Hello all,
“Letter J is for Jungle Week” was joyful, jubilant, jovial and just jazzy! Read on below to learn about the fun that was had and learning that took place!
Monday and Tuesday morning were spent working on letter J activities! The students had to trace or write the letter J as well as make the sounds of the letter J! When it came time for the letter J lists and hunting in the afternoon, the students added some great words and MANY names to the list. Who knew there was so many children (and even teachers) at PPA with J-names? As was the case during letter G week, the word “Juh-Juh-raffe” (or giraffe) was suggested for the J list. Fortunately, the students remembered that some letters are super tricky and have different sounds – silly G! Here is the list from Monday’s class.
During Monday and Tuesday afternoon, the students raced around the classroom in search for Letter J’s! Can you identify the J items shown below?
(Answer: Jaguar, Juice, Jewelry, Jacket)
On Wednesday, the students began their art exploration of Jungles! Take a look at the photograph below to see what the created.
The lion is known as the “King of the Jungle” despite actually living in savannahs. The students had a blast listening to the following song while creating their tissue paper lion heads!
During the afternoon on both Wednesday and Thursday, the students had Spanish class where they completed their La Comida (Food) unit! See previous blog entries for the full vocabulary from the unit!
On Thursday morning, the students created their very own jungle which featured quite possibly the most playful jungle animal of all. Can you think of which animal that is? Here is a hint – This animal likes to “hang around” the jungle! If you said, “Monkey!” then you are correct! The students began by coloring in a coloring page of a monkey!
Next, they glued on the trunks of two trees and added some thick green leaves to the treetops!
With some help from the teachers, the monkeys were cut out and threaded through a jungle vine which hung between the two trees! Here is what the completed project looked like! What fun!
On Friday, the students were ready to get cooking and what better to cook during “Letter J is for Jungle Week” than Jell-O Jigglers! The students were called over in small groups to mix together and prepare the Jell-O mix. They were so excited to learn that they would be using jungle animal cookie cutters to make Jungle Jell-O Jigglers! Look below to see the students in action!
Needless to say, the Jungle Jell-O Jigglers were en-Joyed! 🙂
Friday afternoon wrapped up with a Jungle-themed technology presentation! The students loved seeing photographs and footage of the jungle animals in their natural habitat! Just like during “Letter I is for Insect Week” the students played a game that required them to identify the jungle animal by listening to the animal sound! With the computer screen covered, the sound clip below proved to be quite puzzling! The students assumed the noise they heard was that of a jaguar or other large jungle animal. They were SHOCKED to see who it was actually making the noise! See and listen for yourself, it really is quite surprising!
Can you believe that big loud noise came from a monkey? Well, not just any monkey – a Howler Monkey! The teachers asked the students why the Howler Monkey might make such a noise. Hands flew up into the air with excitement! The students concluded that Howler Monkeys make such a loud noise to trick and scare away other bigger animals that might be trying to eat them. When asked what other animals do things to trick or scare animals away, the students came up with a bunch of animals including the porcupine with sharp quills, chameleons who camouflage, and fish with dots like eyes on their back fin. Can you think of any other ways animals trick or scare away bigger animals who are trying to eat them? (Here is a hint – Think of a striped, stinky animal!)
Wow! “Letter J is for Jungle Week” was surely amazing! As always, thank you for reading and have a wonderful and safe weekend! See you next week!
-PPA
REMINDERS:
School is Closed Monday
January 17th – Observation of Martin Luther King Day
