Wednesday, December 3, 2014

What a wonderful Wednesday in Mrs. Mudd's class!

First...reminders!

Christmas Giving Project...Each year the students and families of Zion have the opportunity to donate to a charity during the Christmas season.  This year, our class is going to donate toys to St. Louis Children's Hospital.  These toys are used in various places throughout the hospital including children's playrooms, emergency unit, radiology, Same Day Surgery, etc.   Your child will have the opportunity to donate new, unwrapped toy(s) until Friday, December 19th.  We have a large wrapped box in the classroom for the donated items. The following Monday, Dec. 22nd, the toys will be delivered to Children's Hospital.  (Please see the email sent on Sunday, 11/23 for a list of MOST WANTED items!)

St. Nick Nite - Some elves from Lutheran High came by yesterday to tell us about St. Nick Nite @ LHS (you will also be receiving a paper in your child's folder yesterday or today).  Come and See St. Nick! As part of Lutheran High School's 5 to 5 project, they are hosting a toy drive, bring your family and friends to LHS, for a picture with St. Nick, and bring a toy donation.  Their goal is to raise 500 toys.  All toys are going to LCMS missions. They hope to see you soon! (Bring  all toys unwrapped).

Where: Lutheran High School of St. Charles County

When: 5:30 - 7:30 pm on December 5, 2014

Our new candy construction set is "sweet"!  

We had many, many opportunities to practice sharing today while building and improving hand-eye coordination!

Will says, "It's a candy shooter!"

Korrinne and Brady wish they could eat these lollipops they made!

 Our Christmas tree is looking better everyday, but we still needed some more ornaments!!!  Picking up the tiny sequins and placing on the "ornament" is great for improving small motor control.

Ben found Rory playing with the nativity scene (the first time for Ben to see it)!  Rory showed God's love and asked Ben to play with him!

 Savannah started on her block creation right after check in...see below for the final product!

Harper was working hard stacking enough blocks to make our mirror "disappear"!

Now that all of our friends have voted for a name of our puppet theater it was time to make the sign for the.....

"Funny Theater"

 Ta da...a bed fit for a princess!  Great creativity Savannah!

We enjoyed getting to go outside today...to run, run, run!

Then look who I found...the preschool "blue man group"!

Peek-a-boo...I see a ninja turtle!

 Yep...I'm hiding from him over there...shhhh!

To wrap up morning meeting, some more of our friends took turns rolling the dice, recognizing/counting the number of dots, then finding that number on our "positional words" paper.  (Quantifying, connecting numerals to their quantities and understanding positional words are early math skills)

 Will stood "in front of" the present!

Ben stood "behind" the present!

Harper stood "beside" the present!

Thomas got "under" the present!

Wait...where'd he go?!?!?

Brady put the dice "on" the box since we decided it would be too dangerous for him to climb on the box!

Science Time!!!

We took a little trip to the commons for science today, we needed boiling water!!!  First we examined the pipe cleaner shaped in to a snowflake.

While the water was heating, I explained that we were going to mix Borax with the boiling water to make a solution.  Then we were going to put the snowflake in the solution.  My question to the class, "What will happen when I put the pipe cleaner in the solution?"

A few answers today:

"Gonna be ice on it."

"Turn in to snow."

"It's going to turn green."

We counted the number of tablespoons of Borax needed (4.5) as we mixed it with the water. Then put the pipe cleaner in the solution...

Then...nothing happened?!?!?  

I tricked them a little bit, I explained that the pipe cleaner will stay in the solution all night!

But, we had our pipe cleaner from yesterday to examine!

We discovered it was covered in crystals shaped like cubes!!!

We learned that the borax we poured in the water is actually teeny, tiny crystals.  But, how did they grow?  Hot water can hold more borax crystals than cold water.  As the water cools over night, there is less room in the water for the dissolved borax, so crystals form.

Time for small groups (centers)!

We had "new to us" books in the classroom all about Christmas and Winter.  So, we took a little time to "read to self" improving our literacy skills!

With Mrs. Dose, we created different ornaments for our tree!  We strung beads (and a couple jingle bells), in a pattern, on to pipe cleaners.  Not only were we creating for our tree, but we practiced patterning (early math skill) while improving small motor control!  For some success was finishing a pattern started for him/her.  For others, success was starting a pattern on his/her own!

We also worked on a "top secret" center with me...shhhhh, it's going to be a surprise!

Gym Time!!!

As a group we improved (or began learning) some large motor activities...

Running!

Hopping!

Galloping!

And the trickiest of all...skipping!

Then it was free choice to practice any of the four activities!!!

During Jesus Time today Zippy came to visit and noticed our new nativity.  So, our friends took some time explaining what each piece of the nativity was to Zippy.  Zippy was so excited that he is going to get one for his house!  We learned/remembered that Jesus' birth is the most special thing about Christmas.  He is our Savior, who takes our sins away!