Thursday, August 21, 2014

We have our first week of school under our belts and it has been a truly great week!  We have met new friends, had fun exploring a new classroom, meeting new teachers and learning routines.  Praise God for such a wonderful week.  We had fun painting and furthering our studies on the shape of square, the color blue, the number one and learning our ABC's as well as learning about Jesus and how important he is to each and every one of us.   The Parents Day Out program at Zion is designed to help our friends meet new friends, how to play with others and to be exposed to a lot of different experiences.  Our classroom blog will be updated daily and you will receive and email when it has been done.  

Jesus Time:  Today we spent time looking a picture of Jesus and different things we may associate with him.  We continued learning the song Jesus Loves Me and the hand motions that go with it.  This is something that we will do every week during Jesus time.  One of the objects we talked about today was the Bible, we talked about how we go to church to listen to stories about Jesus, pray and to learn special Jesus songs.   Be sure to check out our beautifully painted crosses and Bibles in the lobby of the Sonshine Center!  

Number:  We continued our study of the number one by holding up one finger and saying one.  We practiced counting 1 blue square today during our morning meeting.  We also got to use the glue bottles and glued one eyeball on Mike Watowski from Monsters Inc.  Using the glue bottle is a great way to work on strengthening our hand muscles as we have to really squeeze the bottle to get the glue to come out.  As we glued our one eye ball we talked about how  we have two eye balls, but since Mike Watowski is a monster he only has one eyeball and he is super silly and funny!  

Shape:  We continued our study of the square.  We talked about how it has four sides and often looks like a window.  We then had fun using square stamps and blue ink pad to make a square collage.  As we did this activity we practiced saying the word square and our friends were reminded that a square has four sides.  We really had to use our muscles to press down on the square stamp to make the ink show up on our blue paper.  

Letter:  Today we  continued to practice singing our ABC's and colored a picture of an alphabet train.  Many of our students knew either a part of the ABC song or all of it.  Some of our friends were able to identify different letters on the alphabet train that they colored. This activity came home with them today in their red folders.

Color:  We are continuing our study about the color blue this month.  During our morning meeting we identified different blue objects and during center time we had fun painting a picture of Dory the blue fish from Finding Nemo.  These beautiful paintings are in our hallway on the way to the cubby rooms be sure to look at them.  Three of our new friends had fun painting their hands blue today for a special poem that came home with each child today.  We love to paint and to ensure our clothes do not get to messy Mrs. Linneman graciously provided us with paint smocks that she made to help us stay a little cleaner so thank you Mrs. Linneman.

Music and Movement:  We did lots of Music and Movement today and visited a lot of old songs and some new songs as well.  We clapped our hands, stomped our feet, snapped our fingers, slapped our knees, jumped up and down and turned around.  We flew into space like a rocket ship, practiced dancing fast, slow, silly and crazy!  WHEW we had fun.

Outside Time:  We did go outside today for a period of time.  We had fun playing in a water table that helped keep us cool and we had fun meeting some of our other friends from the other PDO rooms.  It was hot so we did not stay to long, we do take out their cups so they may get a drink as need be.  If you want to send in a water bottle labeled with their name so they may use it at snack and outside that is great! 

We are getting our routines down and had lots of fun this week I hope your child had as much fun as I did!  Enjoy all the pictures below and get an inside look as to what all we did today!

Free Choice Play

This is the time in the morning we spend exploring the classroom and doing a variety of activities that might be out for us to try.  

Today we got the opportunity to play with play dough.  I love to see friends being so kind to each other.

Play dough is something that will be offered through out the week in class so that we can work on our finger and hand muscles and be able to work on feeling something different.  

We love to play with the animals this toy has been great this week to teach us about balance and which way the ball will down the path. 

Sophia and Joesph had fun hearing all the different sounds the house had to make and to figure out if they heard those sounds at their own houses. 

Sophia drawing a beautiful picture on the chalk board.  This activity is great for children to be able to use their imaginations as well as work on their upper arm strength and great pre writing skills as they are working on holding a writing instrument. 

Nicholas found some puzzles on the fine motor shelf to do.  Puzzles are a great way to work on problem solving skills and are also a great calming activity.

Blue Paintings!

Joesph making his special poem that he took home to mom and dad. Not only were we learning about the color blue, but we talked about if the paint felt wet, cold, hot or slimy! 

Sarah had a super blue hand she was proud to show off.  We do get messy in PDO but we have so much fun doing it.  We also talked about how we have to hands and what we can use our hands for. 

Sophia got down to business painting her Dory picture 

Painting is a great way for students to practice holding a writing instrument 

Joesph busy painting his picture of Dory

We talked about how Dory swims in the water and how the oean water she swims in is blue too. 

Ella carefully painting just Dory. 

Painting is also a great way for us to learn the phrase Less is More we don't need a lot of paint that we spread it out and it goes a long way before we need to get more paint for our paper 

Sarah making sure all of Dory is covered in Blue and she just keeps on Swimming! 

MORNING MEETING

This is the time where we come together as a class and learn about our numbers, colors, shapes, the days of the week and learn about the word of God and read a story. 

We are already doing a fabulous job at circle time!  

Singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, my goal this year is to try and post videos to the blog so you can see them singing! 

Learning about the number one and the shape of a square 

Today, Thursday, August 22, 2014.  Even though they may not be able to tell you this they are being exposed to the months, days of the week and numbers. 

Our Blue Color board for the month.  Ask your child if they can help identify the objects on the board. 

Mr. Weather Frog is ready to go to the beach, we put on his sunscreen today.  Nicholas told me that his mom always puts on Sunscreen before he goes swimming.  

We had fun reading about Mickey counting to 10 and then counting backwards!

Here is our transition table after we prayed for snack each child was given a specific color that was a hand or foot when their color was called they brought their hand or foot to me to line up to wash hands for snack. 

Snack Time

Before we have snack we line up to wash our hands. Each child washes their hands with the help of an adult while we are washing hands we sing to the tune of ROW ROW YOUR BOAT the following little song:  Rub, Rub Rub your hands Rub them really fast Rub them, Rub Them Rub them really clean (we sing it through 2 times). When they are done washing their hands they sit down in the hallway and wait for the rest of their friends to finish. 

Look how good we can stand in line already! 

Snack time this a time we work on sitting in a chair with our feet in front of us. 

We work on keeping our food on the table and not on the floor. 

We also have to learn to wait to get up when all of our friends are finished with snack 

When we are finished with snack then we have to help put or cups and snack containers in the snack and drink tub. 

Circle Time

After snack we meet back on the rug for some songs that help with self regulation and hand muscle control.  We also work on singing our ABC's, as well as learning the sounds each letter makes. We also work on color identification and read a story 

Here we are working on clapping our hands 

Tapping our feet 

Concentration at its best tapping our feet 

We loved picking out the different letters as we ready this Thomas ABC Book 

Our letter sound identification book, will try and record our friends doing this so you may get an idea of how this works. 

Each day I will draw a picture that relates to the season, time of year or something we we are studying about.  As I draw each part of the picture I have the children help me identify what color of marker I am using. 

Outside Time

We do try and go outside every day weather permitting today we went out for about 25 minutes.  We had a lot of fun playing in the water table, meeting new friends, seeing old friends, riding bikes and running and playing.  Outside play is so very important for young children today so we value this time we have outside.  

Getting a little wet on this hot day. 

Ella had places to go in her car 

Joesph working his leg muscles peddling the big tricycle. 

Ella gave up her car to a friend and decided to try the tricycle.  

I brought out sidewalk chalk and the kiddos were able to create some really colorful masterpieces. 

Sophia out for a drive 

Julija decided to help wash some toys in the water table to stay cool. 

Ella had fun soaking up the water in the sponge at the water table. 

Nicholas is ready to go go go ! 

Evan found an emergency car to play with. 

Ella scooping up some rocks in the rock pit

Nicholas is ready for NASCAR! 

Joesph found a ball to play with 

Beep Beep coming through 

Up Up and away. 

Evan giving his try at a three wheeled scooter 

Julija also tried out the three wheeled scooter. 

Center Time

After we came inside and got some drinks and cleaned off our faces and hands we did some fun centers to help us along with our studies. 

We had fun coloring an alphabet train picture 

Sara was proud to show me her pink and peach crayons 

Ella had chosen blue and purple to use 

Julija hard at work coloring her train 

Nicholas and Sophia were identifying letters as they colored their train 

Evan looking for letters to his name 

We then got busy painting pictures to hang in our foyer 

We had fun using the water colors 

We had to remember to dip our paint brush in the water first, then pick a color and paint on the paper 

We had to work on our sharing skills too! 

We then worked on stamping blue squares onto a blue piece of paper 

Square Squares everywhere

We had some really neat looking blue squares 

Stamping is a lot of fun helps work on self control and fine motor 

Ella working on her Mike Watowski number craft.  

Julija working hard to squeeze the glue out. 

Nicholas gluing his hands on his Mike 

Sophia squeezing the glue 

Sarah busy making pretty blue squares 

Joesph concentrating on getting glue to squeeze out of the bottle 

Sarah placing his arms on just right 

Evan working those finger and hand muscles to get the glue to come out. 

Music and Movement

This group loved music and movement today enjoy all the pics sorry so many but they were so much fun to watch, sing and dance with. 

Clapping our hands

Swinging our hips side to side 

Silly Dance Contest 

Making new friends 

Swinging side to side 

Hip shakes 

Laying down shhhh! 

We then got ready for lunch and transitioned with our colored hands and feet 

They each brought me their colored foot or hand 

This is a great way to work on self regulation and transitioning smoothly 

After Lunch 

We were unable to go outside after lunch due to the hot weather.  So we had some friends come over to play with us and we had some free choice and music and movement time before we left! 

Joesph was very excited to show me his creation on the chalkboard. 

Music and Movement with friends from the other PDO Classes 

Playing with Play dough 

We had a great day! 

Happy kiddos 

Equals 

A very happy end to the first week of School! 

As you can see we did a lot of fun things today and everyone had a great day.  I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and that you find time to spend with family and friends and stay cool in this hot steamy St. Louis Weather!  If you need a church to call home Zion would love for you to join us we are currently in our summer worship schedule we have services on Saturday at 5:00  Sunday at 8:00 and 10:30 please join us if you would like.  I look forward to next week where we will have fun learning and exploring even more.  I am also looking forward to a great year as we together watch your child learn and grow physically, emotionally and educationally.  If you have any questions at all please do not hesitate to contact me at hhorn@zionharvester.org  Blessings on a wonderful weekend! 

Mrs. Horn