Sunday, 2 November 2014

Friday Update Oct 27 to 31

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  Thank you to all of the parents who helped out or joined our party this afternoon!  The cuties (and Aidah and I!) had a blast!  Thanks to Priyanka and Carolyn for all of their hard work in planning and organizing.

It was another fun week in the Pre K yellow starfish class….lots of PPPPPPPumpkin and Halloween activities!!! 
This week we…
*learned the sound, letter formation, and hand motion for the letter Pp.
*brainstormed word that started with or contained Pp and wrote them/drew them in our alphabet journals.
*added purple and pink pieces of paper for our feely letter Pp.
*we explored our pumpkin—rolled it, talked about what might be inside, how tall/heavy it was, measured it, drew it….and then cut it open to explore some more!  There were a lot of “wonderings” going on, and I think it might continue for awhile!  Our cuties were VERY interested in this pumpkin!
*estimated and counted the number of pumpkin seeds there would be in our big orange pumpkin!
*Painted symmetrical pumpkins and decorated them with a spooky Halloween scene.
*Created and copied patterns using Halloween characters
*ordered pumpkins from smallest to biggest
*Read a nonfiction book about pumpkins and sequenced pictures of the lifecycle of a pumpkin. (We will continue this next week J)
*learned the song Pumpkin Man and decorated the song sheet.  A copy of the song will come be in the Poems and Songs book. (I will send the Poems and Songs book home next Friday—I thought today would be a little too crazy J)
*Made a caterpillar out of circles, and wrote how “many circles long” their caterpillar was.
*played a listening game with jack-o-lanterns (tried to find different shapes for eyes….)
*Played a “draw a pig” game where they added different parts of the body to a pig depending on what number they rolled on the dice.
*Decorated a 5 Little Pumpkins page for our room.
* Made pumpkins to hang from the ceiling—lots of cutting involved and our cuties did a wonderful job!
* we were GOING to draw the Pigeon from Mo Willems’ books, but we ran out of time so we will do that next week!

The Little Orange House
This week, I told the students the story of the LITTLE ORANGE HOUSE. They loved it so much they wanted to show you.  There was a copy in the zippy pouch on wed—the story requires adult help---have fun!



REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
Wednesday, November 26th:   Faculty Inservice Day, No School for Students
Thursday, November 27th and Friday November 28th:  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
Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!  Lynsey and Aidah

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Wednesday Update :-) Oct 13 to 15

Although this has been a short week, it has been a busy one!  We celebrated Yan’s birthday—HAPPY BIRTHDAY Yan! We have continued learning about families, where we live, the seasons, and we started talking about Halloween! We also had two special guests come in and talk to us about Divali! Thank you Priyanka and Nidhi—we loved the story, putting sparkles on our Diyas, and decorated Diya cards with rangoli rice!
This week we also…
*reviewed the sounds, letter formation, and hand motions for the letters Ss, Aa, Tt, Ii and Nn.
*Read “Round and Round the Seasons Go” and talked about Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall.
*Made a painting/craft of the four seasons.
*Listened to some really funny stories in our listening center—there was a lot of loud laughing from there during centers! J
*started talking about Halloween and learned the “5 Little Pumpkins” song
*painted Halloween pictures
*visited the Pumpkin Patch
*read fun pumpkin and Halloween books.
*we spent some time in the block room building some amazing structures!


REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
Thursday/Friday October 16th/17th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences: Students DO NOT have school these two days.
Saturday October 18th to Sunday October 26th: NO SCHOOL—Fall Break
Friday, October 31st:  Halloween Party in our Classroom—(12:15-1:10)
*We wear our costumes to school (comfortable enough to wear all day J)
*We will eat lunch early (11:45) while parents set up our room and group room
*Parade around the ECC begins at 12:15
*Party starts at 12:30 (right after parade).  All parents are WELCOME to attend!! 
Thank you!!!  I look forward to talking with you about your cutie over the next two days, and I wish you and your family a safe, relaxing and happy Fall break!
  Lynsey and Aidah

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Friday Update October 6 to 10


It was another amazing week of learning in the yellow starfish Pre K class!!!!!!  There are not a lot of pictures this week—sorry about that—my camera died (a black screen where there should be pictures!) so I tried to take some on my phone….
This week we…
*learned the sounds (long and short), letter formation, and hand motion for the letter Ii.
*added ink drops to our “feely letter” Ii
*brainstormed and wrote Ii words in our alphabet journals
*played with ice (in the shape of cubes, spheres and cylinders) in the sensory table.
*practiced writing and decorated our initials.  Can your child tell you his/her initials? How about the initials of a friend in class?
*learned the ways children in our class say hello in different languages.
*played with spheres, cones, cubes, pyramids, cylinders, and rectangular prisms in the sensory table.
*read Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni, and measure things with a ruler
*sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider
*started talking about Fall, Halloween and pumpkins, and learned a 5 Little Pumpkins song

*Used one dollar Singapore coins to buy ICE CREAM from our friendly neighborhood ice-cream man!  We used our manners so kindly when asking for our ice-cream!

Pumpkin Patch: J  Every year, the PTA sets up a section of the kindergarten group room in Halloween/harvest decor and invites us to the "Pumpkin Patch". Our class will visit the pumpkin patch on Monday, Oct. 13 from 9:00-9:25.  I just wanted to let you know, so you had an idea if your child was talking about this! J

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
Thursday/Friday October 16th/17th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences: Students DO NOT have school these two days.
Saturday October 18th to Sunday October 26th: NO SCHOOL—Fall Break
Friday, October 31st:  Halloween Party in our Classroom—details to come!
*Return blue Friday Folder bag and red library bag and book on Monday
*Divali/Deepavali is coming up soon.  If you and your family celebrate this holiday, please consider coming in to talk about it with our cuties J
A Message from Ms. Jo:  Elementary Parent Coffee (Preschool - Grade 5)
The elementary administration will be holding their monthly coffee this coming Monday, October 13th, from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. in the 5th grade grouproom.  This month they will be explaining the work to date that has gone on with the elementary research and development team.   They will be soliciting input from parents on some of the different educational themes that have surfaced.

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

Thursday, 2 October 2014

Friday Update Sept 29 to Oct 3

Happy UN DAY!


Friday, October 3, 2014
Reminder:  We have no school on Monday because of Hari Raya Haji.  I will see your cuties back with me on Tuesday, October 7th.  Enjoy the long weekend! J

We have had a busy week!!  We had two birthdays (HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLAN!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN!!!) and celebrated UN Day.  Our cuties were gorgeous in every way, and they loved being a part of celebrating all of the countries of the world, and talking about peace.
This week we also…
*learned the sounds, letter formation, and hand motion for the letter Nn.
*added newspaper to our “feely letter” Nn
*brainstormed and wrote Nn words in our alphabet journals and cut out pictures.
*played with mooNNNNsand in our sensory table (the cuties love saying the N really long when they said this word!)
*ate yummy NNNNooodles with our chopsticks J
*talked about how we are at the American School, and we live in Singapore! We are so lucky! We learned more about the symbols of America, and talked with some of our cuties from the US. Then we looked at some of the symbols of Singapore, talked about our favorite places here, and talked about the flag and merlion. 
*the cuties presented their family banners.  I am so proud of them!  They did such a great job talking about their families and what is going on in each of the pictures. introduced Canada.
*I introduced Canada and we talked about the countries that everyone in the class is from, then tried to point them out during the UN day parade of flags
*continued talking about our families
*made “Potato Head Families”  (they are SERIOUSLY the most adorable things ever!  Look for them on the wall in the classroom during conferences.)
*read books about families and how they are alike and different
*practiced our Names
*made Noodle Necklaces

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
Thursday/Friday October 16th/17th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences
Saturday October 18th to Sunday October 26th: NO SCHOOL—Fall Break
Friday, October 31st:  Halloween Party in our Classroom—details to come!
*Return blue Friday Folder bag and red library bag and book on Monday
Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!  Lynsey and Aidah