Assalam Alaikum! What a wild time we’ve had this past month! We haven’t skipped a beat as we’ve danced around the world through rain or shine! Now, as we glide into the home stretch, we’re so excited to be finishing off our world tour with visits to Mexico, Peru, Australia, and Hawaii. InshaAllah this will be the last newsletter for the school year, and I want to thank all the parents for their trust and support, especially your patience and understanding in the past few weeks. We’ve had a great year, and I wish you all a fun filled summer!
Important Dates/Reminders:
Thurs. April 9th: Field Trip Clay Planet
Week of April 13-17th Spring Break
Thurs. May 7th: Field Trip to Lowes
Fri. May 8th: ALL Scholastic Book orders due
Wed. May 13th: Field Trip to Petco
Sat. May 16th: Hands on Art Festival Sunnyvale, 10am-3pm
Wed. May 27th: Parent Surveys Due
Wed. May 27th: Wheels Day, Field Trip Raynor Park
Thurs. May 28th: Waterslide Day Field Trip Parent Participation Required
Fri May 29th: Graduation Ceremony and Art Show 5:00pm Potluck
Fri. May 29th: Last day to Pre-Register for next year. After this date there will be a $25 registration fee.
Last Month:
March and April have brought upon new discoveries in math and art. In Egypt we learned about triangles as parts of pyramids. We also took a trip to the Rosecrution Museum in San Jose to see the origins of paper from papyrus. This lead to our own experimentation in paper making. From the deserts of Egypt we traveled down to Kenya where we learned some Swahili (Jambo, Habari Ghani: Hello, How are you?). We also patterned prints on our Kente cloths, practiced beats on our drums, and found ourselves on a safari full of jungle animals. We also spent some time soap carving and cooking up some African sesame cakes.
Later we traveled across the Pacific, to Mexico, where we found ourselves surrounded by the sounds and colors of this lively country. Not only did we eat snacks ranging the colors of a rainbow, we also tie dyed our own t-shirts. Through this activity and many other color mixing experiments, we found that combining primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) makes secondary colors (green, orange, purple and brown). We also spent some time pinching and coiling clay, and weaving pipe cleaners. Lastly traveling down to Latin America, we rowed a boat to the Rainforest. We imagined animals and our surroundings as we listenend to rainforest sounds, and put up our new bulletin board, “Rainforest Rainbow”. In a local pueblo in Peru, we found ourselves at a fiesta making black bean quesadillas, and wrapping goopy newspaper to form our “Earth” piñata. After exploring so many wonderful places on Earth, we can’t but help to learn how to take care of our planet.
This Month:
May brings us to the end of our school year, with explorations in the earth, bugs, volcanoes, oceans, space, recycling, and gardening. We want to tie in all that they have learned into some basic concepts we have been trying to reinforce throughout the year.
Exploration/Observations: comparing, contrasting, asking questions
Expressions: using art/words and imagination to demonstrate feelings and information
Respect: to each other, the greater world community, to animals and to the environment
Identity: self esteem through confidence in our abilities/skills, pride for our beliefs and morals as muslims, and the uniqueness of our being as Allah has created for us.
Arabic:
Teacher Miral has done a terrific job of introducing arabic as a language to the children. Not only does she talk to them in Arabic, the children have also learned songs and have read familiar books in Arabic. Their skills of recitation were refined with improvement in pronunciation and introduction to some basic rules of tajweed. MashsaAllah the children have finished Surahs Kawther, Asr, and Fatiha, and will be completing Surah Falaq before the end of the year! We worked on the letters Haa for hissan (horse), and Tha for thobaan(snake), Ayn for ankaboot(spider), Seen for samak(fish), and Sheen for shams(sun). Many of the children can recognize sounds associated with letters, and are on their way to learning the small (or half) letters as they are joined together. They are well on their way to reading soon and I recommend summer practice at home or with Arabic tutors. Fortunately, Teacher Miral will be having a summer session Arabic playgroup for this age to meet twice a week, 9:30am-11am. The fee will be $120/Month. Please contact her directly for details.
Parent Surveys:
We want to hear your comments and suggestions regarding our school. Please take some time to fill out the parent surveys that will be sent home in their cubbies. We appreciate your honesty and sincerity in this matter. All surveys due the last wed. of May.
Events for the Last Week of school:
Mon: Pajama Day: please send your children in their “night” clothes for some slumber party fun
Tues: Camping Day: get ready to sleep in tents outside, go hiking, and making our own food on the “fire” pit
Wed: Wheels Day: bring your bikes, scooters, or skates for a rollin’ good time on wheels at Raynor park. Please send a sac lunch so we can picnic at the park, and a water bottle to keep the kiddos hydrated.
Thurs: WaterSlides: Parent participation required, $4 children, $7 adult, swimsuits, towels, change of clothing necessary. Location: Sillman Activity Center. 6800 Mowry Avenue. Newark, CA 94560.
Fri: Graduation Ceremony and Art Show 5:00pm: Please sign up for the Potluck, and all family are encouraged to attend. Yearbooks passed out that night.
Have a great summer!
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