Happy New Year everyone!
The New Year is a time to reflect on the year just past and to make plans for the year ahead. Here at Kip McGrath, now is a time to reflect on how we can achieve even better results and experiences for our students and parents.
One of the things we have noticed over many years is that students either plateau or go backwards over holiday breaks, which requires 1 or 2 weeks just to get back to where they were before. So since July last year all new students have been doing @home lessons during school holidays to retain their learning.
What are @home lessons? They are lessons done at home during holiday breaks for one hour per week. The lessons are accessed via the Internet and can be done at anytime. The lessons are designed to ensure students retain their learning better. What we find, and research supports this also, that when students have a total break from learning, their memory retention is less than if they do a little revision.
Now I’m all for downtime and taking a holiday, it is very important. However, if we think about how many hours of free time students have during holidays, even if they only have 8 hours out of 24 free for five days (giving them total breaks on weekends), that’s 40 hours a week. I think one hour out of this time is not a lot to ask help ensure their learning continues to improve.
The @home lessons are $38 per session. All material is revision, so the students can do the work by themselves. Your child’s tutor will review the work and areas of difficulty will be covered when they return to in-centre lessons.
So this New Year we would like to offer @home lessons to all students who have been with us prior to July last year. Your child’s retention shall improve and they will catch up quicker if they do revision during the breaks. Just give us a call or email if you wish to start these @home holiday lessons, or if you have any questions about them.
Regards,
Christine
P.S Don’t forget, in-class lessons start back on Monday 25th January, you will receive an email confirming your enrolment details before then. Enjoy what is left of your holiday break and we look forward to catching up with you all soon.
Teachers Tips : Days in Each Month
You can use you KNUCKLES to remember which months have 31 days!
Hold your fist as shown above. Say the months from left to right, using your knuckles AND the space between each knuckle.
Months ON the knuckles have 31 days. Months BETWEEN the knuckles have 30 days. Except February, which has 28 days or 29 days on a leap year.
Monthly Joke : Teacher’s Gift
A teacher was receiving gifts from her pupils. The florist’s son handed her a gift. She shook it, held it overhead, and said, “I bet I know what it is. Some flowers.” “That’s right”the boy said, “but how did you know?” “Oh, just a wild guess,”she said.
The next gift was from the son of the bottle shop owner. The teacher held the package overhead, but it was leaking. She touched a drop of the leakage with her finger and touched it to her tongue. “Is it wine?”she asked. “No,” the boy replied, with some excitement.
The teacher taster a larger drop of the leakage to her tongue. “Is it champagne?” she asked. “No,”the boy replied, with more excitement. The teacher took one more taste before declaring, “I give up, what is it?” With great glee, the boy replied, “It’s a puppy!”
More Vocabulary Helps School Performance
One way to help your children start school ready to learn is by helping them expand their vocabulary at an early age. A study reported in the journal Child Development found that children with larger oral vocabularies by age 2 start kindergarten better prepared both academically and behaviorally than others.
Researchers analyzed nationally representative data for 8,650 children. Parents answered a survey on their 2
years olds’ vocabulary, and kindergarten teachers rated such factors as the children’s behavior self-regulation as well as their academic performance.
The data showed that children who had a larger oral vocabulary at age 2 had greater reading and math achievement in kindergarten as well as fewer problem behaviors such as acting out or anxiety-related issues.
So start talking to your kids as early as you can to give them a good start in the future.
New Year Colouring Activity
Student of the Month
“Kip McGrath has been fantastic for my son Beau. Thank you Juli and all the wonderful teachers for all you’ve done for my boy. Beau was averaging a C-D grade and failing Maths and English. 12 months later he is back on track and coming first in his tests: with a B, the results speak for themselves!!
Thanks guys, We really do appreciate the job that you do.”
Reevaw, Beau’s Mum
Child-made School Lunch
> A whole-wheat tortilla
> Hummus (or spread of your child’s choice)
> Sliced cucumber (or any other veggies)
> Cheese stick
1.Spread hummus onto tortilla, place the cucumber and cheese stick on one side and roll it up.
2.Poke toothpicks every 5 centimetres.
3.Slice the wrap between each toothpick and place into a lunch container
4.Cutting it like sushi makes it more fun to eat!
