Moments of Joy

Dear Parents - It's May..... we're officially in Summertime, and nearly half-way through this last leg of the year. There's always so much to do.

Moments of Joy

As a teacher (and a parent) the most satisfying moment that make everything worthwhile is when your student or child 'gets it' they understand. The happiness of both child and teacher is a shared moment of real joy. This is especially true when reading for the first time. I can remember nearly bursting with excitement when my child actually read something - If I felt that way then what was my child feeling. Just look into their eyes and you'll know. And once they get that first taste they are hungry for more. Feed their appetite - but as always - don't push too much.
So when we can help our children reach this point it's wonderful. Let's celebrate.

As educators we want to see all our students reach this point.

Most children respond excellently to one-to-one attention which is why we feel that our extra help sessions on Thursday mornings are so important. It gives the teachers a real chance to concerntrate on individuals at the best time of their day when they are fresh and ready for learning - we do try within the normal class time but the day isn't ever long enough - so to have this chance for really helping children to 'get it' is great.
Thank-you to those who are participating. I do hope that together we'll all 'get it' and get excited. Teachers rely on you parents to continue and re-enforce what is learned at school by practicing at home. Daily routines of letter names and sounds is as important as brushing their teeth... to keep them strong and healthy.

Story Time – “The Months of School”

This week's story is concerned with the different types of weather and the four seasons. In Egypt we don’t have such extreme weather conditions, so it can be difficult to understand these things. For example it's strange for us but for other places quite normal that there is always the chance it could rain every day - In my home country England, this is true even in the middle of summer!
In this book we can see the different activities that can be done in different seasons which have different kinds of weather.
For Ex: In Fall (Autumn) it is often windy so flying a kite is a good choice – In Winter when there is snow, building snowmen and having snowball play activities is possible.
The pictures in the book also show what kinds of clothes are worn in different types of weather.
We are constantly learning -

Movie Day

Thank-you again for the healthy snacks sent in on Movie Day - We also celebrated a birthday too on Wednesday so the fruits were a great counter-balance for that gorgeous chocolate cake.... Many happy returns to Nour. Thank-you also for naming the boxes it was a great help.

That's about all for this week - I do hope you are in good health - keep well

Ms Rowena

Story Time

Story Time - Language Arts Activity Book

This week in English our theme is "In The Garden" - here we are looking at the things that grow in a garden, when and how they do. This links nicely with what we were doing last week in science "The Seasons", and follows on also with what we have learned about 'Spring' - that the weather gets warmer and new things begin to grow.

Most of us in Cairo don't have a garden of our own and so don't really experience living 'close to nature' - but even here there is usually one close to us somewhere, whether it be in the club or a shared garden, or a view of one from our homes. In other climates where rain is plentiful then so are the green areas - many children thus spend a lot of their time very close to nature and can watch things grow and develop. With our dry climate we can't experience the same, so at school we do try to help them learn about the things that other children take for granted. Growing up with a garden and nature surrounding us I know just how interesting and important it is to understand nature, its habits and its growth.

This next story we can relate well to here - as even without a garden of her own the girl in the story knows that a flower garden would make her mother happy and how positive an effect flowers and their colors can have on everyone.

“Flower Garden”
This is a sweet tale of a young girl who wants to give a present to her mother for her birthday. She decides to make a flower garden as the present. However their home is in an apartment and they don’t have a garden – so she makes a window box garden. This is the flower pot box that is put on the window ledge.
The detail of how she does this shows us just how much thought and effort goes into this birthday present. First she goes with her father to the supermarket and buys the flowers. Then she carries the flowers to the bus stop and they ride the bus home.
Once off the bus she then carries the flowers all the way upstairs to their apartment (many floors up). At home she gets the empty window box and begins to plant the flowers in it. Once she has finished her father fixes it securely on their window ledge. From the street the window box is a beautiful splash of color for everyone to see and enjoy. Then she waits for her mother to come home and they have a cake and give her this beautiful present. It makes her mother very happy.

The story shows us the thought and effort that this girl has made to make her mother happy. Also throughout the story the sight of the flowers makes all the people she meets smile as they are so pretty and colorful.

It's a wonderful feeling making someone smile - be they people you love or even strangers.

READ, READ, WRITE, WRITE - Practice, Practice
This term we are concerntrating now on our students' reading and writing - and already they are showing some great results. However, its the practice and more practice that really makes the difference: tracing and writing the letters without dots and knowing the letter sounds. Together we are laying the basic foundations for their reading and writing skills and these need to be strong to last life-long.

We encourage our students to do the best that they can - so don't forget the homework - it reinforces what they learn and betters their abilities and skills....

Story Time

Dear Parents -
this week the theme we are looking at is water. There are different bodies of water fresh water: lakes, ponds and rivers. There is also salt water: oceans and seas. One of the books we'll be looking at this week is one which is familiar to the students.

It is called: "Little Quack" we read this just a few weeks ago.

Just to remind you:

Story Time: – “Little Quack” – - about having the courage to try something new

This story is about a family of ducklings and how their mother tells them it is time for them to leave the comfort and safety of their nest and get into the water – it’s their first time for going into the water and they are all afraid to do so.
So the mother duck gently encourages them to jump in ….”I know you can do it – you’re big now – too big for the nest – you’re brave …”
The ducklings muster up their courage and one by one get into the water – Little Quack is the smallest and the least brave (most afraid) but even he finally gets up his courage and jumps into the water.
After they have jumped in, each duck immediately feels proud of his achievement and says, “Look at me….look at me…I’m swimming….” They enjoy the water and playing in it.

This story encourages us to do new things and that when we believe we can do something (and especially when someone who loves us believes in us too), then we can do them. And then after we’ve been brave and done it then we can be proud of these achievements.

Now that the storyline is familiar to the children we can look at its setting and animal life - a pond / river - fresh water.

We'll also be looking at the strong>emotions felt by the ducklings and by Mama Duck. We'll be asking ourselves what the ducklings did when they began to feel brave (decided to get into the water) and what made them feel proud in the end (doing something for the first time and what they had been afraid to do. Can we relate to these feelings? I'm sure all of us can. At the end the ducklings discovered that what they had been afraid of was actually a FUN THING TO DO .....

We will also be looking at the story: "Herman the Helper"
This is the story of the young octopus who helps every animal (friend and enemy) he meets.

Again because we have read this one too before the story is familiar to the children, so we can concentrate on the setting of the story and its animal life - the ocean - salt water.

When we re-read a story - it becomes familiar as I have said, and we encourage the students to try and retell parts or even the whole of the story, and also to act them out, which is another FUN THING TO DO.......

Thank you

Ms Rowena

"Term 4"

"Into the Last Leg of the Year"

After all the delays and problems that we have faced this year it hardly seems possible that we have finally made it to the last term. Back in September it felt like this year would never start..... then it was stop - start - stop - start..... and now all of a sudden we're almost at the end - and there's still soooo much we want to do.


Term 4 is a FUN TERM - there are many things to enjoy.

To begin with this week is "Spirit Week" - everyday we have a theme and we encourage everybody to take part and dress-up in that theme.
It's FUN being out of uniform -
It's FUN coming to school in costumes and wied clothes
It's FUN to see all our friends also getting into the swing of things
It's FUN to see just how much the kids all enjoy it
It's FUN to see the teachers let their hair down and go crazy
It's even funnier to see the expressions on the faces of all the visitors we have throughout the week.
All in all IT'S FUN.

School is a place of learning - but not just the accademics - we do encourage our students to be expressive and individual and to feel that they belong to a group - even when that group is a little bit crazy!!!!
Please encourage your child to join us in this wonderful experience.

SUPPLIES
Some of you have already sent into school the supplies that we asked for - Thank-you. However we are in desperate need especially of the colored pencils (wooden ones please - not wax.)

****Please Note that there is now out on the market kinds of playdough which are very soft to the touch - these are not good as they disolve and stick to the childrens' hands, and anything they touch. They also leave marks on the clothes which are very difficult to get clean...... try to avoid these kinds - feel the packet first - and stay with the kinds that you know.


We are concerntrating this term on our students writing and reading - we really need to encourage our young ones to practice tracing and writing alone their letters. Also they must must must know the sounds of the letters as this is vital for their reading ability. Please practice daily as we do in school the alphabet: letter names and their sounds. Once these sounds are mastered your child will have the basic foundations for reading.

Although Term 4 is a fun term we also need to push and encourage our students to do the best that they can do - please we can't emphasize enough just how important doing homework is - it reinforces what they learn and betters their abilities and skills....

So let's have fun this term but also keep our focus on our objective of preparing our students for the steps ahead - starting with KG2 next year.

Thanks for reading until here!!!

Ms Rowena

Spring is Here

Dear Parents,
time is running - Spring Break is here and no doubt everyone is trying their best to enjoy this short holiday, even get out of Cairo for a 'breath of fresh air' before the rush into the last leg of our school year. I can't believe it that we're in April already.....

Term 3 Assessments
Yes, it is that time again. Term 3 is coming to an end. We will be having the assessment April 13-15. On April 10, we will send home a short revision packet with a study guide that can help your child prepare for the assessment. It is not obligatory and does not need to be returned to school. Good luck to our students. They’ll do great!

Story Time
This week to celebrate the coming of Spring, our theme in English is Spring. The book we will be reading is called:

“Spring is Here”

This story follows the growth of the baby cow through the seasons of the year. Although the story shows all the seasons it concentrates mainly on the transformation from winter into spring. It also shows different weather conditions – snowy, rainy, windy and sunny.This also connects with our Science work too as we look at 'Weather'.
One of the points we can learn from the story is that during winter time when it is cold, the ground is usually too hard for most plants to grow and also too cold for most baby animals to survive. So spring is the time that most baby animals are born and when the flowers and plants begin to grow.

Although the change of winter into spring here in Egypt doesn't show as much in nature as in other climates - the children need to know that as the weather changes & gets warmer there are so many other natural things connected to this. The children get to see photos of other places in the different seasons to really appriciate the differences in the seasons.
Try to go online & find some more pictures showing the weather & seasonal changes in other countries...the USA, or a European country - these will have good diversity between the seasons.

This week there will be another story - one which the children have in their Stories & More Activity Books. These are pull out & take-home booklets, (like 'The Lion & the Mouse' and 'The Mitten'.The story is called

'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'
In this story the 3 goats want to get to the other side of a bridge where the grass is greener and nicer to eat - but underneath the bridge lives an animal called a Troll who is bad & wants to eat the goats. In the story the goats outsmart the Troll and the biggest goat actually knocks the troll off the bridge & it dissappears.

I found a lovely colorful power point presentation of the story - paste the address below, then enlarge the psge - follow the directions of what to click on to move the goats, the mouse & the troll.
Enjoy it - after you've seen the presentation reading the take-home book & coloring it will be familiar to the children & to you they'll enjoy it more.... Act it out together - the children love to see us 'in action' - it brings any story to life.

http://fairytales.pppst.com/3billygoatsgruff.html

Lastly: Just a reminder about the supplies we asked for in this week's newsletter

• Kleenex – 2 big boxes
• Dettol wet wipes - 2 big packets
• Glue sticks – 4 small
• Rubbers – 4 (not plastic kind)
• Playdough – 2 colors
• Canson sketch book – white for painting
• Box of colored pencils

Thank - you and I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday.

Ms Rowena