Week 8 in Kindergarten!
Updated: 4 days ago
Dear Family, just like that, we’re already in Week 8! Time really does fly when we’re busy learning, exploring, creating, and having fun together. This week was another one filled with little discoveries, and of course, lots of learning along the way. Let’s take you through what we were up to this week…
Happy Birth Day, Elion!
Large Group
Besides our usual daily Large Group routine, this week’s book was Seed to Plant. We talked about how a tiny seed can grow into a plant and followed along with the different stages of its growth. Our Large Group topic this week was Tally Marks. We introduced tally marks and practiced making and reading them together on the board. We looked at different groups of objects and used tally marks to record how many we had. Our children took turns practicing on the board and getting familiar with this new way of keeping track of numbers.
“I watched jellyfish on TV. I eat banana and juice with pear” -Arthur
“In the weekend I played with my mom doing pretty makeup and I cried because I wanted to stay all night and I didn’t want to sleep but then my other mom was sleeping so I become happy and on Sunday my mom did my hair and we ate pizza together. My mom promised to buy me slime from Florida” -Gracious
“Phi, you know yellow and blue mix green so I did that at home with my brother on the weekend and I eat pizza and burger with my mom and I also go to supermarket and I danced at home- Samaria
“I go to hotel and I swim and I ate pizza and go back home on the weekend when I didn’t have school on Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday and I left something I also made juice ice at home” -Elion
“Yeah, I play in my home with my mom. I go somewhere too uhm to playground” -Lumina
“My weekend was good I was at my home and someone slept over at my house and I made ice cream and pizza. I also went somewhere to sleep over” -Layan
“I was watching TV on Saturday and Sunday and also we played outside with Lutanda. I drank tea and juice” -Lubono
“I drink juice. I eat shiro” -Omna
“She had pizza and ice cream on Sunday. Friday and Saturday she stayed at home” -(Nai’s Nanny
Literacy
This week in Literacy, we made reading and writing a little more personal and, of course, a lot more fun. For our first session, we did Read and Draw. We wrote different words on our writing bags, and our children had to read each word and then draw what it said. But we decided to make it a little more interesting by adding the names of people they love. Once they started seeing familiar names, the giggles definitely started coming! For our second session, we switched things around and did Draw and Label. Our children first drew whatever they wanted and then had to think about what they had drawn and write the name of it. This gave them a chance to connect their drawings to words while practicing their writing in a way that felt meaningful and fun.
Math
This week in Math, we counted by 10s. We first made it hands on by asking our children to choose 10 objects of their choice. Once everyone had their objects, we went around together and practiced counting them by tens; 10, 20, 30, 40 and so on. In our second session, we took what we had practiced and put it into a worksheet. The worksheet had groups of ten blocks lined up together, and our children had to figure out how many blocks there were by counting by tens instead of counting each block one by one. This helped our children see that when we have groups of ten, we can count much faster and more easily by tens.
Science
Our Science topic this week was What Do Plants Need? We started by recalling what plants need to grow, and our children came up with some great answers; water, soil, and sunlight. We then talked a little more about soil and why it is important for plants. Soil gives plants a place to grow their roots and also holds water and nutrients that plants need. We talked about how roots grow down into the soil and take in the water that helps the plant grow. For our next session, we wanted to investigate something a little further; Does sand hold water the same way soil does? We explored the difference between sand and soil and then tested both with water. We poured water into each one and observed what happened. Did the water stay in the material, or did it pass through quickly? Our children made their observations and compared the two. It was a simple little experiment, but it helped us see that different materials behave differently when water is added. Soil can hold onto more water because of the spaces and tiny particles within it, while water tends to move through sand more quickly.
Art
We are currently renovating our Space Center, so this week we started working on something that was definitely needed; remaking some of the planets that had gotten a little squashed on our space ceiling! We started with Venus, Mercury, and Neptune. Our children blew up their own balloons, then tore newspaper into little pieces. Using glue, they covered the balloons with the newspaper pieces to create the base of our planets. Once they were finished, we took them outside to dry. Some of our planets were ready to move on to the next stage, while others are still drying and will need a little more work. It’s definitely a process, and we’re taking our time with it. Keeping that in mind, when our children chose the Space Center during Work Time, they also had the opportunity to work on their planets and paint them on their own. This gave them a chance to make choices, continue a project over time, and take part in renovating our Space Center together.
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 concludes another week in Kindergarten! We hope you enjoyed reading through all the details!
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