Newsletter April and May 2010
Assalam alaikum,
InshaAllah all these April showers will bring lots of May flowers! Alhamdulillah my garden is already in bloom with 15 blossoming children…. in this last month inshaallah you’ll be “picking” up some beautiful mature children who have grown right in front of my eyes! What a blessing it has been to have such great children and wonderful parents this past year! This newsletter will be jam-packed with information of upcoming events in April to the end of May. Mid-May will be the last of our thematic units, and the last two weeks will focus on daily themes and field trip days. Thanks for a great year!
Important Dates/Reminders
Week of April 12-16 Spring Break, No School
Sat. April 24, “Going Wild with Nature” Children’s Faire, Children’s Discovery Museum, 10:30-3pm
Fri. April 23rd: Field Trip Steven’s Creek Dam/hiking
Wed. April 28th: Field Trip Petco (TBC)
Thurs. May 13th:Field Trip Fujitsu Planetarium @De Anza College (TBC) $12
Sat. May 15th: Hands on Art Festival, Sunnyvale Community Center, 10-4pm, Teacher Lubna and Teacher Zakia will be having a booth on Islaimc Calligraphy where children can engage in a Islamic tiled mosaic project! Seeya there!
Fri. May 21st: Raynor Park Field Trip, Pick-up children from the park.
Tues. May 25th: Field Trip Silliman Swim Center, Newark, $8
**all children must be accompanied with an adult for safety reasons!
Fri. May 28th: Last Day of School, Graduation starts at promptly at 5:30pm.
Special Theme Days: Please have child dress accordingly for acivities.
Wed. May 19th: Circus Day:
We’ll be putting on a show with our own 3-Ringed circus. Come watch as the kids turn into acrobats, ballerinas, lion tamers, stuntmen, and of course clowns! Tickets will be sold at the door for 5 cents, and you can even by popcorn and drinks at our very own snack bar Doors open Noon!
Thurs. May 20th: Dinosaur Day
The kids will have a roaring good time crossing Dinosaur Ditch, making Dino-masks and Watching the movie Land Before Time, rated G.
Fri. May 21st: Kite Day @ Raynor Park
The morning will be spent designing and crafting their own flying experiment, and making their very own kites! We’ll head to the park around 11:00 to try them out. Pick-up on this day will be directly from the park. Please make proper arrangements
Mon. May 24: Music Mania, special guests
We will be having a surprise music group come to engage the children in music beats and nasheed. They will be crafting their own instrument of choice to take home.
Tues. May 25: Swim Day, @ Silliman Swim Center
All children must be accompanied by an adult. The pool is only 2 ft. deep, and children can be watched from poolside. Please bring come in swim clothes under school clothes and we will dress there. Please bring change of clothing and towels and lunch, which will be at the grassy field next to the center. This is an indoor pool.
Wed. May 26th:Camping/Pajama Party Day
We’ll be putting up our tents and grabbing our pillows to rest in the great outdoors (the backyard!) Storytelling, Pancake snack, and Smores will be a treat, and of course we will go on a nature hike!
Thurs. May 27th: Clean Up Day
The kids will spend some time cleaning out their cubbies and sorting artwork and toys. We will also emphasize the importance of cleanliness and hand washing. They will be making their own hand-soap to take home!
Fri. May 28th: Graduation, Ceremony starts at 6pm.
Please be on time for this very important occasion! All children must be present back at school by 5:30pm, and the ceremony will start promptly at 6pm. Please sign up for the potluck dinner. All families are welcomed to attend, invitation cards will be sent out beginning of May.
Back in March…
March began our in depth study of animal habitats. We reviewed what animals need to survive and deduced that animals had features and characteristics that were dependent on the environment around them. We spent time in the jungle, rainforest, and savannah distinguishing spots and stripes, animal homes, patterns on skin and fur, like our hexagon giraffes, and diamond back snakes. We chopped up some great raiforest salad, and became animals like tigers and raccoons. We also began our commitment to the environment by learning the the 3 R’s, recycle, reduce and re-use. We learned P paper as the children engaged in making their own paper out of recycled materials, and R for recycling, L for lion, and S for snakes and Z for zebra stripes.
Arabic included, the finishing of Surah’s Takathur and Lahab and starting Surah Humazah and Nasr. Letters introduced were, Tau for Ta-oos, peacock, Thau for Thabiyah, deer, Qaaf for Qimama, trash.
In April…to the end of May….
Spring brings us back into nature and closer to Earth Day! April started off with our Worm Week, we covered the letter W for worm, in felt slimey noodles, fed our own real worms in our compost bin. Composting is done weekly as the kids give left over foods to the worms. It was exciting to see the a banana peel in the 3 different stages of the process. We jumped into our last habitat the ponds and swamps to cover animals that can live in and out of water, like frogs (tadpoles), snakes and alligators. Reptiles and Bugs will be explored the rest of the weeks following spring break. We will also be involved in gardening, growing seeds, and taking care of the earth. Up till the second week of May, we will be finishing the English Alphabets, with N for nest, Q for quilt, U for umbrella, V for Volcanoe, X for Xylephone, and in Arabic: Kaaf for Kitaab, Laam for laqlaq, stork, Meem for Matar, rain, Noon for nakhlah, bee, Haa hilal, moon, Waaw for wardah, flower, Yaa, for yad, hand. By the end of May, Teacher Lubna’s group will have finished, inshaAllah with Surah Nasr, and Kawther. Teacher Miral’s Group will inshaAllah finish Humazah and Surah Fil.
