Hi JK parents!

We have been having fun with Gingerbread people and reading all kinds of stories about the adventures of these little brown boys and girls all over the place!

Literacy:
The children have been working on their inventive spelling as we sound out words and complete the missing vowel or consonant. The vowels are still the most tricky, as are the w, y and c/s.  In reading groups, we have been taking turns underlining each word as we read books together, as well as hunting for letters/letter sounds.

We have been working diligently on our letter formation, and using a base line of green (grass), a mid line of brown (fence) and a top line of blue (sky) to remind children where to start and where to "bump the line/grass).  The colors are helpful for some children to remember.

Math/Science:
We have been counting snow flakes and writing numbers as we play a snowflake game, along with rolling dice and identifying the numbers on Gingerbread people.

Gross and Fine Motor:
We have been working on throwing and catching bean bags, as this crosses the midline and helps children in their development, using both sides of the body/brain.  We made snowy pictures after reading and discussing The Snowy Day.  We made tracks in the snow with our fingers in the paint, showing the boy's journey around on his snow day.  The children also cut and pasted the little boy from the story to their picture.

Music and Movement:
The children have been rehearsing a song they will sing for you on Friday!  We love playing follow the leader as we work on our syllables and copying rhythms.

Please come to celebrate with us on Friday from 9:30-10:30 in our classroom!  If you have not signed up to bring something please see the Google doc I emailed last week.  We would love your help with some party treats! 

Have a great week!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK parents!

The trampoline is amazing for getting the sillies out and just being 4/5!  

We have been studying the famous artist Claude Monet this week, and have begun our Gingerbread theme too.

Fine Motor:
The children completed their interpretation of Monet's Water Lilly Pond painting.  They used water colors over taped off bridges, and then added water lilies using tissue paper and pressing them to the paper with a pencil/eraser end.  We made snow people with doilies and decorated them with different shapes and materials.  We also made our own Gingerbread people and decorated them, after reading the Gingerbread Loose in School!

 Measuring is so much fun!  

 Categorizing by color and theme, and counting and adding!

 Small, medium and large snow balls for our snow people!  Textures are everywhere.  

 Puzzle races encourage team work!  

 Our upper school friend who visits us weekly!  We heart Rowan!  

 Never enough glitter!  I love that they all made such different Gingerbread people!  

 "Mine is going to be an Indian Gingerbread girl, because I am Indian and she's going to have a sari and be just like me!"

When the kids get your phone and start taking pictures!  

Science/Math:
We completed a science experiment using paper gingerbread people and water.  The children made a hypothesis about what would happen at one minute, ten minutes and one hour of submerging them in water.  Some thought they would sink to the bottom and tear apart.  Some thought the decorations/marker would be all washed off.  Surprisingly, they all stayed afloat and look almost unharmed by the water.  We named them all too:  Flower, Crumb and Chocolate Milk.  We took a vote and tallied the results for their names, charting them using tally marks.

We participated in the Hour of Coding theme by using coding apps on our Ipads to guide a little man through a pathway of directions.  The children are learning how to code on their own!

 This was the Gingerbread girl named "Crumb".  

 10 little pickles making their observations!  

Literacy:
We had responsive reading time in our groups, and began reading some of the early reading level one books along with continuing with our phonics lessons and Bob books.  We practice our letter sounds and have begun introducing blending letters for the "ch" sound and the "bl" sound.  We made a list of words that begin with these letter sounds and practiced our popcorn words for some of the groups.  We are also working on upper case letter recognition and matching those letters with their lower case letter.

Making bread entails measuring using our math skills, taking turns-developing our social skills, discussing salty or sweet and our taste buds, and enjoying something we made all by ourselves!

 Coding!!

We talked about the characters in our stories and made many predictions as we read in our morning meeting.  We discussed the sequence of events and what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story.  I love asking them "what if" questions to spark their imaginations.

We are working on making the Grinch's heart grow bigger as we perform acts of kindness.  We talk daily about what it means to be kind and helpful.  We also talked about how we are not competing for the biggest and best, but that every child is different and wonderful in their own special way.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey