Hi JK Parents!

We are worked on our Inuit project and Valentine's Day preparations.  Scissor skills are amazing in this JK class! 

Literacy
We have been introducing popcorn words and blends or digraphs at our morning meeting to practice each week.  This week we are working on the "sl" sound, when the letters together make a combined sound they are blends, and when the combined letters make a different sound all together they are digraphs (like "ch").

We have been assessing students and have learned that some of us are still learning the one to one correspondence, so practice moving cheerios with each number counted is amazing to develop this critical foundational skill.

Math & Science
We worked on our structures and predictions for our igloos.  The children were very close in making predictions and counting their finished igloos to compare.  We all worked on the tricky teens and 20's and practiced writing using white boards. 

We categorized candy hearts and graphed them according to color.  We practiced writing each number after adding up as we used the one to one correspondence by pushing each heart to a square as we counted. 

Fine Motor:
We played with clay as they rolled, twisted, cut and created.  I loved to see all of the creative sculptures.  We had candy canes, lollipops, houses, monsters, ducks, snakes, etc. 

We practiced sewing with string and sewing cards. 

The children decorated their Valentine's boxes by drawing the half of a heart shape and then cutting them out.  They clued and colored and peeled and stuck stickers.  They loved their creations and loved sharing Valentines with friends.  The party was such a fun time! 

Thank you so much to everyone for bringing in boxes and party supplies!  We made rice krispy treats and played the Richard Scary games as we passed out valentines and ate our fruit and other goodies.  We have leftover goldfish and popcorn for afternoon snacks and morning snack days when we need some carbs to get us through until lunch.  We sooo appreciate!  We played games and went around a circle to talk about each student's talents and what we love most about them.  The children loved hearing how their friends think about them!  Big smiles everywhere! 

Have a lovely week!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK Parents!

We are overloaded with different things to celebrate in February!  We are busy building igloos, learning about many different important people for Black History Month, Lunar New Year, focusing on what kindness means and how to show it, President's Day on the horizon and Valentine's Day-whew!

Math & Science:
Each child made a prediction for how many marshmallows it would take to build their igloo.  Estimation equations come much later but it's fun to give them the foundation to build somewhat accurate estimations.  Just as we do for early coding in JK, they are quite capable of learning how to predict with numbers even if they cannot name the exact quantity. 

Fire drills at school are always a bit of an adventure!  In this case it was just some dust from sawing in the work space that set off the alarm.  The kids were happy we were already outside playing and didn't have to run out without our coats!

Ezra's dad (along with his mom and little sister!) came to celebrate his birthday and gave the children each a polyhedron shape to take home.  What a treasure and how thoughtful to bring such a fun gift and story to the class.  Thank you!  To find out more about 3D shapes follow this link:
http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/facts/geometry/3dpolyhedronshapes.html

Literacy:
Some of us have been working on the "sh" and "ch" sounds, as we put the "ph" sound in letter jail, since it does not sound at all as it should.   Using "flippy dolphin" is another reading strategy we implement as we try a different vowel sound if the first one doesn't make sense.  This English language is tricky! 

Social Studies:
We celebrated Lunar New Year with our upper school buddies who came to JK to escort us to the MPR and then spent time during the slide show together.  The children colored their animal sign as we learned the story about each animal on their journey.  Our class birthdays are either the sheep or the horse.  Ms. Hilda read a story about Lunar New Year and an upper school student answered questions about the celebration.

We have been learning about many great inventors and leaders as we celebrate Black History Month.  We watched a Ruby Bridges video and talked about how brave she was and how kind to pray for people who were treating her unfairly and being mean.  The children loved watching her and all had ideas on how they would have helped her.

Fine Motor:
We created stop lights in honor of the inventor, Garrett Morgan.  We learned that he also invented a breathing mask which would become the masks used by firefighters as well as in war.  He has saved many lives because of his amazing contribution.  It's quite incredible to think of the impact he made and continues to make with just two of his many inventions-the stop light and the breathing mask!

We colored and added fluffy cotton to Inuit people and will finish cutting them out and add them to a classroom collage next week.

Be sure to bring in your shoe box covered with white paper next week.  We are excited to make our Valentine's boxes!

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK Parents.

We are wrapping up penguins and the month of January and looking forward to a February filled with lots of love in JK!

Social Studies:

We have been learning about the Inuit people and have been reading non-fiction books about children who live today in the Inuit culture and only have sunlight for one hour in the winter!  It's fun to put ourselves in other's lives to try to imagine what it would be like.  We learned about a seven year old boy and saw pictures of his house and school and family and friends.

Ground Hog Art!

Fine Motor/Social Studies:
The children looked at many sculptures made from large stones by the Inuit people, and replicated those in paintings.  They first painted the background with mountains at sunset, and then used sponges to paint the stone statues.

We painted February calendars using pencil erasers to paint dots around a heart pattern, and then lifted it off to see the amazing heart.  I haven't filled in our letter of the week(s) for February, as we are still practicing our L's M's and need some catch up time to move forward!  They are tricky letters.

We created Ground Hogs to pop out of their holes, practicing scissor skills to create grass fringe.  Let's hope it's an early spring prediction and that he doesn't see his shadow this weekend!

Math & Science:
We learned many amazing sea creature facts at the aquarium.  The children all had their favorites and were just so excited to see it all with their friends!  It was great to spend time with a small group and see them interact around the aquarium, and then meet everyone for the dolphin show and lunch.  What an amazing day!   THANK YOU to Zach's dad, Alicia's dad, and Leon's mom for being our chaperones!  You are all wonderful and we so loved having you there!

Literacy:
Ms. Ivry has been reading with the children to get more acquainted with their strengths and challenges.  She has many delightful insights with her years of Kindergarten experience teaching along with her own children.  We differentiate for the students vastly in our reading groups and concentrate on the skills and strategies helpful for each child.  We stamped, traced and wrote letters and continued writing our stories either dictating or using inventive spelling. 

We talked about our first and last names, and for some- middle names.  It's another important differentiation to make, in knowing in isolation which is your first and which is your last without putting them both together.  It's not something we think about as adults but something our children need to know.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey