Golf Course Super Stars

Look what I saw this weekend at the golf course!!

International Week Reminder

As part of International Week from the 1st March to the 5^th we are going to have a display table of ornaments from around the world in the foyer.  We need interesting things for our table. If you can help by sending something from your country for our display table, then please send it with your child, clearly labeled with your child’s name and class. These will be returned to you on Thursday.

We are so fortunate in KAUST, with so many different nationalities represented and it would be lovely to have you all involved in sharing and helping with a range of activities on different days.

Important Dates:

Wednesday, March 4th  International Food Sharing party 11-12pm.  Please send in any food you would like to bring by 10am to the front reception with the following information posted on it: Child's name, Teachers name, Country the dish is from, Name of the food. This will be shared with all of K2. 

Thursday March 5 - Dress up day in National costumes. ** Parents are invited to come and watch the children parade at 8:30am**

I look forward to hearing from you and your help to make this a great event. Please email me (kathleen.hoffman@kaust.edu.sa) to let me know if you would like to host an activity in our class. Some of the ways you can support International Week:

•  Teach us how to say 'hello/how are you/thank you/goodbye' in your home language

•  Sharing songs/rhymes/stories from another country – it could be in your own language

•  Share different texts through books etc

•  Bring in artefact to share each day as part of sharing day – this could be anything like food pictures, ornaments, photographs, clothes

•  Chinese/Arabic Calligraphy to write students names

•  Help make class books in different languages 

•  Do a cookery demonstration 

•  Share different art work from around the world

•  Share different toys from around the world

•  Share different games

World Book Day

March 5th is World Book Day!
It is also our International Day Parade.  BUT, we still want to celebrate World Book Day.
To celebrate World Book Day I invite you to send your child to school with their favorite book to share.  Please make sure their names are inside the books so we know who they belong to.
For more information about World Book Day, please see http://worldbookday.com/

Serenata Children's Choir and String Orchestra Concert

A message from Mrs. Amy:

Serenata is a nonprofit organization comprising a childrens choral group, string chamber orchestra , and a working committee. Now on its 9th year, Serenata has been supporting underprivileged Filipinos pursue higher education. Since 2009, Serenata has been sponsoring at least 4 scholars through Bantay Edukasyon (Education Watch) program of the child welfare program Bantay Bata (Child Watch) 163. To date, Serenata has provided at least 26 (4-year) scholarships to abused children.

Bantay Bata 163 http://www.abs-cbnfoundation.com/bb163/about.html 1-6-3 refers to the hotline to report child abuse

On December 4, 2014, recognition came from by Philippine President Benigno Aquino Jr. Serenata was the 2014 recipient to the   Presidential Award for Lingkod Kapwa Pilipino (Service for Filipino Countrymen) in recognition for their philantrophic work in Saudi Arabia.  

Some Facebook links to videos shown on Philippine TV aired last year.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=622167561164107&set=vb.100001126061099&type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=669431443104385&set=vb.100001126061099&type=2&theater

Tinkering Room

What is tinkering? The word was first used in the 1300s to describe tinsmiths who would travel around mending various household gadgets. But in our minds, it’s more of a perspective than a vocation. It’s fooling around directly with phenomena, tools, and materials. It’s thinking with your hands and learning through doing. It’s slowing down and getting curious about the mechanics and mysteries of the everyday stuff around you. It’s whimsical, enjoyable, fraught with dead ends, frustrating, and ultimately about inquiry. (http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/art-tinkering)

We have set up a tinkering room in our shared space.  We had our first visit this week and the children LOVED it.  

TINKERING OFFERS VALUABLE SKILLS TO KIDS

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What do you do when you find that your 8-year-old has taken his new video game apart? Or, when your 4-year-old would rather play with boxes over the new tea set you bought for her? What can be done when your child is set on dismantling everything in sight?

Encourage it. When you allow a child to take something a part, it cures their interest with feelings of confidence and discovery.   

For ages children have taken things apart to learn how they work. Tinkering for many children fuels their natural curiosity about life. But, while tinkering is fun, what are the benefits to the demolition crew running around your house? 

Tinkering during play can teach children valuable lessons by helping develop fine motor skills, problem solving abilities, and peer relationships. 

Fine motor development involves the coordination of small muscles in fingers and hands. Strong fine motors skills are necessary for writing, cutting, using utensils, and tying shoe laces. Without these acquired fine motor skills, children may find difficulty in performing simple tasks. 

“Tinkering during play is critical to children’s motor skills by teaching children to use their hands to shape, move, and manipulate,” said Lu Lewis, Creative Discovery Museum’s Early Childhood Coordinator. “So often, children have underdeveloped fine motor skills.”

Developing problem solving skills is an equally important tinkering quality at any age. Childhood expert Lilian Katz, professor of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explains why problem solving skills need to be developed. “It is in the building of the play environment that much problem solving occurs for young investigators. [Younger] children engage in problem solving as they figure out how to make a window for a bus, or how to make a horse’s head stand up straight on their pretend horse,” said Katz. Problem solving skills benefit children at any age and can help older children develop confidence and stimulate creativity. By providing problem solving practice in play time, you are equipping your child with a lifelong skill that can be used in all areas of learning. 

Tinkering activities also build peer relationships in children. Tinkering activities can support team work and collaboration to improve the social relationships between children. 

“The long-term benefits of tinkering time are remarkable,” said Katy Scott, Education Technology Specialist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. “In many ways, tinkering resembles inquiry-based learning, cooperative learning, and project-based learning, all of which have been proven to have long-term positive effects on student achievement and success.” 

*Tinkering Tip: If your child loves to take things a part and is old enough to use tools, consider finding him or her second-hand items such as wall clocks and stereos. It will meet the needs of their natural curiosity while saving you time and money!

Sources: Brotherson, Sean, NDSU Extension Service. Katz, Lillian, Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years (2011). Scott, Katy, Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Trip to Golf Course to Explore Forces

Part of our current unit has us inquiring about how things that move and how forces and materials are applied in our work and play.  We talked about different things that move, such as balls, and how they move.  We thought it would be great to explore forces at the golf course, and how we can make the balls move with the golf clubs!  We had so much fun! Adam and Welson were fabulous!  At the end we got to go for a ride around on the golf carts, which again was exploring forces when we were going up and down the hills.