A Joyful End to Our First Semester!

Dear Parents,

We hope this blog finds you well! What an incredible first semester it has been! Watching our students grow academically and socially has truly been amazing. Thank you for your constant support and cooperation. We are excited to continue this journey together in the coming semester. Since it's the last week of our first semester, we are keeping the fun going with various activities, as usual. As we have always mentioned, our class has become more engaged, enjoyable, and participatory, with students working together as a group and individually. We are so proud of each of our students. Read on for more details...

Large group

This week, our large group was so much fun! We did something new and heartwarming during discussion time. We asked our students, "What is one thing you love about the friend sitting next to you?". Our students shared many beautiful things about their friends, helping them learn to appreciate one another, express their ideas, and exercise their ability to articulate and state feelings.

Additionally, we all sat together and learned new things through engaging methods, of course. Our shapes for the week were the hexagonal prism and cuboid. They are also doing well with the three-dimensional shapes. These two shapes will be focused on for the entire week so everyone can become familiar with them. As we mentioned last week, we took turns saying CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, which helped the students practice and gradually improve their reading levels. Since everyone participated at the same time, this also encouraged the second group.

Another focus of this week was learning about the digraph "wh”. When we introduced this new digraph in our circle, we also reviewed the ones we had previously learned to help make them memorable.

As always, we continued with our calendar and caterpillar activities, and for our morning message, we related it to the daily activities to give them clues and prepare them for the day. Overall, our students have been doing amazing both in class and outside. They now understand the routine that follows our activities, class rules, class job responsibilities, and everything we do in class.

Besides all that, we also enjoyed music and book time. Overall, our large group has become more enjoyable, engaging, fun, and exciting, allowing everyone to learn from one another by sharing ideas, building confidence, and showing respect for each other while learning and growing together. We look forward to the next semester and to welcoming our students back!

Literacy

This week in literacy, our first group continued practicing CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words through engaging and hands-on activities. In our first afternoon session, students worked on a worksheet where they carefully looked at a picture, identified what it was, and then circled the correct CVC word from two choices. This activity supported their word recognition, phonics skills, and ability to connect sounds with letters.

In our second session, which took place in the morning, we practiced reading CVC words using wooden CVC word spinners. The students enjoyed spinning and sounding out the words together. Afterward, they were encouraged to create their own CVC words on the board. This was a great opportunity to reinforce their understanding of consonant and vowel letters while building confidence in blending sounds and reading simple words independently.

For our second group, the focus was identifying letters. As we have been doing for the past weeks, we began with Zoo-Phonics as an introduction. We then reviewed the material and introduced the magnetic letters. After that, we provided the students with magnetic letters, allowing them to pick the letters they knew. They told us the sounds and letters they identified before sticking them onto the board. This approach encouraged them when they saw the letters they recognized and successfully attached them.

By next term, we will explore different methods to help them to continue becoming more familiar with letters and sounds.

Math

This week in math, we focused on number identification and understanding what number comes before, building on last week’s learning about what number comes next. This helped strengthen students’ number sense and confidence with number order.

In the first session, students worked on a worksheet where they identified the number, recognized the written number, and independently wrote the number that came before. This activity supported number recognition, sequencing, and number writing skills.

In the second session, learning became more interactive through games using number flashcards. Students took turns identifying the number that came before. Additionally, we played a group game where each student came to the front, said a number, and asked one of their friends to tell the number that came before. This activity ensured that everyone had a chance to stand up, be creative in choosing a number, communicate clearly, and confidently ask and respond to a friend.

In the second group we worked on tally counting. During both sessions, we learned about tally counting. We introduced the concept using number cards and Popsicle sticks. We continued with the same materials in the second session, where we wrote the numbers on the board and they practiced. This topic will continue in the next session of the second term as well.

Science 

This week in science, we continued learning about rocket ships through hands-on exploration and teamwork, which was a blast! In our first morning session, we conducted a rocket ship experiment using balloons and a thread tied between two chairs. We blew up a balloon, attached it to a straw placed on the thread, and had the students release the balloon and observe how it traveled quickly from one point to another as the air came out and pushed it forward.

After completing the experiment, we had a meaningful discussion with the students about the force that kept the balloon moving, why it moved so fast, what was inside the balloon, and what was coming out of it. We also talked about the difference between the balloon experiment and a real rocket ship, discussing what keeps a real rocket moving and what gives it its strength.

In the second session, the class worked together as one team to build a large rocket ship using cardboard, tape, and cutters. The students were excited to take on different roles, such as measuring, cutting, taping, and sticking. This collaborative project encouraged teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity. The rocket ship construction was left to be finished in our Friday art session, and the anticipation was palpable!

Art

This week in the Pre-K class, our art project was a continuation of the rocket project we started during science time. During the art session, we discussed what colors the children wanted to paint with. We then went outside to paint: we used white for the rocket body, gray for the rocket nose, blue for the window, and red for the fins. The project was done as a group, with some children painting the window, others painting the fins red, and some painting the rocket body white. Everyone got a turn and worked collaboratively.

There are still some parts of the project left to complete, so we will continue after they return from the holiday next term. This has been a fun-filled way for them to continue exploring their topic of interest in space exploration and learning about all the parts of a rocket ship.

Thank you for your time!