Thursday, 3 April 2014

Pics from this week March 31 to April 4

Friday Update April 4

April 4, 2014 
                                                
Dear Parents,
It was so great to be back this week with our cuties!!! I heard all about your break, and whether you were on a trip or stayed here in Singapore, the cuties were excited to tell the class about their activities! We are a lucky group!  Please pay special attention to the dates at the end of this newsletter—we have A LOT of things coming up in this last quarter of Prek, it is hard to keep it all straight!

This week we…
*reviewed and ended our Fairy Tales unit, and 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  
*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.
*had a visit from “Mr. Z” (Ava’s dad in Ms. Kiran’s class) and he sang insect songs with us.
*built amazing structures in the block room (we were inspired by pictures we found.)
*practiced counting by 10 (Zero the Hero). 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.
*Talked about the idea of publishing a class book about insects.  We are compiling information we know about insets to put in the book and are “researching” insects.
*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
*Made a buzzing bumblebees book
*In the science center, predicted if certain classroom things would SINK or FLOAT and then tested it out J
A LOOK AT NEXT WEEK
We will introduce the letter Qq do some activities with quilts and continue with insects, focusing on bees.

REMINDERS/INFORMATION
*Return library books and blue bags on Monday.
*Check the blog for pictures from this week!
*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.
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 9th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am (and Alternate Dress Day)
*Friday, April 18th: Good Friday—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, April 24th: FIELD TRIP to see Rapunzel
*Thursday, May 1st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, May 8th: FIELD TRIP to Sungei Buloh
*Tuesday, May 13th: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL
*Friday, May 16th: PORTFOLIO SHARE 8:15-9:15
*Friday, May 23rd:  Parent Tea and Sing a Long
*Thursday, June 5th:  Last Day of School!—11:30 dismissal

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



Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Picture from March 17 to 19

It was a short week because of parent teacher conferences, but here are pictures from our visit with author Peter Brown, and saying goodbye to our dear wonderful Adam!

Thursday, 13 March 2014

Friday Update Week 27 March 10 to 14

March 14, 2014 
                                                
Dear Parents,
A NOTE ABOUT CONFERENCES: If you haven’t signed up for your child’s conference, they are closing the site today, so please go and do that.

We had another fun week of learning! J  We continued with our unit on fairytales and added Jack and the Beanstalk, The Little Red Hen, The Three Little Kittens to our repertoire.  The students are doing an amazing job in our dramatic play area with the costumes as well as with puppets and props of retelling the fairy tales.
We also…
*made patterns using the characters of Three Little Pigs.     
*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 3 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.
*observed the inside of a bean. 
*reviewed ordinal numbers and learned the steps to draw a bunny.
*made Jack climbing a curvy beanstalk to practice our cutting skills.
*painted rainbows
*learned all about St. Patrick’s Day (on Monday) and about those tricky little leprechauns!
*read St. Patrick’s Day Stories


NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be learning doing a review of the letters we have learned so far this year and concluding our Fairy Tales unit.

REMINDERS/INFORMATION
*Return library books and blue bags on Monday. (Also if you haven’t returned the menu for this coming week, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send it back to us! J  The cafeteria needs to know how many meals to prepare.)
*Check the blog for pictures from this week! (And for info from Ma Laoshi and Mr. Geoff—their updates are on their blogs—the links for them are on the side of my blog.)
Just a heads up for upcoming dates as we head into the last part of the year…
* Thursday, March 20th and Friday, March 21st:  Parent Teacher Conferences---I look forward to sharing your child’s strengths and goals with you! J 
*March 22 to March 30:  SPRING BREAK—NO SCHOOL
*Wednesday, April 9th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am
*Friday, April 18th: Good Friday—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, May 1st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL
*Tuesday, May 13th: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL

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

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Friday Update March 3 to 7

March 7, 2014 
                                                
Dear Parents,
It was another fun week of learning in the yellow starfish preK class!!!  We continued with learning about Fairy Tales, and really worked with The Three Billy Goats Gruff!! Our  classroom was filled with laughter and awesome storytelling as the cuties retold their versions of The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  This week the teachers did their final performance of the Goats Gruff.  The fairytale Unit is all about language, vocabulary, details and sequencing, so we wanted to show the kiddos how it works.  We have been making puppets and props, acting out the stories, and using materials to retell.  Ask your child to retell one of our fairy tales to you—Remind him/her to add lots of details to make the story more interesting!  Good oral language, vocabulary, complete sentences, details and sequencing makes for great writers and readers later on! (And don’t forget to ask them what 3 things fairy tales have! J)

In other news…our Gingerbreak Man is in NEW YORK!!!!!! J

Some details from this week- We…
*learned the sound, letter formation and hand motion for the letter Gg.
*wrote Gg words, drew Gg pictures and cut out Gg pictures in our journals.
*added gold glitter to our feely letter Gg.  Please add it to your ring and have your child review all of the letters.
*read many versions of the Three Billy Goats Gruff
*reviewed that fairy tales need Once Upon a Time, a good guy/”bad” guy, and a happy ending
*were introduced to other fairy tales such as The Ugly Duckling, The Three Little Kittens and The Little Red Hen, among others J
*practiced sequencing pictures (we put them in order)
*organized some very fun items into small, medium and large
*made a TROLL and described parts of its body
*participated in Garden math
*made troll and billy goat puppets and a river, hill and bridge for them so we could act out the fairy tale
*Made a pattern of small, medium, and large goats
*tallied how many Guys and Girls there are in our class compared to the other PreK classes
*painted a Three Billy Goats Gruff watercolor
*we sorted things in our classroom to help clean up.  We remembered that we are BIG boys and girls and clean up the things we play with (this is what they are supposed to tell you at home, and encourage them to pick up their own toys J)

NEXT WEEK
Next week we will be learning the letter Jj and learning about Jack and The Beanstalk.

REMINDERS/INFORMATION
*Return library books and blue bags on Monday. (Also if you haven’t returned the menu for this coming week, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send it back to us! J  The cafeteria needs to know how many meals to prepare.)
*Check the blog for pictures from this week! (And for info from Ma Laoshi and Mr. Geoff—their updates are on their blogs—the links for them are on the side of my blog.)
Just a heads up for upcoming dates as we head into the last part of the year…
* Thursday, March 20th and Friday, March 21st:  Parent Teacher Conferences---you will be getting a letter from the office telling you when and where you can sign up J
*March 22 to March 30:  SPRING BREAK—NO SCHOOL
*Wednesday, April 9th:  LATE START—School starts at 10:00am
*Friday, April 18th: Good Friday—NO SCHOOL
*Thursday, May 1st:  Labor Day—NO SCHOOL
*Tuesday, May 13th: Vesak Day—NO SCHOOL


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