Week 38: Kindergarten Hands at Work!

Dear Family, 

How have you all been? Are you excited for tomorrow night’s Art Auction? Well, we definitely are! We cannot wait to show you all the hard work, creativity, and love that went into each of our art projects. Even though our children will not be at school tomorrow night, they made sure their artworks speak for them and beautifully reflect their imagination and vision. Oh and before we get too excited about the auction, we almost forgot to tell you about our fun week! So come along as we take you through each session and look back on all the learning and joyful moments we shared together this week.

Large Group

Alongside our usual large group routines, this week’s focus was on learning about past tense words. We noticed that our children sometimes use words like “goed,” “sitted,” or “drinked” during daily conversations, so we wanted to help them understand the correct past tense forms in a fun and active way.

To practice this, we played exciting standing and sitting games where our kinders listened carefully to present tense words and changed them into their past tense forms. We also pasted present tense action words around the classroom, and our children took turns reading them aloud and changing them into the correct past tense words to help strengthen their grammar and speaking skills.


“We say wrote not writted. That is not what we say” -Kian

“I heard Ruansh saying ‘falled” one day” -Lubono

“I also said ‘goed” but now I don’t say that now is say went” -Leul

“The birds flew not flyed right? Okay got it” -Liyat

Literacy

This week in literacy, we returned to our alphabet word wall and alphabet books.

Our kinders practiced writing words for different letters and have shown wonderful growth in forming words independently. By sounding out the letters carefully, they were able to think of and write their own favorite word choices for each letter. It has been amazing to watch their confidence grow as they become more comfortable connecting sounds, letters, and words together.

“ I want to write Roza on R, Ismael’s mom” -Leul

“For L i wrote my name also Lutanda’s name and Leul and Liyat too” -Lubono

“I can’t wait to reach to Y so I can write my name” -Yadon

“I want to write penguin for P but it’s too hard” -Liyat

“P for Pink” -Betselot

“S is for Samuel and also snake” -Samuel

“I will write Ruansh on R cause he’s my friend” -Kian

Math

To strengthen our time telling skills, we decided to revisit and practice our previous lessons about telling time. Using our classroom clock and whiteboard, our kinders took turns working with the clock hands. One child would say a time, while another carefully moved the clock hands to the correct positions. In our second activity, we drew a big clock on the board, and each child had the chance to draw the hands themselves while another friend wrote the correct time numbers. These activities made learning about time interactive and much easier to understand.

“Before 2 o’clock we always have quite time” -Lubono

“I can spin it fast and fast” -Samuel

“I know how to fix clocks it’s easy you just spin what’s behind the clock and you can make it anytime you want” -Leul

“My dad has a clock watch and it’s so hard. It’s not like this one, you don’t even see the numbers” -Liyat

“One day my mommy said it’s lunch time with her phone time” -Ismael

“Its not 12 o‘clock” -Yemariam

Science

Guess where we went back to this week? Our garden! Since our old bean plants had grown old, we decided it was time for a fresh start and something new to care for together. We first had a class discussion about whether we should plant a seed or a seedling this time. After sharing ideas, we all agreed on planting a lettuce seedling because it grows quickly and we’ll be able to watch its leaves grow bigger little by little almost every day! So our kinders helped prepare the soil by digging it up and getting the garden ready for planting.


“It was raining last night. That’s why the soil is so soft” -Yadon

“This shovel is not good it’s not too hard” -Lubono

Gymnastics

Tuesday’s gymnastics session was nothing short of exhilarating! We planned a water football match while wearing our school jerseys. We set up a large white mat on the grass, soaked it with water, and added soap for extra slipperiness. Once everything was ready, our children took off their shoes and dove in, barefoot, divided into two teams. To kick off the fun, we splashed them with water, and the excitement escalated as the game began. They slid, fell, and laughed, enjoying every moment while exercising and bonding as a team.


“It’s the best day ever today cause it’s a water football day” -Liyat

“I will tell Solomon about the football today” -Ismael

“Are we gonna make lemonade again?” -Yadon

“This is not too slippery because we didn’t put enough soap” -Lubono

“Phi, where is Kian?” -Yemariam

“I like football” -Betselot

“Tonight I am going to Vietnam” -Samuel

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.




Here’s to more adventures ahead!