Learning, Growing, and Celebrating 100 Days Strong!

Dear Parents,

We hope this blog finds you well! In the Pre-K class, our week was an absolute blast, filled with fun as we celebrated the 100th day of school! Our students were excited and very proud of how far they have come.

We celebrated in different ways: spray painting T-shirts, making cookies, serving our friends and teachers, painting a large banner, and singing and dancing outside all together. This celebration brought them so much joy and taught them how to wait with patience. We also continued on our caterpillar counting the school days until the last day of school. At this point, they will learn how to write and recognize numbers, including those above 100.

In math, we focused on the missing numbers and the concept of “greater than”. While in literacy, we continued working with CVC words and ending sounds. Additionally, we enjoyed journaling, learning about flowers, gymnastics, and library visits. Moreover, our students' worked on their very favorite science activity.

In general, the class is very engaged, fun, and participatory, working together as a group and individually. Read on for more details… 

Large group

This week, our large group sessions were so much fun! We revised all the shapes, focusing on the cone and sphere. They really remembered the shapes and will continue with others as well.

Additionally, we learned about the digraph "kn". This digraph was a bit tricky because the sound "k" is silent. However, by the end of the week, they understood the sound, and it went along with the pictures. The students are really getting into it! This will help them as they finish learning about CVC words, making their reading journey smoother.

As always, we conducted our calendar and caterpillar activities. 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 truly grasped their class job responsibilities and have been doing amazing work, showing significant progress in every aspect of learning. They now know the routine, the classroom rules, and what comes after large group time, whether it's science, literacy, or math. They can articulate this, which shows they are really getting into the routine.

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. With all these steps in our students' journey, we are very proud of the progress they have made in every way.

Literacy 

This week, our students continued exploring CVC (consonant–vowel–consonant) words, with a special focus on words that have the letter ‘e’ in the middle. During our first session, the children used wooden spinners to create and read a variety of CVC words, helping them practice blending sounds in a fun, hands-on way. Each student then had a turn at the board, where they placed the letter ‘e’ between two consonants, wrote the word independently, and sounded it out together with the group. This activity encouraged confidence, phonemic awareness, and active participation.

In our second session, students worked on a worksheet featuring CVC words with ‘e’ in the middle. They carefully looked at each picture, identified it, listened for the beginning sound, and wrote the correct letter. To wrap up, we read the completed words together, reinforcing sound-letter connections and strengthening early reading skills.

In our other group we continued working on ending sounds. As we did last week, in the first session, they practiced with picture cards that included words written. In the following sessions, they worked on worksheets where they looked at pictures and circled the ending sound letters. This helps them practice more.

In the next sessions, the class will continue working on this.

Math

This week in math, we continued building on the greater than concept, and the students are doing an amazing job understanding and applying it with confidence.

During our first session, we created our very own “greater than alligator” using Popsicle sticks. The students cut out teeth, glued on eyes, and assembled their alligators with so much excitement and creativity. Once finished, we placed the alligator on a cartoon where students could write different numbers and compare them. We practiced remembering that the alligator is always hungry and eats the bigger number, which made the concept fun and easy to remember.

In our second session, students spent about 10 minutes revisiting the materials they created earlier. They enjoyed writing numbers, comparing them, and turning the alligator to face the greater number. This hands-on practice helped reinforce their understanding in a playful and engaging way.

To wrap up the lesson, students completed a worksheet where they independently compared numbers and correctly placed the greater than sign on their own. It was wonderful to see how confidently they applied what they had learned through both hands-on activities and independent work.

With our second group, we started a unit on missing numbers. In the first session, our students practiced writing missing numbers on the board, as well as writing the numbers 1 to 10 simultaneously. In the second session, they completed a worksheet on missing numbers up to 10. They did very well in writing and memorizing the numbers. We will continue working on this in the coming weeks.

Science

This week in science, we began an exciting new topic: flowers. We noticed how curious and interested the students were in learning more about them, which is what inspired this lesson.

In our first session, we started with a group discussion to explore the students’ prior knowledge. They shared what they already knew about flowers, talked about different types of flowers, and discussed what plants need in order to grow. The students had wonderful ideas and were eager to participate. We then introduced the main parts of a flower, learning about each part and its role in helping the flower grow and stay healthy.

During our second session, we took our learning outside and explored the flowers around our school. The students observed flowers in real life, noticing the different colors, shapes, and sizes. They compared how flowers can look similar yet different and enjoyed pointing out details they recognized from our earlier discussion.

Art

This week, for art, the Pre-K class made flower crafts. Since our class has learned about flowers in our science sessions, we incorporated this into our art by making flower crafts. We provided them with a paper plate, glue, popsicle sticks, green paper, scissors, and different colors of paint. They started by cutting the paper plate into a flower shape and trimming the edges.

Then, they cut out leaves and stuck them onto the popsicle sticks. After that, they painted the paper plates as flowers in the colors they preferred. Finally, we placed them in the sun to dry. This process of creating their own flower crafts was full of excitement for all! In the coming week, the class will learn more about flowers in detail.

Next week's schedule

Small group

Monday: - Science, Literacy

Tuesday:- Library, Math

Wednesday:- Science, Literacy

Thursday: - Math, Journal

Friday:- Music

Thursday: - Literacy

Our Special

Monday: - Ethiopian center

Tuesday:- Library

Friday:- Art

Reminder

Every Tuesday is our library day, so we will be sending a book that your child picked from our library, which will be returned after a week on library day.

Every Friday is our art day so please send your child with art-appropriate clothing.

Thank you for your time!