St Andrews Dusit Newsletter February 2023

Upcoming Events

March

 27th Parent Consultation day KS1/2

 31st Songkran Assembly

 31st Last day of Term 2

April

 17th Term 3 Starts

 17th - 21st Art Week

 27th EY Sports Day

 28th KS1/2 Sports Day

Message from the Head of School

Dear Dusit Community,

It has been a busy month full of exciting activities and many special celebrations including Reception’s 100 Days of School, Dusit’s Got Talent and our most recent Book Week celebrations where we celebrated our love of reading in many different ways.

This year, Book Week revolved around the story of Little Red Riding Hood and each year chose a slightly different version of the story and added their own twist to the learning.

During the week, children had the chance to take part in drama activities, Buddy Reading with different classes, discuss which particular books they enjoy the most and we ended the week with our children becoming authors themselves and creating some excellent stories; you are all invited to come and see our Book Week display at the front of the school which shares student work and shows the progression from Nursery all the way up to Year 6!

We have also had some absolutely amazing house competition entries for both the story front covers and our playtime box competition and for our Friday book character dress up day! We were amazed to see so many wonderful costumes and really enjoyed pupils in all classes across the school parading so confidently as they took to the field or stage!

Please be sure to sign up to meet with your child’s teacher so that they can share progress and next steps with you. The PE staff will also be available for the Parent/Teacher meetings during the last week of term so please look out for the sign up sheet on Class Dojo.

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Caroline Ratcliffe

World Book Day

World Book Day

Nursery

We are having a great time continuing our learning and exploration in Nursery this term. We have begun the term by exploring our Book Week story, Little Red Riding Hood. The children have listened to different versions of the story and explored the narrative, characters and setting with our continuous provision and classroom activities.

Nursery

Lots of children have had fun exploring the narrative and retelling the story in our sensory tuff spots with mud, sand, stones and other natural resources. Nursery have been using the available toys and resources to construct a house for Granny to live in, and have used the small world characters to act out familiar parts of the story and repeated refrains. Other children have been exploring the characters through large scale drawing and ‘Dance Write’ activities, as well as exploring the fancy-dress box and using the fabric and accessories to dress up as Little Red Riding Hood, Granny, the wolf and the woodcutter. Some children have also used the junk modeling resources to build props to support their play. We’ve had lots of sensory activities out recently which have continued to bring up lots of interesting conversations about how something looks and feels, as well as developing our fine motor skills. We’ve also seen some children creating different marks as they have been showing an interest in early emerging writing skills.

Nursery

As always, Nursery have been joining in with lots of songs and dances which develop our balance and control, fine and gross motor skills, as well as counting and developing new language and vocabulary. We can’t wait to see where the children’s interests take us next, and what exciting adventures we will go on with Nursery later this term and into Term 3!

Kindergarten

What a fun visit we had to Rot Fai Park just before the mid-term break. We enjoyed exploring the park, going on a nature treasure hunt and having a snack picnic surrounded by nature. We found lots of cool leaves and beautiful flowers. We also saw many curious (and hungry?) birds, especially during snack time. Jellyfish class even watched some fish and toads being released into the lake. As part of our nature theme we have started our very own compost bin in the EY outdoor learning area, where we will compost our fruit scraps from snack every week.

Kindergarten

To celebrate book week we have taken a two week break from our learning about nature and zoomed in on ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ We have explored the story through reading, story telling, imaginative play, mark making, construction and much more. Thank you very much to all the parents who volunteered to read a story in KG - all the children enjoyed a mix of stories both in English and Thai.

After book week we will continue our nature themed learning and explore the life cycles of plants. We will be starting our very own working garden, planting seeds and helping them to grow. Watch this space to see if we can keep the garden growing!

Reception

On Friday, February 3rd, Reception celebrated the 100th day of school. We had different activities on the day such as a special count to 100 snacks. In the afternoon we celebrated with a special assembly with our parents. Everyday since the first day of school we have counted to see how many days we have been in school. By the 100th day, we could hardly believe that we had already spent 100 days together in Reception. In the first 100 days of school we played, jumped, climbed, built, sang, danced and learned so much. We celebrated special days such as Wai Kru, Loy Kratong, Halloween, Christmas, and now 100 days! The Whales, Sharks and Dolphins are also doing amazing work everyday in school with phonics, building new friendships, and always being willing to give new things a go. Reception has shown us that they are improving in hundreds of ways all the time.

Reception

In the first 100 days of school, Reception students demonstrated 100 acts of kindness, sharing, and positive attitudes. The teachers are so impressed and dazzled by all of the amazing things that they show us everyday. Well done to the Whales, Sharks and Dolphins!

Year 1

We are seeing unbelievable progress! We are now able to use the skills that we have been working on all year and are beginning to see some fantastically independent readers, writers and mathematicians!! We completed our work on the Kraken by creating a big fact file of our own, innovated Krakens. These are great pieces of work that the children have felt pride in finishing.

Year 1

We introduced our short two week unit on the Little Red Riding Hood for our Book week preparation for which we have written a character description of our own innovation of the wolf in the story. We found out that perhaps we had the wrong idea and that the wolf was in fact a good, kind character and not the mean and greedy wolf from the original story. In maths we have been growing our understanding of numbers up to 50. Finding and plotting these on number lines and using the tens and ones of the number to work out addition number sentences like 30 + 6 = 36. We have all been listening to a range of chapter books in Year 1, ranging from Fantastic Mr Fox to Claude in the City. We recommend beginning to read these kinds of chapter books at home when you can. They are a great tool for developing vocabulary!

Year 2

Editors and Chiefs

A significant learning curve for children in Year 2 is to understand that writing is a multistep process. In class, we have been spending a great deal of time and effort on perfecting our ability to edit. We work in teams of two, with one person being Arthur the author and the other being Edith the editor. Edith helps Arthur by checking for missing punctuation, key topic spelling words and ensuring sentences make sense and are punctuated correctly. They then swap roles to focus on the other person's writing.

Year 2

The next phase of editing involves the class teacher giving specific feedback to the class around common errors that they noticed. For instance; the incorrect use of there, their or they’re. Edith and Author then return to their editing to focus on the specific feedback they have received. This type of editing and feedback allows the students to take ownership of their writing and develop a sense of pride in the work they have put in to improve and correct their writing. We used these steps when creating information posters about Emperor Penguins during our topic of ICE. Who knows, maybe one day one of these children might be an editor at a publishing house?

Year 3

Enigmatic Egyptians

Year 3 have loved learning about the many mysteries of Ancient Egypt. We crawled through a dark tunnel to discover the hidden tomb of Tutunkamhen. Once inside, we drew many of the treasures and possessions belonging to the young pharaoh. We used inferences to draw conclusions about King Tut’s life based on what we saw in his tomb. We also started making a mummy’s death mask in art lessons using a combination of art and design skills. All our crafts and artwork will be on display in the Egypt Exhibition which will open on March 30th!

Year 3

Year 3

In maths, we’ve been learning to tell time to the exact minute on both analogue and digital clocks. We then used this knowledge to calculate durations by moving the hands on our clocks forwards or backwards. It has taken lots of perseverance and determination but we are very proud of how far our students have come!

We have also been celebrating World Book Day with the whole school focus on the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. In Year 3, we read what really happened to Little Red in a book called ‘The Wolf’s Story’. In this unit, we have had fun innovating the story and writing our own versions. The children have demonstrated that they can apply all the skills they have learnt in Year 3 so far with confidence. We can’t wait to share them!

Year 4 Year 4 Superheroes!

WOW! It's difficult to find the words to express how proud we all are of the Year 4 children during our Residential Trip to Nam Pha Pha Yai last week! Learning outside of the classroom in this kind of setting, gives the chance to build on a range of developmental skills. The children are given opportunities to make new friendships, work as a team, connect with the new ways of learning, expand their knowledge beyond what’s taught in the classroom and, of course, have fun in the process!

Year 4

From collecting sticks for the campfire, to using a compass to navigate around the resort, independence, confidence and a sense of personal responsibility were at the forefront of everything we did.

Our Year 4 campers battled through long hikes, uphill climbs and complex navigational skills. All the while, they remained focused, determined and used their strengthening collaborative skills to complete a range of team building activities. And best of all, they had an absolute blast doing it (so did the teachers!)…they are our true superheroes!

Year 5

We have had a very busy and exciting February. We kicked off Term 2 with our residential trip to Pattana Mansion. The children joined with the children form St Andrews 107 and Green Valley which gave them the opportunity to meet and make lots of new friends. They also participated in numerous activities including kayaking, team building activities, art and sport.

Year 5

In maths we learned all about area and perimeter and the children got to apply these skills practically by measuring the area and perimeter of different areas in the school. In English, we combined our knowledge of space from our science unit to write final transmissions home from the perspective of an astronaut.

In topic, we have been learning all about Myanmar and the children researched and created their own displays to show their knowledge of all of the different ethnic tribes in Myanmar. Our very own Pan Pan won this years Dusit’s Got Talent and we all agree she did a fantastic job!

We look forward to next month and all that it brings!

Year 6

Year 6 Eagles are primed for Book Week! In English, we are doing Little Red Riding Hood but with an interesting twist - this time, you choose your own adventure! We started by studying the popular 1980s-90s UK kids television programme, Knightmare, before reading the game books and learning the features of a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ story. Now we are adapting these ideas to write our own ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ stories about Little Red Riding Hood. Where will she go? What will happen? You decide!

Year 6

In maths, we have been learning about percentages, including converting fractions to percentages and decimals, and finding percentages of amounts. In science, we are learning about the human body, such as components of the blood and how the heart works. We have made delicious “blood smoothies” (not containing actual blood!) and also investigated how our heart rate changes with exercise. We also made anatomically accurate models of the heart in our art lesson.

U7 Football

Over the past few months, we have seen all the Dusit Dragons play across a variety of different sports with over 20 students taking part in an U7 Football tournament. The last month has seen the start of the Basketball and T-Ball seasons across the school.

A massive shout out to the Dusit Dragon parents; you have been amazing, and we have loved hearing you at the games. Please keep an eye on Class Dojo for post about clubs and fixtures.

Dusit’s Got Talent 2023

Dusit’s Got Talent 2023