Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Newsletter 10/1/14

Important Dates to Remember:
October 6th - "Making Life Better" class with Pastor Ewings; 6:30PM-8:00PM
October 17th - End of First Quarter; noon dismissal
October 24th - Faith's Harvest Carnival; 6:30PM-8:30PM

Special Notes:
The termination dust is back on the mountains! That means that snow is right around the corner. Please make sure you pack appropriate snow gear for your child when and if it starts to snow or become much colder.

In order to make it easier for you to attend the "Making Life Better" classes with Pastor Ewings, we will be providing free care for your child(ren) in our preschool room while you're upstairs attending class. Please speak to the director if you plan on bringing your children and need care! 

We just experienced a strong earthquake last week. That brought to mind comfort kits. Please work on those comfort kits and bring those in to us as soon as they're ready!

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"The Very Cranky Bear" by Nick Bland
"Freight Train" by Donald Crews
"Hattie and the Fox" by Mem Fox
"Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr.

Afternoon Books
"Five Little Monkeys: Storybook Treasury" by Eileen Christelow

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. 

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!

Bible verse: Isaiah 41:10 "Do not fear, for I am with you."
Bible song: "Cast All Your Anxiety On Him"

MUSIC 
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 song “Hey, Betty Martin”. In our other song “Seesaw, Margery Daw”, we use our bodies in a see-saw motion to keep the beat.

MOVEMENT
This week during Movement Time, we continue our work with ribbons. We review our song "Elephant Rainbow" to begin, and then move on to ribbon challenges such as jumping over our ribbons, making different shapes in the air with them, or touching them to different parts of our body. 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, children have a chance to manipulate their ribbon wands as Kuma San tells us what to do—turn around, touch the ground, move our feet, keep the beat, jump up high, or touch the sky.

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is predicting. Young children are naturally experimenters and testers. As we observe children trying to make sense of the world around them, we see them using science processes such as observing, classifying, experimenting, and predicting. These are the early forms of the scientific method at work. This week's science focus is on predicting as we try to determine what will happen when we place skittles in water, and what happens to a bottle of Diet Coke when we place some Mentos candy in it. We watch pop rocks expand a balloon over a bottle of Coke, and we observe and predict what will happen as we make our own lava lamps and balloon airplanes.


I'm a cowboy riding my horse (dinosaur).
Yeee-haww!

Counting clothespins. This was great small
motor work as well!

Pastor Ewings visited us last Thursday to teach us our Bible lesson
and teach us "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish. We added instruments at the
end!

Counting unifix cube towers.

Deciding which number to do next...

Using dot cards to count circle tiles.
I liked to stack mine and watch them fall to the table.

I love to write messages! Today Miss Zarnstorff helped me
write her name.

I may have just eaten one of those skittles...

Watching what happens when we put skittles in water.

The colors made a color wheel, and the "s" from the skittles
floated to the top of the water.

Asking for predictions about what will happen
when we put alka seltzer tablets into oil and food coloring.

Watching the lava lamp bubble and fizz.

What a cool reaction!

Some of the children called it their "magic
potion".

We tried it again with a different shaped vase
and different food coloring.

We got to try making our own little lava lamp cups.

Watching the bubbles rise to the surface.

The food coloring droplets almost look like little eggs in there!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Newsletter 9/24/14

Important Dates to Remember:
September 29th - "Making Life Better" class with Pastor Ewings; 6:30PM-8:00PM
October 17th - End of First Quarter; noon dismissal

Special Notes:
In order to make it easier for you to attend the "Making Life Better" classes with Pastor Ewings, we will be providing free care for your child(ren) in our preschool room while you're upstairs attending class. Please speak to the director if you plan on bringing your children and need care! 

Don't forget to work on those comfort kits and bring those in to us as soon as they're ready!

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Little Blue and Little Yellow" by Leo Lionni
"Do Crocs Kiss?" by Salina Yoon
"How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad?" by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Afternoon Books
"Franklin's Birthday Party" by Paulette Bourgeois
"Baa Baa Black Sheep" by Iza Trapani

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 about 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 restated 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.

Bible verse: 1 Timothy 2:3-4 "God our Savior wants all people to be saved."
Bible song: "Surely It Is God Who Saves Me"

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 use visual clues and we also move our arms to match the longer notes. This week we also sing songs called "Hello to You", "Johnny Works With One Hammer", and "You'll Sing a Song and I'll Sing a Song".

MOVEMENT
This week during Movement Time, we talked about different animals we may see when we visit a zoo - elephants, zebras, flamingos, and cheetahs. We have a chance to walk or run as these animals, and then we get to make up an animal of our choice. We also introduce a new material into Movement Time this week: ribbons. We manipulate our ribbons around our bodies, up in the air and down low, and try making different shapes like circles. We close Movement Time by dancing with our ribbons to the song "Elephant Rainbow".

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 used muffin tins to put different amounts of buttons in each hole, we counted beans into cups, we used counting sheets to count Unifix cube towers, pinned the correct number of clothes pins onto cards with the corresponding number, and we counted coins onto dot cards.

Last week's task of sorting shapes into
 different bags

Writing a morning message

The animals in the zoo are resting after a long dance

Exploring with ribbons during Movement
Time



Counting beans

Making sure he has the number correct

Two more morning message writers. Look at those
detailed messages!

Add caption



Counting buttons into muffin tins




Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Newsletter 9/17/14

Important Dates to Remember:
September 19th - Parent's Night Out; 6:00PM-9:00PM
September 22nd - "Making Life Better" class with Pastor Ewings; 6:30PM-8:00PM
October 17th - End of First Quarter; noon dismissal

Special Notes:
In order to make it easier for you to attend the "Making Life Better" classes with Pastor Ewings, we will be providing free care for your child(ren) in our preschool room while you're upstairs attending class. Please speak to the director if you plan on bringing your children and need care! 

Don't forget to work on those comfort kits and bring those in to us as soon as they're ready!

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Peter's Chair" by Ezra Jack Keats
"Little Blue Truck" by Alice Schertle
"Old Bear" by Kevin Henkes
"Mouse Shapes" by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Afternoon Books
"Time for Bed" by Mem Fox
"Baa Baa Black Sheep" by Iza Trapani

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 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 mocking from the people around 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.

Bible verse: 1 Timoth 2:3-4 "God our Savior wants all people to be saved."
Bible song: "Surely It Is God Who Saves Me"

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 begin by dancing "The Chicken Dance". Children have enjoyed acting like chickens and ducks, shaking their tails, and dancing with a partner. We've been able to enjoy a few mornings outside for our next section of Movement Time. We practice our self-regulation, listening, and following skills as we walk along straight, curved, and zig-zag lines on the pavement. Sometimes we walk tall, sometimes we crouch low, we walk on tiptoes, and we walk sideways. We end Movement Time by dancing to "Step On Stones"

SMALL GROUP TIME
The KDI for this week’s small group activities is shapesYoung 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 make a shape caterpillar out of circles and rectangles, use popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and sticky tack to create shapes, form shapes out of play dough, short shapes into different containers, and play a game based on our morning story "Mouse Shapes".

Welcome to your first day of preschool!

Classifying loud and quiet sounds.

After our naps, our brains were refreshed to help us put this
puzzle together.

Minnie and friends

Scooping beans with shovels 
Creating shape caterpillars

Showing off my caterpillar 

"I love birthday treats!" 
Finger painting in after care

2nd day in a row of birthday treats!

Painting raindrops and pictures for mom and dad

Drawing noses

Creating shapes with popsicle sticks

This square makes a perfect picture frame

My triangle, with a flare of "A"

I made my popsicle stick into a lollipop

Monday, September 15, 2014

Parent's Night Out this Friday the 19th



Our first Parent's Night Out of this school year is coming up this Friday the 18th of September from 6-9PM. Enjoy a night out while your kids have fun at school with friends. Dinner, snacks, and entertainment will be provided for your child. Weather permitting, they'll also be able to play outside on their bikes but MUST HAVE A HELMET.

There's a sign up sheet in the elementary school entrance right outside the office. I'll also put one outside our preschool room door.

Preschool aged children and older only please!
This is a free event!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Newsletter 9/10/14

Important Dates to Remember:
September 15th - "Making Life Better" class with Pastor Ewings; 6:30PM-8:00PM
October 17th - End of First Quarter; noon dismissal

Special Notes:
In order to make it easier for you to attend the "Making Life Better" classes with Pastor Ewings, we will be providing free care for your child(ren) in our preschool room while you're upstairs attending class. Please speak to the director if you plan on bringing your children and need care! 

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn
"The Duckling Gets a Cookie!?" by Mo Willems
"Almost an Animal Alphabet" by Katie Viggers

Afternoon Books
"Franklin Wants a Pet" by Paulette Bourgeois
"Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?" by Eric Carle

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 of his sin. 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.

Bible verse: John 3:16 "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son."
Bible song: "For God So Loved the World"

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 and with a drum. We also have been learning the songs "5 Green and Speckled Frogs", and  "A-Hunting We Will Go".

MOVEMENT
This week during Movement Time, we begin with the song "Knees Up Mother Brown". We march our knees up and down, hop on one foot and then the other, and twirl around and around. Children then have a chance to practice their auditory discrimination skills as we play the game "Ready, Spaghetti!" Children stand on one line and have to wait to hear "ready spaghetti" before they can walk across to a line on the other side of the room. If they hear "ready cabbage", "ready hot dog" or other silly combinations of food, they have to stay put on the first line. Children have enjoyed playing this game as they practice their listening skills.

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 groups of opposites. We classified large and small items, soft and hard, loud and quiet, items that change when placed in water or not, and on Friday we grouped ourselves into different groups based on hair color, height, and gender.  Classifying helps children organize their lives. The more they learn, the larger and more diverse the collections of things they categorize become.

Writing the name "Dad"

Gluing letters during Work Time



Last week we made 3D structures with foam blocks and
shaving cream.

I love playing with shaving cream!

Lining up to play "Ready, Spaghetti!"

Crawling like dogs during this round of "Ready, Spaghetti!"

Classifying large and small objects.