Week 17 Kindergarten Highlights- From Solar Suns to Sounding Out Words!

Dear Family,

We hope you all had a wonderful week! Our second week of winter was full of joy as we continued reviewing and strengthening the lessons we’ve learned so far. With just one more week left before we wrap up our first semester, our days were filled with meaningful learning and happy moments. Let’s take you through each session and give you a little peek into our world…

Large Group

Here in the KG class, our large group time is always lively and heartwarming. We start every Monday with the prompt, “How was your weekend?”; a moment our children truly enjoy. Hearing them share longer sentences, recall events, and express their thoughts builds their confidence and strengthens their memory skills beautifully. Our weekly book, “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut,” brought a fun reminder: keep your eyes (and mind) wide open to the incredible world of knowledge and imagination that reading unlocks has taught them that the more that they read will help them in knowing more. Our children loved its simple rhymes and cheerful message. We also practiced reading CVCC words on the board, explored the calendar with Betselot as our calendar helper, and proudly updated our caterpillar, now at Day 81 of school! It was a bright and engaging week for our kinders.

“My mom go to Solomon’s house and I go with her” -Ismael

“Actually, my weekend was perfect with Abigail” -Liyat

“It’s not CVC this one is CVCC because it only has 1 vowel letter” -Leul

“There’s sing there’s song” -Yemariam

Literacy

This week in literacy, we stepped into the world of word-building! During our first session, children picked picture flash cards, chose their favorite, and wrote a word for it based on the sounds they heard. They did an amazing job sounding out and writing the spelling they believed was correct, an important skill that empowers them to write confidently without fear of mistakes. In our next session, we handed out worksheets with pictures of objects. One group matched the pictures with the correct words, while the other group wrote the words independently. Both activities helped our children practice reading, sounding out, and forming words in their own way.

“But Elsa, Phi said two Os make ‘oo’ sound so shoes is like shoos” -Leul

“Jacket starts with J and K” -Liyat

“This is easy, when I finish I’ll do like Leul yeah?” -Ismael

“This is tap and this water is liquid” -Samuel

Math

Math this week was all about bringing patterns back to life! We revisited the world of patterns; something that felt tricky at first but quickly turned into success. With a variety of materials to choose from, some children created beautiful ABCD patterns, while others confidently shifted to ABC or ABAB patterns. Every version was a celebration of thinking, creativity, and understanding. For our second math session, we took our learning outdoors and collected “nature treasures”; sticks, leaves, flowers, and stones. Once we gathered everything, we sat together by the trampoline and started creating our very own nature ABCD patterns. Each child took a turn choosing items and placing them in the correct order, carefully building the pattern step by step. They were so engaged, excited, and proud as they mastered this more complex ABCD pattern using materials from the world around them. It was a fun, hands on way to understand patterns in a meaningful way!

“It’s like ABCD in the morning brush your teeth” -Leul

“Stick, leaf, flower, and rock it’s so easy guys” -Liyat

“Leaf” -Nai

“Phi, look flower” -Betselot

“I will do it so fast” -Mohammed

Science

Science this week was all about revisiting our knowledge of the states of matter.

For our first session, we worked on a two page worksheet where children identified solids, liquids, and gases. It sparked great group conversations as they explained their choices and helped each other think. During the second session, we turned it into a hands on scissors activity. Our children cut out pictures of different objects and sorted them into boxes labeled solid, liquid, and gas. They loved cutting, sticking, and discussing why each object belonged in its category. It was both fun and full of learning!

“I cut all” -Betselot

“But ice is liquid Phi, it melts eko” -Leul

“But ice has shape Leul” -Samuel

“Also the cloud guys, look at the cloud it rains and it becomes liquid so it’s not gas” -Liyat

“No Liyat, but when you go by airplane and you pass the clouds you don’t touch them and you can only see them so it’s a gas” -Leul

“Soap is liquid” -Yemariam

Art

Art was beautifully bright this week! Our children created their own shiny, sparkling suns using paper plates and CD disks. They painted the plates with warm colors, reds, oranges, yellows; some adding rays, others mixing shades to make unique sunset effects. The CD sat in the center like a glowing solar heart, lightly painted so it stayed shiny enough to shimmer in the sunlight. Once finished, they couldn’t stop holding their suns up to watch them sparkle. It was such a joyful, creative project, and each child proudly admired their dazzling artwork.

“Look my sun is big like the real sun” -Samuel

“We all have the same actually” -Liyat

“I want to paint it blue” -Ismael

“Look shine” -Yemariam

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.




Stay tuned; more wonderful moments are coming next week!