Newsletter 11/12/14

Important Dates to Remember:
November 14th - Parent's Night Out; 6:00-9:00PM
November 23rd - Preschool students sing in church at Faith at 11:00AM
November 27th & 28th - Thanksgiving Break; No Preschool

Special Notes:

Another friendly reminder to work on those comfort kits and get them in to us as soon as possible! 
You can find the sign up sheet for Parent's Night Out either outside our classroom door, or in the elementary school hallway outside the office.

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Big Al" by Andrew Clements Yoshi
"I Want My Hat Back" by Jon Klassen
"Lost and Found" by Oliver James

Afternoon Books
"Finders Keepers for Franklin" by Paulette Bourgeois

PLANNING & RECALL
As children plan, they imagine something that has not yet happened, and they begin to understand that some set of their own actions can make it happen. They begin to see their own actions as a means to an end. We divide our planning groups by the "Blue Group" and the "Green Group", with Miss Wendland and Miss Zarnstorff leading the groups alternating weeks. This week we use a hula hoop for planning. When it is their turn, children sit in the hula hoop, pretending they are a baby bird sitting in a nest. 

BIBLE LESSON
In this week's Bible lesson we learn how Moses obeyed God's command to tell the king of Egypt to let the Israelites go. At first, the king refused and God sent 10 plagues or troubles to the land of Egypt. Finally the king permitted the Israelites to leave. After the king realized that he lost all his slaves, he changed his mind and sent his army to bring the Israelites back. God demonstrated his love and protection for his people by parting the Red Sea - creating a path of dry ground for the Israelites to walk across, with a wall of water on each side of them. The Egyptian army pursued them, but after all the Israelites made it across the sea safely, God caused the water to come crashing down on the Egyptian army, killing all of them. The Israelites called upon God for deliverance from the Egyptians and he rescued them with his almighty power. God also invites us to call upon Him in the day of trouble. He will deliver us and that gives us the opportunity to honor him. (Psalm 50:15) 

Bible verse: Psalm 50:15 "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me."
Bible song: "May the Peace of God" 

MUSIC 
In music we face the challenge of creating different sounds to the song "Not One, but Two". The song encourages children to create sounds using their voices or parts of their bodies. The challenge comes in creating two sounds that are different from each other. Some of the concepts children learn include that two sounds can be different in a variety of ways: soft or loud, slow or fast, high or low, and sounds with different timbres. We also use music time this week to give us extra practice for the songs we'll be singing in church on November 23rd - "Consider How the Birds Above" and "May the Peace of God".

MOVEMENT
This week we warm up by reviewing "Keep it Up". Last week we used small, yellow balloons, but this week we have bigger balloons of various colors. Our balloon challenges this week include trying to move from one line on the floor to another by holding our balloons in different ways. We hold them on our tummies, backs, head, between our hands like a steering wheel, or between our legs as we waddle to the other side. We close movement time with the "Song About Colors". We only stand up and wave our balloon around when the color of our balloon has been called. It takes some self-regulation skills to wait our turn! 

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Part-Whole Relationships. Children's understanding of part-whole relationships comes largely by manipulating a variety of materials: materials that can be group and regrouped such as blocks, counting bears, and small plastic animals and materials that can be taken apart and put back together such as legos and playdough. On Monday we used playdough with beads and other materials to create birthday cakes. On Tuesday we manipulated beads in Ziploc bags with a little bit of water in them and a line drawn down the middle. Beads would move from side to side of the line, but the same 10 beads remained in the bag. On Wednesday we used buttons to arrange on a lady bug's wings, dividing them between the two wings in different ways. On Thursday we practiced a similar concept, except we put cotton balls (ice cream scoops) onto an apple pie. On Friday we used a classic material to demonstrate part-whole relationships: puzzles. The children in this group really seem to enjoy putting puzzles together!

Working on forming some letters.

Great team work to build this block tower!

Building a road.

Working on lego patterns last week.

Cotton ball patterns.

Reciting the pattern I made.

Everyone wanted to watch Miss Wendland set up the new marble run!

A picture of my brother.

Watch out! The shark will bite you!

Newsletter 11/5/14

Important Dates to Remember:
November 14th - Parent's Night Out; 6:00-9:00PM
November 23rd - Preschool students sing in church at Faith at 11:00AM
November 27th & 28th - Thanksgiving Break; No Preschool

Special Notes:

The cold weather is upon us. Thanks for bringing in snow gear and all the appropriate warm clothes for you child. The children are working hard at becoming independent dressers. Putting all that gear on can be a lot of work. It would be a great help for us teachers if you encouraged independent dressing at home as well. The more practice, the better. Check out this article for some valuable information:
Teaching Your Child to Get Dressed

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Duck! Rabbit!" by Amy Rosenthal
"Froodle" by Antoinette Portis
"Looking for a Moose" by Phillis Root

Afternoon Books
"Boy + Bot" by Ame Dyckman

PLANNING & RECALL
Generally, the older the child, the longer and more detailed his or her planning and review time becomes. Children are very active and purposeful during “do” time (Work Time) because they are pursuing activities that interest them. They may follow their initial plans, but often, as they become engaged, their plans shift or may even change completely. This week we pin a clothespin with our name on it to a pipe cleaner when it is our turn to plan.

BIBLE LESSON
God had a plan for Moses' life. God planned to help his people, the Israelites, leave the land of Egypt, and he chose Moses to be their leader. One day as Moses was tending to some sheep out in the fields, he saw a burning bush. Then he heard a voice from the bush call his name. The voice said, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." God informed Moses that he was the one chosen to lead God's people out of Egypt. Moses was afraid of the large task he was given and God continued to reassure Moses that he would be with him. He gave Moses the ability to perform miracles, which would prove to Pharaoh that Moses was sent by God. Moses' final fear was that he wouldn't know what to say. God told Moses that his brother Aaron would go with him and that God would give both of them the words to say. God chose Moses for the special and important task of freeing his people from Egypt. God gave Moses all the help he needed to perform his task. God also helps us as we go about our daily tasks, the most important of which is to share the good news that our sins have been forgiven by Jesus.

Bible verse: Psalm 31:15a "My times are in your hands."
Bible song: "Consider How the Birds Above" 

MUSIC 
We open Music Time this week with the finger play called "The Puppy and the Kitty Cat". Any finger play that we do during music helps develop that internal sense of rhythm or beat. The second short song we learn is called "A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track". Right away the children gathered that the poor peanut turned into peanut butter as it got squashed by a passing train, and they felt sorry for him! Our final song comes in the literature story "Mary Had a Little Lamb" by Iza Trapani. The children enjoy extending well known nursery rhymes by reading stories by the talented Trapani. This story teaches a very good lesson about cause and effect, as the lamb gets into all kinds of trouble when she runs away from home.  

MOVEMENT
This week we warm up with the song "Knees Up Mother Brown". Our movement lesson this week is an introduction to balloons. We practice holding on to our balloons as we tap them to different body parts, balance them between our legs, and reach them up in the air. We also enjoyed creating static electricity and making the balloons stick to our shirts without using our hands to hold them there! We finished Movement Time with the song "Keep it Up!" where we practiced keeping our balloons in the air using various body parts. 

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Patterns. "Thinking about patterns is an important early development in mathematical thinking in general and in the later understanding of algebra in particular. When children work with patterns, they learn two important mathematical principles. The first is stability. The elements in a pattern stay the same with each repetition (e.g., the elements are always red and blue). The second mathematical principle is that order matters: Once a pattern is established, it determines what follows (e.g., blue always comes after red)." (Epstein, p.105) The patterning activities we did this week included putting colored, plastic animals into patterns in an egg carton, copying unifix cube patterns from a pattern card, using beads to create a pattern on a pipe cleaner, patterning lego blocks, and creating a pattern with pom poms. 

Enjoying the gardening sensory box
in the sunshine.

Tracing shapes

Playing in the sensory table filled with rice.

Creating a number line with blocks.

Our "tunnel of terror".

Working on a pattern with unifix cubes.

Working together in smaller groups to create patterns.

Newsletter 10/29/14

Important Dates to Remember:
October 30th-November 2nd - Scholastic Book Fair at Faith
November 3rd - Scholastic book orders are due back for personal book orders
November 23rd - Preschool students sing in church at Faith at 11:00AM

Special Notes:

The cold weather is upon us. Thanks for bringing in snow gear and all the appropriate warm clothes for you child. The children are working hard at becoming independent dressers. Putting all that gear on can be a lot of work. It would be a great help for us teachers if you encouraged independent dressing at home as well. The more practice, the better. Check out this article for some valuable information:
Teaching Your Child to Get Dressed

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"The Napping House" by Audrey Wood
"The Doorbell Rang" by Pat Hutchins
"Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" by Mo Willems

Afternoon Books
"City Dog, Country Frog" by Mo Willems

PLANNING & RECALL
This week's planning and recall activity focuses on name recognition. The children's names are written on a piece of paper, and the children take turns drawing a slip from a hat. We then work together as a group to read the name that was drawn. It's then that person's turn to plan. The children are quite expert at identifying each other's first letter, so some names are quite easy to read. It can get pretty tricky with all the children's names that start with "A" though!

BIBLE LESSON
God's people continued to live in the land of Egypt for many years and were called Israelites. The new king in the land became worried that the large number of Israelites would turn against him and join his enemies in fighting against him. He made the Israelites work very hard as his slaves, making bricks and working in the fields. Finally, the king made a new order to have all Israelite baby boys killed by being thrown into the river. One Israelite woman hid her newborn son at home, but as he grew older it became harder to hide him. She made a basket, placed her son in it, and set it among the tall plants in the river. The baby's sister stood nearby and watched the basket. Soon the daughter of the king came to the river to wash herself. She saw the basket floating in the river and after retrieving it and finding the baby, she felt sorry for him and wanted to keep him as her own. The baby's sister came to the king's daughter and asked if she would like her to find an Israelite woman to feed and care for the baby while he was still so young. The king's daughter agreed and the sister went to find the baby's own mother, who took care of him until he was older. When he grew older, she took him back to the palace to live, and the king's daughter raised him as her son, and gave him the name Moses.

Bible verse: Psalm 31:15a "My times are in your hands."
Bible song: "Consider How the Birds Above" (We'll be singing verses from this hymn for quite a while because we're learning it to sing in church on November 23rd)

MUSIC 
We bring a variety of concepts into Music Time this week. It may seem unlikely, but one of the concepts we're working on is building relationships and cooperative play. One of the chants we learn is called "One to Ten Circle" where we work on moving in a circle cooperatively, without hurting or pulling our neighbors. In the second song called "The Moose Song", we work on a sung call and response. The teacher sings part of the song, and then the children copy and repeat it back. The song is pretty silly. The moose named Fred drinks his juice in bed, and becomes a sticky moose! Finally, we tie literature into Music Time with the book "The Wheels on the Bus" by Maryann Kovalski. 

MOVEMENT
This is our last week of working with scarves during Movement Time. Children have the opportunity to dance to two familiar songs, "Kuma San" and "Caterpillars to Butterflies". We also continue to practice a variety of tossing challenges such as tossing and clapping as many times as we can before we catch it. We've also been working on the tricky concept of making different shapes by folding our scarves. Most of us can do rectangles, squares, and triangles. We add a fun game called "Abracadabra" this week as well. We pretend to be magicians who hide their scarves up their sleeve, or in their pocket, or under their shirt before we shout "abracadabra!" and reveal them.

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Number Words and Symbols. Young children encounter numbers and number concepts all the time in their environment. They learn to use cardinal numbers (zero, one, two...) and also ordinal numbers (first, second, third...). Children develop what is called "number sense", the awareness that numbers represent the quantity of things in a set and can be manipulated or operated on in various ways. The ways we encouraged "number sense" this week include sticking buttons onto number templates with sticky tack, shaping numbers with playdough and making the corresponding number of playdough apples, sorting dominoes by number, rolling dice and building a unifix cube tower with the same number of blocks as the number we rolled on the dice, and adding blocks to a taped number line on the floor.

I can write my name!

Pounding golf tees into pumpkins. 

Concentrating so I don't hammer my fingers.

Scooping rice with spoons.

Working to stick buttons onto number templates.

I love working with the sticky tack.

Lining up those buttons just right.

Cheese!

Molding play dough into numbers.

One done, on to number two.

I really loved this activity!

Newsletter 10/22/14

Important Dates to Remember:
October 24th - Faith's Harvest Carnival; 6:30PM-8:30PM
October 30th-November 2nd - Scholastic Book Fair at Faith
November 23rd - Preschool students sing in church at Faith at 11:00AM

Special Notes:

The PTF is still asking for donations for our upcoming Harvest Carnival.

Candy donations can be brought at any time and left in the school office. Cakes, cupcakes, caramel apples, and any creations fit for our Cake Walk can be brought to school from Tuesday, October 21^st and left in the kitchen. Please label items left “For Cake Walk”.

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Time to Sleep" by Denise Fleming
"Caps for Sale" by Esphyr Slobodkina
"Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes" by Eric Litwin

Afternoon Books
"Franklin's Canoe Trip" by Paulette Bourgeois

PLANNING & RECALL
This week we use a variety of colored, plastic animals to plan and recall. Each child is given an animal, and when their animal is called they put it in a cup and then share their Work Time plans.  

BIBLE LESSON
Joseph became a very important ruler in Egypt, the man in charge of gathering and storing enough food for the years of famine in the land. Joseph's family lived in a land where there was little food to eat during these years. One day they traveled to Egypt to buy some food. Joseph immediately recognized these men as his brothers, but instead of revealing his identity, he wanted to see if they had changed. He gave them some grain, but made them promise to return with their youngest brother Benjamin if they ever wanted to buy more grain. Before long, their first supply of grain ran out. They returned to Egypt with Benjamin to buy some more. This time when he sent them away with more grain, Joseph planted one of his silver cups in one of the brother's sacks of grain. He sent his servant after the brothers to get the silver cup. The brothers denied having the cup and vowed that if it was found, the brother in whose sack it was found, would die and the rest of the brothers would become Joseph's slaves. Sure enough, the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. The brothers threw themselves on the ground before Joseph, willing to work for him the rest of their lives. They realized their wickedness in selling their brother Joseph many years ago. When Joseph realized that his brothers were truly sorry for what they had done, he could no longer keep his identity a secret. He told his brothers who he was. After overcoming their fear of him, the brothers realized that it really was him and were overjoyed to be reunited. They returned home to get their father Jacob and bring him back to Egypt so that he too could be reunited with his son Joseph.

Bible verse: Romans 8:28 "God works for the good of those who love him."
Bible song: "Consider How the Birds Above" (We'll be singing verses from this hymn for quite a while because we're learning it to sing in church on November 23rd)

MUSIC 
This week's music songs continue to explore the fast and slow tempos. "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush" provides a chance for children to sing while they move their bodies quickly and slowly around the bush. We also sing songs such as "The Hokey Pokey", "Here are Grandma's Spectacles", and "Slippery Fish". The children especially LOVE the song "Slippery Fish".

MOVEMENT
We open Movement time with our review song "Toss and Catch". By the second week we do this song, the children know it pretty well and can anticipate what actions come next. We catch our scarves on our backs, hair, foot, arms, and with our hands. We also clap and catch, and spin and catch. After a few rounds of Simon Says and trying various scarf challenges, we close with the song "Animal Action". Children move around the room like elephants, snakes, birds, frogs, and cats. The scarves help us get into the characters of the different animals - especially the bird!

SMALL GROUP TIME
This week during small group time, we’re focusing on the Key Developmental Indicator (KDI): Fine Motor Skills. In activities that focus on fine motor skills, children have the opportunity to practice and demonstrate dexterity and hand-eye coordination in using their small muscles. Fine motor skills such as writing, drawing, and cutting with precision can be difficult for many preschoolers, so young children are encouraged to explore materials and practice skills according to their own expectations and internal motivation, not to meet the possibly unrealistic standards set by adults. On Monday we used our fingers to pinch tacks and pin them into a pumpkin. On Tuesday we played with a partner in the new sensory bins that were gifted to us over the weekend. Some of the bins had corn, beans, or rice with different themed activities in them like cars, gardening, puzzles, treasures, or farm animals. The children really enjoyed these! On Wednesday we threaded beads onto string to make necklaces that we'll send to children in Africa. On Thursday and Friday we work with pumpkins again as we pound golf tees into the pumpkins and then cut them open to dig out the insides.

I wrote my name!

I enjoyed drawing circles in straight lines. This actually shows a
great concept of print!

Pastor Ewings visits us on Thursday to teach us our Bible Lesson.

The picnic demonstrated the years of plenty and the years of little
in our Joseph Bible Lesson.

After the Bible Lesson we sing "Jesus Loves Me"
in Spanish with instruments.

Last week's measuring activity.

"I am batman!" (He did not want to be called
superman.)

Working together to put tacks into our pumpkin.

 

I was really putting my fine motor skills to work when I tried to pin
my tack into a little mark on the pumpkin.

We made some of our tacks into "mean" faces on the pumpkin.

Exploring a new alphabet and rice sensory bin.

Digging through the colorful rice to find the puzzle pieces.

Our new student digging through the "treasure"
themed sensory bin.

Newsletter 10/15/14

Important Dates to Remember:
October 17th (This Friday) - End of First Quarter; noon dismissal
October 20th - "Making Life Better" class with Pastor Ewings; 6:30PM-8:00PM
October 24th - Faith's Harvest Carnival; 6:30PM-8:30PM

Special Notes:
If you'd like to help donate goods or time to our Harvest Carnival this year, there will be another work night at school this Wednesday the 15th starting at 6:30PM. Another way you may consider helping is by making donations of candy for the goody bags. You can bring them to the school office at any time. You could also donate cakes/cupcakes/caramel apples/cookies for the cake walk. The PTF would like those by 10/23 or 10/24 or as you arrive for the carnival that evening. Thanks! :)

THIS WEEK’S LITERACY EXPERIENCES
Morning Books
"Oink! Moo! How Do You Do?" by Grace Maccarone
"Sheep in a Jeep" by Nancy Shaw
"The Mixed Up Alphabet" by Steve Metzger
"Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae

Afternoon Books
"Mooncake" by Frank Asch
"Happy Birthday Moon" by Frank Asch

PLANNING & RECALL
This week for planning and recall time we used animal puppets. Children chose which animal puppet they wanted to use, and many of them used pretend voices to share their Work Time plans. Right before we have planning time in the morning, we have Morning Message time, where the teacher writes a special message or reminder for the children. Children really enjoy trying to decipher and interpret my (often terribly drawn) pictures. Messages can include reminders to flush toilets, or use only 1 or 2 paper towels. They can be used to let children know if something different will be happening during our routine such as a visitor or if we move something around in the schedule. If it's a child's birthday or we have a new student, they are often the focus of the message as well.  

BIBLE LESSON
While living in Egypt, Joseph worked for a man named Potiphar, who was one of the Pharaoh's high officials. Joseph worked so hard that he was put in charge of Potiphar's household. But after some false accusations by Potiphar's wife, Joseph was thrown into prison. While in prison, Joseph helped the other prisoners by using his God-given ability to interpret dreams. After spending a few years in prison, the king of Egypt had some dreams that were troubling him. Joseph was brought to him to interpret his dreams and God gave Joseph the ability to interpret them. Seven years of plenty were about to come to Egypt - plenty of food and rain. But seven years of famine were to follow. Joseph advised the king to place a man in charge to make sure that during the seven good years, they could save up enough food for the coming famine. The king liked Joseph's plan and made him in charge of the land. God took Joseph, the lowly prisoner, and made him a ruler in Egypt, second in command to the king himself. 

The lesson this week illustrates how God's plan may be very different from our own. Who would have thought that Joseph - sold as a slave to some merchants from Egypt, would become a great ruler? God works ALL things for the good of those who love him.

Bible verse: Romans 8:28 "God works for the good of those who love him."
Bible song: "Consider How the Birds Above" (We'll be singing verses from this hymn for quite a while because we're learning it to sing in church on November 23rd)

MUSIC 
Music time provides not only an opportunity to learn new songs, but it also touches on a Key Developmental Indicator within the Creative Arts section: Music. Young children begin to develop ideas about rhythmic and tonal patterns, beat, and tempo. They also begin to explore music's emotional component and spontaneously use and create music during their free play. According to music educators Cherie Stallacio and Marie McCarthy, "Early childhood years are critical to the development of the child's potential for comprehending and producing music." This weeks' song is called "Did You Ever See A Turtle?" - which focuses on tempo (or speed). We also tie in literature to Music Time as we read and sing the book "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" by Iza Trapani.

MOVEMENT
We open Movement time with the song "Caterpillars to Butterflies”, but instead of using ribbons this week, a new item is introduced -- scarves.  After pretending we're caterpillars and butterflies, we move on to some challenges with the scarves. We practice balancing them on various parts of our bodies such as our knees, feet, elbows, shoulders, and head. We also try to roll our scarves into a ball, balance them on our hands or elbows, and blow them off. It's quite challenging to blow enough air to actually make the scarf fall off! We end Movement Time with some catching practice. "Toss and Catch" is our final song, where we practice our "crab pinch" catching as well as catching with parts of our bodies - head, back, tummy, and hands. 

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). We focus more on the length,height, and volume measurements this week with our small group experiences.
Our measuring activities this week include using "pancakes" (paper circles) to measure ourselves. The class average was 9 pancakes placed side by side. We used magna-tiles to measure various objects like blocks, stuffed animals, and yarn. On Wednesday we measure ourselves again - this time using yarn. Keep your eyes peeled for our body measuring activity to be posted on a wall somewhere. On Thursday we measure the quantities of different materials such as rocks, cheerios, beans, and noodles using measuring cups and spoons. On Friday we'll go back to measuring length when we measure the distance we can jump. We'll use tape measures to help us measure the distance of our frog jumps.

Welcome to our new student! He's enjoying
tracing letter shapes in the sand.

Matching up lower case and upper case letters on spoons.

I did it!

Welcome to our 2nd new student!

Working with scarves during Movement Time.

Trying to balance them on our elbows.

This picture makes me laugh every single time
I see it! Balancing scarves on our head.

Toss and Catch

Great mid-action shot!

Measuring with paper pancakes

Let's count to see how "long" he is.

Doing the "Tootie Ta" during Morning Stories.

Wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses.