Week of December 6 - 10

Next Thursday is our Field Trip to the Noble Horse Theater! Permission slips and money were due today, Friday, December 10. Ms. Juanita will be calling the final numbers in on Monday.  Please submit your permission slip and money on Monday morning!!!
The children are looking forward to seeing this spectacular event.  Thank you for those that have volunteered to accompany us.  Please remember to pack a lunch for your child to bring with us.  We will eat after the show at the theater.  Please remember to have your child wear their Roycemore T-shirt for the field trip!  We will return to Roycemore at 1:30.  


Outside Information and Life Lessons for Cold Weather!

We will go outside when the weather is above 20 degrees!  It is very important that the children in JK get a break in both their morning activities and their afternoon activities.  We will be taking the children outside to play on most days.  Some days, like all activities, it might take us longer getting our gear on but our goal is to keep working on this skill during the winter months.  Zipping, buttoning, snapping, and tying are all important life skills to have:)

Please when you bring your child into the room, instruct your child to put their hat, gloves, and scarves in the sleeve of their coat.  Instruct them to hang up their snow pants and jackets on the hook inside their cubby.  Please instruct your child to put their indoor shoes on and leave their boots near their cubbies.   These routines established in the morning will help us get organized for our outside activities!

Please label all of your child's things with their name on the inside.  We are mixing lots of their clothing up because their things look similar!

The children need to bring the proper outside attire to school everyday.

Indoor shoes

Snow pants

snow boots

snow jacket

snow mittens or gloves

scarf

hat

These are things the children will change into!  We are teaching them the order to put their clothes on.  Please talk it over with your child at home and instill in them independence getting themselves dressed.   

First, get all of your outdoor gear to your sit upon (or one open space).

Second, take off your indoor shoes.

Third, put on your snow pants.

Fourth, put on your snow boots.

Fifth, put on your snow jacket.

Sixth, put on your snow mittens or gloves.

Seventh, put on your scarf.

Eighth, put on your hat.

Finally, you are ready to go outside!

When we come in from outside, we encourage the following steps and we have opened up the cubby areas so the children have space for their things.  

First, take off your snow boots near the cubbies and tables.

Second, leave your snow boots near your cubby.

Third, go to your sit upon and take off your gear.

Fourth, gloves, hats, and scarves go in their coat sleeves so we can find them the next time!

Fifth, put on your indoor shoes.

Sixth, take your things and hang them on the hooks in your cubby.

Fairy Tales Galore!

We continued on with our fairy tale unit this week.  We have been having so much fun reading different versions of The Three Little Pigs.  One version in our Five Minute Fairy Tales book and one version by Steven Kellogg.  Even though these versions were very different, the children found the foundation of the stories were similar.  We made a Venn Diagram comparing these two stories.  The next day we read another version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The children were experts comparing these two stories.  Then they enjoyed retelling the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Teddy Grahams and an activity page.  (Some enjoyed the tasty treat and some glued their Teddy Grahams to their paper!)  

The children have been enjoying "Fairy Tale Land" in the balcony of the classroom.  They have been exploring with masks(both homemade and pre-made), and puppets retelling the stories that they have 
heard over the past couple of weeks.  The children also have been excited to watch the beans sprout and we are looking forward to witnessing our first beanstalks!       

We read two versions of The Gingerbread Man this week.  The children were actively involved in the readings repeating the familiar text and using their comparison skills to say that is different or that is the same as the other story.  We played a rhyming game.  Also, the children are predicting what might have happened to the Gingerbread Man if he would have gone into the river and swam across by himself and not with the Fox that ended up eating him.  

Next week, we will put on our scientific hats and test our theories!  We plan on reading more gingerbread tales next week and at the end of the week we will build gingerbread houses.  

In the fine motor center the children have been practicing letter formation using the Handwriting Without Tears language.  They formed letters in trays of flour.  Using a variety of materials to write letters using our fingers will be continued throughout the school year.

In the math center, the children measured beanstalks with unifix cubes.  starting at the bottom of the beanstalks to the top, then counting out how many unifix cubes high each stalk was.

In the Language Arts center, the children learned about "popcorn words" and the game Blast Off!  Popcorn words are words that the children will see "pop-up" in books as they read.  The game Blast Off is a great kinesthetic game to help the children read, spell, and recognize popcorn words.  Have your child practice the game Blast off with our words, "and, you."  At the end of each spelling you say, Blast off!  Then you jump as high as you can.  We read a story titled, My Dog and searched for our popcorn words in the story after we read.  The stories that we are reading in Language Arts Center are full of text that matches the pictures in the story.


In the art center the children worked on fairy tale finger puppets.  They had templates to cut, glue, and color.  Following these simple steps helped develop their fine motor skills and listening skills.  Following one to three step directions is a task that we will work on throughout JK.

The students were able to choose between Leap Pad or the computers this week in the Independent center.  They are learning to track words while listening along on the Leap Pad games and they are working on their phonics skills and math skills on the computers.

We celebrated Harry's birthday on Wednesday!  Happy Birthday Harry and thanks for the yummy cupcakes:)

 

Seventh Grade Reading Buddies Returned today!

  

A Peek Ahead

Next week we will finish up the centers that we did not get to this week.  Your child will be measuring a bean stalk, reading a sight word book, creating a finger puppet, writing letters in flour, or working on the computer on Monday or Tuesday.  Wednesday and Friday centers will be focused on Language Arts, Independent, and Math.  Because it is a week with a field trip we will not have centers on Thursday.  

During Free Choice in the mornings, I have been able to read and work with children individually or in small groups to strengthen their reading skills.  I plan to keep this up during their independent center work on Wednesday and Friday and also in the mornings all week.

Please have your child to school on time everyday but especially on Thursday.  We need to be loading the buses at 9:15.  You will need to pack a lunch for your child with his/her name on it.

We will be exploring the Gingerbread books all next week and also reading books based on the Nut Cracker.  On Friday, we will be making Gingerbread Houses to take home!  Please make sure that your child's house goes home or we will have to throw it out.

Week of November 29 - December 3

Fairy tales are a great way to experiment with language, retell stories, explore characters and settings, and compare different points of view.  Those are all things that we have delved into this week with our fairy tale unit and will continue to work on until the winter break.  We made a chart to discuss what is real and make believe.  We have read Jack and the Beanstalk and used our imagination creeping through the Roycemore halls that have magically transformed into the castle in the clouds... we haven't wanted to wake the sleeping Giant but would love to get our hands on his gold to keep our bellies full for the winter!  We've been experimenting with kidney beans, lima beans, and pinto beans to see if any of them will sprout into a beanstalk.  First we wrapped them in a wet paper towel and put them in plastic.  Once we see a sprout, we plant them in soil.  We hope that these we will be fruitful experiments!  We read Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Hansel and Gretel.  We've made a comparison chart on what characters we've seen in each of these stories.  We have discussed the settings in Fairy Tales and colored a castle mural.  Each student worked on a cottage and imagined someone inside their cottage.

Our center activities have continued to be full of engaging academic activities.  In the math center, the children used the geometric shape blocks that they have been experimenting with over the past few weeks and created pictures such as trains, animals, and plants.  This activity reinforces beyond basic shape knowledge and helps the children to see shapes in other objects.  In the language arts center we worked on beginning letter sounds through drawing pictures and playing a beginning letter sounds game.  The children work together to find pictures that match their letter card.  This activity is a review for some and a continued reinforcement of letter sounds, identification, and understanding of phonemic awareness.  Each lesson was differentiated for each child's needs and their skill set.  These are the skills we will continue to reinforce throughout the school year to help the students become readers.  In the art center, the children used their imagination to create their own masks to use when recreating and retelling the fairy tale stories we have been listening to this week.  The students explored magnetic letters in the fine motor/writing center moving letters around and pushing letters together to create words.  The independent center had the students working on the leap pads and listening to a book on tape. 

We celebrated Macy's Birthday this week with yummy, yummy brownie treats!  Happy 5th birthday Macy!  

 E.D.P Fun!

We enjoyed the beautiful and cold weather this week.  The children are working hard on getting themselves dressed with a little support from the teachers.  We reinforce basic skills such as zippering their coats, pulling on their own boots, and getting their hats and mittens on. 

Now that the weather has dropped so much we will continue to go outside!  The children will need to bundle up.  If you send boots, snow pants, coat, scarf, hat, and mittens, we will ask the children to wear everything that you send in to school.  We do our best to check the cubbies and the children to see that they have everything on their bodies.  We have made a visual list for the children to check off that they have the proper winter attire on.  Please help your child stay organized and independent with their winter things.  Hats, gloves, and scarves should be put in their coat sleeve.  Their coats and snow pants should be hung on their hook in their cubbie.  Their boots or change of shoes should be put inside their cubbie.  Please do not leave their outside clothing articles in their backpacks or we might not see them. 
Please label all of their things with their names on them!  If they don't have their names on their things then they will get lost or mixed up with other peoples things. 

A Peek Ahead

Next week, the students will be working on sight words in the language art center by playing a sight word movement game and reading a book that focuses on the words "is, and, the."  In the math center, the children will be using unfix cubes to measure bean stalks.  In the art center, the students will be making fairy tale finger puppets.  They will practice scissor control, gluing, and express their imaginative ideas in this fun activity.  In the fine motor center the children will be practicing letter strokes and writing in flour trays.  This is a tactile way of practicing letter writing and strengthening their fine motor skills.  In the independent center the children will be able to choose between the computers or leap pads. 

We will continue to explore the growth of our bean stalks through scientific investigations.  We will compare and contrast fairy tales written by different authors.  We will continue retelling the stories and investigating ways to act out a story.

Roycemore's Scholastic Book Fair is this week!  If you can stop by please do.  If you can't stop by the Scholastic Book Fair and you want to order books please visit the Scholastic Books website and place your order under our class page.