KG Party at the American Club

It’s time to celebrate another wonderful year of learning, and that means it’s time for the KG End Of Year Party! For our party on May 30th, the Kindergarteners will be going to the AEEA (American Club)  to use the pool, the playground, and the Banana Cabana to have lunch. We will be leaving school around 9:30 AM and returning to school by 2:00 PM.

Please make sure that your child brings swimwear, a towel and water bottle that day. You may wish to apply sunscreen in the morning and have your child bring a hat. Students may also want to bring goggles, sunglasses, and play equipment, such as, a soccer ball or badminton racket. We will not be playing tennis so s/he does not need a tennis racket.

Please also send a snack to school for your child.  We will have a snack before we leave.  The AEEA will be serving cheese pizza and vegetable sticks. The cost for this event is 510 taka. Please return the Permission form by Sunday, May 29th.  

Artifacts

As we continue our Personal Histories Unit, we have been sharing significant events from our past in our memory jars. Many of the kids have brought in albums and scrapbooks to share. We have made a timeline of all the significant events of KG. We have also been discussing the different ways to document our histories and why this is important.

Today Zoe brought in an artifact that is important to her personal history. She enjoyed sharing the story of her artifact with the class. 

Some of the kids have already come up with artifacts that they want to bring next week. Please discuss some ideas of artifacts that your child may be able to bring in. We will keep them in the classroom for 2 weeks and share their stories.

KG Assembly

Great Job KGM!

Carlos - Documenting Personal Histories

Carlos (Adrian's Dad) shared how he documents his personal histories in a journal and through music.


Carlos - Documenting Personal Histories from AIS Dhaka on Vimeo.

ES Assembly

Kindergarten will be conducting the ES Assembly this Thursday, May 19th from 7:50am - 8:30am. Please make sure all the kids are wear the KG musical shirts on that day. We hope to see you all in the audience!

Just Right Books Reminder

Please remember to send Just Right Book Bags on the last day of the week.

Storytelling Tent

KGM visited the The Story Tent in the ES Library and read stories using a storyteller's voice.

Talent Show

Please note the deadline for the Talent Show application is this Thursday, May 5th. The application should be turned into Mrs. Meisner, Room #208. The forms were sent home last Wednesday. If you did not receive it or have misplaced it please let me know.

Telling Time

KGM is working on telling time to the hour this week.

Unit of Inquiry

KG's Earth Day Book

IMG_0656 from AIS Dhaka on Vimeo.

Matter & Molecules

We concluded our unit on "How the World Works" by discovering how molecules move in solids, liquids and gases. The students first demonstrated their knowledge through movement.

They then demonstrated their knowledge with Cheerios!

Earth Day Weekend Activities

Dear Parents,

The Earth Day Committee​is gearing up for a special week of celebrating our planet and raising awareness about caring for our planet April 24th­ - 28th. Students can participate by:

● Create a piece of art/sculpture out of items that would normally be thrown away. So, before throwing out that tissue box, bottle, or cardboard roll, see what you can make out of it? Entries should include the student’s name and grade level on or before Tuesday, April 26th to Ms. Amy’s KG classroom (B104). All participants will be entered in a drawing for a North End gift certificate.

● Generate less waste by donating unused household items, clothes, or toys which are in good repair by Tuesday, April 26th to the community hall.

● Take a photo of the trash that your family generates in one day. Send in the photo with ideas for how to generate less trash in your home. Send the email with the subject heading “Trash” by Tuesday, April 28th to amclean@aisdhaka.org and include the name and grades of each student who participated. All participants will be entered in a drawing for a North End gift certificate.

● Students have the day off on Thursday, April 28th. Get out in nature as a family! Snap a photo of you and your family enjoying time outdoors and submit it to amclean@aisdhaka.org. Photos must be taken and submitted on that day. Send the email with the subject heading “Nature” to amclean@aisdhaka.org and include the name and grades of each student who participated. All participants will be entered in a drawing for a North End gift certificate.

Congratulations, Zara!

Congratulations to Zara, winner of the KG contest for our musical poster!

Student-Led Conferences

Student-led conferences are fast approaching (next Thursday, April 17). If you have not already done so, please take a moment to log into Pick-A-Time and schedule a time to come in with your child. Directions were sent home early this week in the red take-home folders.

Please note that Mr. Tunheim (Art) and Ms. Helal (Host Culture Studies) will be available all day for conferences. Ms. Chang (Performing Arts) and Mr. Rank (P.E.) have limited availabilities:

• Performing Arts: 8:30 - 11:00 am
• P.E.:  8:00 - 11:45 am

 Also, Ms. Clark in the library would love for you to take a moment and stop by the library with your child sometime throughout the day.

Student-led conferences are such a wonderful way for your child to share their learning with you. They are so proud to display their work and show how they have grown. I only wish I could be here to watch them proudly show you around the room; their faces are priceless!

Fun & Games Day Photos

Dear Parents,

Emyr, Hanna's father, will be deleting the Fun & Games Day photos from his Dropbox account on Tuesday to make room for other photos. Please take the time to view the folder before Tuesday and download any you would like to keep. Thanks!

Unit of Inquiry and Language

Hanna's Special Holiday

Hanna taught us about a special holiday in Wales - St. David's Day - and now she wants to share it with you! The sharing and acceptance of different cultures is what makes AISD so special. See Hanna explain more below:

Hanna from AIS Dhaka on Vimeo.

Update on the KG Musical

Dear Parents,

The Kindergarten class met today from 8 - 9 am to rehearse the musical.  They did a great job of focusing, following directions and telling the story to their musical!  This class incredibly good at singing in tune and making the song come to life.  We had help from Ms. Ani, our High School Drama teacher, with a few multimedia clips that should help our story be even more interesting.  Ms. Helal from Host Culture Studies has worked with us to learn a Bangla song that has made this musical specific to us in Bangladesh.  Mr. Tunheim is teaching us how to paint the back drop for our show!  Mr. Rob, our Middle School Drama teacher, has helped behind the scenes to make the Community Hall more 'theater-like'.  We have been so fortunate to have so many people take an interest in our show and help make it fun and exciting!  While the script called for adults to narrate, each student has been pre-recorded so that they have a part in telling this story.  

If your child wants to practice, the following lines will be spoken by everyone during the performance: 

1. Oh, no!  Our train is broken.  What shall we do?  We need another engine to push us over the mountain.
2. Clickety clack! Clickety clack!
3. All the while, the children in the Chittagong Village Station were waiting and waiting for Happy Train.
4. The train, the train, is very, very late! It’s bringing food and toys. It’s hard for us to wait
5. We don't think you can pull us over the mountain, but you can try. 
6. HOORAY, HOORAY FOR THE BRAVE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD SING US OVER THE MOUNTAIN!

One of the comments from today's rehearsal that may make our show better is for our students to dress in their classroom t-shirts for uniformity on 14 March.  

We are so excited to share with you our hard work on Monday, 14 March! 

The Little Engine That Could Sing Us Over the Mountain

REMINDER! Please save the date!

The AISD Kindergarteners would like to present The Little Engine That Could Sing Us Over the Mountain on Monday, 14 March at 2 pm in the Community Hall.  This musical will be video recorded and available to be copied via flash disk or drive for your safe keeping. 

 

Beijing Opera 京劇 A Monkey King 孫悟空

Last Thursday we had the opportunity to view some high school drama students demonstrate their learning about the Beijing Opera. After watching the performance, our students were interested in hearing more. Betty Chang, our Performing Arts teacher, provided some further insight. She showed them the following clip and provided this information in case you want to go over it with your child:

The particular clip they watched is of the Monkey King. 
The Monkey King traditionally is a very mischievous character but
excellent at martial arts.  He magically transforms hairs plucked from
his body to anything he wishes!  In this particular youtube clip,
however, it demonstrates his martial arts and acrobatic skill sets.  He
twirls the baton, balances swords on his baton, etc. 

Data Analysis

We have concluded our in-depth study of time and how it helps us stay organized. We are now beginning to take a closer look at data analysis in math. First, we are beginning our unit by understanding just what it means to gather data. We spent the end of last week examining the two words gathering and data. The students were first asked to draw pictures or write their ideas of when they had heard these words before. 

After collating our prior knowledge of each word, we discussed our ideas and built upon our thoughts. Some examples the students gave of when they had heard the word gather included "gathering near the teacher" and "gathering pencils after they have spilled on the floor". The word data was a bit trickier as many students didn't remember having prior experience with this word. Ayushi got us thinking when she said that her mom had said that when the power is out, the TV does not work and it does not give any data. Levi continued upon this idea by adding that computers and technology transmit data, and that you can even share data by putting it onto a USB. We eventually came up with basic definitions of both words. 

Having a better idea of what it means to "gather data", the students were challenged to gather data about what time the teammates in our class each go to bed. No direction was given as how to go about collecting the data or as the best way to organize it.

This lesson provides insight into where we will begin this unit and the students' initial understanding of how one might go about collecting information. Because our last unit of inquiry focused on organization, we will apply our strong foundation in this area to our math as well. Tomorrow we will examine how the different members of our class went about collecting and organizing their data. We will learn from one another and hopefully come up with some new strategies that may help us in the coming weeks.

Personal Roles within Families

After examining our personal roles as students in the school community, the students were very excited to look at their roles within their family communities. They realized that they have many important jobs to do to help their family thrive. Take a look at each child's thinking about the jobs they are responsible for at home:

Roles within Communities

Our current unit of inquiry is in the theme "How We Organize Ourselves", and our central idea is, 'Organization can help a community thrive'. At the beginning of this unit our students were asked to explain how the school is organized. All of them focused solely on the physical aspect of organization, and when asked about how the people might be organized, only a couple students were able to verbalize thoughts on this less tangible aspect of organization.

This was a great formative assessment to show in which area(s) we should begin our exploration. After some discussion, we came up with a basic list of  people who are part of our school community. We gathered photos of some of these people and worked in groups to sort them. In the next step we were challenged to find connections between groups of people.

This activity made us realize just how connected the different people in our school community are! Our next step was to examine the roles people have and how they help communities function, which is one of our lines of inquiry. We began by looking at ourselves in our school community. To which group do we belong? What are our jobs within the community? How do we help the community? Through the use of the app Pic Collage, we worked in partners to create collages of some of the different jobs we have within the role of a student. Check out our work!:

The students were so excited about this app and discussed how it helped them organize their thoughts. They decided they wanted to look at their roles within their families as well. So....we did a similar project through the help of both Pic Collage and the app 'Whiteboard'! Our ideas will be uploaded soon. Be sure to check back again today for that post!

Letters of Love

Thanks to all of you for making your child's Valentine's Day special and sending in letters of love! They were all so surprised and excited to see letters from all over the globe. There were a lot of smiling faces as students read their thoughtful messages.

100th Day Capes

What creative 100th day capes we had in KG this week! To show off our style, we had a little fashion show with KG-MC. Take a moment to watch this short clip; it will definitely make you smile.

Kg cape fashion show from Amy McLean on Vimeo.

100th Day Capes

My apologies. This was written yesterday and I thought it had been published, but I just realized there was a glitch.

Your child came home today with a red cape. Thank you so much to Kayaan and Kayael's parents for donating these! In celebration of our 100th day of school, all kindergarten students are asked to decorated their cape in a creative way that represents 100. Please help your child in coming up with something unique! We will have a fashion show on Thursday to show these off. Please help your child remember to bring in his/her finished cape Thursday morning. Thanks in advance for your help!

The Little EngineThat Could --- the musical!!

All of our kindergarten students are busy learning a musical during Performing Arts time that we can't wait to perform for you all in March! We are needing a little help at home in learning script lines. If you could take the time soon to practice your child's line with him/her so that s/he knows it well, it would be much appreciated. Please see below:

ALL STUDENTS will say the following lines:

1. Oh, no!  Our train is broken.  What shall we do?  We need another engine to push us over the mountain.
2. Clickety clack! Clickety clack!
3. All the while, the children in the Chittagong Village Station were waiting and waiting for Happy Train.
4. The train, the train, is very, very late! It’s bringing food and toys. It’s hard for us to wait!
5. HOORAY, HOORAY FOR THE BRAVE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD SING US OVER THE MOUNTAIN!
   ________________________________________________________
    
   Zoe: The hopeful Train Conductor waved the red flag and the wheels on Happy Train wiggled and jiggled with happy anticipation. 
   
   Nezar:  Big Important Engine hissed and stopped.
   
   Big Important Engine (angrily):  Why did you stop me?
   
   Lola:  Big Important Engine huffed and puffed out gritty clouds of gray smoke.  
   
   Amirah: And with another puff of steam, “Psssshoooooo”, the freight engine pounded away.
   
   Levi: How disappointing!  The Train Conductor and everyone were very worried that no engine will help push us over the mountain. 
   
   Alfred: They knew that all the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain were waiting for them.
   Ilmeeyat: Then, in the distance, there was a NEW sound on the track - a very small, cheerful sound.
   
   Noah: Down the track came Little Engine.  
   
   Train Conductor:  Too bad.  That engine is way too small to push us over the mountain.
   
   Gabriel:  The Train Conductor didn’t even wave the red flag for the engine to stop,  but that little engine stopped anyway.  
   
   Little Engine:  Is something wrong?
   
   The Train Conductor:  Our engine is broken.  We are hoping that a big engine will come and push us over the mountain.
   
   Little Engine:  I am not big, but I will try to push you. Sometimes when I need a lot of power, I sing a special song to make me stronger.  It goes like this:
   
   Ayushi:  We don’t think you can do it, but you can try.
   
   Taya:  Little Engine slowly connected with Happy Train.  
   
   Sukanya: It pushed and pushed and pushed!  Slowly, as they moved up the mountain, Little Engine said,
   
   Little Engine: I need more power.  Please, EVERYBODY, sing the song with me!
   
   Adrian: Up, up the mountain Little Engine pushed Happy Train - up to the very top!  
   
   Ihsan: And then down, down the mountain they easily chugged.
   
   Zara:  There were the happy children, waiting for them in the Chittagong Village Station.  
   
   Hanna: Happy Train was very happy to be there.  Everyone shouted...
    

Engaging in Creative Thought

Before I go on to post updates from our new unit of inquiry, I wanted to take a moment to write one last post about creativity. Throughout this unit we examined creativity through the lens of four components: fluency, flexibility, elaboration and originality. We examined each component thoroughly and used this vocabulary regularly throughout our days. We also were involved in a variety of learning engagements that encouraged us to grow in these four areas. Here are just a few of these engagements:

We used the iPad app "Story Wheel" to encourage us to elaborate upon our creative ideas. We found that as time progressed and our understanding of creative stories grew, we were able to come up with stories that were more appealing to our audience as they were full of details. We also looked at elaboration closely while making our 'Not A Box' creations, as described in a previous post.

We also examined the concept of originality. So many of our learning engagements dealt with expanding our understanding of this word, including our fiction stories from writers workshop. At first we noticed that many of our ideas were closely linked to stories we had heard before. As the unit progressed, however, our ideas were much more original. Please take a moment to look at these stories when we bring them home this week!
 

Fluency is another component of creative thinking that we examined throughout the unit. One fun game we played that focused on this concept was what we called "Don't Let it Pass!" This was adapted from a reflection game found on playmeo.com. In this game, a small group of students stood around a hoola hoop, holding it loosely in their hands. One portion of the hoola hoop was covered in tape. The hoola hoop was rotated by the group and each time a student's hands fell on the taped portion, s/he tried to give an answer to a predetermined question without letting the tape pass through his/her hands. The goal was also to not repeat an answer already given. In playing this game, we challenged ourselves to think fluently. Take a look at this game in action. As you can see, it was tricky at times!

Fluenct Thinking - KGM from AIS Dhaka on Vimeo.

The final component of creativity that we examined was flexibility (sorry, no picture of the poster!) Within this we looked at thinking from different view points and coming up with ideas in a variety of categories. Another game we loved involved a beach ball and questions that inspired creative thought. We sat in a circle and bounced the beach ball to one another. Each time the ball was caught, we looked at the color on which our thumbs landed and answered a question corresponding to that color. Take a look at this in action:

Flexible Thinking - KGM from AIS Dhaka on Vimeo.

Creative thinking will not end in our classroom simply because this unit of inquiry is over. We will continue to challenge ourselves to think creatively as this is a life-long skill that has proven to be important in future success. Please take time at home to play games with your child and engage in activities that encourage creative thought.

Spirit Week

Next week is spirit week! Please help your child participate by dressing up to show his/her spirit. See the note below from the organizers:

Monday Feb 1: Pyjama Day

Tuesday Feb 2: Tiger Day (Dress up in orange and black to show your school spirit!)

Wednesday Feb 3: Twin Day

Thursday Feb 4: Suit Up/Dress Up Day

Participate each day to show your spirit and to support all the athletes that will be representing our school at SAISAs next weekend!!!!

Thank you for helping us celebrate!

Many thanks to all of you for the wonderful attendance at our end of the unit celebration. The students were so proud of their work and all they've learned throughout our unit of inquiry on creativity. For even more background on our work, please take a moment to read about this particular project:

We began by watching a recording of the book "Not a Box" by Antoinette Portis. This book is about a bunny who uses his creativity to imagine a cardboard box as being different things.

At this point we discussed a new vocabulary word: original. We talked about how the bunny came up with original ideas because they were all new and things he hadn't thought of before. We then took some time to come up with some original ideas of our own for cardboard boxes.

After some brainstorming, each of us chose a box to transform into our chosen idea. The word transform was a word we had been learning through one of our lines of inquiry.

As the project continued we began to explore other aspects of creativity, such as elaboration. We really began to grow in our understanding of the word elaboration as we saw what a difference detail makes in creating products. We elaborated on our own original ideas to make them even more creative. In the end, these were our products:

We are thankful to Carol, our go-to tech guy, for helping us create our QR codes so that all could enjoy listening to each of us explain our creations.

If you weren't able to attend our wonderful celebration, please take some time to listen to your child's explanation via his/her QR code and then allow your child the opportunity to explain his/her thinking. Again, thank you to all who were able to make our special morning!

Fun and Games Day

We had a blast yesterday at Fun and Games Day. Check out these shots of us in action, and don't forgot that you can click on the slideshow and download any of the photos to save for your child's memories.

Reminders

Tomorrow is a special day for kindergarten. Please don't forget about the following two special events. We hope to see you in the morning, and maybe even some of you in the afternoon!

9:00 in the Community Hall: We will have a celebration of our learning in regard to our most recent unit of inquiry on creativity. Please join us for roughly 30 minutes during which you will see us express our creativity through different forms. *If you have a smartphone or other device, please take a moment to download a free QR code reader app before coming.


12:45 - 2:30 on the big field: Kindergarten through Grade 2 will participate in Fun & Games Day tomorrow afternoon. Feel free to stop by and watch your child in action! Please ensure your child comes to school in the morning dressed in P.E. clothing (shorts/running pants, sneakers). We have special shirts which we will change into at school.

Building 3D Shapes

We have continued in our exploration of 3D shapes and of what they are comprised. We were given templates to decorate, but were not told what exactly they were for. Our job in decorating though was to repeatedly draw the shape with a new color until the entire large shape was filled with color. This repetition encouraged us to solidify our knowledge of the attributes of different 2D shapes.

Next we spent time together discussing what we saw in each template, and why these different 2D shapes might be connected on each big piece of paper. We were encouraged to think creatively about transforming the 2D template into something new, and soon enough we discovered that we could create 3D shapes! We examined several templates as a class before heading off to create the shapes ourselves.

Finally, we took our 3D shapes and displayed them in our classroom as a mobile. What a beautiful way to display our learning!

Please Come Celebrate Our Learning!

Please join us Thursday, January 21st @ 9:00 am in the Community Hall where will be sharing our learning from our unit of inquiry on creativity. You will have the opportunity to see how we have transformed our ideas into creative products and witness our development in the areas of originality, elaboration, fluency and flexibility. This sharing should not last much over a half hour.

The other KG classes' work will also be displayed; please bring a hand-held device if you would like to electronically listen to them explain their products. We are excited to share our learning with you, so we hope you are able to come!

Exploring 3D Shapes

2D shapes have been interesting for us to explore as we have examined their sides, vertices and other attributes and seen how the shapes relate to and compare with each other. We have been taking this developing knowledge and understanding and have applied it to our examination of 3D shapes. Through play and hands-on activities we have developed some initial ideas and assumptions about 3D shapes. Take a look at some of the learning engagements in which we have been involved:

3D Shape Construction: We were given the challenge of using Popsicle sticks and play dough to create 3D shapes. We really had to think through this activity as we were not given any instructions as how to go about building the shapes. Through trial and error, however, we figured out how to put the pieces together to create the necessary edges and vertices.

Shape Bingo:  We have learned the vocabulary for the basic 2D shapes, but for most of us the 3D shapes names are all new. We played Bingo to help us learn the names of the different shapes, and to reinforce the difference between 2D and 3D shapes.

Taking Apart 3D Shapes:  In order to help us better understand that most 3D shapes are built out of 2D shapes, we took some time examining the faces of 3D shapes. We began by choosing a 3D shape and stamping its different faces into play dough:

When the 3D shape was removed, a 2D shape was imprinted into the play dough: 

Each time we stamped a different face, we recorded which 2D shape made that face by gluing the 2D shape onto a chart:

By the end, our charts looked something like this:

This activity led us to some new discoveries, and we were amazed that the rounded parts of the cylinder and cone were 2D shapes that had been curved around!  We were all inquirers and thinkers in KG-M as we explored. Ms. Arti even shared her understanding as she made her own cylinder out of paper after seeing just which 2D shapes were needed:

In a follow-up discussion we realized that the curved part of the cone is not made from a triangle because when examined closely one can see that one of its sides is rounded. We used our brains to figure out that this was actually part of a circle -- and many were quick to point out that it wasn't even half of a circle (or semi-circle). Ihsan then introduced us to the word "fraction" as he explained that it was a fraction of the circle.

We will continue exploring 3D and 2D shapes in the weeks to come and throughout the rest of the school year. As we do so, please encourage us to expand and build upon our thinking at home as well!