Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: 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.