June 22^nd, 2018

Dear Parents,

It is with great pleasure to inform you of a successful and cheerful semester completed for the majority of our kids in class 303. In the last 2 semesters, our kids have broadened their diction, vocabulary, and understanding of grammar in the English language. With an exception of a couple that may need remedial work, most will continue to the fourth grade facing new and exciting challenges ahead. I’d like to take this opportunity to inform you of the scheduling change for this very last week of the spring 2018 semester.

                Due to an unfortunate family illness, I am forced to travel abroad next week to be with family in this time of need and so it is with regret I’d like to notify you that I will not be here for the last week of the semester. I have already shifted 7 periods of next week’s schedule to this week and the remaining periods will be cobbled together by our capable foreign staff. Now that we are done with testing, and Reading Street the week will be filled with game and online reading on Person realize. Have a good summer if I don’t see some of you for the July summer session.

Thanks for your attention,

Arthur Tsay

English Homeroom Teacher Class 303 

Our Global Education Year End Presentation

From food, festivals, music to architecture, culture, geography, and language. It's been a fun-filled year of learning about Mexico and its people.

Feel free to stop by the library for a gander when you have a chance ;)

Dear Parents,

It's been a fun-filled year with lots of learning about a fascinating country that is Mexico. In concluding this semester's Global Education activities, we are making a book titled "My Spanish Picture Dictionary". Hereinafter is a brief tutorial on how to make this dictionary for those students that have missed the last few days due to absence.

1. Complete the word list in alphabetical order first in English, Spanish and then followed by its Chinese translation
2. Provide three blank pages plus a thicker stock cover page in the color of your liking
3. Fold all pages in half, title the cover page, write each word in three languages, illustrate it and include its definition on the bottom
4. Punch holes and bind it with string by following the video link attached
5. Voila, your Dictionary is now complete!!

bookbinding with string

Final Exams

Dear Parents, The Final Monthly Exams are upon us once again, hereafter is the exam schedule and test scope. Please remind our kids to go over vocabulary and reading stories listed in the test scope. 6/05 Tuesday- Vocabulary Review Test 6/08 Friday- Listening and Reading Test 6/14 Thursday- Written Test Test Scope: Vocabulary Focus: Week 13 ~ Week 16 (Communication Book) Reading Street Stories- Unit 3: Rosa and Blanca, and A Weed is a Flower Grammar Focus: Verbs, verbs with singular and plural nouns, verbs for 1st, 2nd and 3rd person, be verbs, Comparative –er, and superlative –est endings, future – going to-, and –will be- Phonics Focus: Vowel patterns; i, ie, igh, y

   Study well

Second Monthly Exam, Spring Semester

Dear Parents, The Second Monthly Exams are upon us once again, hereafter is the exam schedule and test scope. Please remind our kids to go over vocabulary and reading stories listed in the test scope. 5/02 Wednesday- Vocabulary Review Test 5/04 Friday- Listening and Reading Test 5/08 Tuesday- Written Test Test Scope: Vocabulary Focus: Week 6 ~ Week 11 (Communication Book) Reading Street Stories- Unit 2: Pearl and Wagner, Dear Juno, and Anansi Goes Fishing Grammar Focus: Verbs, verbs with singular and plural nouns, verbs for past present and future, compound words Phonics Focus: Long e and o Vowel Combinations; ee, ea, y, o, oa, ow Multiple Syllables Study well

Dear Parents,

The YLE Cambridge assessment exam is upon us once again this Saturday. For those unfamiliar with this assessment, the exam is divided into three levels of  "Starters", "Movers", and "Flyers". Each level is then awarded up to 5 badges maximum to show a degree of competency at each level. Judging from last year's results, many of our early learners are already doing well in the "Movers" level and some should be attempting to challenge themselves at the "Flyers" level. We'll be going over testing methods and sample tests for each level in our off periods throughout the week. In the meantime;

Please follow the given links below to practice the Listening Test for each level and don't forget to download and print the last item for the Written Test as well as Listening Test graphics.

Starters: Starter Listening Test

Movers: Mover Listening Test

Flyers: Flyers Listening Test

Written Test and accompanying graphics for each Listening Test: Download and print

Study well and good luck on the assessment.

Piñatas

Piñatas, Piñatas

It's day two and our progress is quite impressive if I dare say. All we're missing now are some more ribbons, paint in the facial features, add on some surprises here and there and we might have what I recognize as an octopus, a rabbit, and an ox? 

Awesome job guys!!

Dear Parents,

It has come to my attention that our kids are not completely familiar with the synonyms of our weekly vocabulary for; promise-assurance, agree-approval, evil-wicked. Due to the fact that we have only cursorily gone over the synonyms, I have decided to award 3 points for mistakes on these questions.

Secondly, after numerous in-class explanation and exercise, some students are still failing to grasp the ideas behind our focus tenses. I'm wondering if I can solicit our parents' help in explaining these concepts to our kids at home in Chinese.

Past Tense- An action that took place in past time, i.v. (irregular verb) eat:ate, r.v. (regular verb) walk:walked.

Present Tense- something that is true and doesn't change, an action that always happens, a habit, and action currently taking place. He eats ice cream when it's hot, He is happy with his toy

Future Tense- To say what one will do, to make a prediction about what will happen. I will go to Japan next week.

Present Progressive- An action taking place at the moment of speaking. He is working on his homework. Is, am, are  +  verb+ing.

Needless to say, the last Unit Review Test results were less than ideal, but with attention to detail and persistence, I'm sure our kids can get the hang of it.


Thanks and study well,

Arthur

G3 Spring First Monthly Exam Test Scope

Dear Parents, The First Monthly Exams are upon us once again, hereinafter is the exam schedule and test scope. Please remind our kids to go over vocabulary and reading stories listed in the test scope. 3/13 Tuesday- Vocabulary Review Test 3/16 Friday- Listening and Reading Test 3/21 Wednesday- Written Test Test Scope: Vocabulary Focus: Week 1 ~ Week 4 (Communication Book) Reading Street Stories- Unit 2: The Bremen Town Musicians and One Good Turn Deserves Another Grammar Focus: Plural Nouns, Possessive Nouns, and Simple Past, Present, Future and Present progressive Tenses Phonics Focus: Long a Vowel Combinations Multiple Syllables Study well

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Spring 2018! I hope everyone has had a restful and fun-filled holiday.

Please take note of the following excerpt from this semester's communication book; on a weekly basis the class will be assigned item number 4 under the heading "Daily Verbs".

Beyond the focus vocabulary for each unit, I feel that due to lack of practice and contact in English on a daily basis, we will add an additional focus on verbs used in each unit. Our kids will be assigned to write sentences using the three verbs each time for about three times a week.


Thanks for your attention, and study well.

Monday 星期一	□1. Review Reading Street Story: _______________ □2. Week ____ New Vocabulary 1 – 10 (x3/x2/x1) □3. Read Ten Important Sentences p. ______ ✅4. Daily Verb □5. □6.	家長簽名：
		Teacher’s  Signature：

Fry's 100 Sight Words

Dear Parents,

         As this semester draws to a close, I'd like to take this opportunity to sum up our accomplishments, challenges, and suggest some to-dos over the short winter break to give the kids a head start on the Spring semester. In twenty weeks this year, we have furthered our use of pronouns, subject-verb agreement in the present, past, progressive, and future tenses for the first time. We have continued with our phonics and decoding skills to include digraphs and diphthongs and are beginning to decode multiple syllable words. While the majority of our kids don't have a problem absorbing the skills being imparted, focus and retention remain a challenge for a large group scoring low 70s and below.
          On the whole, focus, retention and speaking fluency are the biggest challenges our kids will have to overcome in order to really master the skills they have learned. It is obvious from their test scores that more than a few students are performing barely at or below grade level for reasons mentioned above.  Hereinafter are some areas our kids of all levels can work on during the winter break and  on to the spring semester; as I have mentioned since the first grade for the kids that started in class 103 with Teacher Ivy and me, Fry's 1000 Sight Words List http://www.k12reader.com/Fry-Words/fry_complete_1000.pdf for learners of English is a list of words that our kids must know and use proficiently. They will acquire 100 words per grade starting with the first 100.  They must be able to say the words, recognize them, give their easy definition and use them in a sentence of their own. Depending on which 100 words your child is having trouble with, you can then judge whether they are on, at or above level. The aforementioned link includes all 1000 words.
         In the areas of speaking fluency and focus, all our students will improve from reading books of their own interest, watching movies and shows with the English subtitles on, and playing various games that will help improve their concentration. I know a few kids in our class that can really benefit from the tips found on this site; https://flintobox.com/blog/child-development/13-tips-increase-concentration-kids. Have a great winter vacation and I'll continue to post relevant pointers, book and site referrals.