Hoppin' Into Junior Kindergarten!

Hi JK parents!

We are loving Dr. Seuss, and have read Wacky Wednesday, Mulberry Street,  The Lorax, One Fish Two Fish, The King's Stilts (one of my very favorites!), and many other stories.

 Left hand, right hand, let's make our fish!  

 Letter writing both upper and lower case letters as we sing and say our Zoo Phonics letters each day!

 Practicing writing sight words!  

 Taking picture walks, telling stories based on pictures, retelling stories, searching for letters and words...these are all amazing ways to increase literacy and reading comprehension.

 It's always challenging trying new words but Ms. Yonan is a master at walking the children through their worries and encouraging their efforts regardless of the outcome.

 Ms. Charlene is a gem and makes our lunches each day!  We love her!  The JK children made her a card and delivered it.  They sang Happy Birthday and gave her lots of hugs.  They love making everyone's day a little brighter.

Literacy:
We are reading our letter books, high frequency word books and Bob Books.  We have practiced our whole group rhyming and taking turns writing a letter to create a new rhyming word on the white board.  We are also working on "reading" our message as we find each word by it's beginning letter and letter sound.

We read Horton Hears a Who and talked about what our speck was saying to us.  We made clovers with specks and had snack with them.  We love reciting that, "A person's a person no matter how small!".

We read The King's Stilts and practiced our stilt walking!  

We are practicing our sight words or popcorn words.  We play a popping game as we spell out each word.  It's a fun way to learn each of these words that are  not easy to decode and require memorizing.

Math & Science:
We are matching Dr. Seuss cards as we play a memory game.  We are counting pairs of cards and comparing to our classmates.  We are also engineering a Leprechaun trap for next week!  We are discussing the size and mechanics of our trap and gathering the materials.

The Queens and Kings of stilt walking!

Fine Motor:
The children made fish handprints for One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and wrote out the rhyme using their finger spacing and lower case letters.

We practiced our cutting skills, while helping the cat reach his hat, and a couple of other Dr. Seuss characters make it across the page while curving and zig-zagging!  We also cut out green eggs and ham pictures! 

We read The Lorax and made our own Lorax figures the children used to present a puppet show.  We wrote a story as a class about the Lorax and what might have happened if the Lorax had stopped the man from cutting down all of the Truffala Trees.  We talked about the earth and what we can do to help the water and land not become dirty or "smeary" as the pond in the story.

Reminder:
We have early dismissal on Friday at 11:30 am.  If your child would like to stay for EDP please be sure to sign up on line.  I will not be here but Ms. Yonan will.  Our Palio will be the following week, Wednesday, March 20th.  I'll send out more specifics next week in case you would like to attend.  The children show you all they have been working on this year in P.E., by demonstrating at centers in the gym set up like an obstacle course.  You are welcome to come watch and take pictures.  It's a casual performance and fun for them to have their parents there cheering them on! 

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey