If your child is tired this weekend, it’s because we did so much this first week of Junior Kindergarten!  The first week we mostly focus on getting to know each other and learning all of the processes and procedures for a new classroom.  Mrs. Swanson and I are enjoying this great group of students!

Our first unit of study this year is “The Lemurs of Madagascar” and also the Water Cycle.  We will begin to get more in-depth with these topics next week.

Next week we also begin Show & Share! Please check the show and share calendar in your “Lemur Info” folder to see when your child’s days are.  I will also send a digital copy of the calendar this weekend.  Mrs. Swanson and I both had a “Show & Share” this week to model for students how to present and how to be an audience.  We are excited to see what the Lemurs will share!

 

Small Group Work This Week…

Wednesday – Introduction to treehouse (small group) procedure

Literacy- PLay-doh Letter Aa – The first 26 days of school we focus on a letter each day to review our letters and letter sounds.  We start each morning with literacy movement songs from Heidi Songs.  I love Heidi Songs for letters, sight words, and phonics rules.  The songs and movements are very catchy, easy to remember and help students when beginning to read and write.

Math – Unifix staircase – We use Unifix cubes for many math activities this year. Today we counted cubes to create a staircase of cube 1 – 10.

Thursday

Science – How the Lemurs Got to Madagascar – I told the story of how the first lemurs were blown over to the island of Madagascar from Africa during a giant storm.  For most units that we study, students create a book to document what they have learned and practice drawing and writing skills.  I showed students the lemur book they will be creating next week.

Health – Why We Wash Our Hands – Mrs. Swanson showed her group a close look at the germs that get onto our hands. They practiced the best way to wash their hands to get all of those germs off!

Friday

Science – Elephant Toothpaste – The zoo called and the elephants all have dirty tusks! They needed us to make a batch of elephant toothpaste! Following a recipe, we tried the first batch but did not get the reaction we needed.  The yeast was expired!   But Lemurs do not give up!  We decided to try again with new yeast.  While students were in Science class, I went to the supermarket and got some new yeast.  We tried again and were successful!   The reaction of yeast with peroxide created an explosion of toothpaste!

Math – Measurement – Each student had a strip of paper of different lengths. They needed to measure their papers against each other to find the person with the same length. Afterward, Mrs. Swanson measured each student on the tape measure on our door. Check it out to see how tall your child is.