Newsletter 12/17/14

Important Dates to Remember:
December 19th - End of 2nd quarter; noon dismissal; Children's Christmas Service at U.A.A. at 6:30PM
December 20th-January 4th - Christmas Break; No Preschool
January 5th - Classes resume

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Who is Coming to Our House" by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff
"Grumpy Badger's Christmas" by Paul Bright and Jane Chapman
"Hedgie's Surprise" by Jan Brett

Afternoon Books
"The First Christmas Night" by Keith Christopher

PLANNING & RECALL
The week we really heard some giggles and silly voices as we used a "microphone" to tell each other our work time plans. The children enjoyed "broadcasting" their plans to the group, many of them in a special stage voice. 

BIBLE LESSON
The time was arriving for Mary to give birth to God's Son, Jesus. Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the land at the time, issued a decree that a census should be taken to see how many people were living in his land. Everyone had to return to their home towns to register. Mary and Joseph, who had been living in Nazareth, had to travel to a town called Bethlehem, their home town. After arriving in Bethlehem, they discovered that all of the inns were full. Instead, they found room in a nearby stable with the animals. When the time came for Mary to give birth, she had a son, whom she named Jesus. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger. Shortly after Jesus' birth, angels shared the joyous news with shepherds out in the fields tending their flocks. The shepherds found Jesus in the stable just as the angels had told them, and they rejoiced in his birth! The shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and we too rejoice in Jesus' birth. Jesus, the promised Savior who came to live a perfect life for us, die on the cross for our sins, and rise from the dead to defeat death so that we may live with Him forever in heaven!

Bible verse: (From the Apostle's Creed this week):Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.
Bible song: "Away in a Manger"

MUSIC 
In Music this week we've continued with our work in memorizing our recitations and song for the upcoming Christmas Service. We've also enjoyed singing along to the song "12 Days of Christmas".

MOVEMENT
In Movement Time this week, we warm up with a song called "Dance Freeze". We've revisited the parachute this week. We add another dimension to the parachute by adding some "popcorn" (small balls) to the parachute as we move it in the air. Our goal is to try and keep all the popcorn in the pan. Fittingly, we close with the song "Popcorn Calling Me".

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): measuring. For preschoolers, measurement is about realizing that things have measurable properties and making comparisons on these dimensions (height, volume, age, time, older and younger, lightest and heaviest, short, medium and tall).
Some of the experiences this week that focus on measuring include writing the letter of our name on individual circles, and then seeing whose name is the longest. We also scooped and measured rice into a variety of containers, measuring the amount of scoops it took to fill up. We also used toilet paper to first predict how many squares long we thought an object would be, and then we measured it to find out if our predictions were accurate.

It was "give Miss Wendland a hairstyle" day.

Superheroes with their jetpacks 

Building a tall, tall tower.

I love building with the blocks and making all
kinds of cool tracks for my cars!

The shark that I drew! I had so much
to tell everyone about this shark!

Drawing faces

Newsletter 12/9/14

Important Dates to Remember:
December 12th - Scholastic Book orders due
December 19th - End of 2nd quarter; noon dismissal; Children's Christmas Service at U.A.A. at 6:30PM
December 20th-January 4th - Christmas Break; No Preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Snowmen All Year" by Caralyn Buehner
"Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep!" by Maureen Wright
"This Is The Stable" by Cynthia Cotten 

Afternoon Books
"Franklin's Bad Day" by Paulette Bourgeois

PLANNING & RECALL
To fit the season, we use foam snow flakes for planning and recall time this week. Children pin clothespins with their name on it to a point on the snowflake and then share their plans. This also helps us work on some fine motor skills as some of those clothespins can be pretty tricky to pinch open!

BIBLE LESSON
This week we jump ahead in our Bible lessons to prepare for the Christmas season. Our lesson this week is “God’s Special Message for Mary.” When it was time for God’s son Jesus to be born, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her that she had been chosen for the special task of being Jesus’ mother. Mary was surprised at the news the angel brought and was confused because she was a virgin and not yet married. Gabriel assured her that all things are possible with God, and that the child conceived in her would be from the Holy Spirit. She would give birth to a baby boy and his name would be Jesus. He would be the Savior of the world and the fulfillment of the promise made long ago to people like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Mary believed God’s words from Gabriel and said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” After the angel’s visit, Mary became the wife of a man named Joseph. God had also appeared to Joseph in a dream, letting him know that the baby conceived in Mary was the promised Savior. Together, Mary and Joseph waited for the Savior to be born. 

Bible verse: John 3:16 "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son."
Bible song: "Away in a Manger"

MUSIC 
In Music this week we've continued with our work in memorizing our recitations and song for the upcoming Christmas Service. On Monday, we spent most of Music Time creating jingle bells with pipe cleaners and bells that we thread on them. The children have enjoyed learning the song "Jingle Bells" as they shake their bells. 

MOVEMENT
It's been an unusual week for the fact that we haven't had most of our regularly scheduled movement times. Our Small Group art activities have taken a little longer than usual since they are a bit more labor-intensive. We've split up the children into two groups, with Miss Zarnstorff leading the Small Group activity while Miss Wendland teaches the other group the Bible lesson for the day. The children have enjoyed dancing to our morning movement songs during Story Time which include "Stand in Place and Move", "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" and "Reach Up High". 

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Art. As you can imagine, there are countless art activities and ideas that can be done throughout the year. Often we give children opportunities to create open-ended art. They paint their own pictures, write "messages", or draw and color on blank paper. Playing with play dough and even building with blocks can encourage the 3D aspect of art. This week we're making the art a little more focused as we have specific end results in mind. On Monday we create popsicle stick ornaments, decorating them with glitter glue. On Tuesday we trace the outline of our hands, paint paper plates, and glue pom poms and eyes to create a reindeer. On Wednesday we make a melted snowman - stay tuned for pictures. On Thursday we create some finger print collages using finger paints, and on Friday we make a Christmas tree using dried noodles. 

Working on a puzzle in Before Care.

Miss Z. traces around my hand.

Floor puzzle silliness!

V. the thinker!

I drew a picture of my mom.

Water table fun in the bright blue water.

My family!

Playing with our new birthday cake toy.

The class during Work Time.

Newsletter 12/3/14

Important Dates to Remember:
December 6th - Christmas for Kids; 9:00AM-12:00PM
December 19th - End of 2nd quarter; noon dismissal; Children's Christmas Service at U.A.A. at 6:30PM
December 20th-January 4th - Christmas Break; No Preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Llama, Llama Time to Share" by Anna Dewdney
"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats
"The Tree House that Jack Built" by Bonnie Verbury and Mark Teague 

Afternoon Books
"The Greedy Python" by Richard Buckley

PLANNING & RECALL
Instead of using any materials or props for planning and recall time this week, a little phrase was spoken that goes like this, "Jingle, jangle, jax...it's your turn to plan if your name is 'Max'". Using a rhyming chant increases children's ability to identify the concept of rhyme - especially when it's tied to something as personal as their names.

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 Israelites 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.

Bible verse: Psalm 119:47 "I delight in your commands."

MUSIC 
In Music this week we begin to learn a song that we'll be singing for our Christmas Service on December 19th. We're learning "Away in a Manger" with some simple actions. We also begin spending more time learning our Christmas recitation from the book "Mary's Happy Christmas Day". Since we'll be doing both of these items by ourselves, without the "big kids'" help, we want to spend as much time as we can learning them!

MOVEMENT
In Movement Time we warm up to the song "Work Your Body" which asks us to stretch, bend, squat, climb, bend at the waist, kick our legs, and turn around. We have all really enjoyed using our new material this week: a parachute. In the introduction lesson we explore the parachute by sitting down and hiding our legs under it. We create slow and fast waves, practice rowing the parachute "boat" and rolling up the chute into a ball. To close our lesson we cool down with a song called "Tippy Toes".

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Alphabetic Knowledge. Alphabetic knowledge means understanding the alphabetic principle, which is the systematic relationship between letters and sounds. Children acquire this knowledge by building letter recognition and building an awareness of letter-sound connections. Young children learn letter names and sounds in the context of their playing, reading, and writing. They do not benefit from memorizing isolated letters or studying the "letter of the day". Some of the things we do at Small Group Time to increase specific letter recognition include going on a letter hunt around the classroom, tossing bean bags on to large letters on the floor, using geoboards to connect upper and lower case letters, forming letter shapes using play dough, and using white boards to write different letters.

Thanks for the turkey treats, Miss Zarnstorff!

This turkey is delicious!

Practicing with the eye dropper tool. 

Squeezing colored vinegar into a tin of baking soda. 

Watch what happens to the baking soda!

It bubbles!

 

 

The tower I built.