Friday 23 September 2016

Week 3

Assalamu alaikum!


This is what we did during this awesome week that has passed.

LANGUAGE:
  •          Learning the correct formation of the letter Aa, and writing the letter Aa in their Jolly Phonics books.  We brainstormed for words that begin with one of the two sounds that the letter Aa makes.
  •          Every morning we read the morning message together focusing on the words I, am, and the.  The students were able to read the morning message on their own masha’Allah, this gave me goosebumps (I explained to the kids what goosebumps were and now they always ask me “teacher did you get goosebumps?”. 
  •          We sang an Arabic/English song about the four seasons, and an English song about Fall.  Insha’Allah we will be working on this song in print so that the kids will become familiar with the repeating words in the song.
  •         We read a story called The Dot, and another called Babysitting Grandma.  The kids really enjoyed making predictions in the story, and I enjoyed listening to the different ways the children understood the stories.


  •          We talked about our favourite animals, and our favourite colours.

MATH:

  •          In math we are counting everything we get our hands on, counting kids, counting shoes, counting blocks. We are counting down the days to our field trip.  Insha’Allah next week we will start our number booklets that helps us learn the numbers and number words from 1-20. 

  •         We are also working on comparison words such as: more than, or less than or most and least, or first and last.

SCIENCE:

  •          Talking  about the fall and the changes that happen in the fall.

  •         Did a science experiment on how germs spread (using glitter and high fives), and the importance of washing our hands.

ISLAMIC STUDIES:

  •         Talked about Allah SWT the creator.  Being thankful to Allah for giving us eyes, ears, mouths, hands, and noses.

  •         Learning the steps of wudu and learning the etiquettes of a masjid when we transform our classroom into a masjid for our Friday prayer.

  •         Today our friend Hamza did the iqama and last week it was our friend Adam.  Insha’Allah the boys will be taking turns leading the prayers and the girls will be leading the du’aa.


GYM:
  •         We are still working on gym safety and following the rules, especially the freeze command in the case of an emergency.

  •          Tuesday the weather was really nice so we decided to go to the city park for gym class.

  •          We played a game called ANT TAG, and the kids did a really good job of following the rules mashallah.



Looking forward to another exciting week, and our Eid field trip insha’Allah!

Safiah Aghliw
SK1 Teacher
saghliw@abraarschool.com


Saturday 17 September 2016

Week 2

Assalamu alaikum everyone!

Alhamdulillah we finished another successful week of school.

This week we worked very hard on perfecting our classroom rules and routines. 


Signing in as soon as we enter is part of our morning routine.


In the morning when the kids are dropped off, the classroom is set up in a way that will encourage them to socially interact with their peers to further help them develop their social, problem solving, and analytical skills.  We normally have some puzzles, writing material, play-dough, building blocks, and unfinished work that the kids can work on and finish.  We start our circle time at about 9:15 this is when we say our morning quraan and du'aas.  Here are some of the things we have been working on in each subject:

LANGUAGE:
- Learning the names of the 12 months of the year through a fun and interactive song.
- Learning the names of the days of the week through a song.
- Talking about the different weather conditions and talking about what the expected high is each day.  (feel free to share this information with your child each day, and they can come to school and share this information with us)
- We are also practiaing answering sentences in full form "What did you do on Eid?", "on Eid, I went to the masjid or Toronto or to Fun Haven etc.".
- We learned the letter Ss, and the correct formation of this letter and where it sits on the line.  
- Brainstormed for words that begin with Ss, and stretched them out to see what other sounds we can hear in them (this will come in handy later one when the children try and write on their own!).
- Reading stories daily, and working on predictions, and comprehension.

MATH:
- Counting the numbers on the calendar.
- Counting objects in the classroom.
- Practising simple patters found on the calendar.

SCIENCE
- Talking about cleanliness and how germs spread.
- The importance of washing our hands, and covering our mouths with our arms when we sneeze or cough.

ISLAMIC STUDIES:
- Talking about our Eid celebrations, and creating beautiful Eid crafts.
- Learning the du'aa for the month of September and this is the du'aa of Porphet Ibraheem (AS).
- Making pretend wudu' in the classroom to learn the steps of wudu'.
- Introduced the class to the power of making du'aa and how Allah swt loves it when we ask him for things.  
- Making du'aa for our friends that were absent because of illness.

ART
*Every week students have the chance to participate in some art activities that are left out for them in centres to choose from, and there are other art activities tied to the curriculum that we make sure they all take part in.
- Beading necklaces and bracelets.
- Tracing shapes to make beautiful masterpieces.
- Cutting and pasting furniture pictures from an IKEA catalogue of items they like.

GYM
- Learning entering and exiting routines, and safety measures in the case of an emergency.
- Playing the PIZZA game. 

OUTDOOR PLAY
Every day the children will be going outside for 35 minutes of active play.  Please make sure your child comes to school dressed for the weather.  

Looking forward to our first full week of school insha'Allah!

Safiah Aghliw
SK1 Teacher

Friday 9 September 2016

Welcome to SK1 - First Week of School

Asslamu alaikum everyone and welcome to the SK1 blog!

This blog will be your source for all that is happening in SK1, please check it on Fridays for a weekly update insha'Allah.

It was a great pleasure to meet 22 of my 25 SK1 students, and we look forward to meeting the rest.

We spent the week learning some very important routines, and procedures that will helps us accomplish many of our goals this year insha'Allah.  The class has gotten quite good at lining up, signing in, packing and unpacking, using quiet voices in the hallway and sharing.

Insha'Allah we will be starting our curriculum after Eid.  Here are some photos from the activities we did over the past four days.

Have a great long weekend,

Safiah Aghliw

SK1 Homeroom Teaacher / SK2 Language Teacher