Junior Kindergarteners had a busy week of writing, storytelling, story-listening, and math! With Valentine’s Day, students set a routine to create a card for each classmate. Support in school helped them think about what to include, how to consider each receiver’s likes, and letter-formation practice. We have been learning about letters of the alphabet at small group stations, based on students’ authentic needs to communicate—signs, menus, Valentine’s, stories, drawings, and even “sorry cards” are all a great chance to get teacher help with pencil grip and the Fundations motor plans for each letter (e.g. starting at the top and pulling down versus writing bottom up). Valentine’s card stations in Explorations this week also gave us practice tracing and cutting shapes. Half-heart stencils made by teachers gave students lots of opportunities to fold paper, trace a half shape, then cut and unfold to produce a whole heart. “Oops” moments caused smiles as we noticed that sometimes we made butterfly wings or rain drops instead of hearts.
“Oops” moments caused smiles as we noticed that sometimes we made butterfly wings or rain drops instead of hearts.
Students noticed and named ways in which the fold, trace, and locations of the cut caused the different shape outcomes. We closed the week by pulling “Fair Sticks” to see whose turn it was to take Bear-Bear home for the weekend! Several students patiently await their chance to bring our class stuffy home to show Bear-Bear around and share adventures. As part of their turn, students dictate to family members a first-person narrative in the shared class journal where Bear-Bear logs adventures. This builds skills for story-telling and also gives students and their families a peek into community members’ homes and family routines. Students have the most fun hearing about what Bear-Bear did in peers’ homes, including when sometimes things don’t go so well (e.g. cats that don’t share well, cold or rainy days)! We can’t wait to see what Bear-Bear gets up to next!