Jj Week: Jumping, Jazz, Jelly Beans & More!

Jj Week

This week at Pre-K, the children learned about the letter Jj.  Our themes included jazz, jelly beans, nursery rhymes such as "Jack and Jill" and "Jack be Nimble", and various other "Jj" activities.  This week, we also focused on Earth Day, our butterfly journals, small/medium/large, comparisons, rhythm, rhyme, sequencing, number review, and popcorn words "a" and "I".  One of the best things about this week was going outside!!!!!!!!!!!  It was so refreshing to get some fresh air and run around.  We played Duck, Duck, Goose, Red Light/Green Light, parachute, and bubbles!  We're looking forward to many more outings.  

Day 1

Activities included letter and sound identification with letter Jj.  We followed our typical Monday morning meeting routine: reviewing our Fundations cards, learning our new letter, and finding various Jj words in our Alphabet Center pocket chart.  Then, we learned our singable song for letter Jj by Heidi Butkus.  At centers, we painted with Jell-O.  What a fun sensory experience!  We loved using our sense of smell to guess what each flavor was.  We practiced tracing Jj with our finger, then with our paintbrush.  We searched for letter Jj at our letter identification center as well.  At one of our play centers, we were so excited to see the kids creating letter Jj with tube toys!  They amaze us!  Our Nursery Rhyme of the day was "Jack and Jill".  We talked about rhythm ("a pattern of sound") and noticed the rhythm in our nursery rhyme.  We also identified rhyming words such as hill/Jill and down/crown.

Day 2

We worked on creating our "popcorn words" of the week.  We also practiced writing Jj during Rainbow Writing and the writing center.  Our nursery rhyme of the day was "Jack be Nimble":.  Our centers were based on the rhyme.  The kiddies created their own Jack be Nimbles using various shapes, colors, and with their own personal touches!  They also worked on their numbers at the sensory center: Play-Doh with birthday candles.  Our favorite activity was our Jack be Nimble jumping game.  For each child, we put their name into the rhyme and cheered for them as they jumped over the candlestick and we measured their distance!

Day 3: 

The kiddies were introduced to an important day in April: Earth Day.  This can be a difficult concept for a preschool child to understand, so we related it to our daily lives.  We talked about how important it is to take care of what belongs to us (family, friends, toys, backyard, room, house, etc), and then extended it to our planet.  We talked about how we live on the planet Earth and why we want to keep it beautiful and clean.  We sang, "We've Got the Whole World in our Hands", created an Earth Craft, read The Earth Book by Todd Parr, and discussed the 3 R's: Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle.  Todd Parr taught us some simple ways we can take care of the Earth: using both sides of our papers when we color, not wasting water, cleaning up after ourselves, recycling, and more.  We also are working on a hand print Earth for the hallway where we will display some other Earth Day crafts we will work on next week. 

Day 4

On Thursday, activities were based on comparisons, sizing, and sequencing.  After our morning meeting, we listened to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I used the felt board to tell the story.  The kids learned about small/medium/large and sorted objects into each category on the felt board after reading.  At centers, the kids practiced their cutting skills to create and sort their own Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.  At the sand table, we sorted pom poms by size with tweezers to work on our fine motor skills.  We also graphed Jelly Beans and talked about more/less.  We even got to eat some!  Yum!  We have been graphing throughout the year, and now the kids are pretty much able to do the entire task independently!  Very cool to see.  After centers, we sequenced events in the story at the Felt Board and answered story comprehension questions about story elements such as characters and setting. 

Day 5

We all love Fun Friday!  Every Friday, I select one child's name at random from the cup of Popsicle sticks I use for our daily jobs.  The child chosen gets to complete all the jobs at the morning meeting.  Then, we give them a "drumroll" and they have to answer a "trivia question" from the week.  We all cheer after the child completes the task and they choose a special treasure from my prize chest.  It's a great way to boost a student's confidence and make them feel special and smart!  Fun Friday also consists of lots of "silly songs" and Free Play.  The children get to choose when and where they'd like to play instead of rotating centers.  Before free play, we reviewed rhythm and learned about jazz music.  Our activity was simple, but so full of fun and learning.  Each child found a large, white piece of paper at a table and wrote "Jazz Art".  Then, I played some music from the Early Jazz station on Pandora on our radio and the kids created illustrations while they listened.  Some of them drew instruments and music notes while others were inspired to draw scenes of their families and beautiful flowers.  It was so fun!  During free play, the kids enjoyed Jell-O paint, jelly bean counting, and many other sensory and dramatic play centers. We also read a new favorite, Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler.  The story has a repeating rhythm and the kids adore it.  They begged me to read it again and again after.  I definitely recommend it.

Butterfly Journals:

Here's what's new with our Butterfly Journals!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of their journal illustrations this week.  When we came back to school Monday, we noticed that all the caterpillars (except for one) made it to the top of the jar where they made their chrysalis.  What was really funny was that they were hanging in the shape of the letter Jj!  After a few days, I transferred them to the butterfly garden.  Tomorrow, we will see if metamorphosis is complete!  Important vocabulary this week included chrysalis and pupa.