January 20 - No Preschool; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
February 7 - School Art Fair; 6:30PM
THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Jumpy Jack" by Henry Holt
"Duck Soup" by Jackie Urbanovic
"Time for Bed" by Mem Fox
Afternoon Books
"The Wheels on the Bus" by Maryann Kovalski
PLANNING & RECALL
During planning and recall time this week, we used telephones. The children enjoy talking on the telephone, so pretending to call them and discuss their work time plans was a great way to incorporate their interests into planning time. At planning time, teachers help children turn their interests into purposeful actions, and at recall time they help them turn their purposeful actions into narratives. Educators who help children capture these moments help children acquire the language they need while at the same time keeping a playful attitude toward language alive.
BIBLE LESSON
Now that Christmas is over, we return to the Old Testament again for our Bible lesson this week. We learn about a man named Joseph, one of the 12 sons of Jacob. Joseph was not very well liked by his brothers, who thought their father favored and loved him more than them. One day they beat Joseph up and threw him into well, with the plan to kill him later. Shortly after that some merchants from Egypt walked by and the brothers decided to sell Joseph to them instead. When they returned home, they told their father that Joseph had been killed by wild animals out in the field. While living in Egypt, Joseph worked so hard for Potiphar that he was put in charge of Potiphar's household. But after some false accusations by Potiphar's wife, Joseph was thrown into prison. While in prison, Joseph helped the other prisoners by his God-given ability to interpret dreams. After spending a few years in prison, the king of Egypt had some dreams that were troubling him. Joseph was brought to him to interpret his dreams. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret the king's dreams. Seven years of plenty were about to come to Egypt - plenty of food and rain. But seven years of famine were to follow. Joseph advised the king to place a man in charge to make sure that during the seven good years, they could save up enough food for the coming famine. The king liked Joseph's plan and made him in charge of the land. God took Joseph, the lowly prisoner, and made him a ruler in Egypt, second in command to the king himself.
MUSIC
Our study of steady beat in music continues this week. We have greatly increased our ability to clap, tap or play instruments along to the new songs we learn. Our songs for this week include "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Four in a Boat". Since there are four children right now, this song worked perfectly to pretend we were in a boat rocking our bodies from side to side with the beat.
MOVEMENT
This week's movement songs also include an element of music -- tempo, or speed. We mastered several tempo challenges. The three tempos we practiced were slow, medium, or fast. Some of the challenges included wiggling our body, twisting from side to side, reaching in the air, curling our bodies into a ball, shaking our hands, and walking on our toes. We ended movement time with the fitting song, "Song About Slow, Song about Fast".
SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Number Words and Symbols. Young children encounter numbers and number concepts all the time in their environment. They learn to use cardinal numbers (zero, one, two...) and also ordinal numbers (first, second, third...). Children develop what is called "number sense", the awareness that numbers represent the quantity of things in a set and can be manipulated or operated on in various ways. The ways we encouraged "number sense" this week include dropping pom-poms into numbered cups, manipulating unifix cubes, playing with clock puzzles and numbered stacking cups, exploring dominoes, and playing with dot cards.
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| Christmas Service 2013 |
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| Getting ready to sing |
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| We love the water table! |
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| Playing with the doll house |
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