Friday, February 24, 2017

Happy Friday from Preschool!

There was some serious concentration as these friends improved their writing/drawing skills this morning!

Brooke and Liam decided to build houses with magnatiles!  As they were building we talked about how each was different and each was the same!

 Laina and Claire continued our "3 day lego creation". Today it evolved to a zoo that people can live at too!

Emma and Reese decided to build a different zoo...this one ended up being for dinosaurs only!

"Mrs. Mudd, can you please take a picture of our creation?"  Wish granted!!!

We were excited to find ribbon wands and binoculars as the latest addition to our new playground!!!

We got mail!!!  

Mrs. Stanglein's class wrote us back!  They even gave us the directions for how they made the pretty paintings they have hanging in the hallway.  We are excited to try it out in our classroom sometime soon!

Our guest reader today was Aunt Sarah (Davis' aunt)!  We loved listening to her read a few of her favorite books!  We did a great job keeping our bubbles in and keeping our listening ears on!

As we continue to explore tornadoes, we watched a short video of storm chasers following some tornadoes in Kansas.  We discussed that to be able to do this "job" you have to have special training because it is very dangerous!  We remembered that if there is a tornado close to us, we should hear sirens and need to get to a safe place (like a basement, or any room with no windows).  We LOVED getting to see real tornadoes in action!

Next we looked at some pictures of different storm chaser vehicles.  We then decided what we would need to be storm chasers here in our classroom.  Next week we will begin "building" a storm chaser car for our dramatic play area...we are SO excited!

Time for small groups (centers)!

With me, we played Alphabet BINGO!  I would say the letter sound, then each child had to find that letter on his/her BINGO board.

Time for some work in the weather center. We loved getting to role play real life situations as we interacted with our friends in a comfortable setting!

With Mrs. Dose we improved fine motor skills as we placed beads in a pattern on toothpicks in playdoh.  Success for some was finishing a pattern that Mrs. Dose started.  Success for others was creating and continuing a pattern on his/her own.

We enjoyed outside time on the big playground...the building was blocking the wind out here!!!

During Jesus time today we discussed that sometimes we don't want to give Jesus our gifts or treasures.  It is hard to do. But, we need to remember that Jesus loves and forgives us.  He wants us to give our gifts with a happy heart!  We know that we can then trust Jesus to give us all we need!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Thank you for joining us on our Thursday!

While taking some time to create this morning, Claire shows Jack how she spells her name!

Davis and Keller improved small motor control while trying to stay in the lines!

Some friends started this lego creation yesterday! Josh, Emily, and Elliot improved hand-eye coordination as they added to it this morning.

Liam took a try at making a paper airplane!  Remembering where to fold and in the correct order can be tricky!

Emma and Reese decided to see how many cups could fit on our square table!

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.

Student Council led our chapel service for us today!  Many of our friends think they might like to be a part of student council one day!  

Have you ever been afraid of the dark? Sometimes you need a flashlight!  Batteries help a flashlight shine bright, God's word helps us shine bright with Jesus' light. We remembered that Jesus is our light, so we don't have to be afraid. We even learned something fun to say to remind us of this: Flashlight, flashlight shine so bright. Shines like Jesus and His might! 

Carter returned the favorite book bag today, bringing in "Nugget & Fang" to share with us!  We loved hearing from Carter about his favorite part of the book, and seeing his 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!

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! 

Many friends had questions about where to go to be safe during a storm/tornado!  This would be a perfect time to talk about what to do/where to go at home during a storm.

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 also made one yesterday (you can see it in the picture below this one).  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 finished up center time with enough time to play on 2 playgrounds before lunch! 

We sure are enjoying this fantastic weather before it cools down again next week...