A Peek At The Week
Another terrific week in the JK classroom. We were able to share all of the "All About Me" posters this week! The children all did a great job sharing information and stories about themselves and their families. They were so proud of themselves! Thank you for helping make this first home assignment a great success.
Luke, Anisa, Eliot, Advait, Hikaru, Rhett, Atharva, Eli, Youngim, Jazz, Hunter, Oliver, Jaimie, Reagan, and Harry shared their posters this week!
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| "I found this sea shell at the beach." |
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| "This dinosaur is chasing this dinosaur." |
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| "I have a mom, dad, and two sisters." |
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| "My favorite book is Please Baby Please." |
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| "My favorite toy is Lightening McQueen." |
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| "When I grow up I want to be an Astronaut and a Paleontologist." |
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| "I have a mom, dad, brother, and sister." |
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| "I like Pichachu." |
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| "I like Batman." |
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| "I have a mom and a dad." |
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| "I like the drums." |
During morning meeting this week, we started sharing the pen when reading the morning letter. The children are able to read the predictable text and discover who the morning meeting helper is from the clues given by the teacher. The helper comes to the board and writes his/her name. The children then chant out their name and count the letters in each persons name. The job of the morning meeting helper is to also help with the calendar and the weather graph. The children all learn the days of the week in order, the months of the year, and counting out the days in each month. For the weather graph, the children look out the window and tell whether it is sunny, windy, cloudy, rainy, snowy or foggy. The children are learning to read the graph and compare how many, more, fewer, and how many more. The job of the morning meeting helper will progressively change to finding sight words, writing sight words, and writing words that may be missing in the morning letter. As the children continue to learn the difference between capital and lower case letters, they will apply that knowledge to the message as well. The children are also identifying yesterday was, today is, and tomorrow will be, for the calendar; and the graph will change form so the children will be able to read a variety of graphs not just a vertical bar graph.
We enjoyed having Vincent's grandparents visit us in the classroom. They stayed and read a story to the class and helped with centers.
Everyone enjoyed getting together with the 7th grade reading buddies again!
In the Art center this week the children all decorated pumpkins that are on display in the hallway.
The math center focused on sorting cut out pumpkins. They compared the sizes of the pumpkins and sorted them. Then they compared the amounts that they had, meaning they looked at how many big pumpkins they had compared to how many small pumpkins they had and used language like more and fewer and then they figured out how many more in one group then the other group. They also added the groups together to figure out how many they had all together. We wrote down a variety of addition problems too such as if you have 3 big pumpkins and 2 medium pumpkins, how many are there all together? On the white board the teacher wrote 3+2=5.
The language arts center focused more on the zoo phonics letters and letter sounds. The children played zoo phonics bingo. When they finished the game they were able to put the magnetic letters together and build words.
The journal center focused on drawing pictures, dictating stories, and labeling their pictures with words by stretching out the words and writing the letters they hear in each word.
The children were also able to work on the computers. They use Bailey's Playhouse software as well as Clifford's Phonics.
A Peek Into Next Week
Next week the Lower School is celebrating Kindness week. The JK students will talk about what it means to be kind and they will make a leaf to put on the "Fall Into Kindness" Tree located in the Lower School hallway.
The class will begin to study the season of Fall focusing on the life cycle of the apple and the pumpkin also sharing Halloween and Thanksgiving traditions. We will be writing about what changes we see in the weather and nature. The class will read books about Fall, participate in retelling stories, creating graphs, making art work, and singing songs during this theme study.
Centers this week will be language arts, math, fine motor skills, art, and listening. During centers the children are grouped with other children that are close to their skill level but please know that every child is different and they learn at different paces and levels in each subject area. We strive to differentiate each lesson to challenge each child's ability level. We will continue to work on zoo phonics with the whole group and apply the lessons in small groups in a variety of ways. We will build words, read books, and play phonics games. In math lessons, students will work on number identification, counting, adding, subtracting, and comparing attributes of the objects they work with (among many other math skills). All of these lessons are differentiated each day to challenge all the children.
In the morning free choice time, I have been able to meet with the children on a one on one basis to assess their learning and to teach and apply a variety of skills that have been covered so far this year. I will continue to meet with the children in the morning.
Please remember to turn in your child's $5.00 for the Didier Farms field trip on Monday, October 25.
If you and your family plan to come to Pumpkin Carving Night on Friday, October 22, please turn in your registration slip and money for your families pumpkin.
Volunteers Needed:
We could use 2-4 more volunteers for the Didier Farms field trip. If you are available please let me know.
We will need at least 5 volunteers to help with the morning activities on Friday, October 29 for our Fall Activities Workshop and then 5-10 volunteers to help in the afternoon to assist the children in changing their costumes and taking the children in the gym for the school carnival. Please let me know if you are able to assist.
I hope you all have a fabulous day and have enjoyed your weekend!
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