Wednesday, February 22, 2017

We had a great Wednesday in preschool!

A few reminders...

Kindergarten Round Up…has been rescheduled for Tuesday, 2/28 at 6:00 pm…Parents and Preschoolers are invited to attend for the 2017 - 2018 school year.  Come join us in the school commons for an exciting preview of Kindergarten at Zion. We invite you to meet our principal, teachers, and for a brief informational meeting. Please RSVP for this event to Julie Kainady at jkainady@zionharvester.org. 

Grandparent/Special Friend Day...Coming home in your child’s folder Friday, Tuesday, or Today is the detailed information in regards to grandparents/special friends’ day on Thursday, March 9th. (The papers are green) Because this is a special day, there is a LOT of information to be given, so please make sure to read over the sheet carefully and let me know if you have any questions.  Then, please fill out the form (page 2) and return it to me by Tuesday, March 7th.  I do need EVERY child to return the form, even if your child does not plan to attend or he/she will not have grandparents/special friends attending. The last 2 pages are a schedule of activities for the day!  If you could please share with/give this agenda to your child’s special guest(s), that would be great!  

11:30 Dismissal on Friday, March 10…there is NO half day care option this day.  Please make arrangements to pick up your child at 11:30 on 3/10.  We will NOT be eating lunch at school, but we WILL have morning snack.

Check out our day...

A few friends decided to start their morning as artists! Coloring and creating his/her own masterpiece!

 Kyler, Claire, and Brooke planned and worked together as they created this magnatile house...for people and cats only!

It was another great morning with our Estimate Jar check-in!  Everyone remembered to write his/her name and take a "guess" at the number of crayons in the jar.  Then write the number and circle it!!!

Through play, children express the world as they see it.  Emma and Reese built one of their favorite places to go together...the park!

Our playgrounds were still wet this morning, so we enjoyed large motor time in the commons...

Learning how to roll and catch a hula hoop!

A bit of soccer...3 different games actually!

 How long can you keep the hula hoop going before it hits the ground?!?!?

Taking a quick look outside while counting and sorting bean bags!

We finished up morning meeting today with 6 different weather "items"...we looked at each one very closely and locked them in our brain. They are a bit hard to see in this picture...there was a sun, snow, a cloud, fog, rain, and lightning! I covered them up with a towel and took 1 or 2 items away.  What was missing???  Recognizing and recalling is an early cognitive ability.

Yesterday we noticed some beautiful creations outside of Mrs. Stanglein's classroom.  We wondered what they used to paint them.  We all took a guess at what we thought it might be...a butterfly, a marble, a string, or a rolling pin???

We decided to write her class a quick letter, asking how they made their creations!  We hope to get a letter back from them soon!

We introduced the letter "K" and number "8"!  

We remembered start your letter (and number) "at the top" then big line down, little line, little line for "K".  Then, make an "S" and go back home for "8". Then we came up with words that start with "K" and found the # 8 around the classroom.

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

Then we practiced writing "K" and "8" with crayons (nice and short to reinforce proper grip)! 

As we have been working on our weather project, the children's interests are steering us toward storms, specifically tornadoes.  So, today we began center time reading the book "Tornadoes" (oops, forgot a picture).  We learned many exciting facts about tornadoes.  Our favorite was learning that a tornado that forms over the water is called a waterspout!  We will continue to discover more about tornadoes, but today was a GREAT start!

Time for small groups (centers)!

With Mrs. Mudd, each friend had a rainbow and some lucky charms cereal.  A friend would roll 1 or 2 dice, count or recognize the number of dots and tell the group.  Then each friend in the group would count out that many pieces of cereal onto his/her rainbow.  Success for some was counting the dots 1 at a time.  Success for others was recognizing the number of dots without having to count each one. The ability to count objects accurately and to quantify are early math skills.

We worked together to create a HUGE tornado to hang in the classroom...we did such a great job today, we will get to make another one tomorrow.  We are very excited to get to have 2 tornadoes in the classroom!

We practiced recognizing and quantifying numbers, through movement!  As each child came to a number on a cloud, he/she would say the number.  Then he/she would pat his/her head that number of times.  Then finish up by stepping over the number.  (All quite tricky when balancing on a beam!)

We were super excited to hear that the big kid playground was dry enough for us to play outside before lunch!!!

During Jesus Time we remembered the story of the widow that gave her last 2 coins to church.  She didn't worry about not having anything left.  She knew Jesus would take care of her.  We know Jesus will take care of us here on earth and give us the riches of heaven!