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!

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.

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. 

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.