Week of May 31 - June 3

Our Last Week in JK!!!

Our last week of classes was full of memories!  The JK kids shared their favorite memories with each other.  At the top of the list was morning meeting, the pigeon play, books, and activities, the pumpkin patch, the carnival, and the gingerbread men and houses!  And those were just the surface of all the fun and learning we did this year.  Their memories really helped me put together the end of the year DVD for them.

Our centers this week were final wrap ups for the end of the school year.  Everyone wrote one last time in their journals.  They were asked to write about their favorite JK memory, friend, or activity.  Their illustrations were creative and everyone attempted writing at their own level.

In another center they made a special something for a special day coming up in June.  I can't say what it is but mom's you will need to help them hide it until Sunday, June 19!!!

Finally our last center of the week was for each person to write a letter to one friend in the classroom.  They picked a name from a basket and wrote that friend a letter.  They were all so sweet and sincere!  They told their friends how much they liked them and lots of very nice things.  We have been so lucky to have nice friends in our class.

We had our final P.E. class this week and our final Music class will be Monday.

Thank you all so much for coming in for our breakfast on Friday!  The children really enjoyed sharing their work and preparing their portfolios for you to see.  We all had such a wonderful time:)

Tuesday is the Lower School picnic.  We are looking forward to having one final outing with the kids and hope to see many of you there.

We've been busy!

Wow!  We have been so busy over the past few weeks!  The weather has definitely kept us on our toes and the air pressure can be felt inside the classroom:)

In centers, the children have been busy writing about favorite JK memories in their journals, drawing their last self portraits of the year, picking out their favorite pieces in their portfolios (a collection of their work since the beginning of the year), writing thank you cards to their 3rd and 7th grade reading buddies, and so much more!

The 7th graders came in for their last reading buddy session and so did the 3rd grade.  We really enjoyed being a part of the Roycemore community and loved seeing our friends in the hallways!

Both sections of the 7th grade class came in to interview the JK students a few weeks ago and as a part of their curriculum, they wrote a fiction story for the JK kids.  Each 7th grader came in to read their story and give the JK kids a copy to take home!  The stories were all about one JK friend and all the things they like to do.  These stories are so special and I am sure the kids will treasure them for a long time.

Happy Birthday Lily! Our last JK student to turn 4!  Thank you for reading to us Jill and for the yummy cupcakes:)

Max had a fun birthday celebration in our room too.  We ate delicious cupcakes and enjoyed a story from Marina.  Thank you!

We celebrated Anisa's birthday and her mom, Jasmine, came in to read us a story.  Thank you so much for the yummy cupcakes and the fun story!

As much as we can, we've been getting outside!  We released our butterflies into the courtyard.   One flew out almost immediately.  We coaxed another out of the house with the banana tray.  But the rest came out in their own time.  It was really a great experience seeing them metamorphoses from caterpillar to butterfly!

Our work time and circle time has been focused on all the things we've learned this year, and our favorite memories.  We've shared favorite themes, books, center activities, and about our favorite friends. 

It has been such a wonderful year!  The kids have all grown so much.  Look for one more post on this years JK blog!

Week of May 9 - 13

Another Busy Week in the JK classroom!

We had a wonderful surprise on Monday morning!  Four of our butterflies emerged from their chrysalis.  This week's observations have been so fantastic.  The children have enjoyed taking turns being the butterfly keeper, making sure the butterflies have fresh orange and banana slices, and fresh water sprays to keep them moist.  The children have been learning about the life cycle of the butterfly and how the butterfly life span is 2-4 weeks.  We are waiting for one last butterfly to emerge and then we will release the butterflies so they can lay their eggs and the butterflies life will continue.

In addition to learning about the butterfly, the children have been exploring other insects as well.  The JK kids have been fascinated to learn that most insects all have 6 legs, a head, a body, 2 antennae, and wings!

Our field trip to the Nature Museum on Friday tied in our lessons this week and will give us more to explore next week.  The children started their trip in the Nature Museum classroom, where they learned about ladybugs.  They investigated live ladybugs, heard a story about what makes a ladybug a ladybug, explored pictures of ladybugs, discovered that ladybugs love aphids, and hunted for aphids around the room.  Then they each made their own original ladybug.
After investigating in the classroom, we enjoyed our lunches then headed into the butterfly haven.  The children loved exploring so many different species of butterflies from the Buckeye to Cabbage White Butterfly.  It was amazing to be among the flittering creatures and to investigate their natural habitat.
From the butterfly haven, the JK kids went to the water works area and explored building dams and rivers and also had some plain fun:)  The trip was jam packed with learning and adventure.  It was a great trip.

This weeks centers were again testing the children's prior knowledge and building on it to further enhance their learning.  In the math center, the children explored bugs!  Colorful and creepy bugs!  They started by counting a variety of bugs, some children grouped the bugs and skip counted with them.  After each child counted the bugs, they made patterns, first by extending the patterns they saw then were given rules such as making an ABC pattern with the colors, then AB pattern with the bugs, then ABB patterns, etc.  The kids made up their own patterns and then rotated to each others places to investigate the patterns and then continue them.
In the Language Arts center, the children learned two new popcorn words: run and said.  They read a book and looked for old popcorn words too.  The children have really gotten good at identifying and reading their popcorn words.
In the fine motor center, the JK kids made colorful butterflies with clothespins, pipe cleaners, and tissue paper.  They enjoyed ripping the paper, twisting the pipe cleaners, and pinching the clothespin for the final touch, and then flying them around the classroom exploring with their imagination what it would be like to be a butterfly!
In the independent center, the children worked together to build amazing structures with waffle blocks, ladder blocks, and circular building blocks.
Our 3rd grade Reading Buddies came on Thursday to read to us.  We love when our buddies visit!
A Peek Ahead:
We will continue our investigations of butterflies and insects through books, songs, and word play.  We will take our investigations of bugs in the math center and explore subtraction facts.  We will explore more patterns in words in the language arts center.  Everyone will get a chance to make an insect of their choice in the fine motor center.   In the independent center the children will listen to a DVD of sight (popcorn) words for review of the ones they've learned all ready.
Our 7th grade buddies will visit us this week.

April 24 - May 6

JK's Got Spring Fever!

The JK kids have been so busy over the past few weeks!  


We celebrated Vincent's birthday!  Happy fifth Birthday Vincent!  Thanks for the yummy fish cupcakes.  Thanks to Mr. Molden, Vincent's dad, for staying and reading If You Give a Mouse a Muffin.  The kids really enjoyed the celebration.

Our field trip to the Farm at the zoo was a big hit!  See the slide show to the right for more pictures.  Thank you to all of our wonderful chaperones.  We couldn't have been able to explore all of the places at the farm without your help.  We were able to explore new signs of spring too and really enjoy the outdoors.  We had a gorgeous day at the farm!


The learning in the classroom has been enhanced because of this outdoor experience.  We have been working on identifying farm animals vs. zoo animals, draw pictures about our favorite farm animals, read stories both fiction and non-fiction, use farm animal manipulatives to count, identify numbers, and add and subtract numbers.

Lots of children turned in their Spring Detective sheets too this past week.  They shared with the class signs of spring and then picked a prize from the prize box!  Way to go Spring Detectives.  We are still accepting papers:)

The children enjoyed the Spring Backpack homework so much that we now are sending home Farm backpacks!  I hope everyone makes time to complete the projects and enjoy them with your children.  The JK kids love to share what activities they did with their favorite themed animals!  They started to bring home the farm backpacks this week with Moo Moo, Peepers, and Oinkers!

The children have been working on their monthly self-portraits, concentrating on the shape of their features, the color of their skin, hair, eyes, etc.  They continue to work hard in their journals as well, drawing pictures about Spring time activities and then writing about it.

 In the math center, the children worked on number identification, counting objects, matching numbers and objects, and adding numbers together through a fun ladybug game.  First they counted the lady bugs spots, then they found the flower that had the number written on it.  After playing the matching game for a while, those that were ready to add numbers together were given either two ladybugs with dots or two flowers with numbers and they were asked to add the numbers together.  If that skill was mastered then they went on to illustrating a number problem.

This past week's math center also had multiple levels to it.  The children started by identifying a number, then counting pigs to match the number and put them in their pig pen, then some went on to having two pig pens with different numbers on it and adding how many in all.  Finally they illustrated how many pigs they had or solved a number problem and illustrated it.

 In the language arts center, the children worked on popcorn words want and new. The predicted what the story, Socks was going to be about, they tracked their reading, and discussed what the story was about when they finished it.  Then they went back and used wikki sticks to circled the words.  The children loved the bendy, sticky, sticks to help them with their new words.

This week they read a book called A Duck.  In this story they read about a silly duck who met a buck and they drove a truck!  The children found popcorn words, rhyming words, and made a list of rhyming words to help them learn more about word patterns which is so important when reading short and long words.

In the independent center last week the children worked together to build floor size puzzles.  This week they worked together on smaller farm puzzles to make farm shapes. They really did a great job working together.

In the fine motor center the children found spring pictures to cut out of magazines and paste them on their blankets they weaved from the week before.  Check out these beautiful spring blankets outside of the classroom.

This week the children picked their favorite farm animal and drew a picture of it.  Then they filled in the blanks for Old Ms./Mr. ____ had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.  And on his/her farm he/she had a  _________.  They had a great time with their very original pieces!

Third grade reading buddies came to visit!  We love being read too and being silly with our big third grade friends.

Our seventh grade reading buddies came to visit too!  They helped us with a secret project that you mom's will see on Sunday! (NO PEEKING)  When the JK friends finished they were read to.  

Thank you to Mrs. Susmita Sahoo for coming to our classroom and sharing your community helper job with the children.  Susmita is a postdoctoral research scientist.  Her research is in stem cell therapy for treating cardiovascular diseases.  She talked to the children about how the heart works and how the foods they eat and the exercise they get helps the heart function.  She showed them lots of healthy and sweet foods.  She brought in a model of a heart and showed them the different parts of it.  Then she read a Magic School Bus book about the heart.  We learned that our hearts are as big as our fists and when it beats it expands kind of like our hand when it opens and closes.  The class loved it so much!  


The JK class has been learning new spring and farm poems.  They are a very interactive way for us to learn and hear language.  We read a lot of springtime books and farm books these past weeks.  We read a book about Ten Dirty Pigs and Ten Clean Pigsbecause it's funny, because it so warm, That's their only bath they could have, because they like mud and sometimes they drink it, because they have it, instead of sunscreen, because it's the certain things pigs do.  Then the kids experimented with mud and how it felt.  They said, it feels sticky, slimy, and cold.  We concluded that farm animals roll in the mud to keep cool!  

Here's our beautiful class project.  Thank you for all of your help.  We hope to see you at the Auction!  

Week of April 18 - 21

 Happy Birthday to Youngnim!  Thank you for celebrating with us, sharing the beautiful story and the yummy cupcakes.

We welcomed our Spring Theme with SNOW? ! ?  The children were so confused to talk about what we see, hear, touch, smell, and taste in the spring with the snow on the ground :)


Besides the crazy weather, we started exploring the Spring theme with books, puppets, and lots of art activities.  The Spring homework bags started to go home and everyone received a Spring Detective Scavenger sheet in their mailboxes.  Some of the children have all ready spotted spring things and returned their sheets for a prize... How exciting!

Sara’s dad, Mahdi Zarea, came to visit the Junior Kindergarten class to share his job as a scientist and researcher.  He showed the children that a scientist conducts experiments to help people in the real world.  He showed us some simple experiments that you could do at home such as making a magnet by taking a paper clip wrap it with a wire then take two ends of the wire to a battery and the objects become magnetic.  Also, he made static by rubbing the end of a pen on his head then picking up small pieces of paper and bending a stream of water!  Thank Mr. Zarea for coming to share your job with us and how it helps the community!  

Michelle Ferguson has done a fabulous job in coordinating our auction item during the mornings this week.  Thank you to all of you that have volunteered your time and expertise to create such a unique item!


Centers:
Math Center - counting, exploring, adding, subtracting and patterning with insects!  The children started their math center with a handful of colorful insects.  They counted them, sorted them, and put them in patterns.  Then they listened to word problems such as one red insect flew to the swings and then two blue insects flew over too.  How many in all?  Or, three yellow insects were buzzing around.  The girl shooed one away.  How many are left?


Language Arts Center - Dinner  The children explored the book Dinner.  They searched for popcorn words in the book and were introduced to  "we" and "get"  They talked about the main ideas in the book and what they favorite dinner time meals are.  Then they searched around the room and inside other books for popcorn words.


Fine Motor - Weaving a picnic blanket.  The children made their own paper weaved picnic blanket by following a pattern and listening to direction words: over and under.  Next week they will search for pictures in magazines and cut them out of objects they would take on a Springtime picnic.


Technology - Kid Pix and Reading Blaster


Small Group/Work Time-
The children worked in reading groups reading books at their "right fit" reading level, investigating word patterns, and summarizing the books.


Each child worked on their April Self Portrait.  They have really come a long way in their drawings and details of themselves.


Everyone created a butterfly using lots of collage materials.


The children took turns playing in the balcony area where they have created a Spring scenery with puppets, flowers, and dress up clothes.


The children were encouraged to look at Spring time books and investigate the pictures, read the words, and learn about Spring.


Both seventh grade language arts classes came into our classroom on Thursday to interview the JK kids.  The seventh graders will take this information and create a story in their language arts class.  They will go through the writing process and then share the finished product with the JK kids in a few weeks!


A Peek Ahead - 
Next week we will explore the Season of Spring with our senses, touching mud, seeing new signs of spring including animals and flowers, hearing spring sounds in the listening center, tasting spring treats, and smelling floral scents.  We will be singing songs and playing interactive story telling games.  


Centers will be math, language arts, fine motor, and listening to books on tape.


Our field trip to the farm at the zoo is scheduled next week.  This will give us to chance to explore the outdoors applying what we've learned in the classroom about Spring and to kick off our Farm unit for the following weeks.

Week of April 11 - 15

Welcome Back from Spring Break!  The children were all so happy to see each other on Monday.

  We resumed with our Community Helpers study and Hikaru’s Mom, Mrs. Noriko Yasohama, came to the JK room to talk about her job as Japanese Language Teacher.  She told the children that her job helps people communicate in other countries like Japan.  She said that when you know a foreign language like Japanese, you can experience new books and films.  She told them that characters like Pokemon come from Japan and if you speak Japanese then you can watch those shows in another language.  She read a story about a boy who is bilingual and speaks English and Spanish.  This boy, Tito, helps a firefighter understand a man who only speaks Spanish.  Tito translated for the fire fighter that he smelled smoke in the apartment building. Mrs. Yasohama also read a book about spring, once in Japanese and then in English.  Thank you so much for coming in and sharing how your job helps the community!

Lily’s father, Kyle Edwards, came to the Junior Kindergarten classroom and talked to the JK students about his job as a banker.  He taught the students about how important saving money is and when you save money you can buy the things that you want!  The students got to ask Mr. Edwards questions about what he does at his job and then each student made a small piggy bank to start a collection of their own at home.  Thanks Mr. Edwards for showing us how your job helps the community!  


To continue our study of what community helpers do to keep us safe the children helped create a Safety Town with the trikes and scooters on the playground.  The children made stop lights and signs and interacted with each other to follow the directions.

Centers this week:

Math - counting and adding with toothbrushes and toothpaste.  The children were each presented with a toothbrush that had different amounts of dots on them.  They had to find the number on the toothpaste that matched the array of dots.  The lesson was differentiated so that children were able to count objects, identify numbers, and add numbers together.

Language Art - This is a Peach was the popcorn word shared this week in the Language Arts center.  The children worked on tracking the words on the page, identifying old popcorn words, and learning new words, describing and summarizing the story after we read it.

Fine Motor - writing popcorn words in salt.  In this week's fine motor center the children worked on writing past and present popcorn words in salt.  Feeling different materials is not only fun but great for their brain development as they make connections with reading, writing, and feeling the grainy salt.

                             

Technology - computer fun.  The JK kids all had an opportunity to work on Kids Pix or Reader Rabbit on one of our two computers. 

 Enjoying the Beautiful outdoors!

The class helped Rhett celebrate his birthday this week!  Happy 5th Birthday Rhett and thank you for the yummy cupcakes!

Reading Buddies!  Both 3rd and 7th grade came in on Thursday and Friday.  We missed them so much and were so happy they came.

A Peek Ahead:

This weeks center activities are:

Math, Lanugage Arts, Fine Motor, and Technology

During "small group, work time" the children will be meeting in reading groups, drawing their april self portraits, making butterflies, playing in the Spring dramatic play area on the balcony with spring time puppets, flowers, and dress up cloths, and reading the new spring time books.

During circle time we will be using our senses to talk about the season of Spring.  We will be reading books and learning new interactive songs and poetry.

We will not be in school on Friday and there is NO EDP.