Just For Kids - Boise Public Schools

From Valley View JFK:

As we talk about Groundhog Day, and predict whether or not the groundhog will see his/her shadow, we first have to discover what a shadow. We first looked outside to see if we could see our own shadow (spoiler: yesterday we did not, today we did!) When the older children joined our discussion in the afternoon, they wondered aloud if the bright camera lights from the TV crews filming the groundhog could change the outcome of the prediction? So of course, we had to then explore the shadows created by light!

The children at Lowell JFK decorated gingerbread houses. These cute foam houses are the way to go - no sticky frosting!

Slides can be a hair raising experience!

Science and snowflakes at Valley View JFK. The children explored what happens to air molecules when they are heated by microwaving some Ivory Soap. They also put candy canes in their oobleck (non-Newtonian liquid) to see if it changed it.

The children were also ready for snow so they made some snowflake decorations. It must have worked! There was a little snow on the ground this morning.

The students at Grace Jordan JFK are in the holiday spirit! They’ve enjoyed decorating their space. Two fifth grade students decorated the long wall panel all on their own. We can’t wait to see what they will add over the next few weeks.

🎉BIG NEWS!!🎉 Just For Kids is hiring for several FULL TIME before and after school childcare provider positions. NO nights! NO weekends! PAID training! PLUS you get to work on a creative and supportive team helping kids and families.

The position is contracted for 25 hours a week, Monday through Friday. Access to full benefits as well as other incentives.

Visit the link and click on Classified to find the job posting and application. https://jobs1.boiseschools.org/winocular/jobs/JobPost.exe

Senior Master Sergeant Jeff Walters from the Idaho Air National Guard stopped by Shadow Hills to talk to the children on Veteran’s Day. He shared about his 29+ years in the military and the aircraft he’s worked on including F-16s and the A-10s at Gowen Field. Happy Veteran’s Day to all the veterans out there!

The children at Shadow Hills enjoyed a pumpkin exploration station this week. It was fun to see that pumpkins come in different colors and shapes. They used magnifying glasses to get a close up look. Then they could dress up/decorate a pumpkin and draw their creation. Fall Fun!

The Kindergartners at Cynthia Mann made cards to express their appreciation to the school kitchen staff. They said they were thankful for the good cooking!

It’s Pumpkin week at Valley View JFK! The children are exploring pumpkins using Science, Math, Art and more. From fizzy pumpkin painting to building gates for the 5 little pumpkins to guessing which size pumpkin will have the most seeds, the children are having a blast while learning.

During the before and after school sessions, the children are able to choose various, open ended manipulatives as part of their center time. This is when the creativity flows. From igloos to Among Us characters, there’s no end to the amazing things the kids can create.

Cynthia Mann, Valley View, Riverside and Amity JFKs have kindergarten programs for children that attend half day kindergarten in the mornings. (Amity also has a pre-k program.) While at JFK, these children work on the skills and concepts they are learning at school or will need in Kindergarten. Here, the children at Cynthia Mann are identifying and sorting shapes.

The Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic is this week. The children at Lowell Just For Kids had a great view of the balloons on Thursday morning. They were so excited to see all of them!

Want a great job working with kids? Flexible hours, no nights or weekends and most of all...lots of fun! Come work for Just For Kids. Starting pay is $13.00 an hour and staff are eligible to receive an additional $300 every month through Idaho Health and Welfare Wage Enhancement Grant! Apply now at http://jobs1.boiseschools.org/winocular/jobs/Jobpost.exe.

The summer is wrapping up and the sites are down to their last couple of field trips. The children from Shadow Hills went to Board & Brush where they used stencils and paint to create cute candy signs. Everyone was so proud of their finished product!

The Reuseum in Boise is an electronics surplus supply store, recycling hub and educational center. They say “We’re big into taking the mystery & magic out of how technology works. From our “infamous” Deconstruction Labs to 3D printing, we’re all about offering hands-on workshops to minds of all ages!” Several of the JFK sites are doing field trips to the Reuseum this summer. The children from Lowell made Doodle Bots on their field trip. So much fun (with some learning mixed in)!

Just because we don’t have swim trips this summer, doesn’t mean that the kids can’t get wet! The JFK sites are incorporating onsite water days that may include games and sprinklers. Here the the children at Lowell play Drip Drip Splash, a wet and wild version of Duck Duck Goose.

Each week, the JFK sites have a theme that they build their activities around. The children at Cynthia Mann recently learned about bees. They made hives and bees out of clay and learned about how many different types of bees and wasps there.

At the Boise Urban Garden school, the children from Lowell JFK learned about plants, bees and best gardening practices. They helped water plants, played in the dirt and did the log obstacle course. It was so much fun they didn’t want to leave!

Summer at Just For Kids means lots of time outside. This includes active play and also time to relax and connect with a friend.

Summer field trip fun continues! The children at Garfield JFK enjoyed a beautiful day at the MK Nature Center.

The temperatures the first week of our summer program got a little hot! Who knew the beginning of June would reach 100 degrees? But the kids at Cynthia Mann JFK enjoyed their field trip to the Foothills Learning Center. The nature walk was a bit warm but they enjoyed exploring the shady areas.

We have wrapped up the first week of our summer program at Just For Kids and also our first field trips of the summer. We are feeling fortunate that we are able to do field trips this year. The children at Shadow Hills JFK visited the Old Idaho Penitentiary. They enjoyed learning some Idaho history and decided they would not have wanted to be an inmate!

The E in STEM stands for engineering. The children at Lowell JFK tried their hand at using Legos to do some engineering. One boy made a working draw bridge and a couple of others made a track for their marble.

Coding is defined as “The act of writing code that is compiled to form programs, that can be executed by a computer or a code reader, and that has a specific function or set of functions.” The children at Valley View JFK spent a week learning the basics of coding. They tried to code everything from bells, to circuits, to mice.

Today is Child Care Provider Appreciation Day. At Just For Kids, we are fortunate to have an amazing staff of child care providers. They are dedicated to making sure that children have a safe, fun and educational space on a daily basis. We appreciate all you do!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and the children at Shadow Hills wanted to let the teachers know how much they (and all the other school staff) are appreciated. They wrote thank you notes and drew pictures to welcome everyone to school this morning.

Valley View Just For Kids will be closed this summer while construction is completed on the new school. But they are excited to be back this Fall in this amazing new space!

ℋ𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎 ℰ𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽 𝒟𝒶𝓎! Earth Day began 51 years ago as a way to bring attention to the need to take care of our planet. Several of our sites have been discussing ways to reduce, reuse and recycle this week.

The children at Valley View were tasked with trying to clean up an oil spill in the “ocean”. They tried several methods to determine which would clean the water the best. It was the coffee filter that proved most effective!

Just For Kids is hiring for our summer program! We are a school age care program located at 14 schools in the Boise School District. To learn more and apply visit https://jobs1.boiseschools.org/winocular/jobs/Jobpost.exe and look under Classified.

Last week, at Trail Wind JFK, was Wild Idaho week. They talked about the different fish that can be found in Idaho. Ms.Patty was in a competition in 2013 up in Riggins where she caught the largest Steelhead giving her 1st place. Her prize was to have the fish stuffed and mounted but since the Steelhead was native (you can see by the small dorsal fin on the back), the actual fish was released and a replica was made.

What do you do when you want to garden or enjoy plants but you don't have much space? Maybe you live in an apartment, or your yard isn't really set up for a gardening space? The kids at Riverside JFK talked about this and came up with different solutions. After much discussion and a final vote: Introducing Riverside JFK's Vertical Garden Solution! Filled with herbs the kids hope to use cooking with their parents!

We are hiring part time child care providers for our school year program! Apply at now at this link under classified positions https://jobs1.boiseschools.org/winocular/jobs/Jobpost.exe.

Happy Independence Day! Have a safe and fun day.

The Just For Kids summer program is off to a great start! The children at Riverside did a week of Dinos, Cavemen, Mammoths and More. Making clay teeth necklaces was a one of their activities. These stone age necklaces were a quick favorite and the kids wore them home and back again all week!