Newsletter

China World Trade Center Campus ☆ Vol. 2 ☆ January 2005

Thank You!

We’re really happy that we were able to raise a whopping 4260  RMB  for

The Beijing Children’s Welfare Center. Together with all of the toys, clothes, books and shoes that we’ve collected, we are able to make Spring Festival a little more cheery to some children who are not as fortunate as us. A volunteer from our PTA and one of the teachers is hoping to pay a visit to the center before the Spring Festival Holidays to take all of our donations to the children.

Our Winter Party

December now seems like a distant memory. As I write this, I remember what a happy and exciting month it was, filled with songs, laughter and preparations for our Family Winter Party. All the classes were buzzing with activity.

On Friday 10^th December, the evening of our party, the atmosphere was electric. The children were so excited about having the opportunity to perform for their parents. The evening’s programme was filled with music, dance and happy faces.

The children performed wonderfully. The Dolphin class sang ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow’ and looked so real in their costumes. The Daisies looked very cute in their monkey hats as they recited ‘Five Little Monkeys’. The Baby Bears made such a beautiful sound with their ‘Christmas Bells’. I’m sure everyone could feel the warm Christmas atmosphere as the Butterflies sang ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’. The Ladybirds danced with such rhythm as they sang ‘Wiggley Woo’ and The Sunflowers were so lively as they sang and did the actions to the ‘Hokey Cokey’. 

The Music Group worked very hard to perform such a varied repertoire of piano music, percussion and singing. The English Language Group showed us what they had been learning and the Ballet Group amazed us with their beautiful dancing.

We hope that you all had a most enjoyable evening!     

The Baby Bears came back with smiles on their faces, happy to be  together again.  A new student wasn’t so sure about being here so his new friends mopped the tears from his face, brought him toys, patted him on the shoulder and what ever they could do to help him fit in.  After a week he was much better.

       We have been going to the indoor playroom more with the cooler temperatures. Wow has their confidence grown.  Their legs and arms are also much stronger.  They are beginning to play together and look out for each other.  Of course there is still the occasional push and bang on the head.

       They are cutting play dough with scissors and some are working on cutting paper.  A few are also trying their hand at moving the small balls with tongs.

       When a catchy tune comes on they go for the rhythm instruments and they are beginning to repeat  phrases from them. Music is certainly the best way to learn language.  “Old MacDonald” is a favorite.  Even though the cow may quack or the chicken, oink, they are improving every day.

       Confidence and social skills are the main goals of this class and these Baby Bears are passing with flying colors.

Hello again from the Daisy class！ We’ve had a great time in the last month or so – we love Christmas! Santa Claus came to our class and gave us Christmas presents. He must be a very busy man – all those presents to deliver and being Anna’s daddy too! We hope you enjoyed the Christmas party as much as we did. We still love to sing “Five little monkeys”, although we’ve learnt some new songs that are nearly as good.

Now we’re getting ready for Spring Festival. We’ve made some lovely decorations – you can see them outside our classroom. The chickens were our favourites. We’d like to wish everyone Happy New Year and gong xi fa cai.

Here, at The Children’s House we are enjoying a lot going on in our Special Classes.

In art class we have learned about colors, about their names, how to mix two colors, about light-dark colors, how to use a small and a big brush etc.

Sometimes, we get paint all over the place, but that’s ok because through trying and getting dirty we can learn. And then after we finish we can wash our hands and clean up the room.

Cooking is a lot of fun too!

The kitchen is full of things that could be very dangerous, so we are learning how to take as much care as possible. We are also learning about different tastes (sweet, sour, salty)

It’s very important to know the name of the different equipment in the kitchen and how to use them. We are learning how to cut and share things with each other.

After we finish cooking we can taste what we have cooked by ourselves. That makes us feel really special.

Now, it’s Movement’s turn.

In movement class we can develop our skills through movement activities, dance, games, types of gymnastics and yoga. We have also learned how to cooperate with each other and how to play a fair game.

Participating in a lots of different games in Movement Class help us to grow and stay healthy.

What about music class?

Oh, in music class we are learning lots of songs and dances. We are learning how to shake, how to clap, so we can learn about rhythm.

One of the best parts of music class is using different instruments like the shakers, bells and xylophone.

Happy New Year to everyone from all of us at The Dolphin Class! Since we last spoke to you, we’ve been really busy, what with our project about the body and then getting ready for Christmas, and now this month with our Chinese New Year preparations. We learnt lots of new stuff about our bodies when we did that project, but the best part of all was when the dentist came to visit us. She showed us how to brush our teeth properly and gave us all a tooth brush and toothpaste which we use every day after we’ve eaten lunch.

Getting ready for Christmas was great fun. We made lots of nice decorations and learned lots of Christmas songs. Our Winter party was fantastic, but you’ll be able to see that from the great photos that we took.

Since we came back to school after the Christmas holidays, we’ve been really busy with our Chinese New Year preparations…..as well as all of the other stuff that we do every day. We’re all really looking forward to our Chinese New Year party and hope that lots of mums and dads will be able to make it so as to share some stories and songs with us.

We were all really excited to see our beautiful new classroom in January, and we’re working hard at keeping it looking nice and clean. We’ve also got a new teacher called Linda who helps in our class. She’s great fun and really likes to do lots of work with us kids. We’re a little bit sad that Lisa had to leave us, but we know that she’ll come back to visit us lots.

After our Spring Festival holidays we’re going to be starting a new project called ‘New Life’. We’re going to look at all of the new things that grow and bloom in the spring. We’d really like to go outside on a trip to see these things too, so if any of you mums and dads have any ideas, please let Paula know.

Anyhow, we’d better be going now, we’re pretty busy you know! Speak to you again soon and ‘xin nian kuai le’ to you all!

Here at The Sunflower Class, we are all happy to be back after the Winter Break and hope that you had a most enjoyable holiday. Before the break we had lots of fun preparing for our Family Party. In December we also had our classroom party which was such a lovely opportunity to get together.

We have now been back for two weeks and a very busy two weeks they have been with preparations for New Year/ Spring Festival. Our cloakroom is looking spectacular with our stunning fire crackers, Chinese lanterns, fu decorations and beautiful scrolls. Please come and have a look!!

We have also been making cards for Valentine’s Day and in February we will give our cards to a child from one of the other classes.

This month we celebrated Christopher’s birthday and would like to thank Christopher’s grandparents for sharing the delicious birthday cake. We also had fun celebrating Alice’s birthday and enjoyed eating yummy cheescake, Alice’s favourite. Next Friday, Riko will also celebrate her birthday.

We are happy to welcome Olson, Nikkie, Christie, Luca and Evan to our class. Everyone is being so friendly and helpful towards their new friends and we hope that they will be very happy.

We will have a Spring Festival Party in our classroom just before the holiday. Please come along and share in the celebration!

Have a great Spring Festival holiday and we look forward to seeing you when you return!

It’s after school at The Children’s House and all is well. Beethoven Bear and Mozart Mouse have joined the music classes.  They brought a new Hello and Good-bye song and some music ideas.  The first class is also doing some color coded playing starting with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. We have a new friend by way of CD from a Montessori school in Canada.  Mr. I. has a “Do, Re, Me” for Asia and many other neat songs. The second class should be performing “It’s a Small World After All” by Spring Festival.

         The English classes are preparing for Spring Festival by learning some vocabulary, reading a book and learning a little about chickens.  They have also started a new Mother Goose Activity book, beginning with “There was an old Woman who Lived in a Shoe”.  They are also doing a couple of story board books this month.  They continue working on their familiarity with days, months, feeling, weather and opposites.  Check them out!

         The ballet class is preparing for the BIG TIME.  This month they are working hard on compulsory movements needed for students who attend the ballet school.  Good luck!

         There certainly is a lot of action here after hours!

Coming Events

★We will be having a family Spring Festival party at 2pm on Friday, February 4^th. Please come and join us.

★Reception classes for children aged over four and a half will begin next semester. These will consist of two literacy and two maths classes a week, and are intended to help prepare children for primary school.

★We have a new programme of after school classes for next semester and are pleased to be able to offer Kung Fu and Chinese classes as well as the old favourites English, Music and Ballet.

★After the holiday we will be starting a new school project, learning about ‘New Life’ as spring arrives.

★Finally, the Spring Festival holiday will be from February 5^th to 13^th and we would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous Year of the Rooster.

A∮from the After School Music Department

       Next semester the piano class will continue foundations for playing. They will do exercises in theory as well as keyboard time. They will learn the music vocabulary and use their notes in as many ways as possible: singing, piano, keyboard, kazoos, and hopefully, recorder and glockenspiel.

      The music class will sing, dance, use body movements and make rhythm with hands, feet and instruments for the first half of the class. Then those students who are ready will go with a teacher to the piano or keyboard and practice playing songs by color. The other students will learn color and note names one at a time and play them using a small keyboard.            

      Hopefully, this plan will help us enjoy music and each other, as well as gain a good foundation for future music endeavors.

Children’s Health.

The following article was taken from the September ’04 issue of ‘Mother and Baby’ Magazine.

Children as young as two are having teeth removed because they’re so badly decayed, says shocking new research. Some children’s teeth are such a bad state that they have all 20 removed under general anaesthetic. Poor diet, sweets and chocolate and sugary drinks are to blame, say dentists. Children’s sugary drink and sweets and chocolate intake should be restricted and supervised. In addition, you should

Help your child to clean his/her teeth at least twice a day

Use a fluoride toothpaste for children

Help him/her to rinse his mouth after eating

Take him/her to the dentist every 6 months

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From all of the Children’s House Staff

 鸡年快乐 - 恭喜发财!