Kaleidoscope May / June 2019

Overseas Family SchoolKindergarten

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

From the Enrichment Program (EP) OfficeOFS Summer Camps 2019 @ OFS Pasir Ris Campus

(1) Camplify! for Junior (ages 4-6) and Senior Campers (ages 7-12) Date: Four weeks from 10 June to 5 July 2019 Time: Morning Weekday Session (9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon) and/or Full-Day Weekday Session (9:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.)

We have many fun-filled half-day or full-day activities for all students of families staying in Singapore during the summer school holidays. Every week, students will participate in diverse hands-on activities, exploring new worlds in science, art, technology and more.

2) English Courses for K2 to Grade 11 students Date: SPP English Intensive Course (Four weeks from 10 June to 5 July 2019)

HS English Credit Course (Three weeks from 10 to 28 July 2019)

Time: Full-Day Weekday Session (9:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

We have an intensive English program for students who wish to improve their English proficiency, and English Credit Course for students who wish to obtain their credits during the school holidays.

Registration Forms are available at the Reception and the EP Office. For further information or to download the Registration Forms, please visit our OFS website https://www.ofs.edu.sg/events/2019/summer-programs/ You may also contact our EP Team at 6738-0211, Extension No. 258/259.

Principal’s MessageWith this newsletter, we wrap up another memorable academic year in the Kindergarten. It has been a wonderful year of learning and growing for the children, marked with exciting events and above all, happy children who have developed a love for learning. Through the IEYC Units of Learning, the children have developed knowledge, skills and understanding in the four key learning strands – Independence and Interdependence; Communication; Enquiry and Healthy Living and Well-being. They have participated with interest and enthusiasm in a range of teacher-scaffolded and child-initiated learning experiences, and in doing so, have deepened their understanding of the world around them and have developed the attributes that make up the Personal Goals. We take this opportunity to thank all parents for your support and for your regular participation in our program, by volunteering your time throughout the academic year. Special thanks to the Class Mums for taking on the mammoth task of coordinating the Parent Volunteer Program. This partnership we have built over the years has contributed immensely to the success of our program. Your children have loved seeing you at school and being actively involved in their learning. With one month of school remaining, we still have many events lined up and look forward to seeing you at:

Parent Volunteers Appreciation Coffee Morning Wednesday, 22 May 2019

Pre-K1 “Going Places” Exit Point and End of year class party Thursday, 30 May 2019

K1 “Ocean Treasures” Exit Point and End of year class party Friday, 31 May 2019

Pre-K2 “Animal Rescuers” Exit Point and End of year class party Friday, 31 May 2019

K2 Graduation and class party Monday, 3 June 2019

It has been a pleasure teaching your child. We wish all families a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing all returning families next academic year on 7 August 2019. Our best wishes as well to those who are relocating.

Da-Khue NgoKindergarten Principalkhue_ng@ofs.edu.sg

Yearbook 2019 will be available on 21 May 2019 from the School Shop.

Appointment of Head of School: Ms Suzanne BentinIn August, I will take up this role, overseeing Kindergarten to High School. I am very proud to have been offered this position and was delighted to accept it. My twenty three years at OFS have been entirely in the High School, so I am eager to explore the intricacies of our other three excellent schools. My focus will be on ensuring the highest quality curriculum and teaching from K-12. Initiatives will include an even stronger continuum between schools so that your child is able to progress seamlessly. I am very much looking forward to working with all OFS students, parents and teachers and providing the quality assurance parents must have when you entrust your child’s education to us.

Suzanne BentinHigh School PrincipalHead of School Designate

CONTENTS

1

Reports

Information for the 2019-2020 Academic Year

1

Principal’s Message

Appointment of Head of School: Ms Suzanne Bentin 1

1

From The Enrichment Program (EP) Office

1 Student Portfolios 1

Highlights from our Specialist Programs

From The Parent Association (PA) Desk

Annual Uniform & Stationery Sale — 2019-2020 Academic Year

4

4

2-4

2

2

2

Overseas Family School Kindergarten Kaleidoscope May / June 2019

ReportsThe second semester report will be mailed to you at the end of the academic year in June. The Progress Report is an evaluation of the personal progress of your child through the Kindergarten program. It is on a developmental continuum and hence traces where your child is at this point in time.

Student PortfoliosYou will soon be receiving your child’s Portfolio. The Portfolio is a collection of student work from both semesters, carefully compiled by your child’s teachers to show your child’s progress and development. We hope you enjoy viewing the contents of the Portfolio.

Information for the 2019-2020 Academic YearWednesday, 7 August 2019: Parent-Teacher Conferences for all Kindergarten parents. This is not a school day for Kindergarten children. This time (a 15-minute scheduled appointment) has been set aside for your child and you to meet and establish contact with the teachers, helping to make it easier for your child to make the transition into the new academic year and grade level.

Thursday, 8 August 2019: First day of school for K1 and K2 children. For Pre-K1 and Pre-K2 children, a staggered attendance on the first day of school has been arranged to give the children a smooth transition from home.

Highlights from our Specialist Programs PHYSICAL EDUCATION

This year in Physical Education, the children have had a lot of fun developing and improving their existing skills along with learning new skills. The four main strands the children worked on were Locomotion, Dance, Ball handing and ball games and Swimming. I strongly recommend children have daily opportunity to “play”, moving their body in all directions by being physically active. This builds strong bones and muscles and affects the brain in a positive way. The more a child moves, the more their brain is stimulated to grow and build neuron networks for movement patterns. Turn off the electrical devices at home and send them to the playground with a ball to play and make friends while developing social skills at the same time.

(Ms Cassie Day)

MUSIC

The children have been exposed to a range of musical styles and have explored sounds and music through using their voice, instruments, movement and dance. The children have learned to sing a range of songs, ranging from story book songs, simple pop songs to songs for different occasions and have learned to create their own dance steps to go along with different types of

music. They have explored different musical instruments and their sounds, and have been introduced to two different music families: strings and percussion. Throughout the academic

year, the children have had an opportunity to participate in numerous concerts. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they sang and danced on the big stage.

(Ms Irene Law)

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM

Through our ICT program this year, the children have learned to use the computer as a tool for learning. The children have developed keyboard skills and mouse techniques, explored educational websites and software, and have used Kidspiration and Kidpix to present information. As part of the school’s intellectual development program, K2 students began coding using Microworlds Junior. They have learnt to give step-by-step commands for the computer to follow.

(Ms Lydia Thio)

LIBRARY

The children have thoroughly enjoyed their visits to the Library this year. They have developed a love for reading and an appreciation for books, and have had great fun exploring different ways of telling a story. They explored art techniques used by authors and illustrators, dramatised a story in the puppet theatre, published their own books and

made props for the characters in the stories read. It has been wonderful to see the children browse and search for books independently.

(Ms Lydia Thio)

CHESS

Our K2 Children had fun in diving into the world of chess. They learned how each piece is allowed to move and that even the small pawn can become the hero to win the game. The highlight of each chess lesson is the segment on chess yoga, where we prepare body and mind for the game.

(Ms Dijana Dengler)

HINDI (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

Students learned Hindi by playing games, using concrete material. Through rhymes and songs children learned many new words and expanded their vocabulary. They learnt numbers, colours, names of fruits and vegetables, land and water animals, planets, means of transport and shapes, in Hindi. Students were familiarised with expressions used in day-to-day conversations through stories and role plays. Children wrote letters by joining the dots. The sequence of the strokes was shown to them by forming letters in the air and using sensory blocks. A word web was created for each letter by eliciting words from the students. Children made connections to the Indian culture by learning about Indian festivals and celebrations.

(Ms Monica Makkar)

Overseas Family School Kindergarten Kaleidoscope May / June 2019

Kaleidoscope May / June 2019

Overseas Family SchoolKindergarten

Master Policy:To maintain a happy, safe and effective school for overseas families living in Singapore

Annual Uniform & Stationery Sale — 2019-2020 Academic YearOnline Order

Duration: From 15 July (Monday) to 1 August (Thursday)

Website: OFS School Shop webpage will be open from Monday, 15 July 2019.

Earliest collection at School Shop will be from Monday, 22 July 2019 onwards. Delivery service is available at S$30.00 per trip. Please allow 4 working days for your online orders to be processed.

On-Site Sale

Duration: From 22 July (Monday) to 16 August (Friday)

Venue: OFS School Shop located at Level 2, Administration Block ATime: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Mondays to Fridays) 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Saturdays) (Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays)

All purchases will be charged to your Family Account only.

https://www.ofs.edu.sg/events/2019/annual-uniform-stationery-sale/

From The Parent Association (PA) Desk WELCOME ALL NEW PARENTS COFFEE MORNING

As the academic year draws to a close, the PA wishes all of you a very happy and safe summer. We hope you have enjoyed the events we organised this year, and look forward to seeing all of you again during the “Welcome All New Parents Coffee Morning”.

Date: Thursday, 15 August 2019 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Venue: Parent Lounge (Level 4 of Administration Block)

Until then, if you have any comment or suggestion, please feel free to contact our Chairperson by email at: parent_association@ofs.edu.sg. Have a wonderful holiday.

MANDARIN (FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

The children have been involved in songs, games, stories, music & movement, role play and conversation as they learned Mandarin. To enhance the children’s speaking skills, they were introduced to vocabulary to enable them to construct sentences, to retell their original stories and to participate in role play. In addition, we introduced some simple Chinese characters and the children learned to recognise the characters through everyday materials,

such as ‘一，二，三，四，五，六，七，八，九，十，日，月’. We look forward to extending their learning in the next academic year.

(Ma Lao Shi)

MOTHER TONGUE LANGUAGES

The Mother Tongue team has been working closely with the Homebase teachers to support students’ learning and personal development. The Mother tongue lessons have followed the IEYC Units of Learning to expand students vocabulary, ideas and concepts acquired in the Homebase class. This has had a positive impact in their Homebase classes as what they learn can be applied to English and enhance the overall learning of our students. The classes have participated in the school-wide events such as Winnie the Pooh themed Book Week on our floor. Over the course of the year, the children have had the experience of comparing different languages

as well as introducing their own Mother Tongue in shared activities during the planned activities. We have also collaborated in grade level activities. For example, during the “Me, myself and I” unit, the Pre-K2 Mother Tongue students created real size puppets of themselves to reinforce the vocabulary of our bodies. The K1 classes have been looking at the water world and the names of the different sea animals in their

Mother Tongue. Finally, the K2 are getting ready for their “Celebration” unit Mother Tongue party where we celebrate our diversity by presenting party games, food and music from our multicultural and wonderful community.

(Mother Tongue Teachers)