Newsletter #31
It was a good Spring week and Chapel ended the week perfectly. Next week is the start of May and the children knows that this means new challenges are coming! We are getting ready for more independence and new things as we finish up Kindergarten 🙂
Hopefully you have heard this from your child (that means they are delivering the news that I have asked them to) – we are celebrating another language jar filled in class this coming Monday! They are welcome to wear PJ to school and bring a friend (stuffed animals/dolls that can fit in their backpack).
What did we learn and What will we learn?
Mandarin/Language Arts: We continue to explore word wall words, high frequency words, learning grammar as well as continuing growth in word recognizing and using them in context. There are some words that the children will find in our weekly learning that might not be completely new – and it’s always exciting to see them making connections of their prior learning and previous experiences! In leveled reading the children are progressing in the materials, which mean not only reading and recognizing the characters, but also practicing some reading strategies, trying to figure out what the story is about as well as practicing reading fluently. When you are reading with the children at home I encourage you to what the story is about – who’s in this book, what happened, what are some patterns you see, how did things go, etc.
Bible: We talked about Peter escapes from jail, Philip and the Ethiopian, as well as some of Saul’s stories. Next week we will talk about continue to talk about Saul’s stories and the early stories of how God’s message started traveling. We talked about how God Has a plan for Saul and because Saul was touched, he had a change of heart and change his name to Paul – then went to tell people stories about God. We also talked about how Holy Spirit help guide us to know what God wants us to do/His plan for us.
Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: We have assessed our Easter bible Memory Verse and we are starting to practice our May memory verse which is about the mission God has given us during Pentecost. We have wrapped up talking about Gentleness and is now starting to talk about our last fruit of the spirit – Self Control.
I would encourage you to talk about Holy Spirit with the kids if you are able to as well – it can be a harder concept to grasp at their age certainly.
Math: We continue to practice teen numbers, math mountain as well as math partner groups. In Kindergarten, many skills are reviewed and strategies are practiced so that the children have a solid understanding of the numbers before expanding to learning harder concepts or with bigger numbers. We are also learning what some 3D shapes are called, and talk about their characteristics.
Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): We are talking about living/non-living things and how to differentiate them. The three ways we know things are living are 1) They can reproduce 2) They grow 3) They eat/take in food as well as produce food. We will have some special visitors that help us learn more about living and non-living things next week! We will soon start our PBL Learning Unit on Animals.
Writing: We continue to work on small moments stories from our Garden Crossings field trip and Critter Barn. This week we also started talking about How To Books and practiced writing a How To Book together that cross over with our Science Learning as we teach others How To Plant Flowers!
Play: We are enjoying story telling, and building houses, places, buildings and later on bringing our animals (which are the characters) in our stories to our buildings and role playing. We also loved making art and our art box is always popular.
Things to Note:
Garden Crossing Flowers Pick Up: Your child planted a seed when we visited Garden Crossings. The greenhouse kept the basket and has been taking care of it so that it will be beautiful for you by Mother’s Day! Please enjoy a weekend outing, or send your husband to Garden Crossings to pick up your child’s basket for a nice surprise. The dates to pick up the flowers are Thursday, May 11, Friday, May 12, or Saturday, May 13.
Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework that will be coming home next week will be word wall words and high frequency words from framework U6W2. Thank you for your continue work at home!
From ZCS Office – If you have not already done so, please hand in your enrollment form/packet to the school office! Thank you!
From the Immersion Coordinator – Do you use a foreign language in your day-to-day life? Perhaps you know of someone else who uses their bilingualism in the work place or elsewhere. We are always looking for individuals who can demonstrate to our students the advantages of knowing and using a second language. If you or someone you know might be willing to visit a classroom or connect with a class online, please touch base with me (Jodi Pierce, jpierce@zcs.org) or your child’s teacher.
What’s Coming Up?
Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – Library, PE. Thursday – Spanish.
Wear PJ and bring a friend to school: Monday, May 1st.
Tulip Time Half Day School: Wednesday, May 10th.
Garden Crossing Flowers Pick Up: The dates to pick up the flowers are Thursday, May 11, Friday, May 12, or Saturday, May 13.
Memorial Day Vacation/Parade: Monday, May 29th.
Farmers Market Fieldtrip (tentative depending on weather): Wednesday, May 31st.
Save the Date – PBL Celebration: Thursday, June 1st, 2:30-3:25PM!
Prayer Requests:
Please continue to pray for health and strength as we go through season change. Spring is exciting and beautiful but the weather is also pretty unpredictable (just usual Michigan – right?). We are also taking on new challenges and adding more things on our responsibilities so please pray for the courage and patience in taking on new challenges!
谢谢！
－黎老师