Archive of ‘newsletters 2018-2019’ category
Weekly Highlights
Happy Friday! It’s been a bit of a weird couple weeks with so many days off due to cold, ice, snow, and other winter weather! Thank you for hanging in there and staying on top of things, even last minute changes. 🙂 We are taking advantage of every available moment at school and working hard to continue our learning. Wednesday we had a very small group due to our 2-hour delay. I surprised the kids and let them sit wherever they wanted for lunch. It’s the small things in life that sometimes bring the most joy!
Important Dates
- February 14: Valentine’s Day (see reminders section)
- February 15 & 18: No School (Winter Break)
- February 19: Field trip to For the Kidz Gymnastics. Please note the date change!
- Please send along a booster seat if you are able (if your child doesn’t ride the bus).
- Children should dress in comfortable clothes and wear socks. We will be moving a lot!
- February 19: Next opportunity to add afternoons (optional)
- February 22: (tentative date) 100th Day of School- see reminders section
- March 5: PT conferences in the evening (optional)
- March 14: Joel Tanis, a local author, will visit for our Young Authors event
- March 31: Baby Izenbaard’s Due Date 🙂
Reminders
Transitional Schedules: February 19 is the next opportunity to add afternoons to your child’s schedule if you’d like. Please let me know before February 15 if you plan to make a change. Adding time is optional this time. The next opportunity to make a change will be April 10 when everyone will begin to attend on Wednesday afternoons.
Field Trip to Visser Farms: Due to missing so much instruction time on our many snow days, the kindergarten team has decided to skip this field trip this year. We feel the time we will gain in our classrooms by not attending this trip is valuable. The money you paid in August to send your child on this trip will be used at the farmers market and for a different project.
100 Day: Zero the Hero (secretly Mr. McAboy) will be visiting our school to help us celebrate 100 days of learning! We will not have a class party, but will be doing a few fun literacy and math activities. God has been so good these 100 days! We are going to celebrate by dressing up like super heroes! Feel free to be creative by making a cape or using one you already have and think of a special super power 🙂 Perhaps a special gift or talent God has blessed your child with. Have fun!
Valentines Day: I always look forward to celebrating this special day of love and friendship together. We will have a small class celebration where we’ll participate in a few different centers. One center will be passing out valentines. Please make sure there are enough for everyone- 23 students- and that your child fills out only the “From____” section. You may leave the “To ____” section blank. Valentines may be handmade or store bought- keep it simple!
Raising Money for the Philippines: Information went home via email and in red folders last week about this special project focused on loving others and support our sponsor student from the Philippines. I hope it leads to lots of great conversations. If your child is choosing to participate, please turn in the hearts paper and money at the end of the month.
Curriculum
Bible: We continue to focus on Jesus’ ministry. This week we read about Martha and Mary. We learned that Jesus loves to spend time with us!
Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Mateo 19:14 Pero Jesus dijo, “Dejad a los niños venir a mí y no se los impidais. Porque de los tales es el reino de los cielos.”
I don’t have a separate video for this verse, but we are learning this song by Steve Green. The lyrics are from our Bible verse. Please click here to share the song with your child. (Please be aware of unpredictable ads that may play before the song.)
Literacy: In grammar we began to conjugate verbs! I remember this being very hard when I learned Spanish in school, but the beautiful thing about choosing immersion for your children is that they have been conjugating verbs from the very first sentences they spoke! Children in immersion are constantly attending to language and looking for patterns. This week we just put a “grammar rule” to a pattern your children have been observing since day 1- first person singular present tense verbs. We learned that these verbs usually end in o, for example, camino (I walk,) or hablo (I talk.)
- Reading strategy: Visualizing
- Read aloud: Los pollitos dicen
- Vocabulary words
- los pollitos (chicks)
- el trigo (wheat)
- el conejo (rabbit)
- el maíz (corn)
- las alas (wings)
- Word wall word: son (to be in 3rd person plural tense)
- Phrase of the week: Yo sé. (I know.)
- Letter of the week/Handwriting Letter: Ff
Math: In math we continued talking about parts or partners in addition problems. We’re also looking at teen numbers as groups of 10 and some extra.
Writing Workshop: Everyone is working on their own patter book right now! Some chose to use the pattern Mira and others chose to use the pattern Yo veo. Some of the themes chosen in our class include dinosaurs, animals, colors, and winter clothing.
Up in Lights: Braxton was Up in Lights this week! He gets the prize for most patient UIL person as he waited 9 days to do his presentation through 6 snow days and a 2 hour delay that caused us to reschedule a few times. Braxton is crazy about dinosaurs and knows lots of cool facts he likes to share. He hopes to be a paleontologist when he grows up. Braxton, God made you so special and we’re so glad you’re in our class! We love you!
From the Immersion Coordinator, Jodi Pierce
How is language fluency measured? While there are multiple ways to define and explain an individual’s language fluency, one internationally recognized scale is the ACTFL Proficiency Standards. There is also an equivalent scale written for children which takes into account their developing language and cognitive abilities. Using these scales, individuals are placed at a beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, or superior/distinguished level. For reference, someone who has completed a year or two of high school Spanish would likely place somewhere near a high beginner or low novice and the distinguished level is higher than many native speakers will achieve. At ZCS we hope to bring our students to the advanced level in speaking, reading, writing, and listening. This is an ambitious goal, but we celebrate the fact that most of our students achieve this in late middle school. If you would like to learn more about the ACFTL Proficiency scale, you can check out this
website. If you click on the English tab on the left, you can scroll down to find examples of English speakers at the various levels so that you can better understand what each level of proficiency sounds like.
Weekly Highlights
This week we started a special project the kids are making to give to you at Christmas. They are so excited!
I love spending time with your children during the Christmas season! Their excitement is contagious. We have a countdown for the last 10 school days before break. Each day we pull a ring of the chain, we do a random act of kindness. This week we have written notes to the people who make our lunches, cleaned up our school yard, and made cards for our specials teachers, just to name a few!
I pray that God will be glorified in all of our celebrating and that we hold him at the center of it all. Next week I will not be sending a newsletter. We’re heading out of town to be with family very early Saturday morning. Below you’ll find a summary of how we spent the past week and what I look forward to doing with your child this coming week. Before going back to school in January I’ll send an email with a few reminders. May you have a very blessed Christmas!
Important Dates
- December 17: Jingle Jog! Our class will be jogging from 10:30-11:00am. If you would like to cheer the kids on, please come to the gym. Students may wear Christmas pajamas (they can have t-shirts if you think they would be too hot). We will wear our gym shoes for the jog. 🙂
- December 20: Christmas Chapel led by our kindergarten classes! You are all welcome to attend! Chapel is at 9:00. Unable to attend? Normally there is a live feed that goes on the ZCS Facebook page.
- December 21: Classroom Christmas Party. I sent a SignUp Genius out for volunteers. Beyond that, we are set for the party. You won’t have to worry about sending anything extra with your child that day, but they will need their normal snacks and lunch.
- January 10: All students will begin to attend on Thursday afternoons! I’m looking forward to spending more time with your kiddos!
Reminders
- Library books: As a reminder we visit the library on Tuesdays. Kindergarteners at ZCS are allowed to check out one book at a time. If your child would like a new book to enjoy at home, please help him/her remember to bring their book back by Tuesday. It is fine to send it in early. We collect them in a bin under the mailboxes throughout the week.
- Transitional Schedule Changes: I’m looking forward to all students attending class on Thursday afternoons starting January 10! You may add more afternoons at this date if desired. Please let me know by the end of Christmas break. As a reminder, the week of February 19, you may choose to add afternoons to your child’s schedule if desired. All students will attend class on Wednesday afternoons starting April 10. This date is the last opportunity to add any other afternoons if you wish to do so.
Curriculum
Bible: We continued to learn about the Christmas story one character at a time. This week we made Jesus, a shepherd, and one of the wisemen. I love seeing Christmas through your child’s eyes! This coming week we will finish our nativity projects. Please be sure that your child as a shoe box on Tuesday! They will be so excited to put the final touches on and show it to you at home!
Lucas 2:6,7 Mientras estaban allí así que dio a luz a su hijo primogénito. Lo envolvió en pañales y lo acostó en un pesebre, porque no había lugar para ellos en la posada.
Luke 2:6,7 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Literacy: We continued to explore adjectives. This week we learned about possessive adjectives- mi, mis, tu, tus, su, and sus. One thing I love about immersion education is the way it empowers students when they realize these touch-sounding concepts are really things they use all the time! My job is to simply help the kids notice the language they’re already using. 🙂 Next week we’ll spend some time reviewing adjectives and focusing more on reading comprehension strategies, specifically making connections and asking questions. I will not be introducing any new grammar or literacy concepts.
- Read aloud: La Clase de Dibujo
- Vocabulary Words:
- el dibujo- drawing
- la tortuga- turtle
- la cabeza- head
- los colors- colors
- el/la artista- artist
- Word wall word: de (of)
- Phrase of the week: Yo veo _____. (I see _____.)
- Letter of the week/handwriting letter: Dd
Math: This week we began counting by 10s’. We also practiced addition and subtraction problems by acting them out outside. 🙂 Next week we’ll continue practicing numbers 1-10, addition, and subtraction.
Writing Workshop: This week we finished our list of animals. This has been great practice on stretching the words and listening for the sounds. Next week we will finish our unit on labels and lists by “publishing” our favorite pieces and celebrating!
Exploring God’s World: We finished our unit on Earth materials. This week we began talking about needs and wants. We used a writing workshop block to list needs and wants. We also categorized some pictures as needs or wants. I like talking about this topic close to Christmas. We will finish our unit on needs and wants next week.
Up in Lights: Taryn was Up in Lights this week! Her parents, brother, sister, and dog came to visit! It was fun to see Sadie do tricks. Thank you, DeJong family! Taryn, you ask good questions, always eager to know more about what’s going on around you. We love you!
From the Immersion Program Director, Jodi Pierce
How can I, as a parent who does not speak Spanish or Mandarin, best support my immersion student at home? While there are so many ways for you to support a child’s learning, one of the most important things you can do to help your budding immersion student is to read out loud to him/her at home. Besides the benefits of precious time spent together, reading out loud will encourage English growth in your child. Books, whether chapter books or picture books, will broaden your child’s vocabulary and expose your child to different linguistic structures in English. It will encourage a love of books and will also develop good reading habits at home. Research shows us that the majority of parents stop reading out loud to their children much earlier than children lose interest in it, so parents of upper elementary students, your children are not too old to enjoy a book with you! If you are unsure of what to read, there are countless lists of favorite books (mostly teacher created) available online!
Weekly Highlights
We had another great week! God is so good! One thing that stuck out to me as I reflected on this week was how much Spanish your children are using! Thank you, Jesus! Please continue to lift our class up in prayer as we journey toward bilingualism together! I’m so proud of your kids!
Important Dates
- December 14: No pm Bussing
- December 17: Jingle Jog! Our class will be jogging from 10:30-11:00am. If you would like to cheer the kids on, please come to the gym. Students may wear Christmas pajamas (they can have t-shirts if you think they would be too hot). We will wear our gym shoes for the jog 🙂 Mrs. Miller will send home papers soon describing the fundraiser part of the jog. It is to raise money for our sister school in the Philippines.
- December 20: Christmas Chapel led by our kindergarten classes! If you love to decorate and would like to take on the role of adding Christmas trees, poinsettias, balloons or other festive (simple) decorations for our chapel, please email me! The classes will be standing on risers, so we are thinking of a few things to decorate the sides. If this is something you enjoy and would like to take charge of, we would love the help 🙂
- December 21: Classroom Christmas Party. I sent a SignUp Genius out for volunteers. Beyond that, we are set for the party. You won’t have to worry about sending anything extra with your child that day, but they will need their normal snacks and lunch.
Reminders
- Nativity Project: There are still a couple spots left in our SignUp Genius. If you are interested in helping please, I’d really appreciate it! Follow this link to sign up.
- Hot Lunch: I have to turn in the hot lunch order by 10:00, but usually do it by 9:00 as part of our morning routine. If you come in late, please be sure to let the office know you are ordering hot lunch when you sign your child in. If you let me know ahead of time to order hot lunch for your child, for example, when you email to say they will be tardy, I’ll just include it with our normal class order. When a student needs hot lunch, but didn’t order it, they have to wait until everyone goes through the line to see what is extra. This means that child has very little time to eat and usually has to finish up during recess. 🙁
Curriculum
Bible: We started our nativity scene project this week! We learned about the angel who spoke to Zachariah and Elizabeth and then the angel who spoke to Mary. We learned that angels had an important job- to tell people good news from God. We also made Mary and Joseph. This week I assessed on our November Bible verse. 🙂 Below is our verse for December.
Lucas 2:6,7 Mientras estaban allí así que dio a luz a su hijo primogénito. Lo envolvió en pañales y lo acostó en un pesebre, porque no había lugar para ellos en la posada.
Luke 2:6,7 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Literacy: We continued to explore adjectives. We learned how to change adjectives to describe more than one thing.
- Read aloud: Sueños
- Vocabulary Words:
- nacer- to be born
- el barco- boat
- profundo- deep
- navegar- navigate
- la sirena- mermaid
- Word wall word: es (is)
- Phrase of the week: Vamos a recoger.
- Letter of the week/handwriting letter: Ll
Math: This week we started practicing how to count by 5’s. We made a Christmas tree of handprints. Each handprint is 5 fingers. This was a fun way to learn about counting by 5’s!
Writing Workshop: This week we turned our focus a bit to writing lists. We’re working on writing a list of animals.
Exploring God’s World: It was exciting to use our knowledge of adjectives to describe Earth materials this week! We closely observed each one using our 5 senses and then wrote a list of adjectives to describe each one.
Afternoons: This week we opened some new math centers all about Christmas! Kindergarteners use dominos, base 10 blocks, a cut and paste activity, and a dice game to practice math. It is good to have everyone here on Tuesday afternoons!
Up in Lights: Lydia was Up in Lights this week! Her mom, dad, and older brother, Eli, came to visit and share some of the ways God made Lydia so special. Her dad read us a Fancy Nancy book and we got to learn some new fancy words. 🙂 Thank you, Lydia! We love you so much! You are a precious child of God and our class wouldn’t be the same without you!
From the Immersion Program Director, Jodi Pierce
Wondering how kids learn language? So are we! Join Betsy Sneller, language researcher at Georgetown University (also known as Mr. Sneller’s daughter and a grad of ZCS), and Jodi Pierce, director of ZCS’s language immersion program, for a short presentation about language acquisition on Tuesday, December 11 at 7:00 in the media center. Betsy will talk about how researchers study language acquisition, what the field has uncovered so far, and some of the exciting questions they are still researching. Come with any questions you might have! The content will definitely be applicable for both immersion and non-immersion parents.
Weekly Highlights
It was an exciting week with our first snow day on Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy the extra long weekend! It was wonderful to be with your kids again! Often I’m a bit nervous to come back after a break, but the class transitioned back very well! It was exciting to switch our classroom over to Christmas. I love celebrating this time of year with kindergarteners because they are so filled with awe and wonder. This advent time of waiting takes on new meaning through the eyes of a child! Jesus truly is the reason for our celebrating this season and we will keep our eyes fixed on him as we celebrate Christmas together.
Important Dates
- December 3: Christmas Scholastic order due (Our classroom code is MH4J6. Use this link to see the flyers online.)
- December 20: All school Chapel 9:00- All are welcome! Kindergarteners will be leading!
- December 21: Christmas class celebration (details to come)
- December 24- January 4: Christmas break
Reminders
- You may start hearing about the Jingle Jog. This is a fun jog Mrs. Miller has her gym classes do each year. We will have a certain day and time that are class will jog around the gym and down the halls. Families are welcome to cheer kids on. I do not know our day and time yet. Watch for more details. This fun event is to raise money for our sister school in the Philippines. It has become a kindergarten tradition to wear our Christmas pjs while we run. (Fair warning: flannel is hot!) A red and green Christmas outfit would also by very appropriate.
- Nativity Project: In December we will begin our nativity project. Please bring in a shoe box with your child’s name on it and at least 6 toilet paper tubes asap if you haven’t already. There are still several spots left in our SignUp Genius. If you are interested in helping please, I’d really appreciate it! Follow this link to sign up.
Curriculum
Bible: This week we covered more of Moses, including the 10 plagues, crossing the Red Sea, and the 10 Commandments. We also continue to practice the memory verse below.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbios 3:5-6 Confía en el Señor con todo tu corazón y no en tu propia inteligencia. Reconócelo en todo tus caminos y Él enderezará tus veredas.
Literacy: This week we focused on adjectives. We learned that adjectives and nouns are friends. The job of adjectives is to describe nouns.
- Reading strategy: Questioning
- Read aloud: Soy una hoja
- Vocabulary words:
- la hormiga (ant)
- el sol (sun)
- la oruga (caterpillar)
- la hoja (leaf)
- el árbol (tree)
- Word wall word: tu (your) tú (you)
- Phrase of the week: Me gusta _____. (I like…)
- Letter of the week: Tt
Practicing read to a friend.
Math: We continue to focus on numbers 6-10, looking for the groups of 5 inside the bigger numbers and comparing the numbers using language such as, mayor, greater than, and menor, less than. We also continue to see addition and subtraction problems in the context of daily situations. For example, two boys and two girls ordered hot lunch today, how many ordered hot lunch total?
Writing Workshop: We continue to work on drawing our stories and labeling our drawings, doing our best to stretch out the words and write the sounds we hear. This week we drew and labeled Thanksgiving.
Exploring God’s World: We learned about another Earth material in our unit God’s Earth. I filled a plastic bag with an Earth material and the students recognized it as air! We compared air to the Holy Spirit- we know it’s there and can sometimes feel it even though we can’t see it.
Afternoons: In play we’ve been pretending doctor a lot. The art center continues to be a favorite. Tuesday afternoon we created a book comparing the words grande, big, and pequeño, small. Wednesday Mr. Meyer led us in K-5 singing. Thursday afternoon we did a Christmas literacy activity focusing on initial sounds. Friday we had art!
Up in Lights: Aiden was Up in Lights this week! Aiden, you ask great questions. Your excitement for learning helps motivate your classmates (and your teachers too!) We’re so glad you’re in our class! Thanks for sharing your favorite book, Rumble in the Jungle.
From the Immersion Program Director, Jodi Pierce
We have an excellent opportunity to host Betsy Sneller at Zeeland Christian on Dec. 11 at 7:00 for a presentation titled Learning about Learning Languages. Betsy is a graduate of Zeeland Christian (Mr. Sneller’s daughter!) who is also a postdoctoral research fellow at Georgetown University. She conducts research and speaks broadly on language acquisition. Please consider joining us in the media center for a time of interactive learning about how our children are actively acquiring their new language while also growing in their English proficiency. More detailed information will be sent as it is available.
Weekly Highlights
I am encouraging the class to do their very best to speak only in Spanish to their teachers. When we’re doing something structured, especially content-driven, they are doing really well! Please continue to encourage your child and lift them up in prayer as they journey toward being bilingual! We completed an art project to celebrate and focus our thoughts on being bilingual learners. On one side of the paper is a seed, water, sun, soil, and air representing listening, reading, speaking, writing, and thinking in Spanish respectively. On the other side is a tree. Just as the seed needs water, sun, soil, and air to grow, we need to listen, read, speak, write, and think in Spanish to grow!
The top of the poster has a pie chart representing a typical day. As you can see, most of the things we do in a day are usually in English. Only one small part of our day, school, is in Spanish. This makes Spanish special! We want to try our best to keep our classroom a special place for Spanish!
In our “I’m Finished, Now What?” center, the place where early finishers can stay busy doing purposeful learning, we started working with some STEM bins! Right now there are task cards that prompt students to create fall and Thanksgiving themed objects using the materials in the containers. One of my favorites is watching your kids make the Mayflower with play doh and toothpicks! Thank you for all of the things you donated to make these STEM bins possible!
Henry and Kai used wooden pieces to make the Mayflower.
I see a scarecrow!
Important Dates
- November 20: All school Chapel (9am)
- November 20: Friends-giving Celebration (see below)
- November 21-23: Thanksgiving Vacation
- November 30: Shoe boxes and toilet paper tubes please (See note below)
Reminders
- Thanksgiving Donations: As a school we will be supporting Parkview Home and Harvest Stand Ministries this Thanksgiving season. Household items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, shampoo, toilet paper, paper plates and cleaning supplies may be dropped off in the hallway during the next week.
- You may start hearing about the Jingle Jog. This is a fun jog Mrs. Miller has her gym classes do each year. We will have a certain day and time that are class will jog around the gym and down the halls. Families are welcome to cheer kids on. I do not know our day and time yet. Watch for more details. This fun event is to raise money for our sister school in the Philippines.
- Nativity Project: In December we will begin our nativity project. Please bring in a shoe box with your child’s name on it and at least 6 toilet paper tubes inside of it by Friday, November 30. I will be sending a SignUp genius out soon for help in class making the characters.
- Gifts of Being Grand: Many of your parents turned in their GIfts of Being Grand pages during Grandparents’ Day. If you need another copy of the form please click here. I would love these by the end of November please. Thank you for helping create a lifetime memory for your child.
- On November 20 we are going to have a friends-giving celebration together. I would love for you to send in 26 bite-sized pieces of your child’s favorite food. We’ll then sample and enjoy our classmates very favorite food together in a friends-giving feast. I welcome you to be as creative or simple as you wish. Please send the food pre-cut and ready to eat. If it’s a food that should be eaten warm, you could send it in a thermos. Thanks for helping us celebrate Thanksgiving together!
Curriculum
Bible: This week in Bible every student got the opportunity to say their memory verse for a prize/certificate. We started learning our new memory verse below. This week we also finished our unit on Joseph. We learned the ways God took care of him and, in his great plan, led Joseph to take care of his family during the famine. Now we are learning about Moses and the way God used him to lead the Israelites. We’re also talking about Peace, the Fruit of the Spirit for November. We brainstormed ways we feel God’s peace.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbios 3:5-6 Confía en el Señor con todo tu corazón y no en tu propia inteligencia. Reconócelo en todo tus caminos y Él enderezará tus veredas.
Literacy: Daily 5 has been going super well! Each child has a check-in sheet. Before beginning a new round of Daily 5, everyone touches the picture that corresponds to the center they’d like to do that round and Maestra Katie or I cross off the picture as I check everyone in. It was such a joy to be able to meet with every guided reading group this week- most of them 2 times!
- Reading strategy: Making connections
- Read aloud: ¿Dónde Está Mi Osito?
- Vocabulary Words:
- de puntillas- standing tiptoe
- el auxilio- help
- mimar- pamper, indulge, spoil
- el llanto/el rugido- cry, roar
- el bosque- woods
- atraparse (se atraparon)- trapped
- encoger (encogido)- shrink
- Word wall word: en (in)
- Phrase of the week: Está soleado. (It’s sunny.) Está nublado. (It’s cloudy.)
- Letter of the week: Nn
Math: We’ve been working on numbers 6-10. We’re looking for groups of 5 and trying to think about these big numbers as “5 and some more.” For example, 9 is 5 and 4 more.
Writing Workshop: We wrote our first list this week. We brainstormed things we are grateful for. Then each kindergartener wrote their own list! Next week we’ll use these lists to make a Thanksgiving art project. We also drew Grandparents’ Day and labeled our drawing.
Exploring God’s World: We took a nature hike and found lots of Earth materials around our playground including: sand, arena, water, agua, soil, tierra, and rocks/pebbles, rocas/piedras.
Standing on the bridge where we found water! We are at the creek at the bottom of the hill.
Afternoons: We had some exciting afternoons this week! I introduced a new house we’re borrowing from Mrs. Walters. We used the house to practice labeling the rooms and the objects and people in each room. By doing so, we practiced nouns and articles. I also introduced hot crayon to the students. Using a warm electric skillet, the kids “paint” with melting crayons and make unique creations!
Up in Lights: Ava was Up in Lights this week! She introduced us to her family, including her parents and her two younger siblings, Benjamin and Caroline. At the end of her presentaiton she shared her favorite book, The Most Magnificent Thing, a great story about having a growth mind set. Ava, you are strong, funny, polite, and caring. We’re so glad you’re in our class!
From the Immersion Program Director, Jodi Pierce
How do immersion teachers embed language instruction into content instruction? Our immersion teachers use an approach to teaching known as counterbalanced instruction. At its most basic level, this means that our teachers are continually striving to integrate linguistic instruction in the middle of the grade-level content. For example, while teaching a math lesson, an immersion teacher will be constantly aware of the linguistic focus for the week; as s/he encounters this concept in written or spoken language of the math lesson, s/he will encourage the students to notice and produce the new language structure. The teacher might read a story problem, take a half minute to point out the use of past tense in the problem and then return to the math concept. The teacher could design a partner math activity which requires the use of the past tense so that the students get practice producing it. In this way, our teachers are becoming experts at doing a dance between both content and language instruction, and our students are able to gain a stronger grasp of their new language without sacrificing content at all.
Weekly Highlights
Wednesday after school we had our big ultrasound. As I was explaining there would be a sub in the room while I went to the doctor, the kids requested I show them the pictures. One of the coolest pictures, in my opinion, was a picture of the two hemispheres in baby’s brain. As a class, we take lots of brain breaks throughout our day and I try to include movements that require us to cross the hemispheres in our brain. The kids were excited to see a picture of this in a real brain!
Important Dates
- November 20: All school Chapel (9am)
- November 20: Friends-giving Celebration (see below)
- November 21-23: Thanksgiving Vacation
- November 30: Shoe boxes and toilet paper tubes please (See note below)
Reminders
- You may start hearing about the Jingle Jog. This is a fun jog Mrs. Miller has her gym classes do each year. We will have a certain day and time that are class will jog around the gym and down the halls. Families are welcome to cheer kids on. I do not know our day and time yet. Watch for more details. This fun event is to raise money for our sister school in the Philippines.
- Nativity Project: In December we will begin our nativity project. Please bring in a shoe box with your child’s name on it and at least 6 toilet paper tubes inside of it by Friday, November 30. I will be sending a SignUp genius out soon for help in class making the characters.
- Gifts of Being Grand: Many of your parents turned in their GIfts of Being Grand pages during Grandparents’ Day. If you need another copy of the form please click here. I would love these by the end of November please. Thank you for helping create a lifetime memory for your child.
- On November 20 we are going to have a friends-giving celebration together. I would love for you to send in 26 bite-sized pieces of your child’s favorite food. We’ll then sample and enjoy our classmates very favorite food together in a friends-giving feast. I welcome you to be as creative or simple as you wish. Please send the food pre-cut and ready to eat. If it’s a food that should be eaten warm, you could send it in a thermos. Thanks for helping us celebrate Thanksgiving together!
Curriculum
Bible: We began our unit on Joseph last week. We talked his family’s dynamics, his colorful tunic and the way his brothers responded out of jealousy and anger. We learned about the dreams God gave him and the way God never left Joseph even when things were hard and scary.
Genesis 28:15 Yo estoy contigo. Te protegeré por dondequiera que vayas, y te traeré de vuelta a esta tierra. No te abandonaré hasta cumplir con todo lo que te he prometido.
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
Literacy: In grammar we’ve been talking lots about articles and nouns. In Spanish every noun has an article. Some articles are definite, like saying “the apple” in English. Other articles are indefinite, like saying “an apple”, or some apples” in English. This week we learned how to change these articles to talk about a singular noun or a plural noun.
- Reading strategy: Making connections
- Word wall word: soy (I am)
- Read aloud: Chistes de animales
- Vocabulary Words:
- rápido (fast)
- alto (tall)
- saltar (jump)
- chistoso (funny)
- valiente (brave)
- callado (quiet)
- grande (big)
- pequeño (small)
- Phrase of the week: ¿Cómo está el tiempo? (How is the weather?)
- Letter of the week: Ss
Math: We’ve been working on numbers 6-10. We’re looking for groups of 5 and trying to think about these big numbers as “5 and some more.” For example, 9 is 5 and 4 more.
Writing Workshop: We learned about labels this week. Labels are words that tell readers about our pictures. The kids giggled a lot as they labeled me! 🙂 Then they worked on writing labels in their own stories.
Exploring God’s World: We started a new unit called God’s Earth. Last week we tossed around an inflatable globe and kept track of where our thumbs landed- in water or on land. We discovered that the Earth is mostly made of water!
Afternoons: Our afternoons continue to be a time of resting and recharging, purposefully learning through play, and enrichment activities for math. This week’s math centers were all about fall. I snuck one literacy center in with the math centers because we haven’t opened Word Work in Daily 5 yet.
Up in Lights: Lily was Up in Lights this week! It was fun to meet her parents and her siblings! She introduced us to a new song, Light Shine Bright, by Toby Mac. It’s a great dance song if you find yourselves needing a break like that on this chilly weekend! She showed us one of her favorite toys, her doll. She also shared one of her favorite treats with us, yummy cookies! Thank you, Lily! You are a very special part of our class and we’re so glad God placed you with us this year! He’s going to use you in big ways!
From the Immersion Program Director
Where can I learn more about immersion education?
In addition to add.a.lingua’s parent site and blog which many of you have joined (
http://addalingua.com/parent)
, the CARLA website gives a plethora of options for learning more about
immersion (
http://carla.umn.edu/immersion/). This is the website for the
Center for
Advanced
Research on
Language
Acquisition which is a resource for
immersion educators around the world. The U.S. Department of Education funds 9 language resource centers, and this is the one that focuses on
immersioneducation. While much of the site is geared towards professional educators, parents can also glean great research-based information and tools from the portion of this site that is directed towards parents.
Weekly Highlights
I praise God for another great week of kindergarten! One of the biggest highlights this week for me, and I think all of the kids, was Grandparents Day. We’ve been talking lots in Bible about God being a covenant, faithful God. His faithfulness throughout the generations was clear as kindergarteners, parents, and grandparents worked and played together Friday morning. It was wonderful meeting many of your parents and I’m grateful for their support! Thank you to all of you as well for the parts you played in making the day so enjoyable! Thank you all for the donations of supplies, the prayers, the Gifts of Being Grand coordination, and to parents who donated their time and talents Friday morning at school! Here are some pictures from our special day! I’m working on getting the fun photo booth pictures to you soon!
Important Dates
- November 8: Picture Retake Day
- November 8: NO PM Busing
- November 9: NO AM or PM Busing
- November 20: All school Chapel (9am)
- November 20: Friends-giving Celebration (see below)
- November 21-23: Thanksgiving Vacation
Reminders
- Gifts of Being Grand: Many of yoru parents turned in their GIfts of Being Grand pages during Grandparents’ Day. If you need another copy of the form please click here. I would love these by the end of November please. Thank you for helping create a lifetime memory for your child.
- On November 20 we are going to have a friends-giving celebration together. I would love for you to send in 26 bite-sized pieces of your child’s favorite food. We’ll then sample and enjoy our classmates very favorite food together in a friends-giving feast. I welcome you to be as creative or simple as you wish. Please send the food pre-cut and ready to eat. If it’s a food that should be eaten warm, you could send it in a thermos. Thanks for helping us celebrate Thanksgiving together!
- Please continue to check your children for lice daily. We have NOT found it in our classroom, but I would love to stay on top of this! Thanks! Along with checking your child’s head, you might consider putting coats and hats in the dryer for 30 minutes every day after school. This would kill any lice that may be on those items. We are doing our best to prevent it from coming into our room. Should you find any on your child’s head please let me or the office know. I know this can seem overwhelming and, possibly embarrassing to some, but please know we love you and are here to support you!
Curriculum
Bible: This week we continued talking about Abraham’s family. We learned about Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Esau. It was exciting to hear the very story we learned in Bible class shared at chapel and then taught by Mr. McAboy on Grandparents’ Day!
Our new Bible verse is below. Check out the Bible verses tab for a video!
Genesis 28:15 Yo estoy contigo. Te protegeré por dondequiera que vayas, y te traeré de vuelta a esta tierra. No te abandonaré hasta cumplir con todo lo que te he prometido.
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
Literacy: In grammar this week we learned how to change articles to match the number of nouns we are talking about. For example, el amigo means 1 friend and los amigos means more than 1 friend.
Daily 5 is also going really well! Right now kindergarteners may choose between read to self, work on writing, or listen to a book on the iPad. I started meeting with small groups and hope to continue this into next week! I love the moments I get to work with your children in small groups!
- Reading strategy: Making connections
- Word wall word: el papá (dad)
- Read aloud: Así Vamos a Escuela (review)
- Vocabulary Words:
- disfrutar (to enjoy)
- techos (roofs)
- las zancadas (steps)
- la campiña (countryside) *Some of our Kindergarten friends made connections between this word and where they live!
- el titubeo (hesitation)
- apurados (rushed, hurried)
- los patines (skates)
- Phrase of the week: ¿Qué es eso? (What’s that?)
- Letter of the week: Pp
Math: This week we wrapped up unit 1 with our test. I am so proud of the gains your children are making already this year!
Writing Workshop: We learned about labels this week. Labels are words that tell readers about our pictures. The kids giggled a lot as they labeled me! 🙂 Then they worked on writing labels in their own stories.
Exploring God’s World: Many of your children were excited to use our PBL map to give grandparents a tour of our school! On Thursday morning we practiced highlighting the route as we walked from the gym to our classroom.
Afternoons: We had some transitional students add more time at school this week. We loved the extra time with each friend! Maestra Patrick, one of our PreK teachers shared some water beads with us and the kids loved exploring in that sensory bin. We also have a bin of corn in our classroom that many friends have been enjoying. One afternoon Mr. Lowe came to help us learn some songs for Grandparents’ Day. Another afternoon some middle schoolers from HC orchestra came to play for us. We also had our first Mandarin classes! It was an exciting week!
Up in Lights: This week Makayla was Up in Lights! It was fun to meet her parents and her two little sisters. Makayla’s favorite song is “Oh What a Glorious Night” by Sidewalk Prophets. I was very excited to listen to a Christmas song! 🙂 Thank you, Makayla, for introducing us to your family and many of your favorite things! Our class would not be the same without you and your friendly smile!
From the Immersion Program Director
Where can I learn more about immersion education?
In addition to add.a.lingua’s parent site and blog which many of you have joined (
http://addalingua.com/parent)
, the CARLA website gives a plethora of options for learning more about
immersion (
http://carla.umn.edu/immersion/). This is the website for the
Center for
Advanced
Research on
Language
Acquisition which is a resource for
immersion educators around the world. The U.S. Department of Education funds 9 language resource centers, and this is the one that focuses on
immersioneducation. While much of the site is geared towards professional educators, parents can also glean great research-based information and tools from the portion of this site that is directed towards parents.
Week Overview
It’s been quite the week! We started with a firetruck (Thank you, Mr. Schrotenboer!) went to the nature center in the middle, (Thank you parent drivers and snack donators!) and made applesauce together at the end! While the kids made applesauce they searched for the letter M and articles, el, la, los, and las in a book called The Applesauce Book, El libro del puré de manzanas. I’m grateful for every day I get to spend with your children! I’m looking forward to sharing some highlights with you in our conference this coming week!
Important Dates
- October 22-23: PT conferences in the evening
- October 24-26: CEA convention – No School
- November 2: Grandparents Day
Reminders
- Gifts of Being Grand: Please help me connect with grandparents by passing along these precious keepsakes. I sent home a letter detailing this form and what to expect on Grandparents Day. I’ll add the Gifts of Being Grand to your children’s spiritual journals, a collection of pieces created throughout their years at ZCS. I would love to have these by Grandparents Day please and will have extra copies that day if anyone needs them. Thank you!
- SignUp Genius for Grandparents’ Day: Thank you to the several of you who jumped right on the opportunity to donate items or help on Grandparents’ Day! I am still looking for a few more volunteers to help on that day and for a large picture frame please. If you’re interested please use this link to sign up. Thank you!
- New Student: Kai will start on Monday, October 22! Thanks for your help in welcoming them to our school community!
Curriculum
Bible: This week we continued talking about Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham that he would give him many children and grandchildren and that he would bless Abraham’s family. God’s plan of salvation was already taking place!
Our new Bible verse is below. Check out the Bible verses tab for a video!
Genesis 28:15 Yo estoy contigo. Te protegeré por dondequiera que vayas, y te traeré de vuelta a esta tierra. No te abandonaré hasta cumplir con todo lo que te he prometido.
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
Literacy: Our letter of the week was a consonant for the first time! This meant that we began to combine consonants and vowels to form syllables! We even combined some syllables to form words! We made some exciting and powerful steps toward reading this week!
In grammar this week we learned about a special ending some Spanish words have, -ito or -ita. This ending is used to speak lovingly or to show that something is small. For example, a small dog (perro) or a puppy might be called perrito. A cute kitten (gato) might be called gatito.
- Reading strategy: Making connections
- Word wall word: la mamá (mom) y (and)
- Read aloud: Así Vamos a Escuela
- Vocabulary Words:
- disfrutar (to enjoy)
- techos (roofs)
- las zancadas (steps)
- la campiña (countryside) *Some of our Kindergarten friends made connections between this word and where they live!
- el titubeo (hesitation)
- apurados (rushed, hurried)
- los patines (skates)
- Phrase of the week: Ya terminé. ( I’m finished.)
- Letter of the week: Mm
Book of Friends: We only had time to :meet” 1 friend this week- Makayla! We’ll continue working on this project until everyone gets a turn.
Math: This week we practiced identifying circles, squares, and rectangles. We also practiced finding groups of objects to match a given number. This is great practice for 1:1 correspondence and number recognition.
Writing Workshop: We continue to practice drawing our stories. This week everyone drew about our experience with the fire truck. We’re also beginning to talk about labels. This week we labeled a pumpkin.
Exploring God’s World: Our science lesson took us to DeGraaf Nature Center this week! We used our 5 senses on a nature hike and learned a lot about how God created animals with 5 senses to protect them. We learned usually an animal has a “super sense” that is heightened and that they rely on heavily for finding food or staying safe.
Afternoons: This week we attended K-5 singing on Thursday afternoon, a beautiful opportunity to worship Jesus with our kindegarten-5th grade friends. On Wednesday the class was exhausted so I let them watch a mono silabo video on the letter Mm instead of doing math centers. You can see the video here. On Tuesday we did math centers and on Friday we had art!
Up in Lights: This week Liam Schrotenboer was Up in Lights! Liam was so proud to introduce us to his daddy and show us how his dad volunteers in our community as a fire fighter. Thank you Schrotenboer family for such a memorable morning! Liam, you are a one-of-a-kind, gentle, soft-hearted, and vibrant child of God!
From the Immersion Program Director
Teachers are looking forward to connecting with you during conferences! If any of you have questions about your child’s learning, about the broader immersion program, or about the immersion philosophy here at ZCS, I am happy to meet with you. Please connect with me to schedule a time for us to talk (
jpierce@zcs.org).
Week Overview
What a memorable week! It was so exciting to share our news with your kindergartener and then with your whole family! Thank you so much for the emails of congratulations and for all of the prayers! I couldn’t think of a better group to support us and share in our excitement! I’ve been told the class you teach when you’re expecting makes its way into a special part of your heart. I can see why people say that!
I will keep you posted as I figure out details regarding my long-term sub and anything else that might be helpful for you and your kids to know for a smooth transition. Right now I’m planning to teach until the end which means I will be with you until spring break!
Celebrating a new baby!
Important Dates
- October 17: Morning Field trip to DeGraaf Nature Center- Please bring a booster if your child doesn’t ride the bus!
- October 22-23: PT conferences in the evening- Please see Reminders section
- October 24-26: CEA convention – No School
- November 2: Grandparents Day- Details coming soon!
Reminders
- Parent Teacher Conferences: I’m excited about the opportunity to touch base with each of you early in the year.
- How to Sign Up: Access the link to the conference site from the ZCS website parent page. The link on the website is live! Please make sure you do this asap and, if you will not be available either evening, please make arrangements with me very soon!
- Questionnaire: If you haven’t already done so, please use this link to complete a Google form/conference questionnaire. I’d like to have these by the end of today, (Friday.) I use this information to guide our conversation when we meet together. I’m looking forward to celebrating the growth your child has experienced already in the first couple short months of school!
- New Student: We are excited to welcome the Glerum family who is moving to our area from Muskegon! Kai and his family visited our class this week and your children did an excellent job welcoming them to our class! His parents’ names are Rochelle and Josh. Thank you for your help in supporting the Glerum family and their transition to ZCS!
- Book Bags: Hopefully you had a chance to play with some letters last weekend. These bags went home again this weekend and will continue to go home every weekend. Please help your child remember to bring the bag and the materials inside back to school on Monday.
- DeGraaf Nature Center Field Trip: Last reminder! We will leave school at 9:00 am and return by 11:45 AM in time for lunch and AM dismissal. Parents who sign up to drive will transport your child to the trip. We have a limited number of boosters! Please help by planning to bring in your child’s booster seat if you are dropping your child off at school.
Curriculum
Bible: This week we focused in on God’s promises- His promises to Noah, to Abraham, and to us. We did a rainbow painting and each child uncovered their name which was written in white oil pastel. I hope this is a reminder that God’s promises are for each one of them!
Your children said the our Bible verse, Genesis 8:22, in groups for me on Friday. They did awesome! Our new Bible verse is below. Check out the Bible verses tab for a video!
Genesis 28:15 Yo estoy contigo. Te protegeré por dondequiera que vayas, y te traeré de vuelta a esta tierra. No te abandonaré hasta cumplir con todo lo que te he prometido.
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
Literacy: This week we talked about proper nouns. These are names that use a capital (mayúscula) letters. We also opened the next of the Daily 5, Work on Writing. I have been meeting with small groups to start this new center. We’ve been working on drawing our stories.
- Reading strategy: Making connections
- Word wall word: si, sí
- Read aloud: Este soy yo
- Vocabulary Words:
- la sonrisa (smile)
- la fresa (strawberry)
- el ratón (rat)
- el cabello (hair)
- los cachetes (cheeks)
- la lana (wool)
- la luna (moon)
- Phrase of the week: No entiendo. ( I don’t understand.)
- Letter of the week: Ii
Book of Friends: We “met” some new friends this week- Aiden, Lydia, and Sophia! Your kids are getting eager to put their pages together into a book!
Math: We’ve been working on addition and subtraction. We aren’t using the symbols yet, but this week we practiced acting out story problems. In small groups, we used tiny dinosaurs to add two different numbers of dinosaurs or take a dinosaur away from the group and count how many were left. We also started a shape book and talked about circles, rectangles, and squares.
Exploring God’s World: This week we used our sense of taste to determine which color apple we prefer: red, yellow, or green. Then we used our math skills to make a class graph and compare the number of classmates who prefer each color.
Project-Base Learning: This week we talked about Grandparents Day coming up in November. I asked the class what we could do to help our grandparents find their way from the gym to our classroom after chapel. We discovered that one thing we could give them is a map! Soon we’ll work on creating a map of our school together.
Afternoons: This week during play the kids have been extra creative in the blocks. They built Zeeland Christian and the playground. Then they combined the blocks center and the vehicles and people center to act out school. 🙂 In our math centers we’ve been working on adding and subtracting, reading books with numbers, shapes, and patterns, number sequencing 1-10, and drawing number scenes in our own versions of Anno’s Counting Book.
Up in Lights: This week Daniel Capestany was Up in Lights. It was interesting to learn that Daniel would like to be a train conductor and some kind of professional athlete, although he’s not sure which sport he’d like to play. 🙂 Daniel’s mom read the book El Pingüino Tacky, a hilarious book about daring to be different. We’re so glad you’re in our class Daniel! You are an amazing friend to your classmates and your joy is contagious!
From the Immersion Program Director
I spent some time this week reflecting on some stats of Zeeland Christian that I thought might interest some of you. Did you know that ZCS employs teachers from 8 different countries? Of our immersion teachers, 12 teachers are non-native speakers and 15 are native speakers of the language in which they teach. In looking at our student population, we are evenly balanced with half of our students in immersion and half in English classrooms. When considering Young 5’s through 8th grade, 41% of our students are in Spanish immersion, 8% are in Mandarin immersion, and 49% are in English classes. Praise God that our students are able to experience such a variety of cultures and languages everyday at school.
Week Overview
It was another exciting week to be in kindergarten! I’m eager to see the precious photos of your little one’s sweet smiles. We enjoyed singing with all our kindergarten friends, visiting the library, playing in the gym, creating in art, and singing in music. I see your kids making projects for one another at the art center, drawing pictures for classmates during rest time, and heading to the playground holding hands. God is present and He is good!
Important Dates
- October 17: Morning Field trip to DeGraaf Nature Center
- October 22-23: PT conferences in the evening- Please see Reminders section
- October 24-26: CEA convention – No School
- November 2: Grandparents Day- Details coming soon!
Reminders
- Parent Teacher Conferences: The dates for conferences are quickly approaching! This year we at ZCS are trying something new. Our conferences are set about a month earlier than they have been in previous years. I’m excited about the opportunity to touch base with each of you early in the year.
- How to Sign Up: Access the link to the conference site from the ZCS website parent page. The link on the website will be live at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 10th.
- Questionnaire: Please use this link to complete a Google form/conference questionnaire by Friday, October 12. I use this information to guide our conversation when we meet together. I’m looking forward to celebrating the growth your child has experienced already in the first couple short months of school!
- New Student: We are excited to welcome the Glerum family who is moving to our area from Muskegon! Kai will be visiting our class this week and plans to join our class officially either the 22nd or 29th of this month. His parents’ names are Rochelle and Josh. Thank you for helping us welcome this new family!
- Extra Desks: Have you noticed we have a couple of individual desks in our classroom? At some point in the school year most kindergarteners have a moment where they just need some space for one reason or another. I wanted to offer everyone a place to be by themselves when and if they ever need it. I never use the desks as a negative consequence, but rather an opportunity to enjoy a different kind of work space. There are a couple kids who have really enjoyed using it so far!
- Book Bags: For the first time book bags went home this week! This is a great way to follow up with the hard work your kids are doing at school. Right now everyone has letters- uppercase and lowercase- inside. Please see the letter (also inside) if you’d like ideas on how to practice letters at home.
- Book It: Pizza Hut participates in an optional reading incentive program. I will send a calendar/reading log home this week where your child may keep track of the days he/she reads. Please do not get hung up on the amount of reading, but rather, use this incentive as another way to help your child fall in love with reading. If something else works better for your child, there is absolutely no pressure to participate in this particular program. At the end of the month you may turn in the calendar to earn a coupon for a free personal pizza!
- DeGraaf Nature Center Field Trip: We will leave school at 9:00 am and return by 11:45 AM in time for lunch and AM dismissal. Parents who sign up to drive will transport your child to the trip. If your child does NOT ride an AM bus, please plan to send in their booster seat. Thank you to the many of you who volunteered to drive! If you are still interested in driving please see the SignUp Genius here. If you are planning to drive, please be sure the office has a copy (emailing one to Carrie is fine,) of your license and current insurance.
Curriculum
Bible: This week we covered two Bible stories- Noah’s Ark and The Tower of Babel. In our discussion about Noah’s Ark we learned that God protected Noah’s family and promised never to send a flood to destroy the whole Earth again. God’s promises are for Noah and they are for us!
Before reading the Tower of Babel we tried to build a tower together without using any words to communicate. That was tough! We learned that the people couldn’t finish the tower because God confused their languages and made it impossible for them to communicate. This story is powerful as immersion students because it was the beginning of new languages!
Genesis 8:22 “Mientras la tierra exista habrá siembra y cosecha, frío y calor, verano e invierno, días y noches.”
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Literacy: We have been focusing our attention on nouns and articles. We’ve learned that nouns have genders in Spanish. This week we learned that the articles also change when the number of objects changes. In English this is like adding an -s or -es to make a word plural.
- Reading strategy: Determining importance of text
- Read aloud: MIs Cinco Sentidos (My Five Senses)
- Vocabulary Words:
- los sentidos (the senses)
- la lengua (tongue)
- la nariz (nose)
- tocar (to touch)
- los ojos (eyes)
- Phrase of the week: ¿Puedo ir al baño? (May I go to the bathroom?) This was an important phrase after learning how to ask for a drink last week!
- Letter of the week: Ee
Book of Friends: We “met” two new friends this week- Henry and Ava! Your kids are getting good at these routines and I can see progress in the pictures they draw of their friends! More and more they are choosing appropriate colors and remembering to include different features like details on clothing and all the body parts.
Math: We finished reading Anno’s Counting Book. Each page is illustrated with a scene that represents a number 0-10. I heard so much great Spanish as we went through each page of the book noticing the different ways each number was represented. This week we began drawing scenes in our own counting books.
Exploring God’s World: We continue to talk about our 5 senses: gusto, (taste,) olfato, (smell,) oído, (hearing,) tacto, (touch,) and vista (sight.) This week we focused on sight, vista. This week we focused on oîdo. The kids circled the things that they can hear and crossed out the things they couldn’t hear.
Project-Base Learning: This week we got started with our first Project Based Learning (PBL) project. PBL, in simple terms, is a project that is done by taking complete lead from a child’s interests. Starting in kindergarten, we begin to teach children what the PBL process looks like, how to ask questions, and how to go about learning more about something they are interested in. I started by asking the kids, “How do I know where to drive my car if I’m going to a new place?” One student suggested I need help, another that I need Jesus, and another that I stop by my church to ask. 🙂 Eventually, we arrived at the idea of using a map. Next week we’ll dig deeper into maps.
Afternoons: This week during play the kids discovered the ring toss and it’s been a hit! It’s exciting to watch your kids learn about sharing and taking turns when they choose to play this game. In our math centers we’ve been working on graphing, patterns, fine motor development, 1:1 correspondence, and number recognition.
Up in Lights: This week Elly Huizenga was up in lights! She shared one of her favorite books with us, The Blossom Shoppe, by Katherine & Caroline Brickley. In the story Poppy, Posie, and Mama Blossom work to save their family flower shop. It’d be a great book to check out from the library and read at home! Thank you for sharing such a great book about hard work, creativity, acceptance, and the amazing things that can happen when you let your true colors shine, Elly! You are an amazing and important member of our class and we’re so glad you and your family are here!
From the Immersion Program Director
What is the Three-Fold Goal of immersion education?
As an immersion program, we are striving for excellence in three areas. 1) Academic Achievement: We expect our students to learn the same content that is expected of our English-track classrooms. 2) High language proficiency: We strive to have our students speak the language accurately and at an age-appropriate level of proficiency. 3) Cultural Competency: We hope our students will be sensitive to cultural differences and navigate culturally embedded situations with grace and empathy. As a Christian school, we can add that our first and foremost goal is to integrate our faith into all components of our learning and growth at Zeeland Christian.
A note about Mandarin FLES
We love exposing our children to other languages and cultures at ZCS, however, we have encountered a roadblock in the area of Mandarin FLES for a few of our grade levels. Unfortunately, one of our Mandarin teachers still has not received a visa. We anticipated waiting until October 1 for this approval, but as this date has now passed, it is clear that it could be several more weeks. In order to cover our Mandarin immersion 3rd/4th grade classroom, we shifted our FLES teacher to this position. Therefore, the start of Mandarin FLES will be delayed another few weeks. I want to assure you that we are considering all other options in order to get this program running as soon as possible.
