Sunday 2 February 2014

SK2 Weekly Updates! (Jan 27 – Jan 31)

As-salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatu Allah Wa Barakatuhu


Dear Parents,

Here are our classroom updates:

Language Arts
Last week, we learned the digraphs ee (long E ). We have finished “Jolly Phonics” workbook 4 but we will be reviewing and practicing long vowel sounds further in the future, Insha-Allah. Differentiating between short vowel and long vowel sounds is the essential skill in learning how to read. Students will be engaged  in a variety of vowel activities, so they will practice and learn to differentiate between the long and short sounds of the vowels, Insha-Allah!
For more practice on long vowel sounds and other letter sounds, please go to this interesting website: http://www.readingbear.org/

Reading: 

In reading, we read another book "The Hat" by Jan Brett. First, we did a picture walk and then took turns predicting about the story. SK2 did a wonderful job predicting about “The Hat” using picture clues.

Also, we role-played again based on the book “Time to Sleep”. Students played the role of animals in the book and pretended to hibernate. On Friday, we wore silly socks and read "Fox in Socks" by Dr.Seuss which has lots of tongue twisters. Students really enjoyed the book and finally, we made a graph to see who is wearing a silly sock and who is not.

 

Writing: We wrote a writing response for the question: Do you like your silly socks? Great work! SK2.


Oral Communication: One of the expectations for students in oral communication is to present their show & tell using proper presentation skills (tone, volume & eye contact). Alhumdulilah, we have finished the presentations of Allah's Creation living things diorama. SK2 did an excellent job in their presentation, Masha-Allah.

Literacy Tips:

·                     Read for 20 minutes with your child everyday.
·                     Practice finding words with long vowels (ai, ay,oa, ie, ee,ea ) with your child while reading at home.
·                     Go to starfalls.com and reading bears.org to enhance your child’s reading skills.


Math: 

Last week, we used non-standard units of measurement such as small paper clips, large paper clips, and counters to find the length of our feet. Then, we discussed why it's important to use units that are the same size when comparing objects based on their size! Also, the numbers were different so we asked the question: Why are the numbers different? It was a good discussion, and the students got it pretty quickly, Alhumdulilah!

On Friday, we brought our stuffed animals from home and sorted them from largest to smallest. Then, we used linking cubes to measure the height of our stuffed toys. Here are the photos of some of the stuffed animals and the tallest and shortest bear:




Math tips:   
  • Use play dough to roll out two ‘snakes' of different lengths. Talk about one snake being ‘shorter' and the other ‘longer.'
  • Compare the heights of family members and discuss who is shorter, taller and the tallest in the family.
  • Play board games like Chutes & Ladders, Sorry!, Dominoes, etc. as they promote the development of counting skills, understandings of patterns, and numeral recognition.
Science 
In Science, we reviewed and made a poster on "Where do animals go in winter?"
Here is our classroom cave. SK2 was very excited about the idea of having our own cave and enjoys hands-on-activities about hibernation.

               
Visual Arts
In Visual Arts, we completed our snow globe activity using q-tip painting. It was a very fun and exciting project. SK2 loves this activity and had a lot of fun.

Islamic Studies
We are still learning about Wudu to make the steps of  our Wudu perfect. Wudu is an essential part before learning Salah and SK2 will be learning Salah in the coming weeks, Insha-Allah.

Jazakumullahu-khaira for your co-operation and support!