Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Thank you for joining us on our Tuesday!

Two reminders...

Easter Egg Hunt...Zion’s Fifth Annual Easter Egg Hunt is this Saturday, March 19 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm for ages birth to second grade.  In addition to the hunt, there will be a petting zoo, games, bounce house, face painting, and much more! If you would like to help out with the egg hunt, please contact Carla Trampe at carlatrampe@sbcglobal.net. The schedule for each the hunt is as follow:

• 10:15 - Birth to Age 2
• 10:45 - Preschool 3 and 4
• 11:15 - Kindergarten, 1st Grade, and 2nd Grade
• Older siblings are welcome to participate in other activities!

There is NO School on Friday, 3/25 for Good Friday. 

There is NO School Monday, 3/28 - Friday, 4/1 for Easter Break.

We were once again VERY excited o see the paint daubers and paper out to create with this morning!  This activity improved small motor control, strengthened the finger, wrist, and hand muscles, and required us to share with others!

While others were enjoying free choice, I spent a little time with each friend (not here yesterday) finding out what they know about Easter for his/her March interview!

"Dinosaurs in the Den" was introduced at the end of morning meeting today!  We started with 5 dinosaurs...

Some got a little sleepy and decided to take a nap in their den!  Our job was to figure out how many dinosaurs were sleeping by counting how many dinosaurs stayed out to play.  How many are in the den if 4 are left outside to play??? This is a tough concept to grasp, so it was very tricky for us today.  But, as the week goes on, we will continue to improve upon this early math skill!

How many are in the den if 1 is left outside to play???

What a magnificent morning to play outside before heading to chapel!

Due to Zion being a polling place, we enjoyed Chapel in the commons today!

Miss Limback had us play a little game to see if we could figure out the Bible story for today! The game told us the story of the parade for Jesus as he entered Jerusalem.  He rode on a donkey while people were waving palm branches and singing HOSANNA!  This story did get a bit sad as Jesus died on the cross.  But, we remembered that He died for all of us, the whole world, all of our sins!  He loves us SO much!

 Today we introduced the letter "N"!  

We remembered start your letter "at the top" then big line down, back to the top and big line diagonal down, big line up to write an "N"! Then we came up with words that start with "N"!

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

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

Time for small groups (centers)!

With Mrs. Mudd each friend was given a bag of 10 jelly beans.  First he/she had to sort the jelly beans by color.  Then he/she counted how many of each color he/she had.  Finally he/she created a graph by coloring in that same number of squares for each color jelly bean.  And...the best part...each friend has his/her jelly beans in a baggie in his/her backpack. (They do know to ask mom or dad before eating them!) 

 Our friends matched upper/lower case letters.  Each bee had a lowercase letter on it and had to be matched up with it's uppercase flower!

We improved our letter recognition and writing skills as we wrote a variety of words from our word wall.  We could choose from instruments, St. Patrick's Day, or Easter words!

With Mrs. Dose we improved identifying/recognizing, and quantifying numbers.  She would hold up a shamrock with a number on it.  Each friend would tell her the number and then count out that same number of lucky charm cereal pieces onto a rainbow!

After centers...we went to see the chicks that hatched in Miss Kirby's classroom.  They have been incubating the eggs for a few weeks and the chicks began to hatch over the weekend!  So far...17 chicks and counting!  At the end of the week, the chicks will go back with Miss Kirby's mom to the farm in Nebraska!

 We enjoyed exploring/digging during outside time #2 today!

And...a bit of climbing!