This Week in JK

Swirl Art

We used paint and shaving cream to make swirl art. We dipped our "Earths" into the mixture and scraped off the excess with a ruler. The final projects can be seen in the third picture.

Nature Walk

To end our unit on the 5 senses, JK students took a little nature walk. We recorded the sounds we heard, the sights we saw, the smells we sniffed, and the textures we felt.

Kindergarten Visitation

We were invited by the kindergarten teachers to come and visit their classroom. It was a neat experience. It was fun to meet the teachers and see some of our kindergarten friends. We are so excited to start kindergarten next year. Here is a quick group photo before we were on our way. Unfortunately, Mrs. Krause accidentally deleted the few photos she had of us in the kindergarten room.

Homework
We have had a few homework assignments this year, most of which involve the family. Students and their families were asked to find objects around the house or in nature that had certain textures. Here, a student shows off his work he did with his family.

I Pledge Allegiance...

I am so proud of how well these kids can say the Pledge of Allegiance now. We have only been practicing a few short weeks, but they have it down and are ready to say it every morning in kindergarten.

Center Time
Our dramatic play center is now a recycling center thanks to all of your donations of recyclable materials. We love sorting them into bins.

We are learning to write spring words in the writing center and enjoying the play dough in the sensory table.

Recess

There is nothing cooler than a real life construction project! We can watch all the action at recess from a safe distance and behind a secure fence, of course. 

Music Class

We are preparing for the spring concert. JK students will be singing two songs about caterpillars and butterflies. 

Thank you to our latest mystery reader.

This Week in JK

Our 5 Senses

We have enjoyed studying our senses over the last two weeks. Here, students are using their sense of smell. They were asked to smell the liquid in the cup (vanilla, lemon juice, coffee) and decided whether they thought it was a good smell or a smell they didn't care for. They were very good at guessing what each item was.

We also studied the sense of touch. Students used their hands to play with play dough in the sensory center. They also got to take home a block of clay at the end of the week.

Field Trip to the Dacotah Prairie Museum

What did our land look like before Groton was built? Miss Mary taught us all about wildlife on the prairie many years ago.

There is an exhibit at the museum dedicated to the history of our local football teams. We got a chance to see old jerseys and helmets and even pretended to be announcers at a football game.

Miss Mary showed us many different animals, some of which we knew and some of which we had never heard of before.

Here are two fancy dinner guests at the "Ward Hotel and Diner."

Even more guests came to join in the fun.

We even visited an old fashioned bank.

 We also pretended to be engineers and passengers on the railway.

Thank you Miss Mary for teaching us so many incredible things this year. We will miss you tons, but hope to visit you at the museum this summer with our families!

This Week in JK

My 5 Senses

We are learning about our five senses this week and next. We have this sorting game set up in one of our centers.

Thank You Cards

Students are working on thank you cards for Miss Mary. She came to visit us for the last time this year and we wanted to thank her. We will, however, be visiting her at the Dacotah Prairie Museum very soon!

Miss Mary's Last Visit

We were so glad to have Miss Mary visit us once a month this year. She has taught us so many things we would have never had the chance to learn about without her. This month she taught us all about quilting! We got to see so many different kinds of quilting patterns and we even tried guessing the names of the patterns. Here are a few pictures from her visit.

Center Time

Spring Art

We used puffy paint to make baby chicks and scrapbook paper to make the egg shells. These will decorate our classroom for spring before being sent home.

Show Choir

We were so excited to be invited to the high school to watch the show choir sing. They were amazing!

Mystery Reader

Thank you to our latest mystery reader!

This week in JK

W is for...

water, watch, whistle, wheel, and so much more!

The Three Little Pigs

We learned about the story The Three Little Pigs. This is a great story to teach sequencing. Here, students are creating the pigs' houses out of straw, sticks, and "bricks."

Handwriting

Beautiful weather means our handwriting lessons can be outside!

Eric Carle

We read Eric Carle books this week and studied his art. We watched a cool video that explained how he creates his artwork. We imitated him by finger painting paper. When our paintings dried, we could cut out shapes to make art. Take a look at the finished products in the hallway at school (picture below).

W is for Water

In science this week, we learned about water. What sinks? What floats? How does water flow? How much water can different containers hold?

We turned our sensory table into a water table with many fun activities to complete while getting wet! It was quite a hit and we will keep it around another week.

We love having fun with friends in the dramatic play center!

Mystery Reader

We had two amazing mystery readers visit our classroom from North Dakota. We were so excited and grateful to know they wanted to donate their book and a stuffed animal to our classroom. Thank you!