It was another exciting week in Junior kindergarten!
As an extension of our unit, Flora and Fauna Around the World, we visited the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. The children spent the day outside visiting the different parts of the garden to see plants from all over the world.

We "traveled" in our imaginations to South America this past week.  We spent a lot of time in the Amazon Rainforest!  With help from videos, books like The Great Kapok Tree, and inquiry and investigation the children learned so much!  I cannot believe how full our KWL chart has become!  We started out with adding pictures and words about the animals we know, then moved on to the animals we want to know about, and finally added what we learned!  It has been so much fun in learning!  

 How delicious math can be!  In the Amazon Rainforest we learned about leaf cutter ants.  After watching a short video on youtube that showed us these mighty little workers in action the children experienced a math center that reinforced the addition and subtraction that has been introduced in previous math centers and everyday occurrences.  Raisins represented the ants.  The children worked with me individually and pulled a numeral from one pile, named it for me, then counted that many ants onto a leaf.  They then pulled a second numeral and named it for me.  This time, however, they either added it and told an addition story or subtracted it and told a subtraction story from the original ants on the leaf. This was a great lesson for numeral recognition, counting with 1-1 correspondence and critical thinking skills.  The children did an awesome job!

This week we will journey to the continents of Asia and Africa!  I cannot wait to see where this trip will take us in our animal inquiry!  It's all up to the children!

We are so excited to pull all of the continents and our learning about them together on Friday with our Activity Day!!!  It is sure to be a very special day.  I hope you can join us.  If you are a volunteer, please arrive no later than 8:15 am.  If you are simply joining us for the show and lunch, please be to school by 11 am.  Thanks so much!!! Have a great week!