Another week has come and gone. We are almost in February! Hope your New Year is off to a great start :)
Here's a little recap of what's been going on...
Kindness Challenge
This week we participated in the Kindness Challenge. Thank you to those students who did their kindness acts at home, too :) Posted on Shutterfly are examples of how our class demonstrated kindness acts such as:
1. Inviting a new friend to play.
2. Smile at 25 people.
3. Make a wish for a child in another country.
4. Give your friend a high five.
5. Compliment 5 people.
6. Be kind to yourself, and eat a healthy snack.
7. Decorate 5 hearts and give them to friends.
8. Entertain someone with a happy dance.
9. Lend a pencil to a friend.
10. Help someone up if they fall down.
11. Thank someone who has helped you.
12. Create your own kind deed.
We had fun recreating these kindness acts and showing Rule #5 in our classroom everyday: Be kind to myself and others <3
Chinese New Year
Tomorrow starts the beginning of Chinese New Year. We have been learning about the history of it and learned it is celebrated for 15 days. We learned about the dragon who was feared until the townspeople learned what scared the dragon, Nian: loud noises like firecrackers, the color red, and fire. The kiddos also learned about the different zodiacs and foods they ate. They brought home a Chinese packet that told about this as well as watched a video that I've included the link on our TK website below. It is a great, short clip that talks about the history :) We also made lanterns and dragon masks earlier this week. The kiddos wanted to take the lanterns home, but we thought it would be neat to hang up in the class! Pictures can be found on Shutterfly though :)
Tomorrow, there is a Lunar festival in Riverside if you are interested. If you go, maybe I'll see you there!
The kiddos also learned that "Gong Hey Fat Choi" means Happy New Year, and to say hello is "Ni Hao." Try testing them to see if they remember ;)
Lunar festival, tomorrow, Jan. 28, Riverside:
http://www.inlandempire.com/lunar-new-year-festival-riverside-2017/
History of Chinese New Year video (also posted on TK website under "TK News"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u-R-aIq3_E
Prompting questions to ask your child about Chinese New Year.
1. What was the dragon's name, and what did he fear (what scared him?)
2. How do you say "Happy New Year" and "Hello" in Chinese?
Water Cycle
Miss Ali came in and taught the kiddos a little about the water cycle with a cool demonstration of rain! Thanks, Miss Ali :) Pictures can be found on Shutterfly. They learned about evaporation (water rising), condensation (cloud forming), and precipitation (water falling.) We put hand motions to them in our Morning Stretches. See if they can show you :)
Prompting question to ask your child:
1. What is the water cycle? (hint: Morning stretches; may need to prompt them by starting the word, definition, etc)
highlighted in blue:
Answers to these questions that you can ask your child.
Shutterfly
New pictures from Kindness Challenge and Chinese New Year AND a class pictures with the two newest additions...we have to take ANOTHER class picture when we have everyone present, so we can add our new friend :)
New Student :)
We are so lucky to have ANOTHER new friend added to our class! Three new friends in three weeks! Our kiddos and I are so happy to have them. Please welcome her to our class. She is awesome and already been in TK at her old school, so she knows how it works :) Glad to have you!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, get lots of relaxation, has fun, and I'll see you Monday (our first Monday at school this month) on time and ready to learn!
Heartfelt Hugs and Sunshine Smiles,
Miss Fiscus