Hi JK Parents!
We have just finished our Halloween Theme and Kindness Week in JK. We had an amazing time at The Grove! The children loved seeing the Possum, snakes, turtles, owls, turkey, and LOVED the hay ride. We learned about different kinds of Oak Trees and how to tell the difference by their branches. What a fun time for JK to run around and experience the beautiful Fall day!
We read Spookly the Square Pumpkin and talked about how to be kind and appreciate things and people who are different. We drew our own square pumpkins and talked about how we would have felt if no one wanted to choose us because we were different than all of the others in the pumpkin patch. And, that we ARE all different!
We read many RAZ kids books and practiced underlining words as we read them. We are sounding out CVC words each day in our morning message as we put letter sounds together to make words.
Fine Motor:
The class made November calendars with turkeys and feathers, and wrote the things for which they are thankful. November is just around the corner. Oh my.
We painted and decorated jack o lantern bags to decorate our hallway. They loved stuffing their pumpkins!
The students completed self portraits for October and added details as they studied their features in a mirror. They are noticing the different shades of pink or red for their mouths/lips, different colors of skin and hair and eyes, and able to match colors more closely.
Math & Science:
We continued our study of "Simple Machines" as we learned about the pulley and created ways to lift things without exerting as much force and learned about lifting heavy things by using string and a wheel to decrease the resistance. They sent things on their pulleys to a friend, and loaded plastic elephants in a cup to determine the force used when the weight was more. Ms. Murphy, Ms. Graff and Ms. Finley-Odell helped the students test their pulleys by raising one end to have their carrier decend. We read about the Science Squirrels in Newton Curie's book about Simple Machines. We love animated non-fiction books. We went on a scavenger hunt around the school looking for simple machines, and found a door wedge, a screw, seesaw, ladder, door kob, window blind, jar, pliers, slide and steering wheel.
We have read many fiction books this week about Halloween, and hunted for rhyming words, and looked for beginning and ending sounds.
Kindness:
We read Be Kind and many other books about kindness, and discussed different ways to be kind to yourself, your friends, your community, and your family. We sent messages to friends and practiced thanking everyone from our tour guides at our field trip to our parents for everything they do each day to care for us. We talked about how the little things make a difference, like letting someone else go first or waiting for a friend who is behind you. We shared ideas about how to be kind to people when they need a friend, and might not be the easiest to show kindness.
Don't forget to bring in $5 for Carnival next Friday. We will be sending a sign up sheet for our class party to help us celebrate Halloween in our classroom (just students). Please feel free to sign up to bring something.
Have a lovely weekend!
Ms. Massey & Mrs. DiSalle
