Mrs. Carson's Sunny Sea Friends Blog Spot

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Hello! North America!

North American Art is plentiful! However, we decided to enjoy some local art that is "sandtastic". The children created original sand sculptures with the abundance of sand that is found in their own backyard of Florida beaches! Take a look!

See the fabulous finished designs in the Exploratorium alcove.

A Happy Valentine's Day!

The children had so much fun delivering and receiving their Valentine's on Thursday last week. They were sharing the love!!

I think you have my heart! :)

As the children entered the room on Valentine's Day they were given a necklace laced with half a heart. In the spirit of LOVE and learning the FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, they were asked to find the friend who was wearing the other half to their heart. Once the two halves made a whole each child told their friend something they liked about him/her and offered a special hug to share the love!

The children loved sharing their special valentine's with family and friends! It was a day full of smiles! A bunch of "thank you's" go out to all of you who were able to attend and help to make our day LOVELY last week.

All About ASIA

This week the Junior Kindergarten journeyed to Asia to learn about hope and goodness in art.

They made paper lanterns as a sign in our center of hope, goodness and thankfulness, always.

The children folded paper, cut slits in the middle, opened and decorated the paper using all sorts of different media then folded again from the other end to create a lantern effect. Later, they added streamers to the bottom to finish the design. They are hanging in the Exploratorium now to make you smile with their bright colors and happy message of hope, goodness and thankfulness.

Keep an eye out for a slideshow of the children telling stories about designs they made with Chinese tangrams during exploring centers.

We have a lot of exciting things going on in our early childhood center. Pay us a visit and check it out!

Don't forget Activity Day (March 7) is right around the corner. Please send in your information sheet ASAP so we can plan and make it fabulous!

Other Dates To Remember:
*February 26: Class Pictures (Please wear uniforms)
*February 28: Relay For Life Hot Dog Lunch
*March 1: Chill Lounge Gala (We have a really special painting up for auction!)
*March 7: Activity Day!

SPRING BREAK BEGINS MARCH 8!

Have a great week!

Monday, February 11, 2013

G'day Mates! Awa! Hola!

Art Around The World!

G'day From Australia!

Last week in Junior Kindergarten we boarded the "virtual" plane and traveled to Australia to celebrate the art of the Aborigine People.

"A" brought an authentic bumerang from Australia to share with the class. Then she sat down and made her own!

The children learned about Ayers Rock, or Uluru as the Aborigine call this sacred place in Australia.

The Art of making music.......

Didgeridoos!

A didgeridoo is an Aboriginal instrument created from a large reed hollowed out by termites. The children watched a youtube video of how they are made and played. What fun it was to create our very own and play them together.

The Aborigine people are very spiritual and it shines through their artwork. Many paintings are created to depict dreams and spiritual "adventures". Some others are about animals and nature. Beautiful paintings designed by the Aborigine people are created using dots. You can see dot art adorning boomerangs, rock, didgeridoos, wood, etc. This form of art is unique to the Aborigine people of Australia and has been recognized as such. The unique, wonderful children in our class tried their hand (lol) at it. Take a look!

Painting, using the end of a rounded stick just like the Aborigine People.

The children traced their hands using black sharpie markers then decorated them using the round end of a small stick (Q-tip swabs) dipped in paint.

South America

Later in the week we visited the rainforest in South America where the children saw the beauty of plants and vines and water flow together. They practiced drawing and cutting out spirals to create the flow of a vine. The transition was made from Australia to South America with the New Zealand art of Koru. Koru is art inspired by the unfurling of a fern reaching into the light of a bright new day. It represents hope and strength.

https://www.google.com/search?q=koru+art+for+kids&hl=en&tbo=u&rlz=1C1CHFA_enUS501US501&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=aD8RUaHEGLC-2AWPlYCIBw&ved=0CDAQsAQ&biw=1706&bih=752

Visit the Early Childhood Center soon to see the amazing work your children came up with when they experimented with this lovely Koru art. The Exploratorium is being transformed before our eyes as the world of art comes alive through projects and activities. Journey with us!

This week the journey continues with celebrating art from North America. The children will create sand sculptures, an acrylic painting, and make Mexican pinatas.

Planning for the GALA!

Get those paddles ready, Sunny Sea Friend Parents!
The Shorecrest GALA and silent auction is on March 1. In the spirit of ART the children have been working on an original painting which will be on display on that festive night and up for auction. Believe me....you will all want it!!! :)

Valentine's Day!

We are all looking forward to celebrating Valentine's Day together. The children are all smiles as they come to school with their special Valentines to share with their classmates. Festive mailbags were made last week and will house the cards as the children deliver them on Thursday. Our JK party will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be Exploring style. We have a lot of fun activities and games planned and would love your helping hands. The children will also enjoy reading their Valentines along with you in the classrooms. In honor of this happy day, the children may wear Valentine clothing on Thursday. Pink, red and white colors or Valentine shirts with jean or uniform bottoms.

Have a LOVEly day!

DATES TO REMEMBER:

February 13th - 1pm "Little Engine That Could" theater (children only)

February 14th - Valentine's Day Party - Exploring Schedule - 9:30 start We will need a number of parents to read the valentines to the children.

February 15th - No School - Teacher Professional Development Day

February 18th - President's Day Holiday

March 7th - JK Activity Day beginning at 8:45-lunch

Monday, February 4, 2013

So Much Excitement!

American Stage!

Last Monday we wrapped up a wonderful literary journey and author study with a trip to American Stage. The children enthusiastically participated in acting warm-up activities, exploring the stage and set of "The Piano Lesson", discovering how costumes are made and characters are brought to life. Stories take on a new meaning when they are brought to the stage. The children love dramatic play and also will have the opportunity to work with a parent/teacher to bring original stories to life with play acting later this month.

visiting with the wardrobe mistress for the show "The Piano Lesson"

Where do those stairs go? Up and backstage! The children were fascinated! On the set of "The Piano Lesson"

Jazzin' it up!

If the children were bebopping, swinging, and doo-wapping this weekend it was because they had an exciting crash course in Jazz on Thursday. The fourth grade production of "We Haz Jazz" really roused them and brought on lots of smiles and singing!
The Sunny Sea Friends haz jazz...oh yes we haz!!

Measuring up a great day!
The children revisited a special center from our earlier days in JK when they were younger and smaller too. Because they have grown so much both socially/emotionally and physically over the course of the year, measuring the children's mid-year height, weighing them and presenting more opportunities for them to work with different tools for measurement and discovery was in order!

Inch cubes for measuring height.

Balance and food scales for testing the weight of different objects and figuring out what to add or take away to balance the scales.

Sorting, graphing and counting.

We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do!!!
The children were all smiles at the Shorecrest Pep Rally last week. Go Chargers! Friends, past teachers, family and even Sparky came together for fun, laughter and cheer!

The class made bracelets, necklaces, headbands and some even made signs to show their Charger Spirit!

E gives Sparky a big high five!!

T joined his daddy for smiles and spirit!

There are so many exciting things happening in Junior Kindergarten. Each and every week brings new inquiries and investigations. This week the children began a journey around the world to learn about ART and culture from each of the seven continents. We went "down under" to investigate Australian Aborigine Dot Art on Monday. Look for the ECC to be transformed with original art as the children explore, discover and create!

Dates to remember:

February 7th Parents Conferences - No School - Vacation Club is available

February 8th No Exploring

February 14th - Valentine's Day Party - Exploring Schedule - 9:30 start We will need a number of parents to read the valentines to the children.

February 15th - No School - Teacher Professional Development Day

February 18th - President's Day Holiday

March 7th - JK Activity Day beginning at 8:45-lunch

Have a GREAT week!!!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Happy Week!

Loving, Learning and Sharing

Celebrating fun in learning, accomplishments and sharing with Grandparents and Special Friend's Day!

Building with blocks and building relationships old and new.

The children loved being able to share important aspects of their Junior Kindergarten days with some of their very favorite people.

Budding Authors!

The children, all month long, shared the book Rocket Writes A Story, by Tad Hills with their families. In our classroom they created a word tree to hang words they wanted to know how to spell upon the branches. Collectively, these words became important parts to original stories created by the kids. As you can see, they illustrated them too! Awesome!

As part of our literacy and author study, the children have been learning about building a story with a beginning, middle and end. They have learned to pay attention to the characters, setting, and lesson in a story (if there is one), too. Last week, the children compared stories by Leo Lionni. The stories we read were fables with animals as the main characters and all had great lessons to learn. The fables we shared were: Matthew's Dream, It's Mine, The Green-tailed Mouse and Frederick. This week, we will learn from Inch By Inch. The author spotlight this week will be on Tomie DePaola.

The children enjoy new and exciting ways of learning lessons in our curriculum. Being four or five year olds they love mysteries and gadgets as well. It was fun to learn math using both! Intrigued by boxes in different shapes and sizes, the children estimated how many objects might be in a box by shaking it, listening, and feeling the weight. Numeral cards helped the children to get an idea of the number of items in the box. After guessing how many and matching a card based on their guess to each box, the children opened them and counted to see if their guess was correct. This brought on a lot of conversation, delighted squeals and fun in learning!