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!
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.
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| Playing in the packing peanuts |
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| Playing in the restaurant |
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