Monday, November 28, 2016

Welcome back to Preschool...I pray you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in preschool!

The "candy construction" building set arrived for the season.  We had the best time expressing creativity and improving fine motor control while building with "candy"!

Our friends were so excited to see that Christmas popped up in the classroom while we were on Thanksgiving break! Some friends improved small motor control as they made ornaments for our class Christmas tree!

And...then we got to hang them on the tree all by ourselves!

We improved scissor cutting skills as we cut Christmas wrapping paper into small pieces!  We can then use these small pieces to create with as it gets a bit closer to Christmas!

 We also remembered that we voted on a name for our puppet theater last week!  Here are a few of us writing a welcome sign for our puppet show viewers...

And a GREAT finished product!!!

We have been quite blessed with good weather since the start of the school year, but the rain kept us inside today!  We had a great time using our large motor skills in the commons...hula hooping sure is tricky and great exercise!

To wrap up morning meeting, some 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)

Ella is "behind" the Christmas present!

Riley is "under" the Christmas present!

Owen is "on" the Christmas present! (the class decided it would be safer for him to put only his hand on the present)

Jonah is "beside" the Christmas present!

Joshua is "between" the Christmas present and the bookshelf!

Time for a little science!!!

Scientist Mudd arrived today, with water, borax, and a snowflake (made of pipe cleaner)!

First we had to count how many cups of water it took to fill a jar (1 1/2).

Next, we needed to heat the water to boiling...scientist Mudd did this and reminded friends how careful we need to be around HOT water.

Third, while the water was heating in the microwave, each friend made his/her prediction, "What will happen when the pipe cleaner goes into the solution?"

Once the water was HOT, we counted out 4.5 tablespoons of borax and poured it into the water.  We observed that the water looked white or cloudy as we were mixing the solution. 

 Finally...it was time to test our prediction...Scientist Mudd dropped the snowflake into the jar!  But, wait a minute, nothing happened, it just sat there!  Our friends found out that this experiment is one that we get to practice WAITING!  We have to wait to see what happens to the snowflake until tomorrow!

Time for small groups (centers)!

As we remember Jesus' birth this month, we learned "J" is for Jesus! We colored dots in the shape of a "J".  Each friend was asked to pick 2 colors, then color the dots in a pattern!  Not only did we improve patterning skills (early math), we also improved small motor control needed for coloring/writing!

With Mrs. Dose we made ornaments for our Christmas tree!  We strung beads (some even did so in a pattern) and jingle bells on to pipe cleaners! Stringing those tiny beads while holding a pipe cleaner sure can be tricky!

We noticed that all our Thanksgiving/fall books were gone and we had "new to us" Christmas books to read!  We "read to self" remembering the rules of using a book correctly (orientation: read from front to back and left to right...make sure the letters are right side up...turn 1 page at a time, gently!!!  Being able to use a book properly is an early literacy skill.)

Yikes...we had a little snow in the classroom!!!  Working together we sequenced snowflakes from smallest to biggest and/or biggest to smallest!

We enjoyed more indoor large motor time...this round in the gym...improving hand-eye coordination as we played a little basketball...

And our balancing skills as we walked so carefully without falling off the line!

During Jesus Time today we heard the Christmas Story as I read it from a children's Bible.  We learned that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem, riding on a donkey.  When they got there, the only room left for them was in a stable.  In that stable is where Jesus was born!  Angels sang of His birth, "Glory to God above!"   We remembered that Jesus is our Savior and our friend.  His love for us will never end!