Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Newsletter 12/18/13

Important Dates to Remember:
December 20 – Noon Dismissal; Christmas Service at 6:30PM
December 21 – January 5 – Christmas break, no preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Who is Coming to Our House" by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff
"Grumpy Badger's Christmas" by Paul Bright and Jane Chapman
"Hedgie's Surprise" by Jan Brett

Afternoon Books
"Hickory Dickory Dock and other Nursery Rhymes" by Carol Jones

PLANNING & RECALL
This week during planning and recall time, we used the silver star as a planning board again. For young children, anything can become a learning experience. With the planning board, the children have been curious about the texture and smell of the tin foil covering the star. They also enjoy using their fine motor skills to pin their clothespin in the area they are planning. Observing children's interest in these materials helps guide educators to plan experiences based on these interests. This week tin foil, clothespins and other textured paper was placed in the sensory table for further exploration. 

BIBLE LESSON
The time was arriving for Mary to give birth to God's Son, Jesus. Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the land at the time, issued a decree that a census should be taken to see how many people were living in his land. Everyone had to return to their home towns to register. Mary and Joseph, who had been living in Nazareth, had to travel to a town called Bethlehem, their home town. After arriving in Bethlehem, they discovered that all of the inns were full. Instead, they found room in a nearby stable with the animals. When the time came for Mary to give birth, she had a son, whom she named Jesus. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger. Shortly after Jesus' birth, angels shared the joyous news with shepherds out in the fields tending their flocks. The shepherds found Jesus in the stable just as the angels had told them, and they rejoiced in his birth! The shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and we too rejoice in Jesus' birth. Jesus, the promised Savior who came to live a perfect life for us, die on the cross for our sins, and rise from the dead to defeat death so that we may live with Him forever in heaven!

MUSIC
We used music time this week to revisit many of our old favorite songs. We used the bells we made to sing "Jingle Bells". We also used the bells to keep the beat on different parts of our body like shoulders, toes, arms and knees. Some other songs the children chose to sing again include "5 Green and Speckled Frogs", "B-I-N-G-O", and "Seesaw, Margery Daw". We also learned a new Christmas hymn this week -- "Away in a Manger".

MOVEMENT
During movement time this week we saw many different animals emerge! Our first song is called "Bunny Jump" where we jump like bunnies, wiggle like fish, and kick our hooves. We then try some animal movement challenges: moving like cats, elephants, ostriches, rabbits, frogs and fish. The children use their large motor skills as well as their imaginations to become all these different animals.

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): measuring. For preschoolers, measurement is about realizing that things have measurable properties and making comparisons on these dimensions (height, volume, age, time, older and younger, lightest and heaviest, short, medium and tall).
Some of the experiences this week that focus on measuring include using unifix cubes to measure the length of different objects, measuring volume of water by seeing how many cups it takes to fill different containers. We also measured sound volume by using different musical instruments to discover loud and soft sounds. Finally, we used yarn to measure larger objects in the classroom and compared the lengths. 

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children revisited materials used during small group time or previous experiences that gained their interest. Lower student numbers in the afternoon allows for more freedom to let the children take initiative and choose which activities interest them. Often times they choose books, puzzles, or art activities. 









Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Newsletter 12/11/13

Important Dates to Remember:
December 20 – Noon Dismissal; Christmas Service at 6:30PM
December 21 – January 5 – Christmas break, no preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Where Is Home, Little Pip?" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
"This Is the Stable" by Cynthia Cotten
"Llama Llama Holiday Drama" by Anna Dewdney

Afternoon Books
"Hickory Dickory Dock and other Nursery Rhymes" by Carol Jones

PLANNING & RECALL
This week during planning and recall time, we used a silver star with each point of the star representing a different area in the classroom. When it was each child’s turn to plan, they placed a clothespin on the area in which they planned to work. Recalling activities involves social interaction on a very personal level. Children have to find the right words, actions, and gestures to convey their meaning to others. The process of talking about their intentions and actions helps children actually create or construct meaningful memories. 

BIBLE LESSON
This week we jump ahead in our Bible lessons to prepare for the Christmas season. Our lesson this week is “God’s Special Message for Mary.” When it was time for God’s son Jesus to be born, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her that she had been chosen for the special task of being Jesus’ mother. Mary was surprised at the news the angel brought and was confused because she was a virgin and not yet married. Gabriel assured her that all things are possible with God, and that the child conceived in her would be from the Holy Spirit. She would give birth to a baby boy and his name would be Jesus. He would be the Savior of the world and the fulfillment of the promise made long ago to people like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Mary believed God’s words from Gabriel and said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” After the angel’s visit, Mary became the wife of a man named Joseph. God had also appeared to Joseph in a dream, letting him know that the baby conceived in Mary was the promised Savior. Together, Mary and Joseph waited for the Savior to be born.  

MUSIC 
Keeping a steady beat is the focus of our music songs again this week. We enjoy using the rhythm sticks to practice keeping the beat. We also have been taking turns keeping a beat on various parts of our bodies such as our knees, feet, tummies and heads. This week during small group time we made jingle bell shakers to go with our new song “Jingle Bells”. We will be using our shakers to keep the beat to that new song, as well as reviewing some of our familiar songs. Some other songs we’ve enjoyed during music time include, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”, “Don’t Throw Your Junk in My Backyard”, and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?”

MOVEMENT
During movement time we warm up with a song called “Circus Dance”, where we practice our tightrope walking skills and add tricks like swaying, turning around, kicking, leaning forward and back, and reaching low and high. We are also continuing to move with bean bags this week. Instead of marching to our parade song, we are using our beanbags to touch various parts of our body, balance them, use them to draw shapes in the air, and place them on the floor as we navigate around them in various ways (hopping over, walking around, jumping over, galloping around etc.). The song “Popcorn Calling Me” was a big hit last week, so we conclude movement time with that song again. Ask your child to sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, POP like the song says. They make some great popcorn kernels!

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on several KDIs: fine motor skills, art and part/whole relationships. As with many activities, several KDIs may be touched on in a single experience. This week we started by making jingle bell shakers, we used paint sample cards to practice our scissor snipping, we played with gingerbread play dough, made pipe cleaner candy canes with beads, and on Friday we worked on a winter themed step-by-step drawing. Through all these experiences children have a chance to be creative and artistic while also developing those fine motor skills as they thread beads on pipe cleaners, hold a pencil, or manipulate play dough. When children add jingle bells to make a single shaker, snip a card into smaller pieces, or divide play dough into smaller chunks they are also exploring the concept of parts making up a whole. 

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children explore the KDI alphabetic knowledge.  Children learn best through hands on experiences rather than rote memorization or drill activities. When children are repeatedly exposed to a rich variety of literacy and print, they will gradually learn the uniqueness of each mark. If children are simply taught the names of letters by rote, they may have difficulty grasping the idea that letters are associated with sounds. However, once children learn the sounds associated with a few letters, most are able to deduce the alphabetic principle and begin to apply it to other letters. Some of the activities we are doing in the afternoon to increase this exposure to print include placing buttons on letter cards, manipulating pipe cleaners to make our name, reading books, and working on large alphabet floor puzzles. 

Being the last one at school has its perks!

The artistic princess.

Our playground became an ice slide.

Putting on a tie to eat at our restaurant.

Snack time is one of the best parts of the day!

Friends with jingle bells

The balancing act with beanbags.

Playing bean bag toss.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Newsletter 12/4/13

Important Dates to Remember:
December 20 – Noon Dismissal; Christmas Service at 6:30PM
December 21-January 5 – Christmas break, no preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Pie in the Sky" by Lois Ehlert
"Don’t Forget I Love You" by Miriam Moss
"Snowmen All Year" by Caralyn Buehner

Afternoon Books
"Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

PLANNING & RECALL
This week during planning and recall time, we played “spin the bottle” with an old water bottle. At recall time, when children think about their work time experiences, they gradually begin to associate what they did with the plans before they started. They begin to develop a consciousness of purpose, realizing that planning prior to doing gives them control of their actions through the entire plan-do-review process. This week a new restaurant prop box was introduced in the house area. Many of the children enjoyed planning to play in the house area this week to play restaurant.

BIBLE LESSON
This week we hear about the family of a man named Isaac, who was the gracious fulfillment of the promise of a son God gave to Abraham and Sarah. Isaac grew up and was blessed with a wife named Rebekah. They had twin boys named Jacob and Esau. Because of sin in this world, Jacob lied to his father Isaac to receive the blessing and inheritance that was meant for Esau, the eldest twin. When Esau found out that Jacob lied to receive the birthright, he was very angry and vowed to kill his brother Jacob. With more lies and deception, Rebekah helped her son Jacob escape, and used the reason of finding a wife from Rebekah’s homeland as a reason for leaving. They didn’t tell Isaac the true reason for leaving – that it was to escape being killed. As Jacob traveled to his mother’s family’s land, he stopped to rest one night, using a stone as a pillow. That night God came to Jacob in a dream. In his dream, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven. At the top of the stairs stood God himself, who promised Jacob that he would give him the land of Canaan one day, that Jacob’s family would be large in number, and one day the Savior would come from his family. He promised to be with Jacob always, and to return him home safely one day. God loves us so much that he didn’t let sinful men get in the way of his plan of salvation. Forgive us for our sins, Lord, and thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die in our place!


MUSIC 
The new aspect of rhythm introduced this week is steady beat. Of all the basic individual abilities that are necessary to function musically, none ranks as important as feeling and performing the steady beat. Research indicates that if the ability to respond to and perform steady beats is not acquired by the age of four or five, little can be done later in life to acquire it. Simple ways to include keeping the beat in songs include clapping along, using rhythm instruments, and moving to music. We are clapping and using rhythm sticks to keep the beat to the familiar song “Hey, Betty Martin”. In our new song “Seesaw, Margery Daw”, we use our bodies in a see-saw motion to keep the beat. 

MOVEMENT
We enjoy using bean bags again this week during movement time. It is quite the challenge to get the bean bag to balance on our head without holding it, as we march around the room to the song “Bean Bag Parade”. This week we’ve also included the game “Help me, Please!” which provides for some more social interaction and practice using manners by saying please, thank you, and you’re welcome. If the bean bag falls of our head while we’re marching, we ask for help from a friend to pick it up. We end movement time this week with the song “Popcorn Calling Me”. We have a chance to walk, dance, and run away from our home spot markers. When the popcorn calls us home, we go back to our spot and sizzle, sizzle, sizzle like popcorn until we POP!

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on two KDI’s, cooperative play and reading. Typically we have small group activities at the tables, but this week we’ve moved to the carpet area for some acting out of familiar stories, games, and songs. Children work together to act out the words, often imitating each other’s actions. Acting out stories, songs and chants allows children to express their enjoyment of reading through actions. Some of the literacy pieces we’ve used this week include “5 Little Monkeys”, “Caps for Sale”, and a puppet show of one of our morning stories. We also played musical chairs and Jenga. 

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children explore the KDI tools and technology.  Developing the dexterity to use tools is an aspect of physical growth, while understanding how tools work and using them to carry out investigations is part of early science learning. Children learn problem solving skills, experiment, and predict what specific actions a tool might do. Some of the simple tools we use this week include magnifying glasses, staplers, hole punches, a tape measure, and baking tools.

Playing in the packing peanuts

Playing in the restaurant

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Newsletter 11/27/13

Important Dates to Remember:
November 28-29 – No Preschool (Thanksgiving Break)
December 20 – Noon Dismissal; Christmas Service at 6:30PM

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Little Blue and Little Yellow" by Leo Lionni
"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats
"Bear Says Thanks" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

Afternoon Books
"Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

PLANNING & RECALL
This week during planning and recall time, a bean bag was tossed to each child when it was their turn to share. Planning and recall time has now become part of each child’s daily routine at preschool. They have had practice doing it for a month and it’s easy to see their excitement when it is their turn to share with the other children their plans for work time. During work time, children often refer to their plans with comments like, “I planned to go to the water table first,” or “I’m changing my plan to the kitchen area now.” This intentional thinking will continue to develop as time goes on.

BIBLE LESSON
God gave a very important promise to a man named Abraham. God planned to send his Son Jesus to be the Savior of the world – and he would come from Abraham’s family line. Abraham had no children and wondered how God’s promise would be fulfilled. God took Abraham outside to look at the night sky and promised him, “Count the stars, if you can. That’s how many people I will make come from your family.” And Abraham believed God’s promise. Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old when one day three visitors stopped by their tent. One was the Lord himself, and two were angels. After Abraham washed his guests’ feet and provided food for them, the Lord told Abraham that at this time the next year, his wife Sarah would have a son. Sarah, who had been listening from inside the tent, laughed when she heard this. The Lord responded by saying that nothing is too hard for God and restating his promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son in a year. When the year was over, God kept his promise and gave Abraham and Sarah the blessing of a son, whom they named Isaac, just as God told them to do. Abraham and Sarah rejoiced in the promise and fulfilled promise of a son, just as they rejoiced in God’s promise to send his Son Jesus. We too rejoice in knowing that nothing is too hard for God, and that God keeps all his promises to us.

MUSIC 
Children have been practicing rests in music like you find in the song B-I-N-G-O. Another aspect to rhythm in music besides sound and silence is the duration of notes. Some notes are sung for a longer amount of time than other notes, and some silences are longer than others. This week’s new song is called “White Sand”. This song contains notes that are held longer than others, and to help us realize that, we move our arms to match the longer notes. This week we also started to learn the song we’ll be singing in the Christmas program with grades K-2 called “Come See the Baby”.

MOVEMENT
Instead of ribbons, this week we are using bean bags during movement time. We have enjoyed exploring with our bean bags and finding different spots on our bodies where we can balance them. Some of the places we've tried are our heads, arms, legs, feet, shoulders, and faces. It’s also been a movement challenge as we try to march around to the song “Bean Bag Parade”, while balancing the bean bag on the tops of our heads. The second song we’re doing this week is “We’re Moving Around” where we explore different movements with our legs such as lifting our knees high to march, sliding our feet along the ground, hopping, galloping, kicking, and tip toeing.

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is counting. Children enjoy counting and comparing the number of objects, people, actions, and events in their lives. When they practice counting they begin to construct rules of counting—things like only one number goes with each thing being counted (one-to-one correspondence), counting goes in a fixed order, and the last number they say means how many (the total). At the preschool level, errors in counting order are common. Typically children learn the sequence from one to five but then mix up the numbers that follow. The more they develop and practice, the more children accurately construct the “rules” of counting. This week we place circular manipulatives onto dot cards, counted pom-poms to drop in cups, and explored with dominoes.

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children explore the KDI art.  Children have a chance to experiment with different arts mediums and explore their creative side. Some of things we've done with art this week include marble painting, painting with watercolors—on paper and on snow, and using scissors, glue, and markers to create pictures. 

We're flying in an airplane to Disneyland in California.

In this freezing weather, cute hats keep us warm.

See-saw fun!

Time to feed my pig.

The doctor needs to check on this baby's eyes.

We were using clothes pins to pick up and count
pom-poms, but sticking them on our ears as earrings
was fun too!

Quick, take a picture so I can get these off my ears!


Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Newsletter 11/20/13

Important Dates to Remember:
November 28-29 – No Preschool (Thanksgiving Break)

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Harry the Dirty Dog" by Gene Zion
"Old Bear" by Kevin Henkes
"Little Red Riding Hood" by Tricia Lee

Afternoon Books
"Hattie and the Fox" by Mem Fox

PLANNING & RECALL
Recall time occurs at the end of work time after cleaning up. It is the final segment in the plan-do-review process. Just as planning is more than simply choosing—it is making a purposeful or intentional choice—recall is more than simply remembering—it involves purposeful memory. Recall time helps children think about what they have done in their interactions with people, materials, and ideas. This week we used a chart with the different classroom areas drawn on it for planning and recall time. During each child’s turn to plan or recall this week, they place their letter link on the area in which they worked.

BIBLE LESSON
God’s world began to fill with people, but as time passed, they forgot about God and his promises. People were wicked and did not want to obey God. A man named Noah and his family were the only ones who still believed in God and his promise to send a Savior. God told Noah that he was going to destroy all people and everything that lived on the earth because of their wickedness. Noah, his wife, their three sons and each of their wives would be the only people to survive the flood. God gave Noah instructions to build a large ark—large enough for Noah’s family, enough food, and two kinds of every creature. Noah obeyed God’s command despite the people around him mocking him. Then God sent what he had promised—it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, wiping out everything not in the ark. After the rains and the flood, God let the ark come to rest on the top of a mountain and dried up all the water. God let Noah know when it was safe for him and his family to leave the ark, and then gave them the command to fill the earth again with people. Noah and his family built an altar and offered a special offering to God as a way to show their thanks for being kept safe during the flood. God then put a rainbow in the sky as a reminder to Noah and all people that he would never again send a flood that would destroy the whole world. Whenever we see a rainbow in the sky, it also serves as a reminder for us that God keeps all of his promises, the greatest of which is a Savior, Jesus, who paid for our sins on the cross and gives us eternal life through him.

MUSIC 
In music time this week basic rhythm is introduced as children learn that music consists of both sound and silence. Sometimes songs contain short or long rests. B-I-N-G-O is the perfect song to explore rests within music. Not only are children learning the concept of rest, but when we make our voices rest, our hands are clapping the silences in place of the letters. This is providing good practice with keeping a beat!

MOVEMENT
This week during movement time, we dance with ribbons to “Kuma San” again. The ribbons have provided a great new addition to movement time for the past two weeks. The children enjoy controlling their ribbons and following along to the challenges that Kuma San presents in the song such as touching the ground, jumping in the air, reaching the sky, keeping a beat, and turning around. The second song this week is called “Motion Memory Good-bye Game”. This song gives children a chance to recall a movement they did earlier, model it, and watch the other children imitate it. 

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is part-whole relationships. The part-whole concept is the understanding that a whole number can be made up of parts. Children are given the opportunity to explore materials that can be grouped and regrouped in different ways. Children may create smaller sets of materials from the larger one, or subdivide and sort based on color or size. This week some of the materials we’ll use include counting bears, Legos, foam blocks, play dough and different kinds of beads. 

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children again explore the KDI shapes.  Young children enjoy working with shapes when they complete puzzles, sort and stack different flat and 3D shapes, and combine and transform shapes to make other shapes. Through repeated hands-on interaction, preschoolers begin to recognize and name two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional shapes and their characteristics. This week children go on a shape walk to identify different shapes within our classroom, we create shapes using play dough, play hopscotch with shapes , create a shape collage using different shape templates, and make a shape caterpillar.

Making silly faces at snack time.
Getting ready to dance with ribbons to "Kuma San".

Whee!!



I twirl my ribbon so quickly, I'm a blur!

I drew a picture of my sister.

Grouping counting bears with wooden blocks.

Keeping a steady hand to balance the blocks!

I enjoy playing with the counting bears!

It takes concentration to sort and balance bears and blocks.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Newsletter 11/13/13

Important Dates to Remember
November 28-29 – No Preschool (Thanksgiving Break)

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Bark, George"   Jules Feiffer
"Silly Tilly"   Eileen Spinelli
"A Kitten Tale"   Eric Rohmann
"The Adventures of Gary & Harry"   Lisa Matsumoto

Afternoon Books
"Down by the Station"   Jennifer Riggs Vetter

PLANNING & RECALL
By planning, children come to rely on their own capacities to make choices and decisions. According to research by psychologist Daniel Jordan, “children who grow up having no experience in setting their own objectives and pursuing the steps required to achieve them never become fully independent, responsible, and self-reliant human beings.” Planning time gives children opportunities to experience in concrete terms the relationship between their intentions and actions and the result of their actions. This week we drew letter links out of a bag when it was our turn to plan.

BIBLE LESSON
The world was forever changed from a state of perfection to a world of sin when Adam and Eve broke the command God gave them not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden. Adam and Eve sinned but God still loved them and promised to send them a Savior. Life was difficult for Adam and Eve, but God continued to provide for them and give them blessings. God blessed them with children – Cain and Abel. Cain grew up to become a farmer and Abel took care of flocks of animals. One day Cain and Abel brought an offering to God as a way to show love and thanks to God. Cain brought some of his crops, and Abel brought the best of his animals to sacrifice as an offering. God was pleased with Abel’s gift since it was given with a heart full of love and faith in God. Cain’s offering was displeasing to God because he didn't give it with a joyful heart or a heart filled with faith. God showed his displeasure in Cain’s offering, which made Cain angry and led him to hate his brother Abel. Cain took Abel out into the field one day and killed him. God, who knows all things, saw what Cain did. The consequences of Cain’s sin were that he would have trouble growing his crops and would wander from place to place on the earth. Cain’s hard life would be a reminder to him that sin is wrong. Cain was a sinner and needed God’s help—the promise of a Savior to come. We too are sinners and need to be reminded of that. We also need the sweet reminder of God’s promise to us which was fulfilled in Jesus—who came to die in our place to take away all our sins so that we could be with him in heaven.

MUSIC 
This week the children will continue to explore loud and soft sounds. In the song “This is What I Can Do”, children have the chance to follow loud and soft patterns made by a leader using different vocal or physical sounds with our bodies. In the song “Hey, Betty Martin”, loud and soft singing patterns are practiced as we make our singing volume match what the words say. When we sing the words “tip-toe, tip-toe” our voices become soft.

MOVEMENT
This week during Movement time, we reviewed the song “From Here to There.” We crawl like insects, fly like birds, jump like kangaroos, and tip-toe like mice. We've enjoyed using the whole classroom space for this song. Our second song this week is “Kuma San”.  This is a song about a teddy bear. Kuma San is his Japanese name for Mr. Bear. With this song ribbons are introduced. Children have a chance to manipulate their ribbon wands as Kuma San tells us what to do—turn around, touch the ground, move your feet, keep the beat, jump up high, or touch the sky.

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is classifying. Young children love to explore the similarities and differences between objects. They enjoy making collections, sorting things into categories, and comparing their attributes. This week we classified shiny “gem” stones, sorted our play food, sorted colored tiles and plastic animals. Classifying helps children organize their lives. The more they learn the larger and more diverse the collections of things they categorize become.

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children explore the KDI experimenting.  Children are naturally curious about their world and experimenting with different hands-on materials helps them to make sense of it. In the process of experimenting, children observe cause-and-effect relationships. This week some of the things we will be experimenting with include mixing different paint colors, finding things that spin, discovering what absorbs water, creating sink or float buckets, and mixing colored water with eye droppers. 







Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Newsletter 11/6/13

Important Dates to Remember
November 7 – Picture Day
November 28-29 – No Preschool (Thanksgiving Break)

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
Rosie’s Walk  Pat Hutchins
It Looked Like Spilt Milk  Charles Shaw
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus  Mo Willems
Safari  Gail Tuchman

Afternoon Books
Down by the Station  Jennifer Riggs Vetter

PLANNING & RECALL
As children become familiar with the planning process, the clarity of each child’s plan develops. For a younger child, or a child new to the planning process, his or her plan may start as a vague plan. When asked, “What are you going to do today?” they may respond simply by saying, “Go over there,” or “Make something.” As children become more familiar with the idea of making plans, they begin to make routine plans. These are simple plans in which children mention an activity as a beginning point such as, “Play with blocks,” or “Cutting.” Detailed plans are complex plans children make in which they mention a beginning point, goal, or outcome. A detailed plan may sound like this, “Make a Robin Hood hat. With a feather, a real one.” Children’s plans change as they become familiar with available materials, their peers, and their own ability to make plans and think about how to carry them out. This week during planning time a ball will be rolled to each child when it is their turn to plan.

BIBLE LESSON
Adam and Eve were the crown of God’s creation. They were created to be above all things God had made. They enjoyed perfect living in the beautiful Garden of Eden. God gave them an opportunity to worship him and show love to him by obeying his command. He said they could eat from any tree in the garden except the tree in the middle. One day Satan appeared to Eve in the form of a snake and tempted her to doubt God’s words.” Instead of dying when eating from that tree, you’ll become like God instead—knowing good and evil!” Eve saw the fruit was desirable for gaining knowledge, so she ate of the fruit and then shared some with Adam and he ate it as well. Immediately, Adam and Even knew they had sinned against God by doing what he told them not to do, and they were ashamed and afraid. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake. They deserved to die for their sin, and death would indeed now be a result of sin. However, God showed his compassionate love in promising to send Someone to crush the serpent’s head, defeating Satan. That Someone is God’s very Son Jesus, who would one day come to be the Savior of the world. 

MUSIC 
This week the children experiment with dynamics—loud and soft. Using the song “Listen, Listen to Me”, children have the opportunity to distinguish between loud and soft sounds. In the past weeks, we have used our voices to practice loud sounds like shouting, and soft sounds like whispering. This week we add musical instruments to imitate loud and soft sounds. Some of the instruments we are using include a tambourine, egg shaker, bells, and clappers.

MOVEMENT
Movement time is an important part of the day because it helps with a child’s physical development. Large motor skills, spatial and body awareness and healthy behavior are learned through movement activities. Children learn to move their bodies in different ways—quickly, slowly, crawling, flying, jumping, and tiptoeing. As children dance to the songs, “From Here to There” and “Song about Slow, Song about Fast,” they learn to self-regulate, or control their bodies. Movement time is a great way to get our hearts beating faster, laugh, and build relationships with each other as we dance and move together.

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is body awareness. Just as large movement activities help children become aware of their bodies, body awareness can occur on a smaller scale as well. When children arrange things, or use words like “around, through, over, and under” they are making sense of the space they and other materials take up.  The materials we are using this week to explore body awareness include play dough as we create hens and recreate “Rosie’s Walk”, one of our morning stories. We’ll also use manipulatives, colored blocks and our bodies to position them in different ways. On Friday we will use simple treasure maps to go on a hunt for “treasure”.

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children will explore the KDI shapes.  Children will use geoboards and tangrams to create different shapes on Monday. We will also sort shapes by size and color, create some of our own shapes using toothpicks and packing peanuts, make a shape collage, and create 3D shape structures using blocks and magnet-tiles.








Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Newsletter 10/30/13

Important Dates to Remember
October 31-November 3  Scholastic Book Fair

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
The Kissing Hand Audrey Penn
Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes  Eric Litwin
What Shall We Do With the Boo-Hoo Baby? Cressida Cowell

Afternoon Books
Froggy Went a-Courtin’  Iza Trapani

PLANNING & RECALL
For only being a few days into the preschool routine, the children are catching on to the planning process quickly.  They are becoming familiar with all the interest areas throughout the classroom which include: the sand and water table, the car and train area, the book and music area, the kitchen and home living area, and the block and toy area. By planning consistently every day, children remember plans they made on previous days. They have a chance not only to deliberately plan what they would like to play with based on their interests, but it is also becomes a social opportunity as many of them plan similarly to other children. This week, children will use letter link symbols to take turns pointing to the area in which they would like to work.

BIBLE LESSON
Last week in our Bible lesson we learned that our beautiful world was created by God in six days. Everything he made was perfect, without sin. God rested from everything he had made on the seventh day. This week we’ll look more in depth on the special creatures God created on day six—humans.  God created a man, Adam, in the image of God, shaped from the dirt of the ground. The image of God does not mean that Adam resembled God in appearance, since God is a spirit. This divine image means a special knowledge of God as the source of every blessing. It also means that Adam was holy, or without sin, just as God is holy. God put Adam above all the animals he created. As Adam named the animals he noticed that every animal had a mate, but he was without one. God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and God created a helper suitable for him—a woman named Eve, whom he formed using a rib from Adam’s side. Adam and Eve became husband and wife and lived in perfection in the wonderful garden of Eden God created.

MUSIC 
This week the children will continue to explore how voices can make different sounds. Children have discovered that we can sing, speak, whisper, or shout—changing the volume and tone of the sounds they make. This week we are using the song “Pat-a-Cake” to explore vocal sounds in different ways. Adding movements and gestures to the song also gives children a chance to practice large motor skills.

MOVEMENT
The children enjoy the chance they have to dance and stretch to music. Last week we practiced listening to the words in the music and freezing when the music told us to freeze. It definitely takes practice for the children to learn to control their bodies when the music stops. We will continue to dance to the song “Dance Freeze” this week and add the new song “Song about Slow, Song about Fast.” These new songs add the element of tempo and speed to our dancing.

SMALL GROUP TIME
Each week during Small Group Time, children have the chance to engage in a hands-on learning experience, chosen by the teacher. The teacher chooses experiences based on the children’s interests which also meets one of the Key Developmental Indicators (KDI). The KDI for this week is part-whole relationships. Children combine and separate, compose and decompose quantities of objects. As they create and rearrange sets of things, they discover that a whole can be divided into parts, and that these parts can be recombined again to make a whole. This basic understanding is an important concept in mathematical development, which will lead children to use numbers with ease and flexibility. The materials we are using this week to explore part-whole relationships include unifix cubes, shells, and beans as we create towers, rearrange, sort, combine, and separate.

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After rest time, the children will continue to explore a KDI that we did last week during small group—fine motor skills.  Children will use geoboards to stretch rubber bands into patterns, we’ll sort buttons and marbles as we work on fine motor skills as well as the part-whole relationship concept, and on Friday we’ll have a chance to work with scissors as we snip pieces of paper.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Newsletter 10/23/13

Important Dates to Remember
October 25th – Harvest Carnival 6:00-8:00PM
October 28th & 29th – No Preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear"  Audrey Wood
"Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat"  Gene Baer
"Is Your Mama a Llama?"  Deborah Guarino

Afternoon Books
"Froggy Went a-Courtin’"  Iza Trapani
"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"  Bill Martin Jr.

PLANNING & RECALL
The Plan-Do-Review process is the central element in the HighScope curriculum model. In making daily plans, following through on them, and then recalling what they have done, young children learn to articulate their intentions and reflect on their actions. Plan-Do-Review encompasses the elements of active learning, and children get the opportunity to decide what they are going to do based on their own interests. This week we planned by forming a train and visiting the different areas in which each child chose to work. This also helped familiarize the children where all the areas in the classroom are located.

BIBLE LESSON
We begin our school year with the story of God creating the beautiful world in which we live. Many people believe that our world just happened to fall, evolve, or bang together the way it is. That’s like dumping out pieces of a puzzle onto a table and thinking they will all come together just perfectly. That would never happen! There must be a person to put together that puzzle. The same is true with our beautiful world—it cannot just happen to start up on its own and work so well. Someone needed to put together all the puzzle pieces perfectly, and that Someone was God.  In our lesson for this week, we learn what God created on each of the seven days of creation, and how everything he made was perfect. On the seventh day, when God was done making the world, he made that seventh day a special day to remember that his work was done.

MUSIC 
This week the children will discover how the voice can produce several types of sounds—both speaking and singing sounds. We are learning the song “Good Queen Isabella”. As we go through the song, we will use our voices to speak, whisper, shout and sing the lyrics. When we become experts at using our voices in different ways, we also will include a game. Each child gets a chance to be Good Queen Isabella or Good King Alexander, wear a crown, and select which of the four methods of voice production we will use for that round.

MOVEMENT
As the children dance and follow the directions of songs, they continue to strengthen their control of large motor skills such as stretching, jumping, and clapping. This week we’ll dance to the song “Shake My Sillies Out”. Children will also practice the skill of controlling their bodies with the song “Dance Freeze”. It’s tricky to stop and freeze when the music does!

SMALL GROUP TIME
Each week during Small Group Time, children have the chance to engage in a hands-on learning experience, chosen by the teacher. The teacher chooses experiences based on the children’s interests which also meets one of the Key Developmental Indicators (KDI). The KDI for this week is fine motor skills. Each day children work with different materials in a variety of ways to develop fine motor skills. Children will be threading dried noodles through string, working with pipe cleaners and beads, pinning clothes pins onto containers, using eye droppers to mix colored water, and digging through sand to find buried treasures. Small Group Time allows the teacher to observe and learn about individual children on a daily basis, scaffold their knowledge, and converse and encourage children.

AFTERNOON EXPERIENCES
After Rest Time, the children are once again busy at the tables! Fine motor skills are put into practice again as they work with a variety of art materials.  Children sculpted with play dough, explored texture by doing some rubbings, and painted with cotton and Q-tips. On Thursday children will have a chance to do some free drawing or painting of their choice, and on Friday we’ll put our large motor skills to use by marble painting. 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Building Committee Progress Report



It has been a little over 3 weeks since we confirmed our intention with the Municipality of Anchorage to enter into an agreement to install a fire sprinkler system within our facility so that we can continue expanding our ministry here.   Here are some highlights of what the Building Committee has been working on since then:

The 45 day Administrative Site Plan review that was going to be required by the MOA was waived after further research and help from one of our members.  This was very helpful.

 An asbuilt survey of the property was completed so that we can close out the ADA ramp permit from 2000.

We have entered into an agreement with Chris Cole and 61 North Architects to develop a floor plan for the Early Childhood Education Program (aka preschool).

We have thoroughly reviewed the floor plan with the ECE committee and have come to a consensus on the layout of the preschool area.

We are just about complete with the documents needed to submit for a building permit.

Andy Zanto and others have been clearing the area of all belongings and have been removing items that can be removed.

We are still looking for that one person that can take charge and lead the volunteers during our upcoming work days.  Materials and overall direction will be provided.  Building Committee will still participate and be the overall decision-making authority.

Excavation work will begin soon to repair the sewer at the southeast corner of the building.  A required permit from AWWU will be purchased in order to perform this work.

We have also entered into an agreement with a civil engineer (Steve Pannone) to design the new water line and associated site plans.

We are fairly close to selecting a sprinkler contractor to work with us on designing the sprinkler installation.  This will be the next phase, which will be commencing this fall.

RSA Engineering has been diligently working on the mechanical, plumbing, and electrical design drawings for the preschool renovation project.

We are still in need of material gifts (i.e. sheetrock, paint, flooring, cabinets, etc), service gifts (i.e. concrete cutting, painting, flooring installation, electrical work, etc), volunteer workday help, etc – see other blog posts for further information.