Arabian Ranches Edition March 2013
Sports Day
It has often been said, "Children learn through movement." In addition to the health
benefits of physical activities, movement is an integral part of the young child's life and
education, for it is through movement that children develop social, emotional, and cognitive
skills.
For young children, movement is a critical means of communication, expression, and
learning. It is imperative that we give children as many opportunities as possible to be
physically active and to learn through movement.( Eloise Elliott, Ph.D and Steve Sanders,
Ph.D)
We integrated this thought into the activities we planned on our Sports Day.
It was lovely to see the children and parents participate together. It was not the winning
but the spirit of participation that mattered.
Ladybirds‘ Sports Day – Theme: Books, Stories and Nursery Rhymes
Obstacle
course:
Relay race: Walking
Walk, walk around the
through the jungle
mountain
Building the longest
line with magnetic
blocks: Rapunzel
Parents Race:
Children and
parents
enjoyed
participating in
the egg and spoon
race and tug of
war
too.
Well
Done!!!
Busy Bees Sports Day
Lemon and spoon: We balanced our eggs on
the spoon - Humpty Dumpty
Relay race: We collected our baskets, food
for our bears and our teddies and ran to the
finishing line: Goldilocks and the 3 bears
Dress-ups: We wore our tshirts, sun glasses, caps
and carried our bottles
and bags to the finishing
line — Here we go around
the mulberry bush. Look at
our mulberry bush in the
centre!
Obstacle Course: We went through a tunnel, around
cones, above benches, through hoola hoops and
balanced on a rope: We are going on a bear hunt
Sponges and buckets: We soaked our sponges in
water and squeezed them in buckets. The buckets
were placed on the opposite side - Jack and Jill
We cheered for our mummies and daddies for
the parent race.
Tug of war: It was a
close finish. Hip Hip
Hurrah!!! to the Busy
Bees parents, staff and
children. Thank you for
your efforts in making
Sports Day a huge
success.
Egg and spoon Race: Well done parents!
MONKEYNASTIX
The children are enjoying the Monkeynastix sessions. They are enjoying the warm-up songs,
stretching positions and locomotion activities such as balancing beam, trampoline, ball skills, floor work
etc.
Here are
some
photographs
which we
would like to
share with
you.
Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the
knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read."
— Marilyn Jager Adams
The children are enjoying the topic ‗Books, Nursery Rhymes and Stories‘ .We will continue this
topic till the end of March. In the first 2 weeks of February, they were involved in activities
related to the ‗Continents‘ topic. The classrooms looked vibrant and colourful with all the
activities displayed on the walls and boards. It was a treat to the eye!!!
Let‘s take a look!!
FUN IN THE LADYBIRDS CLASS
―We made play dough spiders, spiders have
8 legs:)‖. ‗Incy Wincy spider.
―We even used our
paint brushes to paint
outside. It was great
fun. Some of us
painted the bikes too.‖
―We enjoyed making spiders on paper
too. We drew circles and lines.
―We made buildings like the ones in the
Czech Republic– Prague‖
―We enjoyed decorating our wigwams‖.
―We made Valentine ‗s
Day cards for our
mums and dads.‖
―We enjoyed reading the books in the
quiet corner.‖
―We are from the African jungle.‖
BUSY BEES CLASS
―We enjoyed making Italian flags . Look at
the colourful pasta.‖
―I wore the KLM stewardess uniform for ‗Show and
Tell‘. The letter was ‗U‘.‖
―We went for a bike race to celebrate Tour de France. All our friends
cheered for us when we were reaching the finishing line.‖
―We enjoyed making pancakes/crepes in the outside area when we discussed Europe. We
poured, measured, stirred and blended the ingredients to make the pancakes.‖
―Look at our delicious pancakes. We ate them with honey and jam. Yummy!!!‖
―We celebrated Valentine‘s Day and dressed in red, white and pink clothes. We made beautiful
cards for our mummies and daddies and decorated our classrooms too‖.
―Grace‘s mummy
Eva and Jehan‘s
mummy Leah came
to our class to read
stories. We enjoyed
listening to them.
A big thank you to
both of them!‖
―We
enacted
the song
―Little
Miss
Muffet‖
Little Miss Muffet sat on the tuffet, eating her curds and whey. There came a spider and sat
down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.
―We painted and dressed
Little Miss Muffet with felt
cloth.‖
―For the story
Whatever Next we
stuck stars on our
planetarium and
discussed the solar
system too.‖
―We decorated our space boots too.‖
― We could sequence the story by using flash
cards.‖
―Whoosh!!!! We are painting and creating our
space rockets. We are going to the moon.‖
―We took
our teddies
for a picnic
on the
moon just
like the
teddy bear
in the book.
― We made our own Solar System. We have
8 planets and we live on planet Earth. Don‘t
forget to have a look at our space rocket!‖
A house without books is like a room without windows." --Heinreich Mann .
I would like to share a few ideas which could make reading a fun and enjoyable activity for
your child.
1. Scout for things your child might like to read. Use their interests and hobbies as starting points.
2. Leave all sorts of reading materials including books, magazines, and colourful catalogues in
conspicuous places around your home.
3. Notice what attracts your child‘s attention, even if he/she only looks at the pictures. Then build on
that interest; read a short selection aloud, or simply bring home more information on the same subject.
4. Present reading as an activity with a purpose; a way to gather useful information for, say, making
paper airplanes, identifying a doll or stamp in your child's collection, or planning a family trip.
5. Encourage older children to read to their younger brothers and sisters. Older children enjoy
showing off their skills to an admiring audience.
6. Set aside a regular time for reading in your family, the 20 minutes before lights out, just after
dinner, or whatever fits into your household schedule. As little as 10 minutes of free reading a day can
help improve your child's skills and habits.
7. On gift-giving occasions, give books and magazines based on your child's current interests.
8. Set aside a special place for children to keep their own books.
9. Introduce the bookmark. Remind your child that you don't have to finish a book in one sitting; you
can stop after a few pages, or a chapter, and pick up where you left off at another time. Don't try to
persuade your child to finish a book he or she doesn't like. Recommend putting the book aside and
trying another.
10. Extend your child's positive reading experiences. For example, if your child enjoyed a book about
dinosaurs, follow up with a visit to a natural history museum.
11. Limit your child‘s TV viewing in an effort to make time for other activities, such as reading. But
never use TV as a reward for reading, or a punishment for not reading.
12. Not all reading takes place between the covers of a book. What about menus, road signs, food
labels, and music sheet? Take advantage of countless spur-of-the-moment opportunities for reading
during the course of your family's busy day.
Hello from Ms Randa (Arabic Teacher)
In order for us to help you further support your child at home, we are pleased to
share the following overview about what is covered in the Arabic classes during
this second term.
During this term we have introduced,
Numbers) Arqam):
6 Setta
7 Sab‘a
‫ستة‬
‫سبعة‬
8 Thamaneya
9 Tes‘a
10 Ashara
‫ثمانية‬
‫تسعة‬
‫عشرة‬
Colours (Alwan):
White , Abyad
‫أبيض‬
Orange, Burtuqaly
‫برتقالي‬
Green, Akhdar ‫أخضر‬
Fruits and vegetables:
Apple, Tuffaha
Banana, Mawza
‫تفاحة‬
‫موزة‬
Orange, Burtuqala
‫برتقالة‬
Carrot, Jazar ‫جزر‬
Tomato, Tamatem
‫طماطم‬
Potato, Batates ‫بطاطس‬
Animals (Hayawanat):
Rabbit, Arnab ‫أرنب‬
Dog, kalb ‫كلب‬
Cat, Herra
‫هرة‬
َ
Shapes (Ashkal):
Circle, Da‘era ‫دائرة‬
Rhymes:
Singing in Arabic is becoming more fun as the children have learned so
many songs all related to the themes.
Our objective from now till the end of this term is to continue the
‗Animals and under the sea‘ topic. The children will also learn the colour
black (Aswad) .‫أسود‬
‫غززل‬
‫كان في بيت في غزال‬
‫عم َ‬
‫يطلَع من الشباك‬
‫لقى أرنب عم بنط‬
‫دق دق دق دق إفتحلي‬
‫عم بدق عالباب‬
‫إجى الصياد يلحئني‬
‫أرنب أرنب إدخلِي‬
‫أنشودة األشكال‬
‫المثلث‬
‫أنا أخ المربع‬
‫أ َما أنا أخ طويل إسمه المستطيل‬
‫أختنا الدائرة‬
‫جميلة ماهرة‬
‫إحفظوا أسمائنا‬
‫ال تنسوا أشكالنا‬
‫علي‬
‫وسلِم َ‬
Kan fe bait fe ghazal
Kan fe bait
fe ghazal
Am yettalla’a
men elshebbak
La’a arnab
am be net
Am be de’a al bab
Do’a do’a do’a do’a
eftahle
Eja elsayad
yelha’ane
Arnab arnab
edkhol le
O sallem alaya
Shapes (Alashkal)
Esme ana al mouthallath
Ana akho al mourabba’a
Amma ana akhon taweel esmoho al moustateel
Okhtona al da’aera
Jameelaton mahera
ehfazo asma’ana
La tanso ashkalana
We will be having the following activities this month.
We will celebrate Book Lovers‘ month in March. If you would like to share in this
celebration, please donate a book to the Nursery.
It can be any book (old or new) as long as it is in good condition and suitable for children
between 2 years and 4 years. It does not have to be an English book – as long as the
illustrations are big and colourful, the teachers can adapt the story line.
21st March – Book Fair
21st March – Book Character Dress up Day – The children can come dressed up as their
favourite character in a story, nursery rhyme or song.
27th March – Spring EggTreasure Hunt – We will make bunny hats and decorate our
eggs and go on a treasure hunt.
Spring Break:
Please note that the nursery will close at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday 28th March for the Spring break and
will re-open on Sunday 7th April at 8:00 a.m.
If your child is not returning for Term 3, I would appreciate it if you could let me know and
complete the appropriate withdrawal form.
Thank you
Miss Shali