Newsletter #34
The weather was so nice this week and the children loved going outside.We are also thankful that we get a classroom with AC so it’s actually not that hard to get the children back on track to learning as they come back HOT from outside! On Friday we started compiling our research to make the final products that we will use to teach you about animals and it turned out so wonderful! We had a good chunk of time where I meet with each group and assigned the other groups to keep working and moving forward as I meet with other groups – the children stayed on task, made their own decisions and help others all along. At the end of it they told me it felt so short and we agreed it’s because we were having so much fun! I am one proud teacher 🙂
*The lines for their PBL Presentation was also send home so that they can take some time to practice and hopefully memorize the lines within the next 2 weeks!*
As we get ready to go to Farmers Market on May 31st, I sent a paper home (in English) that the Kindergartener can work with you to think about how your family use money, and how the children can use their money at Farmers Market. I encouraged the children to answer the question as much as they can writing in Mandarin, or they may draw a picture and you can help them label the pictures (in English). The children know we will discuss the paper together next week, so please send it back to school latest by Friday, May 26th! Each child will have $2 dollars to spend at the market.
What did we learn and What will we learn?
Mandarin/Language Arts: We continue to grow and learn new characters/phrases, as well as expanding our vocabularies in our daily conversations and news sharing. Our poem this week was on drawing Spring so on Monday morning we drew what we heard and read in the poem! The children were so excited as they realized that the last sentence of the poem says – I take my color pencils and draw spring: which is exactly what we were just doing! We just learned how to read with a friend this week and it will soon be a permanent choice for our daily 5. Next week will be our last week focusing on framework and the following weeks we will focus on reviews.
Bible: This week we focused on reviewing the Fruits of the Spirit we have learned each day. We started with reviewing what the words mean, and then talked about how we see the fruits in our daily life. We also talked about how we can ask the spirit to help us show one of the fruit (or more) when we are struggling with different things. We talked about love, joy, peace, patience and kindness this week. Next week we will talk about goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Memory Verse/Fruit of the Spirit: We are practicing our May’s Bible Memory Verse which is about going out and doing His work! Next week we will draw this bible memory verse out and start the process of filling in our Spiritual Journal – it’s a journal that will follow the children all through their ZCS years!
We are working on practicing and memorizing the Lord’s Prayer – you can also find it on our Bible Memory Verses recording page. I encourage you to practice the Lord’s Prayer with the children at home too (when you pray/before bed, or even when you have some extra time).
Math: We continue to practice our number sense and learning how numbers work together (addition/subtraction) as well as story problems. We are reviewing our equations along with telling stories and using the right phrases when we do tell our math stories. We are also exploring and learning 3D Shapes, identifying them while reviewing our learning on directions.
Exploring God’s World (Sci/SocStu): For PBL, this week we focused on researching all about our animals. At the end of the week we finalized our research and move into thinking how to present our ideas to you. Next week we will focus on making our products and practicing to teach! The children are nervous but more excited that they will get to share their learning with you! We are also reviewing some Social Studies concept as we get ready to go to Farmers Market soon.
Writing: We finished sharing our Small Moment Critter Barn story and are now moving towards writing our How To Books! We talked about how we write how to books and talked about ideas we can teach others “How To” do.
Play: We love love animals, there was a lot of role playing school/work, as well as home this week. We continue to enjoy making art and little gifts for others here and there.
Things to Note:
Water Bottle and Towels: Water bottle and towels were send home (for the last time this year) on Friday, please clean them and return them on Monday!
ZCS Library Books: All students should return all Library books by next week. At this point in the school year, new books cannot be checked out. If you see any books at home that belong to ZCS please bring them back.
Memorial Day Parade: Memorial Parade is on the 29th morning. The instruction on the parade was send home last week – If you have any questions let me know! Please EMAIL me if you are NOT COMING!
Mandarin Homework&Flashcard: Homework that will be coming home next week will be word wall words and high frequency words from framework U6W5 – it’s our LAST week of framework. 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 – As we move into the summer months, stop by my office (#69 between the library and gym) if you would like a handout from add.a.lingua that gives suggestions and ideas for enhancing your child’s immersion education during the summer. As always, feel free to stop in or email me (jpierce@zcs.org) with any questions that you might have.
What’s Coming Up?
Specials: Monday – Spanish, Art, Tuesday – Music, Spanish, Wednesday – PE. Thursday – Spanish.
Memorial Day Vacation/Parade (NO SCHOOL): Monday, May 29th. Kindergarteners who are interested and available that day are invited to march in the parade in downtown Zeeland!
Farmers Market Field trip: Wednesday, May 31st. (We might not make it back in time for Hot Lunch so please NO HOT LUNCH that day as well)
Save the Date – PBL Celebration: Thursday, June 1st, 2:30-3:25PM. You won’t want to miss this! Join us for reception afterwards as we celebrate a great year of Kindergarten.
Last Day of School: Thursday, June 8th.
NO Hot Lunch and PM Bussing: Thursday, June 8th.
Prayer Requests:
Please pray for the learning in working together and being good group mates as we work closely with the friends in our group during PBL Project. Pray that it will be a meaningful learning experience not only to dive into the animals that God has created, but also learning how to work together, distributing jobs, helping each other, and be kind and humble when we are discussing and making decisions about our animals.
We are also approaching the end of the school year very quickly so pray for perseverance, patience and continue to hang in there as summer break approaches! Prayers for finishing Kindergarten strong and a good end of the year time together.
谢谢！
－黎老师