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.