Week 39: Kindergarten Kitchen Talks & Flower Shops!

Dear Family, how have you all been? We hope you all had a lovely time last Saturday at the art auction and that our children were excited and proud about the art pieces that came home that night. Well… besides all the canvas chit chats, little negotiations and “who got what?” conversations, we had our usual fun filled week and we’re excited to take you through each session….

Large Group

Our usual large group routines happened each day with weekend sharing time on Monday, our caterpillar growing every day and read our large group storybook “Clifford”. Along with our daily discussions, songs and routines, this week’s large group topic was all about the food groups! Since it was also connected to our science activity we wanted to really strengthen our children’s understanding of it in different ways. We introduced the 5 food groups using colorful charts and spent time exploring examples, alternatives, their importance and how they help our bodies grow strong and healthy. Our children were very excited to join the discussion and kept naming different foods while trying to figure out which category they belong to. Some answers were quick, some needed teamwork and thinking, but it definitely brought lots of fun conversations into our large group time.

“I was at grandma’s house for two days cause my mom was super busy and she didn’t sleep at all. So I spent my weekend with my uncle and this morning when we were coming to school my mom’s car got crashed with another car but it didn’t burn” -Yadon

“My mom and me come to school at night and we saw everyone” -Ismael

“Thursday we went to Kuriftu and got a room like last time in 2025. After mommy showered we also took a shower and next I went to swim and I saw a big bucket at the water park. At night I ate shiro and next I had pizza. On Friday i went swimming again. On Saturday I met Leayan when I was outside the swimming pool and I played with her and we also went to the swimming pool again and Saturday at 11 o’clock we came back to Addis Ababa.” -Lubono

“My dad came back from Sudan and my aunty came with a flower for my daddy and we went to the airport and went to Mokodo and eat pizza” -Liyat

“On Saturday I stayed at home the whole day and my cousin made juice for me and then Sunday I went to debreziet because there was a program so I went with my mom, Evana, and Eliab (they’re my nieces and nephews) also my aunty, uncle, and grandpa with my uncle’s car we went” -Leul

“I stayed at home on Saturday and Sunday cause I was sick I also watched TV until it’s night time and at night time I played with my toys. So that’s how my weekend was” -Kian

“Because I go with Betselot and we played basketball in the house and we eat pizza and cake” -Yemariam

“Play hide and seek with my Yemariam and eat pizza” -Betselot

Literacy

Since last week our large group topic was learning about past tenses, we continued practicing it during Literacy this week. We started with a worksheet activity where our children changed regular verbs into past tense by adding “ed” or “d” at the end of the words. They practiced reading the words before and after changing them and enjoyed hearing how the words sound differently in a sentence. For our second literacy session we sat together on the mat and came up with sentences using the same words from the worksheet. Each child got two words and used them to create their own little past tense story. Some stories were funny, some creative and some very detailed but all of them gave our children a chance to practice their grammar skills while building confidence in expressing their ideas.

“I collected fire trucks yesterday” -Kian

“I danced last night” -Yadon

“I watched TV last time” -Liyat

“I cooked dinner a day before” -Leul

“I picked a rocket this morning” -Lubono

“I played football at home” -Ismael

“We cleaned puzzles” -Yemariam

“I bake cake and I played basketball” -Betselot

Math

This week in Math we worked on ascending numbers (going from least to greatest) to challenge and strengthen our children’s number comparison skills. Our children worked on worksheets where they arranged numbers in the correct order starting from the smallest number to the greatest. Since we worked with 2 digit numbers this also became a great opportunity for problem solving and observation. Together we discussed how we first look at the first digit to compare numbers and if the first digits are the same then we move on to checking the second digit. It was lovely watching them take their time thinking, comparing and figuring out which number comes first and what follows next.

Science

Like we mentioned above, our Science topic this week was the food groups. After discussing the 5 main groups during large group time we brought the learning outside for more experience. We used different food toys along with a large circular chart paper labeled with each food group category. The food toys were spread out and taking turns our children came to the front to place each food item in the correct category. At the end we reviewed all the groups together as a class, corrected some tricky ones and learned from one another through discussion. We also talked about the foods they brought to school for their snack and lunch and explored which food groups their meals belonged to.

Art

This week’s art was colorful, creative and very busy… we played with flowers! For our first activity we went outside, sat together on a mat and explored different flowers laid out on the ground. Our children took turns arranging flowers by choosing different colors, sizes and types and creating their own little flower arrangements however they liked. They were very proud of their creations and happily took them home to gift to their moms. For our second activity we created flower frames using popsicle sticks. Our children first made their frames and placed tape across the middle, leaving the sticky side open. They then carefully chose different petals and stuck them onto the tape however they liked to create their designs. Once they were happy with their flower arrangements we sealed it with another layer of tape on top so the petals stay preserved inside their frames beautifully.

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.

Thank you for being part of another beautiful week in Kindergarten!