Plum Garden Kindergarten’s September subject planner

Plum Garden Kindergarten’s first theme and monthly subject planners
Theme: School and friends / 学校和朋友.
The subjects focus on language, social studies, personal social education (PSE), physical education (P.E), Science, and mathematics. The central idea is that school helps us to learn and live together. Six weeks from 9/14-10/23 is the total number of learning weeks.
Inquiries:
* Good to know you / 认识你真好 * Our classroom / 我们这一班
* Play together / 一起来游戏 * A day of life at School / 在学校一天的生活

Language monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) We will start our first Chinese lesson “Flowers blooming / 花开了” The students will learn how to write 一 (one), 了 (a function word to indicate a past tense), 小 (small), 天 (sky / day), 白 (white), 你 (you), 花 (flower), and 的 (a possessive noun). By the end of this lesson, the children will understand how things grow in nature and how it relates to their lives.
(9/23 – 9/29) We will continue to learn our first Chinese lesson “Flowers blooming / 花开了” The students will learn how to write new vocabulary characters and understand the meaning of the characters. The children will also learn how to build Chinese phrases. For example: 一 (one) + 天 (day / sky) = 一天 (one day.) 白 (white) + 花 (flower) = 白花 (white flower.) It takes time for the children to understand how to connect one character to another character to make phrases meaningful. In this section, the children will learn how to build phrases through games, such as the character fishing game, “Looking for a Friend”, and the word-adding exercise.
(9/30 – 10/6) The children will continue to learn how to build Chinese phrases.

Math monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) For the kindergarten entire year of math, our goal is to focus on four areas: Number Sense / 数, Measurement / 量, Graphics and Spatial / 图形与空间, Logic, Binding and Connection / 逻辑与关系. In our first area, we will focus on Number Sense / 数. This area will include: Singing the numbers, 1 and many, Counting, Writing and identifying numbers, Correspondence, Ordinal, Compound and break down, Addition and subtraction, Binary concept, Statistics, and Estimate. This week, we will learn how to correspond numbers, such as big and small and more and less.
(9/23 – 9/29) This week, we will continue to learn how to correspond numbers, such as big and small and more and less. We will play games to help students to identify, count, and write numbers. We will also learn how to count backwards.
(9/30 – 10/6) We will continue to learn how to count backwards. The children will learn how to practice their writing skills. We will learn how to draw a horizontal, vertical, and curved lines. They will use strings to penetrate an object, draw numbers, and trace numbers to enhance their fine motor skills. They will learn how to draw objects or use objects to match numbers.

Social Studies and PSE monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) Since school started, we have already prepared for our first inquiry into “Good to know you / 认识你真好.” We will get to know each other’s English and Chinese names. We will learn how to greet each other. We will learn how to respect our classmates, friends, teachers, school staffs, school property, materials, and themselves as well. Every child will have a turn to bring their favorite things to share with the class every Friday for sharing day. The children will learn how to work as a group, a team, and will also learn how to work individually. The children will also learn how to care for each other, develop friendships, and be responsible, appreciative, and participative. Respect is the keyword for this inquiry.
(9/23 – 9/29) This week, we will finish “Good to know you / 认识你真好” then get into “Our classroom / 我们这一班.” We will summarize the “Good to know you” inquiry. I will give each group a few questions that we have learned and discovered so far with our first inquiry—Do you know any friends? When you and your friends are together, what activities do you enjoy doing the most? If you want to join a friend’s activities, what will you do? The children will brainstorm their reflections during choice time. The children will use drawings or words to respond to questions. In the “Our classroom / 我们这一班” inquiry, we will inquire into how to organize our classroom and ourselves. We will take a look at our classrooms. Are there any corners and devices in Plum Garden? What are those devices used for? How do we use them in an appropriate way? Let’s agree on how we can make the classroom into a happy and warm learning environment and much like a home. We will have little classroom helpers—in our Plum Garden, we will have two classroom helpers each day. Their jobs will be to help the teacher collect their classmates’ work supplies, and hot lunch basket.
(9/30 – 10/6) “Our classroom / 我们这一班” is this weeks’ inquiry, we will inquire into how to organize our classroom and ourselves. We will put up the corner signs and set up corners together. We will learn vocabularies that relate to classroom corners, devices, and materials. We will learn how to handle classroom materials appropriately and how to respect them. Let’s agree on how we can make the classroom into a happy and warm learning environment and much like a home. Cooperation is the keyword for this inquiry.

Art monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) We will be continuing on making our first book project “It’s all about me” and we will also make “My friend tree.”
(9/23 – 9/29) We will be continuing on making our first book project “It’s all about me” and we will draw “My favorite classroom corners.” From this art concept, the children will learn how to express their ideas and the functions of corners.
(9/30 – 10/6) For this week’s art project, we will do art that does not relate to our theme since it is about autumn. We will use color tissue paper to make a fall scene picture.

P.E monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) Children will divide into two groups. It is a relay race. The children have a ball in their hands. One child at the time from both teams have to run through the cones, cross the playground, throw the ball into a basket, then come back to his/her team so the next teammate continues the same process until all of the balls are at the other side of the baskets.
(9/23 – 9/29) This week, we will learn how to bounce a ball. We will have bouncing ball relay games for our PE class. This exercise will help students learn how to demonstrate motor skills and movement patterns. The children will learn how to travel forwards and sideways while bouncing a ball to the given destination. They will learn how to use motor skills to prevent falling.
(9/30 – 10/6) We will continue to learn how to bounce a ball. We will have bouncing ball relay games again for our PE class. We will also learn how to bounce a ball in different ways.

Song monthly planners
(9/16 – 9/22) We will continue to learn “Welcome to the Plum Garden / 欢迎来到梅园” and also will learn a new song “Where are my friends? / 我的朋友在哪里？”
(9/23 – 9/29) We will continue to sing “Ro-Sham-Bo / 来猜拳.” We will also learn how to sing “Dismissal song / 放学歌.”
(9/30 – 10/6) We will continue to sing “Dismissal song / 放学歌.” This week, we will be learning “My School / 我的学校.” Last year, I wrote the lyrics about a day life in Shu Ren International School and used a familiar children’s song melody to teach the children about school life. It is a three page long song but children will learn most of the “School and friends / 学校和朋友” theme vocabulary through this song.

Science monthly planners
(9/30 – 10/6) This week, we will have a very basic science project. Each child will adopt a Jade plant and then plant it in a jar of water. The children will watch how are their Jade plant growing. I hope that this science experiment will reflect to their body growing and the concept of Chinese lesson one “Flowers blooming / 花开了.”