Week 7 in Kindergarten!

4 days ago

5 min read

Dear Family,

Happy Thursday! Short weekdays, huh? The days are short, and so are the weeks! As usual, we’ve made good use of our time and covered all our planned activities, along with some unplanned ones and little explorations that popped up along the way. Let’s take you through our week and see what we were up to!

Large Group

Besides our usual daily Large Group routine, our Large Group books this week were all about Fall! And guess what? We didn’t read just one book, but two! Both books introduced us to Fall and some of the delicious foods we get to enjoy during this season. Each day, we read together, stopped for little discussions about what was happening in the stories, and squeezed in a few song breaks along the way. Because what’s a good story time without a little singing in between? Our Large Group discussion this week was all about Family! We talked about different family members and shared their names, giving us a chance to learn a little more about one another and the people who are special to us. Remember our previous Large Group book, Our Class Is a Family? We brought that idea back and talked about how, even though we may come from different places and have different families at home, we are all part of one school family, too! We discussed how we can care for one another, offer support, and be there for our friends in different ways. After all, that’s what being a family is all about! Our Large Group learning focus this week was sight words! We picked some Level 1 sight words and spent the week practicing how to recognize and read them. With every little practice, our children are becoming more familiar with these words and gaining confidence in recognizing them. Little by little, one word at a time, we’re building those early reading skills!

“I know my dad and my moms name it’s Weyni my mom” -Samaria

“We are class room family and we also have another family” -Noam

“My moms name is Paula but I don’t call her that I call her mom and daddy” -Lubono

“You know I have a lot of family like a lotttttt” -Elion  

“My mom is Timu and My dad is daddy and I have a brother too also a sister Nia” -Layan

Literacy

Even though we took a little break from vowels last week, this week we jumped right back in; but this time, we were learning about long vowels! We first discussed the difference between short and long vowel sounds and practiced reading words with long vowels from the board. Then came our little vowel trick; when two vowels go together, the first vowel usually says its name, while the second vowel stays quiet. We made it playful by reminding our children that the first vowel gets to do all the talking while the second one stays silent! In our second session, we put our reading into practice with a worksheet. Our children read each word and then circled the picture that matched the word. It was a great way to practice recognizing the words and connecting what they read to the pictures.

“Cake and bake are the same” -Gigi

“This is rake it says rake” -Arthur

“I want to do this there outside infront of the office” -Lumina

Math

After working on “What Comes After?” last week, this week we turned things around and asked; “What Comes Before?” During our first session, we practiced on the board together. We looked at different numbers and worked out which number comes right before each one. We gave everyone a turn to think, answer, and explain their ideas. For our second session, we took our learning outside and worked on a worksheet. Our children had to look carefully at each number and figure out which number comes before it. And they all did great! It was lovely seeing how much more confident they are becoming with number sequencing.

Science

Continuing our Living and Non Living journey, this week we learned about what living things need. After recalling what living things are, we started our first session with a discussion about what different living things need to survive. We talked about humans, animals, and plants individually and discussed how their needs can be similar in some ways but different in others. Once we had our ideas out, we brought out different samples and materials for our second session. Our children worked with chart paper and different living thing picture cards to sort and talk about what each one needs. We discussed our choices together and, most importantly, talked about why we made those choices. It was another fun way for our children to connect what we were learning to real living things and think about how all living things have needs that help them grow and stay alive.

Art

Since we’ve been exploring the Fall season, we continued making our art Fall themed this week. This time, we made nature bracelets! We wrapped tape around our wrists with the sticky side facing out, and then it was time for a little Fall nature hunt. Our children went around looking for fallen leaves, little flowers, sticks, and anything else from nature that caught their eyes. They then stuck their little discoveries onto their bracelets to create their very own nature collection. They had so much fun doing this! And after we finished our nature bracelets, we used the time we had left for some self portrait practice in the Art Room.

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.

  We can’t wait to see what next week brings. Stay tuned!