Monday, November 7, 2016

We had a great start to our week in preschool!

A couple reminders...

No school tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8 due to election day (Zion is a polling location) and teacher in-service.

Thanksgiving Food Drive…11/7 - 11/16. Zion’s Student Council is collecting Thanksgiving food donations for Concordia Seminary families (here in St. Louis).  What they did last year worked great, so they have again assigned specific food items for each grade in order to receive enough items of each kind.  The goal is to pack 20 Thanksgiving boxes as well as stock the Seminary Food Bank (food, bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, etc.)  Preschool has been asked to donate canned fruit and canned vegetables.  Bring in your donation anytime between 11/7 and 11/16!

Picture Retake Day…is Tuesday, November 15.  Your child will receive a retake form if he/she did not get a picture taken at open house in August.  If you would like a true retake done, please bring in your original picture package on the day of retakes.

Here's our day...

ALL of our friends were so excited to see magnatiles in the classroom!  An excellent manipulative for improving hand-eye coordination, small motor control, problem solving, shape (2D and 3D) recognition, and working with others!

Look...we made the turkeys from this book!

While others were busy with free choice time, I began working on our November interviews.  A great way to get our friends really thinking about the world (or at at least the people and room) around them!

We sure do love hangin' around during outside large motor time!

Or...a fun game of ring around the rosie!

It's been a few weeks, but Tricky Mouse is BACK!  This trip he brought squirrels (uppercase letters) and acorns (lowercase letters) to hide under.  He tried to trick us many times, but we were able to name each letter and find him every time!

We took some time to compare oranges and lemons this morning. We passed them around the class and discovered:

They are the same:

Both are fruit

Neither makes sound

Both feel soft, cold, kinda squishy, and a little rough

They are different:

Color...Orange is orange, lemon is yellow

We thought that the orange was more like a circle (or sphere) and the lemon was more of an oval (or egg shape)

The orange smells sweet and fresh, the lemon smells sour

With oranges you can make orange juice, with lemons you can make lemonade!

Mrs. Dose has family that lives in Arizona...it was so nice of them to send us some pictures of what limes and oranges look like as they are growing!

Then it was time to taste...the orange!!!  

"Yummy!"

"Sweet!"

And...the lemon!!!

"Really SOUR!"

"NOT Yummy!"

"Oh Mrs. Mudd, I don't like the lemon at all!"

Then, each child had a chance to vote on which they liked the best...the orange or the lemon!

We were surprised to see that we had a tie!  Both oranges and lemons had 8 votes each.  So, they are the same, or equal!  Understanding more, less, and the same is an early math skill!

Time for small groups (centers)!

Uh oh, the apple patterns need to be finished!  Five different patterns were started and each child had to finish the pattern with the correct apple picture! (Patterning is an early math skill)

We have been having so much fun painting with different foods.  So, today we got to paint with oranges and lemons that had been sliced into circles!  It smelled delicious too!

There were some hungry squirrels looking for an acorn!  Each squirrel had an uppercase letter on it and each child had to find the lowercase match on an acorn!  (Recognizing and identifying letters in an early literacy skill).  Success for some was recognizing the uppercase letter and getting help from a friend to find the lowercase letter.  Success for others was recognizing the uppercase letter and being able to find the lowercase letter on his/her own!

In the block center we planned and worked together to build a farm.  Farms are important, that's where our food comes from!

And...another November day warm enough to venture outside without jackets!

During Jesus Time we learned all about the shepherd David.  He had to take care of hundreds of sheep everyday.  He had to feed them, take them to water, help them if they were lost or in trouble (sheep don't always make good choices either!).  Did you know that we have a shepherd too?  Jesus is our Good Shepherd, He always takes care of us!