Construction Zone! Day 2

DAY 2:  The buildings are taking shape.  Some of the individual buildings have now merged and become shared projects!

Construction Zone! Day 1

DAY 1:

The children have collected a variety of materials from home, and the reuse room.  They have plans in their minds and have started creating their houses!

This process allows the children to plan, collect materials and complete a project.  They are also practicing skills such as sticking, cutting, and balancing materials to have them stand up!

Here is a glimpse into our construction zone!!

              

Maps!

To further the children's inquiry into our community maps, I placed the map on a table with magnifying glasses (the numbers are quite small). I wrote all of the children's house numbers on a card, and they tried to find those house numbers on the map.  This allows them to practice their number recognition and number matching, as well as exploring more of our community map!

One of the comments that the children were saying was "there are a lot of P's on the map!" We discussed what a P on the map meant (parking) and they were talking about how many places we have to park here!

The block area has been very busy these days!  Hamudi was busy building, and even incorporated different tools to help him build.  

Using virtual maps to find our houses!

We looked at a big map of our community on the Smart Board, and were trying to identify the different places in our community.  The children were able to identify the different places around our school.  On the website for our community you can type in your house number and it will locate it on the map.  The children loved this and were very proud to see their houses on the Smart Board. We discovered that some of us are neighbors!  

We also looked a paper map of our community, and looked at where some of us live.  Some of us live in the Island, Gardens and Harbor.  We discussed why we though most of the amenities in our community are in the middle.  Amaya responded "so it's not far for everyone to get there."  We looked at the distance it would be from the top of the Gardens to Tamimi's and then from the furthest point on the Island to Tamimi's and found that it was a fair distance for people to travel.  The children really enjoyed looking at the map and trying to figure out the symbols on the map to see what the different buildings were.  

Something you might want to do at home is look at your house number together.  We will be exploring more about our house numbers next week!

Stand up, turn around, sit down!

Our class really enjoys dancing.  I get asked at least five times a day if we can do some dancing!

When children dance they learn....

* balance and coordination

* to be conscious of the moods and rhythm of music

* to express themselves physically

This particular song the children really enjoy: Stand up, turn around, sit down by Patty Shulka.  I found at first though they were more watching the other children in the video dance instead of doing the dancing themselves.  We talked about what we need to use in order to do this dance, and they replied "our ears".  So I minimized the video and they could only listen to the instructions of the dance instead of watching it.  Their dancing improved so much!

Partners for Learning

Please join us for Partners for Learning October 29th!

Trip to Tamimi's

Before we went to Tamimi's we talked about what we need in our community.  The children thought about different things that they need in order to live happily in KAUST.  Here is what they came up with:

I asked them the question "How does Tamimi's meet our needs?"  The children started talking about all the different things that they could buy at Tamimi's that they felt they needed. 

Before we went, each child was given a clipboard and was asked to draw or write the different things they thought they needed that Tamimi's provided.  They were VERY excited to go to Tamimi's and had a lot of things to say about what Tamimi's provided.  They believe that while Tamimi's provides us with food, they also provide us with toys, and that is a need of a 4 year old!

When Children Play

When Children Play They.....

When children paint or draw they learn....

* to develop their imagination and creativity

* to develop eye-hand coordination

* to distinguish and purposely create shapes

* to express their feelings and ideas

* that their ideas have values

* relationships of space and size

* concepts of symmetry, balance and design

When children play with play dough they learn...

* to see the shape against the background of the table, a pre-reading skill

* concepts of shape, size, length and heigh

* to see negative space

* to express feelings by squeezing and pounding

* to express their imagination and creativity

* that the quantity of something remains the same even when the shape changes

When children cut, glue and collage they learn....

* to control the small muscles in their hand

* concepts of shape, size and location

* to exercise their imagination and creativity

* about different textures

* how to create patterns and designs

* concept of shape, size, location and design

 When children play in the dramatic play area they learn to...

* to be flexible in their thinking

* to express themselves with their words

* to try out different adult roles

* to solve problems through negotiation

* to sort and organize play things

* to make decisions

* to improvise and use things in a symbolic way

* to carry out their ideas with the help of others

* to dress themselves

When children play with math manipulatives they learn...

* to create and reproduce patterns

*concepts of color, shape and location

* left and right progression

* patterning skills

* one to one correspondence

* eye-hand coordination 

Reference: The Daycare Resource Connection

Trip to Play Land!

As part of our unit How We Organize Ourselves, we talked about the different features of KAUST after we went on our trip around KAUST.  We identified the different places, and talked about which was our favorite.  All of the children LOVE play land.

The children were using their imaginations while on the trip- they were racing down the slides and even playing hide and go seek!

After our trip we reflected about what was our favorite part of the trip.  Responses included: "the slide", "hiding", "the ball pit" and "jumping".  When I told them what my favorite part was, "seeing them all having fun and smiling" they all responded with even bigger smiles!

What a fun morning!  Play land is open every day except for Tuesdays and is a great place for you to with your child for them to practice their gross motor skills, socialize with other children, and have fun as a family!

Sharing Means Caring

Mrs. Aisha our school psychologist came into our class this week to talk about sharing.  She read a couple of books to the children about what does it mean to share, and how can we share with out friends.  The children really enjoyed this!  We are lucky to have such a great group of children who are great sharers!

Mrs. Aisha was reading a story to the children about why it is important to share!

All in....

...SHARING MEANS CARING!!

Exploring math concepts through play

At TKS we value play.  Our program is a PYP play-based program that promotes learning through play.  This week the children have been exploring the concepts of pattern, shape, sorting and measurement. This ties in nicely with our new unit, How We Organize Ourselves, with a focus on looking at our community and how it supports our needs.   Math can be incorporated in many different ways.  Below are some of the highlights from this week.

A provocation was laid out for the children in the block area: pictures of them were attached to blocks so that they could be a part of the community building.  The children were playing with the different 3D shapes, and seeing which could be stacked on top of each other to balance. 

Sofia and Juwana were using a tally to see who was at school on Wednesday and who was away.  They were using the name cards to help them write their friends names.

We used the wikisticks to help us build the letters in our names.  We had to measure and cut each piece to match the length of each letter in our names. 

We found a new game in our shared space.  This game allows children to match different shaped pegs to create different pictures. They were able to identify different pictures, shapes and colors.  

In pairs, the students were playing with different animals to create patterns and continue existing patterns.  They were also sorting the different animals in different ways (such as same animal or color).  The children were also matching the number symbol to the number of animals.  For example, they would put one animal in the 1 container. 

Amaya was creating her own pattern!

Iman and Malath were sorting the animals by type.

Saleh was measuring the length of some of his letters.

You can continue this learning at home by asking your child to identify different shapes when you go to Tamimi's or to Discovery Square (lots of different shapes there). You can also see what patterns are in your environment and ask your child about them (such as looking at the stripes on the crosswalks).

Our Bus Trip Around KAUST