Hi JK Families!

We are studying the great artist, Claude Monet, this week.  The children have enjoyed my stories using a mini Claude Monet finger puppet while talking about my time spent painting the water lilies and haystacks!

Language Arts:  We read many stories about Monet and his garden, and paintings, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as other stories.  These included:  Philippe, In Monet's Garden, Monet, The Blue Butterfly-A Story About Claude Monet, The Woman Who Named Everything, Hanna's Hog, Maya and the Town that Loved a Tree, Maxwell's Magic Mix-Up, and numerous other Monet/art books! The sixth grade reading buddies came to read to our class.  We are fortunate to have two classes this year reading and buddying up with our JKers!  We wrote books with a beginning, middle and end, and illustrated them. Some of the stories were about the children standing on the same bridge Monet painted hundreds of times.  It's so interesting to see how they incorporate all they are learning into their writing, drawing and play.

Fine Arts:
The children have been working on their self portraits while studying their faces in a mirror, careful to include accurate details.  I loved seeing one child include eyebrows for the first time in her picture! We began making our March calendars, as well as pots of gold with rainbows for St. Patrick's Day season.

We have also been using pastels to draw Monet Haystacks.  This was a three part project as we first drew the haystacks, considering what time of year as well as time of day they wanted to portray in their picture.  After the pastel coloring, the children used water colors to fill in the background and foreground.  Once they were happy with their work, they completed their pictures by gluing "hay" (raffia) to the haystacks to add texture and dimension.  We talked about what different colors might mean in a painting, and which colors might portray happiness and sadness, or dark and light/night and day.

They asked if Monet could come visit our classroom and were sad to hear that he lived long ago.  Someone commented that he is in heaven.  Another child asked me if heaven is real.  All in the day of Junior Kindergarten!

Math & Science:
The children practiced measuring different items in a game we play as they place blocks in line with images of a snake, rope, insect and pencil.  They competed to make different patterns and helped their peers count and compare.  The simple patterns are becoming more complex as one child was patterning ABCD.  Another AABB.

We are discussing the science of a rainbow and how the colors are always in the same order as we worked on our pots of gold and rainbows.  The children dictated their answer to, "What would you do if you found a pot of gold?".  Most would buy things for their mommy and daddy.  I was amazed with the items and the lack of expensive items they would purchase.  They talked about buying some strawberries or a special toy, but most were very modest items.

We will jump into the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss next week!  I will be sending home strips of paper for the children to fill out with books they read each night.  They don't have to be Dr. Seuss books!  Write them down and return them and we will use them to build the Cat in the Hat's hat!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Massey

Good afternoon JK parents!

Our author study of William Steig has begun, and the children are mesmerized by his amazing stories.  The advanced vocabulary stretches their abilities and the intricate plots using anthropomorphism are fascinating to the children!

Language Arts:
The story we read about a pig who found a magic talking bone lead to many interesting conversations about what each student would do upon finding such a strange and enchanting object.  We have read many lovely Steig stories this week:  Pete's a Pizza, Caleb and Kate, Alpha Beta Chowder, The Three Little Pigs, Are you Going to be Bad?, Brave Irene, Dr. DeSoto, The Amazing Bone, Lion Lessons, Oh, Were They Ever Happy!,  and How Are You Peeling?

We met with our third grade reading buddies and wrote "Response to Reading" pages using inventive spelling.  The children are loving being read to and then working and illustrating pages with their older buddies!  We are so fortunate to have that class to form relationships with this year!  It gives the children friends to say "hi" to as they navigate the hallways, and makes them happy to know others outside of our early childhood nook!

As we prepared for our 100 Day Museum, the children completed a tag about the item they brought and shared it with the class before setting up for our museum.  Grouping items and understanding the one to one correspondence while touching each item and moving it while counting is a critical exercise.  This week has given us plenty of opportunities to practice these skills.  We collaboratively colored a sign for our 100 Day Museum, and visited the museum in groups so each child would have an opportunity to talk about their item as well as enjoy all of the other children's items.

Our class also celebrated Chinese New Year with the Seniors!  We attended two special sessions in the MPR and Library, including a demonstration on Chinese Puppets and Dough Figurines.  The children volunteered to give puppeteering a try as they learned how difficult it is to hold and control the beautiful puppets!  It's quite a skill to be mastered!  The seniors were beyond wonderful, as they loved seeing the JK ers dressed as 100 year olds and loved just mingling and being with the little ones.  JK loves spending time with the "big kids"!

Math & Science:
Children were separated into groups to categorize their items with their peers in groups of ten to add up to 100!  Each took turns counting their group's items.  We also put children into groups and had each shout out their tens number as other children pointed and sang along with the game.  Using students as actors as we move around the pieces makes it so much fun!

Fine Arts:
We will be working on our next round of self portraits.  The children have also been working with clay and learning to make different extensions and then join them together.  We finished our traffic lights we started last week, and will begin our next unit study we introduced today (Friday) on the great artist Monet.

We will be continuing our study and celebration of Black History Month, as we learn about the great Jackie Robinson, among other leaders/heroes.

Have a wonderful weekend/week!

Ms. Massey