Hi JK Parents!

It's been a short week but we have done so much!

We read many books about Martin Luther King Jr. and learned about what he was like as a child!  It was fun to know he rode his bike and roller skated and was "just like us" when he was little and before he became a great leader.  The children learned about his famous speech, and were reciting "I have a dream..." (although some were saying, "I have a speech") :) they understood it was important.

They leaned about his kindness and ability to walk away from a physical fight and use his words and intelligence to better the world.  We read about his life and some things that happened to him when he was little, like a lady slapping his face and riding a bus for hours standing because he had to give up his seat for white people simply because he had a different color skin.  We talked about things all day in terms of "what would MLK Jr. do in this situation?".  I am hoping they shared some of the stories we read.  One student said "He's president!".  We talked about all of the ways he was like a president.  He made the world a better place and we will continue to reference his life and work this school year!

We have introduced the beginning of our Inuit study while still continuing with penguins!  We learned how the Inuit people build igloos from frozen snow and how the warmth of our bodies helps keep the igloo warm.

We talked about our upcoming field trip and having a scavenger hunt while at the aquarium.

Fine Motor:
The children created observation drawings of our class King Penguin with pastels.  The colors pop so well on a black background.  They all concentrated on the details of the colorful feathers and white tummies.

Literacy/Fine Motor:

They created their own Stripes after reading the amazing story of the little girl who wouldn't eat Lima Beans even though they were her favorite.  May we all be brave enough to show our stripes.  I loved the different patterns and brilliant colors.

Reading groups concentrated on isolated sounds opposed to guessing when reading words.  We spent some time on Zoo Phonics and the animal sounds.  We also introduced more popcorn words and blends.

Our reading buddies came to read books they checked out for us, and the children all created a story about a penguin either dictating or using inventive spelling to write it, and then illustrated it with their buddy.

Math & Science:
We worked on our life-size penguins as we outlined and labeled more penguins.  We counted and grouped and made patterns.  We practiced counting and getting over the tricky numbers that stump us on the way to 100!

We tried to freeze bubbles outside but it was a little too warm.  We will try again next week!

Ethan turned 5!  We celebrated his birthday and have seven 5 year olds in JK!  They are all growing up and it's amazing to see their bursts of learning.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms. Massey

Hi JK Parents!

We are so excited to welcome Erin Ivry to the JK classroom as Assistant Teacher!  She has taught Kindergarten for 10 years in San Francisco, has three children and is due with her fourth in July.  Her daughter Grace will be joining us in the Pre-K classroom at Roycemore, so please be sure to welcome them.  We are so fortunate to have her!

We are having more fun with penguins this week!  There's so much to learn and explore.  

Literacy:

We are working on rhyming words by playing a game by grouping rhyming words on a tree together.  It's fun to cover up the beginning letter of a word and then talk about the different letters we could try to add to make a word!  Nonsense words are okay too when learning to rhyme.  For some we are also adding blends/multiple letters to the beginning of words to create rhyming words.  We have been reading books by Robert Munsch.  He is hilarious and the children have loved learning about the characters, including a giant, a doctor with a giant shot, a boy who brings his baby brother for show and tell in his backpack, and many other interesting people.  

Math & Science:

We conducted an experiment on penguin "blubber" using Crisco and insulating our hands as we dipped them into icy water.  We made predictions about what would happen, and how the penguins are able to survive in the frigid temperatures.  The children were amazed at how WARM their hands were tucked into the blubber pouch!  Did you know that a penguin is unable to swim backward?  We also took a poll to see who thought they were able to.  It's so funny for animals that spend 80% of their lives in the water-to not be able to swim backward!  

Math:

We played a penguin game with goldfish and made equations after sorting different color gold fish.  We practiced writing on the penguin' tummies as we all need lots of practice with our number formation.  We are loving adding and using manipulatives to count.  We worked on grouping and making patterns with colored blocks.

Fine Motor:

The children finished their self portraits for January.  I love the details!  They are hanging outside our door so please stop and look when you are here.  Ms. Ivry has been sharing information on a class she took and explaining all of the different meanings to the size, color, and other details in children's drawings.  It's fascinating how complex and completely correct the meanings are.  I have studied the progression of drawing people/self portraits but didn't know all of the other significant things to look for through their illustrations!  

We traced each other and created life-size penguins to label and color.  It's so fun to work in groups to help each other.  We sang a song and danced to "I'm a Little Penguin" as we talked about the different characteristics of all of the penguins.  

Our French teacher also has us singing the Penguin song she created and sent to us!  I mean, how many teachers write a song and sing it and add slides so we will have a French Penguin song?!?!  She's just simply the best.  

We have had so much fun with instruments in music class with Mrs. N!  And indoor recess with the parachute and Mrs. Dinelli!  Mrs. Dinelli has also been a wonderful addition this week as we have been transitioning and showing Ms. Ivry the "ropes".  We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful and talented teachers to guide our children each day.  It's just incredible.  And...don't even get me started with Ms. Stein and Mr. Linkhart, and Ms. Hilda.  :) .