KG2 May Newsletter   It was great speaking with all of you at conferences.  We hope you gained valuable information about your child’s progress in KG2 this year.  In addition, we hope you have a better understanding about how to support your child at home. This quarter is zooming along and before we know it, your children will be grown up first graders.  As usual we have a lot going on here at school.  Be sure to mark your calendars with all the special events and read the weekly Link for additional information. Reading Workshop We will be exploring two reading units this month. Our first one is Deepening Understanding: Essential Reading Strategies.  This unit focuses on helping children learn specific strategies for getting unstuck when they have difficulties decoding or understanding what they are reading.  These strategies include:     * Accessing prior knowledge to get ready to read.     * Using picture clues to figure out unknown words.     * Using beginning sounds to figure out unknown words.     * Using ending sounds to figure out unknown words.     * Checking for meaning while reading by asking, “Does it make sense?”     * Cross-check while reading by using various strategies to verify understanding.     * Self-correct while reading. Later in the month, our second unit will be Reading With Expression: Using Punctuation to Enhance Fluency.  The focus in this unit is on helping students improve their reading by paying attention to punctuation and phrasing. They will learn how to identify when different characters in a story are speaking and how they can get inside the lives of these characters by reading with expression. They will learn to:     * Use punctuation to read with expression and appropriate phrasing.     * Use picture cues to read with expression.     * Adjust voices to distinguish between different characters as they read aloud.     * Use dialogue marks and other indicators for when a character speaks. As an important reminder, you should be reading with your child daily.  This important work includes listening to your child read as well as reading to your child.  Continue to have your child discuss books with you.  Have them retelling the story or identify things learned in non-fiction book. Writing Workshop This month in the writing workshop, we begin our unit of study on poetry. It’s hard to imagine our very small children on a learning trajectory toward becoming the next William Shakespeares, Emily Dickinsons and Maya Angelous, isn’t it? But you will be amazed, as we plan to be, by the writing they can do in this unit—they are able to create poems with so much more weight and power than the rhyming jingles we often imagine young children’s poetry to be!  We will start by looking at the world through the eyes of a poet—examining objects closely, and trying to see them in fresh, interesting ways. We hope you will join your child in patiently studying and putting words to the details and moments of life the two of you notice together. This is the work that will most support your child in becoming a poet.  Throughout this unit, we will study many ways poets work and some of the tools and strategies poets use.  We’ll work with the structure of poetry, learning how poets use line breaks and white space.  We’ll talk about and practice locating a big, universal feeling or idea in a small, personal object or moment.  We’ll discuss and try ways to find the precise words that convey our intended meaning.  We’ll experiment with rhythms and patterns, repetition and musicality.  We’ll build analogies, metaphors and similes and extend those bits of figurative language throughout the bodies of our verses. Of course, as always, we’ll revise, edit and publish our poems. We are all looking forward to sharing our poetry work with you. Word Study This month in word study, we will continue to solidify and expand the skills we have been developing to this point. We will be:     * Reviewing syllables in words.     * Introducing alphabetical order.     * Developing phonemic awareness by listening for beginning and ending sounds in words as well as deleting these sounds.     * Distinguishing between vowels and consonants.     * Continuing our study of high frequency words.     * Building words with –ike.     * Adding –s to words to change word meanings.     * Using know words to solve new words. Math During the month of May we will:     * Continue to explore place value.     * Introduce the $1 and $10 bills.     * Reinforce coin names and their values.     * Introduce “ missing number” problems.     * Reinforce the use of number models for addition and subtraction stories and situations.     * Continue exploring 2 and 3 dimensional shapes, graphing, estimation and measuring.     * Continue to reinforce and extend counting and other numeration activities. Science This month’s unit, Rocks and Soil, is a wonderful one for kindergarteners, because it gives them a good excuse to “play in the dirt”. Through this unit the students will understand that:     * The earth is made of materials that include rocks and soil.     * Rocks and soil can be recognized and sorted by physical properties.     * They can use their senses to observe and describe the properties of rocks and soil. Don’t be surprised if your children start walking around with their heads down in search of interesting rocks.  They’ll probably elicit your help, too, in discovering the treasures beneath our feet. IMPORTANT DATES May 6 – Early Release Day Dismissal at 12:30 May13 - Early Release Day Dismissal at 12:30 May 16-20 Last week for 4th Quarter ASRP May 20 - Early Release Day Dismissal at 12:30 May 26 – ES Assembly 2:15 Thursdays in May – Spirit Days (Keep an eye out for more details coming soon) Art News LARGE MOSAICS This project was all about collaboration from the very beginning. ACS is big on recycling so towards the end of the year a lot of people start to throw away their old crayons. The students were asked to bring them in and peel off the wrappings. The crayons were then sorted by color, melted and poured on to wax paper. Once cooled, the puddle of melted crayon could be broken into mosaic pieces. These are much easier to use and safer for little fingers. Then every student drew an idea for a classroom mosaic project and we all voted on one drawing. Each student took a section of the large board to fill in with the mosaic pieces. When finished, these will be displayed around campus for all to enjoy.  Music News We have just finished unit 2 in our books and are completing our written assessments. Your child may be bringing home some activity pages we have worked on in class to share with you. In May we will review all the songs we have learned this year and prepare a small in-class presentation for parents to show you some of the things we have been learning this year in music. Our presentation will be May 17, 18 or 19th during your child's music class time in the ES Music Room. We hope you can join us! Seminar Day: Our last Seminar Day of the year will be May 25, 26, or 27 during your child's music class on the day he/she presents. I am confirming with students this week who will present and will send the final list next week. Parents are of course welcome to attend but this is not a requirement.  Student Recitals: Do you have a child who takes music lessons and is looking for a performance venue? Did your student have a music-related goal this year to present? If so, we will be having 2 student music recitals in May for children who are taking private lessons or have a music-related goal. They will be held on Wednesday, May 19 and on Wednesday, May 26 from 3:30-4:30 pm in the ES Multipurpose Room. A sign-up sheet will be available outside the music room starting Sunday, May 02. Students may sign up to perform on 1 recital. There will not be auditions but students and parents will need to fill out a form letting us know what piece will be performed, the composer and the performance length. There are a lot of ARTS events happening in school and in Abu Dhabi before the end of the year with some great opportunities for your children to attend. A few of note are: Wed May 05-May 08 Disney's Beauty and the Beast - Abu Dhabi Choral Group See ACS Link Abu Dhabi Officer's Club Fri May 14  Dame Evelyn Glennie - Percussionist   7:00 pm  Abu Dhabi Theatre Beauty and the Beast will feature a lot of people from the ACS community from students to parents as well as ACS staff members. Our very own Katie Pritz (Mother of Eli &Joy Pritz) will be performing the lead as Belle. Mr. Pavlos (HS Drama) is Gaston, Ms. Banu (Ms. Mary's assistant), Ms. Salminen (ES Librarian) and myself will be playing cello, oboe and flute in the orchestra. There are 6 performances including 2 afternoon matinees and ACS receives a discount on tickets! Tickets will be on sale every day after school in the middle school courtyard until next Monday. Evelyn Glennie is a musician we have studied in class this year and she will be coming to Abu Dhabi. In music we read the story "Moses Goes to a Concert." Moses is a deaf student who goes to see a deaf percussionist. Evelyn Glennie is not only the first female percussionist to make a solo playing career for herself but she herself is also 90% deaf. Tickets are available for children and adults ages 3 and up. Child tickets are only Dhs. 30.00. Visit www.abudhabiclassics.com for more details. Ms. Brooks PE News April has come and gone and the KG2 students are almost done with their first month of our swimming unit.  I along with two other swimming instructors (Ms. Tanya and Ms. Nadia) have been working with your sons and/or daughters teaching American Red Cross swim lessons.  The swim lessons have brought a nice change of pace from being in the gym or outside on the fields, and the students definitely seem to be enjoying themselves.  Along with the swimming instruction, students are also learning what it means to be safe in and out of the water, as well as healthy tips when outside in the sun.  I would just like to remind parents or guardians to remember to please make sure your son and/or daughter has everything they need when they come to class (i.e., swimsuit, goggles, swim cap, towel, and bag to carry everything in). Technology News   The KG2 students are continuing with the program Kidpix during the month of May. They will be working on a project about Community Workers. They will use the tools in this drawing  program to draw and color their picture on this theme. Once they are finished they will be printed and made into a class book. Mrs. Willis Technology Integrator Arabic Language for Native Speakers It’s May already.. we are continuing the work of reinforcing letter sounds and syllables in different vocabulary words and simple sentences.  The emphasis is on long vowels (A, O, E).  We are also learning new words and adding them to our class dictionary book.  The kids are still working on their Arabic alphabet book and will have it ready for open house.  I thank you for encouraging your child to always speak in Arabic at home on a daily basis and for reading Arabic storybooks to them which will help them appreciate the language more and more.   Arabic Conversation & Culture Newsletter In the month of May students will learn some of the Arabic words based on the sounds of the following Arabic letters:   Na, Ha, wa, & ya Vocabulary Words “Na” 1. Namir  Tiger 2. Nakhla  Palm tree 3. Naee   Flute 4. Najma  Star 5. Nathauara  Glasses “Ha” 1. Hudhud  Hoopoe 2. Harm  Pyramid 3. Hatif            Phone  4. Hadeya  Gift “Wa” 1. Warda  Rose 2. Waza   Goose 3. Waraq  Papers 4. Walad  Boy "Ya" 1. Yaqtten  Pumpkin 2. Yad   Hand 3. Yasmeen  Jasmine 4. Yakhit  Yacht Conversational Phrases: Min fadhlaka       "for masculine"    Would you please Min fadhlaki         "for feminine"      Would you please From: Ms.Fadia, Ms. Maha & Mrs. Mina