Hi JK parents.

I am posting a lot to get everything in we have been doing in JK these past two weeks.  It's been a flurry of activities and the children have had such an amazing October! 

Our field trip to The Grove Pumpkin Lane was such a perfect day!  The children loved eating their lunch outside, being inside a real teepee, playing amazing games like, "Needle in a Haystack" and "Stuff the Scarecrow", and of course enjoyed seeing the owl and many snakes.  The hayride was my personal favorite, as it's such a peaceful time to enjoy nature while relaxing.  I think the bus ride was a big hit for the kids.  It's a field trip all on its own.  Thank you to our chaperones and all of you for sending such wonderful lunches and bundling them up well.


We roasted our pumpkin seeds from our classroom pumpkin and they were soooo delicious!  We carved it after stenciling on a scary face in the front and a nice face in the back.

Pumpkin Carving, Carnival, Halloween Party...Thank you to everyone for all of the amazing support and treats and help! 

Math and Science:
We have been learning more about the skeletal system and made name skeletons while comparing the length of bones in our bodies and finding out the femur is longer than the humerus bone.

We visited Dr. Dudek, Dean's dad, in our upper school science room and made ghost rockets and slime.  The "big kids" were wonderful leaders and helped JK in creating small explosions, sending their decorated ghost rockets to the ceiling!  They helped us measure and mix our slime and were so kind and patient.  I'm sorry in advance for any slime messes at home.  They loved choosing their color and helping measure and mix ingredients.  What a treat to spend time in the upper school with such an amazing class and teacher!  That's part of the magic of Roycemore, where we get to interact with high school students and learn so much from them.  It also helps that we have four of our amazing faculty members as parents in our JK class! 

We practiced sequencing as we created pictures illustrating "Five Little Pumpkins".  The children acted out each part and then "rolled away" at the end of the story.  They love using props to tell stories and remember the beginning, middle, and end.  Counting up as well as down helps with the one to one correspondence.

Literacy:
Our Zoo Phonics remains a staple in our day as we act out each motion and make the corresponding sound.  We have been working hard on the vowel sounds and trying a different sound if the first one doesn't work-when reading stories or decoding words. We are also reading Bob books along with the leveled readers and the alphabet letter books. 

We have been reading Halloween books and singing and dancing to fun and interactive songs.  I have the best job on earth. 

Have a great week. 

Ms. Massey

Hi JK parents.

We are learning about Bats as we completed our Farm theme and approach Halloween!  We read Stella Luna and talked about the similarities and differences between birds and bats. 

We celebrated Dewali with Sanaya's mom and danced and created beautiful pottery pieces.  The children loved learning about the customs and traditions while listening to a story and trying on colorful clothes and beautiful scarves etc.  We will miss Sanaya for the next two months as they spend time in India with family and friends.  We have all enjoyed getting to know her and cannot wait to hear all about her journey oversees. 

Literacy:
We read fall books in leveled readers or alphabet letter books in reading groups.  Some children are concentrating on the different letters and sounds and some are working on blends and digraphs.  We are working in whole group time on beginning and ending sounds of words and syllables and rhyming.  Being able to differentiate each individual letter sound is foundational in literacy.  Learning each sound prevents children from guessing words or sounds they might not know once they combine letters to make words, and encourages intentional decoding. 

The children wrote or dictated stories about their favorite farm animals.  I loved the different pictures of cows and that some actually produced chocolate milk in the stories!  We are working on illustrating pictures that relate to our topics and ideas.  The children have freedom to crate art at other times without stipulations but are learning to ask relevant questions and staying on topic for short periods of time as we are introducing themes.  It's a great transition from the beginning to end of year as we increase attention span and work to categorize different activities.  It's also important to find many relevant ideas when introducing new concepts to assist children in making connections and deepen their understanding. 

Math & Science:
We created a KWL chart about bats to learn what the children already know, what they want to know, and then what they learn will be completed when we finish our study.  We read books both fiction and non-fiction about bats and began learning about echolocation. 

Fine Motor:
We decorated barns with pastels, hay and stickers and wrote related words next to the different farm animals.  We completed October self portraits, using mirrors to carefully observe our features as we learn more about details of our own faces and bodies.  Looking for ways to recreate colors in our eyes or hair helps children become aware of more details of themselves and others.  I love watching everyone make connections based on their physical characteristics which typically also leads to comparisons/similarities in non-physical characteristics. 

Can't wait for our field trip!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK parents!

We are so excited to celebrate fall and all of the fun we are planning!  We went on a scavenger hunt to find things that happen or that we see in the fall, like orange and red leaves, scarecrows, pumpkins, bare trees, and chestnuts.

Fine Motor:
We made a collage by cutting out items from our scavenger hunt and gluing them on paper.  We practiced our letter formation by writing some of the words too.

We made farm scenes with animal stickers and "hay".  It's fun to see how different their creations are with the same exact materials available.

Math & Science:
We are playing a "Roll and Stamp" game in our Math Center, as we roll dice and count the dots, and then find it on a barn and stamp it.

We made bird feeders as we discussed what birds do when the weather gets colder, and how they migrate to find food and stay warm.   Some birds do not migrate so are happy to find a bird feeder in the fall and winter!  Some children tried tasking a sunflower seed.  I told them it's like a chocolate brownie to a bird.  They didn't really believe me.  :) .

Literacy:
We are writing the letter "Dd" and learning how to tell a "d" from a "b"!

We matched upper to lower case letters, helping the pigs find the mud with the matching letter. 

We wrote We decorated cards for Ms. Yonan's birthday and wrote special messages along with "Happy Birthday" as we colored her pictures and added stickers.

The children are signing their names each day as we practice our letter formation.  Tracing first helps remind them of the letters and scale so their writing is smaller.  Children will fill an entire page with one letter at this stage.  We will work on scale throughout the year and making our letters and words smaller to fit together on lines.  Most all of the children are still working on their tripod grip.  We practice "pinching" the fat pencils and markers to hold them correctly. 

We had fun with our third grade reading buddies and were interviewed by them to learn more about each other.  It's such a special time to share with our older friends!
We had an all school photo taken by a drone outside.  They loved seeing the drone flying around, although it was difficult for them to visualize what the photo will look like from above.  It's fun to talk about different perspectives with them.

Everyone practiced counting in French and sang numbers as they marched and moved around the room.  They are all learning to count to ten, colors, family members, weather, etc.  We love the full emersion as the dialect becomes more familiar.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey