Week 34: Kindergarten Capers!

Dear Family, Happy Friday! We hope you all had a productive week. By now, we’re sure you know how it always goes in our kindergarten class—it has been a week full of laughter, teamwork, learning, and excitement. Let’s see how it all went, one activity at a time!

Large Group

Thanks to our blog and communicative students, we hope you are by now very familiar with our large group routines. After our morning affirmations song, we recapped all the inventors and medical scientists we have been learning about for the past few weeks. Our intelligent students not only remember the names and faces but every little detail about each individual, and that made us so proud!

“He found the plant endod.” - Abigel

“300 products from peanut seed.” - Junior

“That’s Tu Youyou, and she found a medicine for Brazil.” - Leayene

“Not Brazil, that’s Aklilu, and it’s Brasilia.” - Umar

“He invented an expensive car.” - Hekima

“We don’t have a car here, but we have cars in China.” - Lucas

“Our car is BYD.” - Tang Tang

Literacy

Our literacy session this week focused on reading and writing practice. Our children received small reading books, and the idea was for them to read the title aloud to their teachers. Once they read it correctly, they wrote it down on paper, doing the same for all the pages. This was a fun moment that also helped us see where they are in their writing and reading skills. We've noticed their interest in reading has risen and their handwriting has improved significantly.

“I can read so fast, I need a bigger book!” - Lucas

“I can also read so fast, but I like this small book.” - Adelene

“You like my handwriting? I’m doing great, yeah?” - Hekima

“I also have the best handwriting.” - Yeabsera

Math

This week in math, we continued our multiplication lesson by introducing multiplying numbers by two. We talked about how multiplication is repeated addition, and when a number is multiplied by two, the result is its double. They added the given numbers to themselves and found the results. This was a fun and exciting challenge as they tackled new activities.

“This is super easy now!” - Hekima

“I finished this part so fast, Phi!” - Adelene

“But I finished everything! Can I have more?” - Lucas

Science

In our continued anatomy study, we made this week extra fun by doing a puzzle of human organs all in one. It was a very challenging puzzle when we did it the first time, but it won’t surprise you to hear how bright our kindergartners are—they mastered it quickly and correctly in our second science session. This gave us time to go through the organs and discuss their importance and functions.

“The largest organ is skin.” - Umar

“We have two kidneys, and they get so angry if we don’t drink enough water!” - Adelene

“We can’t see any of them without surgery.” - Leayene

“The heart pumps our blood.” - Abigail

“And the heart is also the best organ, yeah?” - Junior

ET Center

Our children had so much fun in the Ethiopian Center this week! They participated in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, following the entire process with the help of their teachers. First, we set up everything we needed for the coffee. We washed the coffee beans, and roasted them over a fire on top of a small traditional stove. Of course, a teacher was nearby to supervise. Then, the teachers blended the coffee beans using a machine. The ground coffee was added to a special Ethiopian clay pot called a "Jebena" (pronounced as Jabena) along with water and placed over the fire until the coffee was ready.

In our culture, boys cut the bread while girls serve everyone during the coffee ceremony, which we call "buna kures." Once the coffee was ready, the girls poured it into the “ceni”, traditional coffee cup and served it to the teachers, as our children do not drink coffee. During the coffee ceremony, we sat together, shared our thoughts with friends, and discussed many topics. Overall, our children were very happy to be involved in every detail of the coffee ceremony and to engage with the culture.

“I know how to cut bread we use both hands” -Lucas

“Enachebcheb (let’s clap)” -Abigel

“I need more dabo kolo” -Umar

“I’ll pour the coffee” -Yeabsera

“It smells bad the smoke” -Tang Tang

“It’s too hot here” -Adelene

Next week’s schedule:

Monday – Math, Literacy

Tuesday – Literacy, Science, gym

Wednesday - Library, Math

Thursday - Science

Friday - Cooperative game

Specials:

Monday- Art

Tuesday - Gym

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.

Have a wonderful weekend!