We're Off To A Great Start!

Why study roads? Roads are all around us. Roads take us to school, to the store, and to visit family and friends. A study of roads provides children with an opportunity to learn how roads are made, where roads take us, how we can stay safe on the road, and the features that make up a road. When children work together to create roads, they use a variety of skills to plan, write, draw, build, and negotiate with others.

We turned our home living center into an auto shop!


We began working in our Kick Start Kindergarten workbooks this week. We start with the letter F because teaching in a developmental order helps children master skills and boosts confidence. We teach the easiest skills first, then build on prior knowledge. Capitals are taught first, and lowercase letters follow.



Balancing involves movements to help stabilize the body's position when the person is not at rest. Balance can be static or dynamic. Dynamic balance requires holding a stable position while the body is moving, such as while jumping and landing. Children's ability to balance affects their performance of gross-motor tasks.

 

We demonstrated our knowledge of the characteristics of living things by watching a video on the life cycle of a frog. The children then had to color, cut and glue the life cycle pictures in the correct order. Young children are interested in living things and activities like this make them aware that living things go through a growth cycle.

Tracy Jones
End of the year video

Our year was cut short by COVID-19. We accomplished a lot in a short period of time. I want to thank each parent for choosing St. James and letting me be a small part of their child’s life. Enjoy the video!

Much love,

Mrs. Tracy


Tracy Jones
Homeschool Accomplishments!

Who would have thought that 2020 would bring COVID-19 and a shortened school year, but we could not let it keep us from doing what we do best.  We put together weekly packets which consisted of focus questions and activities that go along with our box and bread study, as well as, number and letter work and delivered them to our students.  I have really enjoyed seeing the work my kiddos are accomplishing at home!  

Tracy Jones
Box Cars and Claymation!

Our focus question this week was what can we do with a box? Here are our answers:

Able - "you can sit in them"

Gabbi - "you can mail stuff in them"

Braxton - "you can build a fort with them"

Aubrey - "places sell boxes"

Every child brought a box and they had to turn them into cars. They have had so much fun this week with this project. I have never heard so much laughter! We decided we could not make cars and not put them to good use, so the children were able to sit in their car and pretend they were at a drive-in movie. They enjoyed a movie with popcorn, gummies, and a drink. They have proclaimed this was the best week ever!!

The children have been working over the last couple of weeks with clay to create sea creatures for a movie they started making in technology. Technology enables children to respond and represent their learning in individual ways.

Check back in a couple of weeks to see the end of our box study and the beginning of bread study!

Mrs. Tracy





Tracy Jones
Valentine Activities, Grandparents' Day and Box Study

Candy Heart Sorting and Graphing

Each child was given a box of candy hearts. They had to open the box and sort the hearts by color on the sorting sheet, count the hearts and then color one space for each heart on the graph. They all whipped through this activity easily and then were able to eat their candy hearts.

Valentine Party

The children decorated bags for all of their Valentine goodies. I put Valentine cards in our writing center and the children had a blast writing cards for all their friends. Each child passed out Valentine cards to their friends at our party and then they enjoyed cookies and juice boxes.

Grandparents’ Day

I love Grandparents' Day at St. James. This day really gives us a chance to shine and show off everything we do at this school. The children did so well on their performance. I also enjoyed seeing and visiting with all the grandparents!

Box Study

We have moved on to the box study.  A simple box is endlessly fascinating to young children.  Perhaps more than any other toy or game, boxes have the power to hold children’s attention and spark their imagination in astonishing ways.  

Our focus question this week was what can we do with boxes?  Check back in a couple of weeks to see what we turned our boxes into and the celebration we had! 

Tracy Jones