Newsletter May 2015

Dear Parents:

December 2015

We welcome you back to the start of the second term! Students at KG 1 have made good progress and have bonded well with adults and their peers. The first term just whizzed by, and below is a glance of the rich experiences that our students enjoyed: The year began with festivities to celebrate 40 years of academic excellence of the Beaconhouse School System. The Early Years festival organized at the Expo Center in August was a roaring success as it gave all attendees a good insight about the BSS philosophy of teaching very young students. This major event was followed by yet another one “The School of Tomorrow� conference, which was attended by people in huge numbers from all walks of life. It centered around the undeniable influence of geopolitics, global security, media, emerging technologies and other evolving forces which have an impact on educational innovation and change.

Independence Day: It was celebrated with great fervor. Patriotic songs, wonderful folk dance performances and fluttering flags set the mood of the day. The students’ faces reflected their happiness and excitement. Students spoke about the creation of Pakistan and cheered for our leaders who made it happen.

Defence Day: 6th September was celebrated at KG 1 PECHS to pay rich tributes to the martyrs of the Country. They spoke about their sacrifices and also advised their friends to be wise and brave and be ready to do anything for their country. The presentation concluded on the famous national song “Aye watan ky sajeelay jawano” performed energetically by students of Grade 1.

Iqbal Day: Rich tributes were made to our national poet. Students spoke about the life and poetry of Iqbal. Students who played the role of the poet were asked several questions about his life. A birthday cake was cut and all students sang the heart touching lub pe aati hai dua!

Seasons: In order to make the concept of seasons easy for students to understand and to build onto their previous learning, on 3rd November teachers of pre-nursery with the help of their students transformed the outside school environment into a world of seasons. Different corners were set up displaying the weather, clothes, food and drinks according to each of the four seasons. Students got the chance to experience snowfall, wear furry coats, wear sunglasses, discuss how what we eat and do is impacted by seasons. It proved to be yet another ‘fun to learn’ day!

Global Dignity Day- Respect for all is being emphasized the whole year round. On 20th

October, the

Day was celebrated with the usual fervor. Parents were requested to send messages for uniting to make the world a better place. Students were shown videos on less fortunate children and they thanked the junior staff in school for helping them throughout and appreciated the colouring competition organized for them.

Promoting Healthy Eating- Nov 6th, 2015- In our quest to promote healthy eating habits, the students of nursery felt delighted to make their own sandwiches while learning about healthy and junk food at school. This sandwich making activity was carried out to make them realise the importance of keeping a healthy and balanced diet and also know about the hazards of junk food. They really enjoyed making sandwiches and serving them to their friends and teachers. They were also encouraged to talk about the benefits of healthy and junk food.

The Bubbles ‘Breakfast Morning’ with mums was also to promote the importance of the most important meal of the day. It was a delicious spread and mothers also brought along delicious healthy goodies and enjoyed the refreshing morning with their children and interacting with other mums.

Maritime Museum- Class 1 students were taken on a field trip to the Maritime Museum. This was linked with their social studies topic “ways to use land”. The students thoroughly enjoyed the day, gave a lot of verbal feedback and used their knowledge to answer questions in class.

Project culmination- Summarising learning has a very useful impact on the learner as it reinforces concepts and also for the teacher as learning can be evaluated. Students of class 1 had a presentation of their project ‘My mum is lost’. Students spoke about their project, safe strangers/buildings and what they should do if they are lost. This culminated on a musical note.

Morning Assemblies: To boost the confidence of our students and promote public speaking, we had a series of morning assemblies of some P Nurseries, Nurseries, KGs and Class 1s. Some of the students presented songs, performed confidently, whereas others spoke about senses, shapes, seasons, parts of the body, pollution and our world. Parents were also invited who felt proud to see their children speak so well on stage.

KGs sing along session: This was actually a mini concert-as commented by one of our parents. The props, the costumes and the hard work of the parents, teachers and students lead to an amazing show.

Each student tried to outdo the other and their performances were breathtaking.

Nursery Rhyme day:

2nd November was the day that we brought back nursery rhymes to life.

Mothers showed their creativity by dressing up their children most imaginatively. The excitement of the students showed through in their stride on the catwalk.

Library Week: KG 1 PECHS celebrated Library Week starting October 27: Students made bookmarks and posters emphasizing the importance of book-reading. On the first day, a’ DEAR’ session was carried out for 30 minutes during which all students teachers, office and junior staff were asked to ‘Drop Everything And Read’. An interactive story telling session was held by a special parent guest who took the children into the world of imagination. Interesting reading and video sessions and a variety of activities were planned Word detective games were played in which students were asked to hunt for some given words from a book or magazine using a magnifying glass. Reading competitions were also held at all levels to provide encouragement to our avid readers. These activities provided great motivation to students to read more and more books. Beautiful and colourful bookmarks were created by students in their art sessions to commemorate Library Week.

Focus on reading: A reading programme is being successfully carried out at KG-1 PECHS. Various teaching strategies and techniques have been planned to make reading more interesting for students.

Extending the library celebrations, a special workshop was planned for parents of KG students to discuss the importance of developing early reading habits in their children. Useful suggestions were also given to parents regarding different ways to help and support their children at home. Parents were urged to have reading sessions daily with their children. This reading workshop was greatly appreciated by parents.

Seasons: Nov 3rd, 2015 In order to make the concept of seasons easy for students to understand and to build onto their previous learning, teachers of pre-nursery transformed the outside school environment into a world seasons. Different corners were set up displaying the weather, clothes, food and drinks according to each of the four seasons. They got the chance to experience snowfall, wear furry coats, gaze at beautiful colourful flowers in spring and collect autumn leaves. It proved to be yet another ‘fun to learn’ day!

Teddy bear’s birthday and Yellow Day was celebrated by the tiny tots of Pre-nursery, as part of the colours and birthday party theme related to their curriculum. The school was decorated with yellow balloons, tinsels, and ribbons and the children looked adorable in their yellow party hats and formal clothes. The cake cutting ceremony was done among cheers and laughter as the students, teachers and the HM sang the Happy Birthday song. They were treated to yummy popcorn, cake, cookies and yellow jelly.

Sep 23rd , 2015 Red is the most dynamic and passionate colour which symbolizes love and courage. In this regard our little Bubbles and Pre- Nurseries participated actively while celebrating Red Day. They enjoyed show and tell activity and took great pride in displaying their favourite red possessions .They also created luscious red cherries using finger painting technique and coloured strawberries. They created beautiful red souvenirs to take home with themselves and were also treated to red jelly.

Pyjama Party: Kindergarten children had fun participating in a pretend daytime "sleepover" with their classmates. This was organized as a part of their theme, ‘Starry Nights’. All dressed in pyjamas they were intrigued to experience the night time set up in their classrooms .They enjoyed listening to bedtime stories and lullabies and were served flavoured milk and popcorns. Our Pre Nursery students were not to be left behind as they came to school in the pyjamas. They helped to lay the dinner table, watched a bit of a movie and then slept, only to be woken up by an alarm and then they all brushed their teeth. Bubbles too experienced night time!

Student Council: To promote leadership and responsibility, the Student Council members took their oath and promised to fulfil their duties to the best of their ability. These council members were divided into two groups, antibully squad (blue) and cleanliness squad (yellow).They were assigned duties according to their council group under the supervision of teachers and given especially designed sashes. To motivate students to be at their best, it was decided that the council members would be changed every month and this gave everyone a chance to prove their worth and work hard for their place.

Experiences for every kind of learner: Students are set free to be curious and flourish at their own pace, keeping in mind their individual interest.

Learning with technology

Observing nature

Taking pictures

Solving sums with teaching aids

Solving sums using technology

Group discussion on Earth

Tie and Dye

Block Printing

There is a lot more to do and so we have to pump up the pace. We look forward to a very productive term full of challenges and great achievements, and it would be delightful to have you as our partners in your child’s learning!

With best wishes,

Raushan Khanzada Headmistress E mail: roshan.khanzada@bh.edu.pk