing
diversity. To make the day even more special for the children we had the Big
Bus visit our nursery. Our children enjoyed exploring the Big Bus and doing fun
activit ies.
Sports Day was also a great success as the children showed off their physical
development skills. Parents viewing as spectators and cheering the children
really boosted the children‟s confidence to strive and finish the races. For
those parents who participated in the races, well done!
Some of you may have received a white envelope requesting you to submit
your child‟s documents which we do not have on record in the nursery. I am
still waiting for a few parents to submit, if you could please do this as soon as
possible, it will be greatly appreciated.
March Birthdays:
Arrian, Hasan, Matteo and Parinit will be celebrating their birthdays this
month; we wish them all the best for the coming year.
Gentle reminders:
Please make sure your child has a sun hat in their bag every day with
their name clearly labelled.
For safety reasons please do not send your child to the nursery with
jewellery.
Sun block should be applied to the children before bringing them to
the nursery.
A water bottle with the child‟s name clearly labelled should be sent to
school every day.
Please send your child in appropriate foot wear to the nursery.
If your child is not feeling well and will be absent from the nursery,
please do inform me by telephone or paying a visit to the nursery.
Any child with a temperature, chesty cough or a runny nose with green
discharge will be sent home to avoid the spread of viral infection to
other children.
If your child is being picked up by a family or friend on a certain day
please inform me by giving the person‟s full name and relation to the
child. Children will not be handed over to anyone who we are not
familiar with or have not been informed about.
Health Tips from the Nurse:
The month of March has come up with its winds, clouds and changing skies bringing
in a variety of maladies. This month is observed as the national nutrition month
focusing on the theme “Eat Right with Colour”. Let colour be your guide for
nutritious snacks. Adding a splash of colourful seasonal foods and fruits to your
child‟s snack box makes far more than just a festive meal. Let me remind you all
once more of the importance of sending a variet y of healt hy snacks to school
which includes whole wheat bread sandwiches, crunchy w hole grain crackers,
fruits, and vegetables. Having variety in food boost s the essential nutrients required
for a child to thrive on. We are deep into flu season and although we are not in the
midst of a pandemic like last year, flu is still a real threat. Proper hygiene, nutritious
diet, a goodnight sleep and of course getting vaccinated against the seasonal flu
are the key to maintain a strong immune system throughout.
Ladybirds
The month of February has been a busy one, despite the smaller number of
days we had to use within it. The Ladybirds finished the Nature topic during
the first two weeks and continued to enjoy all things green. Many discussions
were made regarding littering and recycling and we even used recycled
items to create art. We continued with our growing and grew alfalfa sprouts
and used them to create yummy cheese and sprout sandwiches. It was so
surprising to see how many of the children tried and enjoyed eating
something new.
Looks delicious!
Marius eagerly adds some sprouts.
Taara making her sandwich.
We have not only been concentrating on our topic this month. As we have
many children going through the potty training stage we have also been
looking at personal hygiene. The Ladybirds have thoroughly enjoyed three
very special books in the Little Princess series by Tony Ross. Each book had a
different focus: potty training, hand washing and good manners. It has been
such a pleasure to watch the children demonstrate the lessons learnt through
the medium of story in their free play opportunities. We have had children
role playing hand washing before snack, saying please and thank you to the
snack time helpers, and some have helped the babies (dolls) have a bath
and even use the potty.
Liam shows the baby how to use the potty.
Tvesha gives the baby a bath.
The second half of February saw the Ladybirds change the topic to
Minibeasts. We had to split our focus with both Valentine‟s Day and
International Day but fortunately we have the month of March to continue
learning about the different creepy crawlies. We have covered Butterflies
and their life cycle, as well as Fireflies and Dragonflies and looking forward to
learning more about the different 6 legged creatures in the month to come.
We also learnt an interesting poem about Insects:
Every Insect by Dorothy Aldis
Ev ery insect (ant, fly, and bee)
is div ided into three:
One head, one chest, one stomach part.
Some hav e brains.
All hav e a heart.
Insects hav e no bones
No noses.
But with feelers they can smell
Dinner half a mile away.
Can your nose do half as well?
Also you'd be in a fix
with all those legs to manage:
Six.
Saif and Laila painting the body of their dragonfly.
The “not so lonely” firefly flying with his friends at night.
Josie making her butterfly for the classroom window.
Dragonflies flying overhead in the classroom.
In the spirit of sharing (another lesson we learnt this month); here is the biscuit
recipe we used to make our Valentine‟s Day Heart Biscuits.
Basic Biscuit Recipe: (enough for 20)
250g margarine
250g sugar
1 extra large egg
5ml vanilla essence
500ml flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
Valentine’s Day cards.
Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg and vanilla. Sift in dry ingredients.
Add all together and mix thoroughly. Roll out and use a cutter of your choice.
Bake at 180 C for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Ice the biscuits once they
biscuits are cool, using icing sugar.
The Ladybirds get a chance to smell the biscuit dough.
Grace ices her biscuits with care.
Ladybirds’ watching as Miss Monique rolls the dough.
Our biscuits are ready to be sent home with love.
Busy Bees
The Busy Bees have had an active month in
February. Sports day was so much fun and the
children worked super hard practicing for their races.
We finished our topic on „Nature‟ for the first two
weeks exploring the farm animals and their young.
We made our own storybooks with the animals and
sequenced life cycles. Some of our Busy Bees are
becoming quite the little readers, making up stories,
sequencing and suggesting how a story might end.
Tia and Scarlett at the farm
Learning letters is so much fun. Our letter sounds learnt during the month have
been r, m, d and g. The children loved making rabbit ears, marvellous
marshmallow milkshakes, dragonflies and goats. We have being doing lots of
finger tracing and making letters out of play dough.
Jolly phonics session
Ali, Matteo and Ayman in the sand
Faris
practicing
letter
formation
Learning sounds is so much fun
For Valentines the children made and decorated biscuits
for their lov ed ones and made special cards. They lov ed
the famous Skinny Marinky song. Here are the words
below.
Skinny Marinky song
Skinny Marinky dinky dink
Skinny Marinky doo
I lov e you
Skinny Marinky dinky dink
Skinny Marinky doo
I lov e you
I lov e you in the morning
and in the afternoon
I lov e you in the ev ening
and underneath the
moooooooon!
Skinny Marinky dinky dink
Skinny Marinky doo
I lov e you oh yes I do
I lov e you oh yes its true
I lov e you too- scoop doop
de doo Yeah
Scarlett, Ayman and Adan
decorating their heart cookies
What a wonderful topic on
minibeasts we are exploring
now until the end of term. We
started the topic off with „The
Very Hungry Caterpillar‟ story.
The children have been
exploring the life cycle of the
butterfly and have made
some fantastic caterpillars and
butterflies that are fluttering
about in the classroom. We
have also looked at the
dragonfly and the lovely
ladybird.
Matteo and Tia acting out the story of The Very
Hungry Caterpillar
One of our favourite songs is called There’s a tiny
caterpillar on the leaf which is sung to the tune of
„She‟ll be coming round the mountain when she
comes‟. Here are the words:
There‟s a tiny caterpillar on the leaf, wiggle wiggle
There‟s a tiny caterpillar on the leaf, wiggle wiggle
There‟s a tiny caterpillar, a tiny caterpillar
There‟s a tiny caterpillar on the leaf, wiggle wiggle
He will eat the leaves around him till he‟s full, munch
munch
He will eat the leaves around him till he‟s full, munch
munch
He will eat the leaves around him, eat the leaves
around him
He will eat the leaves around him till he‟s full munch
munch
A cocoon is what he‟s spinning for his home, spin spin
A cocoon is what he‟s spinning for his home, spin spin
A cocoon is what he‟s spinning; cocoon is what he‟s
spinning
A cocoon is what he‟s spinning for his home, spin spin
Then he‟ll be a butterfly and flap away, flap flap
Then he‟ll be a butterfly and flap away, flap flap
Then he‟ll be a butterfly, be a butterfly
Then he‟ll be a butterfly and flap away, flap flap
In problem solving reasoning and
numeracy we have been
count ing and recognising
numbers 9 and 10. Exploring
symmetrical patterns has been a
great success and we have been
making mirrored pictures.
Ali, Sean
and Tallulah
making
symmetrical
patterns
Super cutting boys
We are sad to
say goodbye to
Jameela and
Ayman this term
and wish them
lots of fun in their
new schools. We
have a new
Busy Bee to the
class named
Victoria who is
from Germany.
The Busy Bees
are making her
feel welcome
showing her the
dos and
don‟ts!
Our newest Busy Bee, Victoria
In March we will be
focusing on many
more of our 6 and 8
legged creatures
and their habitat. We
will be having „show
and tell‟ letter sound
days to recap our
current letter sound
knowledge and
explore new sounds.
We will be counting
backwards from 10-0,
following minibeast
patterns and looking
at the shape
hexagon.
Here are some snapshots of what the children have been
up to during outdoor play and free play
Making the Burj Khalifa
Spinning tops
On board the space ship!
k
International Day On the BIG BUS!!
International Day Parade and Picnic
Our Annual International Parade
Children placing themselves on the world map.
Celebrating Diversity
There was food from all around the world
Which was enjoyed by everyone.
j
Ladybirds Sports Day
Busy Bees Sports Day