Newsletter 2/18/15

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
February 18th - Visit from an Alaska State Trooper; 10:30AM
February 21st - Pho Feed and Basket Auction; 5:30PM

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Ernest the Moose Who Doesn't Fit" by Catherine Rayner
"Hug Machine" by Scott Campbell
"My Teacher is a Monster" by Peter Brown

Afternoon Books
"Franklin Plants a Tree" by Paulette Bourgeois

PLANNING & RECALL
This week we brought numbers and counting into planning time. Children were each given a slip of paper with a number on it and then we rolled a die. Whoever had the slip of paper with the same number as the number we rolled on the die had the chance to share with the group their work time plans.

BIBLE LESSON
In this week's Bible lesson we hear about the first miracle Jesus performed. Jesus, his mother Mary, and his disciples were gathered at a wedding celebration in Cana when the people ran out of wine to drink. After Mary sought out Jesus to help, Jesus instructed some servants to fill some jars with water. After doing so, he told them to dip a cup in those jars of water and take them to the master of the house to try. When the master tasted the water, it was no longer water, but wine! Jesus used his almighty power as God to change that water into wine. This miracle, and all the miracles that Jesus would go on to do, show that Jesus is truly God. It also shows Jesus' love because he provided for that wedding celebration in their time of need. Jesus showed his love best when he died on the cross to take away our sins.
Bible verse: Galatians 4:4 "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son."
Bible song: "Shine, Jesus, Shine!"

MUSIC 
This week in music there will be a major focus on listening skills. To help improve these skills, we will be playing a version of musical chairs but it will be more like musical cards. Children will dance to music. Then when the music stops they find one of the cards that have been placed on the carpet and tell what shape or show what emotion is on that card. We will also be learning two new songs. One is a crazy, fun song about shark attacks and the other one is about airplanes.

MOVEMENT
This week we focus on different animal movements during movement time. We open with a song called "Bunny Jump" where we hope like bunnies, wiggle like fish and kick our hooves like horses. We then move our bodies as we attempt different animal challenges such as bending over, dragging our arms and thumping our chest like a gorilla, walking on all fours like bears and dogs. We then pretend we're a hurt puppy that has a thorn in its paw as we walk around on 3 "feet". Our last animal challenge is a crab as our tummies face the ceiling and we shuffle forwards, backwards, and sideways on our hands and feet. 

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during Small Group Time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicators (KDI): Alphabetic Knowledge. On Tuesday we used magnifying glasses to go on a letter hunt around the classroom. On Wednesday we skipped small group time because it was the day we had a visit from one of the Alaska State Troopers who came to talk about what it's like to be a trooper. On Thursday we created letters using play dough, and on Friday we used plastic spoons to nest a lower case letter with its upper case letter. We have also enjoyed supplementing these activities with alphabet puzzles.

This little boy loves spiders!

Waiting for the dog musher.

The "Mushing Mortician" and his dog, Thor.