ST. MARK'S INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL eNewsletter

SRINAKARIN CAMPUS UPDATE

Over the course of this month, construction has progressed very quickly, thanks to the drier weather of the approaching winter months. Fabrication of the steel truss structure supporting the roof of the main building is now almost finished, and its completion will mark the finalisation of our building's structural work.

With interior work, bricking of all walls over the entire building is also finished and interior walls are plastered and skim-coated. Just a couple of weeks ago, we moved on to work on plastering the exterior walls.

Cable and duct installation for power, air-conditioning, and communication is progressing well and on target. Also, starting next week, tiling of walls and floors will commence, first with the toilet areas on various floors of the building.

Should any parent be interested in paying a visit to our construction site, please feel free to contact Ms. Nancy at our Admission Office.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

We are delighted to announce the following students who received our Award of Excellence in Respect, Effort and Leadership this week.

As a way of acknowledging our students' achievements, students have been given a special "Award of Excellence Breakfast" on 25 November.

Pawaritsara - Year 1 (Respect)

Nichapat - Year 3 (Respect)

Boontariga - Year 3 (Respect)

Benyaporn - Year 4 (Respect)

Thanakrit - Year 4 (Respect)

Pariyachat - Year 4 (Effort - Completing Assigned Work)

Preston - Year 4 (Effort - Completing Assigned Work)

Punnawit - Year 4 (Effort - Completing Assigned Work)

Thanon - Year 4 (Effort - Completing Assigned Work)

Pannin - Year 5 (Respect)

Phasit - Year 5 (Respect)

Nadhaya - Year 5 (Respect)

Vanessa- Year 6 (Respect)

Chanatat- Year 6 (Respect)

Ajiraya - Year 6 (Respect)

Kittipadh - Year 6 (Respect)

Wachiravit - Year 6 (Respect)

Naphon - Year 6 (Respect)

Kantapat - Year 6 (Respect)

Jessica - Year 10 (Respect)

Yiling - Year 10 (Respect)

Jane - Year 10 (Leadership)

PRE-PREP THAI: LEARNING TO BLEND SOUNDS

An important part of students' development in learning Thai is to be able to recognise the different sounds of the alphabets and vowels and master the skill of blending phonetic sounds to produce meaningful words. In this lesson, our young students were given the opportunity to recognise the Thai alphabet in focus and were asked to stand up if their card contained the alphabet. Later, students were given opportunities to participate on the board, by writing their alphabet and combining them with the vowels to make meaningful words. Language immediately came alive when our young students realised that combining alphabets with vowels, makes meaningful words!

YEAR 3 MANDARIN

Our Mandarin program provides a differentiated curriculum to cater to differences in students' abilities. Students in both groups will benefit from this arrangement. For the beginners' level, students will feel comfortable with the less pressured learning pace. At the same time, the more advanced learners also benefit from learning within a class of students with near or similar abilities. In this video, our Year 3 students in the first group were learning the basic concepts of how to use vocabulary relating to the day, month and year, while the more advanced group learnt on a topic relating to making birthday cards. We hope our students will enjoy their learning experiences in Mandarin and hopefully, this will translate to language fluency.

YEAR 5 SCIENCE: REPRODUCTIVE PARTS OF FLOWERS

Our Year 5 Science curriculum for this week focused on the reproductive parts of flowers. Students were introduced to different parts and functions of typical flowers and the process that are involved with reproduction.

Students were then given a real hibiscus flower to dissect in order to locate the pistil and ovary, which are the female reproductive parts, as well as the stamen and anther, which are the male reproductive flower parts. Since the parts were very small, students had to rely on observing through magnifying glasses and microscopes, in order to be able to see with clarity. In this experiment, students also discovered the benefits and learned to use these equipment to aid visualisation.

YEAR 8 PHYSICS: MASS AND WEIGHT

The Year 8 students were learning the differences between weight and mass using a newton meter. They then recorded the force used to pull an object across different surfaces and record the differences due to fiction. Finally, they were able to calculate the acceleration of a trolly using the formula F=m x a.

YEAR 9 THAI MUSIC: THAI MUSICAL BEAT

Thai music has a unique beat and during this Thai music lesson, our teacher explained how the Thai beat sounded and showed examples of producing this beat using various instruments. Each student was given an instrument to practice the beat and they were later given an opportunity to perform in an ensemble. Our students were quick to grasp the concept and their music ensemble produced a wonderful Thai piece.