Monday, September 3, 2018



Good afternoon JK parents!

I have loved this first week of school and getting to know your children!  What a wonderful class!  We will go over things in detail next week (Thursday evening) at mini school night, but we are off to a wonderful start.

Language Arts:
We have read many great books this week about getting used to school and new surroundings, along with some other favorites of mine!  The Kissing Hand, David Goes to School, Count Down to Kindergarten, Know and Follow, First Day Jitters, First Day Hooray, The Wolf's Chicken Stew, How Will I Get to School This Year?, and Too Much Glue (a class favorite!).  The children enjoyed their first French class, and were all saying "Bonjour!"  We talked about the first letter of each of our names and read our morning message together each day, pausing and pointing to each word to become more familiar with the flow of text.  We have not begun reading or writing centers yet, as we are still learning the routines of the classroom and school.  I have begun assessing the children using a wonderful tool:  ESGI.  We will talk more about each child's learning level at conferences and throughout the year.

Math & Science:
We counted each day as our calendar classroom helper pointed and wrote the numbers on the calendar.  We talked about taller, shorter, faster, slower, and making comparisons as we all got to know each other.  We will incorporate our All About Me theme into our Math center next week as we measure and weigh ourselves.

Gross Motor:
The children are all enjoying PE with Mr. Linkhart!  They played freeze dance and many other games.  We all did Star Wars Yoga in the classroom for another much needed physical break!  We will dance to GoNoodle this year and do tons of yoga, along with other fun games and exercises. 


 Star Wars Yoga is always a blast in JK!


Please be sure your label the bottoms of your child's shoes with inside and outside, so we can help them learn which shoes to wear in school and which to wear outside/home.  It's a bit confusing and a little different than Pre-K-so that will be very helpful.

I am looking forward to next week, and seeing you all for mini school night this Thursday at 6pm.  I will go over the curriculum and themes for the year and answer all of your questions!  Thank you for being so prompt arriving to school.  It's so helpful for the children to be on time and give a quick goodbye to parents to engage in the JK day as soon as possible upon arrival. 

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Ms. Massey (Susie)


























Fine Motor:
The children worked on calendars, gluing and then coloring cut outs.  Everyone completed their self portrait while studying their faces in a mirror.  We talked about all of their different features and how we are all different and wonderful.  Each child practiced their fine motor skills while they put stickers on their name templates.  We talked about starting at the top when writing our letters.  I was impressed at how careful and precise their stickers were placed!  We will be doing all sorts of art this year.  Some will give the children free rein with different materials and some are practicing following multi-step instructions and learning where things occur in reality.  Each project and activity has a different objective, and I'll include those objectives in details on this weekly update.