What is looping?

                                                                                Nowadays in many schools, looping has been integrated as a regular procedure. It has become normal for students to spend more than one year with the same teachers. This year to enhance learning in first grade, we decided to implement looping, or teaching our kids from last year.

Benefits of Looping

1) Relationships with students

Teachers and students can look back and laugh at shared experiences from previous years, and also look ahead to what things can be done this year. There is a level of trust that can only be built up over time. Students feel comfortable talking to the teacher as a trusted mentor, and will often even share stories that most students would not typically share with their new teacher.   A high level of caring and respect is developed in the classroom.

2) Relationships with parents and families

 Knowing the parents of my students very well makes it easier to work as a team. Parents know the way the teacher works, as well as what to generally expect during the year. They feel comfortable talking with the teacher or send him/her questions about assignments or grades, which can make things much less complicated than when parents need to adjust to completely different ways of working each year.

3) Understanding student needs

Knowing the students’ strengths and general weaknesses right from the first day of school changes expectations for the year. It is very easy for teachers to remember where students started from, the progressions they have made, and what goals he/she still need to work on. I can remember the skills that each student struggled with the year before, as well as what tasks they usually excel at. There are no wasted days at the beginning of the year – coming back from summer vacation is like coming back after a long holiday. We catch up on what everyone did, and then pick up where we left off, with new skills and projects to work on.

4) Promotes teacher innovation

You just can’t teach the same thing every year when you have the same students! Teachers need to use new skills and competencies to develop according to the education programs the school has and follows. Every year teachers need to think of new projects, new texts to read, new activities to do, and new units to cover. It really prevents them from reusing the same materials over and over for years on end. One of the biggest challenges as a teacher is being up to date with new technologies and ideas in education and be able to incorporate into the classroom.

5) Benefits classroom management

When you start teaching the students in your class, you establish routines and procedures for almost everything. There are rules to follow, and consequences for not following them.  Every year, teachers have a new class with new procedures to learn. In my class, the students come in September already aware of what I will tolerate, as well as what I expect from them. New students pick things up quickly as they integrate into our well-established group.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

1 A Teacher

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

WELCOME BACK!!

                                                                                                                          

 Dear Parents,

It's hard to believe but it's that time of the year again - the beginning of a new school year. Welcome back!  My name is Mrs. Nora Sierra and I will be your Early Childhood Assistant Principal.  There is so much excitement approaching us as we think about new teachers and students to meet, new books to read, new activities and concepts to master.  I look forward to sharing in all of these exciting times. 

 We need to work together as a team!  “It's a parents enthusiasm, support and involvement that inspire children to do their best; and a teacher's ability to teach what they need to learn. Together, as a community at Discovery School, we can achieve wonderful things.”  

Please contact me at any time if you have questions, comments, or concerns by e-mailing me at nsierra@discoveryschool.edu.hn .  You can take the time to visit my webpage throughout the year that can be found on our school’s website.  I will be posting important information, useful sites, and interesting things happening throughout the year.

Thank you for your commitment to your child's education and success at Discovery School.  I look forward to getting to know you and your child this year!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Assistant Principal

(504) 99850732/ (504) 95001720

Grade 1A Teacher

Discovery School Mission: 

Our mission is to prepare students for the challenges of life and future academic work by instilling in them Self-esteem, Academic Excellence, Critical Thinking, Celebration of Cultural Diversity, and Social and Environmental Responsibility.

This is accomplished through an internationally enriched U.S.-style curriculum with high academic standards, an internationally diverse student body, state-of-the-art facilities, and an inquiry-based approach to learning.

Well boys and girls, the end is here and we are ready for a great summer vacation.Wishing you all the best my beautiful babies!!! Take care and always remember that you have a friend in me!

Ms. Nora

SUMMER READING

                    

Summer shouldn't mean taking a break from learning,

especially reading. Studies show that most students

experience a loss of reading skills over the summer months, but children who continue to read actually gain skills. Efforts  should be made during the summer to help children sustain reading skills, practice reading and read for enjoyment.

Taking the time to read with your child can help you evaluate  your child's reading skills.

Educators consider summer reading very important in

developing life-long reading habits, in maintaining literacy skills and in promoting reading for pleasure. Studies have repeatedly shown that children who continue to read during the summer months perform better when school resumes in the fall.

Research has also shown that when parents are actively

involved in learning at home, their children become more successful in and out of school.

(Based on a feature article written for the May 2003 issue of Classroom

Connect Newsletter, The K-12 Educators' Guide to the Internet)

Why Do Summer Reading? It increases:

 Reading level

 Visualization skills

 Language skills

 Thinking skills

 Vocabulary

Some Tips for Summer Reading:

·       Have plenty of books, books on tape, magazines,

     and other reading material around for kids to read.

      Keep books in the car and make sure a good book gets

      tucked into sports bags and campers' backpacks.

·       Get your child his own library card. Take or allow him to go to the library often and browse for books and enjoy special activities.

·        Help your child select books on topics he is interested in and on his reading level. A simple rule of thumb for helping your child select books at his reading level is to have them choose a page in the book (not the first one) and read it. If he doesn't know five or more of the words, then the book is too hard for pleasure reading.

·       Connect reading with other summer activities.

       For example, read books about places you will go       over the summer or things you will be doing. Perhaps            you will visit the beach or go camping; there are 

       many good books about the beach and camping!

• Set goals and reward reading. Reward reading with more reading. If your child finishes one book, stop by the store and let him pick out another.

•    Let your kids see you read. Read the newspaper over your morning coffee, take a magazine from the rack in a doctor's office while you wait, and stuff a paperback into your purse, pocket, or briefcase. Your kids will catch on to the fact that reading is something you like to do in your spare time.
• Make reading together fun and memorable. Even if your child is a super reader, they still love to be    read too. You may want to use different voices for different characters when you read to your child. Reading together is a time for closeness and cuddling - another way to show your love as a caring adult. Children love to read letters and notes you write them.
•   Read it, then do it. Does your child want to learn magic tricks? Juggling? Computer games? There's sure to be a book that can help him. Have your child read the instructions and then give it a try.

 LEARNING WITH COMIC STRIPS

Comic strip characters can help your child become a better reader and writer and logical thinker.

 Once Upon a Time… Beginning readers will enjoy using the comic’s easy-to-follow story telling guides. Your child can tell about what’s happening in each panel, building a story as he or she goes

from scene to scene. In selecting a strip for this activity, try to find one where there is plenty of action and the pictures, not the dialogue, carry the story.

 Comics also make wonderful read-aloud material.

Occasionally, you may want to cover the last panel of a strip and have your child guess the conclusion. Encouraging your child to anticipate events provides practice in perhaps the most important of all reading skills. To make any predictions, your child must clearly and logically think through what just happened – and that is the key to reading comprehension.

Puzzles and Riddles…

To help develop logical skills, cut a comic strip apart into separate panels. While the panels are still in order, number them on the back in sequence. After you mix the order of panels, ask your child to reconstruct the original sequence. The numbers on the back can serve as an answer key, but any order your child presents that makes sense should be considered correct.

 Some comic strips use a play-on-words to get their laughs. A favorite is the rhyming riddle: What’s Garfield called when he’s put on too much weight? Answer: Fat Cat. These are fun to solve, but they’re even more fun (and worthwhile) to invent. The only rule is that the riddle must be answered with a two-word rhyme. It’s easiest to start with the answer (Bear

chair) and work back to the definition (What does a grizzly sit on?) Involve the whole family, and Sunday morning will never be the same again.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Kinder Teacher

The Importance of Poetry in the Pre-School Years.

                                                       

Finger plays and rhymes come to life during circle and large group times as preschool children show word meaning through simple actions and finger movements.  Preschoolers develop memory and recall skills as they sing and recite the songs and poems in this curriculum resource collection.  Finger plays, action poems, nursery rhymes, and songs are grouped according to early childhood education themes. There's quite a lot of poetry for children around but it can be surprisingly hard to find really good poems to share with children.

For a start, what kind of poems is worth sharing? Does poetry even matter for kids and, if so, why?

But first, the short answer to the question of why it's important to expose babies and young children to poetry.

Believe it or not, hearing poems and rhymes from their earliest days helps children develop three really critical pre-reading and communication skills:

·       phonological awareness;

·       a rich vocabulary;

·       background knowledge;

It's tempting to think that poetry is simply a series of rhyming lines which describe a thing or an experience.

But if it was as simple as that, why would we need poetry at all? Encyclopedias, the internet and other kinds of writing can tell us about experiences, things, people and even complex ideas. What does poetry add that these other forms of writing don't? One explanation I like is that poetry communicates the essence or the soul of something, rather than just describing it.

For example, imagine describing a playground swing to someone: what it looks like and how it feels to swing backwards and forwards. The person you're talking to would probably understand but would he or she really get a sense of the excitement and freedom a child feels on a swing?

Now, take a moment to read Robert Louis Stevenson's short poem The Swing. The poem communicates so much more than any mere description could: the joy, the wonder, the fun a small child feels when he or she swings high up into the air.

Another way to explain it is to say that a poet uses language and linguistic techniques to create visual images that come alive in the mind of the reader or listener.

As the images come alive, the listener or reader becomes part of the experience being described: he is there, at least in his imagination. And because he is there, even for a very short time, his emotions are also engaged. He feels frightened or excited, filled with awe or sad.

Pretty amazing, really,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Kinder Teacher

Early Childhood Coordinator

Environmental tips for Kids

                                                                       
         

Kids can also do their bit in helping to save the environment. Read these environmental tips for children which you can ask your kids to follow. Kids are often made to feel that they are too small to be given responsibility. Kids when told about the importance of protecting the environment are often eager and keen to help save the environment. Environmental awareness is the need of the day. Everybody knows that protecting the environment today will prepare for a better tomorrow. Kids too can be taught to do their bit for helping the environment. Nowadays, kids also need to be trained to avoid wasting natural resources and many a times kids too are eager to do their bit. These are some Environmental tips for Kids Save Water Many people just let the water run when they are brushing their teeth or having a bath. Kids should be taught to turn off the tap when soaping or brushing. Parents of children should also practice this as it will show that you too are trying your best to make a difference. Do not let water run while showering and brushing teeth. Another thing your kid can do is take shorter showers. In the same way, kids must be taught to save water while using sinks and in the garden. Try to Carpool, Walk or take Public Transport Teach your kids to avoid going to school individually in their cars. The more the number of cars running the more there will be carbon emissions and smog in the air leading to pollution. Arrange for a group of kids living close by to go to school together in one car only. You can also encourage your child to take the bus, walk or cycle up to school. Walking as much as possible to nearby places rather than using a car or bike will help to keep the air in your neighborhood clean and unpolluted. Go easy on Video Games Video games consume a lot of energy. As you would have noticed, the computer and television feels hot after kids have finished playing video games. Encourage your kids to go out to play in the fresh air or complete their home work rather than playing these video games. Playing video games consumes a whole lot of energy and much more than regular TV or computer usage. Try to keep this activity to a minimum. In this way, kids can save energy! Also, teach your kids to turn off the computer monitor or switch off the screen when not in use, rather than leaving it switched on for long hours or all through the night. Switch off Lights when not in use Teach your kids to switch off lights, fans and other electronic devices when not in use. Many a times, kids leave the fans and lights switched on when they leave a room which results in a lot of wastage of electricity. Since, kids are not yet completely aware and informed about environmental problems they do not know the consequences. Teach your kids to not waste electricity. As a parent also try to buy fluorescent bulbs instead of normal light bulbs because they save three times more energy than the regular light bulbs. Plant Trees in your Community Your kids can find an organization that plants trees in your community. Participating in planting trees is a great way to help the environment. If you have a garden, teach your kids to participate in the gardening, by growing plants and watering them every day. If you do not have a garden, you can have small pot plants in the balcony of your home. Try to Save Paper Ask your kids to try to save paper. Try to avoid using paper cups and plates whenever possible. Ask your kids to use cloth towels and rags instead of paper towels and napkins. As a parent also, try to do more work online and store your data on the computer and emails rather than take print outs using paper. Print on both sides of the paper whenever possible. Cutting down on use of paper wherever possible will help to save more trees. Choose to receive printed statements rather than print outs on paper. Use recycled paper. Whenever possible ask your kids to use old magazines, phone books and old newspapers for craft and art work. Kids and environment Kids must be educated about saving the environment at a young age itself. In this way, the awareness is created early and they can also influence other kids to do the same. Global warming, pollution and other environmental concerns are on the rise which is greatly harming the environment. If kids can play a role in helping to save the earth, it will be great and we can together strive towards a cleaner and greener Earth. Enjoy, Ms. Nora Sierra Kindergarten Teacher “A” Early Childhood Coordinator Discovery School

Why is Assessment Important?

                                         

   Assessment is important because of all the decisions you will make about children when teaching them. The decisions facing our three teachers all involve how best to educate children. Like them, you will be called upon every day to make decisions before, during, and after your teaching. Whereas some of these decisions will seem small and inconsequential, others will be “high stakes,” influencing the life course of children. All of your assessment decisions taken as a whole will direct and alter children’s learning outcomes.  Below outlines for you some purposes of assessment and how assessment can enhance your teaching and student learning. All of these purposes are important; if you use assessment procedures appropriately, you will help all children learn well.

The following general principles should guide both policies and practices for the assessment of young children:

Assessment should bring about benefits for children. Gathering accurate information from young children is difficult and potentially stressful. Assessments must have a clear benefit—either in direct services to the child or in improved quality of educational programs.

Assessment should be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for that purpose. Assessments designed for one purpose are not necessarily valid if used for other purposes. In the past, many of the abuses of testing with young children have occurred because of misuse.

Assessment policies should be designed recognizing that reliability and validity of assessments increase with children’s age. The younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable and valid assessment data. It is particularly difficult to assess children’s cognitive abilities accurately before age six. Because of problems with reliability and validity, some types of assessment should be postponed until children are older, while other types of assessment can be pursued, but only with necessary safeguards.

Assessment should be age appropriate in both content and the method of data collection. Assessments of young children should address the full range of early learning and development, including physical well-being and motor development; social and emotional development; approaches toward learning; language development; and cognition and general knowledge. Methods of assessment should recognize that children need familiar contexts to be able to demonstrate their abilities. Abstract paper-and-pencil tasks may make it especially difficult for young children to show what they know.

Assessment should be linguistically appropriate, recognizing that to some extent all assessments are measures of language. Regardless of whether an assessment is intended to measure early reading skills, knowledge of color names, or learning potential, assessment results are easily confounded by language proficiency, especially for children who come from home backgrounds with limited exposure to English, for whom the assessment would essentially be an assessment of their English proficiency. Each child’s first- and second-language development should be taken into account when determining appropriate assessment methods and in interpreting the meaning of assessment results.

Parents should be a valued source of assessment information, as well as an audience for assessment. Because of the fallibility of direct measures of young children, assessments should include multiple sources of evidence, especially reports from parents and teachers. Assessment results should be shared with parents as part of an ongoing process that involves parents in their child’s education.⁴

Purposes of Assessment

Identify what children know

Identify children's special needs

Determine appropriate placement

Select appropriate curricula to meet children's individual needs

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Kindergarten Teacher

Discovery School

      

The Power of a Good Preschool Math Program

                                                      

All preschool math program requirements and schools look to strengthen math instruction for students across the grades. Parents and educators can play an important role in ensuring that practices that have proven to be effective in promoting math learning are in place:

·        Collect baseline information. Know what concepts and skills a child has already learned so that an effective program of instruction and support can be designed and implemented early in the preschool year.

·        Children will need different types of instruction and support. Teachers will want to meet students “where they are” and tailor instruction to build on the individual child’s knowledge and ability.

·        Make math real. Be sure to reinforce and practice math learning throughout the day, in school, at home, and in the community.

·        Learn math by living math. Focus less on passive learning (such as listening to someone explain and demonstrate), and provide lots of hands-on activities. Young children (and older ones too!) learn by doing.

·        Forge parent-teacher partnerships. Many parents aren’t sure how to teach their preschoolers math at home. Use parent-teacher conferences to discuss strategies that have been successful in the classroom and talk about how these can be reinforced in everyday games and activities at home.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Kindergarten Teacher

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

Author Studies for Early Childhood

1. Help students develop their reading skills

Author studies necessarily require lots of reading, giving kids plenty of opportunities to improve their reading fluency. In addition, teachers can use author studies to individualize reading instruction by grouping students according to their reading levels and helping them choose an appropriate author to study.

2. Build critical thinking skills

With author studies, students learn to compare and contrast themes, analyze text and illustrations, and make connections between an author's life and his/her work and between the author's work and the reader's own life and work.

3. Improve writing skills

An author becomes a "writing mentor" for readers as they read and study his/her work and respond to it through a variety of writing. This "mentoring" and students' writing responses can help kids build confidence in their writing and can even inspire them to become authors themselves.

4. Forge a deeper attachment to books

Kids often bond with "their" author, which makes reading a more personal, fulfilling experience. Kids may even want to read books that influenced their author, further expanding their reading experience.

5. Establish a community of readers

Author studies help classes, and even whole schools, form closer connections through shared reading experiences.

6. Expose kids to different types of literary voices and styles

Like adults, many kids prefer a particular kind of book, such as non-fiction, series fiction, fantasy, etc. An author study can be used to persuade kids to branch out. In addition, some authors, including Newbery Medalists Avi and Lois Lowry, write in a variety of literary genres, which makes it easy for kids who do author studies on them to try out different types of reading.

7. Boost information literacy skills

A key component of author studies is researching an author's life and work, using print and online resources. This research provides a built-in opportunity for teachers to teach information literacy skills, especially how to find information sources and determine if they are credible.

8. Plug in easily to the curriculum

Teachers can do a short or long author studies, depending on available time.

9. Make connections across the curriculum

Choosing a non-fiction author is the easiest way for teachers to connect science, math and/or history units with their language arts teaching. But these connections also can be made using elements of a fiction author's books (i.e., setting in a particular time or place, animal or historic characters).

10. Add fun to the school day!

Author studies are an entertaining way to spark students' life-long interest in reading, a particularly important factor for new readers and reluctant readers.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

               THE DISCOVERY SCHOOL 

MARCH READ –A- THON

 

At Discovery School we love to read and we want to motivate our students to continue to discover the wonderful world found in books, where just about anything can happen! Through the DS READ-A-THON our Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades K-5) students will be encouraged to read more often in the classroom and at home.

In organizing this READ-A-THON our objective is to help our students re-discover the joy of reading.  A READ-A-THON  is an event that encourages students and their families to read more, try new books, and have fun doing it. Extensive research proves that children who read for pleasure will gain advantages that last their whole lives. Research also demonstrates with overwhelming evidence that literacy has a significant relationship with a person’s happiness and success. Furthermore, the academic benefits of a strong leisure reading habit are not confined to improved reading ability. Leisure reading makes students more articulate, develops higher order reasoning, and promotes critical thinking – all of these skills for lifelong learning skills!

Our READ-A-THON will take place from March 3 to March 31, 2014. Each student will be given a Reading Log sheet and a special bookmark for this event. The goal is for every student to read as many books as he or she can, and keep a record of his or her reading. Once the sheet had been filled out, each student will need to turn it in to their homeroom teacher, and will be given a new one. The student in each class who, at the end of the month, reads more grade level (or above grade level books) will be honored in an assembly, and will be treated to a special lunch outside the school on Friday, April 4.

We ask our parents to support his initiative at home by providing their child with appropriate books for reading. Parents can borrow books from their child’s class library, check out books from our school library, download (free or purchased) books for their e-readers, borrow from a friend…the possibilities are endless! Let’s face it, parents will LOVE seeing their child lost in the world of a “cant-put-it-down” book! Who doesn't want to bring reading back into family time?! 

Helping My Child Read and Write

                                                                   

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. When you help your

child learn to read, write, and think critically, you are opening the door to the

rich world of learning.

For your child, learning to read can begin with listening to you reading stories

and newspaper articles aloud. Before long, your child will show interest in

reading stories and other materials on his or her own. It is very important to

talk about the ideas in a book or magazine, to ask questions that encourage

your child to think, and to let your child talk to you about his or her responses

to what has been read.

Your child can learn how to read and write more easily with your help. With

regular practice, he or she will develop fluency in both reading and writing. At

the same time, your child will also learn to think critically about the stories or

informational materials that he or she reads.

Families can incorporate literacy activities anywhere – developing literacy is

not just what children do while at school. It is important that you look for

opportunities for your child to learn wherever you are and whenever you can.

Literacy is part of every day in some way, no matter what you are doing or

where you are. Literacy skills are used in all kinds of situations – for example,

when reading food labels, when talking with other children on the soccer

field, when discussing a movie with the family, or when writing lists to be

posted on the refrigerator.

It’s important for you to encourage your child and to show that you have

confidence in him or her. Avoid comparing your child’s performance with

that of other children. Remember that learning to read and write does not

take place all at once. Also, learning to read and write is not always easy, and

children need to know that everyone learns at different rates. Children learn

to read and write over time with lots of practice and with support from parents

and teachers.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator

Discovery School

FRIENDSHIP IN THE PRESCHOOL YEARS

                                                              

At age three or four years, your child might be very skilled at interacting with peers, especially if they have siblings close to their own age. But even if they had little experience getting along with other children, that doesn’t automatically, place them at a disadvantage. A child who is a beginner with peers can catch on quickly, while some old hands might need to unlearn behaviors (such as toy snatching) that worked in a previous setting, but not anymore.

In addition to his past experiences, a child’s temperament plays a big role in how easily he gets along with other people. A moderately active, outgoing, cheerful child often has a relatively easy time. A child with high energy and strong impulses often has more negative early relationships until he develops some measure of self-control. A cautious child might spend lots of time observing from a distance, until he’s more comfortable in a given setting. Even then, he might choose to have one or two friends, rather than several. It takes parents who know their children well, and teachers who can work with a range of different children, to make the preschool experience positive for every child.

Friends are vital to early childhood children’s healthy development. Research has found that children who lack friends can suffer from emotional and mental difficulties later in life. Friendships provide children with more than just fun playmates. Friendships help children develop emotionally and morally. In interacting with friends, children learn a lot of social skills, such as how to communicate, cooperate, and solve problems. They practice controlling their emotions and responding to the emotions of others. They develop the ability to think through and negotiate different situations that arise in their relationships. Having friends even affects children’s school performance. Children tend to have better attitudes about school and learning when they have friends to share it with.

Enjoy,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Early Childhood Coordinator