Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

A favorite song of ours...

Who took the cookie from the cookie jar? 
[Squirrel] took the cookie from the cookie jar!
Who me? 
Yes, you! 
Not me! 
Then who? 

We go through the animals in the book, but then turn to our class of cuties.  I don't know for sure, but I think some of them might be guilty for taking a cookie--take a look and judge for yourself!!!! :-)

Jolly Phonics--S!

SAS uses Jolly Phonics to introduce the letters and sounds for reading and writing. It uses the synthetic phonics method of teaching the letter sounds in a way that is fun and multi-sensory. Children learn how to use the letter sounds to read and write words. 

The five basic skills for reading and writing are: 1. Learning the letter sounds 2. Learning letter formation
 3. Blending
 4. Identifying sounds in words 5. Spelling the tricky words 

Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters. 

 We started with Ss this week, and the students have been involved in many fun activities including learning the song, action and story for Ss, painting wooden snakes, practicing our 5 color S’s, coming up with words that start with S, eating gummy snakes, learning a sandwich poem, and making our first feely shape S. 

 The favorite activity was looking at a REAL snake skeleton from the science lab upstairs in the high school and drawing our own! Look at our amazing snakes! I loved hearing the discussion as we observed!

We are growing!

We measured ourselves today, and recorded how many centimeters tall we are.  We are going to compare this to the end of the year, and see how much we have grown!

A Visit from Dr. Landau

Pre K had a special visit from Dr. Landau, our Deputy Superintendent at the end of the day!  It started as a Sing-A-Long, turned into dancing, and was a HUGE AMOUNT OF FUN!

Block Play

Many people don't realize the importance of playing with blocks.  It's just a fun activity for kids to do, right?  Wrong!  (Smile!)  When children are in the block center they:

-develop large and small muscle control
-improve eye-hand coordination
-explore spatial relationships and comparisons of sizes and shapes
-plan and solve problems while working with other children
-use their imagination to build things like castles, zoos and towers
-ignite creativity as they are allowed to bring other things into the block area (like dolls, cars etc), and dramatic play begins!

Here are some pictures of our cuties in the block center this week.  The discussions involved in some of these amazing structures....WOW! It was really cool to observe, as many of the children started off by themselves, and were soon all involved in making different parts of a city!  I can't wait to see what they will be up to next!

Week 3 Pictures!

There are a lot to look through...it has been an exciting week!  Don't forget that you can download all of the pictures off my picassa album. :-)  Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Update Week 3!

How are we in Week 3 already?  Wow!

It was so wonderful seeing so many of you Wednesday night!  Thank you for coming!  I know you have had lots of information thrown at you during the past few weeks.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any clarification.

The yellow starfish are doing a fabulous job, are figuring out our routines, and are becoming pros!  Here are some of the events this week.  Please take a few minutes to discuss them with your child.  We…

*brainstormed lots of ways we can be KIND and RESPECTFUL to our friends. (focus: friendship)

*graphed the number of letters in our classmates names. (focus: graphing, more)

*learned the words and hand motions for Hello Neighbor and decorated a copy for our Songs and Poems folder.  Please have your child teach you the hand motionsJ

*read the book “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie jar, and made our own book.

*went to the “construction zone” and built houses with blocks.

*decorated paper “friendship” dolls to look like us! (focus: body awareness/friendship)

A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK

Next week we will continue our theme of “About Me”, this time focusing on ourselves and how we are alike and different from our classmates.  We will do some work with colors and we will also introduce the first letter, Ss.

HOMEWORK

In the zippy pouch today you will find your child’s first “homework” assignment. Please take a few minutes this weekend to find items for color collage.  The whole family is welcome to help!  Have funJ

A MESSAGE FROM MR.GEOFF

August 26-30

Fun Room

We spent the week doing obstacle courses that helped develop our static and dynamic balance by tipping side to side and walking along various balance beams.  We also, jumped over and off of tactile discs. 

Learning Focus

Dynamic and static balance, engaging the vestibular system and sequencing. 

Terminology

If you would like further explanation as to the terminology presented in the Learning Focus section, please send me an email for further clarification.  I am hesitant to provide definitions here because I do not want this to become too cumbersome. 

Library

Preschool :  What Game Shall We Play? by Pat Hutchins was read in the library this week.  Preschool will continue with their author study of Pat Hutchins for the next few weeks.   

Prekindergarten:  Aaron’s Hair by Robert Munsch was read in the library this week. Pre-K will continue with their author study of Robert Munsch for the next few weeks. 

Each child checked-out one book on Wednesday of their own choosing to take home.  Please remember to return the library book by the following Monday, so your child is able to choose another book next Wednesday.   If you are in AM Preschool, please return the library book by Tuesday.

If parents would like to checkout books from any of the SAS libraries, please just present your SAS card to the librarian. 

Parent Volunteers Needed

The ECC Library is looking for parent volunteers to help organize and reshelf books.  If you are interested, just contact me via my email address below.

Grandparents

We are inviting grandparents to become involved with our ECC library time.   We invite any grandparents who are in Singapore to come read a traditional story from their culture or a favorite story of your grandchild.  For grandparents not in Singapore, we invite you to join us digitally.  Similarly, we would like you to read a traditional story from your culture or a favorite story of your grandchild by making a video of your reading and send it to me.  We would request that the stories be read or translated into English. 

Parents of ECC students, if your parents would be interested in this idea, please pass this message and my email address to them.  I will contact them to discuss this in greater detail.

Geoffrey Rodocker   grodocker@sas.edu.sg   

REMINDERS

*Return library book (in bags) on Monday.  You will get a new one on Wednesday.

*FRIDAY FOLDERS COMING HOME TODAY!!!!  Please have your child read their poetry and song book to you and return them on MONDAY.

*Return color homework on Monday.

*Check your “zippy pouch” nightly as it often contains important information from school and then return it the next day.

*Please return lunch menus, even if your child is having lunch from home, no later than Friday. (Check off or state if your child should have ice cream)

*Please let me know if there should be any changes on the contact list in your Back to School Night packet. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynsey and Aidah J