HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

Dear Parents and my beautiful KG1 Africa children,
First let me wish you all the very best for the new year....let's hope & pray that it comes with love, peace, good health & stability. 2009 was a strange and an unusual one for all of us - but we made it. Let's keep working together and supporting each other in all our endeavors.
I hope you all have found the sheets and the power point presentations helpful in your efforts to keep your child's education up to date. Let's wish that 2010 will be more stable for their sakes.

Below are some ideas for home activities to deepen your child's understanding and to keep their interest alive in the wonderful world of learning - let them explore, ask questions and experiment with different things.
Have fun together.

FOOD HUNT FOR SEEDS
Put a selection of fruits and vegetables out. Ask your child to tell you which ones have seeds inside them. Next have your child sort them into 1: seed and 2: no seed groups. Open them up to see what you find out. ( you can keep the seeds for other activities.)
Slice the fruits and vegetables and enjoy!

Or you could:
Take a selection of fruit, such as Kiwi, Peach, Pineapple, apple etc., A bowl,
Sharp knife, Cutting board...For safety the fruit should be cut be an adult
1. Before cutting the fruit, let your child feel and smell them.
2. Ask what are the names of the fruit.
3. Talk about shape, size, smell and texture.
4. Put the fruit into groups, ex: smooth skinned or those that are round in shape.
5. Ask your child to guess what color the fruit is inside.
6. Peel and cut open the fruit, and talk about you can see.
7. Are there any seeds?
8. If you cut the fruit in a different way, does it look different inside? Apples
are great for this.
9. Make the fruit into a fruit salad and taste the fruit.
10. Discuss which fruit your child prefers.

MOLD GARDEN
For some reason children seam to love watching mold grow. Here is a safe way to experiment with mold.
Give your child a small zip-lock bag (one that is sealed air-tight when closed) and a piece of bread.
Have them place the bread into the bag and then add a teaspoon of water. Zip up the bag and set out the bag to observe. After a few days, mold will appear on the bread.
Discard bags unopened, when experiment is over.
Variation: You may want to repeat this experiment, but this time make two bags of water and bread and put one in the center and one in the refrigerator. Which one grows mold the fastest?

COIN MONEY MAGIC
Set out a zip-lock bag, some salt and some vinegar.
1. Help your child measure out one tablespoon vinegar and one teaspoon salt and place it in the bag.
2. Put out 1-4 dirty coins and have your child place them into the bag.
3. Zip up the bag and let your child gently shake the bag.
Children love watching the dirty coins slowly turn shinny and new.

There are many activities that can be done especially in science (and math) but I think these should keep you busy for a while - I know it kept my daughter busy, interested and curious with many 'WHY?' questions -

STIMULATE A SENSE OF WONDER
• Ask open-ended questions like, "I wonder what might happen if..." or ….. “What do you think will happen?"
• Answer their questions by asking, "How might we find out?" Encourage predictions.
• Offer materials for experiments. Test out ideas. Discuss results. Ask more open-ended questions.
What you need is curiosity, a little planning, some interesting "stuff," and pleasure in watching young scientist develop.

ENJOY.

English Activities:

Riddles about winter clothing.
Children try to guess these items of clothing –

Remind your child - or watch again the ppt about winter and winter clothing
Ask your child these riddles - giving clues:

‘I am long, made of wool & I keep your neck warm...what am I?'.......a scarf.
'I sit on your head & keep your head & ears warm...what am I?........a hat.
'I am thick and have a zipper or buttons and you put your arms in me....what am I?'...a jacket or winter coat.
'There are two of me and you put me on your hands...what am I?'.....gloves / mittens.

Hope you enjoy these activities -
Hope to see everyone on Sunday....

Happy New Year.

Sunday....6th......what's happening

So far .....so good......it looks as if we will be back on Sunday 6th Dec. We all hope so.

During the week before the Eid holiday, we did most of the assessments of the children who were at school in KG1 Africa. In the coming week starting Dec 6th we will be finishing off these, and assessing those who were absent. Please send your child to school so that we can complete this task.

I hope that you have been discussing with your child about solids and liquids....keep going and your child will be soon categorizing them easily - remember as in all new things practice makes perfect. Even when they understand - follow up & keep reminding & reviewing.

Easy Practice - a few ideas for you
Draw any shape on a piece of paper in a thick pen - depending on your child's ability at cutting as to how difficult you make the drawn shape. Have your child cut-out the shape -
Use play-dough and ask your child to form any letter - make it personal & ask them to form their own name.
When out shopping or driving around in your car - try to pick out words that your child can recognize a letter from....

can you see the letter M in this word or on this label?

Talk with your child about the daily morning routine; I wake-up - I wash my face - I get dressed - I eat (have) breakfast - I brush my teeth and go to school.

Thank you to all parents who made such a huge effort and sent dishes for our 'Thanksgiving & Eid' celebration - we had a great time - there are lots of photos which will be available very soon. I think my favorites will be those of the children praying together - it was very moving to see and listen to them joined together in prayer.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday

Ms Rowena

What's New?

Hello everyone -
Time is running and all of a sudden we're on the eve of The Big Feast. I do hope that you all have an enjoyable time with your family & friends.

Yesterday we sent home revision packets with the children to be completed and sent back with them when we return to school. This packet covers the things we have been doing this last period.
*Motor skills - pencil tracing and scissor cutting.
*Letters and their partner letters - ex: R goes with r.
*Sentences that we are learning to say and sight words that we are trying to recognize (read by recognition of word).
* Rectangle shape - learning to recognize and name - to trace draw - to find and color.
Number 4 - recognizing - tracing - counting
Shapes - big and small.

We did not include any sheets for science as we cover this usually with examples & oral work in class - but read below and you can work through this with your child
In Science we began the new topic of 'Matter' - grouping things into categories of Solid / Liquid / Gas.
Matter is anything that has mass and volume so everthing that exist falls into these 3 categories -
Home Activity:
In your daily life and routines try to identify and categorize any item.
EX: at breakfast - ask your child about the food on the table -
Milk or juice What is it - a solid or liquid? (liquid)but the cartons are solid.
Bread What is it? - a solid or a liquid? (solid)
Cheese What is it? - a solid or a liquid? (solid)

You can ask your child about any item and eventually as they get used to thinking this way they will be able to categorize almost everything.
Tip: try to ask about items that are obviously a solid or a liquid -

Gas is a little harder to understand because most of them we can not see.
Air is the best example - but it has to be shown in something - a balloon or as blowing out breath. You can show them a new balloon then blow it up - children can see that it's full of something (air) - you could let out the air whilst holding it close to the skin so children can feel the air - or to let out the air whilst the balloon is in water & then children can see the bubbles of air coming out of the balloon.

In Social Studies we have been learning about the celebrations of Thanksgiving and about Eid. Remind your child of these celebrations and how in both of them we are grateful for the wonderful things that God gives us. Also for the importance of giving to others especially to those who don't have much.

Any questions please contact me.

****To Hazem Ashraf & Nour Tamer - we have missed you - your revision packs are at the security gate of the american section at our school - you will have to go and collect them from there.

Happy, Happy Feast

Ms Rowena

Math – Sorting by size
Try these activities with your child – the concept is very simple – especially as we have already covered sorting things by color & by shape.
Materials needed
A hoop / or a ring shape / or a circle shape cut out from paper.
Different items of 2 sizes (socks or bottles or jar lids or macaroni pieces)

Collect any items that you have at home – of which you have two different sizes – big and small.
I’ll use socks when explaining this activity.

Collect 5 socks of each size and show to your child – naming each one big or small as you show them.
Take a circle shape or a hoop / ring and put all the big sized socks inside and leave the small socks outside the hoop or off the circle shape.
Explain that you have put all the big sized socks together in the hoop or onto the circle shaped paper.
Repeat by putting all the small sized socks into the hoop or onto the shape and leave the big socks outside the hoop or off the circle shape.
Explain that you have put all the small sized socks together.
Once your child is sure of the sizes which belong together – have them do the same as you did:
1: Ask your child to put all the big sized socks together by himself / herself.
2: Ask your child to put all the small sized socks together by himself / herself.
**to make the activity harder – put all the big socks in the hoop and hide inside 2 small sized socks too – ask your child to look and say which sized socks are in the hoop?
They may find the smaller socks at first look – if not then,
Ask your child to check that all the socks are big sized – they should check & take out the wrong sized socks (small)
Repeat using the other size.

Good luck – and have fun together
After doing this activity you can let your child practice sorting using many things – you’ll probably find that they will want to sort everything…..

Review: Please remember to also practice sorting by using items of the same color & items of the same shape.

Hi KG1 Africa,
This is Ms Rowena, how are you all?
Isn't this fun that we can still get together - Check-in daily to keep up to date with all our news. I hope that we'll be in constant contact. I have sent an e-mail - hope you got it - however now that this is set up we'll use this more.



Please sit with your child as they do the sheets.
Explain well and if you can try to do so in English.
Repeat the instructions until you are sure they understand what you want them to do.
When tracing or forming letters always begin at the top of the letter.
Read as much as you can to your child - they will love not only the stories but also the time they get together with you.



I'm on the search for some good web sites that can help you or keep your child busy.

check out this space again tomorrow.

I would love to hear from you any comments or tips or questions.

Ms Rowena