Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Newsletter 3/26/14

Important Dates to Remember:
*Pennies for Patients boxes are due back by Thursday or Friday of this week*
Parent-Teacher Conferences coming up in April (specific dates coming soon)
April 18th - No Preschool; Good Friday
April 21st - No Preschool; Easter Monday 

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"No, David!" by David Shannon
"Not a Stick" by Antoinette Portis
"Tadpole's Promise" by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross

Afternoon Books
"Thelonius Monster's Sky-High Fly Pie" by Judy Sierra

PLANNING & RECALL
This week at planning and recall time we use binoculars to search around the room for the area in which we want to plan or share Work Time experiences. Strategies that help children during planning time include dividing the group into smaller groups to speed the process while still allowing children enough time to share, and providing props or interesting activities to keep children engaged.

BIBLE LESSON
God anointed a man named Saul as the first king of the Israelites. After becoming king however, Saul began to disobey God and stop trusting in the Lord. God chose someone to take Saul's place after he died. A young man named David was the person he chose to be the next king. David was a shepherd and a musician - spending time in the fields at home and also at King Saul's palace playing music on his harp. One day David's father sent him to bring food to his brothers who were soldiers in Israel's army and to find out how the battle with the Philistines was going. When David arrived he saw a large Philistine soldier named Goliath who was over 9 feet tall. Goliath was taunting the Israelite soldiers and mocking God, claiming nobody could defeat him. David decided that he wanted to fight Goliath, and knew that God would be on his side. Using a small stone and his sling shot, he managed to hit Goliath in the center of his forehead. Goliath fell to the ground, dead. After seeing him die, the rest of the Philistines ran away and God granted the Israelites victory against their enemies.

David trusted in God's protection, help, and strength to defeat Goliath and the Philistines. We're reminded that God is also our protection, help and strength in times of trouble. After all, God has taken care of our worst problem by sending his Son, Jesus, to take the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross.
Bible verse: Psalm 56:11a "In God I trust; I will not be afraid."
Bible song: "Surely It Is God Who Saves Me"

MUSIC
In Music this week we use our knowledge of low, middle, and high pitches to move melodies up, down or keep them on the same note. We introduce the concept of ascending and descending scales, and repeated-note patterns with the song, "Stepping Up and Stepping Down".

MOVEMENT
This week we introduce scarves as a new material at Movement Time. Some of the challenges we attempt with scarves include putting them on our head while we balance on one foot, balancing them on our hand and elbow and trying to blow them off. We also dance with scarves to the song "Toss and Catch" as we practice throwing our scarves in the air and trying to catch them with our crab pincher fingers and other parts of our body. This week we also learn a new dance, "The Chicken Dance", for our warm-up song.

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during Small Group Time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicators (KDI): Art and Body Awareness . On Monday our art experience is creating tape paintings, where we place tape on a piece of paper, paint the page, and then peel the tape off. On Tuesday we use markers to color on coffee filters and watch what happens when we spray water on them. On Wednesday and Thursday we use large pieces of paper to trace the shape of our bodies and work on decorating them with a variety of materials. On Friday we combine aspects of art and body awareness as we use play dough to create human shapes.

Happy 5th Birthday!

Using binoculars at planning time

Trying to get those binoculars on.

Planning to play in the kitchen area.

Adding actions to our music song.



Experimenting with scarves at movement time.

Can we put them on our head like Little Red Riding Hood?





Tossing the scarf in the air!

Working on our body collages.



Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Newsletter 3/19/14

Important Dates to Remember:
Parent-Teacher Conferences coming up in April (specific dates coming soon)
April 18th - No Preschool; Good Friday
April 21st - No Preschool; Easter Monday 

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Lemons are Not Red" by Laura Seeger
"Millie Waits for the Mail" by Alexander Steffensmeier
"Little Blue Truck Leads the Way" by Alice Schertle

Afternoon Books
"Warning! Do Not Open This Book" by Adam Lehrhaupt

PLANNING & RECALL
It is difficult to predict what, out of all the things children have done at work time, they will choose to talk about at recall time. Children rarely give a strictly chronological account of their work-time experiences. They tend to select one or two things that are of particular significance to them. The point of recall time is the give children the choice to talk about what interested them. Having the opportunity to say something about their own experiences is more important than which experience they actually recall. This week we used a toy car for planning and recall. When the car was driven in front of each child, it was his or her turn to plan or recall.

BIBLE LESSON
In this week's Bible lesson we learn about a woman named Hannah who prayed for years for God to bless her with a son. God heard Hannah's prayer and blessed her with a son named Samuel. When Samuel  was a young boy, Hannah brought him to the temple to live so he could serve God there. It was Hannah's way to say thank you to God for the blessing of a son. Samuel lived and worked with a priest named Eli and grew in knowledge and love for God. God spoke to Samuel one night instructing him to tell Eli some bad news. Because Eli's sons were wicked and Eli had done nothing to stop their wickedness, God would punish Eli's family. True to his Word, a short time later both Eli's sons were killed in a battle and upon hearing the shocking news, Eli also died.
We learn an important lesson from this account of the Bible. Hannah raised her son the way that is pleasing to God - she taught him about the Lord. Although Eli knew of his sons' wickedness, he did nothing to stop them. One way to show our love for God is by loving and obeying our parents.
Bible verse: Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."
Bible song: "I Thank You For My Parents, Lord"

MUSIC
In Music this week we sing the song "Hey! Hey! Look at Me!" to practice the low, middle and high pitches. Continuing to use pictures, move our bodies and use the piano to match the pitches we sing, helps to solidify this concept.

MOVEMENT
We continue our work with hula hoops in Movement time this week. Last time, most of the challenges involved the hula hoop staying on the floor. This week we have a chance to pick them up and balance them on different parts of our body. We create tables over our hoops using our bodies - feet and hands on the floor while our belly faces the sky. We warm up to the song "Boogie Down and Cruise" and close with the song "Caterpillars to Butterflies."

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Fine Motor Skills. Experiences that develop strength, coordination, and endurance in using their whole hand to manipulate materials include hole punching and threading with string, cutting and gluing, using tweezers to grip and sort beans and tiles, tearing paper and magazines, pinning clothespins on a clothesline and using Q-tips to paint.













Monday, March 17, 2014

Pennies for Patients

Pennies for Patients  continues through March 27th.  Pennies for Patients is a program to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by collecting spare change. Every little bit helps! Please support the students in this opportunity to use our gifts to serve others.

Wondering what The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society does? Visit their website:  http://www.lls.org/#/aboutlls/

Monday, March 3, 2014

Newsletter 3/5/14

Important Dates to Remember:
March 7 - Noon dismissal for all students
March 8-16 - Spring break; no preschool 

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Dilly-Dally and the Nine Secrets" by Elizabeth MacDonald
"A Pocket for Corduroy" by Don Freeman
"Stick" by Andy Pritchett

Afternoon Books
"Lifetime - The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives" by Lola Schaefer

PLANNING & RECALL
During planning time, children make initial plans and then often modify their plans as they play. Children construct new ideas and encounter unforeseen problems as they play. Therefore, planning is a flexible process that occurs both before and during the play sequence and involves imagination, deliberation, and ongoing modifications. Children picked numbers this week, and when their number was spun on a spinner, they could share their plans.

BIBLE LESSON
In our Bible lesson this week we jump ahead a number of years. Moses is no longer leading the Israelites. Instead, a man named Joshua is in charge. In order to make the land of Canaan their own, the Israelites had to capture and defeat cities in Canaan. One of these cities was named Jericho. The inhabitants of Jericho anticipated the Israelites' attack, so they closed the city gate and prepared. God told Joshua the special plan for defeating the city of Jericho. The Isrealites would march around the city once a day for six days. The priests leading the march blew on their trumpets but nobody else spoke a word. They did this for six days and on the seventh day they walked around the city seven times. On the seventh time around the city the priests blew the trumpets longer and Joshua gave the command to shout! The Isrealites all let out a great shout with the blast of the trumpets, and the wall around Jericho came tumbling down. God gave his people Jericho in a special way. All the gold, silver, and precious metal from the city was then dedicated to God.

The Israelites had sinned against God many times throughout their time in the desert and did not deserve his love and help, but God kept his promises to them by giving them many blessings, including the city of Jericho. We also sin against God and do not deserve the blessings he gives to us. Yet we thank him for all the love he does show us, including Jesus - who died on the cross to pay for our sins. We are then reminded in our Bible verse to honor God in everything we do as a way to say thank you. 
Bible verse: 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
Bible song: "Go Down Moses"

MUSIC
In Music this week we continue to explore the concept of pitch. A third concept of pitch is introduced this week: middle sounding pitches. We now practice matching pitches that are low, middle, and high. Children begin to understand that pitches can be played or sung in any order. In the song, "I Can Sing High", we practice hand motions and body motions to indicate high, middle, and low pitches. This also begins to lay a background for learning to read musical notation.

MOVEMENT
This week hula hoops are introduced in Movement time. With the hoops on the floor, we use them for a variety of activities - challenging our bodies to grow large or small in the hoop, balancing on 1 foot inside them, jumping in and out of them, and making bridges over the hoop. We play a game called "Switcheroo" where we switch hoop homes to stand in a new one. Our warm up songs include "Knees Up, Mother Brown" and "Flick a Fly".

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Classifying. Children love to explore the similarities and differences between objects. They enjoying making collections, sorting things into categories, and comparing attributes. Some experiences to promote these skills this week include sorting buttons and bottle caps, sorting socks and other garments, grouping shapes and tangram tiles, and creating yarn fences to group and sort a variety of beads.