Pre-elementary Newsletter

Friday September 28th 2012.

From the class of Meng-Ni and Sihan

Welcome to the first newsletter of for Pre-K Mandarin class. We are very excited to begin a new school year. We will spend a lot of time getting to know one another and learning to follow classroom routines and rules and most of all have lots of fun. We are very proud of your children that they are making progress in learning Mandarin every day! They show curiosity and ask questions about pictures or texts in Mandarin.

CLASSROOM NEWS

Special Events

Happy Birthday Brayden on September 15

Art to Remember on September 21

(Once the artwork is completed and dry, others will send them off to "Art to Remember." In the course of a week, they will scan each student's artwork and reproduce it on a small magnet as a sample.  Then the sample and order forms will be returned to us so parents can see their child's work and, (we hope,) order cups, tiles, mouse pads, etc that display their children's artwork.)

Accomplishments

We made the project “the shape of me” that is associated with the theme “my body is special”. It is amazing that each child has such remarkable talents and abilities. They spend a month to complete this project together. Hope you have been enjoying this big craft on the wall.

Reminders

The weather is getting cold. Please bring an extra uniform sweater or jacket for your children.  They will be able to wear them as needed

Please call the classroom number or email Diana and me before noon if your child is going to the child care or carline.

Any supply donations of tissues, wipes, ziplock bags (big and medium), and clorox wipes would be greatly appreciated.

Our first unit of inquiry is “My family” and the purpose of this unit is to inquire who we are. The central idea is that families are important as they satisfy our needs in ways which are unique to each family. We hope your children to learn the following key concepts: connection, function, and perspective.

Connection-Members of my familyPerspective-How families are the same and different Function-Roles of family members

PYP NEWS

There are various learning activities of the inquiry “My family”.

Reading and visual activities

-Recognize members of family

-Listening stories about family

- Matching activity with family members

Art and Craft activities

-Drawing of my family

-Family Tree

-Family quilt

-The book of my family and me

-Family poster boards in order to represent your family with all details.

Children will be asked to name the persons who stay with them in their house. They will count the numbers of family members and then show their family poster boards to their classmates in order to indentify different family members and select who all are in their family….Mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, and themselves. They develop sight vocabulary of family words and know the cardinal positions of family members.

These learning experiences will enable your children to develop particular attributes of the learner profile: thinker, communicator, and open-minded.

We provide engaging, play-based activities that allow your children to develop a confident sense of self, problem-solving skills, and positive attitudes toward learning. During the circle time in the morning, we review essential classroom rules together. One of the rules is to respect, share, and play together. They enjoy interacting, playing, and engaging with others.

We read books about friendship such as 蠟筆小黑(The black crayon), 有你真好 (It’s great to have you by my side), to guide your children to learn the importance to cope with their peers in the class.

We set up a clear discipline system. Issuing consequence tickets could persuade students to keep good behavior and manners. Therefore, they can develop the following social and emotional skills in order to be ready for school: ability to follow directions, ability to focus on a task, and ability of self-control.

Fine motor skills are the foundation children need before they learn handwriting, in order to have proper pencil grasp and control of a writing tool.The kids develop their fine motor skills through various interesting activities every day.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL AREA

FINE/GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

Children use their hand muscles to squeeze the clothespins in order to pick up each pom pom and place it at the worksheet. They need to count it in Mandarin from number 1 to 20.

Only one bowl has plastic bears in it. Children use the spoon to move the bears from the left bowl to the right bowl. By the way, they need to count numbers in Mandarin too.

Children string pony beads in order to make their own necklace.

Children wrap the plastic insects with pieces of white yarn (“spider webs”). When they are finished wrapping all of the insects, they unwrap them and place the yarn back in the bowl. We do this activity during a study of bugs and spiders.

Gross Motor skills are important for major body movement such as walking, maintaining

balance, coordination, jumping, and reaching. We have been doing a lot of physical activities at the gym to help your children to develop their gross motor skills.

-Walking backward and forward, in a circle, on a straight line, on different shapes, at various speeds and changing directions

-Pedal a tricycle

-Run at different speeds and combinations, in a straight line, from one point to the other

-Bounce a ball and catch it

During the morning circle time, we review the following Mandarin vocabulary together. For the reading time, the children listen to stories regarding these Mandarin terms.

Basic Mandarin Vocabulary

紅色 (red) 黃色 (yellow) 绿色 (green) 蓝色 (blue)小猫 (cat) 小狗 (dog) 小猪 (pig) 眼睛 (eyes)鼻子 (nose) 头发 (hair) 眉毛(eye brown) 耳朵 (ears)嘴巴 (mouth) 牙齿 (teeth) 手 (hands) 脚 (foot)頭 (head) 肩膀 (shoulder) 膝 (knee) 脚趾 (toes)圆形 (circle) 正方形 (square) 三角形 (triangle) 大 (big)小 (small) 一 (one) 二 (two) 三 (three)四 (four) 五 (five) 六 (six) 七 (seven)八 (eight) 九 (nine) 十 (ten) 十一 ~二十 (11-20)

PYP Unit 1 Mandarin Vocabulary

家 (home/house) 家人 (family) 爸爸 (father) 媽媽 (mother)爺爺 (grandfather)

奶奶 (grandmother)

哥哥(elder brother )

弟弟(younger brother)

姐姐 (elder sister)

妹妹(younger sister)

我 (I /Me )

We have been learning to recognize the name of the shapes of circle, triangle, and square and also trace and draw each shape. We count in Mandarin all the time such as

MATHEMATICS

LANGUAGE

the circle time, and snack time. The kids practiced tracing numbers from 1 to 4. We even practiced writing Mandarin numbers 1 to 4 without a template. They are doing great on it.

The children have been learning different songs. For example, 王老先生有塊地 (O ld MacDonald had a farm) has helped the children to calm down in the morning and get involved in singing together. In addition, we enjoy singing 兩隻老虎 (Two Tigers)

THE ARTS

together and move in rhythm. We also sing 头儿肩膀膝脚趾 (Head Shoulder Knee and Toes) might be their favorite, which helped them to remember the main parts of human body and in the mean time do some body exercises. For the unit of inquiry, we sing 哥哥爸爸真偉大(Father and brother are so great), and 我的家庭真可爱 (My lovely family) and dance together. The kids explore creative movements in response to different stimuli.

We practice using scissors to cut papers and then glue them together through a variety of crafts. The kids cut textile and then glue them to make a family quilt. When the children draw their family, they need to draw a person with head, and limbs of the body in order to provide detailed information about their family.

October 1- Picture DayOctober 3- Spirit Day "Pajama Day"October 5- Field Day Grades 1-3October 6- Fall Festival at 49th StreetOctober 9- Open HouseOctober 12-Hispanic Heritage AssemblyOctober 18- No School, Staff In Service.  Childcare available.October 19-22 Fall Break.  No school.  Childcare available.October 23-School resumesOctober 31-Halloween celebration 9:00-10:00 amNovember 2- Parent Teacher ConferencesNovember 3-Travel AuctionNovember 7-Spirit Day "Hat Day"

CLAENDAR