Saturday 25 October 2014

Weekly Update. Oct 20-24, 2014




Happy New Hijri Year


Language Update:

-          It was nice watching the students of JK2 moving their little fingers as they were learning the word عنكبوت  and singing the nasheedالعنكبوت الصغير (The translation of the itsy bitsy spider).

العنكبوت الصغير صعد إلى فوق

هطل المطر نزل إلى تحت

أشرقت الشمس وجفت المياه

والعنكبوت الصغير صعد من جديد

-          Students waved goodbye to the year 1435 and removed all numbers from the calendar to welcome the new Hijri year. They started counting the days of the month of Moharram محرم.

-          We are still practicing the words for the weather (sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy and snowy مشمس، غائم، ممطر ، عاصف ، ومثلج)). Ask your child to look at the sky every morning on your way to school and try to practice these words with him/her.



-          If you had an ear on the JK2 door, you would have heard the class singing loudly a song from a story called Mortimer by Robert Munsch.  The story is extremely funny as it talks about bed time and as we all know, our kids dislike going to bed! We used a variety of different instruments to sing it. I read the story in Arabic and called it “Moneer”. Students laughed at the part where Moneer said:

ماما أنا أصرخ ..... لا أريد أن أنااااااااااام 

Here is the link to the English version of the story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOjdOwo-UM

-          Classroom rules and routines became a bit easier since we placed students names on the carpet. The students learned how to recognize their names and know exactly where to sit on the carpet.

-          Our beloved students آدم أ، آدم ي، أميرة، آية، بلال، تسنيم   felt very special as we used their names to tell the story of the letter أ، ب   and ت. We started learning about the letter ت through the following:

( Printing the letter with Bingo markers, cut fresh apples and eat them, listen to the story of تسنيم تأكل التفاح والتمر, to integrate to Islam we talked about the benefits of eating تمر  as reported by prophet Mohammed PBUH, trace the letter ت,  color the pictures of تفاح، تمر ، تمساح ). Students will work on their letter ت craft on Monday, Insha’Allah.
-          Snack and lunch time is a good time for learning too. We try to repeat the names of food students have in their lunch bags in Arabic.

Math:
-          Students are practicing counting 1-10 on a daily basis during calendar, circle time, recess etc…
-          Learned how to count number 1, show 1 finger, write 1 on the air and know that Allah is 1. واحد واحد هو الله ، واحد هو الله.
-          We are still working on recognizing the 6 colors of our tables. The دائرة shape and started talking about the مثلث shape.
-          Patterns are also part of our daily learning routine. (إغسل، كعكة، قرد)


Science:
-          After teaching students about the life cycle of the butterfly last week, we continued talking about life cycles of human beings, plants and butterflies. We showed students seeds and showed them how they turn to be flowers.  Furthermore, they got to see firsthand how a real caterpillar looks like. We discussed how it becomes a butterfly. Unfortunately we did not have a real baby to talk about the life cycle of the human being.

Islamic Studies:
-          Students worked with us in the morning 8:00-8:30 to make a cave and glued a spider web on it. A toy spider was used to tell the students the story of the Hijra of the Prophet PBUH. We focused on the importance of saying عليه الصلاة والسلام for every time we hear the name محمد  or الرسول. 
_ Students practiced reciting طلع البد علينا nasheed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5wxAqUMntw

-          Every day we have a new Duaa’ leader, Alhamdulilah! It is heart melting listening to JK2 recitation of the daily Duaa’s.
-          A new nasheed has been recited with students about Allah is my god

الله ربي، الله ربي

أحب ربي من كل قلبي

الله ربي وفي علاه

أدعوه ربي، أرجو رضاه


Arts:
-          It was extremely exciting watching our little ones having a lot of fun playing with the shaving cream and water beads. The students did the following:
-painted a picture with a brush and shaving cream.
-placed shaving cream on tables and drew with their fingers.
-added water beads to the mix and played to strengthen their fine motor skills.
-missed up the whole classroom J


Gym:
-          Slow to fast gym exercises have been practiced with JK2 students.
-          The “What time is it Mr. Fox” game was played, but with a slight change. This time with a student hiding behind the curtainsJ.
-          The “Duck, Duck, goose” game (بطة، بطة، وزة) was also played differently. Students came up with new names for the game (بطيخ، بطيخ- باذنجان) – (تفاحة، تفاحة- تمر) …etc.

An e-mail will be sent to update you on the English Language, French and Quran subjects, Insha’Allah.

Jazakum Allahu Khyran