Newsletter #26
We started the week with some snow! We’re not too excited about having to wear our snow pants again but had a lot of fun outside. We also had a great Blackout Reading Day on Wednesday where we get to spend some time reading in the dark! It was a refreshing and new activity and there was a lot of excitement – it’s always fun to experience reading in different ways/settings 🙂 We will be listening and reading in another language next week – I am planning to play a Korean folktale video and see what the children think about hearing a language sounding a little similar to Mandarin and if they can guess what the story is about!
What did we learn and What will we learn?
Mandarin/Language Arts: We are practicing our sentence structure a lot in speaking/writing – we are remembering the order that we tell the time first, then who, then where, and doing what (I am encouraging the children to describe feelings, how things look like, or describing things with adjectives as well). The children are getting very used to spotting/catching our phrases/characters/words of the week, and our noodle jar is filling up fast! Next week we will practice U5W2 framework and the following 4 days before Spring Break we will focus on reviewing!
Bible: This week we told the parables of The Lost Coin and The Lost Sheep (the one who repented and changed in Him is something we should rejoice for), The Good Shepherd (God is our shepherd and He will protect us), and Building on the Rock (Be the wise builder and build your house on the rock). Next week we will wrap up our Bible Unit with the parables of The Pharisee and Tax Collector, and we will review all of parables before sending them home so that your children can tell you what they have learned! Parables can be tricky, especially for little minds. We will then start our Easter stories.
Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: We started to practice our March&April Bible Memory Verse (which is the verse about Easter). Each month we have a new Bible verse, but since the exact date for Easter is different every year we learn this verse throughout the months of March AND April. There will be no new verse in April. Please continue to practice this Easter verse and reflect on it’s important meaning of Easter! We continue to discuss our March’s Fruit of the Spirit – Faithfulness as well. I also encourage you to talk about the Fruit of the Spirit with your child, it can be pretty abstract and harder for Kindergarteners to understand.
Math: We are working on reviewing and practicing our 10+more in our teen numbers, practicing writing our numbers (and making sure they are not backwards too!). Next week we will continue to dive more into teen numbers as well as looking at 10 partner groups.
Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): We wrap up learning about getting along with each other (even though these are skills Kindergarteners will continue to learn and practice ALL YEAR LONG) by talking about conflics and ways to resolve them. We are preteaching and exploring the different vocabularies and concept of our Science Unit – Is It Living, and our field trip to Garden Crossings next week is going to help us kick off the unit.
Writing: We are working on writing our stories! Every Thursday and Friday I meet with each child to check in on their writing, and I will also teach mini lessons of writing before giving them a good amount of time working on their writing. I look forward to sharing some of their work with you!
Things to Note:
Water Bottle/Towel: Water Bottle and Towel were sent home on Friday. Please clean them and return them to school on Tuesday.
Parent Teacher Conferences: I look forward to our time together as we talk about joys and challenges, as well as ways to support the children as much as we can at home and at school ? See you this coming Monday/Tuesday!
New Attendance/Absentee Email: Please e-mail attendance@zcs.org and copy ME to report an absence. Please include the student name, teacher, and reason for absence in the body of the e-mail. Thanks!
March’s Reading Incentives: Keep reading for Pizza Hut and Whitecaps Reading Club!
Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework and flashcard for U5W2 went home on Friday, and we will be reviewing the couple of days before Spring Break and come back to framework U5W3 after Spring Break!
Save the Date: We are thankful that Ann H is organizing another year of Wei Wei Palace Dinner – More details coming soon but mark your calendars for April 22, 6PM for a Mandarin Immersion Dinner Night!
From the Immersion Coordinator –With conferences here again, I thought it was a good time to remind you of my availability. Please connect with me (Jodi Pierce) if you have any questions regarding the immersion program! I absolutely love connecting with parents and helping everyone to better understand how we do immersion at ZCS. You can stop by my office between the media center and the gym (the door closest to the gym–#69) or send me an email jpierce@zcs.org.
What’s Coming Up?
Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, PE. Thursday – Spanish.
Parent Teacher Conferences: March 20th and 21st (NO SCHOOL on March 20th).
Author Visit (Amanda Barton): March 23rd.
Garden Crossings Fieldtrip: March 24th 8:45-10:30AM.
Wacky Wednesday: March 29th – Crazy clothes, crazy outfits, crazy hair! Just not wacky behavior ?
Spring Break: March 31st-April 9th.
Critter Barn Fieldtrip: April 20th, ALL DAY.
ZCS AUCTION: April 21st, Friday. The Zeeland Christian auction on April 21.This is our number ONE fundraiser for the year! We would like to encourage you to set this date aside, bring family and friends, and come for a night of fun, food, fellowship and support of ZCS!
Prayer Requests:
Please pray that the children will have a meaningful and personal experience as we talk about Easter stories and start to understand how great Jesus love for us through this Easter unit. Please pray for continue focus as Spring Break is approaching and it can be hard to hold ourselves together sometimes! We will also continue to be busy before and after spring break so continue to pray for health and stamina ?
谢谢！
－黎老师