Update and Pictures May 21 to 25

We celebrated THREE more birthdays this week!  (It’s been quiet on the birthday front for awhile…now we are rolling!  Our class has a lot of May, June, July birthdays! ) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ISABEL, HARRISON and RHEA!!!

Just a reminder that we have no school on Tuesday because of Vesak Day.

We went on another trip down to the Elementary School this week. We visited Ms. Ganske and Ms. Pepple (the two kindergarten music teachers.) We danced, looked at the instruments and were very excited! We stopped by the art rooms and a couple of the PE gyms (and swimming pool,) saw the ES cafeteria where our kiddos will be eating lunch, and visited the Elementary Office (with HUGE fish!) and the nurses office.  Our students are jazzed about this transition! We will do one more visit to the ES library and the rooftop playground.

Mango and Oreo Cookie needed baths and haircuts and our students were amazing at helping to take care of them while one or the other were getting pampered, as well as helping out. They then became part of their dramatic play! A whole story involving the guinea pigs evolved, and we had many other “class pets” out with Mango and Oreo.

The mark making materials disappeared! A lot of wondering where the markers, pencil crayons, pastels went, until a note was received about how the mark making materials were sad and scared that they were not being taken care of. They were scared to be tossed on the floor, broken and without caps. It was interesting to witness what the students decided to do about it. Ask your child what happened, and if the mark making materials decided to return…

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We would love you to send in more fruit for our classroom. Thank you so much!

*May 29^th: Vesak Day-No School

*June 7^th: Last Day for Students—11:30 Dismissal

Week 36 May 21 to 25

88 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Update and Pictures May 14 to 18

We celebrated two birthdays this week!  (We are starting to celebrate our summer birthdays now as well!)  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALISA and ARIAN!!

We had a wonderful visit to one of the kindergarten hubs. Ms. Wan and Ms. Clow’s classes welcomed us with open arms, and we read a story together, had a chance to explore as well as eat a special snack with each other.  Next week we will be visiting the music classrooms, take a tour of PE, art, and the nurse and ES office, and eat our snack in the primary cafeteria.

We also had the fun privilege of learning to breakdance with Mr. Kyle (Amelia’s dad!) After impressing us all with his very awesome and fancy moves, the kiddos had a chance to learn. SO MUCH FUN!

Today we are saying farewell to Alisa and her family who will be moving away. We are sad but know your new adventures will be amazing! We have loved having you as part of our classroom family, Alisa! Big hugs from all of us!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We would love you to send in more fruit for our classroom. Thank you so much!

*May 29^th: Vesak Day-No School

*June 7^th: Last Day for Students—11:30 Dismissal

Week 35 May 14 to 18

91 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Update May 7 to 11

Thank you so much for being a part of our learning celebration today! I became a little choked up and couldn’t quite express how much these amazing children mean to Ms. Aidah and I.  These beautiful, kind, empathetic, capable, inspiring young learners are what will make our world a better place to live. It has been such a joy to be a part of their learning this year, and with each exploration, project and discussion, it felt like our connections became stronger and the learning richer. If you can, please be sure to come back and visit us in Pre K!!

The learning doesn’t stop now though! We will be continuing our explorations in the classroom for the next few weeks, of course! The question “What does the universe look like?” was asked and we are investigating! The students are also becoming extremely creative and resourceful with our maker space recycled materials, so be sure to ask your child what they are constructing. Our book making process in also full steam ahead right now, writing, drawing, spelling, using materials (staplers, scissors, tape,) so our classroom library is growing by the day with amazing literature! 

We will be visiting Ms. Wan and Ms. Clow’s kindergarten classroom next Tuesday morning, and will eat snack with them. Be sure your child is here by 8:10 so we can start walking. The week after we will visit the music, PE and art classes, and probably try to get another play on the rooftop playground!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We would love you to send in more fruit for our classroom. Thank you so much!

*May 29^th: Vesak Day-No School

*June 7^th: Last Day for Students—11:30 Dismissal

Week 34 May 7 to 11

78 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

Update and Reminders April 30 to May 4

A reminder that next Friday, May 11^th is our Celebration of Learning from 8:00-9:15am. Please let me know if you are not able to be there. We will share a slideshow, sing a song, thank our amazing room moms, the students will share their learning journeys with you and then we will have some snacks on our courtyard. (The class is making banana bread and our amazing room moms will be contacting you if more snacks or drinks are needed.)

**Please know that the traffic is really busy here in the mornings with all of the buses coming through, so just plan accordingly.

We attended a kindergarten assembly this week, made watercolor salt paintings, and trimmed Mango and Oreo’s fur as we fed them new treats, just to name a couple of things. The students are very into number and spelling games too!

REMINDERS

*Please return the BLUE BAG and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*We would love you to send in more fruit and granola bars for our classroom. Thank you so much!

*May 11^th: CELEBRATION OF LEARNING! 8:00-9:15am in our classroom

*May 29^th: Vesak Day-No School

*June 7^th: Last Day for Students—11:30 Dismissal

Week 33 April 30 to May 4

73 new photos · Album by Lynsey Howitt

How Do Animals Play?

During exploration time, we noticed several students crawling around on the floor and bumping into each other with blocks and lego pieces. “We are lions!” Yoonjin exclaimed. “This is how lions play!” Arsh heard this from across the room and came over to investigate. “I don’t think animals play with toys like that!” Jaden answered, “They don’t have legos, but they could play games…like with sticks!”

Later on during connection time, we wondered as a group, “How do animals play?” and “What is the same and different about how animals play and how we (children) play?”

Investigating these questions initially took the forms of finding animal videos on National Geographic Kids, looking through books in the Elementary Library, and asking parents and peers what they knew about play in animals. This quickly moved to the students demonstrating their thinking through mark making and creating stories to share, building play structures, and dramatic play reenactments of observed animal play.

 “Animals can dig! Dogs find their bones to

  share with the other dogs.” -Harrison

“Tigers can build a house to stay in.”

–Jinqiao and ChengQian

“Kittens and rabbits play a game of ‘rock,

paper, scissors.’” -Jeha

“We should go to the zoo. There are real animals there!” Shulynne exclaimed one connection time.

“Do you think the pelicans are talking to each other? Do they love each other? They are standing so close so they must!” –Alisa

“The orangutans and monkeys were swinging and hanging like we do on the monkey bars at school!” –Annette

“The meerkats were popping up and down because they were playing hide and seek with each other! They wanted to see where the other

one was going!” -Isabel

“I think the lizards were playing tag.” –Musa

“The polar bear is thinking of ideas. He is thinking what to do with his ball and how to swim.” –Arian

“I think animals play just like us! They can have friends, they can think of ideas for fun and they talk to each other!” –Amelia

“Except with animal noises!” –Rhea

The students are continuing to reflect on their experiences at The Singapore Zoo and are now wondering if other people know that animals play just like we do. “How are we going to share this?” The empathy, care and love for animals that was demonstrated in our last

animal project continues to be expressed in a variety of different ways with an enduring and keen interest and fascination about how animals are an important and beautiful part of our world.

“We are beginning to learn that each animal has a life and a place and a role in this world. If we place compassion and

care in the middle of all our dealings with the animal world and honor and respect their lives, our attitudes will

change.”

-Jane Goodall