Tuesday, November 15, 2016

We had a great Tuesday in Preschool!

A few reminders...

Thanksgiving Food Drive…ends tomorrow, 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 by tomorrow, Wednesday, 11/16!

TJ Pizza Sales Pick Up...Please pick up items ordered this Thursday, November 17 between 2:30 - 5:00 in the school commons (there are no freezers, so please make arrangement for pick up if you are not available).

Thanksgiving Feast...Zion preschoolers will be celebrating a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast together on November 21st and 22nd.  As a part of our celebration we will have a special snack, the same food items Charlie Brown had at his feast.  If you are willing to donate something for our feast (or can volunteer to help at Mondays celebration) please sign up via the link in the email that I sent on Friday, 11/4. (Please bring items to school by this Friday, 11/18).

12:00 Dismissal on Wednesday, November 23…School will dismiss at 12:00 on this day to begin Thanksgiving Break.  There is NO half day care option, please make arrangements to pick up your child at 12:00 this day.

There is NO school Thursday, November 24 and Friday, November 25…blessings on your Thanksgiving Holiday!

Now...here's our day...

These 3 boys improved spatial awareness while problem solving together.  Check out the 1 HUGE rectangle made using every square and right triangle that they could find!  They only had one small corner left open to make it a complete rectangle!

Expressing creativity while improving writing skills (proper grip is tricky, so it is great to practice, practice, practice!)

And...hard at work all morning this group of friends created this fantastic structure!  They all worked together so nicely...listening to each others ideas and deciding together where certain parts of the structure should go!

After building the big rectangle, it was time to concentrate on making 3D shapes...hand-eye coordination at work when these are under construction!

Thanks again to Keller...he brought in pictures of items, he cut out at home, that started with the letters "H" and "E".  He was able to hang them up this morning during free choice time!

As fall has quietly crept in...we love being LOUD while playing outside, getting our bodies moving!

Joshua's grandparents have a banana tree at their home, and it was time to winterize!  So...Joshua asked if he could bring a leaf in for the class to explore!!!

This is the biggest leaf we have ever seen!  This leaf will be in our science center for the rest of the week.  Friends can spend some time exploring it, maybe even with a magnifying glass! 

Mrs. Mudd brought with her 6 items.  These items all had to do with things found outside in nature, especially during the Fall season!  All 6 were covered with a towel, then 2 taken away!  What was missing? I couldn't fool them, they did a great job of recognizing and recalling (an early cognitive skill).

Time for a little science...

We explored 6 items from around the classroom, discovering if a magnet will pick it up!

First, each friend had to make his/her prediction by writing an "X" under "yes" or "no" as we discussed each item...

Then, we tested each item to see if the magnet would or would not pick it up!

We learned that if our prediction was incorrect, that's okay!  That's part of science, we have to test our predictions to found out what will really happen!

Time for small groups (centers)!

With me we found out that we can READ!!!  We picked out environmental print papers (i.e. Target logo, Goldfish logo, Barbie logo, Taco Bell logo, etc) that we could "read".  Each friend glued what they could "read" to his/her paper and then "read" it to me as I wrote down what they "read"!

With Mrs. Hopkins we worked on beginning letter sounds!  Each friend received different cards, each with a letter and 2 pictures on it.  He/she had to figure out which picture started with the letter on the card.  Then, had to place a clothespin on that picture!  Success for some was getting help from a friend or Mrs. Hopkins.  Success for others was figuring out the letter and sound on his/her own! Not only were we improving early literacy skills, we were improving small motor control too!

We improved large motor control as we had a dance party to Veggie Tales music!

Our bakery will be "closing" soon, so we planned and worked together baking up all kinds of yummy things!

After some hard work and so much concentrating in the classroom, we headed for the playground!

We enjoyed getting to watch our new playground take shape!  These men are getting the ground all ready for the concrete paver paths to be installed!  

It's coming right along and we are SO excited!

During Jesus Time today we sang a great song to remind us how God sent Ruth to help Naomi, then sent Boaz to help them both.  We remembered that God is kind and generous.  We may be sad because of sin, but God can turn sad times into happier times.  He saves us from our sin.