News from Primary school
Dear parents, legal guardians,
I send my kind regards with the traditional Friday letter. I would like to start with what might worry us most of all right now and what the whole world is dealing with – COVID-19.
We all impatiently await what other measures regarding the Covid pandemic will come into effect and what that will mean for all of us. At Open Gate, we care deeply that the school functions adequately and that we do everything we can to protect the health of the children, teachers and you, the parents. At the moment, we are preparing for different scenarios; we will inform you about the next steps as soon as possible. However, it is already evident that it will be some time until we can resume the collective activities for parents and children.
You, your children and my colleagues all deserve a thank you for your responsible approach regarding the rules that have been set up because of the Covid pandemic. Especially the smallest children, who bravely resist the invisible enemy every day, particularly in the canteen, where the measures are the strictest.
Rest assured that the virus has not paralyzed activities in the classrooms. I regularly meet the children in morning oases and it is always an extraordinary experience. Not just because the children read extremely well for their age and they are able to understand the texts very well. It is wonderful how, at their age, they can express the point of the stories and see the implications in terms of interpersonal relationships and moral values. That is exactly the point of a complex school curriculum. It confirms in practice that at our school, acquiring knowledge and skills is intertwined with personal development.
Class 1 are slowly getting used to the new member of their team of grown-ups, assistant Pavel. This week, they relaxed the shoulder, elbow and wrist in different ways. In Maths, they are becoming self-confident in calculations up to six. They counted with dice and built many beautiful structures out of cubes and sticks. The children are excited about reading their first sentences and they look forward to discovering more letters. At their second swimming lesson, they had a lot of fun with foam flats and they tried floating.
On Monday, the globetrotters from Class 2 visited the municipal office and talked to the deputy mayor. They learned a lot of interesting information and set out to explore Babice. They were interested in the kindergarten and the nearby sports field. In the end, they played to together at the forest playground and used the “mouse hole” to get back to school. At the end of the week they spent a two day adaptation trip at the school. After the morning welcome they set out to the Třebušice family farm. They all thank Sandra and her family for the invitation and their care. Their first sleepover at school went great as well. They were also very active in their English lessons – they revised days of the week and numbers, worked on their pronunciation and even listened to a piece of music by S. Prokopjef.
Class 3 have been learning about all five senses in World Around Us and they even touched on the subject of genetics! They, too, have set out on a trip – their first RESEARCH trip. On Thursday, after morning oasis, they left for Stříbrná Skalice to spend time by the Hruškov pond. There, they tried hitting a target, cobra-fishing, fishing in a fish tank, they had ice cream, enjoyed the sun and games, had fun at the playground and they were very excited for the sleepover at school.
Class 4 are gradually adjusting to enrichment. Same as Class 5 last year, this subject is taught by Petra Kobrová, who cooperates with Marie Zicháčková this year. In enrichment, the children become familiar with strategies to solve problems in order to finish them within a time limit. They learn to be more self-reliant in approaching more difficult tasks, they build up their resilience and the ability to transform any potential failures into motivation for further learning. This week, the whole team created a beautiful autumn wreath, the making of which was a nice way to relax and take a break after difficult studying. They also visited Class 5 as a part of September revision, where they saw presentations about state symbols. In English, they discussed the historical context of the upcoming holiday. They explored Czech Republic and they also practiced the Past Simple tense in detail.
In their English lessons, Class 5 have been dealing with politics. They started working on a project that will lead up to the class president election. They learned about the characteristics of election campaigns and discussed the communication skills of well-known politicians. This week, they also had a reading workshop with the “Old Greek Legends” book. They listened to the story of Perseus and created maps of his journey. They also presented state symbols to Class 4, who came into their classroom.
The current situation is not ideal for our community-centered approach. As a result, we had to cancel indoor events involving more classes, including the regular morning assemblies. That is a pity since the first one was amazing and it contained exactly those social attributes that I described above. I am extremely happy that classes 2, 3 and 4 at least had the chance to enjoy adaptation trips. The team of teachers prepared a wide range of activities and group games for these trips, which undoubtedly helped strengthen the team spirit of all classes that took part.
Nevertheless, the are many great activities that can be done online. Among them is the chance for the children to take part in the maths-logical competition which will take place between 1st and 7th October 2020. The deadline for applications for this LOGIC OLYMPICS is 30th September 2020. You can sign up at this website. Each participant registers with a unique email address, of course, it can be a parent’s email. As a school, we encourage our pupils to participate and we will appreciate feedback. Fingers crossed, I am excited to see how well they will do!
Dear parents, friends of the school, have a great relaxing weekend and a beautiful national holiday.
Kind regards,
