First, and most important: the children's holiday homework has been posted in the Holiday Homework page (click here to see it). Please encourage the children to work on their homework a little bit every day. Year 1 have done well this spring, and we expect them to continue in summer.

Tomorrow is the last day of half term, and the last day of Book Week!
I love Book Week. It's all about getting children to enjoy reading, which I think is fantastic; and it's all about fun reading activities, which I like. I liked it when Miss Lucey read a story to the class (so did they, and so did she!) I liked it when I read stories to children in the library. And I REALLY am looking forward to tomorrow - Year 1 will have four teachers visit them to read to them, and I will be going to Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5. But I will be back in Year 1 by 10.15.

This week has been a wonderful week. Some bad things did happen - I had a cold on Monday, and it was raining today - but lots of great things happened. Here are some pictures of them!

(I have made some changes to the writing here so that the translations will be easier to understand).
Dear parents,
Since we came back from the holidays there have been some changes in Year 1. All new systems are now ready and I can explain exactly what they are. I am sure that you will agree that all changes will be of benefit to the children and help their education.
1. Miss Lucey has worked with all of the children this week and last week. She is an excellent teacher, and the children all enjoy working with her.

2. The registration classes (where we count the children) have been split into two classes. This means that, for five minutes in the morning and afternoon, the children go to Miss Lucey's and Mr. Kohll's classes to greet each other and sing a song or do shared reading.
3. The Maths and English classes have been split. There are now two Maths classes and two English classes. Almost all of the children go to one class with Miss Lucey and another class with Mr. Kohll; we both teach almost all of the children.
4. Click here to see a full list of all the classes and the children in them.  
5. Miss Rhonda's classes, Miss Mackay's PE and swimming classes, and Miss Packer's Music classes are the same as before; no changes.   
6. All other classes (History, Science, Art, Computers, Geography, etc.) are taught with all of the children together in one classroom, with Mr. Kohll and Miss Lucey and Miss Helen teaching them all together.
Tianjin Rego International School has a policy of class sizes being no more than 15. This is because we want the childre to get lots of help from the teacher. Now that we have two teachers the children will have lots more help in all of their lessons.
Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions, either on this website or in the homework diaries.
Thank you,
Mr. Kohll and Miss Lucey.

What a nice week!

We learned about plants in science, and homes in history. We learned to sing "the green grass grows" song.

In maths, the children learned how to multiply by counting their fingers more than once (for example, to do 3 x 5, the children can count 5 fingers three times). On Friday, we read a story to learn about division. Here it is, if you want to read it again!

In English lessons this week, we learned about instructions. This is very useful for the children. It teaches them about verbs, making sentences, and non-fiction text. This week we practiced putting instructions in order. We played these games in class, and did activities for ordering and making things. Here are photos of the children making play cakes and giving instructions to each other.

Miss Lucey has been working with the children this week in all lessons. Next week, she will have one half of the class for English lessons, and the other half of the class for Maths lessons, in her classroom. For all other lessons (Science, History, Reading, and so on, Miss Lucey and Mr. Kohll will teach the children together). The children will greatly benefit from having a second teacher to help them, and from working in smaller groups.

In PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) this week we learned about People Who Help Us - our topic for this term. The children made hand puppets for the people they liked - mostly doctors and police officers. Miss Lulu made a beautiful display to show them.

As it says in your homework diaries, World Maths Day begins on the 28th of February. The website is www.worldmathsday.com, and the children can go there to practice their maths. The whole school will participate in the World Maths Day competition. The usernames and passwords are in your homework diaries so you can start practicing if you want to.

Finally, I would like to apologise for the badly translated letters about the Projects. Korean letters were sent out today, and Chinese letters will be sent out on Friday. The children can choose whether they want to do a project on plants, homes, or people who help  us; and they can begin work next week, on Wednesday. In a few weeks, the children will show their projects to the class, and talk to the class about them. This will be excellent speaking practice for them, and help the class to learn about all our subjects!
Have a good weekend!
Mr. Kohll.

We have had an excellent start to the second half of term!

First, I'm very excited to say that Mr. Kohll's personal educational website is now ready, full of great learning games. Enjoy!

The children enjoyed working with Miss Lucey.

They started to learn about plants in Science lessons.

Miss Lulu made a beautiful Science display to help. Soon the children's worksheets will grow on the tree!

Here are the children's projects from last term. You can come and see them! We will make more projects this term and the children will give speeches about them at the end.