Hi JK Families!

We are in the middle of the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss.  It's one of my favorite themes and time of year, as Spring is just around the corner and we have all settled in nicely and are a true school family. We have learned each other's quirks and likenesses and differences, and the friendships are becoming more meaningful as they are more complex.

Language Arts:
We wrote about what we would do if Thing 1 and Thing 2 came to our house.  Watching a movie together was a popular activity along with jumping on the bed or making a mess!  Most children said they would NOT tell their mother if she asked what they had done that day!  We wrote rhyming words using inventive spelling too, as we made Sneeches and chose whether or not to have a star upon their belly!  The W and Y sounds are still very tricky for most all of the children, as they think the "W" sound is made with the letter "Y".

We have read many favorite Dr. Seuss books, including the Cat in the Hat, I Have a Wocket in my Pocket, ABC Book, The Foot Book, Daisy Head Maizy, and some other books including:  Goodnight Opus, Pickle Things, Three Bags Full, and Same, Same but Different.

We are also working on the most common sight words (popcorn words) "is, the with, and, play"  We talked about our favorite Dr. Seuss characters and how they are alike and different.  The Grinch was a definite favorite!  It was funny to hear the comparisons to the Cat in the Hat!  Asking them in depth questions about the story setting and characters is a great way to improve their comprehension.

We made/make many comparisons with letters and letter sounds, and many students are beginning to recognize and/or spell their classmate's names as well as their own.  This is all part of the process of Erikson's stage of development-Initiative v Guilt.  The most important part of this stage is children playing and through play making up their own rules to games they create.  The most important idea to take away from this is that their play is immensely important, because it allows them to "develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions."  This skill is not able to develop when only playing games with set rules- as in soccer etc. (Those are also valuable in different ways!)

Math/Science:

We sorted and used tweezers to place pom pons on our Dr. Seuss themed mats using numbers 1-10, and then practiced sorting and counting using numbers 11-30.  The children took turns sequencing a number line from 1-31, working in pairs and then alone.  We played another Dr. Seuss game where we flipped green eggs and identified numbers 20-30.  This center worked to build fine motor along with number identification.  

The children have been learning about quadrilateral shapes, yet another way for them to group/classify their shapes.  We are introducing shapes outside of the basic and 3D shapes we learned earlier in the year.  Felt pieces and making it a game are fun for the children, and learning new vocabulary and classifying familiar things in different ways extends their understanding.

We visited the Wax Museum our third graders presented, and learned about electricity from Ben Franklin, and listened to Barack Obama, Helen Keller, and many other great leaders.  The costumes were amazing and the children loved learning from their reading buddies!  

Fine Motor/Art: 

The children measured and cut their "Thing's Hair" and label and placed it on their journal page after writing their response to reading.  The children glued eyes, stars and collars on their Sneeches after writing their rhyming words and deciding what type of Sneech theirs would be.  Our art this week was more about creating interesting journal pages based on the characters and less about making art! I like to provide open ended art for them to create daily-where the process is valued more than the product, along with art that focuses on everything from following multistep instructions to creating something in the likeness of something we are studying.  

ALL of our art projects have a purpose, and all of those purposes are different!  Some involve entirely child imagined and created clay projects, and some involve simple placement of items that are less about imagination and more about following instructions and replicating something they see.  It's all helpful and overlaps into multiple disciplines.  Art serves many purposes in JK, sometimes least of which is creating original art, and sometimes the only purpose is to create original art.  Please ask me about any of our centers and the many benefits.  They are intentional and valuable, and I love talking about why and how.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Massey

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