English
中文版
2020-10
By Simon Shikongo
October is a short academic month, due tothe extra-long holiday in the first week. Even though Mid Autumn Festival andthe National Holidays have finished, we hope you and your family had happy daysduring Golden Week, and that the rest of your month has gone well too.
October is an important month at Huamei:all new students have had a month to adjust to being at our kindergarten, bothchildren and teachers are more familiar with each other, and so it is theperfect time to expand our students’ learning experiences by introducing newclasses to the schedule: interest groups and optional outdoor activities.
On Tuesday afternoons, students take partin an interest group that they chose with their family. The groups coveractivities such as singing, cooking, craft making and painting. The groups areopen to students from different classes and levels, so students get to expandthe circle of children they know and interact with at Huamei, as well asexperiencing lessons in different areas of the kindergarten facility. At thetime of writing, there has only been one introductory class so far. Please askyour children about their interest group at the end of this month!
Optional outdoor activities, held onWednesday mornings, give students the opportunity to participate in differentphysical activities, often some kind of obstacle course, using equipment andgames that are not usually set up each day. Students have the agency to movearound the designated areas and participate in the activities that they choosefor themselves. Furthermore, they can also complete the activity as many timesas they like.
TuesdayOctober 2020 saw the kindergarten join the rest of the school for the openingceremony of the Huamei Sports Day. Students marched in either their homeroomclass groups, or in a special group (kung fu or environmental fashion show). Itis not often that the entire school comes together, so that day was a goodreminder of just how large the Huamei family is. We hope events like this arealso aspirational to our kindergarten students – they can see what their futureat Huamei could look like when they see the older students.
The same IB Unit of Inquiries (UOIs) fromSeptember will continue throughout October. In recent IB classes from theInternational teachers, the Junior students made human faces with eyes, nosesand mouths using playdough. This was to support the topic of senses. The Juniorstudents are still learning much about life as a kindergarten student, but theyimpressed their teachers by using the playdough thoughtfully.
The Medium students had the chance to helpprepare and then eat a healthy fruit salad in one of their October IB classes.After more than a month of learning about how to develop and maintain a healthylifestyle, the students had no problem in telling their teachers that a fruitsalad is a sensible food choice.
Senior and Connection students continue toinvestigate multiculturalism. In this month, they have looked at traditionalclothing from different cultures, and seen how it can differ from the clothesthey wear each day and from Chinese traditional clothes.
Our kindergarten will share Halloween withour students on October 28. No doubt there will be many cute (and even scary!)costumes, from both children and teachers. Looking at western festivals is agreat way to get our students to consider the world from different,non-familiar perspectives.
As we leave October, we will experiencecolder and colder temperatures. We will keep your children safe and warm whileat Huamei, and we hope you all look after yourselves so you remain warm andhealthy at your homes, too.
