Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1: Under the sea

Y2 trip to Sea Life Bangkok

Last week Y2 dived further into their Topic 'Seas and Oceans' with a trip to Sea Life Bangkok: Ocean World.

The children started off with a behind the scenes tour of some of the large tanks, home to the sharks, turtles and rays and were able to go and see the ‘meal preparation’ room. The staff were busy making lunch for the sharks – there were buckets and buckets of fish (it was a little bit smelly!).

Next, we took a trip on the glass bottomed boat. Swimming below our feet were leopard sharks, sand tiger sharks and black tip reef sharks. Following that, the staff at Ocean World gave us a guided tour of the aquarium. We walked through the Seahorse Kingdom down into the Rocky Shore to meet the penguins and the starfish. 

An exciting trip through the Shark Tunnel led us to lunch in front of the shipwreck, where we were able to learn more about marine life from The Interactive Stingray!  

Year 2 would like to say a big thank you to all of the staff at Ocean World for teaching us all about life under the sea and also to the parents who came and helped out - we had a 'whale' of a time.

STARS visit to Checkmate Riding Club

Last week was an exciting one for a group of our STARS students as the first group of children from Primary went to try their hand at horse riding at the Checkmate Riding Club. Led by Mr Mike, whose High School students are already familiar with the programme, the students had an exciting morning learning how to respond to horses, groom them, saddle them and, when they were comfortable, ride them.

Supported by LSAs, one of our OTs and the staff of the Centre, the morning was deemed to be a massive success - one that we hope will be repeated with other students in the near future.  A big thank you to everyone who organised and supported the activity.

Talent Show

On Friday we were treated to an enormous show of talent from out Years 1-6 as we enjoyed the Talent Show that had been postponed due to the unfortunate cancellation of Fun Day. The children who performed in the Y1-Y3 show displayed skills in piano playing, drumming, singing, dancing, joke and story telling, and all performed with a confidence way beyond their years.  All were winners and received their medals of recognition at the end of the show to massive cheers and a round of applause. We really do have a wealth of talent here at St Andrews International School Bangkok. Congratulations to all of the winners and everyone who took part in auditions this year and won an enormous number of house points into the bargain.

Book Week

This year, Book Week takes place during the week beginning 25 March. We usually have a visiting author, however, this year, for a change, we will be inviting an author and illustrator - Karin Littlewood - to work with the children. As always, during the week the children will take part in a range of activities and competitions based around books. The week will finish on 29 March with our annual Book Character parade. You have plenty of time to start getting creative and think of a fantastic book character costume for your children to wear for the parade.

A new competition this year is Book in a B

Visit from Miss Yoshimi - Bookworm Foundation

Next week we will have a special visitor in the Primary School. For those of you who were here last year, you may remember Miss Yoshimi who helped the children learn all about how blind people use braille to read.  She will be coming again to help children learn more about braille and following her visit we will be holding a read-a-thon to raise money for her charity

Yoshi is the driving force behind the Bookworm Foundation - previously known as the Always Reading Caravan. We have been supporters of Yoshi’s Foundation for a couple of years and really enjoy her visits.  This visit she will be holding a Parent Workshop - details of which will follow by email within the next couple of days.

How to do it:

The children will bring home a sponsor form and before reading they can approach family members and friends as sponsors to pledge a certain amount of money per book they read.  Fill in the sponsor form on the back of the paper. For example, Mum might write 5bt per book and Dad might say 10bt per book, ask your neighbours and friends too. You are to collect as many sponsors as possible for the event.  

They then spend each day of Book Week sharing/reading as many books as they can (cover to cover).  Every time they read a book ask your child to colour in a heart shape.  Try and encourage a different book each time but with early years children is ok to read the same book.

Bring in the money you have raised, in an envelope with your sponsor form and your name,  on Friday 5 April so we are able to give the money to the charity.

If you have any questions regarding this event, please email Mrs Meg meg.ki@standrews.ac.th or your year leader.  

The more books you read and the more sponsors you have the more money is raised for this worthwhile organization.