Our Second Week in Kindergarten!

6 days ago
6 min read

Dear Family, hope all is well with you! We’re so happy and excited to let you know that our Kindergarten journey has officially started this week! Last week was all about getting comfortable, getting to know each other, and introducing ourselves to our new environment, but now it’s time to get into our schedules and start following our learning plans. So, let’s take you through all the fun and learning we had this week, one by one… Read on!

Large Group

Large Group is one of our special times to come together as a whole group, where we share, talk, sing, move, review what we know, and introduce new ideas through fun and interactive experiences. Since Mondays are usually our weekend sharing days, each child get a turn to tell us about their weekend and share how they spent their time. It was so lovely listening to everyone’s little stories and giving each child a chance to speak, listen to their friends, and practice expressing themselves in front of the group. Our main focus this week was reviewing letter sounds to help refresh our memories and make sure we remember the sounds that go with each letter. We also reviewed numbers up to 50, and our children did such a great job remembering and participating! It was a wonderful way to start getting our brains ready for the learning ahead.

Literacy

Since we’re already reviewing our letters and sounds during Large Group, we decided to focus on something very important in our Literacy sessions; our names! We started by practicing writing our names on the board. Our children took turns coming up, writing their names, and getting more comfortable with forming each letter correctly. It was also a great opportunity for us to practice taking turns and cheering each other on. For our second session, we turned writing practice into a little secret message activity! We used white crayons to write our names on white paper, making our writing almost completely invisible. Then came the fun part! Our children painted over their papers and watched as their invisible names magically appeared! They were so excited to discover their hidden names, and it made practicing their names feel more like a little mystery than a writing activity.

“I know what it is but am not gonna tell anyone” -Noam

“Mine is too invisible you can look at it with a microscope” -Kian

“I know it’s my name Gracious cause I see it” -Gigi

“I want to write something invisible for Gigi with white crayon” -Layan

“I want to do this everyday it’s so fun” -Elion

“Nai Nai” -Nai

“My name is soooooo long and it’s like Sammy Snake” -Samaria

Math

For our first Math session, we practiced writing numbers and worked on making sure our numbers were facing the right way. Sometimes our numbers like to get a little confused and turn their faces the wrong way! So, we created a little story to help us remember. We imagined that all the numbers love #1 so much that they turn their faces towards it to say, Hello! But of course, we had two little rebels; 5 and 6! They decided to turn their faces the opposite way because they were a little mad! And then there was 8, who happily says hello to us! Our children loved our little number story, and it gave them something fun to remember while practicing their number formation. For our second Math session, we moved on to ABC color patterns to refresh and strengthen our patterning skills. Our children had fun figuring out what comes next and noticing the patterns as they worked.

“9 loves 1 yeah? Also 4 and 7” -Elion

“I want to do green, orange, and yellow pattern cause I like those colors too” -Layan

“8 is everybody’s friend. It says hi to all of us” -Noam

“I want to do blue, red, and yellow” -Arthur

“If 5 and 6 says sorry to 1 are they gonna turn their faces?” -Gigi

“I learned this at KG last year it’s so easy” -Kian

“Look 5 is crying hahaha I do tears for 5” -Samaria

Science

This week in Science, we started talking about something we can’t see but that is all around us; germs! We talked about how germs can get onto our hands and into our bodies and how we can protect ourselves by washing our hands frequently and properly. We learned that soap is like our weapon against germs, helping us wash them away and keep our hands clean. Then we put our learning into action with a fun Black Pepper Germ Experiment! We used water and black pepper to represent germs floating around. When we put a finger into the water, the pepper stayed around our finger. But when we put a little soap on our finger and touched the water again, the pepper quickly moved away! Our children were amazed to see how the “germs” moved away from the soap. It was a fun and simple way for them to understand why using soap when washing our hands is so important.

“If you don’t wash your hands then the germs are going to go to your tummy and make you sick” -Gigi

“When you don’t wash and eat your lunch your tummy will hurt you” -Elion

“We fight germs with soap like kick kick kick” -Samaria

“One day I ate something without washing my hands I think it was fruit and at night at home it make me very sick” -Kian

“You will die if you have germs” -Arthur

“First you have to put soap in your hand then water and you scrub it very well and the germs will die in your hand and go down the sink” -Layan

“Soap is like a gun it shoots the germs and they will be gone” -Noam

Art

For Art this week, we did something a little different and very fun; Mirror Portraits! We visited the Infants and Toddlers classroom and used their big wall mirror for our art session. We placed paper on the mirror right underneath each child’s face so they could look at their reflection while drawing themselves. Our children had so much fun looking closely at their faces and talking about what they could see; their eyes, nose, mouth, hair, and all their little features. They really enjoyed observing themselves and then turning what they saw into their very own portraits.

“Look this green part is my hair and it has beads” -Gigi

“My hair is so long and my eyes are big” -Layan

“I drawed 3 trophies cause I like football” -Noam

“This is my yellow sweater and I’ll draw my jacket when I wear it” -Kian

Library

And guess what? Our Library journey officially started this week! From now on, we’ll be visiting the library every Wednesday and Friday, and we’re so excited to make this part of our regular routine. During our first visit, we talked about the important rules of the library. We learned that the library is a quiet place, so it requires our best “shhhhh” voices so everyone can enjoy their books and reading time. Our children had the opportunity to choose their favorite books, spend some quiet time reading, and pick a book to take home. After choosing their books, they added their signatures. We talked about how a signature is something personal that belongs to us, and how signing our names also helps us practice taking responsibility for the things we choose and take home.

“We be quite when we come to the library okay” -Elion

“I want to take two books today” -Samaria

“I want to sign” -Arthur

“Five little animals” -Nai

Ethiopian Center

We had a wonderful time visiting the Ethiopian Center! Our children learned about Ethiopian traditional materials and clothes, and each child chose their favorite traditional outfit to wear. They enjoyed pretend play by making coffee and preparing traditional food. Our children students were happy, engaged, and participated very well. We also listened to traditional Ethiopian songs and danced together. Our children proudly showed us some Ethiopian traditional dances. It was a fun and memorable experience for everyone!

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

We can’t wait to see what next week brings. Stay tuned!