Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Welcome to our Wednesday in preschool!

A few reminders...

Valentines to give to friends…prior to our class valentine parties, each child will be making a valentine bag, at school.  Please have your child prepare 19 valentines at home (1 for each child in the class) and bring them on 2/14 or 2/15.  Below are a few tips when completing valentines:

• In my experience, filling out valentines can take a bit of time, completing only a few per day.
• Please write "Friend" or "My Friend" in the "To" line (or leave it blank), and then he/she can sign his/her name in the "From" line.  
• Including a small item (sticker, pencil, tattoo, etc) along with the valentine is okay, but not required.  Please, NO CANDY, due to possible allergies.
• If you attend on Tuesday and Wednesday, you do not need to bring valentines for each day.  The bags will be out both days, so you can bring your 19 in on either day.

There is NO school on Monday, February 20 in observance of Presidents’ Day.

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. 

On to our day...

We began our day finding out "How Many Hearts Tall Are You?"

Each friend then had to find his/her number of hearts on the graph and write his/her name in the correct column!  Using non-standard forms of measurement is an early math skill (and some writing practice to go along with it)!

After 15 friends measuring how tall he/she is we decided that 11 has the most with 7 friends, while 10 and 13 have the least with 1 (which means they are also the same, or equal).  We also decided that 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, and 17 all had zero, or none!  We wonder what will change when our other 4 friends are measured tomorrow? Understanding zero and more, less, the same are early math skills.

When not being measured we enjoyed seeking shelter from the hurricane our meteorologists told us was on the way!

Or, we worked together, improving hand-eye coordination while building a lego creation.

Or, improved small motor control as we cut and colored more hearts to hang around our classroom.

Oh what a difference a day makes! We bundled up and headed to the playground to improve our large motor skills!

And...some of us may have found some perfect hiding spots!

 We have been checking the local weather daily since we began our weather project, but we added another location: Belize City, Belize.  Mrs. Haun (EC Director), Mrs. Lohman (PS teacher), Miss Beach (2nd Grade teacher), and Miss Bevirt (3rd Grade teacher) are in Belize this week delivering Bibles we purchased with chapel offering and the change war.  While there, they are visiting 6 different schools, sharing and learning from each other hoping to find a partner school.  We found out it is much warmer where they are...at 9:15 it was already 81 degrees!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Brooke! Thank you for sharing your special day with us!

Woo Hoo!!! Tricky Mouse is back!!!  This week he brought rain clouds with numbers on them!!!  He hid under different numbers and we did our best to find him.  Success for some was knowing each number.  Success for others was knowing some of the numbers.  While success for a few was getting help with the numbers from a friend!

Brooke returned the favorite book bag today, bringing in "Barbie and the Secret Door!" to share with us!  We loved hearing from Brooke about her favorite part of the book, and seeing her drawings.  We then enjoyed hearing the story as Mrs. Mudd read it to the class.

This activity is one way to encourage the love of reading.  Also, this activity allows the children (and teacher) to be introduced to new books!  Furthermore, it helps to continue to build home and school connections!

Today we introduced the letter "R" and number "7"!  

We remembered start your letter "at the top" then big line down, little curve, little line diagonal to write an "R" and little line across, big line diagonal to write a "7"! Then we came up with words that start with "R" and found "7's" around the room!

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

Then we practiced writing "R" and "7" with crayons (nice and short to reinforce proper grip)!

Time for small groups (centers)!

With Mrs. Mudd, there were clouds with numbers on them.  Each child had to identify the number on his/her cloud, then count out that number of rain drops, lightning bolts, or a combination of both!  The ability to recognize/identify numbers and matching them to their quantities are early math skills.  Success for some was working with numbers 1 - 5.  For others success was working with 1 - 10.  While still others, success was working with 1 - 20!

With Mrs. Dose we worked as a team.  First we mixed black and white paint to see what color we would get.  I asked before we began, and no one was quite sure what would happen!  We were excited to see that black and white make gray.  We then took on the task of painting the whole paper gray.  Over the next day or two, we will use that paper to make storm clouds for the weather center!

We sorted pictures of winter/snowy, summer/sunny, or rainy/stormy clothes or items.  There were 3 papers, each with a picture (1 sunny, 1 snowy and 1 stormy).  Each paper asked the question, "Which will you use?"  Our friends had to place the items on the correct picture.  The ability to sort is an early cognitive skill.

Our friends did a wonderful job role-playing real life situations in the weather center!!!  There were many tornados and hurricanes reported again today.  Our weather project may begin to focus on storms, tornados, and hurricanes as that is what seems to be popping up each day in the weather center!

During free choice many of our friends have been working on making paper airplanes.  We flew them outside earlier in the day, and we made a special place in the gym that was cleared for air traffic!

And, of course, there was a lot of running as fast as lightning!!!

During Jesus Time today we remembered the story of Jesus blessing the children, even after the disciples told them to go away.  We know that there are times when we may feel sad or unloved, but Jesus always love us!!!