Monday, May 19, 2014

End of year reminders!

Tuesday and Wednesday, May 20  & May 21 there is NO hot lunch being served.  Please bring a cold lunch these 3 days! (Weather permitting we will have a picnic lunch on the playground with Mrs. Douglas' class!)

The last day of preschool is Wednesday, May 21.

Join us for "Popsicles at the Park" on Thursday, May 22 from 9:00 - 11:00 am at Laurel Park. Come and play with your preschool friends and enjoy some yummy popsicles to kick off the summer! (On that note, a parent, grandparent, etc, needs to be in attendance the entire time your child is at the park.) 

If weather is questionable on Thursday morning, Mrs. Kuhlmann will make a decision at 8:30 and she will send out a message via phone if the event is cancelled due to inclement weather.  If you do not receive a phone call at 8:30, come on out...the event is still on!!!

Happy Monday!!! I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather over the weekend!

The children were able to use tangram shapes and explore them with mirrors.  But, today we added some toilet papers tubes too!  The children were very interested how the line of tubes appeared to keep going, but when you touched the mirror, they weren't really there!!!  Not only did they work on spatial relationships, but enjoyed learning more about themselves by simply looking in a mirror!

Making a return today...pieces of pool noodles and bamboo sticks!   They did good remembering our 3 important rules, and had the best time using their small motor skills to gently put the pieces together to create, create, and create!

Ryan, Sam, and Isaac enjoyed reading together!

On Friday Aidan was a robot...today...Iron Man!

Addy and Haylee let their creativity flow with some coloring this morning!

Every day this school year, Zion's 7th grade students brought our hot lunch to the classroom and took our dirty snack dishes to be cleaned!  To thank them for doing this (rain, snow, or shine), we worked on making them a card!

To wrap up morning meeting, we sang and danced to "What Do the Letters Say?"  A fun way to practice identifying letters (on the smartboard) and their sounds!

Pete the Cat came to visit again, but today he was rocking his school shoes!

It's time for Pete to go to school, he explores the whole school in his school shoes. It's all new, but does Pete worry, goodness no!!!

Then each child got to decide what kind of shoes he/she was going to "rock" at school today!  Each child did a great job writing the word all by his/herself (Mrs. Dose and I did help spell his/her word)!

It's a great day to fly a KITE!!!  

We expressed our creativity and worked the finger, wrist, and hand muscles decorating plastic bag "kites" with stickers!!!

Then outside to FLY, FLY, FLY our kites!!!! 

Yay Sophia!!! Our guest reader for today!

Then...we enjoyed our picnic lunch with Mrs. Douglas' class! (even though a bit windy!!!)

During Jesus Time we learned of a man, Paul, who was the opposite of Philip.  Paul was an unkind man who did NOT like Jesus.  He would even gather people who loved Jesus and put them in jail.  Then, one day Paul, heard a voice...it was Jesus!  Jesus made Paul blind for 3 days, during that time Paul prayed to be forgiven.  He was forgiven and was able to see again!!!  Paul then began to spread the Good News of Jesus!  We remembered that Jesus loves and forgives us when we make poor choices!  And, that we should spread the Good News everyday!

Friday, May 16, 2014

End of year reminders!

Next week, May 19 - May 21 there is NO hot lunch being served.  Please bring a cold lunch these 3 days!

The last day of preschool is Wednesday, May 21.

Join us for "Popsicles at the Park" on Thursday, May 22 from 9:00 - 11:00 am at Laurel Park.  Come and play with your preschool friends and enjoy some yummy popsicles to kick off the summer! (On that note, a parent, grandparent, etc, needs to be in attendance the entire time your child is at the park.) 

Happy Friday!!!

Look at all creativity in our room this morning!!!

Just when I thought we had tried everything with the ramps...we think of something new!!!

 Check out Will working his small motor control cutting paper with scissors!

More silly fun at the mirror table this morning! The children were able to use tangram shapes and explore them with mirrors.  Not only did they work on spatial relationships, but enjoyed learning more about themselves by simply looking in a mirror!

Aidan says, "I am a robot." (In his best robot voice)

We explored with the Kinetic sand for the last time this school year!  Did you know...

“Sensory play also contributes in crucial ways to brain development.  Think of it as ‘food for the brain.’ Stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that help to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning.  For example, as children explore sensory materials, they develop their sense of touch, which lays the foundation for learning other skills, such as identifying objects by touch, and using fine-motor muscles.  The materials children work with at the sand and water table have many sensory attributes – they may be warm or cool, wet or dry, rough or smooth, hard or soft, textured or slimy.  Discovering and differentiating these characteristics is the first step in classification, or sorting- an important part of preschoolers’ science learning and discovery” (Gainsley, 2014, p.2)

Sienna enjoyed being the teacher this morning...I think she makes a great Mrs. Mudd!!!

Back by popular demand (one last time)...Who's Missing?  

Many of the children told me last week how much fun they had with this activity, so...to wrap up morning meeting, we practiced our recalling skills (cognitive).  Some of the children were given a chance to be "The Recaller".  He/she went to the opposite side of the room and hid his/her eyes. Another child hid under the blanket.  "The Recaller" returned and had to tell the group which child was "missing"!  Not only did we work on recalling, but also self regulation.  It was difficult to keep the secret of who was under the blanket, when all he/she wanted to do was shout it out!!!  This time was more difficult than last, as we had ALL students participating together.  Having to remember the 10 other students sitting on the stage is VERY tricky.  We still did a fantastic job!

Mrs. Douglas' class invited us over for a little dance party before we started small group time!!!  We had a BLAST!

Pete the Cat came to visit again, but today he was rocking his school shoes!

It's time for Pete to go to school, he explores the whole school in his school shoes. It's all new, but does Pete worry, goodness no!!!

To start small groups each child got to decide what kind of shoes he/she was going to "rock" at school today!  Each child did a great job writing the word all by his/herself (I did help spell it)!

We practiced our rhyming and spatial reasoning by completing these "mini puzzles!"  They would only fit together if the picture on each piece rhymed! (The ability to rhyme is an early literacy skill)

Then we expressed our creativity through texture painting!  We used red and black in celebration of Zion spirit day!

As always...we LOVE outside time!

Cameron was our guest reader for today!

During Jesus time we read a book of colors.  This silly "book" didn't have any words or pictures, so we learned that each of the colors could teach us something important!

Gold - stands for heaven.  It is the color of something very precious.

Gray, with black scribbles - This reminds us that we have sinned.

Red - Reminds us that Jesus suffered and died for our sins.

White - Jesus forgives what we have done.

Green - We can grow in faith as we hear God's word.

Blue - Another color that stands for heaven!