Hoppin' Into Junior Kindergarten!

Good afternoon JK Parents and Friends!

We enjoyed meeting grandparents and special friends before our Thanksgiving break.  Who knew we had a magician, and so many other sweet and talented family members.  The children have been learning their 3D shapes, including the sphere, cylinder, cube and cone.  Their minds are expanding as we try to picture what things look like from all sides.  This is a fun exercise to try to recognize cylinders around the house, or cones as you are driving around town.

Everyone enjoyed our field trip to the Apollo Theater in Lincoln Park to watch Diary of a Worm, Spider and Fly.  They loved the fact that worm kept eating his homework and was a little bit shy at the beginning of the play only to blossom and become the great dancer and performer.  Each student wrote a journal page about their favorite character and illustrated it for our class book.

Music class is always lots of fun, when we get to march, dance, sing and play instruments with Mrs. N!  

We have begun recognizing sight words and looking for those words in our books and other places around the school.  Our introduction to the Gingerbread Man has begun as we are reading stories and looking for "G's"and "G" words.  We are talking about the sequence of events and what comes first, second, third, last, etc.  We are building our confidence as we continue to act out stories and identify the characters and settings in stories.  We are learning about different holidays around the world and reading about all of the different ways children celebrate.  If there are any special traditions you have in your homes, we would love to have you share them with the class!

In Spanish the past two weeks, the JK students worked in three different groups building on their knowledge of clothing (ropa), counting numbers(contando numeros) 1-10, animals (anamales) and family members. We played BINGO con animales (BINGO with animals). We also dressed up for winter (invierno) in mittons (mittones), hats (sombreros), pants (pantalones), jackets (chaquetas), and boots (botas). We played a matching mittons game with numbers and snowflakes! Lastly the students drew a picture of their house (casa) and family (familia). Each student identified the members of their family in Spanish. 

Following is a link to a youtube channel with classic nursery rhymes and songs in Spanish.  https://www.youtube.com/user/ToobysSpanish

We performed our song, "Let's Make it Shine" for the Pre-K.  We then broke into buddies and the JK were able to read to their Pre-K buddy.  It was a chance for them to be the big kids and show the little kids what they are learning.  It was fun to hear all of the stories they were "reading".

Please take a peek at extra clothes in the restroom to be sure they are winter appropriate and still fit in the instance of accidents.  Also, be sure you are sending snow pants and boots each day.  Sometimes the snow is gone but our playground is still wet.  I look forward to seeing some of you at the Gingerbread celebration next Friday.  I will be sending out a sign up sheet for a few materials and volunteers for the actual party.  It will take place from 10-11 am in our classroom after a hunt around the school to find our escaped cookies.  It's a surprise, so don't let them know yet.

Please, as always, feel free to come visit, read, chat, call, email or text anytime.  I love sharing what we are doing in class and how your children are growing this year.

Susie Massey