We had a whirlwind of a Tuesday!
Three quick reminders...
Our Preschool Advent Service is Saturday, December 16 at 5:00 pm in the Zion Church sanctuary. We will worship together and celebrate the birth of Jesus through word and songs sang by our Preschool students. If your child will NOT be able to attend our Advent Service on 12/16, please let me know (via email) as soon as possible. Please plan to meet the class at 4:45 pm in Zion’s church basement (There will be someone there to direct you to the correct room upon arrival to the church basement). Once you drop off your child with his/her teacher(s), you may then go find a seat in the sanctuary. There will be an opportunity for class photos after the service. Once our class photo has been taken, each child will return to his/her parents.
11:50 Dismissal on Thursday, December 21…Our class will dismiss at 11:50 on this day to begin Christmas break. There is NO aftercare option, please make arrangements to pick up your child at 11:50. We will not be eating lunch at preschool, but we will have morning snack.
There is NO school Friday, December 22 - Tuesday, January 2…blessings on your Christmas Holiday! (school resumes on Wednesday, January 3, 2024).
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in preschool!
Our friends were so excited to see that Christmas popped up in the classroom while we were on Thanksgiving break! Some friends improved small motor control as they made ornaments for our class Christmas tree!
We even got to hang our ornaments on the tree all by ourselves!
Silas and Ely loved telling the Christmas story with our nativity set...apparently this version has cars for travel 😁
The "candy construction" building set arrived for the season. We had the best time expressing creativity and improving hand-eye coordination while building with "candy"!
Mrs. Mudd brought with her 7 items. These items she brought today all had something to do with Christmas! All 7 were covered with a towel, then 2 taken away! What was missing? I couldn't even fool them one time, we did a great job of recognizing and recalling (an early cognitive skill).
We had a surprise visitor from Mrs. Oswald's class, Mrs. Koenen. She showed us the actions we will be learning with one of our Advent service songs!
Time for a little science!!!
Scientist Mudd arrived today, with water, borax, and a snowflake (made of pipe cleaner)!
First we had to count how many cups of water it took to fill a jar (3).
Next, we needed to heat the water to boiling...scientist Mudd did this and reminded friends how careful we need to be around HOT water.
Third, while the water was heating in the microwave, each friend made his/her prediction, "What will happen when we put the pipe cleaner into the solution?"
Once the water was HOT, we counted out 5 tablespoons of borax and poured it into the water. We observed that the water looked white or cloudy as we were mixing the solution.
Finally...it was time to test our prediction...Scientist Mudd dropped the snowflake into the jar! But, wait a minute, nothing happened, it just sat there! Our friends found out that this experiment is one that we get to practice WAITING!
BUT...we did have our snowflake from yesterday...we made a...
CRYSTAL SNOWFLAKE!
We had a blast using our large motor skills outside...all bundled up ;o)
Time for small groups (centers)!
As we remember Jesus' birth this month, we learned "J" is for Jesus! We colored dots in the shape of a "J". Each friend was asked to pick 2 colors, then color the dots in a pattern! Not only did we improve patterning skills (early math), we also improved small motor control needed for writing/drawing!
With Mrs. Lorenz we made ornaments for our Christmas tree! We strung beads (some even did so in a pattern) and jingle bells on to pipe cleaners! Stringing those tiny beads while holding a pipe cleaner sure can be tricky!
Yikes...we had a little snow in the classroom!!! Working together we sequenced snowflakes from smallest to biggest and/or biggest to smallest!
We noticed that all our Thanksgiving/fall books were gone and we had "new to us" Christmas/winter books to read! We "read to self" remembering the rules of using a book correctly (orientation: read from front to back and left to right...make sure the letters are right side up...turn 1 page at a time, gently!!! Being able to use a book properly is an early literacy skill.)
Off to the gym...it's basketball season, right?!?!?
During Jesus Time today we thought about how Mary must have felt when suddenly an angel appeared at her house. We all agreed she was probably surprised and maybe even a little scared. Then that angel told her something even more surprising! She was going to have a baby, God's son! She knew that her baby was going to be the Savior. God's plan for saving us was finally going to happen!
Hope you join us again tomorrow!
