Mid-November and Grandparents day

The students of PreK-A have been improving in various areas of their development. From fine-tuning their motor skills, to improving on their reading ability, and to their understanding of mathematics. But one area that PreK-A has improved the most is their independence. They are able to take responsibility for their own things and tasks in class without the need of the teacher to assist them. Of course for school work they still require some help but I am proud of the students for trying to do things on their own.

Last week was grandparents week and as you know we did a frame craft, and I thought they turned out pretty well.

The class is becoming more synchronized during music class. Ms. Hisako and Ms. Nao have been doing a great job teaching the students how to play Pianica and they are showing a lot more discipline during music class.

Next week is science week and we will be grouping up with the grades 7 and 8 classes. We have been planning some fun experiments to show the students.

That is all for now, see you next week.

- James Barbosa

Half way through the 2nd term

Hey there everyone,

It’s been a long time since the last update and I apologize for that. This post will be a big one for sure.

The end of October marked the end of our second unit. “How the world works” and we focused on living and non-living things. Our final project at the end of the unit was to make a diorama

In order to make these dioramas the students learned how to make pop-up trees and animals, as well as use their own imagination when creating it. The assessment focused on how well they can handle a  task on their own without assistance. And how well they can demonstrate what they learned and I think they turned out pretty good. The students will be taking them home in the coming days. 

Here are a few other snippets from it

Our next unit is about 'sharing the planet' We will be learning about resources. Classroom resources, resources in the city, and resources in the world. So far the students have understood the concept of resources in the classroom. Last week we did a collaborative project with the PreK B class. Each class had to create a tree out of colored paper, but eat class only had only a few resources to complete the task. The students then had to trade and share the resources in order for both classes to make a tree. A byproduct of this lesson was the students realizing that they needed to use every bit of paper as to not waste the resource.

 






























In class we have been focusing a lot on phonics and reading. As you may already know the students have taken home a book to practice reading. I will then have them take a test on their ability to read that book. Each level has two books and after reading both books in a level they will then move to the next level of books and practice those.

If you are curious about how to levels are please log into your childs Raz-Kids and you can see the books. The students will receive a physical copy of the book they are assigned as well as the digital copy on Raz-kids will be assigned to them.\

Lastly, we will be planning our final field trip which will take place in January, or February. I will update you on that when it is planned.

That is all for this blog post. Stay tuned for the next one at the end of the week.

Cheers,

- James Barbosa