Performing Arts Update

Dear parents,
In Performing Arts we have been wrapping up the unit about Songs Around the World and we started a new unit about instruments.
Babushka is finally back into our classroom so we no longer receive regular postcards from him around the world. To end this unit we have collected all the songs he sent us and analysed them to find out in which do we sing, have actions/dance, use/listen to instruments or use props. Students have been understanding what features can we find in a song; what can a song be made of; that singing and playing instruments is not the same or what is a prop, amongst other concepts.
It has also been a good opportunity to understand how to read a chart and realize in how many of these songs do we use actions, or sing.
At this point, most classes have finished their chart, while a few are still in the process of finalizing it.
At the same time we have started a new unit on Instruments (not that we had not been using instruments before). We have been exploring all the instruments in the classroom and finding out how can we play them. In the pictures below you can see the students guessing which instrument is being played behind the folding screen. They can play this type of games for a long time!!!
Lastly, a link to the most popular song these days - Pinocchio (we use this version in the class but the students have never watched this video. Some of the actions are slightly different).
Enjoy your break! 

Self-initiated sorting

Sorting real life object by attributes of color, size and shape is one of the learning outcomes for K2.  The children have been playing with the waffle blocks for about 4-5 days now.  Today when Sean came in, he made a connection between the colors of the carpet and the colors of the waffle blocks. 

He decided he was going to sort them, and place them on the matching color carpet square (totally self-initiated).

Sean's inquiry lead to him facilitating his own mini lesson on sorting with his friends.  Together they continued to sort all of the blocks together!  Application of knowledge as well as sharing of knowledge!  Thank you Sean!!

A fun start to the week

The children enjoy coming into the classroom and having self-directed play.  What this means is that they are able to choose their learning engagements themselves without prompting from the teacher.  

Mrs. Katie put a pile of blank booklets on a table.  Soon the table was filed with children "writing" their own stories.  Some of the children decided to dictate to Mrs. Katie what they wanted written in their story, while others just wanted to let their pictures do the story telling.  

Building and creating is a favorite thing in our class! 

Islamic Studies Update

Dear parents,

During our Islamic Studies class we covered the following:

• Saying the greeting of Islam

(Alsalmo alikom wa rahmato Allah wa barakato)

• Saying the Entrance Duaa every time we enter to our Islamic class

(Bismillahi walajna, wa bismillahi kharajna, wa ala Allahi Rabbana tawakkalna)

• Saying the Exit Duaa every time we leave our Islamic class

(Bismillah, tawakkaltu‘ ala Allah, wala hawla wala quwwata illa billah)

• Revising surrat AlFatiha
• Revising surrat AlEkhlas
• Sleeping maners:
• Dusting off the bed
• Sleeping on the right side
• Reading Quran and blowing three times in hands and wipe whole body
• Saying the Duaa of Sleep

(Bismika Allahoma amoto wa ahia)

• Listening to the song “BISMILLAH”

الأهالي الأعزاء،

في صف الدراسات الإسلامية قمنا بتغطية التالي:

• قول تحية الإسلام

(السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته)

• قول دعاء الدخول عند دخولنا لصف الدراسات الإسلامية

(باسم الله ولجنا وباسم الله خرجنا وعلى الله ربنا توكلنا)

• قول دعاء الخروج عند الخروج من صف الدراسات الإسلامية

(بسم الله، توكلت على الله، ولا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله)

• مراجعة سورة الفاتحة
• مراجعة سورة الإخلاص
• آداب النوم
• نفض الفراش
• النوم على الجانب الأيمن
• قراءة القرآن والنفث ثلاثاً في اليدين ثم مسح سائر الجسد
• قول دعاء النوم

(باسمك اللهم أموت و أحيا)

• الاستماع إلى نشيد "باسم الله"

Our food projects!

Today was the day we made our projects! After planning, preparing and gathering materials the children created their favorite places in our community using food!  We explored different shapes, textures and smells while creating the projects. We also had to use our fine motor skills by spreading and scooping the different foods.  It was so much fun, and the children were really excited to create things with food!

Sofia "It is my school.  Inside we have toys."

Hashim "It is a pool".  He even put water inside it!

"It is a boat". Hamudi

"Swimming pool!"  Azka

"It is playland. The bananas are the three slides.  Then, there is a ball pit". Malath

"This is Tamimis" Retal

"The fish. The boat." Ahmad

"I love the beautiful swimming pool." Roaa

"This is the beach.  The water and then the sand." Juwana

"This is the beacon.  It is Sean's.  We gonna eat it at home." Sean

"This is Tamims.  Look at all the things I used!" Amaya

"Tamimi.  Can I eat it now?" Iman

Update from Mrs. Marwa, Arabic

Dear parents

Many thanks for reviewing Arabic words with your children.

Book week was a hive of activity in K2. We read a nice story (The Hungry Caterpillar) and viewed this story on video. Throughout this story we talked about numbers from one to five in Arabic and children were given a learning engagement to support their knowledge of Arabic numbers. Later we talked about shapes (circle, square, triangle and rectangle), we drew shapes, decorated and created more shapes. We learned a new song about shapes (see the attachment below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFbtMD0tdXc

These are the new Arabic words we had:

ENGLISH	ARABIC	ENGLISH/ARABIC
caterpillar	دودة	douda
Butterfly	فراشة	farasha
Hungry	جائعة	jayeaa’
Moon	قمر	kamar
Sun	شمس	shames
Egg	بيضة	bayda
Story	قصة	kossa
One	واحد	wahed
Tow	اثنان	ethnan
Three	ثلاثة	thalatha
Four	اربعة	arbaa’
Five	خمسة	khamsa
Circle	دائرة	dayera
Triangle	مثلث	mothalath
Rectangle	مستطيل	mostateel
Square	مربع	morabaa’

Best Regard.  

Marwa Gadry, K2 Arabic teacher

The Environment is the Third Teacher

Our classroom has the hottest outdoor space.  The sun seems to shine there all day long.  Now that the weather has cooled down, we have opened up the doors all day long for the children to explore their outdoor environment.  We have put out the water table and also a painting table.  Needless to say, the children LOVE it!

On the painting table we introduced different types of sponge paint brushes.  Retal figured out that she could stamp rectangles with her brush.

Malath used the circle sponge brushes to do a self portrait

Iman enjoyed experimenting with the different sized circle brushes.

Ahmad explored color blending to see what colors he could make.  He ended up with a rainbow effect.

Roaa, Juwana, Hamudi and Hashim loved the water table.  They were busy measuring the water, pretending to water flowers, and singing songs together!

Nothing Without Joy

Yesterday the children were having so much fun on the playground.  Their faces were glowing with smiles, and the friendships were blossoming.  It was a beautiful time that truly represented childhood.  When I went to Reggio Emilia a couple of weeks ago, something that resonated with me was Loris Malaguzzi's quote that "there is nothing without joy".  This fits into my philosophy of early childhood, that children should always have the opportunity to express themselves, feel safe, have the opportunity to play, and to be happy.
Together as a class we made this display.  I know not everyone is able to come into school on a regular basis, so I took a picture for you to see it.  Everyone that walks by it cannot help but smile, therefore, creating joy, just by looking at these amazing kids pictures.

Exploring Light

We have a light table in our classroom which we have used to explore different dimensions, color combining and shapes.  We have started to look at different elements we can use to draw.  I provided the children with some overhead projector pens and paper.  They started to draw on the light table, and have created some very cool drawings!

This process has promoted collaboration amongst friends, as well as creativity.  We will be introducing different light elements into our classroom over the next couple of weeks.  

Our favorite places in our community- made out of food!

Yesterday you would have received an email from me regarding your child's plan for creating their favorite place in our community.  We have discussed a lot about the different features of our community, and what our community needs, as well as the different systems in place in our community.  The children are very passionate about our community, and realize how lucky they are to live in such an amazing place.

I placed lots of different pictures from our community on a table for the children to reflect on.  They then talked about where their favorite place was in our community and why.  We decided instead of making more things out of recyclable materials that we would make it out food.  We talked about foods that have different shapes, and how we could construct these different places out of food.  The children decided that peanut butter and cream cheese could be the "glue" that keeps these food items together.  

Here is an example of their plan that they created in order to create their projects.  Stay tuned to see the process and final product!

We Are Authors!

During book week Mrs. Laura came in and showed us how to use the online book creator called Story Bird. Together we came up with the story, writing our own sentences, and choosing the pictures to go along.  We hope you enjoy our story!

First we chose the pictures.

Then we came up with the ideas and the storyline. 

Here is our story, The Golden Eggs!

Book Week!

I heard that last week's Book Week was a great success! I loved seeing the pictures of the children all dressed up in their book character costumes!
If there is ever a time during the year that you would like to come and read, please do!