HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early, but had a great time!  We made friendship soup out of the veggies and noodles from our Wet Market Field trip, and learned how to make cornbread! We talked about the things we are thankful for, and sang a few of our favorite Thanksgiving songs, including this one:

Let's Be Thankful for this day,
For our friends and for our play.
Let's be thankful, let's be glad,
For our food and things we have.
Let's give thanks to you and me,
And our homes and family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Update Nov 17 to 21

Dear Parents,

We had another fun week in the yellow starfish classroom!!!  A BIG THANK YOU to all of our parents who came on our Wet Market Field Trip!  I hope you had fun—the kiddos were chattering about the trip for the rest of the day J  We cut up the veggies, made a soup, and had a small in class Thanksgiving celebration. J (Everyone tried our soup and cornbread!  Some even asked for seconds!  There were a couple who didn’t LOVE the soup, but I’m proud of them for trying it out!)  Find some of our other activities below…

*learned the name, sounds, letter formation for Cc (hard and soft) and Kk. 

*added kernels of corn to our Kk and cotton to our feely letter Cc.

*brainstormed and wrote Cc and Kk words in our alphabet journals.

*estimated and counted tiny plastic cats that were in our class estimation jar.

*continued to sing Albuquerque Turkey, Let’s Be Thankful, and Hello Mr. Turkey.  We sang a lot!

*learned why the Native American Indians were important to the Pilgrims and how they were involved with the first Thanksgiving. 

*learned about the life cycle of a plant and saw how planting corn seeds is a little different than pumpkin seeds.

*made corn bread (YUM!!!!!! Most of the cuties asked for seconds!!!!! J)

*measured a Cucumber and a Carrot with unifix cubes and saw how many blocks long each was, and then decided which vegetable was longer and which one was shorter.

*made Thanksgiving headbands (they are pretty darn cute! )

*made a placemat by dipping cut up veggies into paint and stamping them on our paper.

*talked about and drew what we are thankful for.  The cuties did such a good job, I HAD to take pictures of each other them.  See the blog J

RECIPE FOR CORN BREAD

Last year I had several requests for the cornbread recipe we made. I thought I would preempt that this year but just giving it to you! It is a very easy one to do at home with your cuties.

1 cup yellow or white cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour

2-4 tablespoons sugar (or honey) (optional)

4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup milk

1 egg beaten

¼ cup vegetable shortening or oil

Heat oven to 400f

Combine dry ingredients. Add oil, egg and milk.  Mix just until blended

Bake 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

REMINDER: **Next week we only have school on Monday and Tuesday.**

Wednesday, November 26^th:   Faculty Inservice Day, No School for Students

Thursday, November 27^th and Friday November 28^th:  THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.  NO SCHOOL

*Please remember to turn in lunch forms to school

*Remember to return red library bags and blue Friday Folder bags every Monday (although blue bags are not going home until Tuesday this time J)

Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!  Lynsey and Aidah

Friday Update November 10 to 14

Friday, November 14

The cuties had another great week of learning! We talked a lot about Harvest, the seasons (and what Fall/Autumn is really like—it is hard when we live in Singapore! J) and began talking about Thanksgiving, how it was started, and how we celebrate by being thankful.

This week we also…

*learned the sounds (long and short), hand motion and letter formation for the letter Ee.

*added eggshells to our feely letter Ee. (They have been washed and disinfected J)

*brainstormed and added Ee words to our alphabet journals.

*did an egg experiment by placing an egg in vinegar.  We are waiting to see what will happen to the egg as the vinegar breaks down the calcium in the shell.  This is a fun/easy experiment to replicate at home.

*ELMER!!!!!  We revisited one of our favorite books.

*read Green Eggs and Ham, and then cooked scrambled eggs—have your child tell you about them! The cuties did a great job cracking their own eggs for this cooking project AND…..everyone tried them!!!!!!!  WOW! (Some even had SECONDS!!!!!!!!)

*learned the song Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, Albuquerque Turkey, I’m a little Turkey and Hello Mr. Turkey and we added them to our Song books. (Please send the song books back to school if you haven’t already!)

*read books about patterns on farms and painted patterns on paper.  These papers were cut into rectangles and turned into scarecrows. 

*practiced our beginning sounds through a picture/letter matching game.

*Used our imaginations and great oral language skills in the “Farmers’ Market” dramatic play.

*Counted pennies and nickels as we practiced buying food at the farmers’ market.

*talked about our pumpkin plants and how they grew into sprouts already!!!!!  Ask your child what we did to plant them?  What will happen next? (flower, bulb, pumpkin—in Singapore they probably won’t get past the flower stage, but we can always try.)

*decorated a box to put all of the CFC donations in J  We are putting them together on Monday, so if you have any art supplies you want to donate to the cause… J

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will introduce the letters Cc and Kk.  These letters are introduced together because they make the same sound.  We will continue with harvest activities and learn about and explore vegetables. 

FIELDTRIP!!!!!!!!

A permission slip for our first fieldtrip, the Woodlands Wet Market, went home in your child’s zippy pouch on Friday.  Please sign it and return it by Monday.  We need lots of parents for this trip so please join us if you can!

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, November 19^th: Walking Field Trip to Wet Market

Wednesday, November 26^th:   Faculty Inservice Day, No School for Students

Thursday, November 27^th and Friday November 28^th:  THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.  NO SCHOOL

*Please remember to turn in lunch forms to school

*Remember to return red library bags and blue Friday Folder bags every Monday

A reminder:  CFC ART KITS

Pre K Volunteer Service Opportunity!

Over the Thanksgiving break; a team of 25 SAS teachers will be travelling to Siem Reap as part of an annual Caring for Cambodia (CFC) Teacher Training project. This year, the SAS team has been asked to share teaching methods in problem solving for math with the Cambodian teachers. In the past, SAS students have also assembled hygiene kits for the families of the CFC schools. This has been a wonderful tradition for our Pre-K to 5th Grade students for the past nine years. As of this year, the kits will now be provided through the generous donations of Unilever, but we have taken on a new project to help the children of the CFC schools---Art Kits!

How can you HELP? Creativity is an invaluable resource, and to generate inspiration in the CFC students we want to provide them with the tools to express their imaginative spirits. Our goal is to create and transport 1,000 Art Kits to Siem Reap. If every student brings in enough items for one kit, we will be well on our way of reaching our goal. This activity is optional. If you would like to participate please have your child bring in the following items by Friday, November 14^th.

one watercolor paint set  

one box of colored pencils  

one set of colored markers

          The students will assemble the kits in their classrooms and write a personalized note to put inside the art kit. The SAS team will bring the kits to Cambodia in November. Thank you in advance for all of your support. The children love making these kits, and it is amazing to see how their efforts can make a difference in another child’s life. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Warm regards,      

Pre-K Teachers

Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!!!!  Lynsey and Aidah

Friday Update Nov 3 to 7

Friday, November 7, 2014

The yellow starfish have had another amazing and fun week with lots of learning going on!  We also celebrated James’ Birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

Your child’s poetry and song book is coming home in their Friday Folder today—be sure to sing the songs with them this weekend, and they will use their “magic pointer” to point to the words as they sing!  (Of course they may not be pointing to the correct words—the idea is to have them know which way you read-Left to Right, and that the words they are singing are on the page. J)

This week we also…

*learned the sound, letter formation, and hand motion for the letter Hh.

*brainstormed word that started with or contained Hh and wrote them in our alphabet journals.

*we hammered into our feely letter Hh.

*planted pumpkin seeds and learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

*read “Too Many Pumpkins” and “From Seed to Plant” along with other pumpkin and growing/harvest books

*talked about homes/houses and read stories both fiction and non-fiction

*had a wonderful discussion about how where we all live is very different (some of us live in houses, some in apartments, and how people in different parts of the world have very different homes.)

*drew pictures of our homes

*looked at popsicle sticks as a provocation—I didn’t tell them what to do with them, but there was glue, paper, and a variety of other materials out, and our cuties went to town!  Some made houses, others glued them onto paper in different designs, some built vehicles….lots of fun and wondering!

*read “The Big Orange Splot” and painted pictures of our dream/imaginary houses

*built in the block room

*had fun with sensory blue beads in our sensory table

*Kellan and Savanna found a grub in our sandbox outside so our class used the opportunity to investigate

*we had a visit from the ice cream man today!  The cuties bought an ice cream from him and had a little treat after lunch.  (He was supposed to come a couple of weeks ago, but his cart broke down—so yay for today J

NEXT WEEK

We will introduce the letter Ee. We will also continue learning about the seasons, harvest and start talking about Thanksgiving.

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, November 19^th: Walking Field Trip to Wet Market—Please return permission slips and let me know if you would like to join us!

Wednesday, November 26^th:   Faculty Inservice Day, No School for Students

Thursday, November 27^th and Friday November 28^th:  THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.  NO SCHOOL

*Please remember to turn in lunch forms to school

*Remember to return red library bags and blue Friday Folder bags every Monday

FROM THE LIBRARY….

Dear Parents,

The Elementary Library is hosting a parent coffee on Monday, November 10th from 8:30 - 10:00 am

 in the Elementary Library Loft. 

There will be a general information session about our Library services followed by ‘hands on’ support with regards to eBooks, online resources, the card catalog, and selecting just right books. Please bring your own device (iPhone, iPad, laptop, tablet) so that we can support you. Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP using this Google Form.

Warm Regards,

ES Library Team

Thank you!!! Have a great weekend!  Lynsey and Aidah