Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: 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.