One of our favourite books at the moment is ‘Marcello Mouse and the Masked Ball’ by Julie Monks. The children have been using this book as inspiration for making masks…and recently there was some inquiry from the picture showing the mouse stitching his clothes…’stitching his clothes?’ how does this happen! From here, some of our children began to stitch their own pieces together using a variety of mediums.

We invited Miss Anne Bruce to come and share her passion and knowledge of embroidery with the K4D children. Every single child was fully engaged in the process! Stitching requires concentration and perseverance and it is a fabulous way to support handwriting through the strengthening of the pincer grip and hand-eye co-ordination.

 

K4D Co-teachers – Kylee OLDS & Maggie SHAO

 

Teaching about sustainability is extremely important in developing our students’ sense of responsibility as well as empowering them to see they too can inspire change and take care of our world. Students learn to take responsibility for their actions, and contribute to what they think is a sustainable future. With this in mind, we embarked on a unit all about sustainability and it has sparked debate, passion and action amongst our students. Year 2 have learnt they too can be a part of making our world a better place. Simple actions, such as switching of electricity when it is not needed or to turning off the tap while brushing their teeth. To more advanced actions such as creating awareness posters to educate others, bringing in waste-free snacks to school and building their own edible gardens out of reused plastic bottles. Come and see our awareness posters covering the hallways of the A building 4^th floor, or pop into our classrooms to see our edible gardens and chat to our students about their understanding of the world sustainability.

Year 2 Leader & Y2B Co-teacher – Natalie GRAY

When the New Year’s Day has passed, Spring Festival is just around the corner. It is the most significant festival for the Chinese people. During the festival, people will be busy with new year shopping, visiting the flower markets, setting off firecrackers, posting new year’s paintings and having many other celebration activities.

In Year 4 Chinese Studies Class, the students devoted themselves to the topic study of New Year’s Paintings under the teacher’s instruction. By watching the video, they got to know both new year’s paintings and spring festival couplets are originated from the Door-god who can protect the household from evil. Through appreciating the variety of new year’s paintings, the students gained the general idea of most common mascots appearing in new year’s paintings including chubby child, carp, lotus, plum, magpie, jade Ruyi, flat peach, etc. From studying the topic, they understood that lotus and carp symbolized a harvest year; Prune trees and magpies represent overwhelming happiness; Jade Ruyi stands for a peaceful coming year and flat peach for health and a long life.

Moreover, students took an active part in drawing the new year’s paintings themselves. After carefully selecting the patterns, they concentrated on coloring, cutting, and decorating with braids until the beautiful paintings came into view.

Y4E Co-teacher—Alicia WANG

The ancient city of Old Baghdad is in chaos. Whilst the bustling bazaar is overrun with ruthless robbers, up in the palace Sultan Pepper’s precious princess and Royal Ruby have vanished! To make matters worse, it seems the poor Sultan cannot trust his own Vizier, Mustapha Widdle, nor his mischievous monkey Booboo. So when Ali Baba discovers the hidden Cave Of Wonders, secret hideout of Balthazar Bongo and his bumbling bandits, it’s down to him to save the day!

Performances of the musical will be held in Hongqiao Campus 4^th Floor B Hall

Matinee – Thursday 1^st February at 10:30 am

Evening Performances – Thursday 1^st February and Friday 2^nd February at 6:30pm.

 Information on how to get tickets for this exciting show has been forwarded on January 22.  You won’t want to miss the highlight of your social calendar.  There is something for the whole family to enjoy.

 

Primary Resource Teacher – Leon WEEKS

Where are you from?

I am from Perth in Western Australia.

How long have you been at YCIS HQ?

I have been here for nearly 6 years.

What do you enjoy most about learning here?

Making friends with children from all around the World!

Tell us an interesting fact about you?

I play the guitar.

Can you share a favourite quote?

Just Do It! (Nike)

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains –  Owen Tianmiao BANKS & Qing Levona SHU

Where are you from?

I am from Bedfordshire in England. This is my first year at YCIS.

Where were you teaching before coming to YCIS?

Before moving to Shanghai, I was teaching in Bangkok. I have been a teacher for 11 years.

What do you enjoy most about teaching at YCIS?

Working in a truly international setting with families and staff from all around the world. I also have a wonderful Co-teacher Ms Sun.

Tell us an interesting fact about you?

I am a Hello Kitty Super-fan!

Can you share a favourite quote?

Be the change you wish to see in the world. – Gandhi

 

Interviewed by:

School Captains –  Owen Tianmiao BANKS & Qing Levona SHU

As part of the ongoing drive to increase the standard of music across all of our YCIS & YWIES schools, a music competition was launched at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year to find our most accomplished students in the field of music performance.  The competition was designed to give all of our musically inclined students the opportunity to gain experience in music performance and thus help to encourage further musical excellence within the Foundation.

Twenty students from YCIS Hongqiao Campus entered the first round of the competition and most of them achieved gold/silver/bronze awards, and five students progressed to the Semi-final.

During the Semi-final competition, three of them won silver awards. Now we are delighted to announce the following students who have won the Gold Awards and progressed to the Grand Final Competition:

4B LIU Guo Zhen Jacob(Piano) – Gold Award

6B XU Zhi Xian Jake(Violin) – Gold Award

 

Music Education Coordinator – Cherry CHEN

 

Before the Christmas break several K4C children had an ongoing interest in different modes of transport. This developed into the children creating a police station in the roleplay area with accompanying police cars. The children decided to paint the walls black to represent their idea of a police station and with support from the class teachers created a ‘jail’ for the ‘bad guys’. As the play evolved in the area the children created different props that they could use in their play, including: walkie talkies, handcuffs, ID badges, and police hats. The children enjoyed taking on many different roles and happily took turns in being sent to ‘jail’. This provided the children with many opportunities to engage in purposeful play that helped support their communication and language skills and their social interactions with their peers.

 

K4C Co-teachers – Douglas ARNOLD & Mango WANG

Year 3 had a busy end to Semester 1 with two field trips in the last few weeks before the holidays. The second field trip was to the Natural History Museum in Jing’an. Year 3 students, teachers and parents all had a fantastic day exploring the different displays. Walking through the rooms full of different types of rocks and minerals helped prepare us for our next Topic unit, Rocks and Soils. In groups, students found answers to questions about different types of rocks while studying their colours, textures and shapes. Who knew rocks could be so interesting to look at?

Another exciting part of the museum was the animal display where students learnt about animals from the past and present, some very big and some quite small. To help us understand about different animal habitats, students spent time studying some live animals in their enclosures. Some, like the tarantula were a little tricky to spot!

As part of their learning journey, Year 3 were given the task of finding different animals and objects on display and to photograph these as part of a Photo Scavenger Hunt. This also gave students the opportunity to reflect on and discuss their trip to the museum.

I think everyone in Year 3 would agree that despite the rainy weather, the trip to the Natural History Museum was a great success!

Year 3 Leader & Y3A Co-teacher – Lydia FISHER