Tuesday, December 11, 2018

 We had a great Tuesday in preschool!

A few quick reminders...

Christmas Service Project...Zion’s Early Childhood Program has been given the opportunity to show God’s love during this Advent/Christmas season. Our collection will be donated to Helping Hand-Me-Downs. The goal of this organization is “Building Stable Communities One Family at a Time.” When families are in need, Helping Hand-Me-Downs provides them with needed support. Families not only receive items necessary for caring for their children, they can also receive counseling support to help them find stability and independence. Bring your items to school the week of December 17.  The following items are needed the most:

• Gently used items (i.e. nothing new with tags) such as clothing (sizes preemie to 16-18 boys and girls), shoes, coats, toys, books, baby gear, etc. 
• Cribs and unexpired car seats
• Laundry detergent, personal care items and cleaning supplies

12:00 Dismissal on Friday, December 21…School will dismiss at 12:00 on this day to begin Christmas Break.  There is NO half day care option, please make arrangements to pick up your child at 12:00 this day.  We will not be eating lunch at preschool, but we will have morning snack.

There is NO school Monday, December 24 - Wednesday, January 2…blessings on your Christmas Holiday! (school resumes on Thursday, January 3, 2019).

As Christmas is drawing near, please consider joining us for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship services:

Zion Lutheran Church-St. Charles:

Christmas Eve Services: 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, &11:00 pm Christmas Day: 9:00 am

Chapel of the Cross Lutheran Church-St. Peters:

Christmas Eve Services: 3:00, 7:00, & 11:00 pm Christmas Day: 9:30 am 

On to our day...

Enjoying the jewels with friends...counting to see if each friend has the same number of jewels!

Will created with good junk to make a person robot!

So much that you can do with scraps and glue!  Improving small motor control, hand-eye coordination, and working well with others!

Build Emmett Build...

While free choice was in full swing, I had some friends come over for a December interview!  I took dictation as I asked many questions about his/her thoughts and ideas about Christmas!

We finished morning meeting with our friend the gingerbread man.  One friend at a time came to the front as I read a page of our gingerbread book!  Each page gave our gingerbread man a positional word or direction on where he was supposed to run!  Each friend's job was to place the gingerbread man in the correct place in relation to the gingerbread house.  Understanding spatial relationships and positional words are early math skills.

Off to enjoy the bright, shining sun for large motor time...

Today we introduced the letter "J" and number "3"!  

We remembered start your letter "at the top" then big line down, little curve at the bottom, then little line at the top (give it a hat) to write a "J" and little curve, little curve to write a "3"! Then we came up with words that start with "J" and found "3's" around the room!

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

Then we practiced writing "J" and "3" with crayons (nice and short to reinforce proper grip)!

Time for small groups (centers)!

With me, we built snowmen!  The bottom of the snowman had an uppercase letter, the middle had a lowercase letter, and the head (with hat) had a picture on it.  Our friends job was to build the snowmen by matching the uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and then finding the picture that started with that letter.  Recognizing/Identifying letters and words that begin with that letter sound are early literacy skills.

These Christmas trees were empty.  Our friends sorted ornaments by color or design to decorate each tree.  (Sorting is an early cognitive skill)

With Mrs. Dose we worked on "roll and color gingerbreads".  Each took a turn rolling dice, counting the number of dots, then finding the gingerbread man with that numeral on it to color.  (Quantifying and connecting numerals to their quantities are early math skills)

We love books and we love getting to "read" to friends.  We used pictures to give us clues what the story is about.  We used those clues to "read" the story to each other!

Today was the DAY...we ventured out to the "big kid" playground for the first time this year!  First we took a few minutes to walk around and discuss how to be safe when using each part of the playground.  Then...time to have some FUN!!!

Harper enjoyed her time as photographer...

During Jesus Time today Zippy reminded us that sometimes we have to wait for things.  We don't always get things right when we want them.  But, we get them in God's time, when he is ready for us to have them.  Just like he knew the right time to send baby Jesus to save us from our sins!