Welcome to week 9! We’re so happy to start a new week of fun and learning.
Kindergarteners at the Respect celebration!
So much has happened in the last couple of days! Kindergarteners have had opportunities to get together with other grade levels. A couple days ago first graders came to our classrooms to read to all students as they were celebrating the end of their first reading unit. It was a wonderful way to celebrate reading together!
3rd Grade Buddies
Our kindergarteners also met with their 3rd grade buddies for the first time this past week! Building relationships with older students is very valuable as it enhances children’s cooperative learning behaviors such as taking turns, listening, sharing knowledge, praising another’s effort and helping one another. As the older students assume the role of a mentor, they are motivated to do their best. They also experience pride in their ability to be helpful. The younger children bond with the older buddy and friendships flourish as the year progresses.
Buddy programs promote a favorable school atmosphere. In some cases, kindergarteners sit with their buddies during lunch or have time together on the playground! Click here to see some photos of our students and their buddies.
A Message From the ES Office:
Promoting Writing With Your Child (Reminder)
Christy Curran, a literacy consultant with extensive experience as a classroom teacher and coach, is returning to CAC. Last week she led a Coaching Institute with CAC teachers and coaches from other international schools in the region, teaching model lessons in classrooms, and this week she will be running workshops for teachers and parents. We hope you can join us Wednesday, 11 October, 2:00 to 3:00pm in the 1st Floor Common Room for a presentation on Promoting Writing With Your Child. We are excited to have her back! Christy has worked at the internationally renowned Teachers College Reading and Writing Project as a staff developer.
KG teachers will be part of some of these professional development sessions, therefore they will be in and out of classrooms on some days. Our aides will be covering the classes with substitutes to support.
Learning this week
Balanced Literacy
DEAR Assembly this Tuesday at 7:55am
Another way to promote reading is for children to watch others read! Please join us on the elementary lawn to Drop Everything And Read! Bring a book (and probably a hat or sunglasses because it will be sunny), and join the elementary students for some sustained silent reading. Kindergarteners will read from their classroom book bags and we’ll also have additional favorite books! We hope you can make it!
Reading Workshop
This week we dive deeper into our newest Reading unit: Reading Superpowers! After “shopping” for new books, our young readers will continue to hone their “pointer power” as they read books that challenge each student appropriately. They will also learn about sight words, or “snap words,” as they read, and they will be encouraged by how many words they already know! Rereading known texts helps to reinforce this knowledge. Finally, we will learn more about how reading partners can help each other to make reading superpowers even stronger!
Writing Workshop
We have an exciting week ahead in Writing Workshop! After a lovely writing celebration last Thursday, students are ready to forge ahead with something new. Our new unit is called Writing for Readers: True Stories. This unit will explore important questions for young writers, like
- How do authors choose their topics?
- How do authors get their ideas onto paper?
- How can the books I am reading help me write?
Student writers will practice organizing their pieces to include a beginning, middle, and end, reread their own writing, use sight words to write more easily, and much more! We can’t wait to improve even further as writers in this exciting unit!
Math
This will be the last week of our first module in Eureka Math! Mathematicians will be reviewing the different ways they have learned to count numbers, mentally grouping objects in 5-groups, linear and array configurations, as well as circular counting! They will also be going over the concepts of the “one more” and “one less”relationship between numbers.
Social Studies & Circles
Kindergarteners love circles! We continue to promote core values and other themes as we all engage in fun activities as a class. Some of the themes we have explored are friendship, collaboration, communication and inclusion!
This will be the last week of our first Social Studies unit “I Am Me”. Students will be reviewing concepts learned about similarities, differences, choices, likes and dislikes. They will continue discussing what it means to be responsible for your choices and the impact that their good choices have on themselves and on others.
Hope you had a chance to join the family picnic and had a fun spending time with other families. As always, we look forward to hearing from you! Email us if you have any feedback or questions.
Ms. Ana
Mr. Balazs
Ms. Paola
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