Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: Newsletter 5/7/14

Important Dates to Remember:
May 9th - Parent's Night Out; 6-9 p.m
May 17th - Reading Rendezvous at the Loussac Library; 12-4 p.m
May 22nd - Last day of Preschool; noon dismissal with picnic immediately following

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"The Foolish Tortoise" by Eric Carle
"Interrupting Chicken" by David Ezra Stein
"Are You My Mother?" by P.D Eastman

Afternoon Books
"This Old Man" by Pam Adams

PLANNING & RECALL
We tie this week's planning and recall time to the KDI for the week, which is counting. We use a white board on which the teacher has written numbers. When it is a child's turn to plan or recall, the teacher asks them to circle one of the numbers before sharing their plans. This activity works on number recognition, counting, and fine motor skills as children draw on the board.

BIBLE LESSON
The risen Jesus spent 40 days on earth after rising from the dead. In that time he continued to appear to his disciples as well as many others - proving he really was alive. He continued to teach his disciples so that they would be ready to go out and tell others about him. Jesus told his disciples that God would send the gift of the Holy Spirit to them - giving them the strength to go out into the world proclaiming the good news of what Jesus had done for all people. As Jesus was blessing his disciples, he began to ascend up into the sky until he disappeared from sight. Jesus was returning to heaven. Two angels then appeared to the disciples and asked them, "Why are you standing here, looking up into the sky? Jesus has gone to heaven, but someday he will come back, just as you have seen him go." After this, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, waiting there for the gift of the Holy Spirit, eager to tell others about Jesus.

Even though Jesus left his disciples to go back to heaven, he promised to be with them always. We too, even though we cannot see Jesus with our own eyes, have the same promise he gave to his disciples. Jesus is with us wherever we go and whatever we do. That gives us great comfort as we wait to see him face to face on the last day.
Bible verse: Matthew 28:20b "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Bible song: "Surely I Am With You"

MUSIC
We sing a new song this week called "The Wiggle Song", which has short, distinct sections called phrases. Children learn to put different actions to each phrase in the song to help differentiate between the 4 phrases. For variety, we also change dynamics between phrases, which allows for a clearer distinction. Some other new songs we learn during Music Time this week include "Pop! Goes the Weasel" and "The Cobbler".

MOVEMENT
This week we warm up to a song called "I Can Jump Like A Big Green Frog". We jump like frogs,bunnies, monkeys, and kangaroos, walk like puppies, and crawl like inchworms. We also revisit an old favorite this week as we pull out the balloons again. We use the balloons with homemade plate paddles - trying to balance the balloon on our paddle as we walk around the room, move the paddle above our head and down to the ground. We finish with the song "Keep It Up!"

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during Small Group Time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI) Counting. Psychologist Howard Gardner had this to say about young children and counting: "Often with surprising speed and ferocity, preschoolers see the world as an arena for counting. Children want to count everything--facial features in a drawing, beads, blocks, candles, holes, tires, letters, lights." This week we count dot markers and work on one to one correspondence with dot cards, we count pom poms as we drop them into bags, we count bears when we play "Bears on a Boat" and count beads as we thread them onto string.

Thank you to all families who came to last week's Spring Musical at the UAA Fine Arts Hall! I have received many comments from elementary school and church families about how great it was to see the preschoolers participate and how cute they all were!