Friday Update and Pictures: September 1 to 5

We have had another wonderful week in the Yellow Starfish classroom!!!!  

One point of interest…I have watched your cuties become more and more independent as the days have progressed! Really encourage your child to practice being independent at home as well.  Feeding themselves, starting to help dressing themselves, doing up their bags, and also starting to practice things like using safe scissors to cut will really help them out! J

This week we…

*read the book Mouse Paint (along with quite a few others such as A Color of His Own, Dog’s Colorful Day, Little Rabbit’s Color Book, and Pete the Cat (which has turned into a lot of singing! J) and learned the three primary colors. Can your child tell you what they are?

*learned the Color Song and decorated a copy to put in our Poems and Songs folder

*started the big task of sorting all of the colors from our homework, discussing the different shades of each color and creating color collages to decorate the room.

*practiced writing color words with “over-writer markers”

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

*drew pictures of words/cut out pictures of words that start with Ss in our alphabet journals.

*added sparkly, silver/blue sand to our “feely letter Ss”.

*read “S” books such as Smelly Socks and Silly Sally.

*observed (with our sense of sight) a real snake skeleton and drew a picture of it.

*played with snakes (pretend onesJ) in the sensory table

*wrote numbers on paper snakes and dotted the correct number of dots to practice one to one correspondence

*learned the poem The Sandwich and made real and paper sandwiches that are just like the ones in the poem!

*spread butter and jam on bread to make sandwiches.

*cut out a long snake to hang from the ceiling to practice our cutting

*made slime and played with it! EWWW! J Some of your cuties were COVERED!!! Don’t worry—it easily washes off J

*worked with S pattern blocks

*learned the poem “I Am Special” and drew a picture of ourselves on the poem

FEELY LETTER RING

Today your child will bring home the first of the 26 feely letters, letter Ss, attached to a ring.  Please keep this letter ring in a safe place (i.e. bed post, door knob, dresser handle). Each week a new letter will go home and your child should add it to the ring and review the sound, motion and formation of all the letters.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will introduce the letter Aa.  We will do lots of activities with the alphabet. We will revisit our colors and All About Me and My Friends

LOOKING AHEAD TO UN DAY

I wanted to give you advanced notice that the ECC will celebrate UN activities from Monday 29 September to Friday 3 October.  On Friday, October 3^rd, we will join the rest of the Primary school for a UN Day assembly.  On that day the children may wear an outfit from their home country or a country in which they have lived or visited. Our class would welcome any parents who would like to share information or do an activity about their home country.  This would be for our class only…you don’t have to present to the entire ECC. I will send a separate e-mail/note home for this, so keep on the lookout J.

ALL ABOUT ME

This week we practiced learned specific vocabulary for parts of the body. We played Simon Says using these names and also sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes using different parts of the body.  We are concentrating on those parts of the body that we might not normally be familiar with:  forehead, eyebrows, eyelashes, chin, earlobes, biceps, elbows, wrists, knuckles, abdomen, chest, thighs, waist, knees, ankle, and heel.  Give your child a butterfly kiss with your eyelashes, just for fun (just flutter them against their cheek or arm! They will love it!)

REMINDERS

*Check in your child’s Friday Folder (the BLUE BAG) take everything out and return bag back to school on Monday.  We keep certain projects/activities here at school to put in your child’s portfolio.

*Return Library books and RED LIBRARY BAG on Monday.

*ALTERNATE DRESS DAY on WEDNESDAY!!!

*Please make sure you have the lunch menus back by each Friday (we always send them out on Monday—by that next Friday have them back to us) even if your child is having home lunch every day.  Keep half at home for reference

WE HAVE LOTS OF PHOTOS THIS WEEK, SO BE SURE TO LOOK AT BOTH SLIDE SHOWS!!!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!   

Lynsey and Aidah J

Friday Update Week 3 August 25-29

Can we BE any cuter?!  I don't think so!!!!

August 29, 2014

Dear Parents,

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” block room and built houses with blocks.

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

*were introduced to Pete the Cat and began a review of our colors

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 our first letter- Ss.

SONG BOOKS!!!!

Your cutie’s Poem and Song book is coming home in their blue Friday Folders today.  Have fun as they use their “magic music wand” to “read” the words and sing the songs to you.  You are encouraged to sing along and help them at any point.  This helps with directionality for later reading, and even if your child is pointing no where near the words on the page, encourage them on their amazing singing!!!  Please return the Poem and Song book AND the blue Friday Folder to school on Monday.

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 our color collages.  The whole family is welcome to help!  Have funJ

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. 

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

*Please let me know if you want to add your name to our VIP list!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynsey and Aidah J

CHOCOLATE GOO!!

ONE, TWO CHOCOLATE GOO

1   One, two,

2   Chocolate goo.

3   Three, four,

4   Want some more?

5   Five, six,

6   Pudding mix.

7   Seven, eight,

8   Bring your plate.

9   Nine, ten,

10  Hungry again!

Pictures from this week Aug 18-22

Friday Update August 22

Dear Parents,

The first full week of school has flown by!! Our class is amazing (and really really cute!) and if you looked in right now, you would never know we just started last week!  The cuties are happy, are continuing to learn the routines, and are good friends already!  Here are just some of the things we did this week.  We…

*decorated the songs Hello and Zip-a dee-doo-dah to put in our Songs and Poems folder.

*wrote 7 all over a copy of There are Seven Days in a Week and put it in our Songs and Poems folder.

*made “magic wands” to attach to our Songs and Poems folder. (Your child will help teach you the hand motions when this comes home.)

 *played a “Fishing for Friends” game to help us learn the names of our friends.

*Read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  And tried really hard to be “bucket fillers” all week.  Please ask your child to tell you about the book as we will refer to it often throughout the year.

*played “The Kissing Hand” counting game to review identifying and counting numbers to 10.

*went to the “Dramatic Play” area and used lots of language and social skills while playing house, in the kitchen and with the blocks.

*made a graph of the number of girls and boys in our class. Ask your child how many boys/girls we have.

*counted and graphed the number of letters in our friend’s names.

*read the poem 1, 2, Chocolate Goo!  And we made CHOCOLATE GOO PUDDING, finger painted with it, and ate it off of our fingers!!!!! YUM!

*read Knuffle Bunny, The Hungry Caterpillar, Going on a Bear Hunt, Rainbow Fish, I Call my Hand Gentle, and many more! J

*decorated a welcome sign for our door.

*participated in name activities like making a bead necklace and singing name songs.

*had our first counseling lesson with Ms. Sarah.

NEXT WEEK

Next week we will continue learning about ourselves and our friends. 

PHOTO DAY on MONDAY!!!!  Have your child dressed for school photos this Monday. (Free Dress.)  The cuties have their photos taken at 8:45am, so they should still hopefully look similar to how they left you in the morning. J

BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT Wednesday 27^th August 2014

On this evening I will go over details of the curriculum.  I will also have the Volunteer calendar for the first semester so please bring your personal calendars to check dates.  Please let me know if you CANNOT attend Back to School Night as there is a parent activity that you will need to complete.

The evening schedule is:

 6.15-6.45 PM   Meet other parents/Introductions in ABC Hall. There will also be information present on Perceptual Motor, Chinese, Library and the Speech Language program.

 6:45-7:30 PM   In our yellow starfish classroom to learn about your child’s school day, the grade level curriculum and to get acquainted with teachers & other parents.

         

Random things to know about… J

        CLASS BOOKS

Throughout the year the children will be making class books based on songs, poems, books, and themes that we cover in class. These books are always a big hit with the kids as they can “read” them on their own. This week we finished our first book, titled There is a Friend in Our Class. The book will help you and your child learn the names of the students in our class. The children will take turns bringing the class book home. When it is your turn please take a few minutes to share the book with your child (they love to read to an audience!) and return it the next day so someone else can have a turn.

POEM AND SONG FOLDERS

Next Week you will find your child’s Poems and Songs Folder in your blue Friday Folder.  This poetry/song folder is an all time favorite of my students, as they love to read it to their families. (I will show this to you at parent night.)  When it comes home, please take some time to share the first few songs with your child.  The “magic wand” is used to point to the words and reinforce left to right directionality and other early reading skills.  Keep this folder in a safe place (it is very difficult to replace if lost).  Please return it in the Friday Folder (do not take the songs out) on Mondays.

FRIDAY FOLDERS

Each Friday (except for today—all our work is on our walls right now J)  your child will bring home a Friday Folder (The blue bag).  It is your child’s “homework” to share the contents of the Friday Folder with you.  The contents usually spark a memory that will get your child talking about school. Enjoy sharing the contents, keep them at home (unless otherwise specified), and return the Friday Folder to school on Monday.  This way we can begin filling it again for the following week. 

REMINDERS

*If your child is buying school lunch:  Please indicate, on the form, the type of drink you would like him/her to have. Please return the form even if your child is having home lunch (mark “lunch from home”)

*Next Wednesday is ALTERNATE DRESS DAY

*Please send library bags back on Monday!

*Check my blog for pictures from this week!  http://mslynseysas.blogspot.sg/

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND

Lynsey and Aidah