1. Welcome to Grade 3C – Mr. Currier Piatt (Mr. Currie)

2.  Our class is made up of 15 students from a variety of different countries. I was born and raised in Portland Oregon, in the USA. I have been teaching throughout Asia for the last 6 years, and have previously lived, and taught, in Hue Vietnam. My assistant is Ms. Xuan who has many years of teaching students in an international setting.

3.  My email address is cpiatt@hisvietnam.comI hope you have all already received emails from me and are aware of how to get in touch with me. Please do so should you ever feel the need.cpiatt@hisvietnam.com :

4.  I work very hard to create a safe, engaging, positive and productive educational environment. It is very important to me and our school community that your child is happy and well rested when coming to school. Happy and rested students are proven to retain information more easily and perform better in class.

5.  Home learning will include reading, writing, spelling, math and unit of inquiry homework. Homework will be given on Mondays and is due on Friday of the same week. Homework will not be set for school holidays. The homework policy has been amended this year at HIS and more information can be found in the Handbook we will give you tonight

6.  Reading is one of the most important activities students at this age can do and we encourage our students to become strong, life-long readers. Starting tomorrow we will be sending home a reading log booklet each night for students to record what, and how much they are reading each night at home. The expectation is that some reading of some kind happens each day (whether it be independent, with a parent or sibling or being read to). Please sign your child’s reading each night to help us create and foster good reading habits.

7.  Children need to bring a water bottle and hat to school everyday. We are a no hat, no play school, meaning children must wear a hat to play outside. Additionally, lunch or school lunch and snack should be provided each day. We have swimming on Mondays and a suit, towel, hat, sunscreen and goggles should be brought on that day

8.  -Language – our focus will be on oral language, spelling, grammar, writing and reading. Students will work on their own, with partners, in small groups and as a whole class to complete their tasks. We will look at a variety of text types this year including narratives, recounts, explanations, procedures, informational reports and exposition.

9.  -Unit of Inquiry- We just began our first unit concerning How we Organize Ourselves focused on the central idea of ‘Signs and symbols help us to communicate’. We will also look this year at Body Systems, Exploration, Storytelling, Material Interactions and Biodiversity.  - Mathmatics- Our strands includes number, data handling, measurement, pattern and function, shape and space.

10.  -I have sent you all a timetable for the school year – a hard copy is available here if you would like one. The double PE lesson is swimming and the single lesson (on Tuesdays) is regular PE, for which students will need to wear proper shoes and a PE uniform. The timetable will potentially change slightly throughout the year to ensure the subjects and the unit of inquiry fit together accurately.

11.  -Library – students are allowed to, and strongly encouraged, to check out two books a week to read at home from the library. We have library time every Thursday when books can be exchanged. Books can also be exchanged before or after school.  - Birthdays- Please notify me ahead of time if you wish to bring in something to celebrate your child’s birthday. I encourage cupcakes as they are much easier to serve and clean up in comparison to cakes or full lunches. The end of the day, around 1:15 is usually the best time for these celebrations.  -ISA testing –International School Assessment tests will be given to 3 rd and 5 th graders this year on September 24 th and 25 th. There is a hand out I will give you tonight that will give you more information about this test.

12.  CCPs – Co Curricular activities start next week and you should have already received information about them from Mr. Andy. Please let him or I know if you have any questions. We are looking to expand the range of activities on offer next quarter and if you are interested in being involved or offering an activity please let he or I know.  ID Cards- Students now have ID cards for checking out library books as well as purchasing lunch and snack at the cafeteria. We have a designated place in the classroom where they are kept when not being used and we ask that students keep these cards here at school.

13.  Website –We are in the process of getting our class website set up to show you what we are doing in class and what events are coming up in the future. With so many new things happening at the beginning of the school year we are not yet up and running but please be patient and sometime in the next week or so we should have blog and website for you to keep up to date with things in the classroom.  THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING TONIGHT AND I LOOK FORWARD TO A GREAT SCHOOL YEAR WITH YOU AND YOUR CHILD THIS YEAR- Mr. Currie