Important Notices Congratulations to all our taekwondo students for earning their

yellow tip belt! To learn more about our Taekwondo CCA pro-

gram see the article below.

Check out a great article about racing legend Jackie Stewart and

his advocacy for children with learning challenges and his own

struggle with dyslexia: http://issuu.com/learndifferent/docs/

jackiestewart_rewind?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage

BIWEEKLY

NEWSLETTER April 23rd — May 4th, 2012

1 0 W i n s t e d t R o a d , B l o c k C # 0 1 - 1 6 , S in g a p o r e 2 2 7 9 7 7 T e l : + 6 5 6 8 3 6 1 1 2 8 F a x : + 6 5 6 2 3 5 6 7 9 7 w w w . l e a r n d i f f e r e n t . c o m .s g

Coach Lynne and Mr. Lai.

We are very proud of our Taekwondo students this week. They ALL passed their first grading and have earned their yellow tip belt! Their STF (Singapore Taekwondo Federation) grading took place last Sunday at JH Kim, Turf City. We commend their dedication and hard work, and applaud their wonderful coach, Ms. Lynne Grant. We thought you might like to know a little more about our multi-talented Ms. Lynne who also happens to be Human Resource Manager and Integrated Therapy Receptionist at Learn Different. So, here’s a short interview:

When did you begin Taekwondo? I started in 2008

What is your rank? I am a Black Belt, 2nd Dan, NCAP Level 1 and a Poomsae Coach.

What got you interested in the sport? I had just arrived in Singapore and I wanted to meet friends.

How have you benefitted from regular Taekwondo practice? I am stronger and my fitness has improved. I have also transitioned from student to instructor and I find coaching very re-warding.

What are the benefits for children? Their focus, concentration, gross motor skills, fitness, and strength all improve and I think children learn perseverance and benefit from being part of a community by developing new friendships.

We know you like to compete but is it necessary? No.

If a child would like to compete, how do they get started? First, let your instructor know and they can set a training schedule for you. Students must be aware that competitions are taken quite seriously and require commitment to training. Also, the competition environment tends to be noisy and takes place in a big hall, so students will have to be able to cope with all that.

What is the most rewarding part of coaching? Student achievements!

What is your favourite move? Knife hand strike!

We would like to give a special thanks to the JH Kim Taekwondo Institute, Bukit Timah and Mr. Lai for supporting our Taekwondo CCA and for allowing the grading of our students to take place at JH Kim, Turf City. See photos on page 4.

Taekwondo: The Road to Black Belt!

Our talented students!

pics; the sports involved,

the rules, and who partici-

pated. It was very differ-

ent from today’s games

We have had a quiet rainy

week this week in Recep-

tion 2 but, as usual, the

boys are lively and happy

to be at school! Last

week we began our new

IPC theme the ‘Olympics!’

The entire school partici-

pated in their own Open-

ing Ceremonies where

they got to re-enact the

relay and torch lighting.

This week, we learned all

about the Ancient Olym-

Page 2

Higher... Faster... Stronger!

It’s all about the Olympics. For

the past two weeks, the stu-

dents have been jumping

around the school, either with

their Olympic torches or their

home country flag. Everybody

is psyched for the Summer

Olympics in London this July.

We had the Entry Point for

this new unit last week. We

prepared for it by colouring

different flags, designing ath-

lete’s bibs and making our

own Olympic torch. The cul-

minating activity for the Entry

and what will take place

in London in July this

year! In Maths we have

been working on frac-

tions. The boys caught

on to this unit quickly

and enjoyed trying to

teach each other differ-

ent ways to equally sepa-

rate shapes into parts. In

Literacy we have been

focusing on the sound ‘-

tion’. It is a difficult

sound to read and to

write. We are also con-

tinuing with our guided

reading and comprehen

-sion activities. Keep

up the great work boys!

RECEPTION TWO , MS. ASHLEY’S CLASS

Olympic atmosphere. To add

to the drama, we earnestly

recited the Olympic Oath of

Athletes. It was wonderful to

pretend to be an Olympic ath-

lete even for just one day. The

students have been doing a lot

of work in the area of reading

comprehension. They have

been answering their reading

comprehension worksheets on

their own, using proper punc-

tuation and neat handwriting.

At composition writing time,

we directed our attention

Point was held during the

school assembly. We watched

the video of the Opening Cere-

mony of the Beijing Olympics

and were amazed with the py-

rotechnics and manpower in-

volved. During the afternoon,

we conducted our own Learn

Different Olympics Opening

Ceremony. The students

proudly paraded around the

school with their home country

flags. We had the lighting of

the torch with the dramatic

song “Chariots of Fire” in the

background to enhance the

YEAR ONE , MS. KATRINA’S CLASS to the heart of all stories- our

IDEAS. Inside paper light bulbs,

we wrote our ideas about ide-

as: What are ideas? Where do

they come from? How do they

occur? The students’ answers

were astounding. E.g. “Ideas

are feelings”, “Ideas are like TV

shows playing in your head”.

Incredible Ideas! Mastering our

times tables was the focus dur-

ing Maths. The students prac-

ticed simple multiplication with

the use of a number line and

number charts. The students

will encounter more multiplica-

tion problems in the next few

weeks. Special thanks to Luca

Jones and family for inviting us

to his 8th birthday party at the

Sengkang Swimming Complex.

We had a fantastic time! Con-

gratulations to Marissa & Tvish

for passing their grading in

Taekwondo. You both rock!

Page 3

RECEPTION TWO , MS. KARINA’S CLASS

RECEPTION ONE , MS. GETTY’S CLASS

the meaning of an exclama-tion mark and had pronun-ciation practice. They are really good at playing with their intonations. Reading will never be the same again. Awesome job, every-one! In Maths, the children revisited skip-counting and practiced counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to help them count the value of money. They used real coins to count 5 cents, 10 cents and 50 cents and after being such great “bankers” they all started using paper mon-ey. Parents, your kids are ready to go shopping!

On your marks, get set, Olympics! This is the new IPC theme with which we will end the year. We started the theme off with our own Opening Ceremony. Students from each class made their own Olympic torch-es, their own Olympic bibs and each class made an Olympic ring. Learn Different Academy 2012 Olympics Opening Cere-mony was a success! We even included the torch passing, a parade of countries and assembling

ville, the Mascots of the 2012 Olympics, which will be held in London in July. Now they know that both mascots are made of metal and travel on a rainbow to different parts of the world. We also had fun dancing to the mascot song “On a Rainbow” and we tried our best to follow the steps. To add to our learning, the students researched the meaning of the Olympic Rings. Now they know that the five rings represent five continents. After an in-depth discussion about the Olympic rings, the children created their own designs using five and talked about their de-signs. The excitement contin-ued when we watched short clips about different sports in the Olympics. They were so thrilled when they knew that Taekwondo is one of the sports in the Olympics. The

The Learn Different Olympics Opening Ceremony marked our new and last IPC theme for the year. By participating in the torch relay and torch-lighting ceremony, the children had an opportunity to experience the atmosphere of one of the greatest sporting events in the world. As the children learned many aspects of the Olympics, they found interesting facts about Wenlock and Mande-

of the Olympic rings.

Although we had several

students ill this week, we

still continued on with

our learning. In Literacy,

children also learnt that it takes a lot of preparation and hard work to be able to com-pete and to be successful, and that sportsmanship is the most important thing in the Olympic Games. In Literacy, the children worked diligently to complete their writing tasks. They worked inde-pendently to write their crea-tive sentences about picture strips. Along with the reading activity, the children learnt

we focused on our c-v-c words (c, k, u, b, e, l, h) and sentence writing. And in Maths, we con-tinued on counting mon-ey using paper bills this time.

Sadly, we said good-bye

to Miss Getty this week.

We wish her all the best

and we hope she enjoys

spending time with her

family and friends. We

look forward to a full

class next week and we

wish everyone a healthy

weekend.

Every child deserves the right to be taught in the way he or she learns best!