Week 10 in Kindergarten!

10 minutes ago

5 min read

Dear Family,

Happy Friday! Hope all is well with you. Our project based learning week has been amazing! Through investigating, sharing, and learning about ourselves and where we come from, our children have discovered so much about each other and the world around us. It has been a fun and meaningful journey of sharing experiences, asking questions, and getting to know our classroom family better. Let’s take you through our journey; read on!

Large Group

Our usual daily routines continued, of course! We shared stories about our long weekend, kept growing our Number Caterpillar, and practiced our letters and numbers of the week. Our Large Group discussions continued to focus on our families, where we come from, and the languages we speak at home. Using the different charts they had made, our children took turns sharing information about themselves and their families. It was lovely seeing them use their own work to tell their stories and learn more about the people who make up our classroom community.

“I sleep in the floor I was closing my eyes and sleep in the floor, I don’t know what happened. And I also eat pizza my mom made for me and I played with 3 slimes.” -Samaria

“She swam and went to ballet and ate pizza after that and she went to church on Sunday and took her took out” -Nai’s nanny

“My weekend was good. My uncle come to the house and I eat some sweet and I brush my teeth and I was playing with my brothe and I finished” -Noam

“In my weekend I was dancing for my mom and then we eat pizza and my mom came back from Rome and she brought me 100 things and I played with it. She brought me a Lego truck and we build it and then we cleaned up but it was a little bit hard.” -Gracious

“Uhm, I played with my mom at home and I also go to the playground” -Lumina

“I swam with my sister and then I go to a restaurant to eat pizza and i went to a playground and then I go to the hair salon to get my hair fixed and then we go back home and the next day we go somewhere.” -Layan

“At home I played with my Legos and went to a hotel for daddy’s birthday surprise and we came back on Sunday afternoon and i ate burger and chips with tomato sauce. I was so tired and watched TV.” -Lubono

“I went to the swimming pool in a hotel and I swim and I swim and I eat some food and I go out and I go to home and I wear my pajama and sleep” -Elion

“Good. I eat banana, apple, orange and pepper and spicy. I also eat onion it’s also spicy and I eat grapes” -Arthur

“I eat firfir and shiro” -Oman

Literacy

Literacy was all about reading, writing, and sounding out words. Our children practiced stretching out sounds and blending them together to make words, using their growing knowledge of letters and sounds. As part of our family project, we worked on writing the languages spoken at home and the continents our families come from for our classroom chart and graph. Everyone had a turn to contribute by writing at least one word and reading it when ready. It was a meaningful way to bring our literacy learning into a project that was all about us!

Math

Since our family project involved plenty of thinking, comparing, and organizing information, we introduced our children to graphs to help us bring one of our project panels together. During our Math sessions, we explored how graphs help us organize information so we can see and compare answers more easily. Our children each had a chance to draw and practice making a graph before we worked together to create our very own classroom graph for the project.

Social Studies

We continued exploring where we come from and learning more about our world. After discovering each other’s countries and the continents we come from, our children began connecting the dots between their own identities and the wider world. We explored maps, continents, countries, and flags while learning about the different backgrounds represented in our classroom. We also talked about how graphs help us organize what we discover about one another. This is what makes Social Studies so meaningful at this age; our children are learning about places, people, cultures, and how we are connected. By sharing our similarities and differences, they are building curiosity, respect, and a better understanding of themselves and the people around them.

Art

Meanwhile, our Space Center project continued, and this time we turned our attention to something fascinating; black holes!

We discussed what black holes are, watched videos, looked at pictures, and learned how their incredibly strong gravity pulls things in, even light! We wondered what a black hole might look like and gave our children the chance to use their own imagination to put their ideas on paper. Our drawings then became part of our classroom creation. Using their ideas and knowledge, our children guided our Art teacher as he used glue and paints to paint a black hole on the ceiling of our Space Center. They shared what they knew, explained what they wanted him to create, and watched their ideas help shape our space. We love seeing our children’s ideas move beyond paper and become part of our classroom environment. After all, our Space Center is a project built from their questions, imagination, and creativity!

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.

From discovering our roots to bringing our ideas to life, it was a week full of learning, sharing, and growing together.