Grandparents and Special Friends Day! This Week and More!

What a wonderful morning we had with the Grandparents and Special Friends last Friday.  It was so lovely to meet the special people in our special little friend's lives.  Mrs. Cummings and I enjoyed every minute.

This week......

As January winds down so does our awesome author study.  It has been so much fun getting to know some of the many wonderful authors that enhance our JK days with their books. This week we are focusing on books written by Doreen Cronin.  She wrote such books as: Click, Clack, Moo. Cows That Type, Click Clack, Quackity Quack, Duck For President  and many more!  We are looking forward to a lot of fun activities based around these zany books.  Stay tuned!

Our focus letter of the week is the letter that  puts the Awesome in Alphabet.....letter Aa.  The children will learn the sounds, sign, and shape of upper and lower case Aa.  We've been singing Jack Hartmann's vowel song and learning about the long and short sounds each vowel makes.  Alphabet learning is so much more fun with music, animation, and hands-on activities.  The children really enjoy working together on iPad activities, computer applications, and printing/bookmaking activities that enhance their learning experiences.  Dancing, singing, rhyming and signing are always part of our JK fun as well.

Counting with 1-1 correspondence and numeral recognition  games and activities are the focus of our math lessons this week during Centers.  We continue to practice counting, making predictions, numeral recognition to 30 and pattern-making and continuing during daily calendar activities as well.

It's been a wonderful January that has just flown by! This is the time of year when we teachers see the most growth in the children and in their learning endeavors.  It's exciting!  I'm looking forward to sharing with all of you at our Parent/Teacher Conferences on February 9th (and some alternate days as well).  If you haven't already plugged your date and time into the calendar please give me a call or send me an email as soon as possible.  Just a reminder that when you signed up for the October conferences you were automatically signed up for that same time slot on February 9th.  Thanks!  See you soon! :)

Field Trips:  Wednesday February 8th we will take a second visit to First Fruits Hydroponic Farm to harvest some of the fruits and veggies we helped to plant when we visited last October.
February 29th we will go to Botanical Gardens! :)

Have a great week!

American Stage!

What a delightful time we had Monday at American Stage!  The children were on their very best behavior as they toured on stage of the play "Seven Guitars", backstage, through the wardrobe area, and in the offices of the creators who put all the magic of the Theatre together!

The amazing set of "Seven Guitars". The children were so excited to see how real everything looked!

Sketches and drawings are the first step in creating a special look for the characters who take the stage.  The Wardrobe Mistress pieces together, sews and stitches her way into making theater magic. The costumes come to life from simple story-board ideas and a lot of hard work.

Rows and rows of costumes and shoes!

Backstage, the children played an "actors game" called "Going To Alaska".  It's a warmup for the stage.  The children had to state loudly and proudly that they were going to Alaska, and tell what they were going as.

"I'm going to Alaska as an owl....hoot hoot!"

The children learned about "blocking".  Actors use a backstage area to block off their stage directions and rehearse.

It was a very happy morning full of fun and drama!  The good kind! :)

Budding Authors!

Last week in Junior Kindergarten the children learned about author and illustrator, Laura Numeroff.  They learned that when trying to come up with book ideas, Laura Numeroff thinks of the silliest things she can to get the creative juices flowing.  We enjoyed many of LM's books, but the ones that really got our Bright-Eyed Bears writing were If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, and Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers.  After enjoying If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, the children broke into small groups to collaboratively brainstorm their own stories in the same style as the book using the prompt: "If You Give A________A_________".  The children had to compromise to decide which animal they all could agree on for their story, then they all got to share their ideas about what happened next.  In If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, the author says: "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk to go with it".  Then a series of events occur based upon what the mouse wants with the glass of milk, a straw, then what happens when the straw reminds the mouse of something else, and so on.  Our children did an amazing job of coming up with events that follow each other to tell authentic and creative stories.  The stories are featured with original illustrations on our bulletin board in the classroom.  Be sure to check them out when you visit the classroom for your conference.  Each author will also have the story he/she worked on and his/her illustration featured in their journal!
Some of the titles were:
If You Give A Tiger An Oreo Cookie....
If You Give A Fast Cheetah A Cupcake...
If You Give A Flamingo A Donut.....
If You Give A Giraffe A Banana....

I bet you can't wait to find out what happens next!!! :)

During the story Dogs Don't Wear Sneakers, the children howled with laughter at the silly things Laura Numeroff wrote.  "Dog's don't wear sneakers", "Pigs don't roller skate", "Snakes don't eat dinner at a  restaurant", but children do giggle when they hear these ideas and they also come up with funny ideas of their own!

Being silly with Laura Numeroff's Dog's Don't Wear Sneakers!

We played a great game after reading this story.  The children sat in a circle with me as Mrs. Cummings snapped pictures.  We took turns rolling a ball from child to child while sharing ideas of what animals don't do!  The children came up with funny sayings such as: "Jaguars don't wear tutus", etc.  One child named an animal and said "don't" after it, then he/she rolled the ball to another child in the group who finished the sentence.  Take a look....

Other fun in learning this week included.....
*measuring, mixing, baking and enjoying chocolate chip cookies from scratch.
*adding and subtracting 0-10, using cookie counters.
*learning the shape, sound, sign, and how to print letter Rr.
*sounding out words and reading them.
*practice with 1-1 correspondence and counting.
*matching beginning letter sounds with pictures.
*planting and gardening
*creating red art collages
*making pancakes
*rolling and running with ramps and romping relay races.
AND SO MUCH MORE! ;)



This week!
Monday is our field trip to American Stage! W are all very excited! We will leave school around 9:20am and return before lunch.

Our Author study this week will cover works from David Shannon!

We have a birthday celebration on Tuesday.

We will play lots of alphabet recognition and sound games, and continue to practice numeral recognition and counting with simple addition and subtraction by playing games and with fun activities.

We are really looking forward to Friday for Grandparents and Special Friends Day!  It is a noon dismissal day.

It's going to be a super week! :)

Celebrating Family Traditions

We had the awesome privilege of celebrating Kings Day with "A" and his mother on Thursday, last week.  The actual Kings Day is celebrated on January 6 and is also known as Epiphany.  In France, Kings Day is called Le jour des rois or La fête des rois. In honor of this day they eat Galette des Rois or Kings Cake.   Kings Cake is made with almonds and sugar. It is a flat, round cake that actually more resembles a pie.  "A's" family makes King's Cake all through the holidays and into January to share with family and friends. Traditionally, each cake or pie (as "A's" family refers to them) is baked with a trinket inside.  We actually had four!  "A's" mother baked two King Pies, each with two trinkets inside.  One King Pie was for the girls and the other was for the boys.  We had two Kings and two Queens!  The story is that whomever finds a trinket in their piece of Kings Pie shall be King or Queen for that entire day.  Our little Kings and Queens were so very excited about finding their trinkets and wearing their crowns, and we all were thrilled to enjoy the delicious pie! Here are some pictures of our happy morning!

This week in JK

Everyone enjoys a nice long weekend, but it is an even bigger treat when it comes in celebration of the life of an amazing man! The children were truly touched by the story about Martin Luther King Jr. that was read to them last week in the Library, but they were mesmerized by the video clip that I showed them this morning of the "I Have A Dream" speech.  I so enjoyed watching them watching the video.  Here is the video:

After watching, the class enjoyed a heartfelt discussion over ways we can make the world a better place, just like Mr. King did.  Please visit our classroom to see the ideas that were shared and then illustrated.  Our children have such wonderful hearts!

One of the children brought up that taking care of our environment is one way of making the world a better place.  So true!  The children will plant a beautiful friendship garden on Friday during Exploring as part of our building a better world dream.  If your child would like to participate in this project, please be sure to send in a flowering plant by Thursday afternoon. Thank you!

This week the children will enjoy books written by Laura Numeroff. We have lots of fun learning experiences based upon her many wonderful books!

Next Monday, January 23rd we will take a field trip to American Stage in downtown St. Petersburg.  Our class will leave at 9:20am and return by lunch time.  I can take two parent volunteers.  Please let me know ASAP if you are available to join us.

Looking Ahead!

February 9th is Spring Conference Day.  When you signed up for conferences in the fall you were automatically placed in the same time slot for the spring conference.  If that time slot is no longer convenient, no worries.  Please contact me as soon as possible and we will look into a new time or day.

I am available on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays after school.

Have a great week!

Jan Brett is Beary cool!

Jan Brett!

This week in Junior kindergarten the children really enjoyed learning about the author/illustrator Jan Brett.  What a treat it was to see a video of Jan Brett in her home where she raises chickens, has her own art studio, and makes magic happen with the stories she writes!

We read several of Jan Brett's amazing books, and talked about many more.  Our classroom library displayed quite a few of them for the children to explore as well.  The first story we read together was The Mitten.  The children loved play acting the book and bringing the characters to life.  There were foxes, owls, badgers, rabbits and more tromping through our classroom as we reenacted the story.  Later, during centers, the children used their fine motor skills to trace, cutout and decorate their very own paper mittens.  They were reminded that one mitten has to look the exact same as the other...symmetry.  It was a challenge that the children really rose to.  They did an amazing job of calculating where to put objects on each mitten. We have explored symmetry before in this school year.  It was great to see that the children really"warmed up" to the mitten symmetry project!

After reading the story Berlioz Bear, the children got the opportunity to try out some exciting musical instruments.  As an extension to the activity, in teams, they matched each instrument with the letter that begins that instrument's name. T for tambourine!  To take it even further, the teams then tried to sound out the name of each instrument and match the written word to it. Our parent volunteer seemed to have a great time working with the children on this project.  I think she was pretty impressed with their knowledge as well!

 The children had a "rootin' tootin' " good time when we read Armadillo Rodeo this week.  The story is about a little armadillo who loves to wander off and does so while on a walk with his Ma and brothers and sisters.  He embarks on an adventure, running after what he thinks is a new friend.  You see, armadillos don't see very well.  It turns out that Bo, the wandering armadillo was chasing after a boot worn by a little girl all day at the rodeo.  When he realized that his new found friend wasn't another armadillo, he was sad.  Then he realized that even though things didn't turn out the way he planned, he had an awesome adventure!
The Bright-Eyed Bears drew pictures and dictated stories about adventures that they have embarked upon.  They shared things from making a new friend, to starting a new school, etc. I think they learned that there are all sorts of adventures to be had....it's just the way you look at things! Ask your child about his/her adventure!
As another extension to this "bootiful" book, the children practiced their printing claw-finger grips with a punching exercise....Bb's on Boots!

Speaking of using those "claw-finger" grips....The children have been printing a lot these days!  They sign-in printing their first and last names several times a week, practice inventive spelling on our dry-erase boards, use the chalkboards and magnet boards for perfecting those printing skills, put pictures to words in book-making activities, and proudly display their work.  Take a look!

Spanish fun!

We have had a few really cold days this winter!  Since the Junior Kindergarten students love to learn Spanish and we love to play games too, it was fun to put the two together in a great Spanish game for learning the names of popular cold weather articles of clothing.  Here's how it worked:  in groups of five the children took turns rolling the dice, adding up the number of dots and flipping over a card labeled with the number corresponding to the dice.  On the other side of the card was an article of clothing for the child to learn the Spanish translation of and place onto the "person" in the middle of the table.  Look and see....

Fun in learning!  And there was so much more of it! Stay tuned for more pictures and a story about our cultural sharing experience with Alexandre and his family!  See you again this Sunday!

Bb is for Bright-Eyed Bears!

Hello Friends!

This week in Jr. Kindergarten the children are focussing on the letter Bb.  This is quite a beautiful thing because we are also learning about a very popular author whose last name begins with the letter B.  Jan Brett is her name! :)  The children already know and love many of her popular books, especially The Gingerbread Baby, and Gingerbread Friends, both of which preceded a wild run around campus when our gingerbread babies ran away in December!  This week the children will listen to and experience activities based around the books Armadillo Rodeo, Berlioz Bear, The Mitten, and Hedgie's Surprise. Books are beary, beary, fun!

This month's Focus Letters: Pp, Bb, Rr, Kk, Aa

Birthdays!
We love to celebrate BIRTHDAYS in Jr. Kindergarten!  It is preferable to celebrate your child's birthday on or as close to their real birthday as possible.  If your child's birthday falls on a weekday and you wouldn't mind celebrating in the classroom on that day, plan on it! :) We can discuss the time as it gets closer to the day.  We have quite a few summer birthdays that we simply must celebrate while we are in school.  We can celebrate half-birthdays or if you prefer, we can celebrate in May before school lets out for the summer.  Please let me know what works best for you and your little one.  The children really enjoy baking their special birthday snack along with their classmates.  We will do that together.  However, if you would like to bring decorative plates, napkins, and cups that would be great!  Drinks are welcome too. (No soda, please)

Star Of The Week!
Here is just a refresher of the daily sharing themes for the Star of the Week, to help your child to choose something to bring to school:
Monday....Theme-related (This month is Literacy and Favorite Authors)
Tuesday....Favorite CD or song to share
Wednesday.....Favorite book
Thursday.....Favorite photograph
Friday......Favorite ANYTHING...something very special!

These daily sharing themes are to encourage your child to share aloud with the class, helping them to feel comfortable with speaking in front of a group.  Public speaking! :)

This month we will visit American Stage and see backstage how stories are brought to life before our very eyes! Stay tuned for the actual date.

Visit again on Wednesday for pictures and stories about this week's learning activities.
Have a great night!

Happy New Year!!!

Hello!  I hope everyone had a happy, healthy, joyful holiday season.  Happy New Year!  2012 in the Green Door started out with a bunch of beautiful Bright-Eyed Bear hugs! How could that be better? We all had a wonderful break, but everyone was so excited to come back together on Tuesday.  I do declare that those children grew at least an inch while they were away.  They all seem to be so BIG all of a sudden!  Their minds have grown too!  There have been so many wonderful connections made in conversations tying past activities with new topics introduced.  The enthusiasm is contagious!  The Bright-Eyed Bears have the learning fever!!!

Beary Exciting!!

We are so excited to welcome a new student into our Bright-Eyed Bear bunch.  Christina S. and her family just moved here from Switzerland. Our friends were so welcoming and Christina fit perfectly into our happy group.

 January

This month the children will have the opportunity to learn about some very popular children's book authors. Each week in January will be dedicated to reading stories from fantastic authors; Marianne Berkes, Jan Brett, Laura Numerof, and David Shannon. Although we will not be able to focus on all of their books, we will have many of them in our reading corner for the children to enjoy.  This week we are comparing and contrasting Marianne Berkes' books Over In The Arctic Where The Cold Winds Blow, and Over In The Ocean.  The children will discuss the differences and similarities of these two places, the creatures that live in each ecosystem, and the climate associated with each place.

On Wednesday we read Over In The Arctic Where The Cold Winds Blow.  After a delightful discussion about arctic animals and what the Arctic climate is like the children watched a short video that gave them a true to life view of the animals that were mentioned in the book.

The Science Journals were brought out for a special activity where the children learned about how blubber keeps those sweet animals safe in the frigid temperatures of the arctic. The children dipped a naked hand into a bowl of ice water and decided right away that they definitely did not want to swim in water that cold (although a few said they would :)  ).  Next, each child put on a glove that was made with  two ziplock baggies filled with vegetable shortening.  Their hand was sandwiched between each filled baggie.  When they dipped their hands in the water while wearing the special "glove" or BLUBBER, they found that the water wasn't nearly as cold!  Some of the expressions were priceless!  It was cool science!  After the experiment the children drew pictures of arctic animals in their journals and dictated their thoughts and ideas about what they learned.

It has indeed been a great time to discuss arctic animals in JK!  The weather has been feeling a bit arctic these last few days....at least for Florida anyway!  We have taken advantage of the cold and taken some cool pics of "freeztastic"fun.  

ice cube painting......as the ice melts the paintings flow

dramatic play with arctic animals in the water table

Bundling up for fantastically frigid outdoor play!

Inside, the Bright-Eyed Bears kept warm with teamwork activities, big hugs, and lots of laughter and learning.  As we come back together we enjoy each other's company and grow each day as we learn through play.

Working together builds strong relationships and cooperative skills,

friendship and trust.

Perfectly productive printing practice with letter Pp!
I was tickled pink when this group of friends started sounding out words beginning with our letter of the week Pp, for printing!

There's power in pairs for practice with patterns!

It's been a great week so far!  Stay tuned for much more to come!