Newsletter #14

Newsletter #14

It is so exciting to enjoy the snowy seasons with Kindergarteners! The children were really excited to enjoy the white fluffy fun snow at the playground! We are practicing our snow gears routine as well as making some adjustments to our already set routine that can now be a little different with the snow coming. Continue to practice putting on snow gears with your children at home so that the time spend preparing to go outside is shorter and we can enjoy longer time outside!

I can hardly believe we are really close to Christmas Break! December is a busy months with many things happening, and at the same time new things introduced because new routines start coming in in January. Please encourage your child to hang in there 🙂


IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Christmas Offering

ZCS decided (a few years ago) to forego the traditional gift exchange between students in the classroom. Instead, we are asked to find someone/something local to contribute to this Christmas. All kindergarten money will go to help a ZCS family in need of some basic items this Christmas. Please consider sending $2 to help with this cause. Thanks for helping your child be a blessing this Christmas.

Jingle Jog Day/Comfy Clothes Day

Jingle Jog is coming up on Wednesday, Dec 21st! Our class will run along with the older Mandarin friends at 9:00-9:30AM. Your child is invited to wear their PJs for that day.(You are encouraged to watch/join us for this event! ), Keep in mind your children will be RUNNING and will need to wear their gym shoes. The warmest fleece and footie pjs may not be the best option for this day. (Too HOT!) 

*Along with PJs I encourage you to send bells, christmas socks/hats, or something festive for the children to wear for Jingle Jog!*

They will soon bring a paper home asking them to collect pledges for how many minutes they can run. They will donate all of the money collected to our sister school, Grace Christian School, in the Philippines. 

Nativity Scene

*Each child needs a big shoe box to put up their nativity scene and bring it home at the end of the story –  please send in a shoe box for your child’s nativity scene latest by Wednesday, December 14th*

Our Nativity Scene is about this big just for reference.

P1110575


What did we learn and What will we learn?

Mandarin/Language Arts: We are working intentionally to not only try to say the characters as we write them so we remember better, but also trying to understand the meaning through visuals, actions and/or making sentences. We continue to explore our weekly framework (poetry, word wall words, high frequency words, grammar, read aloud/shared reading, culture). I am starting to have the children be much more intentional in reading and recognizing different characters, as well as trying to recall what the characters might be by looking at pictures, or thinking if we have seen or learned the specific characters before. I introduced the idea of getting guided reading books to the children this past week and talked about how soon enough they will get to bring books that they know how to read home each week!

Bible: We start our Christmas story with the angel coming to Zechariah and Elizabeth, as well as coming to Mary (and later Joseph), we also talked about how Jesus was born and it was such an exciting thing for us to celebrate His birth.We are learning Jesus’ birth story along with making a craft that the children will get to bring home and retell the story of the nativity! Please send in a shoebox by Wednesday, Dec 14th for your child (labeled with their name) if you haven’t already.

Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: We are starting to practice our December Bible Memory Verse, and our December Fruit of the Spirit: Patience.

6 他们在那里的时候, 马利亚的产期到了,7 就生了头胎的儿子, 用布包起来, 放在马槽里, 因为客店里没有地方。 (路加福音 2:6-7)

We continue to practice Silent Night in Mandarin.

Math: We practiced writing number 9, and also look closely at the teen numbers (11-20) and talk about how it’s actually 10+more. I also start seeing the children make the connection that in Mandarin, saying the numbers is actually easier because you just say 十(ten) and 一(one) together, that will be 十一,which is 11 and so on. Next week we will focus on looking and talking about shapes, reviewing the 4 shapes we already know (squares, rectangle, circle and triangle) and we will talk about characteristic of hexagon as well as learning what the other shapes are called.

Exploring God’s World (Sci and SocStu): We focus on looking at rocks (compare and contrast different shapes/color/sizes/structure) as well as observing to see if air existed even though we can’t really see it. Next week we will wrap up with our Science Unit – My Earth with talking about how we can help protect our Earth and keep it clean. We started our Social Studies of Needs and Wants this past week as we explore the differences between the things we need, and the things we want. 

Writing: We continue to talk about how story has a beginning, middle and end. This week we looked at our thanksgiving stories and talk about how we can label things in our drawings, and then think about how we can write our story with short sentences. We also had the chance to try sharing our thanksgiving stories with the pictures that we already drew. This week was also special because we got the chance to hear an author read her own book – Glenys Nellist came and read part of her Christmas Love Letter Book for ZCS friends. I think it was an eye-opening experience for the Kindergarteners as they see how as writers, they can share their story to a lot of audiences 🙂

Play: The children are enjoying decorating christmas ornaments during play. Next week we will be cutting snow flakes 🙂 I also wanted you to know that for most of the days every week (Tuesday-Thursday about 2:35-3:15PM) we typically go down to the Preschool classrooms to play. So if there are times you need to pick up your child early, let me know so that I can let you know where we are at during that time of the day in case we are not in the classroom.

Featured Friend: Alina was featured this week and we had fun looking at her beautiful illustration on the pages. Alina’s mom brought her out for her favorite meal – Mac and Cheese!

Things to Note:

Looking Ahead: To also keep you in the loop – As January approaches, your child will start reading and getting leveled reading books, and this is send home in their book bags every weekend to practice at home. Also, I will start assessing the children’s word wall words and high frequency characters weekly. I want to let you know that my hope is they will be able to recognize and produce/write (in correct stroke order), their word wall words of the week, and to be able to recognize their high frequency characters. The high frequency characters will also help them as they start reading.

Dismissal Time Reminder: Just a reminder that dismissal is 5 minutes earlier this year due to a change from Zeeland Public Transportation. Elementary: 3:20 ready bell, 3:25 bus dismissal bell. Parents can start picking up children at 3:25. *elementary walkers are dismissed after busses have left the drive*

Going Home Routine (on Tuesdays when LiLaoshi in on Bus Duty):On Tuesdays, I have Bus Duty so I am not there to dismiss the children at the end of the day. Typically there is a mom who helps me dismiss the children, but if there are times when it’s a mom that is unfamiliar with the children and/or the person/parents picking up – please feel free to pop in the classroom and pick up your child. They know that they are supposed to stay at their seat and can visit their friends/neighbors while they wait, in Mandarin 🙂 You do not need to wait for me to get back to class before you go.

Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework and High Frequency Words will be on U2W5. Please help me in keeping your children accountable for following stroke order and word proportion on Homework (AND saying the words after writing it), as well as recognizing characters (and hopefully understanding most of it) for Flashcard 🙂 Thank you for all you do at home!

From the Immersion coordinator:
What is an enfoque lingüístico and do Mandarin students have an equivalent? Each immersion classroom from preschool through 8th grade in both Spanish and Mandarin should have a grammar and/or linguistic goal posted on the wall in a prominent area. During the week (or two weeks for preschool), the teacher and students will learn about, hunt for, and attempt to use the goal throughout all the subject areas. In this way, students are encouraged to grow and strengthen their use of the new language while studying content material.
Chinese New Year Celebration: 
Greetings Staff and ZCS Mandarin families,We are eagerly anticipating a great celebration for Chinese New Year. This comes up pretty quickly after the Christmas Break, so we thought we’d give you a little advance notice! We will be celebrating on January 14th from 6:30 – 8:30 (or so) at ZCS. We would love to have you and your families join us for dumpling making (and eating) and good conversation. We also can’t wait to “ring” in the new year with the “bubble wrap fireworks,” which are always a highlight. More details will be coming as the date approaches.
We hope you can save the date and join us!
Dana Moeller
Carrie Traver
What’s Coming Up?

Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish. Wednesday – Library, PE. Thursday – Spanish.

Featured Friend:  Elise is featured on the week of December 12! Ethan 郭俊毅 is featured on the week of December 19!

Nativity Scene Shoebox DUE: December 14.

Jingle Jogs: For our class it will be on Wednesday, Dec 21st from 9:00-9:30AM.

Christmas Chapel: December 22, 9:15AM.

NO Bussing and NO Hot Lunch: December 23.

Christmas Vacation: December 24-January 8.


Prayer Request:

December is a quick and busy month – there are a lot of excitements as well as many things happening. Please pray that in midst of all the planing and busyness, the real meaning of Christmas, Jesus, could be the center of it all.

With the change of weather and cold coming, it is so much easier to get sick. We have a couple kids with cold, and the teacher hasn’t been feeling so well – I told the children too that not being around from here, I really don’t adjust well to the winter so I get sick easily during the colder months. I LOVE the snow but please pray for health and strength! Also praying for safe drive and safe travels out in the tough roads.

谢谢!

- 黎老师

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