Goodbye! See you in April!

It was a sudden decision but I think it was a good one. Unfortunately we didn't get to perform our YEP in front of an audience because of the corona virus. But we did get dressed in our costumes and do a performance today.

Please remember we have still just only started learning the steps to the second half of the dance this week. So it wasn't easy for the kids to remember today. Today the children cleaned out their tubs and the toy tubs and we did one last literacy lesson on rhyming words.

Some of the homework I sent is related to rhyming words and I also sent home a bit of handwriting, math and Japanese from Ms Yui. If you have the time, it would be great if the children could finish it all. If not, that's OK.

Recently, the sight words we covered in class were: house, people, time and when.

If your child is still struggling with the Pre Primer and Primer Words, I have included a photo of the lists that you could print for them to practise. As Taz and Azuhisa's birthdays are in March, we had a party for them today.

Next week I will assign some books on RAZ at your child's level so you can also log them in and they can listen to the voice and then read themselves.

Ms Yui and I had a fantastic time with all the Pre K B students and thank you for all the presents over this year! As a new teacher at Abroad I was really impressed with the parents AND students. Have a great break and I hope your child loves kinder!
😍

Warmer days and warmth on Valentine's Day.

This week was a busy week for inquiry with our dance practise for the YEP starting. The children have practised the first 30 seconds of the song and are getting better at the actions. After painting their beautiful swirly paintings last Friday, we looked at them together and told our table partners one thing we liked about their painting. For example, "it was so colourful" and "I liked the shapes." We read a nice story about a girl who was curious, but as she got older she lost her imagination and curiosity. The book is called "Heart in a bottle" by Oliver Jeffers. 

In phonics, we practised our sight words with the fishing game and by building words from cards with starting and ending sounds, such as /sh/ and /ip/. The new sight words this week were: at and day. We revised got.

In math, we did counting up to 100 and down from 100-0 as well as designing and making our own 3D shapes. The children are learning that 2D and 3D shapes are different because 2D shapes are flat, whereas 3 D shapes are not. 

Learning about 3 D shapes

Well after the field trip to Kids Plaza this week we were all very tired on Friday. The children had a lot of fun playing with the music instruments, costumes, interactive games and science activities. 

This week we started learning about 3 D shapes and made some with paper. The main ones that were introduced were: cube, cuboid (rectangular prism), square and triangle based pyramids, cone, sphere, cyclinder and triangular prism. I showed the children posters of these shapes and then they went around the class to find toys or objects that match those shapes. We also did a picture sort in groups in which they had to glue the picture into the correct category. 

In literacy, I listened to the children read and the sight words for this week were: I'm (I am), got, don't (do not) and we revised same again.

For inquiry, I wanted the children to be risk-takers and try to come up with an idea for an painting by themselves. The only thing I helped them with was a squiggly line through the middle of the page. After, I told them we would join all the paintings together to make a big group painting. Everyone did a great job of letting the art inspire them. 

 

 

 

Miming, bubble art and more music!

This week was a mostly rainy week so we only went to the park on Thursday and Friday.
Some children have been sick it's really important that children bring masks to school and stay home if they have a fever or runny nose.

In literacy we learnt about the /ow/ and /ui/ and /oo/ sounds. The children also practised writing letters j and y as well as a,c,d and q. In the morning when the children arrive they are also practising sight words and this week I introduced the words same and day and we revised under and came. 

For math, they practised counting again up to 100 and down to 0. We also used blocks and counters to do more addition and subtracting using numbers bigger than 10 but under 20.

Now that the YEP is only 6 weeks away, the children have learnt almost all the words to the song "It's a jolly holiday" and this week we thought of some ideas for the dance. The Learner Profiles for this unit are communicator, risk taker and inquirer. Through a mime activity, they learnt how communicate an action with only their bodies. It was a lot of fun! They learnt that being a good communicator is also being a good listener.

On Friday we started an art lesson that will continue next Monday. Here is a photo of the idea.

The children had their profile photo taken and were asked to choose a feeling that they wanted to express through a bubble art drawing. They chose shapes and colours to match that feeling and practise drawing a bubble picture for it.

Here are the designs the children chose that they will use on Monday.

Do you want to get creative?

Hello!
This week Pre K B has been very busy. We have been practising the song for the YEP "It's a jolly holiday with Mary", the children are definitely starting to pick up the words!

In maths, we did adding and subtracting using playdough. I also taught the children how to count on quickly from ten so that they can get better at adding numbers over 10. Many children still use their fingers which becomes difficult with numbers over 10.

We used blocks of 10 joined together and single ones to learn how to do this. We have also been practising counting up to 100 and down from 100. Here's the video we use to practise:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jack+hartmann+count+to+100&oq=jack+hartmann+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l7.3547j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

On Tuesday we played a fishing game to practise our sight words. See the pictures BELOW. In phonics we did the /oa/ and /oi/ dipthongs. Our sight words for this week are: under, well, soon and came. I have checked the children's ability to recognise the Pre Primer sight words and most children did well. As we have finished the Primer List now, we will be focusing on getting better at those words by looking at each sound in the word to help them read it.

 

In inquiry, we designed our own Lego character using a template. Some children did superheroes, some did pirates, and others just did normal people. We also used a simple beat from the Queen song "We will rock you" and built our own percussion songs from that. 

On Wednesday our class read with our buddy class grade 2. The Pre K kids read a RAZ book and the other students read a picture book story to them. 

As this Saturday is the start of a Chinese New Year, some of our Chinese-speaking family members came in on Friday to help us make a dragon from coloured paper. We also watched a video about the food and celebrations that are part of Chinese New Year and learnt a few words in Mandarin.