We are Lower Primary!

Welcome to Lower Primary 1 with Ms. Julieta!

We’re excited to share our first blog post of the school year! It’s been a fantastic start, and I’m really looking forward to learning and growing with your wonderful children.

After a refreshing summer break, the students smoothly adapted to their new routines. Their excitement and flexibility have been impressive!

We began the year by focusing on the importance of playing and learning together. In Lower Primary, we follow eight "golden rules": Be a friend, Listen, Share, Help clean up, Wait your turn, Raise your hand, Walk (don’t run), and Keep your hands to yourself.

In the first week, we revisited key numeracy and literacy concepts while working on our reading skills. We also learned about brain development, discovering how our brains grow stronger by facing challenges. The children were introduced to the ideas of a fixed and growth mindset, and we’ll be working throughout the year to develop a growth mindset together.

The students are becoming more independent with the Daily 5 literacy framework. They can now Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, and practice Word Work, which is helping improve their reading and writing skills.

We kicked off our learning with the IPC unit 'Brainwave,' where we explored how our brains work and how we can use metacognitive strategies to enhance our learning. We also introduced IPC personal goals like being ethical, adaptable, resilient, respectful, empathetic, and good communicators and collaborators. We learned about three types of learning: Knowledge, Skills, and Understanding.

In our second unit, 'Who am I,' we explored identity and what makes each of us special. The children created a fun stop-motion video about happiness and made their own illustrations. We also did a project on portraits inspired by Rene Magritte’s surrealism. Next, we learned about the heart and its functions, and the students wrote their first non-fiction piece explaining what they had learned. They even made ‘junk models’ of the heart! We continued learning about our bodies with a focus on food, nutrition, and healthy eating habits, exploring the food pyramid and balanced plates. There’s still more to discover, so we’ll continue this unit after autumn break.

To practice public speaking, we prepared a poem about ourselves for our school assembly. For some, it was the first time presenting on stage, and everyone did a fantastic job!

We also celebrated Halloween in style with special treats, fun activities, and some fantastic costumes!  A huge thank you to all the parents for helping make this celebration such a success! As part of the festivities, the children crafted their very own dream catchers, inspired by Native American culture. They loved learning about the tradition behind dream catchers and put so much creativity into their unique designs. It was a wonderful way to blend culture and creativity into our Halloween celebration!

These first eight weeks have been full of growth and creativity, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.

A special thank you to our dedicated assistants, Ms. Alexandra and Ms. Gemma, for their constant support and care for our students.

Wishing you a wonderful autumn break, and we look forward to sharing more exciting updates in the next blog post!