Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: 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.