How We Express Ourselves - Celebrations!

We have been digging into How We Express Ourselves through celebrations in Preschool.  We celebrated the 100th day of school, setsubun (Japanese bean throwing festival), learned about Chinese New Year, and planned and threw our own Valentine's Day celebration with students from Canadian Academy!

Thank you to the parents who have offered to share a celebration with our classroom! Our Show & Tell theme for the next few weeks will be home celebration traditions. Our families all have their personal ways to celebrate different holidays and I would like for the students to share one family celebration tradition. The next time they bring the Show & Tell bag home, please help your student share this by sending photos, a video, games, a recipe, decorations - anything to tell us about this celebration and tradition. Even better, come share this tradition with your child in our classroom! If you are not able to do this, please include some written or videoed explanation of the tradition to share to help your child. Thank you for thinking about and being ready for this when your child's turn comes!

Call for materials!
In the last week of February Carnival will be celebrated around the world: Mardi Gras in America, Fastnacht (Karneval) in Germany, etc. We will have a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) challenge in Preschool to design a colorful float for the parade! To do this, students will work with partners and design, then build their own float that they can move by pushing or pulling (without touching the float itself).

To do this, we will need your help collecting materials next week. Please send any of the
items on this list to help us complete our project:
 Cardboard
 Cardboard Boxes (Kleenex box, cereal box, shoe boxes, etc.)
 Tape
 Paper Plates
 Index Cards
 Balloons
 Construction paper
 Pipe cleaners
 Toilet paper tube s
 Craft sticks
 Straws
 Paper Cups
 Glue
 Yarn
 Paper Towel Tubes
THANK YOU!

Announcement - Schedule Change!
Our library day will be on Wednesday from this week.

Upcoming:
March 2nd              (AM) Hina Matsuri at Shohei Kindergarten
                                (PM) DSKI School Photo

100th Day of School, 3-Way Conferences and A Call for Family Participation!

Preschool has been busy tuning-in to our new unit: How We Express Ourselves! We are exploring this through the lens of celebrations around the world. Last week we made fire breathing dragons for Chinese New Year! As we continue to learn about different celebrations from around the world, we would love for your family to come and share a celebration particular to you! Please email me  if you have some time and are interested in doing this!

This week in literacy we will continue working on our How To books - writing books to teach something in steps. Our sight words are 'how' and 'are'.

In maths we are continuing to work on building number sense by breaking numbers apart and putting them back together. Also working on building foundations for place value. For the 100th day of school on Wednesday, I will ask each child to bring 100 small items from home in clear bag to display what 100 looks like. It can be anything: 100 paper clips, 100 marbles, 100 cotton balls, 100 Cheerios (cereal pieces), etc.

Thank you again for everyone who joined our Super Readers Party! A couple of you asked about the TV Show: Super Why by PBS Kids. You can stream on Netflix and PBS Kids as well as renting or buying from iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, etc.

I also wanted to give a BIG shout out to the PTA for coming in on Friday to give Preschool a Spring Cleaning - THANK YOU SO MUCH!


I look forward to sharing your child's learning at the 3-way conferences this week!

Upcoming:
February 3rd-7th      3-Way Conferences
February 3rd            Setsubun
February 5th            100th Day of Preschool (bring 100 small items!)
February 11th          Open Day
March 2nd               Hina Matsuri at Japanese Kindergarten

Healthy Choices Snack Challenge!

Preschool has been challenged to plan and help make and pack their own snack this Friday, January 24th! Please talk with your child about what they would like to make and bring. This will be part of their summative for the Unit so the choices should be mostly theirs.

Thank you for supporting us with this!

Week 18

This week will be our summative week of our Balanced and Healthy Choices unit. We will create a healthy heart to show the ways we stay healthy as well as our own My Plate with choices from the 5 food groups.

In literacy we will continue reviewing alternate vowel sound spellings (vowel teams) ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, y, ue, oa. Our sight words this week are: do, you, have. We will celebrate all of the Super Reader Strategies we have learned with a Super Reader Party on Wednesday, January 22nd at 2pm. Students can come dressed as their favorite super hero or just with a superhero accessory like a mask or cape. Parents are welcome to join us in this celebration!

In maths, we are continuing to look at balance and equality. As always, we are working on number sense - especially composition of numbers as a foundation for understanding place value.

Reminders: 
Zipper folders will come home with a book to read and a reading log, please return the books the next day.

Wednesday: Club Introduction Assembly 22nd January, 9.00am
We will be introducing our new club offers soon for the second semester.
Please come along to our assembly and you can see an introduction to each club by the club teacher and ask them any questions you may have!

Thursday: Library books and PE clothing

Friday: PE clothing

Have a great week!

Super Reader Party! (date change)

We have been working very hard to learn some strategies to become Super Readers! To celebrate all of our hard work, we are going to have a super-hero party! Please have your child come to school as a super hero (just a cape or a mask is fine - or a full costume, if they are comfortable!) on Wednesday the 22nd. I plan to have juice, popcorn, and fruit for the students. You are welcome to join us also! 

When?     Wednesday, January 22nd ~2:00pm
Where?    Preschool classroom

The students can share a book with you or a friend to show their reading powers, then we will have snacks and watch a show to celebrate!

Yoga!

Please have your child bring a towel to use as a yoga mat on Monday (the 13th) as we will be exploring balanced and healthy habits through yoga!

Thank you and Have a Great Weekend!

Happy New Year

Hello Preschool Families!

Hope you enjoyed the winter break and are excited to come back to school tomorrow! I am so excited to see your smiles, hear about your adventures, and start learning again with you!

Remember: tomorrow is Library day! Please bring back your readers AND library books.

Also, tomorrow is PE! Please come dressed in clothing that is easy to move in and with warm layers for when/if you are outside.

Lastly, please bring the winter break journal you created to help you tell us about your adventures.

See you tomorrow!

Ms. Shirai