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Next Thursday, December 11th- Early Childhood Winter Night at 5:30
Children should come dressed in festive attire they feel best wearing. Please drop them off in their classroom by 5:15. Families can then head to the gym and find a seat for a special story time that will then be brought to life in each of the early childhood classrooms. Families will be invited to enjoy refreshments and travel freely around campus while participating in a variety of heartwarming activities sure to bring joy this holiday season!
Friday, December 19th is a half day of school for the start of our Holiday Break! Classes will resume Monday, January 5th.
Snack helper next week: Ben
Hello JK families,
We welcomed the children back from Thanksgiving break with a transformed classroom, complete with a Christmas tree, and several new centers: small world winter wonderland, ornament making, letters to Santa, and magnetic trees! They LOVED all the new things in the classroom and took great pride in decorating the class Christmas tree. It turned out just beautiful!
Then, Tuesday brought the first big snow of the season and our very first snow day! When the children returned to school on Wednesday the school they had known was once again transformed… into a real life winter wonderland! Thank you for sending in snow gear so we could dress the children and let them explore the snowy campus. They loved sliding down the hillside (on their bellies) making snowballs, and of course taking a taste of the powdery white stuff!
This week we went “way down deep in the deep blue sea,” and discovered seahorses, hermit crabs, starfish, sea turtles, octopuses, dolphins, swordfish, and whales! In the story by Jan Peck, a child discovers all the sea creatures in the ocean. We then asked the children to choose their very own sea creature to create and add to our large scale layers of the ocean display. Inspired by pictures and illustrations, they then drew a draft of their sea creature of choice. This is a great way for young children to learn how to plan their designs by having time to practice their ideas before making a “final copy” of their work. We then took their draft drawings and made them jumbo! Using paint, they then chose the colors they wanted to use to bring their creatures to life! We can’t wait to place them in our display for all of our families to see at winter family night.
This week we also introduced our sea creature of the day series! Each day we learned fun facts about sea life. Our first creature had to be a sea turtle in honor of our turtle loving friend, Atticus! We learned that leatherback turtles weigh 2,000 pounds, can swim 6,000 miles in a single year, and unlike land turtles, they can’t retract their head and limbs into their shell! We also enjoyed learning facts about jellyfish! Did you know they don’t have brains, hearts, or bones, but they do have stinging tentacles that catch food and can glow in the dark!? While learning about jellyfish we had to dance to the jellyfish song! We also painted clear umbrellas, paper lanterns, and ribbons that, once assembled, will soon transform into jellyfish! These interactive jellyfish will be featured at our winter family night next week. We can’t wait for you to experience what the children created!
We also learned about the letter Jj and practiced it’s sound and formation. They loved writing it in our sensory rice trays! They continue to work on identifying rhyming pairs, isolating initial sounds and other auditory pre-reading drills!
We will see you Thursday night!
Have a wonderful weekend,
Miss Liz and Miss Gina