Hi JK Parents!

It was such a lovely day celebrating all of the grandparents and special friends.  The children were so excited to point out their loved ones on the screen!  We had to continue toggling back and forth because they would say, "Hey, where did my grandpa/grandma/mom go?!"  I hope your holiday weekend was lovely and restful.  The kids were all so excited to be back and talked about how long it had been since they had seen each other.  

Literacy:

We have been working hard on our letter formation and finger spacing while writing.  The children all wrote their very own gingerbread stories, retelling the book we read but adding their own twist to the plot.  They labeled, sounded out, wrote, dictated, illustrated and worked hard to have a beginning, middle and end to their stories.  

Fine Motor:

We have been doing many cutting activities to practice scissor skills.  They cut out figures to make December calendars, and created gingerbread scenes.  

Social Studies:

We have been reading books, watching videos and learning about holidays celebrated all over the world.  Children celebrating Christmas in Sweden find presents in their shoes.  I loved hearing about the puppies, candy, chocolate, reindeer, bikes, coins etc. that they said they would want to receive in their shoes.  I want to celebrate all of the holidays that each student celebrates at home, so please be sure to let me know if there's a holiday you would like to share.  We would love to zoom you in for a chat.  

Math & Science:

We are grouping objects in groups of 5 and 10, and using the manipulatives to solve word problems.  We are all working on our number formation when writing numbers and using tally marks when we complete word problems for a visual.  

We are studying the letter "Ii" and played a game to separate images into categories of long and short vowel sounds.  We used "flippy dolphin" as a reading strategy to change/flip the vowel sound if the first try didn't sound right.  

We have been talking about giving and what that means.  I love this time of year and am so excited to have some fun with remote learning after Winter break.  It will just be for 10 days of school, so hoping the new doesn't have time to wear off and they all have some fun with it.  

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey 

 

Hi JK Parents!

We learned about the first Thanksgiving and are celebrating kindness and being thankful!  

Fine Motor:

The children created teepees  using pastels, feathers and pipe cleaners.  We learned about modern day Native Americans and studied the pueblo structures.  We colored many turkey pictures!  

Social Studies:

We learned about the multiple ways the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims when they came to America.  

We talked about how the Pilgrims were not all nice and didn't treat the Native Americans well.  

We studied different symbols and how the Native Americans would use these to communicate and help each other.  We learned about all of the things we do and use today that we learned from the Native Americans.  Their vast knowledge of farming as well as wild plants taught us which plants were good to eat and which were poisonous.  The taught us about using fish as fertilizer when growing crops.  Many traditional medicines used have been adopted by modern science.  The formula for aspirin is based on the medicine made from the Willow Bark used for aches and fever.  Canoes and hunting, astronomy (Native Americans were skilled astronomers!). We learned about their use of clay, stones and wood to build pueblos.  

Literacy:

We read many books about being thankful and Thanksgiving.  We practiced our manners and learned that the first think you do when you sit down to eat is put your napkin on your lap!  

We practiced putting scenes in order from four to eight different sequenced scenes.  Making careful observations and training yourself to look for everything in the photo to help give you clues are skills we are all working to perfect.  

We read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie! and then our little old lady came out to see us and we fed her each item from the story, remembering the order in which she swallowed them!  

We are looking for words around our classroom and school and also learning to sound out and write the beginning and ending sounds, sometimes by creating blends of letters.  

Math and Science:

We used non standard units of measure to measure different fall items.  The children are able to locate the beginning and ending points to accurately use blocks to measure.  They sounded out the number and wrote it, wrote the numeral, as well as the tally marks for each measurement.  

We introduced the"th" sound, as in Thanksgiving!  We also differentiated the sound "th" 'in the or that with the "th" in Thanksgiving.  

The children painted collages in art class.  Painting never gets old when you are four and five!  

We practiced those tricky teen numbers and writing them with the one always first and beginning from the top and moving to the bottom, also remembering to put a finger space between each number!  

Have a lovely Sunday!

Ms. Massey