Hi JK parents!

          

We played a fun super hero memory game where the children had to match the upper and lower parts of a super hero's body.  They loved it! 

We are engrossed in the world of ants this week, as well as all of our growing plants!  We have begun studying the parts of an ant and learning about their predators, diet, environment etc. The anticipation has been building and the interest will be more informed now that they have had a few days to learn about the habits of ants.  The ant farm arrived and we went through the process of transferring the ants to their new home, by first refrigerating them to calm them before quickly emptying the vile into the gel ant farm.  They have already made quite a few tunnels and connected them.  The children are loving observing their work!  They have designated an area for their "ant graveyard" where they push all of the debris and dead ants to keep their habitat clean. 

Math & Science:
Ask your JK child to tell you the parts of an ant!  They should be able to point out the abdomen, thorax, antennae, head, legs and mandible(s).

We have been playing a couple of different money games to add 10's together along with familiarizing ourselves with coins and currency.  This is just an introduction to studying money in Kindergarten, but some of the children have already learned their coins and are able to add things to purchase items in our store. 

Our plants are growing, some just now at the sprout stage of the life cycle.  We are documenting the process as they observe and water each day.  Making comparisons and offering suggestions for healthy growth has been fun for them.  We have been measuring the bean plants in cm and tracking their growth.  They have been sharing information about their own gardens some of you have at home.  I have heard about rasberries, flowers and vegetables.

The Jessie White tumblers came to Roycemore and the children loved their performance!  They flipped and flew over 13 people!  It was so exciting and inspiring!

Literacy:
The children are learning more letters and blends that are not the typical sounds.  We continue to learn popcorn words and practice our writing.  Any writing practice is advantageous.  Even if the children do not know the words they are writing, they are becoming more familiar with combined letter sounds and word spacing, letter scale etc.

Fine Motor:
The children made an ant hill by coloring different tunnels and placing "ants" throughout the colony.  This is an amazing fine motor skill for practice.
We created ants using aluminum foil.  They have all been coloring ants at free play.

We began painting ants we will complete next week for our wall ant colony with tunnels.  We are using spoons and pipe cleaners to make the head, thorax and abdomen.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK parents.

 We decorated and then sat on eggs and came back from recess to see they had hatched into chicks (peeps!).  It was so fun! 

We have been planting even more this week, by adding wheat grass to our already sprouting grass, and also planted white and black beans.  We tallied the results of whose grass had sprouted on Monday, using tally marks.

 

We made "dirt cups" simulating the dirt and mud with Oreos and chocolate pudding, and of course a gummy worm! 

Fine Motor:
The children measured themselves and made a JK Flower Garden with stems representing their heights!  They decorated their flowers with sequins and talked about who is taller, shorter or the same height.

Literacy:
The children made their own books on Growing Things" and illustrated them.  Each of their stories has a beginning, middle and end.  It's fun to hear about their characters and settings! 

Happy Birthday to Brandon! 

Math & Science:
We are learning more about different stages of the life cycle of plants and are most excited that fruits and vegetables actually begin as flowers!  It's nice to hear their vocabularies expand as they add words like "fragrant", or "colorful" to descriptions. 

We have all progressed to our third page of sight words on roll, read and write.  If the children don't know the sight word they locate the letter and letter sound at the beginning and ending. 

We are all practicing our Kindergarten behavior when earning ninjas to put on our bulletin board.  Traveling through the school while respecting the artwork on the walls as well as silently walking are skills they have all mastered! 

We learned about chicks and watched the hatching of eggs before making our own eggs to sit on to incubate.  The children loved watching videos of baby chicks hatching!  We talked about the incubation period and the life cycle of the chicks.  They all kind of want a baby chick now!  :) 

Have a lovely long weekend! 

Ms. Massey