Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: Newsletter 1/7/15

Important Dates to Remember:
January 19th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day; No Preschool

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late" by Mo Willems
"Corduroy" by Don Freeman
"Creepy Carrots" by Aaron Reynolds

Afternoon Books
"Almost an Animal Alphabet" by Katie Viggers

PLANNING & RECALL
It is difficult to predict what, out of all the things children have done at work time, they will choose to talk about at recall time. Children rarely give a strictly chronological account of their work-time experiences. They tend to select one or two things that are of particular significance to them. The point of recall time is the give children the choice to talk about what interested them. Having the opportunity to say something about their own experiences is more important than which experience they actually recall. This week we used hats for planning and recall. The child wearing that hat had the turn to plan or recall.

BIBLE LESSON
In this week's Bible lesson we learn about a woman named Hannah who prayed for years for God to bless her with a son. God heard Hannah's prayer and blessed her with a son named Samuel. When Samuel was a young boy, Hannah brought him to the temple to live so he could serve God there. It was Hannah's way to say thank you to God for the blessing of a son. Samuel lived and worked with a priest named Eli and grew in knowledge and love for God. God spoke to Samuel one night instructing him to tell Eli some bad news. Because Eli's sons were wicked and Eli had done nothing to stop their wickedness, God would punish Eli's family. True to his Word, a short time later both Eli's sons were killed in a battle and upon hearing the shocking news, Eli also died.
We learn an important lesson from this account of the Bible. Hannah raised her son the way that is pleasing to God - she taught him about the Lord. Although Eli knew of his sons' wickedness, he did nothing to stop them. One way to show our love for God is by loving and obeying our parents.
Bible verse: Colossians 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."
Bible song: "I Thank You For My Parents, Lord"

MUSIC
In Music this week we explore the concept of pitch. We use a song called "Driving Down the Highway" to sing ascending and descending scales, while also using a picture to search for things on the ground and in the air. We tie this concept of high and low objects to the concept of high and low pitches. Children are quickly catching on and are able to match my high and low pitches.

MOVEMENT
This week we are using bean bags during movement time. We have enjoyed exploring with our bean bags and finding different spots on our bodies where we can balance them. Some of the places we've tried are our heads, arms, legs, feet, shoulders, and faces. It’s also been a movement challenge as we try to march around to the song “Bean Bag Parade”, while balancing the bean bag on the tops of our heads. The second song we’re doing this week is “Circus” where we pretend to be trapeze artists balancing and swaying on a tightrope.

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Classifying. Children love to explore the similarities and differences between objects. They enjoying making collections, sorting things into categories, and comparing attributes. Some experiences to promote these skills this week include sorting buttons, sorting socks, identifying small, medium, and large objects into trays, grouping shapes and tangram tiles, and creating yarn fences to group and sort a variety of beads.