31st Week of Kindergarten: Our Little Einsteins!

Dear Family,

We hope you are all doing well! How are our students doing in school, you might ask? Growing so fast, aren’t they? It’s truly wonderful to see how much they are developing; not only academically, but also emotionally and socially. In addition to our usual classroom activities, we would like to highlight that we are continuing strong with our early morning one to one reading practices. We ask for your support with punctuality, as having all our kinders arrive on time helps us make the most of this valuable learning time.

Large Group

Alongside our usual large group routines: sharing about our weekends, setting up today’s date, practicing our daily sight words, and helping our number caterpillar grow; we introduced something new and exciting this week: Invention. We explored the meaning of “invention” and what it means to invent, then encouraged our children to think about who might have created some of their favorite things. This sparked lots of curiosity and thoughtful ideas! To make the topic even more meaningful, we introduced them to Albert Einstein, the brilliant scientist our school is named after. Our children were so excited to learn about him and understand why they are called “Little Einsteins”. We talked about how his journey of curiosity began at a very young age, just like them. We also shared a few simple and interesting facts about him, and we’re excited to continue exploring inventions and inspiring young minds in the coming week.

“On Saturday morning I went shopping for food and watched Jesus on Netflix. And we also went to the bazaar after that we went home and played snakes and ladders and my daddy was 17 boxes away but he went slow and I won. My mommy got me liquid things after that and my dad said I’ll win next time.” -Lubono

“I was going for a walk and my dad bought me pizza and the rain came. And at the pizza place we had no where to go and at the basement my daddy called a ride and we also ate more pizza from the takeaway and I watched a basketball game. And on Sunday I went to church and bought a toothbrush for myself.” -Yadon

“With Betselot I played football and I go to church Betselot” -Yemariam

“Yemariam and then my sister we went to church” -Betselot

“I go to Entoto Mariam church and then I pray and we go to senbet school with Liyat and bounced on a castle. We washed our hands and eat shawarma and I even go back to Entoto on Sunday and I got holy water” -Leul

“My Nana is in Germany like Albert Einsteins. And I’ll make an airplane with big wings and it will take off.” -Samuel

“Me, I will invent a huge paper plane that flies by the wind. Even if it’s not windy it can charge and can also fly with electricity. I’m sure it can” -Lubono

“I wish I could invent an enormous rocket ship bigger than Earth and it takes off or land from the top of the Earth and I know it has never been made so it will be my invention” -Solomon

“I want to invent a space shuttle like a brand new one and I will name it little Space shuttle” -Kian

“I’ll invent a machine that will draw for me when I’m relaxing with music” -Liyat

Literacy

We continued exploring the world of pronouns this week, with a focus on fun and engaging worksheet activities. During our first session, our children worked on a picture based activity where they circled the correct pronouns. They found it both easy and enjoyable, which helped strengthen their understanding of how pronouns are used.

In our second session, we made the learning more active with a cut and paste worksheet. They carefully cut out pictures and glued them under the correct pronoun categories. They all did a wonderful job, showing great understanding throughout the activity.


“The teacher is a ‘she’ like Phi and Abigu” -Liyat

“But there’s also Asnake and Zola. They’re teachers too” -Kian

Math

Continuing our journey of reading and writing three digit numbers, our children have made wonderful progress and are becoming more confident each day. It has become easier for them to call out 3 digit numbers, proudly using “hundred and” as they read them aloud. Taking turns and showing great behavior, each child had the opportunity to call out a number. Using number flashcards, they also practiced building the numbers they heard. When one child said a three digit number, another would come forward, select the correct three cards, and place them in the right sequence. Everyone had a chance to participate, making this activity enjoyable while strengthening their understanding of 3 digit numbers.

“No it’s getting easier and easier and easier” -Yadon

“I will be three hundred and fifty years old one day and I’ll know how to write it” -Solomon

“Only grandma and grandpa lives that long” -Lubono

Science

Taking a short pause from our human anatomy journey, we revisited one of our previous lessons from last semester; living and non living things. After reviewing the concept and introducing it to some of our friends who were not with us last semester, our children quickly reconnected with the topic. To strengthen their understanding, we worked on a couple of worksheets. In our first activity, they colored living things green and non living things red, making the learning both visual and fun. In our second one, they observed pictures with labels, read them carefully, and sorted them by writing each item under the correct category; living or non living. This helped build both their science knowledge and early reading skills.

“Our caterpillar is a living thing cause it’s growing and the numbers are it’s food” -Leul

“If a plant is alive it’s a living thing but if it gets too much sun and it dies it’s not living thing” -Lubono

“If someone dies it’s a dead thing” -Solomon

“There’s no more living thing in our class room it’s only us and the plants but everything is non living thing” -Liyat

“Betselot my sister is living thing” -Yemariam

“Cockroaches and worms are living things” -Samuel

“My mom and dad and my aunty are living things and my Lego toys are non living things” -Kian

Art

Building on last week’s activity, our children continued working on their painted CD backgrounds by exploring colors of their choice in a creative way. Using Q-tips as their painting tools, they carefully added details and blended colors on their CDs. Through this process, they created beautiful designs that looked like little movies captured on their discs. This activity encouraged patience, creativity, and fine motor skills as they worked with care to bring their ideas to life.

“My Jungle movie will be the best movie ever” -Leul

“I’m making a transformer movie now” -Kian

“I’m making the solar system movie so it’s going to be dark all the time” -Lubono

“Solomon and Ismael’s movie are not going to be sold cause they are not at school and they didn’t make it” -Liyat

“Look my movie flower” -Betselot

“This is a Dinosaur movie and it’s blue and the green is grass” -Samuel

Gymnastics

Last week, our children worked on developing their gross motor skills, with a focus on strengthening their leg muscles. They participated in a fun and competitive activity where they passed balls from a bucket filled with water to another bucket nearby. They also began strengthening their fine motor skills and arm muscles by tossing balls into a basket. This week’s gymnastics session was also designed to support both gross and fine motor development through a jump rope activity. We first observed them to see who was able to jump or skip rope. At this stage, only one child was able to do it independently. We then practiced together one by one, focusing on the foundational skill of moving the rope from front to back using their arms. For this session, the goal was not necessarily jumping over the rope yet, but building coordination, confidence, and understanding of the movement.

“We know how to jump, we’ve learned it when we were four” -Solomon

“Ismael is the only one who can jump” -Liyat

“I will practice this at home” -Samuel

“My dad knows how to jump a rope” -Lubono

“If the rope is shorter it will be easy if it’s long it’s hard” -Kian

Next week’s schedule:

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science

Wednesday -Library, Math

Thursday - Science, Music

Friday - Library

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gym

Thursday - Ethiopian center/ clay

Reminders and notes:

• Please make sure that our children are wearing suitable clothes on Monday as we have art class and activities get messy sometimes.

• Every Wednesday and Friday is library day. Our children will be bringing home a book of their choice in their library folder, so please make sure to read the book with them over the weekend. Please return the folder the following Wednesday so they can get a new one.
• Every Tuesday, we have gymnastics, so please ensure that our children come dressed in comfortable and loose fitting sports attire to facilitate their exercise.

• Every Wednesday and Friday, we have football, so please make sure our children wear their football jerseys if they have them, or any comfortable shorts.

Have a great weekend, family! We look forward to seeing you all next week.