Friday Update April 20 to 24

                                                

It was another busy week in Pre K! We continued our insect unit (finishing with bees, looking at insects in general, and talked about ants and ladybugs), and had a fun yellow day! J  We also celebrated Kayla’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAYLA!!!)

This week we…

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

*added yellow yarn to our feely letter Yy.

*brainstormed words that began with Yy and added them to our alphabet journals.

*chopped and diced mango, bananas, peaches and pineapple and mixed in yogurt to make “Yummy, Yellow Yogurt”. (Can your child sing the song to you? The tune is “Apples and Bananas” I like to eat, eat, eat, yummy yellow yogurt....)

*learned about Vincent van Gogh and painted yellow sunflowers just like his famous painting. 

*caught and counted little yellow ducks in the water table.

*practiced programming our “bee bot” around obstacles.

*played a matching game with letters and sounds.

*sang “Mr. Sun,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” “6 Little Ducks,” and “You are My Sunshine.”

*used great speaking and listening skills as we shared the contents of in school “Yellow Day” show and tell. I am VERY proud of how the cuties did on this!

*helped set up and make props for out “Ant Hill” dramatic play area. 

*played Buggy Bingo and practiced writing our numbers to 20.

*reviewed what we know about bees and wrote in our creative writing journals.

*made a “What is an insect?” book that the cuties can read to you!

*did some reading about ants.

*made ant habitats/colonies/hills with many different rooms.

*learned about the life cycle and jobs that ants have, and compared them to what we know about the bee life cycle and their home and jobs.

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

Next week we will not be introducing a letter, but reviewing them as well as continuing with our insect investigations, going on our field trip, joining a kindergarten assembly in the elementary school, and having a day off on Friday! J

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

*SUMMER BIRTHDAYS: if your child's birthday is in the summer and you'd like to celebrate it during snack time (9:15) or lunch time (12:40), please send a note and we will celebrate!  J  We don’t want to miss anyone! Let me know what day works for you.

*IF you are leaving early, withdrawing from SAS or will be missing certain days over the next few weeks, send me a note. This will help me manage those last-minute details regarding report cards, work sent home, portfolios etc.

*Monday and Tuesday, April 27^th/28^th: Ms. Lynsey at Reggio Workshop with ECC. (I told the cuties today I would be here, but not here J)

*Tuesday, April 28^th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh (we don’t have many chaperones, so if you want to volunteer, you still have a chance!)

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long (please put this on your calendars for sure!  Your cutie will share their portfolio and I will have a slide show of our year.) (the Portfolio Share will be before lunch—time still TBD, the sing along right after lunch.)

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

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

Friday Update April 17

April 17, 2015

                                                

Dear Parents,

We are continuing our unit on insects, and our cuties are getting it!  They love to play “insect” in our dramatic play, look for insects outside, and tell everyone they see all about insects!!! (Ask your child about insects—six legs, two eyes, antennae, 3 body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), exoskeleton, etc.)  The students were really into bees, so we focused on them this week. J

*SONG BOOKS ARE GOING HOME THIS WEEK!  Please sing some songs with your child as they “point” to the words with their magic pointer and return the song books on Monday. They don’t have to sing all of the songs, and you are welcome to help them out at any point. J

This week we…

*learned the sound and letter formation for the letter Qq.

*added “quilt pieces” to our feely letter Qq.

*read the story The Kindness Quilt and each decorated a paper quilt square to add to a class quilt.

*we made Queen and King crowns.

*learned the song 5 Little Ducks and practiced making the /qu/ sound as it was sung and we subtracted our ducks!

*read books about the life cycle of a bee and created our own bee hives complete with eggs, lavae, pupae, queen bee and worker bees. Can your child tell you the life cycle of a bee?

*used hexagon blocks as cells and created a “buzzing beehive” to focus on shapes as well as how insects work in a colony.

*painted pictures of bees and insects and talked about the number of various body parts they have.

*used alphabet stamps to sound out some simple words.

*made a “What is an insect?” book.

*continued with “6 buzzing bumblebees.”

*Made insects with pattern blocks and graphed how many pattern blocks we used for our insects.

*practiced writing our name in lowercase letters, and practiced writing our lowercase letters.

*made AB, AABB, ABC patterns with insects of all kinds.

*had bee costumes in our dramatic play (the cuties LOVED this!)  There were a lot of bees buzzing around.  (And I loved hearing the vocabulary being used by the kiddos!  Entomologist, honey, thorax….it was so much fun!)

*sang “Bringing home my baby bumblebee and our other insect songs.

*we had Reading Buddies with Ms. Derksen’s first grade class.  We loved hearing them read to us!

*had fun building structures in the block room.  A lot of our cuties made insects and insect homes!

*we made yummy insect cookies! (Not out of insects, but made to look like insects J)

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

We will introduce the letter Yy as well as continue with our insect unit.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

Some dates to keep in mind for the rest of the year….  More details to follow on many of them, but mark your calendars!

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh (forms to come home next week.)

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

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

Friday Update April 6 to 10

Friday, April 10, 2015

                                                

Dear Parents,

What a great week!  We celebrated Yuzhi’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUZHI!!) and went on a fun field trip to see The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  We delved into our inquiry on insects. We started by talking about what we already know about bugs, and expressed our knowledge through clay, drawing, building….then we really started looking into what an insect is.  Many of the cuties were interested in bees, so we focused on that. 

This week we…

*began our last big unit on insects!   The insect unit is always a favorite with students.  It is something they can really relate to, especially in Singapore!!!  Our cute entomologists began their introduction this week, answering the question “What are insects and how are they the same/different from other living things?”  Ask your child if he/she can tell you about it! If you see any cool insects about town, take a picture and send it in J  We would love to see what you find. J We know there have already been insects looked at in the bug catchers, and then being respectfully let go to live out their lives. J

*learned the letter, sound and hand motion for Zz. 

*added zig zags to our feely letter ZZ.

*drew pictures of words that start with Zz in our alphabet journals, and cut out Zz pictures.

*built amazing structures in the block room (we were inspired by pictures we found.)

*practiced counting by 10. Can your child count to 100 by 10’s?

*learned the characteristics of an insect and what makes them different from other animals (Have your child tell you some of the differences. i.e.: insects hatch from eggs, insects have 3 body parts, insects have 6 legs)

*learned the songs Head Thorax Abdomen and I’m an Entomologist.  Please have your child sing them to you! J

*played an insect memory game using different insects found in Singapore.  Can your child tell you the name of some of the insects?

*pretended to be entomologists and collected, sorted and tallied different insects (plastic onesJ) in the sensory table.

*Read a lot of insect books!

*Painted insects we know, did bug puzzles and a bee matching game!

*Began learning a little more about bees, and starting making a bee habitat and bee puppets

*dressed up in the dramatic play center.  Insects were very popular and the cuties wanted to make their own antennae!

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

We will introduce the letter Qq do some activities with quilts and continue with our inquiry into insects.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

Some dates to keep in mind for the rest of the year….  More details to follow on many of them, but mark your calendars!

*Tuesday, April 14^th:  Reading Buddies with Grade 1 in the Elementary School

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

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

Friday Update April 2

Happy Easter from the cutest bunnies!  Enjoy the long weekend!

It was great to have the cuties back after a week of rest!  We talked about spring and Easter, and had lots of fun. We also finished off our big unit on fairy tales.  The kiddos have had tons of fun reenacting the stories in our dramatic play area and drawing them.

This week some of our activities included…

*learned the letter, sound and hand motion for Jj. 

*added jewels to our feely letter Jj.

*drew pictures of words that start with Jj in our alphabet journals, and cut out Jj words.

*learned the song John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt and added it to our Poems and Songs folders.

*made 4 flavors of jiggly Jello and mixed them in our bowls like rainbows and ate the jello!

*practiced identifying and counting numbers through 20 while playing Jellybean Bingo.

*read several versions of Jack and the Beanstalk.

*reviewed ordinal numbers and learned the steps to draw a bunny.

*made Jack climbing a curvy beanstalk to practice our cutting skills.

*read a lot of different Easter stories—my favorite is called Rechenka’s Eggs, a Ukrainian Easter story and I showed the cuties the Ukrainian eggs my grandma made—they are beautiful!

*made bunny ears and a bunny basket for our Easter hunt.

*read the book Duck Rabbit and made a duck rabbit J

*dyed Easter eggs.

*searched for chocolate eggs!

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will be learning about the letter Zz, and start delving into our INSECT inquiry unit.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.

*Check the blog for pictures from this week!

Some dates to keep in mind for the rest of the year….  More details to follow on many of them, but mark your calendars!

*Friday, April 3^rd:  Good Friday—No School for Students

*Friday, April 10^th:  Field Trip to DBS Theatre to see The Three Billy Goats Gruff (details and field trip form coming home today)

*Tuesday, April 14^th:  Reading Buddies with Grade 1 in the Elementary School

*Wednesday, April 29^th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh

*Friday, May 1^st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, May 18^th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am

*Friday, May 22^nd: PORTFOLIO SHARE and Parent/Child Sing a Long

*Tuesday, May 26^th: Wet Day

*Thursday, May 28^th: Magic Show

*Friday, May 29^th: Kindergarten Visit

*Monday, June 1^st: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 5^th:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

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