Literacy Week

This week we celebrated all things reading and writing. In addition to special events and activities everyday, which I have posted lots of photos and videos for below, we had an ongoing goal of reading for as many hours as possible. Thank you all so much for helping with this at home and emailing me the daily minutes and photos; our branches on the reading tree are looking nice and leafy! We might even be in for a prize...

Monday 

On Monday we had Yoshino and Maasa's mothers join us in the morning to read their favourite Japanese books. One of them was about how, if you suck your thumb, it will turn into an octopus! In the afternoon Mr. James came and read a story about pizza, then we all made our own pizzas by cutting out and gluing on the toppings.

Tuesday 

The second day of literacy week was poem in your pocket day. Anna and Miyu made some very good attempts at reading theirs:

On Tuesday we also had buddy reading with the kinder class. The kids really enjoyed sharing a book with the big kids, especially those with brothers and sisters in that class.

Wednesday 

The next activity of literacy week was matching the different teachers to their favourite books. Luckily we got a chance to ask a few of them 'What's your favourite book?' and get some hints.

Thursday 

On the second to last day of literacy week, we had another buddy reading session. This time it was in the gym with the even bigger kids from Grade 3

Later in the day we held some phonics contests to see who would represent our class for the spelling bee on Friday. Two similar words were written on the board and then one said by the teacher; the kids then put their magnets on the word which they thought had been said. Our chosen representatives were Yoshino, Emika and Maasa

Friday 

On the final day everyone dressed up as their favourite book characters and we had Anna's mother come and read us one book in English and one in Japanese.

We also cheered on our three representatives as they competed with the students of Pre Kinder A and B in the phonics/spelling bee final. Everyone did well, but Yoshino deserves special credit for out lasting a few of the older competitors:

Surfers and Nurses

This week we were lucky to have two very excellent presentations by parents about their jobs.

On Tuesday, Louis's mother and father came wearing wet suits and with a surf board. They showed us a video of them surfing and taught the kids how to paddle on the surfboard and stand up. By the end, all of the kids were saying 'I want to be a surfer!'

On Thursday it was Yoshino's mum's turn to talk to us about being a nurse. She showed us some stethoscopes and let us listen to each others heart beats. We practiced first aid on our teddy bears then took some syringes (minus the needles, of course) to the park to use as water pistols.

Thank you so much to everyone for being so involved in our unit! Your visits have been a great way to find out what different people do as their jobs.

I want to be a painter

Hello everyone!

At this 'Finding out' stage of our unit of inquiry, Preschool A is focusing on family trees and jobs. 

We are painting the different jobs that we learn about, starting with 'painter' and moving on to the ones parents are coming in to share with us. The goal is for the kids to understand and be able to say 'I want to be a (job)' as part of their self introductions.

We are also starting work on our family trees. The next stage will be putting in the different family members (grandfather, sister, etc.) then pasting pictures from the kids' own families over those.
While we were using hand prints to make the background leaves, we took the opportunity to make some mothers day cards as part of our Japanese lessons.