Faith Lutheran Preschool eNews: Newsletter 4/22/15

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
May 16th - Reading Rendezvous at the Loussac Library; 12PM-4PM

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Elephants and Big Cats" by Dr. Carla Litchfield
"Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans
"I Know a Bear" by Mariana Ruiz Johnson

Afternoon Books
"Maya was Grumpy" by Courtney Pippin-Mathur

PLANNING & RECALL
This week, we tie in our planning time activity to our Small Group Time KDI. We're working with ramps during Small Group Time, so for planning time we use a marble and a paper towel tube to create a ramp tunnel. Children roll the marble down the tube into a cup when it's their turn to plan.

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
This week for music we will be focusing on songs about animals. Some animals that are in our songs include bunnies, worms, and hippos. We'll also be working on our use of sound effects that go with each animal.

MOVEMENT
This week during Movement Time we really focus on regulating and controlling our bodies. We balance a hoola hoop on four cones and the children try getting into the hoop in a variety of ways without knocking the hoop off the cones. The children have really enjoyed the challenge of this game as they crawl under the hoop on their bellies or backs, or step over the hoop, or even jump over it to get inside. They also work as a team, cheering each other on to succeed without knocking down the hoop.

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during Small Group Time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Natural and Physical world. This week's focus during small group time is ramps. Children use elements in their natural and physical world to explore ramps - creating them and experimenting with them. On Monday we used some of wooden blocks to create a ramp. We then took different objects from around the classroom and predicted whether we thought they'd be able to roll down the ramp or not. On Tuesday we covered trays with wax paper and used an eye dropper to drop water onto the wax paper. It was amazing to discover the water drops stayed as perfect little droplets on the wax paper. We then tilted one side of the tray to create a ramp and watched as the droplets rolled off the paper. On Wednesday we use paper towel tubes to create ramps and we raced cars down them, measure the distance each car traveled. On Thursday we used cookie sheets to play "Will it Slide". We worked on predicting skills again as we determined which objects would slide down the baking sheet ramps. On Friday we got to go outside to use the playground slide as a ramp - collecting items in the natural world (outside) to experiment on the ramp.