Tuesday, December 8, 2015

 Thank you for checking out our day!

First...reminders...

St. Nick Nite…Lutheran High School invites children and their parents to “St. Nick Nite” on Friday, December 11, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. In addition to enjoying boys’ and girls’ Cougar basketball games, you’ll have the opportunity to have your picture taken with “Jolly Old St. Nick!” Unwrapped toys or monetary donations will be collected to benefit the Ablaze! The Lutheran Sidewalk Sunday School  ministries.

Preschool and Kindergarten Christmas Service…is this Sunday, December 13 at 4:00 pm in Zion’s sanctuary (please arrive at 3:45 pm, meeting the class in the church basement). We will worship together and celebrate the birth of Jesus through songs, pictures, and words spoken by our Preschool and Kindergarten students!

Friday, December 18 is a half day (school dismisses at 12:00 this day) for Christmas Break.  Please make arrangements to have your child picked up at 12:00 this day (there is NO half day care option this day).  We will not be eating lunch at preschool, but we will have morning snack. 

NO school December 21 - January 1 for Christmas Break...School resumes on Monday, Jan. 4.

And...back to our day...

While others were enjoying free choice time, friends that were not here Monday, began his/her day with a special check-in!  Each child completed his/her "December My Name" for his/her portfolio.  Each friend could choose whether or not he/she wanted to use his/her name tag for guidance (with some of our older friends, I suggested trying it without his/her name tag, but it was not required)!  While each friend wrote his/her name I took special note of :

pencil grip

right or left hand

copied name or wrote from memory

did he/she know the letters in own name

 We finished up morning meeting with Wiggle Worm...he is back!!!  Today he brought with him uppercase letters on snowflakes.  If wiggle worm was picked from the bag...everybody WIGGLE, then stop!  Having to stop is tough, but it helps us learn self regulation!

 If a letter is picked, that friend told everyone the letter name and the letter sound!

 At chapel this morning, Arianne Stuhr (DCE intern), led us in worship!  She helped us to remember that even on those days when we are feeling a bit grumpy, we can be joyful!  Joyful because of Jesus being born this Christmas season.  He came just for us!

Great job Sophia, taking our chapel offering to the altar for us today!

  Today we introduced the letter "J" and number "3"!  

We remembered start your letter "at the top" then big line down, little curve at the bottom, then little line at the top (give it a hat) to write a "J" and little curve, little curve to write a "3"! Then we came up with words that start with "J" and found "3's" around the room!

Anytime one of our friends thinks of a word that starts with "J" we can add it to our big letter.  Or, if at home, your child sees a small picture or item that starts with an "J", bring it in and he/she can glue it to our big letter!

Then we practiced writing "J" and "3" with our special handwriting without tears crayons (nice and short to reinforce proper grip)!

Time for small groups (centers)!

Each friend created with different art tools (paper, paint, toilet tube, and fingers).  While creating he/she recognized shapes in his/her artwork and followed multi-step directions.  He/she used the circle at the end of a toilet tube to make a big circle (wreath).  Then, each friend used his/her fingers to make circle or oval "lights" on his/her wreath! (If a friend finished his/her wreath yesterday, he/she colored a Christmas sheet.)

Uh oh!  We had pictures of trees with lights on them, but they were all out of order!  Our friends worked together to sequence the trees from 1 - 10 or 1 - 20.  The ability to identify/recognize numbers and sequence in order are early math skills!

We have been talking a lot about Christmas and baby Jesus being born on this day in a stable!  Today we planned and worked together to build a stable for baby Jesus.  We had to use our problem solving skills to get the blocks to stay just where we wanted them to be!

Then...we did 1 other center...but, it is TOP SECRET! (You might get to find out about them on Christmas Day?!?!?)

Wow...the calendar reads December, but the awesome weather says otherwise!!! Check out all the large motor skills at work on the "big kid" playground!!!