Monday 12 June 2017

A Message from Tr.Salam

السلام عليكم ... رمضان مبارك أعاده الله علينا جميعا  بالخير و البركات ..
نحن الان بصدد جمع قصص اللغة العربية التي استعارها الطالب من مكتبة المدرسة ، و حتى الان هناك مجموعة من التلاميذ لم  يعيدوا القصة التي تم استعارتها رغم الحاحنا عليهم بذلك ، فالرجاء ضرورة متابعة الطالب لاعادة القصة الى المدرسة في الغد للضرورة  ،  و جزاكم الله خيرا         مدرسة اللغة العربية / سلام 

Saturday 13 May 2017

Updates and Reminders

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

I pray you all are in good health inshaAllah.

I've jotted down some updates from the previous two weeks of class.

Science: We are nearing the end of our unit on movement and simple machines. We had an interesting time learning about the various different ways our everyday work is made easy due to these 6 basic mechanical devices: lever, pulley, wheel and axle, inclined plane, screw and wedge. During one of our classes we had a physicist visit us from Scientists in School. She helped the students explore the science of simple machines by encouraging them to apply what they learned in a bunch of hands-on activities. By the end of the workshop they learned to recognize all the devices in their environment. Big success on their part! To wrap up this unit, i'll be handing out a take-home project on Monday and will email all parents the expectations as well as the requirements.

Math: Students learned plenty about area and perimeter using non-standard and standard units, as well as 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes over the past two weeks. They not only learned the shapes names but focused on other features such as edges, faces, vertices and whether or not 3D shapes can slide, stack or roll. This helped them to determine the difference between 2D and 3D shapes. We watched related videos and completed workbook activities in which they had to describe and draw 2D shapes and describe the features of 3D objects. They were also involved in making skeletons of a variety of 3D shapes using tooth picks and play dough to investigate how many faces, edges and vertices each 3D shape has.

Language/Library: For our novel study, we finished reading up to chapter 10 of Fantastic Mr.Fox by Roald Dahl. Sometimes the suspense of what will happen next becomes unbearable for some, which is a good indication of how interested they are :) For the most part, students have been diligent with completing the corresponding dictionary detective, main idea, and comprehension worksheets. We've been keen on learning how to use the dictionary as of late thanks to Tr.Nancy, our librarian ,who developed their dictionary skills over the past two library periods. I've noticed that students feel a lot more confident looking through their dictionaries because they're using the techniques shown by Tr.Nancy almost on a daily basis, all the while learning new words and their respective synonyms mashaAllah!

Spelling: We haven't had a spelling test in the past week but will resume this coming week on Thursday, May 18th inshaAllah. The words I will test them on will be from Lesson 32 "Words with the oi and ou Sound": sound, frown, soil, mouth, now, toy, oil, spoil, noise, owl. 

BONUS! smothered, keen, oath, wheel and axle.

Art: On friday students had great fun getting their hands dirty with clay during their pottery workshop. After being introduced to the dos and donts, a couple of helpful techniques and a demo, they went ahead with making their own imaginary creatures but some stuck to sculpting real life animals like rabbits and beavers. By the end of the workshop they understood how to manipulate clay and seemed quite satisfied. Their masterpieces will be delivered back to them in a week's time after the finishing touches are made inshaAllah.

Gym: In gym we've been having a lot of fun playing a number of invasion games and relay race games. Recently students participated in their first fun fitness-oriented routine called 4 corners where they had to demonstrate a variety of rhythmic exercises such as line jumps, jumping jacks, push-ups and bicycle jumps at the 4 different stations set up.


Reminders.

- No school on Friday May 19th, 2017.
- Homework was not assigned for this week.
- Marked assignments will be handed back in the upcoming week.
- Please remind your children to read on RazKids for 20 minutes every day
- If your child has any items that need to be returned to the library, kindly remind them.
- Project details on Simple Machines will be handed out and sent via email on Monday inshaAllah
- Please encourage your children to follow the sunnah they loved on the "Sunnahgram" bulletin board last Wednesday. It is related to the character trait of the month: Leadership. We are trying to emulate the teachings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw).


JazakAllah khayr.

Sunday 23 April 2017

Updates and Reminders

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

Hope you all are well inshaAllah. Below are some updates from the last couple weeks of class.

Math: We started and ended our unit on probability- a measure of the likelihood that an event will occur using mathematical language such as likely, unlikely, possible, impossible and certain. It took only a week and half to grasp the concept of the different types of probability. They wrote the definition of each type in their math journals, watched videos, completed corresponding exercises in their math activity books and even came up with their own sentences using the appropriate type to comfortably express their predictions.

Language: We've been on an exciting new journey for the past 2 weeks in Language Arts class since we started our novel study unit. The book we're reading is called Fantastic Mr.Fox by Roald Dahl. Before delving into the book we went over the importance of reading and created a mind map as a class. After establishing why it's important to read, we went over the key story elements in every fiction novel: characters (protagonists/antagonists), setting, problem and solution. I read aloud chapters 1-3 and the students pointed out the story elements, made predictions/inferences, summarized the main idea of each chapter and also presented their group work to describe character traits of some of the characters we've been introduced to so far. Before reading ahead, students completed an online quiz in the computer lab (10 multiple questions based on chapters 1-3). Last week we covered 2 more chapters and inshaAllah will work on comprehension worksheets in the upcoming week (all related to main idea, characters and setting).

Spelling: Spelling test for Lesson 28 was taken up on Friday. For next week's spelling test (Thursday, April 27th) I've given them the following words from Lesson 29 "Words with Vowel Pairs": beat, roads, mean, lay, main, lower, pie, tie, toes, read.

Art: We worked on a spring theme last week "April Showers Bring May Flowers" where we learned how to draw flowers using different coloured construction paper rather than plain old markers and color pencils. To really get it right we watched a video 2-3 times to see how its done. They did a fantastic job and it turned out to be a vibrant collection once I put them on display. Job well done mashaAllah.

Science: I will be starting a new unit on simple machines. We'll look at their impact and identify movement as an outcome of energy.

Social Studies: For the last two weeks we've been busy exploring interesting facts related to the planet's 7 continents and 5 oceans. We've learned to identify them on a map, watched a video describing their various differences and played an interactive game called "Roll a Map".

Islamic Studies: The story of Prophet Nuh (as) has been our main focus for the last couple of weeks now. Students completed workbook activities as well as other activities. These activities were broken down into one or two sections focusing on particular points in the story for better understanding of what they have read so far in class.  


Reminders:

- Homework packs are due next Thursday, April 27th
- Please inform your children to return any soon to be due (or due) library books
- Please encourage your children to read on RazKids for 20 minutes everyday


JazakAllah khayr.






Saturday 8 April 2017

Latest Updates and Reminders

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

Some updates from last week.

Islamic Studies: Before moving onto Prophet Nuh's (as) story, I had students write an open book test (PART II) on the seerah of the Prophet (saw).

Math: After practicing subtraction with regrouping all week, students promptly completed their classwork, which was an improvement compared to the week before. I then gave them an assessment on Friday to evaluate their understanding of both -subtraction with regrouping and addition with regrouping. They did really well mashaAllah.

Spelling: On Thursday they wrote their spelling test on Lesson 26 and will now be practicing words from Lesson 27 "Adding Endings". For next week's test on Thursday, April 13th, they have the following words to learn: jogging, running, trimming, skipping, shopped, sadder, gladdest, hopped, winning, mixed.

BONUS: blistering, smeltering, frigid, freezing and boiling

Science: The whole week we reviewed what we know about states of matter, created pamphlets, and played jeopardy. On Friday they wrote the test which will be marked and sent home by next week inshaAllah.



Reminders:

- Please remind your children to return any soon to be due library items
- Do encourage your children to read on RazKids for 20 mins every day
- Homework packs are due next Thursday
- There will be no school on Friday, April 14th and Monday, April 17th


JazakAllah khayr.

Friday 7 April 2017

Message from Tr.Salaam



السلام عليكم:

انتهينا من جميع الانشطة الصفية المتعددة لدرسي "الوقت و الاعداد" و" الخريف و الربيع" ، و كذلك من الانشطة الصفية لنشاط معلومة و رسمة، ونحن الان بصدد الانشطة الخاصة بموضوع التعاون، و ضرورة أهميته في التقدم و النجاح ، وأيضا بصدد التدريب على نشيد (أنا أحب النظافة).

نشكر لكم متابعتكم في عمل الواجبات المنزلية ، وننصح بضرورة  الحرص على الاهتمام بواجب القراءة بصوت مرتفع عدة مرات مع التشجيع ، و أيضا  بمتابعة التلميذ في قراءة القصة المستعارة من مكتبة المدرسة، و ملء الجدول الخاص بذلك . وجزاكم الله خيرا.

يمكن التواصل مع المدرسة ، من خلال الايميل :

sbeseiso@abraarschool.com 


Tuesday 4 April 2017

French

Asslam alikum Dear Parents, I hope my email finds you in   good health and Eman.

Below are some update from our 
French class.
This month our grade 2 students will be continuing to practice simple conversations, asking and answering  short questions about ourselves such as, comment vas-tu? Quelle est ta couleur préférée?   and talking about days of the week and the weather. They are learning about classroom objects, and prepositions (sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière). We have also be reviewing a few new French songs.
We will also be reviewing the vocabulary for the story, comment y aller? ( marche, pense, monte, dommage, désolé, s’arrête, nage, quand même ,  ) .

·   Play rehearsal – introduction of the play Comment y aller ?
·  Introduction of the second IPG activity – colouring the characters.
·  Simple questions based on the story – les questions totales.
·   Introduction of the characters -  Marie – la policère – le conducteur-  le capitaine – l’extra-terrestre – maman – Pierre .
·   We did the following activities related to the story :
1- Qu’est ce qui se passe ? (students should draw a line that identifies the picture as it corresponds to the sentence, using basic vocabulary and very simple language structure and copy the sentence on the line. )
2-  Fais un dessin :  students should read and respond briefly to the written material ( draw a picture)
3- Mets les mots en ordre
4- les questions totales

You find below some useful websites

https://www.studystack.com/flashcard-2074597 (activities and games related to story comment y  aller ? )


Please encourage your child to read the story I sent you ( comment y aller^ ) and practice with him/her the vocabulary.

Jazakoum Allah khairan


Tr.Said
French teacher coordinator

Saturday 1 April 2017

Updates and Reminders

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,


We've had a busy 2 weeks of learning and fun!

Islamic Studies: Our seerah unit has come to an end. We covered about 8 chapters in a span of 3-4 weeks and learned quite a bit about our beloved Prophet (saw) and some of his close companions. Students completed workbook activities for each chapter, wrote an open book test and finished a concise yet comprehensive package for understanding. The take-home lesson from this unit for us all was: the prophet (saw) was sent to perfect and his qualities demonstrated how easy it can be for us to emulate his noble character.

Math: Last week and this week students worked on addition with regrouping and subtraction with regrouping. We did ample of activities and exercises to practice our regrouping skills using more than one method. For addition with regrouping students learned the vertical method, expanded method and ten-base block method. For subtraction with regrouping, students focused on just 2 of the three methods: vertical and ten-base block. We will continue subtraction with regrouping next week as we still have one more method to cover but also because I found that we need more practice with subtraction.

Language: We worked on pronouns all week this week. Students learned that pronouns are words that replace nouns. They familiarized themselves with object and subject pronouns and their uses. For practice, they used pronouns in their own writing as well. They wrote a journal entry about their imaginary pet and worked on a pronoun pizza activity which was helpful because it was a nice visual for them to see that pronouns do in fact take the place of nouns. The week before last, students learned about contractions: a shortened form of two words. For e.g. didn't (did not). Their attention was brought to the use of the apostrophe and how it is used to omit one or more of the letters. For a fun class activity, students worked on "contraction caterpillars" to identify and make different contractions while writing a paragraph.

Spelling: Students wrote their spelling test on lesson 25 last Thursday and are now onto spelling words with different endings (Lesson 26). They will be tested on the following words next Thursday: worked, sending, wants, glasses, sees, burning, reached, boxes, wishes, opening. 

BONUS: subject, object, regroup, spring and rajab 

Science: A practice test was sent home yesterday as part of the homework pack. Students have a unit test on Matter next Friday, April 7th. In class we'll be reviewing what we've learned thus far in the upcoming week inshaAllah. Also, we finally planted the flower seeds in the clean yogurt containers students brought from home (than you to all parents!). It was a long time coming. Now we'll be tracking and recording the growth of the seeds on a weekly basis. 

Social Studies: Last week we worked a whole lot on our mapping skills. We now know that maps help us to find a location of a certain place. It tells us where the place is from where we are located. Using cardinal directions students had to find their way around a community, a city and a zoo by answering questions related to each map. They also drew and wrote about a time when they took a roadtrip and what happened if they got lost. Once they grasped the concept and felt more comfortable with giving and following directions, I announced a pop quiz and they completed it with little to no difficulty alhumdulilah. 

Art: On Friday we worked on an art activity called "Spring Birds". Students drew, colored and cut out their own animated birds perched on a branch. They practiced mixing colors and used different coloring techniques with oil pastels, chalk and paint. Their creativity was flowing mashaAllah. It got pretty messy but it ended up being worth it. The week prior to last, students worked another spring fun art activity where they learned how to dye coffee filters using a range of different colors. 2A and 2B will be making a collage out of this pretty coffee filter craft very soon inshaAllah. It will be worth the display!



Reminders:

- Please remind all students to return any library items soon to be due back to the library

- Please encourage your children to read on RazKids everyday for 20 minutes

- Homework packs are due Thursday, April 6th.



JazakAllah khayr.

Monday 6 March 2017

Message from Tr.Hoda


Assalamu aliakum respected parents

MashaAllah grade 2 students learned new lessons in Arabic class and all about letters and how to use them with different shapes beginning,middle and end of the word.
"Lessons for the following letters:ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش


They learned about colours,vegetables,fruits,clothes and a poem related to colours and nature ,they read wrote and understood the new words.Finally they did an activity related to the poem they learned.



Jazakum Allahu Khairan


T.Hoda Harb

Sunday 5 March 2017

Spelling words

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

Last week the students and I were quite busy preparing for student led conferences so there isn't anything new to mention except for the new spelling words. The test will be on Lesson 23 "Contractions", this Thursday March 9th inshaAllah. List words are: you'll, they're, it's, we've, isn't, let's, aren't, I'm, can't, we're. 

Bonus:  globe, compass, directions, pronoun, cooperation

JazakAllah khayr.

Sunday 26 February 2017

Class Updates and Reminders.

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

InshaAllah I'll be filling you in on the material we covered in-class last week (as well as the weeks prior to it).

Islamic Studies: The seerah of the Prophet (saw) has been our main focus for the past 2 to 3 weeks. We began with the story of Abraha, famously known as Aamil-feel leading up to the Prophet (saw) birth, brief upbringing by his mother Amina and milk-mother Haleemah, the death of his (saw) mother (after which he becomes an orphan), then Abu-Muttalib's death to Abu Talib taking him (saw) under his protection, his (saw) position as a shepherd then as a merchant. We recently finished the part where Khadija (ra) marries Prophet (saw). InshaAllah this week we will read about how the Prophet (saw) begins to receive wahi (revelation) and encounters Waraqa bin Naufil, Khadija's (ra) wise, blind yet aged cousin.

Mathematics: For our new unit Addition & Subtraction, we started off with fact families. We reviewed what fact families are and how they contain 4 equations that consist of addition and subtraction combinations. For example: 1+2=3, 2+1=3, 3-1=2 and 3-2=1 make up for one fact family. Students created their own fact families as well. We followed up with doubles and doubles + 1. For example: 2+2=4 (double) & 2+3=5 (double+1). They worked on related activities including different board games to further their understanding. We had a mathematician visit us early this month for a math workshop as well. Students learned quite a bit with the hands-on activities she provided about estimation, time, place value, money and sorting/patterning. Finally, as of late we've been busy learning all about place value. Students are at the stage where they can explain that place value is the amount each digit represents in a number and they can also identify different place value digits using ten base blocks. We watched a few related videos, worked in pairs as well as independently.

Language: Students were introduced to media literacy early this month, an important skill where they learned to evaluate, analyze and create media messages. We talked about the various media outlets we are exposed to on a regular basis and determined the purpose of the media we hear, read and watch using author's purpose PIE (persuade, inform, entertain). While studying the purpose, students were reminded of the importance of using media in a safe and wise manner. They also created their own advertisement to persuade their audience to adopt healthier eating habits. Each student created a colorful poster of their favourite fruit or vegetable which had various nutritional facts in an attempt to convince their audience. After successfully completing their media literacy component, students wrote journal entries as well as persuasive pieces to practice the art of persuasion!

Spelling: We wrote the spelling review test on Friday (from lessons 13-18) and now we are on lesson 19 words with sh and th. The words for next week's spelling test (Thursday, March 2nd) are: shout, shut, crash, then, thin, math, think, together, nothing, anything.

Bonus! solids, liquids, gases, matter and continents

Science: Matter is everywhere! That's what we are studying in science these days. We talked about what matter is and why it matters (no pun intended). We discussed the different states of matter: solids, liquids and gases. Students watched videos related to the topic and worked independently on comprehension worksheets. During class discussions they were able to differentiate between a solid, a liquid and a gas by way of describing the movement of particles in each state and other properties such as shape, space, texture etc. They were also able to explain the changes in the different states of matter using temperature (heating and cooling). We've covered the theory aspect for the most part and hope to do a few experiments in class in the upcoming week inshaAllah.

Social Studies: We studied the 7 continents in the world. Students worked on individual maps to label and color in all continents. We then learned about the most important part of all maps: the compass rose. Students got familiar with the cardinal directions North, South, East and West and understood its importance: to communicate information on a map. I checked for comprehension by using the world map and local neighbourhood maps; their job was to locate different continents, parks, schools, other landmarks using the cardinal directions. As I anticipated, with practice they were able to use a compass rose to identify cardinal directions and locate them accurately. We will continue with more hands-on fun activities this week too inshaAllah.


A few important reminders:


  • RazKids- Do remind your children to practice reading every day for 20 minutes.
  • Library Books- Please remind your children to return any books soon to be due back to the library.
  • There is an Islamic Studies test coming up and I will inform you all of the details beforehand.  
  • Homework packs are due on Thursday, March 2nd. 

JazakAllah khayr.

Sunday 15 January 2017

Class Updates.

Asalaamu'alykum Dear Parents,

Welcome back! Some updates from last week.

After returning from the winter break on Monday I had students participate in a fun and interactive ice-breaker activity to reconnect and get to know how they spent their break. This did take away their gym period but I've promised to give it back next week, inshaAllah.

This month's character is honesty. Our initial discussion was about what it means to be honest. Some of our answers were: honesty means to be truthful, morally correct, free from lying and hardworking. The effects of being honest are shown in one's demeanor, honest people are more calm and relaxed as opposed to being anxious and fearful while telling lies. We then spoke about how the prophet (saw), his family and his companions demonstrated this attribute in their everyday lives. For msulims acting honestly is an honorable thing to do and we should never be hesitant to tell the truth. Our take away lesson was: honesty starts with ourselves because if we can be honest with ourselves we can be honest with Allah and others.

Math: We reviewed everything we know about time. We talked about different elements of time, explained their functions, discussed the role of the hour hand and minute hand. Students practiced telling time by the hour, half hour, quarter to/past and in 5 minute intervals on a digital and analogue clock. They watched related videos to consolidate their understanding and answered the following questions: What time is it? Where does the minute hand point? Where does the hour hand point? They also practiced writing time using words for eg: 2:30 would be half-past 2, 4:45 would be quarter-to 5 and 8:15 would be quarter-past 8.

Language/Science: Alhumdulilah last week we dedicated our time to finish all sections of our apple books: what apples "can" "have" "are", K-W-L (what we know, what we want to know and what we have learned), life-cycle, seasons, and my favourite kind of apple. We also managed to successfully complete our in-class project about green sea turtles. Students put their best work in to compiling all the necessary information related to this fascinating reptile with a smooth carapace.

Science: Students are now learning all about amphibians. We watched a national geographic video for kids about how amphibians begin their life in water with gills and tails then develop lungs and legs for their life on land. We identified several of their characteristics but will continue exploring more unique facts in the upcoming week and compare/contrast them to reptiles inshaAllah.

Writing: I prepared a writing prompt by the title "All About My Winter Break". Students wrote 6-7 sentences (some wrote upto 10!) in their writing journals to describe what they did and how much they enjoyed their time with family and friends. As always, while writing they were encouraged to pay close attention to punctuation, capitalization and expressing complete thoughts.

Spelling Test: On Friday, January 20th we will resume with our weekly spelling test. The words they will practice have consonant blends with the letters "l" and "r": grass, trunk, truck, flew, flat, class, plate, from, glove and friend. 

BONUS: time, minute, hour, analogue and digital 

Islamic Studies: We've come to a close with our wudu books as well. All incomplete items have been completed. Students will have a salah party by the end of next week on Friday with 2B inshaAllah where we will play games including a fun salah quiz, names associated to the position of prayer etc. I will send more details on that this coming Tuesday. Next week we will be starting a new chapter on salah.


Reminders:

Please encourage your children to read on RazKids for 20 minutes every day.

All library items should be returned as per the due dates.

Marked social studies projects, homework and spelling tests will be sent home next week inshaAllah.



JazakAllah khayr.