Week of Sept. 4th

Our JK Pets
This week we began learning about the pets in our classroom.  Since we are learning how to be good friends and classmates and learning how to play safely and care for our toys and materials, it only made sense that we need to know about what our pets need to stay safe and healthy too.

Our Betta Fish
Of great interest was our Betta Fish.  We watched a YouTube video that gave interesting information about Bettas, and from the video we learned that our fish is a male.  We also discovered how to make our fish happy - put our face near the tank and talk quietly to him.  We will know our fish is happy when he starts to make bubbles!  How fun is that?  We made our fish on sticky paper and practiced the fine motor skills of tearing and snipping paper to add his scales.  Then we put our fish in the "tank" on the window.  We named our class fish "Red Fin."

Our Aquatic Frog
The children were quite fascinated to observe our aquatic frog.  We learned about how it floats to take in air and why it only needs to eat two times a week.  We were introduced to observational drawing where we had to draw what we see - instead of a memory drawing of what we think a frog looks like or an artistic drawing that can use our imagination.  True scientists indeed!  The drawing and painting were good practice in holding tools using a proper grip with control.  Our frogs joined our fish in the window, and we happily named our frog "Swimsy."

Our Hermit Crab - back from Vacation
The Hermit Crab was the last to join us after an extended summer vacation!  The children were eager to get up close to the crab - but not too close to get pinched!  We enjoy that the crab likes to climb and couldn't believe that it started climbing out of the dish.  We wish he wasn't so shy because he likes to hide a lot.  We got to make our own Hermit Crabs after reading Eric Carle's story, A House for Hermit Crab.  We learned to spread glue and pick up tiny objects using a pincher grip - just like our crab uses his pinchers.  Our crab is now named "Pinchers."  Ask your child which pet he/she like the best!