NTSIS PYP Preschool Newsletter (2nd December – 6th December 2019)
Transdisciplinary Theme: How we express ourselves
Christmas is fast approaching and lessons had heightened in the festive mood. Teachers and students have expressed themselves in good spirits. We hope to see you at our Christmas assembly where we will be caroling and hot chocolate will be served.
What a busy week…
Nursery:
Central idea:
Feelings and ideas are expressed through play
Lines of inquiry 1: Communication through play
Lines of inquiry 2: Imaginative use of everyday objects
Lines of inquiry 3: Games and toys
As part of the UOI, children learned the names of objects that were related to Christmas, such as Christmas tree, presents, stocking, lights. They practiced their motor skills by threading to make stockings, identifying their names and decorating the stocking.
In language, students made “caterpillars” for Letter ‘C’, and they revised objects that begin with the sound /c/.
In Math, we practiced counting one-to-one correspondence.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 1:
Central idea:
Stories inform and excite us
Line of inquiry 1: Stories are connected to our lives and experiences
Line of inquiry 2: Stories make us feel
Line of inquiry 3: Ways to tell stories
The children continued to practise the nursery rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’. They had their first try to cast the role of Jack or Jill while their peers recited the rhyme lines. They also learned to copy the rhyme words on their own.
In Math, the children were introduced to the concept of ‘more and less’ as well as practised addition sums within 10 using fingers.
What a busy week…
Kindergarten 2:
Central idea:
Poetry expresses our ideas and feelings
Lines of inquiry 1: Poetry in music
Lines of inquiry 2: Rhymes and word choices
Lines of inquiry 3: Ideas and feelings in poetry
In the mornings, we continued with phonics flash cards and a new board game that challenged us to read sight words. We wrote the letter ‘Gg’ and learned about the “giant giraffe:” two words with the soft ‘g’ sound.
In Math, we reviewed place value up to 20 as well as how to read number words up to 10. We reviewed counting by 10 to 100 and counted three sets of ten popsicle sticks to make snowflakes.
To expand our understanding of the PYP attributes, we began a Christmas Stocking game where each student chooses a secret scroll, unravels it and the whole group tries to pronounce it. We then try to find the word in the class and explore its meaning. We ended our adventurous week together singing our Christmas Assembly song, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in our costumes.
Do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all?!
“Get well soon TC!”
Counting sets of 10’s to make wooden snowflakes…
This week, we feature specialist subject: Art
Over the past couple of months, Preschool students have been focused on becoming experts at cutting and gluing and creating fun projects for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Students have created turkeys from watercolor papers, painted candy houses, and created Gingerbread headpieces. We’ve prepped reindeers, Christmas trees, and even tested out the giant sleighs that will be used for K1’s piece in the Winter Performance. Happy Holidays, everyone!
