Kindergarten’s Week 26 Reflections: Growing Together!

Dear Family, Happy Friday!

We hope you all had an amazing week. Our week has been bustling with projects, learning, and exploration, as always. As our kindergartners grow physically, emotionally, and mentally, this busy week felt effortlessly smooth, thanks to each child’s wonderful contributions to the process. Join us as we take you through our memorable moments and provide a glimpse into our experiences this week…

Large Group

As you are all familiar with, our large group setting always sets the tone for how our day will unfold. During these sessions, we discuss topics related to our daily activities and overarching themes. We go through the calendar, learn a few new words each day, enjoy rhyme time, tell the time using our class clock, read the morning message, and take song breaks. This week, our children's favorite song was "High Hopes" by Panic! At The Disco. Like every other week, we followed our large group process and learned so much together. It’s always a joy to see their enthusiasm and engagement!

“Play high high hopes, please! It’s my favorite” -Junior

“Jinx, we said it at the same time” -Leayene

“My mom is my favorite vertebrate” -Umar

“But they’re both shapes, this box is for colors” -Abigail

Literacy

This week, our literacy session was tons of fun! Having practiced reading and writing previously, we embraced a new challenge. Our children received worksheets featuring various pictures of objects and animals, with the task of looking at each image and writing the corresponding word in the space provided. They did an incredible job, saying the names of the pictures out loud, which really supported their writing skills. In our second literacy session, we took our learning outside. Armed with paper and markers, our children embarked on a word hunt in the playground. They were excited to write down everything they saw, and they did a fantastic job! This activity also helped them understand the beginning, middle, and ending sounds of the words related to their surroundings. It was a wonderful way to blend exploration with literacy!

“Do I write I see a mountain, or just a mountain?” -Lucas

“Is this a bag or a purse?” -Adelene

“This is police man but the box is only 3” -Yeabsera

Math

This week in math, we enjoyed a fun counting exercise by skip counting by 2. We practiced this concept during our large group session and mastered it in our first math class. Our children loved the idea of skipping a number to reach the next one using their two fingers, and they did an amazing job! After practicing, we wrote the numbers on the board to reinforce their understanding. In our second math session, we prepared a worksheet featuring missing numbers in a skip counting by twos format. Our children excelled, demonstrating that practice truly makes perfect. This activity also helped them recognize that the numbers identified through skip counting by twos are even numbers, reinforcing their learning from last week’s lesson. It was a great way to connect concepts and deepen their understanding!

Science

This week in science, we continued our journey through vertebrates and invertebrates, focusing specifically on vertebrates after learning about invertebrates last week. We recalled the meanings and differences between the two groups, emphasizing vertebrates as our main topic for this week’s session. Together, we named all the vertebrate animals we could think of and discussed what characteristics define them within our animal kingdom. In our second science session, we engaged in a hands-on activity where our children sorted vertebrates from invertebrates. They cut out pictures of animals and categorized them accordingly, gluing each one in the right section. This activity helped them clearly identify and differentiate between the two groups. It was a wonderful way to reinforce their understanding!

“Ultraman is not real but he can walk and fight and have bone so he’s Vertebrate” -Lucas

“Superheroes are not real Lucas, they can’t be vertebrates or invertebrates” -Adelene

“Okay so he’s Ultrabrate” -Lucas

“And Spider-Man is Spiderbrate” -Junior

“And KG’s are Kgbrates haha” -Umar

Art

Our art session this week was nothing short of amazing! We started by printing out pictures of the children that we took the other day and cutting each picture in half. We then glued one half onto a piece of sturdy paper, placing a plain white sheet right next to it. The children laughed when they saw their half faces, playfully questioning what was happening. We introduced the idea of self-portraits and asked them what they knew about portraying themselves. After that, we handed each child their half-faced picture and encouraged them to draw the other half. To our delight, they captured their likenesses beautifully, adding every little detail from the original photo. The children had so much fun admiring their friends' work and proudly sharing their creations with teachers and classmates. It was a fantastic way for them to express themselves through art!

“What, where’s half of our faces?” -Adelene

“I wore a green earring this day so I’m going to color it green” -Leayene

“I’m coloring my face brown like my picture” - Yeabsera

“Where is half of my face?” -Umar

“Eliyab Eliyab, draw Eliyab” -Eliyab

“You should draw the carrots on your T-shirt, Tang Tang” -Abigail

Clay

This week in our clay session, we focused on painting our clay creations. After seeing how our clay pieces were fired to achieve a better texture, we took out the finished works that were ready to be painted. Our water park project was set up, and we painted it blue to represent the water area. The ice cream shop was adorned with pink and white, while the water slides featured red and white stripes. The napping beds were painted white, and our children had the freedom to choose colors for all the pieces. Once we finished painting, we let the creations sit in the sun to allow the paint to be absorbed. It was a delightful and creative experience!

“Eliyab is trying to slide” -Lucas

“Wow it looks real now” -Adelene

“Look at our napping beds, come take a nap” -Yeabsera

“I want to swim now and splash the water” -Hekima

Journaling

The prompt this week was.......write the funniest joke you know?

Football Friday

As always, our Football Friday was fun and enjoyable! We started with warm-up exercises, including jogging around the compound and stretching. After recalling the football rules, we divided our children into two teams. Under the guidance of our coach, Mr. Tesfaye, we played the game enthusiastically. We would also like to extend our gratitude to all of you for your cooperation in sending our children with football jerseys or suitable sports attire. It truly adds to the experience!

Weekly schedule:  

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science, Gymnastics

Wednesday - Library, Math

Thursday - Science

Friday - Cooperative game

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gymnastics

Thursday - Ethiopian center/ clay

Friday - Football

Reminders and notes:

• Make sure that our children are wearing suitable clothes on Monday as we have art class and activities get messy sometimes.

• Every Wednesday and Thursday is library day. Our children will be bringing home a book of their choice in their library folder, so please make sure to read the book with them over the weekend. Return the folder the following Wednesday so they can get a new one.

• Every Tuesday, we have gymnastics, so please ensure that our children come dressed in comfortable and loose-fitting sports attire to facilitate their exercise.

• Every Friday, we have football, so please make sure our children wear their football jerseys if they have them, or any comfortable shorts.

We are grateful for the continued support from you all and the joy our children bring to our activities. We look forward to more exciting adventures in learning and play next week!