Thank you for supporting the kids if you were able to cheer them on at Palio! They all had a great time and I was so proud of them for performing so well for an audience.
Happy Spring Break! The sunshine has us all happy and excited for warm weather and spending more time outside.
Math and Science:
The children have been noticing signs of spring around the neighborhood, and went on a scavenger hunt to find them all! They know their seasons and have enjoyed learning about all of the ways spring shows itself. We have been talking about migration and how the birds are returning, as well as animals waking up from hibernation.
We continue working on subtraction story problems using manipulatives, counting by 10's, counting to 100, practicing those tricky teen numbers, identifying numbers within print during our morning message, coins review, and 3D shapes. They have been exposed to all of these through the year so practicing them and reviewing often is required to keep the information fresh as it becomes part of their knowledge base.
We visited the fourth grade class and learned about their amusement parks they designed, utilizing different climates. Incredible creations and the children loved it all!
We measured each other this week and lined up blocks as our non-standard units of measure to compare our heights to other classmates. The children created flowers for our flower garden and attached a ribbon that matches their height.
Literacy:
The children continue to practice syllables in words and picking out each letter sound as they write. Their Word Books are filling up as are their sign in books. We have begun working on blends and digraphs for some groups as they learn to combine letters to make new sounds and become more fluent in their decoding. We began reading books about Spring, along with other stories, and are using a chart to follow song lyrics as we sing as a group each morning.
Music is an amazing avenue for remembering all of the foundational words, including days of the week, months of the year, seasons, days in each month, etc. It's also important for the children to feel a part of something that sounds different when everyone is working together. It's an important element to early childhood, and makes each day a bit more colorful. We love our Music time twice a week but also know it's important to incorporate through our classroom day. Even children who are not my performers benefit from learning how to appeal to an audience as a group! It's another great skill to encourage team work and compromise, as each child becomes more aware of their personal space and the sounds they contribute to our singing.
Our third grade reading buddies checked out books for us and brought them to read together. It's such a treat to have them buddy up to the JK children. We look forward to their visits!
Fine Motor:
The children created flowers by decorating petals and cutting them out, then gluing their photo to the middle of the flower. Following three step instructions is an important skill and art work provides a great vehicle to practice. Most students are able to follow 3 step instructions. We will continue to practice this skill daily. Children have been creating each day with small legos. The imagination and collaborations between classmates is outstanding as the worlds become joined and cooperation to share both materials and space is necessary.
Social/Emotional:
We are playing games and working through many exercises daily where children express their gratitude to other classmates by identifying friends who have been kind, nice, comforting, taught them something, been fun to play with, been a great listener, made them feel good about something, etc. I love to have time each day where we all express our gratitude to each other. We played "Who's in the Club, Art Studio, Eye Spy, Doggie Doggie, Heads Up 7-Up, and many other collaborative games as a group. This class is growing in their empathy toward others and it's not an easy thing to grasp for four and five year olds, but they are just surpassing my expectations. The social and emotional aspects of Early Childhood are every bit as important to cultivate as the academics! Raising kind and caring citizens of the classroom and the community is foremost on my mind, as you all trust me with your children each day!
Have a wonderful break, and I will look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, April 9th, when we jump into our Spring, Growing Things, and then Insects! When I order the ant farm in May I know it's almost time to say goodbye to the school year.
Ms. Massey
