This week, we got to partake in the annual JK Egg Hunt Day and as always, it was a HUGE hit! Everyone was so excited to see what surprises lay waiting on the Playscape. We got to find 6 eggs and Mrs. Wilcox and I gave the children some bonus eggs! Everyone did a great job of finding eggs and if someone needed a little help, there was always a friend who would lend a helping hand. It was such a beautiful day that we stayed outside on the Playscape for a bit of extra recess time. A special “thank you” goes out to all of the wonderful parents who contributed eggs, treats, prizes and stickers. The children were SO very excited to take part in the hunt and the teachers were SO very happy to witness their joy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Here are some pictures of your cuties!

Speaking of eggs, we got to see something SUPER special this week. Mrs. Santillo, one of our Upper School science teachers, invited everyone to come see her baby chicks! We read books about animals that come from eggs, we watched a video of real chickens hatching, and we learned about the life cycle of a baby chick but nothing compares to seeing real baby chicks. It was so wonderful to see all the sweet chicks eating, drinking, and cuddling with each other to keep warm. The sweet little “peeps” could only be heard if you were very quiet. They were adorable!

Have a wonderful spring break, everyone!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

Please help us welcome a brand new friend to our room…Josephine! We’re so happy that she has joined our class. She has made fast friends and has had a wonderful week!

Speaking of fun with friends, it was so wonderful to be back to school with all of our friends after Winter Break. Mrs. Wilcox and I were especially happy to be back to see the children!

Here are some fun pictures of us playing together!

It was also Dr. Seuss week in JK, and we read many Dr. Seuss stories and made lots of Dr. Seuss projects. The last book for the week was Green Eggs and Ham and we thought, “What do green eggs taste like?” So we did a little cooking experient! We made regular yellow scrambled eggs and green scrambled eggs and we did a taste test. The teachers were super surprised to see that almost every student tried BOTH kinds of eggs! After some deliberation and making a chart with tally marks, we counted and found out that the yellow scrambled eggs only won by one point. It was a nail-biter to the end!

We invited our JK neighbors over to help us taste test and vote. It was a Green Eggs and Ham JK party!

What a fun way to come back to school!

Happy Weekend, Parents!

Love,

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

What a fun visit from the Fredericksburg Sheriff’s Department! McGruff, the crime dog, even came along with Officer Sullivan to share safety tips and some of the things police officers do to keep people safe. We even got to try on real handcuffs!

Of course, no visit from the Fredericksburg Sheriff’s Department would be complete without meeting McGruff, the crime dog!

Lastly, we got to hear the police sirens (with some covering their ears), see the lights and crawl through the back of a real police car. It was so cool!

Have a wonderful long weekend, parents!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

February sure has been a busy, busy month! Last Friday was Pajama Day. We got to wear our pj’s to school, have a dance party, a movie and a little donut treat. It sure was fun to wear our pj’s to school!

This week, we welcomed in the 100th day of school! It’s hard to believe how quickly our year is passing by! It must be because we are so very busy and having so much fun! In order to help us celebrate and practice the number 100, we danced 100th day songs, we counted by 5s and by 10s to 100, we read stories about the 100th day, and we made a crazy 100th day crown. Each of the ten strips of paper has ten things (stickers, shapes, punches) to make 100 things altogether on our hat. It certainly was a lot of fun ways to celebrate 100!

We also began our Community Helpers Unit. Nurse Conrad stopped by to talk with us about some important things that she does as Fredericksburg Academy’s school nurse.

We also learned about the many important jobs of postal workers or mail carriers. We even got to pretend to be mail carriers by having a little adventure to deliver our mail to a real mailbox. It was really neat to see a real mailbox and deliver a special surprise for our parents!

We can’t wait to see what next week has in store!

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

It’s hard to believe that I am posting this on a day that the high is near 60 degrees! Last month and despite some beautiful pops of spring weather, we learned about all things “snowy.” We read a story called The Snow Globe Family by Jane O’Connor about a tiny family that lived in a snow globe and we wondered, “What would it be like if we lived in a snow globe?” We talked about how much fun it would be to have a snow day inside a snow globe!

Here are some pictures of some us making our snow globes:

Here are some pictures of us posing inside our snow globe!

During the month of January, we also did some deep thinking. We talked about how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a very important person in our country’s history. While we read about and talked about some of the important things he said and did, we learned that Dr. King wanted everyone to have a chance to live in peace and for everyone to have equal and fair choices. That got us also thinking about how wonderful it is if we all live peacefully with one another. What would our dream for peace be? Here are some of our ideas for peace!

Speaking of snow, we sure did have fun playing in the snow at school. How fun it was to tromp around, push trucks and lawn mowers around in the snow and build tiny little snow people!

Cheers to Puxatawny Phil not seeing his shadow! Maybe we’ll have an early spring??

Have a happy weekend,

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

Wednesday sure was a Wacky Wednesday indeed! When we entered the classroom, some things were quite wacky. Our fish jobs were swimming right from their bowls and were headed straight for the big fish aquarium, and there were silly pictures all around our classroom. Many letters were sideways and numbers were upside-down. There was even a Halloween banner up on the wall to name only a few of the many wacky things! We read the book “Wacky Wednesday” by Dr. Seuss and looked for all the wacky things in the pictures. We had some good laughs! It sure was fun to be wacky for the day!

Here are some pictures of the wacky things in the class!

Here are some pictures of our wacky faces!

Have a happy weekend!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

Hello all!

What an amazing December it has been in JK! We kicked off the month with a wonderful visit from Mr. Steinberger to help us learn about Hanukkah. We played the dreidel game, made potato latkes and many crafts to help us learn about the wonderful traditions. It was a great way to start off the holiday season!

Our trip to Sneads was a cold one, but we sure did have fun! It helped to shake off the wiggles and excitement that often come with this time of year. It couldn’t have been a better time to go on an adventure. Here are some pictures from our trip!

Last week was our annual cookie decorating party extravaganza! Thank you to all the parents who organized, gathered and contributed the many supplies needed to ensure a successful party. It was a HUGE hit and the kids had a ball! Parents, we SO appreciate all of your support…we couldn’t do it without you!

Here are some pictures from our party!

After an amazing few weeks, we hosted all parents and special guests at the Winter Concert. What an amazing show! Thank you all for coming to see our “littles” all the way up to our “big kids.” It’s truly amazing what the children can do. A HUGE shout out goes to Mr. Santulli who can always guide the children to put on an outstanding performance!

Here are some pictures of our rehearsal!

Dear Parents,

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support of our JK program. We are truly blessed to have you all. We hope that you have a wonderful break and very happy holidays! We hope that you get to spend lots of time making memories with your families!

Much Love,

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

Wow, what a way to kick off the holiday season! This week, we learned about Hanukkah and some of the traditions that are practiced. First, we made a menorah with our handprints and talked about how there are eight nights of Hanukkah, one for each day that the miracle of the oil lasted. The center candle is called the Shamash, commonly called the helper candle, and it does just that-helps to light all the other candles. We even got to make and eat some potato latkes! Most of us thought they were delicious and enjoyed dipping them into ketchup…although a few of us tried them with a little applesauce or sour cream.

Mr. Steinberger, Middle and Upper School Science teacher, Cross Country coach and most importantly Leah’s dad, came to talk with us about some of the traditions that he and his family do in order to celebrate Hanukkah. We even got to play the dreidel game with our JK neighbors. We learned what each of the Hebrew letters mean and how to play the game.

It was a wonderful way to end the week with our JK friends all together enjoying some holiday cheer!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

Today we embarked on an adventure to round out the week. During the trip, we learned what it would have been like to live as a Native American long ago. On the property of Friends of the Rappahannock (FOR), there are many types of trees that are useful now and were useful long ago. We learned that some trees were used to make tools, boats and even used for medicinal purposes. Vines that cover the trees were used to tie and bind for instrument use. Native Americans could not visit a local grocery store to get food. They had to hunt and gather their food from the forests in which they lived and use the surrounding resources to help them to do so. Baskets were woven and spears were fashioned to catch fish, and shells were even used as spoons and bowls. Speaking of bowls, we got to mold some clay to make our own “pinch pots” just as Native Americans would have done to fashion vessels to hold food, water or items. It was quite an experience to do some of the things that Native Americans would have done!

Here are some pictures of us making our own “pinch pots.”

We also talked about how Native Americans from long ago lived very differently than we do today. Here we are giving some examples of things that we have now that would not have been around many years ago.

We took a hike through the forest which led us to the river where many wild life live. We talked about all the different types of animals that use the river as a food source as well as a home. We even learned that a beaver family lives right by the shore of FOR and even used some of the trees from their property to build a den. We even found this cool tree that looks like it has been made into a jack-o-lantern!

We enjoyed a picnic lunch under a covered picnic table area and had just enough time for a quick picture before the rain began. It was a great day!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂

As we wrap up another Friday before the break next week, we want to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that it might include some restful time with your families over the break as well as some time for celebration. It seems that life gets very busy these days, and we all need to take a break to catch our breath, spend some quality time with family and friends, and if you’re like me, catch up on work around the house. Our JK Feast of Favorites was a wonderful celebration of our efforts to practice kindness and gratitude this month. The children worked so hard putting together our turkey costumes and cutting all of those feathers…one for each kind act! It was so wonderful seeing the children enjoy time with their special guests. How they loved to have their people here for lunch! The excitement could not be contained throughout the morning. We also enjoyed chatting with you and watching you all get to chat with each other. From the weather to the delicious food, it was a wonderful afternoon! Thank you all for your helping hands with set-up and/or breakdown, bringing such delicious culinary treats, and your continued support of our JK program. We couldn’t do what we do without you, and we are SO very thankful for our parents. This is one incredible JK FAmily!

Here is a video that we made of all of your sweet children singing a song that we learned this week about our Thanksgiving Feast!

Have a wonderful weekend, Parents and Families!

Mrs. Fischer and Mrs. Wilcox 🙂