News from Primary school
Dear parents,
On behalf of everyone in the primary school, I hope you had a very Happy Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2021. We all hope that this year will be better than last year but unfortunately, its start sees us with limited school attendance as only classes 1 and 2 are presently in school. Classes 3, 4 and 5, we miss having you here and we hope to see and hear you back in the school as soon as possible.
These have been testing times, as I have said already in Friday letters this school year, but I feel it is worth noting that we continue to be so proud of the excellent attitude our students have shown during the pandemic.
I would like to welcome Clara Janecka to the primary school. She has very much enjoyed settling in and getting to know the students in classes 1 and 2 during her first week and I wish her all the best going forward in Open Gate.
To all the students who have submitted pictures for the 10 Kilometres – 10 Years challenge, thank you for your wonderful efforts! If there any students who have completed the challenge, but have yet to send their picture, please email them directly to me (ryan@opengate.cz) by Tuesday January 12.
What did the classes get up to in lessons this week?
Class 1
Can you believe that the first-graders started reading lowercase letters with the new year?!? On Wednesday, they enjoyed the visit of the three kings and learned a lot about them. The rest of the week was marked by snow and some fun bobsledding. (TC)
This week Class 1 met their new English teacher. We learned she is from Canada and likes dogs! We reviewed our colors and meet the new characters in our new Incredible English book. To celebrate the snow we made some beautiful paper snowmen. (CJ)
Class 2
The second-graders welcomed in the new year with a common ceremonial morning oasis, where they wished for health, satisfaction and friendship. After a break, in the form of the Christmas holidays, they set to work. This week, they "fought" with soft and hard consonants, as well as practicing addition and subtraction to 100. And because they are troopers, they also started with a multiplier, which they really enjoyed. On Wednesday, the Three Kings visited us and blessed our class. We enjoy playing in the snow and we are fine. (SD)
This week Class 2 met their new English teacher and worked in pairs to guess her favorite foods, animals, and activities. We learned some new small toy vocabulary and learned how to ask for things using “Can I have…” We also practiced our independent reading with some new English books in the classroom. (CJ)
Class 3
Researchers from the third class again exchanged our beautiful classroom for a virtual class. Although the Teams environment will not replace a personal meeting, the eyes of all third-graders have been sparkling since Monday. On Wednesday, we were even visited by the Three Kings and we revisited the story of their journey. We got acquainted with another series of listed words and we learned them as a song - hopefully we will be able to sing it together when we return to school. On Thursday we got acquainted with rocks and minerals and during the free time we measured who has more snow in front of the house. Badík built an igloo and will not climb out of it until the children arrive. So dear Class 3, come to the desks or we will follow him there. Marie, Andrea and Martin. (MZ)
As always, we had our phonics and therefore our super-duper fun phonics quiz. It was very close this week but Anezka was our worthy champion! (LR)
This was our first week getting to know Jerry. We spoke about New Year’s traditions and the resolutions we made for this year. In Incredible English we started reviewing the first three units for our test coming next week. On Friday, we had a speaking lesson on the safety of our internet neighborhood and why online safety is important. (JD)
Class 4
Fourth-Graders and an Afternoon Challenge
Almost every day, the fourth-graders had a voluntary task in the afternoon, but not just any task. They drew crowns on the three kings with the help of triangles and built the most original snowman or a building made of snow on a white background. Congratulations to those who overcame the challenges!!! (TK)
Our focus this week was our goals as students for the new year. We discussed the things we would like to improve and accomplish. In Incredible English, we started unit 4. We spent time discussing about our online community is and the three rings of responsibility. (JD)
Class 5
After the Christmas holidays, the online routine was again ready for the fifth-graders, but we were not idle. We read about the arrival of the three kings to Bethlehem, we learned to write correct punctuation in direct speech, and in geometry we calculated the surface of a cube. Wednesday's gift of snow encouraged the construction of snowmen, so one of the homework assignments was clear: take the polar gear, go to the snowdrifts and build anything out of snow. (SC)
In class 5 this week, we talked about how our Christmases were. We also had fun playing snakes and ladders and a way to practise speaking for accuracy. Next time we will create our own boards! (LR)
We hope that the current quarantine will be the final one and that with the rollout of the vaccine, life can start to get back to normal. I fully believe the year will get better as it goes and I wish you all a prosperous, healthy and happy 2021!
Kind regards,
