Spending A Day With the Kids In JK

 Spending A Day With the Kids In JK

By Daniel Jin

Early last week, I had the once-in-a-lifetime (okay, maybe not that rare) chance to get a glimpse of CMIS junior kindergarten students in their class. I was understandably quite excited, because wouldn't kindergarteners be doing something fun when they aren't sleeping or eating? Only slightly taller than my knees, the minuscule boys and girls in JKS (Junior Kindergarten Sharpe) were earnest to engage in the day's activities, which included Circle Time, Story Time, and Mystery Box. 

Even before I officially crossed the threshold into Ms. Sharpe and Ms. Sunny's JK classroom, I had to pass through the Montessori room, which was thankfully uninhabited at the moment. Walking across it, I had the strangest feeling: it was like the floor was too high up, and I was somehow on a raised platform above the ground. Then I realized what was wrong: everything was simply too low! The young kids' tables were half the height of my shin, the cabinets and shelves were diminutive, and the chairs were positively microscopic. Intrigued by my newfound tallness, I proceeded to enter the JK classroom, where the tiny kids were singing loudly and unintelligibly along to a song that was likely about weather; the only words I could catch from the eardrum-rattling vocalizations were 'rain' and 'snow'. 

Sitting down on a nearby chair and feeling brobdingnagian, I watched as the eleven mini-humans settled down from their singing frenzy and continued their Circle Time with Ms. Sharpe. It turned out that Circle Time was a routine part of the JK kids' daily activities, in which Ms. Sharpe sat at the center of the mat area and the kids sat around her in a semicircle. Behind Ms. Sharpe was a large blue fabric pocket chart with multiple sections such as the date, weather, letters, words, colors, shapes, and counting. Ms. Sharpe's finger her went from section to section as she asked the children to identify the letters, colors, and weather. In between, songs about color and letters were played through a Bluetooth speaker, which the young ones enthusiastically shouted along to.

After Circle Time ended, the whole class immediately transitioned into Story Time. I was highly impressed by the speed at which the students switched to the next activity— Story Time began in less than forty seconds! It was amazing, as I have never seen such quick transitions in my high school life. During storytime, the students sat in a line in front of the projector and listened to Ms. Sharpe tell a short story, titled Mr. Forgetful , with visual and auditory aids such as slides, props, and sound effects. As the story went on, they were highly engaged in the simple tale, yelling at Mr. Forgetful to remember what he'd set out to do ten seconds ago. Once Story Time was over, the lights were turned back on, and the students readily returned to their desks to have some more fun. 

Sitting at their tables, the JK kids sang along to the alphabet song as it was played three times (they were quite loud – do they ever tire?), and Ms. Sunny proceeded to hand out small laminated cards each with a picture on them. After each run of the alphabet song, Ms. Sharpe called out a letter, and the JK kids had to find the card that started with the corresponding letter. For example, when Ms. Sharpe called out C, most of the kids raised cards with images of a castle, a clock, a coin, and more (Two of the kids raised random cards, and Ms. Sunny immediately went over to help them pick out the correct card).  

However, class wasn't finished yet: an activity called 'Mystery Box' followed, where each student had to shape balls of playdoh into a particular letter that were given one by one in order to ascertain what was inside the 'mystery box'. The students carefully shaped each letter, starting with the 'D', then the 'O', and the last letter – you guessed it- 'G'. Even before Ms. Sharpe could ask the class what word the letters spelled, one student had the profound realization: the three letters came together to make the word 'dog'! Amazing! Spectacular! Wonderful! The excited little kid proceeded to share this newfound knowledge with his friends next to him, proclaiming “It's 'dog'!” in loud whispers. And yes, it was finally revealed: there was a (stuffed) dog inside the Mystery Box! 

Now it was time for the JK kids' recess, and I followed the JK students and Ms. Sharpe outside to the kindergarten play area. For them, it seemed like the open doorway to the play area was the boundary between restraint and freedom- the moment each student crossed the threshold, they hit the ground running and dashed away, yelling and chasing each other. A few minutes later, kids from other classes started to converge in the play area, and soon enough, the inevitable happened: one student wanted to go to the bathroom, and the whole class had to go take a bathroom break. Ms. Sharpe later told me this was the hardest part of teaching such a young class- although they have bathroom breaks, the kids are too young to think in advance, so they don't try unless they have to. 

In conclusion, I watched the JK kids do three in-class activities today: Circle Time, Story Time, and Mystery Box. Each activity was as fun and exciting as the next, with the outer layer of fun and games covering the educational subliminal messages to the kids' brains. They reviewed colors, shapes, and weather during Circle TIme, read (or rather watched) a retelling of the story Mr. Forgetful during Story Time, and made letters out of clay to spell the word 'dog' during Mystery Box. My experience with the jittery little critters was very unique and insightful!