Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1: The science of fun and learning

Year 2 students at St Andrews International School Bangkok spend the day designing umbrellas to protect their teacher from the rain...Loy Krathong celebrations are just around the corner...Round 2 of Word Mania has commenced... Find out about a very useful parent workshop on reading.

Y2 Science Day

As well as their many other talents, Y2 are budding scientists. Last week they spent a whole day on science activities so that they could plan an investigation, carry it out and evaluate their results all in the same day. They showed some brilliant collaboration and teamwork as well some amazing scientific thinking. For example...

Poor Miss Emma, she does not have an umbrella and keeps getting very wet during the rainy season!

Last Monday Year 2 became scientists and explored different materials to help make an umbrella for Miss Emma to help keep her dry.

We started the day by going on a materials hunt around the school. We used iPads to take photographs of different materials. Then we used the app ‘pic collage’ to display and annotate our photographs.

Look at this super example by Arbe, Julian, Maaye, Emilie and Perth:

Next, we investigated the properties of materials. We had a lot of fun doing this. We were given a material and we had to observe what happened when we: bent it, squashed it, twisted it, drew on it and drove a toy car over it! We found that different materials have different properties - for example some are soft and flexible whereas others are hard and durable.

After that we looked at the suitability of different materials for everyday objects. We explored why coats are made of fabric and not metal and why cars are made of metal and not wood.

Then we started to plan the investigation: “which material would make the best umbrella for Miss Emma and why?” We all came up with a hypothesis, some groups predicted that tinfoil would be the best material whereas others groups thought cardboard.

Time to put our hypothesis to the test. We set up our experiments by gathering our equipment - made mini Miss Emma’s and got to work. We were very careful to make sure our tests were fair so we made sure to use the same amount of water each time.

Here are some photos of us in action:

After testing all the materials we looked at the results. Cotton wool was the least absorbent material - poor mini Miss Emma was soaked. Tinfoil was the most waterproof material. However, after a discussion we decided that an umbrella made from metal might not be such a good idea during a thunderstorm…!

We all had a lovely day full of scientific enquiry and exploration. It was great to see the children so actively engaged and enthusiastic to help keep Miss Emma dry. We have a lot of budding future scientists on our hands.

Well done Y2!

Loy Krathong

The next few weeks in school are extremely busy as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, but before that we have a special Thai celebration coming up - Loy Krathong.

In Mr Paul’s section of the newsletter you will find out more about it, but a reminder here that this year children and teachers will be once again dressing up in Thai Traditional Costumes to celebrate together. The celebration will be held on Thursday 22 November. Suitable costumes are available cheaply at the local markets.

Word Mania

Round 2 of Word Mania has now begun. Year 1 and Year 2 have made it to this round, and are currently in the top 10 schools in Asia. Well done to all the children who have taken part. This round continues until 16 November. Besides being a lot of fun to play, it is also such a great way to improve your child’s spelling. Please encourage them to play as much as possible at home. For tips on how to help your child to get a higher score, as well as other fun spelling resources, please follow this link.

Supporting your Child with Reading

Parents of children in KS1 are invited to a Parent Workshop on “Supporting your child with reading in KS1”. This workshop has some handy hints to help develop a love of reading from a very young age and will take place on Friday, 16 November from 08.00 - 09.00 a.m. in the Drama Studio.

Nursery Rhyme Week

Next week, St Andrews will be participating in their first ‘World Nursery Rhyme Week,’ and we invite the whole of primary to join us!  

Nursery rhymes are very important for the language, mathematical, social, emotional and physical development of every child; therefore, in EYFS, we are constantly singing and saying rhymes...you may have heard us around the school! This term, we have even been learning to use Makaton sign language in our singing sessions. We would love for you all to come join us in celebrating many of the great nursery rhymes we use all year round!

Here is a list of the activities we hope to see you join next week:

• Illustrating Nursery Rhymes Poster - in class and in the library (1 house point per poster)
• Rhyme Buddies - KS2 children share nursery rhymes with EYFS children
• Rise and Shine with a Rhyme - join us every morning as you walk into school, and get a house point (behind the big swimming pool 7:30 - 7:45 am)
• Parents can Rhyme too  - Parents ask your teachers to come and sing rhymes in your home language to the children
• Guess who is singing  - Guess the teacher who is singing the nursery rhyme in your registration time.

Dates for your Diary