Welcome, Isa!

This week we welcomed a new member to our team. Please stop to greet Isa if you happen to pass by.

Fun & Games Day

Last Thursday our afternoon was full of running, jumping and having fun! We participated in Fun & Games Day and had a blast. Check out the photos below:

Dance & Writers' Celebration

Last Thursday was a busy day in kindergarten! We began the day by performing a dance at the elementary assembly, which was created completely by the kindergarten students. See the video below if you missed it:

Kindergarten Dance from Kacey on Vimeo.

Immediately following the assembly we moved downstairs to our classroom for a writing celebration. Thank you to all of you for coming to support your children. It was wonderful that every child had a parent present. Your children are becoming amazing writers, so we were glad we could share our learning with you.

Guest Artists

I apologize for posting these videos so late; I experienced some technical difficulties. At the end of our Unit of Inquiry on imagination we were fortunate to welcome two more guest artists to our class. Swapan Malaker came in to play Bengali music, and Rob Russell demonstrated creative drama. You can view clips of their visits below:

Swapan Malaker from Kacey on Vimeo.

Rob Russell

Toy & Bake Sale

The Elementary Student Council is putting on a toy and bake sale in the rotunda. Tomorrow (Wednesday) our class will have a bit of time to attend. If you would like to send a small amount of money with your child for this, please put it in an envelope with his/her name. Note that this is in no way mandatory.  

We Are Creative!

During our Unit of Inquiry on imagination all kindergarten students had the opportunity to work together in mixed groups on various creative projects. In Mrs. Miller's class the students developed a story and created props to retell ideas. Mrs. Taylor's room focused on puppet-making. When the students rotated through our classroom they used their imaginations to come up with a short skit, which was then made into a movie for all to see. You can enjoy their work by viewing the videos below:

 

Reminder - Thursday

This Thursday all kindergarten students will be performing a dance at the ES assembly. It will begin promptly at 7:55 and we would love an audience!  Please meet us upstairs in Gym B.

Following the assembly we would like to celebrate the amazing writing happening in our class. Please join us in our classroom where we will read you our books. We should be finished by 8:50 -- just in time for recess!

Thursday afternoon (12:40 - 2:30 on the big field) we will participate in Fun & Games Day. This will be an afternoon designated to just what the name states: fun, games and sportsmanship. You are welcome to come watch if you'd like; please simply meet us on the field.
**Please make sure your child has a water bottle and hat if s/he wishes to wear one. We encourage all children to bring a lunch from home that day if possible as our lunch schedule is adjusted so we can begin on time. If you normally send/bring your child's lunch to school, please ensure it is here no later than 11:45 as we have and earlier lunch. This year the school has Tiger jerseys for all the students to wear. These will be passed out in class on Thursday just before the event need to be returned immediately after. Please have your child wear a light t-shirt to school that day that s/he can keep on under the jersey.

Shapes

We are finishing up our study on shapes this week and have spent the past couple weeks breaking apart 3D shapes. We have realized that they are built with 2D shapes! We have experimented with 2D shapes and have come to some new understandings. One important thing we learned is that many 2D shapes can be made from other shapes, such as a trapezoid, which can be built using two triangles and one square!

We have also used our imagination in math to build things out of shapes. Look at some of our ideas:

  

We even used 3D shapes to build our own creatures based on the book and film, The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan.  (You can watch the video by clicking HERE.)  We were able to combine lots of 3D shapes to make creatures that were creative and unique. We then told about all the things our 'Lost Things' could do. Ask your child to share about his/her 'Lost Thing' at home!

  

Another fun activity we did to help us recognize shapes was playing Shape Twister. Our bodies got quite tangled as we stretched from shape to shape!

We are currently in the process of using our imaginations to design pictures using only 2D shapes. We will be sure to share these when they are finished.

Positive Parenting Workshop

Please see this reminder from Mr. Dave Prewitt:

Positive Parenting Workshop

Elementary School Parent Information Session

Wednesday, January 8nd 7:45-9:00

Community Room

Presenters: Dave and Carol Prewitt

This is a two-part workshop. Part I will explore basic concepts and skills of how parents can help children know that they are loved and are capable, both of which are extremely important for a healthy positive self-concept. We will also look at guidelines for setting limits, determining consequences, use of time out, helping children learn to be independent and those behaviors that foster communication.  Come join us for a taste of “Positive Parenting.”

Guest Speakers

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope you all had a relaxing break if you were able to have time off, and if not I hope you were able to enjoy your weekends with family and friends. I've heard great stories about vacations and exciting holidays. In fact, I've encouraged the children to email in a few photos (around 3 max.) to share with the class, so if your child wishes to do so, please email them to our class email address:  kgm@aisdhaka.org

We are continuing our Unit of Inquiry on imagination and I wanted to share some great clips of a few of our guest artists. Please encourage your child to watch and discuss these:

Mr. Jeff Redman performing with shadow puppets.

Dancing with Mrs. Wendy Birdwell.

Mr. Gareth Jacobson on guitar.

We also welcomed Mr. Leon Letkeman in to show us how to use our imaginations with technology and green screening, and we visited Mr. Roger Bodary in the Design Technology lab. He discussed using imagination when designing products and then let us make our own toy tops!