Friday Update April 8

This week our explorations have taken us many different places, and we have covered many concepts, from reviewing the letters and sounds, to patterning and counting, to rhyming! It has been a busy week, and we have been missing Rania, who has been quite ill.  We are hoping to have her back in our classroom soon!

Our explorations and activities included…

*Experimenting with colored sand and glue

*Testing various objects to see if they sink or float

*Investigating insects

*Rhyming games

*Counting and cooperation games

*Math provocations with dominos and objects (the students were counting, patterning, adding, using spatial awareness, number recognition, one-to one correspondence, subitising, all from simple manipulatives.)

*We have been playing a lot of games with our letters and sounds, and sounding out stories and sentences together. We have also discovered quite a few sight words that we already know and use a lot!

*Several students continue to be very interested in animals or airplanes, so we will continue to pursue these…

SAVE THE DATE:

PRE-K CELEBRATION AND PORTFOLIO SHARING

The children have been working hard all year, and would like to celebrate!

Please join us to help celebrate our accomplishments, share our portfolios, and watch a slide show of our Pre K experiences.

Friday, May 20, 2016

8:15 am

E104 (our classroom)

*Please let me know if you CANNOT make it

INTEGRATING INTO THE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Over the next couple of months of Pre-K we try to give the children plenty of opportunities to visit different areas of the Primary School and interact with many of the PS faculty. In May we will also have a magic show in the kindergarten group room, visit the kindergarten classes, go to the library to have a story with Mrs. Cuthbert and eat snack in the Primary School cafeteria. By June your children will be Kindergarten experts!  Please see list of dates below….more details will be provided as the dates get closer.

Upcoming Dates and Things to Remember:

(I’m trying to get the rest of the year sorted, so you can put dates on your calendars J)

*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 at school before the year is over, 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.

*Next Wednesday, April 13^th is Alternate Dress

*Tuesday, April 26^th: Teacher Appreciation Day J YAY! J

*Friday, May 2^nd:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL

*Thursday, May 9^th:  Pre K Visits KINDERGARTEN! (Students only) We will walk to the primary and visit kindergarten rooms, play on the k playground, listen to a story read by Mrs. Cuthbert (PS Librarian) and have a snack in the primary school cafeteria.

*Friday, May 20^th: CELEBRATION/PORTFOLIO SHARE starting at 8:15am(Parents are highly encouraged to attend this day J)

Magic Show-Date TBD (Students only) We will walk to the primary school, have an opportunity to play on the kindergarten playground, watch a magic show and enjoy a popsicle.

*Monday, May 23^rd: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

*Friday, June 3^rd:  Last Day of School!—11:30am dismissal

Have a great weekend! Lynsey and Aidah J

Friday Update April 1

Hi Parents!

It has been another busy week of learning and exploring! We started some new projects, had guests in our class, and had a lot of fun! Thank you to Hudson’s mom Tiffany and Jasper’s grandparents Laura and Fred for coming in to do potions and reading and building.  We had Ms. Alexis in our class on Tuesday (she is doing a degree in Early Education) and the kids LOVED her!  We also had our counselor Mr. Pearson come in on Wednesday to talk about being safe. ( I sent an e-mail with the links earlier this week.)

Our cuties have been falling sick--be sure they get lots of rest this weekend :-)

Our explorations and activities included…

*We watercolor painted on our mirror table!

*We continued on our love of Mo Willems books by doing some artwork and writing and reading inspired by his books. At one point I had 8 kiddos around me clamoring to draw and write pages!!!

*Some of our students started a new maker space project—they are still in discussions about what they are planning, but it took off! 

*Another set of cuties were inspired by some maps I brought in from the spring break and started making their own HUGE one.

*We talked a lot about our spring breaks—the kiddos wanted to share all about what happened on their breaks!

*There was a lot of building, of rocket ships, airplanes, apartment blocks, train stations, mailboxes…

*We played alphabet and math games and practiced writing some simple words.

*And much, much more…(be sure to look at the pictures on the blog! J It is a good way to talk about the week with your cutie!)

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

*Please return the red library bag and books on Monday!! 

Theatre mini project

Our class is slightly obsessed with Mo Willems books, and many were inspired and excited about our upcoming trip to the Ulu Pandan Community Theatre for Elephant and Piggie are in a Show! A group of students (some of whom came and went throughout the project) used recycled materials and things they found in the classroom to make their own theatre.

“I’m going to make a plan! I will draw it out!” –Liam

(His plan is below the final project.)

“We need to make it big…theatres are really big.” –Malia

“But theatres have different areas sometimes. You know when you go to the movies? There are different ones. I’m going to make a smaller one on the side” –Shayne (He then started making his own mini theatre to add to the side.)

“We should make the people to go in the seats. Our mommies and daddies and kids. And us!” –Ella

The students paused often to look at their progress, and paused before they started at the beginning of each day. There were also side conversations, and discussions of which Elephant and Piggie books were their favorite and many many quotes from the books!

“We should wait until we see the show to draw Elephant and Piggie.”-Rania

“Yeah, then we can draw them really good.” –Map

“I wonder if Mo Willems has seen this show…” –Malia

After we saw the show, the students added the curtains and stage for the characters. They took turns showing off the theatre to the class and describing the important parts.

Pictures from March 14 to 16

Friday Update March 7 to 11

We have been busy!!  So many learning adventures and explorations going on! We celebrated Jasper’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASPER!) and had an amazing field trip!  Thank you to Neetu and Mina for organizing blue cupcakes to celebrate our new baby, and for so many thoughtful presents and beautiful handmade cards! 

Our explorations and activities included…

*We took a field trip to the Ulu Pandan Community Theatre to see Elephant and Piggy are in a Play! The kids LOVED the bus, LOVED the show (they were laughing all the way through it!) and LOVED being together!  What a great day!

*Our mark making and maker space areas still continue to be popular!  Thank you again for sending in envelopes, paper, stickers, paper towel tubes, water bottles….you name the item and they are using them!  Many great inventions happening!

*Some of our students had the great idea to use some of our materials to make a theatre! (It seemed to be inspired by our field trip that was coming up when they first started this!) They used many of the recycled materials, but also looked through the shelves to find tiles, wood pieces, popsicle stick people…the list is endless and the project is still ongoing, but listening to the discussion as the kids were working was amazing.

*A different group of students started making an airplane and airport! There were wings, a cockpit, pilots, travellers, suitcases, and signs to show what was happening. There was much discussion that it was a Singapore Airlines plane going to Canada or Thailand!  More documentation will be posted so you can see how elaborate these projects were becoming during this week!

*There was a lot of practicing of letters, numbers and sounds this week, through games, writing, and fun movement activities.

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, March 16: I am at school but at a PLC leadership meeting so there will be a sub teacher in the classroom.

Thursday, March 17^th and Friday, March 18^th: PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES.  Our students do not come to the conferences and do not have school these two days. *If you would like to talk to Ma Laoshi about Chinese, please sign up on her schedule (the same page that my sign up is on.) Ms. Laura’s is also there, however she is away for the conference days and will be doing her meetings on a different day.

March 19^th to March 27^th:  SPRING BREAK: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

*Please return the red library bag and books on Monday!!

MANGO AND JELLY!!

Mango and Jelly are a special part of our classroom family. We have talked a lot throughout the year about being kind, gentle and respectful to our sweet animals.

Since I have returned from maternity leave, the students have a renewed excitement about the piggies, and have been observing them, drawing them, drawing FOR them, writing letters to them and reading about guinea pigs. This has also led to interest in talking about other animals. This is some of our conversations about two of our favorite animals. J

“I wonder do Mango and Jelly have birthdays. I make them a cake.” –Jimmy

“I love the guinea pigs because they are so soft and furry!” –Map

“And so fluffy to hug and cuddle!” –Jasper

“Really, really, REALLY fluffy!” -Malia

“Mango and Jelly are the sweetest.” –Aria

“And the gentlest! They are so gentle to us.” –Liam

“Yeah, they are gentle cause they don’t bite us, right Liam?” -Xavion

“They are so so cute, aren’t they?” –Hudson

“I think they are beautiful.” –Si-Yoon

“We give them so much good food. They need food.” –Maxton

“That’s why we have to help Ms. Lynsey feed them. They like so many things. I did that at home when Mango and Jelly stayed with me.” –Rania

“In my home they walked all around my house but didn’t run away!” -Ella

“They also need a cage to live in, right? They have a good cage for when they are not walking around my house or the class.” –Dylan

“And they talk to us through the cage! They go squeak, squeak, when they tell us they like us or when they want food or to look out of their cage! Those are such cute sounds!” –Daniel