Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: 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.