Week 28 in Kindergarten: Family Day Excitement!

Dear Family,

How are you all doing? Are you excited for our Family Day happening tomorrow? We certainly are! Our students are very excited, and we can’t wait to show you everything we’ve been working on and spend some special time together with you all. Our week has been wonderful as always; full of learning and exploring. Let’s take you through the highlights of our week… keep reading!

Large Group

One of our favorite parts of large group time is listening to our children share their weekend stories on Mondays. It has become even more enjoyable as they grow more expressive and creative with their words, eagerly sharing their experiences and capturing their friends’ attention while talking about their activities outside of school. Our daily large group routine continues as usual. We begin with a transition song from our free choice book reading time, followed by a fun stand up song to get everyone moving. Then we set the date on our calendar, add a new number to our growing caterpillar, enjoy song breaks, and continue with our large group lesson. This week, our large group lesson focused on reading sight words from the board. Our children did a wonderful job participating and reading along, which helped them build even more confidence in their reading skills.


“It was Lutanda’s birthday and everyone had pizza even Kian was there and I got so many book gifts from Milli also. Lutanda was so happy and I was the first one to get a cake” -Lubono

“I was inside Lubono’s house and he has astronaut robot. There was little money on the floor and we sprayed foam with Lubono and we ate cake together” -Kian

“I went to the work place with my mom and after that I drank milk and ate bread and for lunch I had pizza and watched TV a little bit and I picked my grandma from church she was so late and kept us waiting” -Solomon

“My sister was sleeping and I watch my tablet and ride bicycle” -Ismael

“I played monster truck with my brother and I go out” -Samuel

“I was playing and watching TV and phone all day. My mom traveled and she’s not anymore at home. She is in London so now only my grandma and uncle are at home” -Yadon

“How about mine? I go pizza and I eat cake with my sister also Betselot my sister” -Yemariam

“My sister eat cake yeah I eat cake and pizza and chocolate. Yemariam sister” -Betselot

“I went to Atlas to Nai’s house after senbet temert (Sunday church school) bet also I went to my dance class and in the car I change my clothes because I was wearing a dress and then I went to Nai’s house and Nai’s baby sister is so cute and she’s from America” -Liyat

“I go with Liyat to Senbet temretbet and I was watching Liyat and one girl touched Abigu’s netela (church shawl) and it fall down and I looked at Liyat and she saw me and picked it up and then we go to Atlas and had a play date with Nai. We were trying to play water fun and we ate noodles and sunchips. -Leul

Literacy

This week our children began working on their Zoo Phonics Alphabet Books, which connects beautifully with the alphabet word wall we have been building in our classroom. As they continue developing their reading and writing skills, this activity helps them expand their vocabulary while exploring each letter of the alphabet. For each page of their book, they focus on one letter and write words that begin with that specific sound. Since we had two literacy sessions this week, we were able to work on the first four letters: A and B during the first session, and C and D in the second session. Our children enjoyed thinking of words, sounding them out, and writing them in their books. This alphabet book will continue to grow with them throughout the rest of the academic year and will serve as a special learning journal, where they can revisit, read, and add new words as their vocabulary and writing skills develop.


“Phi I want to write burger cause I love burger” -Leul

“I’m gonna write Andromeda like Lubono” -Solomon

“No, now I’m writing barbecue” -Lubono

“I wrote Alen, he was in our school” -Kian

“How do I write Antarctica? Please help me Phi, it’s hard” -Liyat

“I want to write ball” -Yemariam

“I write ball like football” -Samuel

Math

Even and odd numbers were the stars of our math lessons this week! We began by sitting together and discovering what makes a number even or odd through a fun sharing activity. We placed some toys on the mat and asked two children to sit in front while the others counted out different numbers of candies to share between them. When the candies could be shared fairly with nothing left over, the number was even. But when one candy was left over and couldn’t be shared equally, it was an odd number. This helped them clearly see the difference in a playful and meaningful way. After understanding the idea, we moved to a more practical activity. We wrote numbers from 0-9 on the board and divided them into two groups; even and odd. Our children then practiced placing different 2 digit numbers into the correct category using the big board. In our second math session, we had a fun coloring activity where they colored even numbers green and odd numbers red.


“7 is odd so 67 :) is odd” -Samuel

“24 is even cause 2 is even and also 4 is even” -Yadon

“Red is like my Arsenal jersey. It’s odd” -Ismael

“2 is even” -Betselot

“Even numbers are numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, and even 0. I learned it in America” -Solomon

“But 0 is not fair, if you have 0 bikes you can’t share it with everyone cause you don’t have a bike” -Kian

“I know I know! But Kian when you have nothing to share it’s okay it’s not fair if you only give it to Samuel and not Lubono…and also listen listen guys also when you have 10 there’s zero in ten okay that’s why it makes it even that’s why zero is even also in 20, 30, 40……” -Solomon

“Also 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, even 100 it have 2 zeros” -Liyat

“ Even 1 million and billion and one thousand million have lots and lots of zeros” -Lubono

Science

With Family Day approaching, we used our science time this week to revisit and prepare our projects for display. Since the projects will be shown outside for families, it was the perfect moment to review and talk about each one. We brought the individual projects into the classroom, and our children had the chance to observe their own creations again and reflect on them. Taking turns, each child proudly explained their project to the class; sharing what landform they created and how they made it. It was wonderful to see them confidently talk about their work and the ideas behind it. This session helped everyone recap their learning while also preparing them to present and explain their projects to all of you on Family Day. Can’t wait!


“I need to stick a new tree cause my tree is gone” -Kian

“I think now you can’t swim in my lake because you will be frozen it’s cold in my lake when it’s warm you can come and swim” -Lubono

“My mountain looks so real now but you can also pick it up and run if you want to steal it” -Solomon

“I need to do my feathers because I didn’t do it last time” -Liyat

“When you really really look at my plateau and Yemariam and Betselot’s volcano it’s different you see mine doesn’t have lava coming out” -Leul

“My hills broke. I need to fix it” -Samuel

“We can play football here” -Ismael (showing off his plain project :)

“We don’t play with my rocks okay. It’s dangerous” -Yadon (referring to the rocks he added on his desert project)

Art

Building on the galaxy mural we practiced last week on chart paper, our children were excited to bring the same idea to life on a canvas this week. Since they had already experimented with the colors and blending technique, they felt more confident and ready to create their final piece. Just like our practice session, they worked together as a group, taking turns to add their brush strokes. Starting from the center and slowly moving outward, they blended different colors in soft circular motions to create the beautiful swirling effect of a galaxy. It was fascinating for them to watch the colors merge and transform on the canvas. Because they had already explored this technique on the chart paper mural, the process felt familiar, and the final canvas turned out even more stunning.


“I will make the white middle part” -Leul

“The orange needs to be lighter so it looks like Milky Way” -Solomon

“I want pink pink” -Betselot

“Phi, I really really want to take this home” -Kian

“No, I will buy it when I go home today I’ll tell my mommy to buy this” -Liyat

“Yemariam paint blue okay sky” -Yemariam

“We need glitter like last time” -Samuel

Family Day Excitement

We spent some time this week sitting together and talking about Family Day with our children. We asked them what they are most excited to show and see on that special day, and their answers were both fun and adorable. Their excitement and curiosity made the conversations even more special…..


“I can’t wait to see Leul’s mom cause I love her so much. Once I met her at Morning star and she kissed me lots of times and she calls me Yene konjo (my beautiful)” -Liyat

“My mom and Kian’s mom know each other they’re friends also my dad and his dad and I’ll show them my lake and I’ll eat ice cream like last time” -Lubono

“I will show my parents my plant cause it’s growing so fast like a road and the panel thing in the space center I will show that to my dad” -Yadon

“I wanna show my mom my mountain. I am most excited about the ice cream” -Solomon

“I can’t wait to show my mom our space center and play in the sand box” -Kian

“I’m excited about to eat ice cream and play with Dibo, maybe she’s gonna say kaka (yuck) to the sand cause she don’t know anything” -Leul

“My sister and then cake eating” -Betselot

“Me, Betselot, and mom. My mommy see volcano” -Yemariam

“I will show them hills and plain. And eat ice cream with Alex” -Samuel

“Ice cream. I scared” -Nai

“With mommy I come and I show her plain and then to Ethiopia center” -Ismael

Next week’s schedule:

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science

Wednesday -Library, Math

Thursday - Science, Music

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

Our little Einsteins are ready to shine. See you all tomorrow!