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

Caring for Cambodia

CFC ART KITS

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

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 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

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