Saturday, 24 August 2013

Friday Update 2- August 23

Dear Parents,

The first full week of school has flown by!! Our class is still a little small (we have had a couple of our friends on holiday, and are waiting for two new students to join our class soon!)  We do have an amazingly cute class though! They are good friends already!  Here are some of the things we did this week.  We…

*decorated the songs Hello and Zip-a dee-doo-dah to put in our Songs and Poems folder.
*wrote 7 all over a copy of There are Seven Days in a Week and put it in our Songs and Poems folder.
*made “magic wands” to attach to our Songs and Poems folder. (Your child will help teach you the hand motions when this comes home.)
 *played a “Fishing for Friends” game to help us learn the names of our friends.
*Read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  And tried really hard to be “bucket fillers” all week.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book as we will refer to it often throughout the year.
*played “The Kissing Hand” counting game to review identifying and counting numbers to 10.
*went to the “Dramatic Play” area and used lots of language and social skills while playing house.
*made a graph of the number of girls and boys in our class. Ask your child how many boys/girls we have.
*counted and graphed the number of letters in our friend’s names.
*Read the poem 1, 2, Chocolate Goo!  And we made CHOCOLATE GOO PUDDING, finger painted with it, and ate it off of our fingers!!!!! YUM!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will continue learning about ourselves and our friends. 

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT Wednesday 28th August 2013

On this evening I will go over details of the curriculum.  I will also have the Volunteer calendar for the first semester so please bring your personal calendars to check dates.  Please let me know if you CANNOT attend Back to School Night as there is a parent activity that you will need to complete.
The evening schedule is:
 6.00-6.30 PM   Meet other parents and enjoy a cup of hot mulled cider and other refreshments.
 6:30-7:10 PM    Introductions of the ECC Faculty, General Announcements; Information about the Perceptual Motor, Chinese, Library and Speech-Language program will be presented.
 7:15-8:30 PM     In your child’s classroom to learn about their school day, the grade level curriculum and to get acquainted with teachers & other parents.
         CLASS BOOKS

Throughout the year the children will be making class books based on songs, poems, books, and themes that we cover in class. These books are always a big hit with the kids as they can “read” them on their own. This week we finished our first book, titled There is a Friend in Our Class. The book will help you and your child learn the names of the students in our class. The children will take turns bringing the class book home. When it is your turn please take a few minutes to share the book with your child (they love to read to an audience!) and return it the next day so someone else can have a turn.

POEM AND SONG FOLDERS

Next Week you will find your child’s Poems and Songs Folder in your blue Friday Folder.  This poetry/song folder is an all time favorite of my students, as they love to read it to their families. (I want to show this to you at parent night.)  When it comes home, please take some time this weekend to share the first 3 songs with your child.  The “magic wand” is used to point to the words and reinforce left to right directionality and other early reading skills.  Keep this folder in a safe place (it is very difficult to replace if lost).  Please return it in the Friday Folder (do not take the songs out) on Mondays.

FRIDAY FOLDERS
Each Friday your child will bring home a Friday Folder (This week it is not coming home) as we have kept most projects to decorate the room and add to the end of the year portfolios).  It is your child’s “homework” to share the contents of the Friday Folder with you.  The contents usually spark a memory that will get your child talking about school. Enjoy sharing the contents, keep them at home (unless otherwise specified), and return the Friday Folder to school on Monday.  This way we can begin filling it again for the following week. 

A MESSAGE FROM MR. GEOFF
August 19-23

Fun Room
This week, we focused on our bodies.  We moved around the room to music and used scarves to locate different body parts.  We also used different body parts to connect with each other (elbow to elbow, feet to feet) and used our bodies to make various statue poses.   

Learning Focus
Dynamic and static balance, spatial awareness, mapping the body and sequencing. 

Terminology
If you would like further explanation as to the terminology presented in the Learning Focus section, please send me an email for further clarification.  I am hesitant to provide definitions here because I do not want this to become too cumbersome. 

Library
Preschool :  Don’t Forget the Bacon by Pat Hutchins was read in the library this week.  Preschool will continue with their author study of Pat Hutchins for the next few weeks.   

Prekindergarten:  Get Out of Bed! by Robert Munsch was read in the library this week. Pre-K will continue with their author study of Robert Munsch for the next few weeks. 

Each child checked-out one book on Wednesday of their own choosing to take home.  Please remember to return the library book by the following Monday, so your child is able to choose another book next Wednesday. 

If parents would like to checkout books from any of the SAS libraries, please just present your SAS card to the librarian. 

Grandparents
We are inviting grandparents to become involved with our ECC library time.   We invite any grandparents who are in Singapore to come read a traditional story from their culture or a favorite story of your grandchild.  For grandparents not in Singapore, we invite you to join us digitally.  Similarly, we would like you to read a traditional story from your culture or a favorite story of your grandchild by making a video of your reading and send it to me.  We would request that the stories be read or translated into English. 
Parents of ECC students, if your parents would be interested in this idea, please pass this message and my email address to them.  I will contact them to discuss this in greater detail.

Geoffrey Rodocker   grodocker@sas.edu.sg  

Thank you. 

REMINDERS
*Updated class email phone number list will be ready for Parent Night on Wednesday.
*Parent Night: Wednesday, 28 August. 
*If your child is buying school lunch:  Please indicate, on the form, the type of drink you would like him/her to have. Please return the form even if your child is having home lunch (mark “lunch from home”)

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND
Lynsey and Aidah 

No comments:

Post a Comment