Erica DiClemente
Educator. Coach. Learner.
Welcome to Junior Kindergarten!
At Detroit Country Day, we are SO lucky and grateful for our beautiful new Lower School! When entering our JK Superstars' classroom, you feel as if you are taking a stroll down a brick paved sidewalk with clouds hanging in the sky. We decorate our porch based on the theme we are currently studying.
We love decorating in our classroom! As we move from unit to unit, our classroom will transform as well. To the right you will see a few pictures that show our Lifecycle of an Apple unit, our Thanksgiving play, and a fun Halloween unit where we learned about the bones in the human body.
Decorated play area based on current theme
Halloween Fun
Thanksgiving
Decorated play area based on current theme
Junior Kindergarten is a beautiful year as it is an added gift of time year. As a JK teacher, I get to watch children come into my classroom right out of PK4 and grow into such amazing, mature young students who are beyond ready to take on Kindergarten. The work we do in our classroom is hands on and interactive. Below are a few samples of writing and drawing from October (Before) and February (After) to show one area of growth we see in our classroom academically.
Before: I am thankful for...
After: I am proud to be an American because...
We participate in dramatic play together.
We dance together.
We explore together.
We learn together.
We grow together!
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In JK we are a TEAM
A year in the life of a JK Superstar
All About Me (Life Cycle of a Human)
Apples (Life Cycle)
Colors
Skeleton
Pumpkin (Life Cycle of a Pumpkin)
Pilgrims and the Mayflower
Native Americans
Thanksgiving
Winter Birds
Geography mapping skills
Gingerbread Junction
Presidents and Founding Mothers
Landmarks of the United States
Citizenship
Nursery Rhymes & Fairy Tales
Michigan
Virtual Learning in JK
Teaching remotely was challenging but my teaching partner and I made the best of it. Each day we sent out Google Slides that contained everything parents needed for the day: lessons broken down by subject area, links to the special's pages for the day, morning messages, and quiet reflection time for bedtime. As we went through remote teaching, we began to explore ways to show our students that we (their teachers) are still here and we don't live in a computer. To do this, we brought out our Bitmojis. Below are a few pictures of slides for morning message. Click HERE to see the interactive version.