This Week in JK

 Happy Homecoming Week

We celebrated many fun dress up days at school. Mismatch Day was one of our favorites.

Here are all of our bright students on Neon Day.

We are learning about the letter Nn this week in reading. We are also working on earthly patterns like night and day during science class. Not by creative design, but by shear luck, we studied day and night on pajama day. :) 

The listening center is a new one for JK students this week. We love any chance we get to put our hands on a good book.

Students take turns being the helper of the day. They are becoming more and more confident in front of the classroom. A fun part about being the helper of the day is when they get to ask their classmates the question of the day. Today's question..."What is your favorite dessert?"

Books! Books! Books!

Our books for the week are shown below. The books on the left are a fun series called Hello Genius and the books on the right are related to our science topic this week.

These boys are making big plans for today's recess adventure!

Thank you to our first mystery reader of the year! We love having parents and grandparents come into the classroom to help promote literacy. The students get so excited when the big reveal happens. More copies of the mystery reader forms will be going home on Monday. We would love to have each child represented at least once throughout the year. 

Tigers are INCREDIBLE and so are our junior kindergarten students! Homecoming was fantastic.

This Week in JK

We have been meeting with students individually this week during center time. Grandma and Grandpa B. work with students to practice spelling their names orally. Mrs. Lewandowski works with students who have missed class. Mrs. Krause works individually with students to gather baseline data on concepts like patterns, sorting, letter and number ID, etc.

We have been learning about the letter Aa this week. We learn the letter formation in handwriting. We learn the sound it makes and words that begin with the letter in reading. This week, we are also studying apples. Here, the students are completing a Weekly Reader about how an apple tree grows.

Here are some of our favorite books this week.

After some taste testing and a vote, the yellow apple was the favorite for most.

Students had the task of completing the letter A using do-a-dots in red, yellow, or green while at the writing center.

Parachute time in music class!

This Week in JK

Just Hanging Around

The first few week of JK recess are always interesting. Recess is a great opportunity to witness the creativity and endurance of a young child. They are wonderful creators when it comes to recess games. They also are adventurers in trying new equipment or mastering the skill of the monkey bars.

Center Time Activities

Each week our learning center games and activities are changed to keep the students engaged. Our building center features this road construction set, and our sensory table was open for the first time. It is filled with sand, toys, and beans.

Family
In social studies, we talked about our families. A student is showing her classmates a picture of her family. We all had the opportunity to share in front of the class. Thank you for sending pictures.

We have also used the theme "Family" during our math time. We asked students what their favorite family activity was and how many pets they had at their houses. Then we graphed our work to easily see the results. 

Foster Grandparents

We are so fortunate to have Grandma B. and Grandpa B. with us for a half hour each day. We have them come during center time, so that they can help direct students. They have taught our kids the game memory at the puzzle center, read to us at the reading center, helped us sort during math, and so much more. Beginning next week, they will be meeting with students one on one to work on individual skills. 

 

 Pete the Cat
We have been reading Pete the Cat stories this week. I encourage you to ask your child about the adventures of Pete.  

This Week in JK

After we had a chance to observe our butterfly on Tuesday, we released him! He has probably begun his migration to Mexico by now.

 We paused at recess for a quick class picture.

 We spent a good deal of time working on forming the letters in our name correctly this week. These name tags are laminated so we can write with dry erase marker and then reuse them. After we have had plenty of practice at school, they will be sent home.

Music class with Mr. Swanson is always a blast. Students worked on keeping the beat this week. I had an awesome video of the kids hopping to a fast beat and "sleeping" to the slow beat. Hopefully, I can figure out just how to add it to the blog. 

JK students sorted by color in the math center this week. 

Our room and our hallways are now filled with student work! Some of our work goes home for families to see, but most is kept at school to put on display or to save for portfolios.

This Week in JK

This week in JK entomology class...
We have quite the bug collection. We have two caterpillars, a beetle, many crickets, and a praying mantis! It's amazing to learn about how they live, what they eat, and their anatomy. 

We are building towers taller than we are during center time.

We begin each afternoon with something called daily focus. We have our special helper greet us in a different language, ask a question of the day, and review some very important JK skills. Here, a student is leading us as we count on our number line. 

Students get a chance to work in a small group setting daily. This helps teachers keep a closer eye on the development of new skills and assist students easily. It also allows a time for children to have meaningful conversations with their peers and their teachers.

During snack time, we watch an abcmouse video to help us learn our letters and sounds. They have great free videos with nursery rhymes, fables, and one for each letter of the alphabet. I encourage you to try them out at home.

 Recess has become an important time to learn about including others, asking to join in play, taking turns...and... chasing your teacher.  Picture unavailable :)