Week 7 Update

Reading week was a lot of fun! We reached our '100 book' goal! The Dress as a Book Character Parade was nice and it was very special to wear a fun costumes to school. Buddy reading was also a success and the children enjoyed reading and being read to by the "big kids".

In Language Arts, we reviewed the last three letters in the alphabet-X, Y, and Z. We practice writing the letters and the sounds they make. We have also been practicing our sight words by reading simple sentences and finding our sight words in all the books we have been reading this week.

In Math, we are continuing to work on place prepositions. The children learned a song to help them learn the words in, on, under, over, in front, and behind. They use their hands to show each position as they sing.

In Science, we are continuing our plant unit and the students learned about the four things plants need to grow. They made mini books showing the four things- water, sunlight, soil, space- and we will use these books next week as we learn more about plants.

We will be celebrating Halloween next week by allowing the children to wear their costumes to school. If their costume is uncomfortable in any way, please send the uniform for them to change into if needed.

Please make sure your child brings his/her blue file and Arabic file to school every day.

Also, many children have been eating all of their packed food before lunch. Please assure that there is plenty of food in your child's lunchbox and that it is healthy food!

Thank you for the extra help at home this week with the reading logs and for preparing the costumes for Dress as a Book Character Day! It was a very fun week at school.  

Happy Eid to all,

Ms. Victoria and Ms. Mariam

Parent Teacher Conferences

We will be holding Parent Teacher Conferences on Sunday, November 4th. I will send out appointment slips on Wednesday. They will be in your child's blue file. The appointments will be scheduled between 8:15 and 2:45 and are about 15 minutes at max. If you have a time preference, please write me a note in your child's channel book as soon as possible so that I can accommodate it. Also, if you cannot make the conference, I would appreciate a note in the channel book as well. It will help me plan for the day.

Please note that the children are off on this day.

Thank you so much,
Ms.Victoria and Ms. Mariam

Sports Day

We will be celebrating Sports Day on November 1st. It will be a fun-filled day that aims to teach children about sportsmanship.

There will be teams and each team has its own color. Today I sent home a class list with the team colors listed so there is plenty of time to prepare a shirt for the day. 

I also sent home blue files for children who have not been bringing their files in. Please make sure they come back to school everyday. 

Thank you Parents,

Ms. Victoria and Ms. Mariam

Reading Week!

Hello Parents,

As many of you may already know, we have a new full-time assistant in the classroom, Ms. Mariam. She will be with us for the remainder of the school year. We are thrilled to have her join us and I look forward to working with her to provide the children with a lot of support in the classroom. Ms. Karen will be assisting in the KG office. 

Today was the start of Reading Week. I explained to the children that our goal is to read 100 books by the end of the week. That's a lot of books! To reach our goal, the children must read some books at home. I sent home a reading log today and would love if each child could read 1-2 books a night at home this week to add to our tally. We have a thermometer posted outside our classroom that tracks the number of books we read and it will be filled in daily. 

To conclude Reading Week, we will have a Dress as a Book Character day on Wednesday. The children don't have to participate (and must come in uniform) but we will have a small parade and I would not want any child feeling left out. It if preferred that the costumes are simple, homemade, and creative rather than store bought Halloween costumes. We may have a Halloween parade and those costumes can be saved for that occasion. 

Here are some ideas so you can prepare:

Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss (great for twins)

Cat in the Hat

Any animal from Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Yellow duck, Purple Cat, Green Frog, Blue Horse, etc. )

Little Red Riding Hood

Curious George

Disney Princesses

It does not have to be a well-known book. If your child's favorite book is about a dinosaur, he can dress as a dinosaur. It would be nice if they can bring in the book on Wednesday to show their friends. 

This week is about teaching kids that reading is fun, not a chore! Let's have a great week!

-Ms. Victoria and Ms. Mariam

Our 'And' Song

The children love inviting people into our room to listen to our 'and' song. They have begged me to invite Mr. Youssef, Ms. Ashley (who teaches art next door), and Ms. Marwa to come to our class (and they all did!). You have probably heard it already from your own child but here is the class singing it together.

Week 6 Update

Hello Parents and Families,

We are up to week 6 already. Time is flying! The kids are into a routine and we are learning something new every day. I was feeling ill and was out on Tuesday but the kids were in great hands with Ms. Karen, who knows all of our routines and class rules.

It was great to have Sunday back in our schedule. If you have walked past our classroom, you may have seen the nighttime pumpkins the children created in Art. We started with learning about pumpkins. What do they look like? What do they feel like? What do they smell like? What can you do with a pumpkin? They learned pumpkins come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. They drew their own pumpkin and mixed yellow and red to paint it orange. When it dried, we made a nighttime background with chalk and black paper. We have gotten many compliments on the artwork and the children loved that we had an actual pumpkin in our classroom to observe.

In Language Arts this week, we practiced our four sight words by making flashcards and playing teacher with a friend. They were allowed to sit anywhere in the classroom with a friend and teach each other how to read! I walked around the room to listen and observe.  The children bought their flashcards home to practice during the weekend. Next week, we will be adding the word ‘see’ to our vocabulary.

Show and tell on Wednesday went great. It was brief but the children were very engaged and excited all day about it. It was a great activity to practice speaking and listening to our friends. We saw and learned about our friends’ photographs, little toys and stuffed animals. Some children forgot to bring their item. I told them not to worry; I forgot my special item too! We will do show and tell every week so they will have another opportunity to bring it in.

In Math, we are adding prepositions to our vocabulary: over, beneath, next to, between, beside, etc. We will continue to work on them next week. They were only introduced to them this week and I plan to teach them a song soon that will help them remember what each word means.

In Social Studies, we talked about problems and solutions. I gave each table a problem such as being lost, spilling juice, and fighting over a toy. Each table thought of things they could do to solve their problem and shared them with the class.

In Science, we are starting to learn about plants. We talked about different type of plants, such as trees, shrubs, and grasses. Each child drew an example of each type of plant and we will be planting our own plants very soon!

Please send your children to school with their blue files and channel books every day. I may need to write a note home and prefer to write it in the channel book. Also, please remove the papers from the files every day so that I can confirm that notices have been received. This would be greatly appreciated.

Next week is Reading Week at GP School! Every classroom will be keeping track of the number of books they read during the week. I will send home a reading log on Sunday. Please encourage your children to read a book every night.

I will keep everyone updated on our Reading Week activities on this blog. Please check it often next week!

Have a great weekend,

Ms.Victoria

Permission Slip and Fees due tomorrow!

Just a friendly reminder that permission slip and fees are due tomorrow for the Dora the Explorer trip on November 8th. The cost is 185 EGP per child. No money will be accepted after tomorrow. Children who do not attend the trip can be absent from school because all KG teachers will be accompanying their students.

Thank you,
Ms.Victoria