Weekly Newsletter #3

Friday, March 16^th, 2007

Dear Parents,

The third week of the new semester is complete, and things are coming together nicely. Our classroom looks more beautiful by the day, and I have now begun to supplement our regular English studies with our theme of “video games.” I enjoy creating an English speaking environment where students can brainstorm, and participate in class discussions.

The PTA meeting will be held next week, I hope all parents can participate in the meeting.(다음 주에는 학부모회의가 있습니다. 바쁘시더라도 참석해 주시길 바랍니다.)

1. Time : March. 21. 2007. (Wednesday) 13:00
2. Place : Auditorium (3rd floor)- 강당
3. Agenda:(내용)
1) Introduce all teachers in Elementary IED(담임소개)
2) Introduce 1st semester calendar (events and contents)-1학기 학사일정 소개
3) Elect the representatives of each class and the school(각 반, 학년, 학교 대표 선출)

In other news, we also held our first “Show and Tell” time on Thursday. I want to encourage students and parents to use the class website to find out the latest news, and to stay up-to-date with homework and tests. I posted pictures of our Show and Tell time on the website. For students who did not participate in Show and Tell this week, they can bring in something next week. Again, here is the website address:

www.3-1kisq.blogspot.com

The “Show and Tell” activity is a good chance for students to practice free-speaking and question asking.

Science

In Science class, we are studying plants, and I would like to thank the parents who have donated small plants. More are welcome~! We are studying page A10 and A11 in the Science book, and the important vocabulary of this lesson is “predict.” To show children what “predict” means, we have a toy turtle in the classroom that grows when it is in water. Everyday we try to predict how big it will grow, and every student can change their guess. Next week, we will make plans for each student to plant a seed in a small pot of soil, and maintain the plant as it grows.

Reading/Comprehension

In addition to our regular textbooks, we did a “fill in the blank” activity that was about the history of video games. I taught the students the meanings of the vocabulary both in English and Korean. These words will be used in next week’s spelling list.

Oral/Vocabulary

We continue to use the Harcourt series, and the student workbooks are on their way. This week, I taught the students how to organize words into “alphabetical order.” This is a fun way to further explore words.

Writing/Grammar

I am happy with the effort the students are putting in to their English diaries. However, in order to earn a sticker I want to enforce a minimum of 5 full sentences. Please assist the students with the diaries, and allow them to make mistakes. The main mistakes I want to address are:

1) Verb usage – past-tense when writing about things that have already happened.

2) Capital letters used for proper nouns (days, months, names of people and places etc.), and at the beginning of a sentence.

3) Punctuation – periods at the end of a sentence.

4) Neatness – writing carefully, legibly, and smaller print.

I would like the diaries to be submitted to me on Monday and Thursday rather than daily. The English Diary and the Korean Diary should also be in different notebooks.

In the coming weeks I will begin to teach students how to handwrite with pen in script.

The Megaflash 3 book is very useful, and the students enjoy using it. Some students seem to be working ahead with tutors, but I prefer if each student is on the same page at the same time so we can work together in class.

Homework

I will be using the class website to assign homework, and I would like students to get in the habit of checking the website everyday. As well, I will provide optional fun assignments that students might want to complete for extra stickers. When using the website to assign homework, I will make it easy to find at the very top.

Here are next week’s Daily English and Spelling Lists.

Spelling List

1. electronic

2. programmer

3. invented

4. information

5. graphics

6. improved

7. technology

8. popular

9. difficult

10. similar

11. exciting

12. fantastic

13. future

14. Colossus

15. Nintendo

16. Ralph Baer

17. Super Mario

18. role playing game

19. world wide web

20. history

Daily English

1. What is your favorite website on the world wide web?

2. Ralph Baer was the first computer programmer to invent a video game.

3. What’s your telephone number? My telephone number is ####

4. Supercalafragilisticexpealodocious!

5. She sells seashells by the sea-shore.

6. Peter Piper picked a pepper. How many peppers did Peter Piper pick?

7. A big brave baker bakes bread in a bakery.

8. Knock knock! Whose there? Lettuce! Lettuce who? Let us in! It’s cold out here!

9. More than 100 million Super Mario video games have been sold world-wide.

10. The Colossus was invented in 1943. It was the first electronic computer. It was as big as a house.