I thought my class last year was amazing but I'm crazy about my class this year, it's a great group of kids. Background info: my boss opened a second school this year and I had the opportunity to work there which I jumped at. The school is brand new, everything is beautiful, the classrooms are huge and bright and with only five classes this year, there seems to be endless space. From one window in my class I can see Burj Al Arab and from the other I can see Burj Khalifa, not too shabby!
This year has been flying by, I can't believe we're already about to start our third and final term! I have 18 three to four year olds in my class and they're from all over (Lebanon, Sweden, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Jordan, Egypt, America). I have a couple that don't speak much English but we're making solid progress:) The first day was a little rough, mainly because I got punched in the face by a little Arab boy, literally he punched me in the eye. So it's not all "living the dream" or being "off the grid" as Felipe likes to say haha. But it's been uphill since then and we've been having a lot of fun!
We also have an awesome variety of activities for the kids (and teachers) to enjoy. We have football (soccer), mini golf (yes we have a small mini golf course), zumba, dance, music, French, Arabic, cooking and a weekly science experiment. All of my class can count to ten in English, French and Arabic! I've been paying attention in French and Arabic and have picked up a few words and phrases myself.
The science experiments are always fun and a highlight of the week. We recently made "goop" which consists of cornstarch, water and some green food coloring to make it look cool. Goop is always a polarizing one, kids either absolutely love it or hate the touch. I had one girl in my class this go round refuse to even touch it though. She said, "Miss Jennifer, I can't, I have manicure." She's four years old! I should mention her family is insanely loaded. We joke about which car her dad will show up in each day. He seriously has a Ferrari, a Mercedes G wagon, a Mercedes sedan and a Bentley. I literally can't even imagine!
We have our first field trip coming up and my kids are pumped. We're going to a turtle sanctuary and I'm really excited about it too. I think it's a trip the kids will really be able to learn something from. To prepare, we've been talking a lot about turtles in our class and painted our own paper plate turtles the other day. We discuss the trip every morning in circle time, to be fair I think they're as excited to take the school bus as they are for the actual trip but either way they're pumped!
A big theme from this year has been Frozen. The level of obsession is insane. Most of my kids know all the lyrics to "Let it Go" and I just can't get away from it. Almost every birthday party is Frozen themed, all the girls constantly want their hair styled like Elsa or Anna. My assistant, Valentina, was fixing a girl's hair one day and the girl had a complete meltdown and started screaming "it's not like Elsa!!"
We have a pirate ship in a sandbox outside in our playground. My kids like to pretend to by pirates, obviously. I've taught them to say "arggg" and "ahoy mateys!, but there seems to have been a slight miscommunication because today, one of my boys, Bud Bud (that's a nickname btw) jumped up on the pirate ship and started yelling "hoy, hoy, ladies!" haha. It was adorable. Bud Bud is such a character. He also loves to belt out songs from Frozen, and when he sings one of the lines from Let it Go he says "the cold neder bodered me anyway".
One of my coworkers is taking an EYFS cache course and occasionally her teacher comes to our school to observe her. She was using some of my kids for her most recent observation and beforehand was trying to prep them on saying where they are from and recognizing their flag. Two of the kids (twins) are American so she first worked with them to say America and recognize the US flag. The other boy is from Saudi Arabia. He got very confused after hearing all the talk about America though and started saying he was from America. We tried to clarify and kept repeating Saudi Arabia and the result was his feeling confident that he is from "Saudi America".
Sometimes I like to just let my kids talk in circle time and I'm so amused to hear what comes out of their mouths. Here are some examples from different children in a time frame of 1 minute (mostly being said at the same time, trying to speak over one another):
"My name is Ben 10"
"I can draw number 7"
"When Spiderman fights, he does like this (imitates a fist up in the air)"
"Magic and Friendship, I saw on my iPad"
"I have pink iPad"
"Miss Jennifer, did you see my new bag?"
Just another day in the life of preschool! The fun never ends:)
Here are some of our boards from this year:
"Look Miss Jennifer, I'm drawing you!":
This year has been flying by, I can't believe we're already about to start our third and final term! I have 18 three to four year olds in my class and they're from all over (Lebanon, Sweden, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Jordan, Egypt, America). I have a couple that don't speak much English but we're making solid progress:) The first day was a little rough, mainly because I got punched in the face by a little Arab boy, literally he punched me in the eye. So it's not all "living the dream" or being "off the grid" as Felipe likes to say haha. But it's been uphill since then and we've been having a lot of fun!
Here we are checking on the small plants we grew during the month of October for our growing theme!
We also have an awesome variety of activities for the kids (and teachers) to enjoy. We have football (soccer), mini golf (yes we have a small mini golf course), zumba, dance, music, French, Arabic, cooking and a weekly science experiment. All of my class can count to ten in English, French and Arabic! I've been paying attention in French and Arabic and have picked up a few words and phrases myself.
The science experiments are always fun and a highlight of the week. We recently made "goop" which consists of cornstarch, water and some green food coloring to make it look cool. Goop is always a polarizing one, kids either absolutely love it or hate the touch. I had one girl in my class this go round refuse to even touch it though. She said, "Miss Jennifer, I can't, I have manicure." She's four years old! I should mention her family is insanely loaded. We joke about which car her dad will show up in each day. He seriously has a Ferrari, a Mercedes G wagon, a Mercedes sedan and a Bentley. I literally can't even imagine!
Here we are doing a "dancing raisins" science experiment:
We have our first field trip coming up and my kids are pumped. We're going to a turtle sanctuary and I'm really excited about it too. I think it's a trip the kids will really be able to learn something from. To prepare, we've been talking a lot about turtles in our class and painted our own paper plate turtles the other day. We discuss the trip every morning in circle time, to be fair I think they're as excited to take the school bus as they are for the actual trip but either way they're pumped!
A big theme from this year has been Frozen. The level of obsession is insane. Most of my kids know all the lyrics to "Let it Go" and I just can't get away from it. Almost every birthday party is Frozen themed, all the girls constantly want their hair styled like Elsa or Anna. My assistant, Valentina, was fixing a girl's hair one day and the girl had a complete meltdown and started screaming "it's not like Elsa!!"
We have a pirate ship in a sandbox outside in our playground. My kids like to pretend to by pirates, obviously. I've taught them to say "arggg" and "ahoy mateys!, but there seems to have been a slight miscommunication because today, one of my boys, Bud Bud (that's a nickname btw) jumped up on the pirate ship and started yelling "hoy, hoy, ladies!" haha. It was adorable. Bud Bud is such a character. He also loves to belt out songs from Frozen, and when he sings one of the lines from Let it Go he says "the cold neder bodered me anyway".
One of my coworkers is taking an EYFS cache course and occasionally her teacher comes to our school to observe her. She was using some of my kids for her most recent observation and beforehand was trying to prep them on saying where they are from and recognizing their flag. Two of the kids (twins) are American so she first worked with them to say America and recognize the US flag. The other boy is from Saudi Arabia. He got very confused after hearing all the talk about America though and started saying he was from America. We tried to clarify and kept repeating Saudi Arabia and the result was his feeling confident that he is from "Saudi America".
Sometimes I like to just let my kids talk in circle time and I'm so amused to hear what comes out of their mouths. Here are some examples from different children in a time frame of 1 minute (mostly being said at the same time, trying to speak over one another):
"My name is Ben 10"
"I can draw number 7"
"When Spiderman fights, he does like this (imitates a fist up in the air)"
"Magic and Friendship, I saw on my iPad"
"I have pink iPad"
"Miss Jennifer, did you see my new bag?"
Just another day in the life of preschool! The fun never ends:)
Here are some of our boards from this year:
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