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!