Thursday was a great day! We had a birthday party for Cool (who had a cake that he kindly shared with the whole class, Nursery and Reception, Year 2, Year 3 and the teachers!). After that we learned about making sculptures out of soap. Then in the afternoon Year 1 children all went to Miss Stannard to learn about Year 2, and prepare for going there next year.

A lot of great things have happened in Year 1 this week!
In English, we read and performed poems.
In Maths, we learned about directions.
In Science, we conducted experiments with sound.
And in Art, we made sculptures using clay (actually, dough; Miss Lulu knows how to make Chinese dumplings). We also made a giant stone sculpture using a computer.
In Assembly, Lily played the piano, and some Year 1 children got Silver Certificates, for 100 House Points.
And to celebrate Children's Day and Sports Day, the children had a swimming lesson on races and fun.

We have now finished the second week of summer term. In Year 1 we continued to learn about calculating in maths and about information books in English. The children researched the United Kingdom and wrote letters to the Easter Bunny telling him about it - and in the process learned a lot about Geography. On Friday, we had three fun events - the children could buy pizza and cookies, there were House and School photographs (for the Year Book at the end of the year) and we had out "Golden Time." Golden Time is a common practice in British schools - the last hour of the week is given to the children to have fun with. For us, we played a game where we learned about The Easter Bunny, and then went to the ICT suite where the children played fun computer games. We also gave prizes to children who had done well in Miss Lucey's class, and to the House table who had the most House Points. This week, Pegasus won. Well done, Bobo, Sarah, Cool, Jae Hun and Harry!
Here are some photos for you to see how we had a week full of learning and fun.
Have a good weekend!

Because we were learning about the United Kingdom this week, our song for the week was "Land Of Hope and Glory." Every day we spent a few minutes watching a video of Last Night of the Proms (a famous music festival in Britain) where we saw people playing and singing the British National Song. The children had fun seeing the singing, learning about the different flags of England, Scotland, Wales and Britain. Click below to see a video of the children conducting with the conductor, playing with the orchestra and waving flags with the audience.

On Friday, we gave the children all new House T-shirts in their House Colours (Phoenix, Red, Dragon, Yellow, and Pegasus, Blue).

The photos you can see are of the children enjoying their cakes and pizzas. Here is a photo of Bobo (it was her birthday) enjoying a slice of chocolate cake. Happy birthday, Bobo!

Welcome to the second week of summer! There is lots of exciting news to tell you.

First of all, the children had another letter from the Easter bunny today! He said he was very happy they had decided he should live in Britain, but he had some questions. He asked the children to help him find out about Britain - why it had four countries, and the people who lived there, what the weather was like, what British food is like, what beautiful cities and buildings and fun places there are, who the Queen is, and what British people do for Easter. the children have worksheets to take home. Can you help them to find any interesting things? Click here for some websites to look at on this page of mrkohll.weebly.com. Also click here for some websites to learn about Easter.

Today we had a class photo. Thank you for making the children look so smart! The photo will be in the TRIS Yearbook at the end of the year. Sadly, Su and Sarah were away today - sorry, you two - so we must make sure we take photos of them to add to the Year 1 Yearbook page.

Ellen came back from her holiday in Holland today. We're very happy to have her back. She brought presents from Holland for the class - European chocolate Easter eggs! As you can see, they really liked them. Thank you, Ellen!

Also, we're happy to see that the potatoes we planted are growing well!

This week we will be learning about information books in English classes; we will be helping the Easter Bunny to learn about Britain in Geography; we will be learning about addition and subtraction in maths; and in PSHE our work is on homes. In Phonics, the children will be learning ie words (pie, flies, ties) and ea words (sea, pea, tea).
Have a very good week!
Mr. Kohll and Miss Lucey.

Have a very good week!
Mr. Kohll and Miss Lucey.

Here is a letter from Miss Mackay about the swimming celebration. Please read it and send back your reply. A letter has been sent home,. You can read it, or download it here, or read the translation (click below the fold).

Well, it may still be a little cold, and real summer may not be here yet - but TRIS summer term begins on Monday! You can now click here to read the TRIS Year 1 Curriculum Letter, which will tell you all about the things we will be doing and learning in the next eleven school weeks.

We are very sorry that so many children have had illnesses recently. Many are better now, and we hope all will be soon.

Last week, the children worked on doubling and halving, multiplication and division; they learned to write recounts of the Botanical Gardens trip, and learned about road safety.

The children went to see the rehearsal of the wonderful school play "The Wizard of Oz." It was lots of fun! Also, the children enjoyed talking to each other on the Year 1 website, and planned to write a letter to our friends in a Year 1 English class.

The children all have a worksheet for learning to divide. Please play this game (only on the left) and write down the questions and their answers.

Next week, we will begin to learn about information books, other countries and Easter!
Have a good weekend.

Today we had a birthday party for Woo Bin and You Bin. Their mother very kindly brought in two big cakes and other party foods, and we all sang happy birthday.

For two weeks the children have been writing stories in English class. Today they finished the final version; each child in Mr. Kohll's and Miss Lucey's class wrote a story about a magical forest. We were so proud of their good work that we asked Mrs. Bingham to come and see them. Mrs. Bingham was very pleased, and gave every child in the class one house point!

We're very happy to say that Mr. Simpson, the Year 3 teacher, is recovering well, and I should be able to return full time to teaching Year 1 with Miss Lucey next week.
Thank you to the parents who have sent in money and permission for the Science trip next Friday. Any parents who have not yet, please do so otherwise your child will not be able to come - and it is a lot of fun and a great educational experience! The children will learn a lot about the science of plants and have a great day. Here is a photo of the trip from 2010:

Next week we will continue to learn about road safety and making the local area safer in Geography lessons; we will have the Botanical Gardens trip; and we will celebrate Pi Day. An exciting week for Year 1!
Have a good weekend!

(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.

Seriously, it was a very good day today! We had the Chinese New Year assembly (go here to read about it and see photographs). The children all sang beautifully (we're sorry that Cool got there late and wasn't able to sing, but he joined in with the other activities immediately on arriving). They all looked fantastic in their Chinese and Korean clothes, and we had a very fun assembly. At the end of it, they were all presented with red enveloped with money inside and, on opening, them, they found it was chocolate money! A big thank you to Mrs. Bingham and the Chinese teachers who organised the assembly, and Miss Helen Bai, who taught the children to sing their song. 

After the assembly we went back to class where we celebrated Cherry's birthday. Her grandmother brought a huge cake, some oranges and candy, and we all had a fun time. I hope that Cherry's parents, who are in Australia, will enjoy hearing about this and seeing these photos.

In the afternoon, we had a Design and Technology lesson. The children worked in groups to make model castles. They did some really creative work, cutting and gluing, colouring, decorating, and practicing sharing and teamwork skills. Their model castles are nearly finished. On Monday they will finish decorating them and evaluate them..

The children have all been working very hard on their projects at home. I think this has been an excellent piece of homework to help them with their reading, writing, spelling and science. Today, I collected in the projects and was very impressed with their quality. Mrs. Bingham came to the class and gave prizes to the four children who had produced the best projects (it was very hard to choose the best because they were all so good). The three were Sarah, Grace, Eunice and Lisa, and they chose fans and a teddy bear (Eunice was not here today). All of the children also received two housepoints. Good work, Year 1!