Week 5 in Kindergarten!

8 hours ago

6 min read

Dear Family,

We hope you are all having a great week! As usual, we had a blast! We learned so much, explored a lot, and had some deep little conversations; all while having fun and growing together. Read on for some more details!

Large Group

Besides our normal Large Group routines and steps, we always have a weekly book that gives us something to talk about and explore together. This week, our Large Group book was “A Squash and a Squeeze.” This playful story is about a lady who keeps complaining that her house is too small, so she follows some very funny advice and brings different animals into her home. By the time she takes them all back out, she realizes that her house wasn’t actually as small as she thought! From the story, we talked about being grateful for what we have and how sometimes looking at things differently can help us appreciate what we already have. With that in mind, our Large Group learning focus was putting CVC words together using their beginning sounds, short vowels, and ending sounds. Our children took turns practicing different words on the board and worked on blending the sounds together to read the whole word.

Literacy

Short vowels were our main topic in Literacy this week! We started by asking our children how many letters they thought we had in the alphabet. Everyone made their own little estimation, and we talked about the guesses before revealing the actual number; 26 letters! From there, we introduced five very special letters called vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. We also talked about how Y can sometimes act as a vowel, depending on the word. Our children learned that short vowels are a little small and shy; they don’t usually say their letter names; instead, they make their special sounds. To practice, we used our CVC word spinners, where our children spun the consonants with the vowel being in the middle and used them to build and read different three letter words. For our second session, we took our learning outside and worked on a worksheet that gave our children another opportunity to challenge their reading skills while enjoying a different learning environment.

“We have 25 letters in the alphabet” -Lubono

“I think we have one hundred billion letters cause in books there are many many letters” -Noam

“I want to read the spinners like them. I read book at home I don’t want to read it now” -Layan (wen asked to read a book)

“Put and cut are the same” -Samaria

“I’m also practicing how to write Gracious at home too” -Gigi

“Big, bun, sun, sat” -Omna (reading fast without sounding the out)

Math

After spending our previous weeks identifying, writing, estimating, and substituting numbers, we decided it was time to move on to our next step; number sequencing! We started by practicing missing numbers using worksheets with different levels of challenge. Some of our children worked with numbers up to 20, some up to 50, and some all the way to 100, depending on where they were with their number skills. Our goal was to help our children understand what number comes before, what comes after, and what belongs in the missing spot. For our second session, we continued strengthening their number writing skills with another worksheet, giving everyone more practice forming their numbers clearly and independently.

“This is too easy for me I will finish first” -Elion

“I want more; I want 2 more” -Arthur (after finishing all the 3 different sheets)

“I have this in my home book too. I practiced it” -Kian

“S” -Nai (writing 5 and reading it as S)

“Look Phi, my handwriting is good right?” -Lumina

Science

This week in Science, we focused on something very important; Health and Growth!

We talked about how our bodies grow and how we can help keep ourselves healthy and strong through the choices we make every day. We discussed eating healthy foods, drinking water, keeping our bodies clean, getting enough rest, exercising, and taking care of ourselves. We spent our first session discussing these healthy habits together, supported by the “Healthy Habits” song by Sisi Kids TV, which made it even more fun and memorable for our children. For our second session, we put our learning into practice with two different worksheets. First, our children identified healthy foods and drinks and ticked the ones they thought were good choices. Then, they matched different healthy habits with the actions that show them.

“You know, at home I do some exercises with songs. And I also keep myself clean and sleep early” - Layan

“Before you go to bed you need to brush your teeth so when you sleep you are not dirty with the food” -Elion

“We only need to watch TV on Friday so we sleep early everyday and get enough rest” -Lubono

“Smile everyday” -Arthur

“My brother brush his teeth up and down but me I brush like this fast fast” -Samaria

“You have to take shower everyday or wash your feet at every night” -Gracious

“I like washing my body a lot” -Lumina

“You know I brush by my own but my mom washes my face again but I will wash my face and body when I grow up” -Noam

Art

Inspired by our recent exploration of the beautiful Fall season, we brought a little bit of Fall into our Art session! Our children went outside to collect leaves of different sizes and shapes. We then brought them back and painted them using beautiful Fall themed colors before pressing them onto paper to create their very own leaf prints. Our children were so focused and active throughout the process, carefully painting their leaves and making their own individual creations. But we weren’t going to let all those beautiful leaves go to waste! After everyone finished their individual artwork, we came together as a group and painted a big tree trunk using brown paint. Then, we added our painted leaves to the tree; some on the branches and some underneath, just like fallen leaves we see during Fall. And just like that, we created our very own Kindergarten Fall Tree! It was such a lovely way to turn everyone’s individual creations into one beautiful piece of group art.

“I want to paint it different colors and make the leaves different” -Layan

“I want my leaves down down like they are falling” -Elion

“I drew the trunk so it looks like the leaves are falling like autumn” -Lubono

“I want red only” -Arthur

“I want brown” - Omna

Gymnastics

For Gymnastics this week, we worked on something a little different; scissor exercises! Using scissors helps strengthen the small muscles in our children’s hands and fingers while also helping them practice hand control, coordination, and using both hands together. These skills are specially important for all the writing, drawing, and other fine motor activities our children do throughout Kindergarten. Our children practiced cutting different sizes of colorful paper, choosing the colors they wanted and working on their cutting skills. But of course, we had to turn those little pieces into something! Once they finished cutting, our children used their pieces to create their own collages on a fresh sheet of paper. They arranged, glued, and created their own little designs, turning a simple cutting exercise into a creative piece of art.

“I’ll cut and make a hand and a crown for you and me” -Lumina

“I want to make a house with lots of windows and a garage” -Noam

“Cutting with scissors is so easy for me” -Gigi

“I don’t want to cut” -Omna

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.

That’s a wrap on another wonderful week in Kindergarten! We’re excited for all the new learning and fun waiting for us next week!