Hello all,
“Letter K is for Kicks Week” was by far the Kookiest week of the 2014-2015 school year yet! The students entered school each day with dozens of Letter K shares! Everything from Kazoos to Ketchup, Keys to Kermit, and of course, all things Kicks were sent in and shared! There were tons of Letter K books that came in as well! To help explore the letter K, the students also learned all about Kicks! Well, “Letter K is for Kicks Week” has come and gone. Read on below to discover the learning that took place and fun that was had throughout the week!
The students spent both Monday and Tuesday morning working one on one with the teachers to complete their Letter K identification/fine motor activity sheets. The teachers were so impressed with how easily the new students recognized the letter K and also how well the older students remembered all things “K” during their morning work! In the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, the students created the eleventh letter list of the year! As a whole group, the students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter K and also hunted around the classroom for letter K items! Naturally, the letter K list was full of great answers! As has happened before, words such as Cat and Car were suggested for the K list which once again led to a discussion about how some letters can be a little tricky! Fortunately, the students trekked on and added many great K words to their list!
What K Shares do YOU see?
Answer: Kermit, K Alphabot, K’Nex, Key, and Key Chain
Wednesday marked the start of the students’ exploration of the theme of the week – Kicks! They students could hardly contain their excitement when they learned that a PPA Daddy would be joining the students later that day to teach them all about a sport that is all about Kicking – Soccer! The students spent the morning discussing all they knew about Soccer and created the following fun finger kicking craft!
Before long the afternoon had arrived and the students were ready to “Kick” things off! To help them get ready to play soccer, Miss Justine put the students through a rigorous, yet fun, Kinesthetic warm up!
The students were ready to get started! The PPA Daddy featured below did an excellent job setting up a series of soccer stations where the students practiced all sorts of skills including: kicking, stopping, passing, and of course, scoring goals! The students did such an excellent job that they were rewarded with actual soccer medals! What an amazing day it was! A special PPA Thank You to this Daddy for spending the afternoon with us!
The students switched gears a bit on Thursday as they explored a completely different type of Kicking – Karate! The teachers explained that the students would be visited by more special guests. This time it was Sensei Vinh and Sensei Mike from Family Fitness Mixed Martial Arts, a Karate/Kickboxing Fitness Studio, located just down the block from PPA at 419 Central Avenue, Jersey City! To help prepare for this visit, the students discussed and learned a bit about the martial art form – Karate!
One of the most interesting things the students learned had to do with the karate uniform known as a Karate-Gi. A gi is a light and loose fitting outfit that students of karate, known as karatekas, wear while doing karate. The students were so excited to learn about a very interesting part of the gi- a karate belt! The teachers asked the students why some karatekas wear yellow belts while others wear red and some wear black. Was it a fashion statement? Through their investigation, the students learned that the color of a karateka’s belt reveals a lot about his/her level of skill and training. The belt-ranking system is as follows.
To help remember what they had learned about belts, the students transformed pre-cut strips of a beach towel into beautiful and colorful karate belts during morning work!
Not long after the belts were completed, Sensei Vinh and Sensei Mike rang PPA’s doorbell and the PPA Karate Kids were ready to get to work! After a quick warm up, the students began practicing some karate skills including: Kicking, Punching, Listening, Breathing, Grunting, and more! Take a look below to see the students in action!
What a fun and hardworking day it was! The karate lesson wrapped up with a very important conversation with Sensei Vinh. Listen in below to learn the most important rule about karate – knowing when and how to use it!
What an awesome day it was! A special PPA Thank You to Sensei Vinh and Sensei Mike for teaching us Karate! We had such a wonderful time and hope you did too!
In the afternoon on Thursday (and Friday), the students participated in Spanish class where they continued to discuss their Los Animales (Animals) vocabulary.
Speaking of Friday, things really got cooKing in the morning as the students baked Kix Ball treats! Similar to Rice Krispie Treat Squares, Kix Balls are made with Kix cereal and then rolled into tiny spheres! The students sure had a “ball” making and enjoying these yummy letter K snacks!
After Spanish class on Friday afternoon, the students participated in a technology presentation all about the letter K and Kicks! The students reflected upon what they had learned throughout the entire week as they observed soccer champs like Pele and Karate Masters/Martial Artists such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan! The students were mesmerized to see these great talents in kid-friendly action! 🙂 Of course, those wacky storybots made an appearance!
Well, that is all for “Letter K is for Kicks Week”. We hope you enjoyed this week’s blog entry. As always, thanks for reading and we will see you next week!
-PPA
REMINDERS:
School is Closed Monday
Jan 19th – Observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
THEME FOR NEXT WEEK:
