Halloween
10/31/2013
Happy Birthday Naoki!
10/25/2013
Today was a special day in K5 because we celebrated Naoki’s 6th birthday! Since it is his special day, Ms. Michelle gave him the chance to pick the classroom helpers for the day. Our dear Cecilie made our morning circle more special when she showed us some of her artwork from home. We do have a lot of budding artists in K5 and we couldn’t be more proud of them!
We also practiced our reading skills by coming up with sensible sentences using a list of sight words that we have learned in class. We made our silly spider craft, read the book “Elmer the Patchwork Elephant”, made our own version of Elmer, and worked a little bit more on practicing how to write legibly.
After lunch, we had a birthday party for Naoki. Naoki brought yummy jelly treats and fruit juices for the whole class. He read two books for his friends and the children gave him a special birthday card. While eating their treats, Ms. Michelle played a birthday party music on the background. One of the kids approached her and asked if the class can dance after finishing their jellies. Of course Ms. Michelle said yes! Who would turn down a request like that? These K5 kids surely know how to party!
Young Author's Day
10/24/2013
Thursday was another busy but fun day for the K5 class. We started our day with a story called "Too Many Pumpkins". Our class was captivated by the author's imagination when she came up with a lot of ideas on what to make of her many many pumpkins. We tried to be like her by pretending to be young authors and illustrators as we wrote our own stories using story boards. After snack, we worked on our centers, had our math time, worked on our handwriting practice, and made cute green Halloween witches! It was a rainy last Thursday so we had an indoor PE class..
Wednesday
10/23/2013
Wednesday proved to be a fun day for the K5 children. We started our day with our Japanese class then we immediately worked on our math activity. Since we are learning about length and measurements, we had a measure-the-room activity. The kids had a blast measuring different corners and they can find inside the room. Some of them even tried to measure their friends! We also practiced one of the three types of reading--'reading the pictures'. The students were asked to find a partner with the goal of letting each of them read to one another using only the illustrations on the book. We then worked on our phonics and sight words centers, had lunch, went to the park, had Art class with Mr. Guy, music class with Mr. David, and capped our day with a PE class with Mr. Adam.
What a Tuesday...
10/22/2013
Today in K5 class we read the book "Leaf Season". The book talks about change and how the dog Clifford reacted to it. We learned that changes do not always receive a positive acceptance at first but if we welcome it with optimism, things get better and we will see that changes are not bad at all. On our journals, we drew some of the things that we wanted to change and keep. Surprisingly, a number of our students said that they want the weather to change and they want another typhoon to come today! : )
Today we worked on our new sight words, made our Ll alphabet book, practiced writing the letter L, did a quick math measuring game, made Q-tip skeleton art, went to the park, practiced our 2-minute Halloween performance, attended the Kindergarten assembly, and had a taste test science experiment! Whew..busy day.
The View from Tuesday
10/08/2013
Tuesday is one of the busiest but most productive day in K5 class academically. Today we read the Gingerbread Man and our very energetic K5 students had fun acting out the story using puppets. After reading, we proceeded with a cookie making activity where the kids made their own designer cookies. The kids have interesting cookie creations. One of the teams came up with an 8- flavored cookie (banana, chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, lemon, green apple, grapefruit all in one mix!). In the afternoon, we learned about community helpers, the tongue (sense of taste), and we joined our K3 and K4 friends for the kindergarten assembly. Our very adorable Fuuka Mori is our "Star of the Week" ; )
Fun Friday
10/11/2013
Friday was a fun day for the K5 class! In the morning, we made our tree silhouette crafts. We created columns of tree made of colorful tissue paper. The activity took a bit longer than expected because the kids were very meticulous with their art work. After snacks, we worked on our phonics and weekly sight words and although the kids were a little disappointed that we were not able to go to the park because it was raining, we tried to have indoor fun by playing a math bingo game. That afternoon got more interesting when our art teacher Mr. Guy came and made pumpkin collages with the class.
Thursday's Roundup
10/10/2013
Thursday was a busy day for the K5 class. We continued learning and practicing our IPICK chant (IPICK stands for I-I choose, P-purpose, I-Interest, C-Comprehend, K-Know). The acronym suggests pointers on how our students can find a good, suitable, and interesting book to read. On that day was also learned about length, had our alphabet cut-out activity, drew our own impression of a pumpkin patch, and we had a great time reading the book “Dumbo”. After reading Dumbo, we reflected on how unique and special each of us is. On our journals, we drew what we felt makes us special and it was pretty impressive how the K5 kids came up with answers like “I am special because I love my family” and “ I am special because I am me!”.
TERRIFIC TUESDAY!
09/30/2013
Today we began with a very fun story time read by Ms. Michelle. The name of the book was Martina the Cockroach. We focused on following the story, and seeing how it progresses from stage to stage until the ending. After talking about several key points of the story with their partners, K5 students were given two worksheets with 8 blank square boxes. We filled in each block with a picture, from beginning to end, depicting a different part of the story. It was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about how stories are made, told and develop.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
This week was quite busy. K5 had a lot of fun doing a variety of activities. Here is a selection of some of the things we did this week:
The Kindergarten assembly was held on Tuesday before the end of the school day. All three kindergarten classes got together downstairs. First, everyone watched a puppet show about friendship. The show reminded us how to treat our friends and what we should do at school when we play with others. Next we had a short ceremony for our star students for the month of September. Congratulations for Naoki and Kai in K5 class, you did a wonderful job in the first month of school and are our first star students!
Reading circles was an activity we did throughout the week and will continue to do each week during language arts time. K5 learned that during this special reading time we should be quiet so as not to disturb our fellow students, and focus on our books. While not everyone could read every book cover to cover, students had valuable practice time and also learned the importance of concentration. Books are an indispensable tool in learning language and we will cultivate the relationship students have with books and reading.
And best of all, this week we celebrated Lisa's birthday! Lisa is the only student with a birthday in September. Happy Birthday Lisa!
GIFT BOX & KOREAN FESTIVAL
09/20/2013
On Friday we got off to a great start! Everyone brought there homework folder for the 10th time since the start of school. This means all the students got to choose a prize from the gift box! If we can all bring our folders another 10 times we will get to choose another prize. Let's try our best!
AUTUMN WREATH ARTS AND CRAFTS
09/19/2013
Today in class for arts and crafts we made Autumn wreaths using brown painted paper plates and construction paper leaves. Next week will be the beginning of Autumn so we talked together about some of the characteristics of the changing of the seasons. Students shared what they knew, such as leaves changing colors, the weather getting colder, and so on. The wreaths will make a beautiful decoration. Great work everyone!
WHAT A PRODUCTIVE DAY
09/16/2013
Hello hello! Welcome back after the three day weekend. We kicked things off this week with a read aloud followed by some writing practice in our journals. Everyone worked so hard, and of course did a great job.
Because yesterday was a holiday encouraging respect and recognition of the elderly, we finished off our day making cards for our grandparents. First we read a book about being with grandma and grandpa, and everyone discussed things they enjoy doing with their grandparents. Then we got decorations together and made a card to show our grandparents how much we love them.
FAMILY PICTURES
09/11/2013
Today in class we shared our family photos. Everyone who brought a photo stood up in the front of class and shared their picture. It was so interesting to see how everyone's family is unique. We learned that each of us is special because we are a member of our family.
SPELLING PRACTICE
09/09/2013
Today in class we focused a lot on writing and spelling. After reading we partnered up and used our magnetic letters to spell various "sight words". It was a lot of fun searching for the correct letters to use. After we finished, each pair of students stood up before the class and shared how to read and spell their words!
Q-TIP FALL MOTIF
09/05/2013
Today we had a really fun art activity after Japanese class. We used Q-Tips to paint an autumn tree with red, orange, yellow, brown and green paint. It was a new and different way to use paints to make a beautiful picture. Its still a little hot outside but fall is just around the corner!
