Homework - week 17

So this week p. 1, the letter Kk, is typical homework that we are all familiar with. Page 27 on the other hand is a new format. 1. Trace the shaded upper and lower case Mm's, then write the letter M or m beside the monkey and mittens. 2. If the object begins with M they can write M or m. The top line are: truck, man and motorcycle. The second line are: cup, milk, moose.

The last small blog, I asked that your children wear black shoes to the Christmas concert. I want to make clear, if they don't have black shoes, don't go buy any. Its not a big deal.

Also, I made a mistake. Our class Christmas party where we will exchange gifts will be on Wednesday December 18th as we have rehearsal for the concert in the afternoon on the 19th. I will make this clear again that week.

Here are the lyrics for the songs the kids need to know:

10 Little Elves - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tNXnKSFnPw

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves, 

4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves, 

7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves, 

10 little elves are making toys.

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are sewing.(Pretend to sew) 

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are painting. [Pretend to paint.]

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are sawing. [Pretend to saw.]

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are hammering. [Pretend to hammer.]

1  little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are wrapping. [Pretend to wrap a present.]

1 little, 2 little, 3 little elves,


4 little, 5 little, 6 little elves,


7 little, 8 little, 9 little elves,


10 little elves are sleeping. [Lie down and pretend to sleep.]

Silent Night - the song is much longer, but this is the important verse they remember 

Silent Night, Holy Night

All is calm, all is bright.

Round yon virgin, mother and child.

Holy infant, so tender and mild.

Sleep in heavenly peace. 

Sleep in heavenly peace. 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - 

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring
To you and your king
Good tidings for Christmas
And a happy new year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

Good tidings we bring.
To you and your king
Good tidings for Christmas
And a happy new year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
We wish you a Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.

We wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year.

Christmas Concert

For the Christmas Concert, if your children have black shoes, please send them to school for them to wear by Thursday December 20th. Thanks.

Week 17 - December 2 - 6

Today the kids and I were counting how many school days we have until the Christmas Concert and the holidays - 12! With that being said, the last couple weeks, I have been giving you a daily schedule of what we have been doing in our class time, but we are so busy preparing for the concert that our days are just not going to look the same. We are still finding time for academics, not to worry, and next week and the following week we will have assessments, but our time is dominated by rehearsing, and they are doing a great job! Along with the nativity we are singing Silent Night, 10 Little Elves, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

You will see in the kids communication books that I mention a Secret Santa gift exchange. On December 19th, in the afternoon, we will have a small Christmas party and share presents with each other. Please do not spend more than $500nt. Please, have the gift at school no later than Monday December 17. We have a Christmas Tree in the classroom and I think it would be really nice to have gifts under the tree for a couple days for the kids to feel excited about. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please let me know.

At this point, I am planning on giving the students a break during the holidays as I too will be taking a break. If you would like your child to do some extra work, feel free to ask and I don't mind preparing something for you. Please let me know in the communication book so I can think of something for your child.

:) Ali

Week 16! - November 25 - 29

We are just a few weeks away from the Christmas holidays now, so things going to be busy busy busy until then reviewing what we've learned this semester, completing assessments, practicing for the language festival this week and the Christmas pageant. Whoa!

If you have not sent in a white T-shirt and a coloured pair of pants yet, please remember to do that tomorrow (Thursday). Thanks!

This week:
Monday:
Motor Skills - Pp - Uppercase, we start at the top, go to the bottom, back to the top and around to the middle. Lowe case p, we start in the middle, go under the line, back to the middle and around to the middle.
Phonics - Zz - Listen to a short poem and then read through on their own to find Zz.
Dance class
Language Arts - The months of the year
Math - Review less and more

Tuesday:
Motor skills - Pp
Phonics - write Zz, Start at the top and go across, slide to the bottom, then across for upper case Z. Lower case z starts in the middle, across, slide to the bottom, then across. They must listen for the Zz in Zebra, zigzag and zipper.
Language Arts - The months of the year
Math - review less and more
Nativity practice

Wednesday:
Thanksgiving mass rehearsal
Motor skills - Pp
Christian Living
Art with Ms. Chen

Thursday:
Thanksgiving Mass
Motor skills - Pp
Phonics - Zz - identify the Zz sound in zebra, zero, zigzag, zoo, zipper
Science - Healthy teeth and healthy skin
Language Festival rehearsal

Friday:
Phonics - Zz - identify Zz sound in zipper, zoo, and zero
math - review less and more
science - healthy teeth and healthy skin
Language festival

Ali

Week 15 - November 18 - 22

First I want to apologize for not posting a blog last week, or homework. I was so sick that posting the blog slipped my mind, and I had asked Mr. De La Cruz to write the homework in the communication book, which slipped his mind. So whatever page you child did for homework is fine, and if they didn't do one - they deserved the time off!

This week we are practicing lots for the language festival. We are going to be singing a song by the Beatles called "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." I have changed the words a little bit for them. They know all the words so it just getting them to really perform now! Next Thursday could you please send to school a white shirt and a bright coloured pair of pants. This will be our costume for the performance.

Monday:
Writing: Oo
Phonics: Oo - Recognize upper and lower case O and circle it when they see it in a short poem.
Dance Class
Language Arts - Continuing with recognizing the words "I, like, the, and."
Math - Counting

Tuesday:
Writing - Oo
Phonics: Oo - Listen for the short O sound in octopus, ostrich and otter. Write the letter Oo
Language Arts - Recognize and write the words "I, like, the, and."
Math - Counting
Library Time
Practice the nativity

Wednesday:
Writing - Oo
Phonics - Oo - Listen for the short O sound in otter, ostrich, ox and olives.
Language Arts - Recognize and write the words "I, like, the, and."
Christian Living
Art

Thursday:
Writing - Oo
Phonics - Oo - listen for the short O sound in olive, ox, otter
Language Arts - Recognize and write the words "I, like, the, and."
Math - Counting
Story Time - We will read a story about Christmas and put up a Christmas tree and decorate it.

Friday:
Writing - Oo
Reading Buddies with Grade 4
Phonics - Craft activity to further understanding of Oo sound.
Math - Counting
Social Studies - Leaders and Heros
Music

Week 13 - November 4-8, 2013

Week 13 – November 4 – 8, 2013

Happy Birthday Betty!

Community Development – The community development day is coming up this Friday. The principal would like us to let you know that there is still time for you to donate money and toys the various organizations that our school is visiting at the end of the week.

Monday –

Motor Skills: Mm. The vocabulary I will use to prompt the children is “top, bottom, top, bottom out, up to the top, bottom” for upper case M. Lower case m will be “middle, down, up around and down, up around and down.” These are complicated prompts, but they are well prepared at this point.

Phonics: Ee – listen to a short poem for the short e sound. Have students read through the  poem and identify the Ee.

Dance

Language Arts – singular and plural forms, a/an/s

Math – Counting and writing numbers

Tuesday –

Motor Skills: Big M

Phonics: Ee – Write Big and small Ee. Know that Ee has two sounds for the long and short e. Identify the short e sound in egg.

Language Arts -  plural and singular forms

Math – Counting and writing numbers

Library Time

Nativity Practice

Wednesday –

Motor Skills: small m

Phonics: Ee – identify  the short e and long e sounds in mitten, seal, elf, elevator, envelope, elephant

Math: Counting and writing numbers

Christian living

Art

Thursday –

Motor skills: play dough writing

Phonics: identify the long or short e in elephant, elevator, or elf

Science: parts of a plant

Math: counting and writing numbers

Story time: The Perfect Thanksgiving

Friday –

Motor skills: cutting and pasting activity to challenge fine motor skills

Phonics: craft activity to connect E to an object

Science: parts of a plant

Community development

Social studies: review symbols of Taiwan

Homework!

During story time this week and last we read a book called "The Perfect Thanksgiving." In the story there are two families who have two very different dinners. One family sits very nicely for a dinner that looks very well made and the other family is a little crazy and their food is burnt and not very tasty. The kids learned at the end of the book that even though the families are very different they both love one another just the same.

On page 5 of the homework book please have your child complete a picture of your family doing something that you al love to do together. Please write one or two words about what it is you are doing in the picture.

Please also complete page 15. The letter Tt.

Have a great weekend!

Week 12 - October 28 - November 1

I want to wish Jinny a very happy birthday. We really enjoyed the yellow duck cake. Thank you so much. Now we are counting down to Betty’s birthday next Monday!

This week the little teacher was Tim. He did a very good job remembering all of the day questions – What day was yesterday? What day is today? What day is tomorrow?

Monday –

Motor Skills – Letter Ll. These are very easy for the kids.  My prompts for them for big L are “top, bottom, across.” While this one is easy, they tend to rush it and make it a bit messy. For small l my prompt is “top, bottom.”

Phonics – Letter Tt. Have students listen to and pronounce the letter Tt. Have students listen to and identify the Tt sounds in a poem. The students then will look through the poem and circle the small and big Tt’s.

Dance Class

Language Arts – Plural and singular nouns. Using an or a for one and adding s for more than one.

Math – Graphing

Tuesday –

Motor Skills – Big L

Phonics – Write Big and small Tt. Listen for the T sound in “turtle/ toes/ tie/town.”

Language Arts – Singular and Plural Nouns

Math – Graphing

Library Time

Practice for the nativity -  The soldiers will be Tim and Veronica with some other K2 students. Shepherds will be Kevin, Betty and Sean. The animals will be Amber, Allie, Olivia and Jinny, along with some PK students.

Wednesday –

Living Rosary rehearsal.

Motor Skills – small l

Christian Living

Art

Thursday

Living Rosary Mass

Motor Skills – activities to practice writing small and big Ll.

Phonics – Identify the Tt sound in “ten, table, tomato, tent, toothbrush, town, towel, tape, TV, tire, and top. They also have to hear that Tt is not in scissors.

Story Time – “The Perfect Thanksgiving” – make Thanksgiving art

Friday –

Phonics – Identify the Tt sound in turkey, tiger, tent and not in fish, pig, or house. Also write either big or small Tt. We will also do Tt art.

Science – plants and how they grow.

Math – graphing

Social studies – Taiwan and the different counties.

Week 11 - October 21-25, 2013

Hello,

Week 11. Wow! We are getting pretty close to Christmas. Next week we will already begin practicing the nativity for the Christmas pageant as this will take a time for the kids to prepare for.

This week in lessons:

Monday:
Motor skills - writing the letter Kk. The vocabulary I use with the students for big K is "top, bottom, top, in to middle, a little up, down and out." For small k I say "top, bottom, middle, in, a little up, bottom and out." So far this is working.
Phonics - The letter Aa. Listen and look for the letter in a short story.
Language Arts - Talk to the students about people and remind them that there are grown ups and kids. Tell them that there are grown up animals and kid animals. Read "Moo moo, Brown Cow" and help the students see the name for the grown up animal and then the kid animal.
Dance class - cancelled this week, review of past material.
Math - fewer, more, the same

Tuesday:
Motor skill: big K
Phonics - show students how to write Aa. Vocabulary for big A "top, bottom out, top, bottom out, middle, across. Small a "middle, down, middle, around." Introduce the sound for short 'a' and have them listen for the sound in 'ant, alligator, apple and anteater." Practice writing.
Language Arts - Read "moo moo brown cow" again and have students identify the animal on each page and after reading the page, have the students identify the baby animal.
Math - continue with few, more and the same.
Library
Social Studies - practice the national anthem or Taiwan and talk about its mean and why it is important

Wednesday:
Motor Skill: small k
Phonics - listen for the short 'a' sound in 'ant, alligator, ax' as well as hear that there is no 'a' sound in bee, fish or pumpkin.
Language Arts: give names to the homes where animals live
Christian Living
Art - from Ms. Chen

Thursday:
Motor skill - big and small Kk
Phonics - listen for the short 'a' sound in 'ant, alligator, ax' as well as hear that there is no 'a' sound in fork, cup, ball
Science - talk about the things that plants need to grow: water, sun (food), soil (home).
Math - more, fewer, the same
Story time - Read "Bang! Boom! Roar!" and talk about their favourite part. Draw a picture to show the favourite part of the story.

Friday: 
Motor Skills - do clay activities to make the letter Kk
Phonics - do a craft activity to show "Aa is for alligator"
Science - plant seeds to watch them grow.
Math - more, fewer, the same
HALLOWEEN FASHION SHOW! - for the fashion show, remember that all the parents are invited to come see. The show starts at 2pm. You are welcome to come help the children get dressed starting at 1:30pm I think I said.

HOMEWORK !!! 
pg 25 - Things. Identify the thing and animal in each picture. Say "Which one is the animal? Which one is the thing?" Cross out the animal and have them circle the thing. Have them draw a picture of their favourite animal, and you can write for them what it is.


 See you soon! Ali

Howework

Hello,

It was really great seeing all the parents who were able to come in today. I just want to say that I am always available to talk after school if you ever have concerns that come up regarding your students learning.

Homework this weekend is a little bit different. One question that was asked of me today was why I don't follow alphabetical order when I assign the homework. I do it out of order because I am following the order that is in the phonics book that we use daily. To me it makes sense to assign the letter that they learned that week so that it furthers what they had learned that week. If we were to follow the typical alphabetical order then they might come across a letter that they haven't been able to practice yet and is not familiar to them. On that note, I chose to do this shortly after I started giving homework assignments, so while our letter this week was Cc, they've already completed this letter in their books.

So this week the homework is not letter writing, it is about nouns - people, places and things. Page 15 is nouns for places. Remind them that places are where we go. For numbers 1, 2 and 3 the students must underline the picture showing a place. You can help them identify the item by saying "This is chalk and this is the play area. Which one is the place?" If they have a hard time at all, you can ask them "Do  you go to chalk, or do you go to the play area?" Finally , in the box, have you child draw a picture of their favorite place to go. Have them tell  you where it is and you can write for me where it is.

Next Friday is our Halloween celebration. Please don't send your child dressed up in the morning, I will dress them when they wake up from their naps. I will also invite you to come to the classroom at 1:30 to help out if you'd like to apply makeup or do their hair. We will go to the gym at 2 for the Halloween fashion show, which you are also invited to attend to watch your kids show off their costumes.

Have a great weekend, Ali

Week 9 - October 6 - 11

Hello,

Tomorrow there is no school as we are celebrating Double Ten Day. I hope everyone has a nice day together at home. The following day will be a half day and the trip to see the yellow duck. If you (the parents) are not accompanying the class on the field trip, please be aware that your children will be dissmissed at 12pm and lunch will not be served that day. Please only send ONE SNACK with them, sunscreen, a hat and small back pack and a full bottle of water. Also, no communication book is needed that day. Because we wont have any class time on Friday, I am sending the homework books home today. Please help your children complete p. WTK 4. The letter Dd.

Due to a large increase in requests between the time the bus was booked on Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning from parents to join the transportation on the buses to the duck, unfortunately we have to ask that all parents drive to the duck as there will be not enough room.  We are asking that parents meet K1 and K2 at the entrance to the duck between 8:45 and 9am. If you have any questions or cannot find the main entrance, you can contact me at 0981335126. Sorry for the last minute change and any inconveniences this may have caused.

The week of assessments has been going well. Your children have retained all the information that we have covered so far. Some concepts were easier than others, but overall everyone has done a great job. 

Week 8 - September 30 - October 4

Hello Everyone,

It was a really great week this week. The children's behaviour was much better. They treated each other with respect and tried very hard not to hurt anyone's feelings. Also, their English level is increasing faster and faster. I am very impressed everyday with how hard they are trying to communicate with me and to communicate with their friends using English. I thought that patterning was going to be difficult for the K1 students, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was something they picked up quickly.

Perhaps your children have told you about Mrs. Shi. She is our new classroom assistant that we share with K2. Mrs. Shi has experience working with kindergarten age students, and has studied English in the UK and is completing a university course in English now. She is a great fit in our classroom and the children are already showing love and trust towards her.

For homework this week, please help your children complete page WTK 8, the letter H. This letter was pretty easy for them. The vocabulary I used to help was "top, bottom, top, bottom, across" for the upper case H and for the lower case I said "top, bottom, middle, around."

Next week we are set to complete the assessments for the first semester. This is just a time for me to see how much they have retained. There should be no surprises, they will all do well I'm sure.

We have a half day next week on Friday. In your child's communication book I have placed a permission slip as we will be going to see the Big Yellow Duck. I'm sure most of the students have seen it already, but I thought it would be a fun activity for us to do together. We will be going with Ms. Scott's K2 class. For this excursion, we would like to invite you to come with us. Ms. Scott and I will go to the harbour this weekend to determine an appropriate meeting spot, where we will meet you in the morning, and I will also tell you the time. PLEASE return the permission form promptly on Monday so we know how many parents are coming and if we will need extra help from other staff members.

Lastly, October 18th will be our first parent/teacher interviews. At this time I can say that I have no concerns about your children's learning or behaviour. The meetings will be rather informal, and simply an opportunity for you to see the classroom, some school work  and to ask any questions that you have about the day to day business of K1. If you would like a meeting, they will be 15 minutes each starting at 1pm. Please write in your child's communication book when a good time is for you to come and I will accommodate the best I can.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids in the chapel with Sister Loida, who is also new to DSK.

Homework

Homework! This week we covered the letter Pp. Help them to complete page 9.

A couple things that came up this week that I am hoping to have help with at home is how we treat our friends and classmates. There were some things that were said that maybe the kids didn't think were hurtful, but in fact feelings were hurt. I think this is pretty normal stuff for kindergarten, but just if the message can be reinforced at home it will only help the kids that much more.

Another this that happened is that some of the kids are 'telling stories.' They tell me that something happened, when it didn't really. This really only happened toward the end of the week, so we will spend more time talking about next week. Again, if you can help me reinforce the message that they should only tell me what is true, that would be great.

I don't want to speak too soon, but I think that we will have a new kindergarten assistant! She will only be coming for part of the day and this will be to help in both K1 and K2. I will let you know more about her next week when I know if things have been made official.

Have a great weekend. Ali

Week 7 - September 23-27

Hello all!

So last week was a very short week. It went by in the blink of an eye. We reviewed some different areas where I thought the students could use more help, and they seemed to respond well.

As for this week:
Phonics/Reading: The students will learn the letter Pp. They will be able to identify the sound and different objects with the beginning sound that p makes. I say it as 'puh.'
Language arts: Different jobs in our communities. If you could do me a favour and write what your jobs are so that I can ask the students and sort of prompt them if  they need help.
Math: In math we are starting patterns. This should be pretty simple now because it will just be alternating two different colours or two different objects, but patterns will get a bit harder for them the more differences there are. This we will take pretty slow.
Science: Continuing with animals in science, we will talk about what animals need. They already seem to understand this pretty well - air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink. It will be a great time to explore more.
Social Studies: This is a great topic - groups from around the world. Please also let me know if there is somewhere other than Taiwan in your cultural background, like Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, etc. and if there is anything special that you do to celebrate your culture.

For our story time I have been reading them a book called "Go Away Big Green Monster." They love it so much. All of the kids laugh so hard when we read this book. So yesterday we started to paint the boxes that were sent in as the first stage of making our own monsters. Again, thank you to those who sent in more than one box!

Finally, Friday is Teacher's Day. In the afternoon we will have a small party with K2. I am going to order a pizza for them, so only send a small snack for them that day as we will have something special to eat. If you want to send in a special treat for the kids to share, feel free, but not too much! I taught the students a made up word that means 'Don't worry about it!' that comes from the movie The Lion King, so we will watch this movie. The word is 'hakunamatata.' If someone spills water or makes a small mistake, I just say 'hakuna' and they all say 'matata.' They really love it. Try it at home and see what happens.

Oh, one more thing! The t-shirts for sports day are a little more expensive this year - a total of $320. I thought we could share the price. I will pay $200, and you could send in the remaining $120. Please do this as soon as possible.

Have a great week everyone!

Ali

Homework for the long weekend!

One more post before the weekend. I'll give the kids two different homework assignments this weekend. The first will be name tracing like the first time I assigned it. And the next will be the letter Bb in the Journey's practice book - page WTK 2. Something that I noticed for some students is that the first section with the alphabet is not complete. Please have students circle the letter that is the focus for the page. So this weekend it is B.

Thank you to everyone who sent in shoe or tissue boxes already, and thank you for the extras for those who sent two. Please try to send one for next week as we'll start making them as early as Monday.

Stay dry this weekend!

Ali

Week 6 - September 16-18

Hello everyone,

This is just going to a short entry this week.

With this being a very short week, with smaller amounts of time together due to mass and mass rehearsal, I am taking the opportunity to fill our class time with a review of past material. Mainly this is various positions - in, on, under, before, between and after. I will also review living and non-living things.

I was able to ask some of you, but not all. I will be doing an art activity that requires an old shoe box or tissue box. If you have any of these, please send one in when you can. It looks like we wont be able to do this activity until next week, so please send it in as soon as you can.

All of the students are using more and more English every day. It is so fun to see this progress - I feel like I'm getting to know them all over again and I love it! Great job K1!

It looks like another typhoon is about to pass over Taiwan, which has certainly altered my long-weekend plans, but I hope everyone has a really great Moon Festival holiday weekend.

Week 5 - September 9-13

Hello again,

Last week was a very busy week. It was full of so much fun stuff for the kids from the fire safety day to our adventurous walk to buy Little Lewandowski. The students behaved so well with the visiting firemen and out in the community. I was very proud of them all. Congratulations to Tim and Jinny for winning a prize for answering a correct question from the firemen.

I hope the homework went okay at home. It all looks to be done very  well. What I would like to do is connect the letter of the week to the letter that your children are completing as homework. So this weekend the homework will be on the letter Jj on page 10. What may come up is that there is a small difference between books. The ones we are learning in class don't have the cross on the top of the upper case J but it is there in the Journey's homework book. You can explain to your children if they appear confused or ask about this that both are right. This is just another way to write it.

Focus for the week:
Language Arts - What is a Noun? (only people, we will get to places and things later)
Math - More positions - before, after, between
Phonics and Reading - Identify the sound and objects of the letter Jj. We will also discuss what an author is, and what an illustrator is. When I read them stories we will talk about their favourite parts and their least favourite part.
Science - Tame (pets) vs. Wild animals. Your children will be able to tell me what makes a wild animal wild (we don't take care of them), and what makes a pet a pet.
Social Studies - we will continue to talk about how to solve a problems for ourselves and for our friends. This is constantly being reinforced in the classroom as the students are always finding little problems to solve  :)

As a reminder, next week is a shortened week with the moon festival holiday. It will also be very busy as we have mass rehearsal on Monday and mass on Tuesday. In advance I would like to let you know that I will provide similar lessons two weeks in a row because we will have such little time together to complete our work. So next week will be a sort of review of the topics so far. If you have any questions about this, please let me know.

Lastly, I feel like all the personalities of the class are finally showing themselves. There are some really nice friendships starting, and in fact I think your children really care about each other. They tell me when someone isn't at school, they comfort each other when someone is sad and they generally love to hug and hold hands with one another. It makes me really happy to see! I'm so lucky to have such a caring group of students.

Have a great week.

Homework!

Hello!

This is just a brief post about the homework this weekend and what the homework will be like in the future.

Instructions:
1) Write their name at the top of the page.
2) Circle the letter of the week from the alphabet.
3) First copy or write over top of the shaded (grey) Aa. They can practice this more than once to get used to the pattern. I would say to them to touch the lines starting at the "top bottom, top bottom, middle across." This vocabulary/instruction seems to really help them. They can write the letter on their own a minimum of 4 times
4) In the last box they must circle all upper case and lower case A's.

I have had really positive feedback on how the students are enjoying their homework and bringing it in for me to see. If you would like me to assign homework every week, please let me know in the communication book and I can certainly do that. Also, if their are any questions about the homework, or anything else, please feel free to email me: lewandowskiali@gmail.com.

I will give you more of an update on the week later, but I will introduce you to the newest K1 member, Little Lewandowski!

Week 4 - September 2-6

Hello,

Last week we had our first mass. The students did a very good job participating in signing the songs and answering different questions from Father Prudencio Garcia. Well done K1!

This week we will be having our annual Fire Drill, where members of the Kaohsiung Fire Department will come to our school and provide the students with information on fire safety. There will be some activities that K1 will not be able to participate in due to size and age, there will be other activities for them in place.

As you all know, Friday we will be going to get our class fish. Today we read a story during library time about where fish live, how they breathe and what they eat. I think everyone is very excited for a class pet. Thank you for returning the permission slips so quickly!

This week we will begin some review of past topics, and increasing knowledge in other subjects.

Language Arts: Vocabulary in, on and under. We get to review top, bottom and middle almost every day when we are spelling. Because big (or upper case) letters must touch the top and bottom line, where as most small (or lower case) letters only touch the middle and bottom line.
Science: We will look at different kinds of animals, and the way they move, their skin, where they live and what they eat.
Social studies: We will review rules. We will discuss what some rule are and why we have them. This includes things we should not do, but also things that we  should do, like being a good friend.
Math: We will discuss positions like in language arts. Top, middle, bottom, on  and under.
Phonics and Reading: The letter Ss. This is an easy one to say, but not an easy one to write. We will take our time with this one!

It was very busy last week, so I wasn't able to take many pictures, but here is Amber standing in front of our new growth chart. I thought they would like to watch themselves grow. I will measure them once a month.

Have a great week everyone!

Week 3 - Aug 26 - 30

It was really great seeing most of you this past weekend and the parent/teacher meet and greet. I think we are all looking forward to seeing what the year holds for your children.

Friday will be the schools opening mass. I can say that the kids are doing very well in Christian living and music class, learning all the songs and prayers. They are also very creative in talking about what they love and who loves them!

Next week, I'm hoping that Ms. Scott's K2 class and our K1 class will be able to walk to the aquarium at MingCheng Rd. and Jhonghua Rd. to buy our class fish, which ties into the living things unit coming up in our science class.

Our schedule for the week includes:
Language arts - learning a weather poem. Here I will help the students track the words that we say together to follow the words on the page. They will also learn TOP, MIDDLE and BOTTOW, relating to following the page.
Math - In math we will be discovering and describing our own sorting. The students will be able to look at different items and tell me how they would sort them.
Phonics/Reading - The students will identify, say and pronounce the letter Bb. They will also learn different objects that begin with this letter.
Science - The students will be introduced to living and non living things. Sorting will also play a role in these lessons.
Social Studies - I will continue helping the students to learn how to solve problems on their own.
Writing - The students are well underway to learning how write A, B and C.

Finally, thank you for helping your children with their homework. The students were very excited to show me their work!

Well, it was a very busy first week to say the least. It was great to see the previous PK students back in action, and great to integrate Olivia, Jinny and Sean. I see great friendships blossoming already.

The students worked hard on learning the rules of the classroom and also some rules in society (wearing seat belts and helmets) in social studies. In math they learned to sort objects by colour and shape. In writing and motor skills the students got their hands steady with writing straight and diagonal lines and learned the letter Mm, both sound and different objects in phonics. In science we reviewed the five senses. We are doing reading buddies with the grade 4 class. Every other Friday the students from Ms. Chen's class will come to our classroom to read to the students. I think this is a great way to keep the children interested in reading and also a fantastic way to create relationships with some older student who kindergarten doesn't get a lot of chance to interact with.

This coming week our focus will be:
Language arts: connecting lower case and upper case letters, and rhyming sounds
Math: sorting objects by category (fruit, vegetables, size, seasons)
Phonics/Reading: consonant Ff
Science: how to use different scientific tools (magnets, ruler, balance, magnifying glass)
Motor skills: circles and curved lines - and always practicing writing their names
Social studies: learning safety signs (stop, walk/don't walk, railroad crossing)

I'm looking forward to seeing you all next Saturday at the Parent/Teacher orientation.

I hope everyone has enjoyed a rain free weekend,
Ms. Lewandowski