Upcoming Dates and Announcements:
February 6th: 11:30 Dismissal Winter long weekend begins
February 9th-10th: No School
February 11th: Class Resume
Snack helper: Isla
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Hello Families,
This week in Junior Kindergarten, we honored Martin Luther King Jr. by celebrating kindness, unity, and love in all its beautiful forms. After reading The Colors of Us by Karen Katz, the children explored how our skin tones can be described using warm creative color names. To help the children see our differences as something special and worth celebrating.
Inspired by the story, the children collaboratively worked on an art project. Each child chose a paint color they felt represented love, and together they created a vibrant heart-shaped canvas that reflects the love we share in our classroom community. We also explored skin-tone paints, mixing colors, and creating paint swatches. The children proudly named their newly created colors, just like in the book!
Here are some of the beautiful color names the children came up with:
Lincoln: “Chocolate, Lincoln, pickles, applesauce, brownie, and peach pecan.”
Avery: “Sunny Daycare.”
Gemma: “Cupcake, brownie, pineapple, cinnamon, peach.”
Leland: “JK, Bob, Gee, V, and Joe.”
Free Nala: “Cinnamon and coffee.”
Sebastian: “Spidy.”
Atticus: “Turtle.”
Archie: “Ovies.”
Zuri: “Fruit cup, hot chocolate, white piece of paper, and peach.”
Levi: “Sydney, Sunny, Brownie, Greenie, and Tax-a-rory.”
Clara: “Storm.”
Destry: “Puddle.”
Maverick: “Rainbow.”
Donato: “Chocolate, vanilla, yogurt, and Stitch.”
Ripley: “Cinnamon and toast.
Ben- “Chocolate brownie, cinnamon, bodo pink, white chocolate, and peanut toast.”
Brody- “Greenie, coconut, orange, strawberry, and chocolate.”
We revisited our germ investigation with lots of giggles as we read Germs vs. Soap! by Didi Dragon, a silly story that explains why washing our hands is so important. The book fit perfectly with our science lesson with our petri dishes from last week. After enjoying the story, we revealed each group’s petri dish and graphed the results together. The children compared which dishes had a small amount of germs and what had the extra-extra-large amount! Everyone was so surprised to find, “Our fingers are dirtier than the toilet!” Nala shouted, which led Ripley to respond, “No more, I’ll put my fingers in my nose!” Germs vs. Soap! helped the children understand that germs love hanging out on our hands because they can easily travel to our mouths, noses, and eyes.
We explored how to turn our germ drawings from last week from 2D creations into 3D sculptures using salt dough! After the children studied their germ designs, they eagerly smooshed, squeezed, rolled, and molded the dough to bring their germs to life in three dimensions. The children worked to transform their flat drawings into chunky textured germs.
While one group focused on sculpting their 3D germs, the other side of the classroom was busy exploring shapes. The children created 2D shapes using popsicle sticks and yarn, carefully counting sides and noticing corners. For 3D shapes, they used a classroom favorite, magnetic tiles. Together, we compared a square and learned that it has four sides, but to make a cube, we need six squares working together.
Sally the Sneezer made a return to our classroom this week to help us explore why soap is so important when washing our hands. With a very dramatic “sneeze” (really cinnamon sprinkled into a bowl of water!), Sally showed the children how germs can spread.
First, we dipped a finger into the bowl of “germs” without soap and noticed how the cinnamon stuck right to our skin just like germs do! Then came the exciting part. We dipped our fingers into Dawn dish soap and touched the bowl again, and WOW! The “germs” (cinnamon) quickly ran away from our fingers. The children were amazed to see how powerful soap really is.
For our next germ demonstration, the children dipped their hands into sneeze germs (glitter glue) and helped paint a large piece of paper together. This activity allowed them to see just how easily germs can spread everywhere onto friends, surfaces, and shared spaces. The glitter traveled fast, just like germs do! Afterwards, the real challenge began: washing it off! The children quickly discovered that the glitter glue was very hard to remove!
This week in math we introduced subitizing through two fun movement games. The children were each given a number card and had to find the correct chair with a matching domino card. Then, they partnered up and took turns rolling a die and counting the right amount of pasta to add to the bowl. These activities helped them quickly recognize quantities without counting.
In phonics this week, we created a word web for the letter Hh. The children came up with an amazing 57 Hh words. We practiced making the Hh sound, worked on writing both Hh, and we reviewed writing Kk.
We also took on a fun name challenge! The children were given their names in scrambled puzzle pieces and worked carefully to put them back together before gluing them down. To extend the activity, we were introduced to Wikki Stix. The children studied the letters in their names, noticing the lines and curves, and traced over each letter using the Wikki Stix.
Have a wonderful weekend, stay warm! See you “Monday”
Miss Gina and Miss Liz