Kindergarten Chronicles: The Last Week of Term One!

Dear Family, How have you all been? We’ve been doing wonderfully since the start of the year, and now we're wrapping up the term! We’ve had so much to learn, share, and collaborate on. This week, like every other, was fantastic for our kindergarten class. Let’s take you through it!

Large Group

As you all know, our large group session is the time of day when we set up the date and outline our daily activities. Last week, we learned about estimation and hibernation, so we reviewed those concepts and added migration to our vocabulary list for this week’s science lesson. We discussed the winter season and talked about animals that migrate to new places versus those that stay put while hibernating. We had fun and engaging discussions, and everyone shared their thoughts!

“But dogs stay at home with us, right?” -Umar

“Snake goes under the lake” -Junior

“Only two animals hibernate and rest migrate” -Leayene

Literacy

This week, our literacy focus was on handwriting. We practiced writing using handwriting sheets that included tracing and rewriting exercises. In the first class, our children read sentences, traced them, and drew pictures based on the sentences. This sparked their curiosity about which animals or objects they would be drawing after reading, allowing them to exercise their reading skills. Our next literacy activity involved reading words, tracing them, and rewriting each word three times, which also helped improve their reading and writing skills.

Math

In our first math class, we focused on adding numbers with one. This simple addition helped them enhance their mathematical skills. They easily added 1 to different numbers, understanding that adding 1 to a number results in the next consecutive number. After finishing the addition, they wrote tally marks for the results, which reinforced the tally concept they had learned previously. In our second activity, we practiced tally mark counting. Each child received a worksheet with various tally marks to count and write the results. This activity also provided an easy way to exercise their brains.

“I love doing tally” -Abigail

Science

This week in science, we started by making play dough. Since we’ve done this before, we wanted our children to recall the ingredients we used previously. They all participated in sharing what they remembered, and it was a fun experience making play dough from scratch. They were all so happy, engaged, and really proud of themselves at the end. Our second science activity focused on migration and hibernation. Our children received pictures of different animals along with a checklist on both sides indicating "hibernate" or "migrate." They looked at the animals and checked the option they thought was correct. Learning the new word "migration" was exciting for them, especially since they were already familiar with the term "hibernation." As we had discussed it in our large group session, completing the activity on paper was a piece of cake for them.

“We need salt, water, flour, and our hands to make play dough” -Adelene

“My play dough is soft cause I squeezed it so hard” - Yeabsera

Journal

This week, we took our journal session outside. We laid out a mat together as a team and brought some pillows from the classroom to create a cozy space for concentration and drawing. We had a great time having conversations and sharing our drawings and ideas.

“I made two rainbows, this is Phi and my mom playing football under it” -Leayene

“This is Umar and Tang Tang fighting the monster” -Lucas

“This is Arsema” - Yeabsera

“This is a dinosaur leg and a rainbow” -Junior

Art

This week in our class, we created mosaic art. We discussed what mosaic art is and where it is most famous. Then, our children received different colors of paper to cut into smaller pieces in any shape of their choice. We provided them with a butterfly printout to stick their pieces onto. They had fun both cutting the pieces with scissors and sticking them on, creating beautiful works of art. This activity helped them express their creativity, learn a new art form, and exercise their fine motor skills.

“Look am making it all square” -Lucas

“I’m cutting many papers together”- Tang Tang

“Open shut, open shut” - Eliyab

Cooperative Game

This week, for our cooperative game, we played in the sandbox, building, sharing, and conversing together. Our children created their own ideas and shared them with their friends. They then washed their feet independently, dried them, and put their shoes back on, demonstrating a great sense of independence. It was a wonderful way to close out the first term as a team and say goodbye until the new year.

"we're building together" -Lucas

"Eliyab come build a castle with us" -Leayene

Football Friday

Our highly anticipated event of the week is the football session we have every Friday. Our children love the game, and they are always ready and eager to play. Now that they’re professionals after days of practice, they know the rules, regulations, and fouls, as well as teamwork strategies and sportsmanship. Just like in previous weeks, we started this week’s football session with exercises and warm-up activities led by Coach Tesfaye. After a water break, we got right into the game. This was our last football session of the term, and we have truly become professionals!

“Ball is out”- Lucas (Defense)

“Come on Umar, pass the ball” -Junior (Striker)

“You are not on my team” - Umar (Striker)

“Everybody outtttttttt” -Yeabsera (Goalkeeper)

Next term’s weekly schedule:  

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science, gym

Wednesday - Library, Math

Thursday - Science

Friday - Cooperative game

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gym

Thursday - Ethiopian center/ clay

Friday - Football

Reminders and notes:

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

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

Thank you all for staying with us on our first-term journey. Stay safe, and we will see you again in a couple of weeks. For those joining our Christmas break camp, a friendly reminder that the dates for the camp are December 23-January 3!