Enjoying Fine Arts!

What a great trip we had today to the Fine Arts Museum in St. Petersburg! The children had the opportunity to see and talk about beautiful pieces of art that they had previously learned about in Visual Arts class with Mrs. Gootson.  They asked wonderful questions and answered them too.  We were escorted  by a docent who even took us in to see the new Egypt exhibit.  There was so much to see and there is never enough time to see it all.  Hopefully you will all have the opportunity to visit together with your families at another date.  Until then, here are some pictures of the paintings, sculptures and fun from the room at the end of the tour where the children were actually able to add to and create art!

Junior archaeologists!

Egyptian Queens, King and Princesses.

Happy Monday!

Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend!  We were lucky enough to kick it off with our opening ceremonies to Relay For Life, here at Shorecrest on Friday.  The children were excited to celebrate our very own Super Hero, Manny E. on stage.  Then they joined a Senior buddy to take that ceremonial first walk around the track.  The school earned more than $75,000.00 toward cancer research.  That's something to really celebrate!

This week we are all a buzz!  The children will do an investigation on bees as part of our Insects unit.  Today we read the book Discovering Our World: Bees by Melvin and Gilda Berger.  The children have also enjoyed observing the bees in our flower garden.  They learned that bees are EXTREMELY important to our lives!  Without the bees, no flowering plants would grow! Ask your child about how the bees make things grow.  I bet you'll get all the buzz about it!!!

This Wednesday our class will take the bus to the Fine Arts Museum accompanied by our very own Docent, Mrs. Gootson!  She has taught the children so much about art and art appreciation this year.  It's their time to really shine and to see works by some of the artists they have learned about up close and personal. The staff of the Fine Arts Museum are always so impressed by the knowledge the children have of fine art and their artists.  Bravo!!!

Speaking of fine art.......
In Jr. Kindergarten we always celebrate the arts!  However, this April 16-20th we will have very special activities for a true Celebrate The Arts week.  Don't forget to mark Friday April 20th on your calendar for a special show and picnic beginning at 11am.  It's sure to be delightful!

Happy Monday!
Mrs. Carson

Thank you! Thank you!

Mrs. Cummings and I were floating on air all day long Tuesday! We felt so appreciated and loved!  WE both want to say "Thank You" for the lovely flowers and sweet cards we were showered with for Teacher Appreciation Day. Our lunch together, along with the whole Shorecrest faculty was such a nice treat! Every day is special with the Bright-Eyed Bears and we consider ourselves very lucky to experience so much learning with them.  Tuesday, however, was EXTRA special! Thank you!!!! xo

As a class we traveled around the campus to admire all of the decorated doors, yesterday.  They were really  GREAT.  Still, no decoration was quite as remarkable as the amazing quilt that decorates my classroom door!  During the week, the children sign-in on certain days to practice printing their first and last names.  The clever Mrs. Drygas gathered a recent sign-in from each child and embroidered them into a beautiful Bright-Eyed Bears quilt.  Tears of joy definitely came as I realized I can snuggle up with my little friends for many years to come with this precious gift and keep warm with memories of this fantastic year! Thank you so much Mrs. Drygas!!!

If only this picture could do the amazing quilt justice!  Mrs. Drygas did an AWESOME job!!! Please come in to see!

WE are celebrating Spring in JK! This week we began our exciting Insect unit!  The children started a new KWL chart to talk about what they already Know about Insects, Want to know about them, and we'll fill in what we Learn as we go along! The children studied pictures of different insects and drew pictures of the ones they had questions about and even labeled them too!  Now we have a starting point!

Books, videos, observation of live insects, "bug walks", and so much more will help us in our investigations. Here is a favorite video we've shared in class:

Wednesday was all about BUTTERFLIES! There were a staggering amount of questions about these beautiful creatures.  We investigated and found lots of answers, but we'll watch as caterpillars grow and change in our classroom to find out more! Stay tuned!
Ask the children about:
how many body parts an insect has, and what they are called
how many legs and where

butterflies:
how many wings
what the "feelers" do
how butterflies taste flowers
what butterflies use to "slurp" up the nectar from flowers (Proboscis)
where butterflies lay their eggs

(We are investigating these things first hand on a milkweed plant outside and another inside our classroom!)

I could go on and on! Your children are Insect GENIUSES!!

Have a great day! Until my next blog on Sunday enjoy these pics of fun JK goings on!

Loving Nature!

The end of the week was just as exciting as the beginning.  On Wednesday we took a trek to the Shorecrest  Pond for a little investigation.  There were all sorts of cool things to see; minnows, tadpoles, bugs, ducks, and more!  The children were excited to find clam shells on the shore.  Some of them were even whole!  Feathers, leaves, sticks, shells, rocks and more were found too for a special "sink and float" experiment.  The children discovered that dense rocks and shells sink, but lighter and hollow things like sticks, reeds, leaves and feathers don't! They took their Science Journals with them to draw pictures of the most exciting things and even labeled them with descriptive words all on their own.

Exploring on Friday offered great opportunities for the children to really explore their creativity.  There were pizza makers (a yummy homemade snack), nature sculptors, abstract artists, etc. It was an awesome day in Junior Kindergarten! My room was all about sculpting with natural clay and using objects from nature to enhance the final sculpture.  The children used river rocks to smooth the clay, sticks to cut and poke it, shells and leaves to make prints in and decorate the clay, and so much more! Take a look at my pictures and then visit the other JK blogs to see pictures of other rooms and exciting happenings.

 Once finished, the children drew pictures of their wonderful sculptures before removing the natural objects and offering their clay to another friend for making a new masterpiece.

Other excitement from the week included making habitats for our hermit crab friends to crawl around in and explore!

This week we look forward to Relay For Life on Friday!  We will kick off the day with a 9am walk around the track with Senior friends.  Later in the afternoon families are invited to visit and experience the many tents set up with food, crafts, and items for sale all honoring Relay For Life! Don't forget to wear purple all this week!  The children may wear a purple shirt with uniform bottoms Monday-Friday this week.

Have a great one!!!