Jesus is a SUPERHERO!

Thursday April 16, 2015

We had great day back in the classroom and we are still excited to see new toys and a partial room re-arrangement.  It is important that things in our classroom stay new and exciting, these keeps my friends happy, learning and engaged.  We were excited to see all the farm related things in our classroom and new and fun things to explore and play with. 

Since the weather is starting to become nice again our daily routine will change a little.  On the days that it is warm and dry we will spend as much time as we can outside if the playground is not in use.  Outdoor play is so very important at this age and so we want to help promote that in our program and make sure we are getting outside and playing! 

Below is our Schedule

8:00-8:30 Free Choice Time inside the classroom

8:30-9:00 Outside Weather permitting (if it is raining our Free choice time will be extended during this time period)

9:00-9:20 Free Choice/ Painting activities or some center will take place

9:20-9:45 clean up time and Morning Meeting

9:45-10:05 Bathroom and Snack Time

10:05-10:30 Circle Time and A Center will take place

10:30-11:00 Outside Time (students may be pulled inside to do a center)

11:00-11:10 Wash Hands Large Group Activity

11:10-11:45 Center Time

11:50-12:05 Final Circle of the Day

12:05-12:10 Bathroom/Wash Hands

12:10-12:25 Lunchtime

12:25-12:30 Pack up to go home

As a reminder please makes sure your child has an extra set of clothes in their backpack.  We do go outside and sometimes we have accidents and need to change our clothes.  If you do not want to leave them in your backpack you are more than welcome to leave them in your child’s cubby.  Also, with us being able to get outside more please make sure you send plenty for your child to drink through out the day.  

We started learning about Farm Animals today and about the Farm.  We will continue this theme as long as the students are interested in it.  Our centers will revolve around the Farm as well as the toys and other activities in the classroom.  Our preschool classrooms here at Zion run somewhat in this manner and I am trying my best to tailor my classroom close to how the preschool classrooms are ran here at Zion to help your child’s transition from PDO to Preschool a smooth and pleasant experience.   Even if your child will not be attending Preschool next year they are still be introduced to the same ideas and concepts that will help them when they are ready to go to Preschool. 

We had a lot of fun learning about different farm animals and what they say or do.  We also had lots of fun playing with the new toys and checking out the sensory table today.  It was a great first day back and everyone transitioned back into the classroom really well!

Enjoy reading about our day!

Jesus Time:

A rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, had a new tomb where he had planned to be buried. He took Jesus' body from the cross and put it in his own empty tomb.

Joseph and Jesus' friends' wrapped His body in strips of linen and laid it carefully in the tomb. Roman soldiers came to guard the tomb. They rolled a huge stone over the door and sealed it in a way that would show if anyone tried to move the stone.

A Big Surprise

Matthew 28

The day after Jesus was buried was a Holy day, so his friends had to stay home. Then very early on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, the women went back to the tomb. It was the third day since Jesus had died.

When the women got there they couldn't believe their eyes. The stone had been rolled away! An angel of God was sitting on the stone. The soldiers were so frightened they were like dead men.

The angel said, "Don't be afraid. Jesus is alive!"

Those women were as happy as they could be! They ran to find other friends of Jesus.

Some of Jesus' friends didn't believe what the women said. But everything the women said was true. Jesus was alive! He had risen from death.

During our Center Time we made a tomb and stamped a Cross-on it to help us tell the story of what happened after Jesus Died on the Cross.  These will be displayed in our hallway in the coming days as we did this center we re-told the story to each child as they worked on their tomb. 

Number:  During our morning meeting we re-introduced to the number 9!  We counted 9 fish on our board and we counted 9 farm animals.   This was a new activity that I had introduced to the students the week before Easter Break and we will continue to work on problem solving skills such as this one through out the end of the year.

Mrs. Wegener and the students practiced their counting skills as they stamped 9 different types of Easter Stamps onto a number 9.

Shape:  During Morning Meeting we were also re-introduced to the shape of an OVAL.  We decided that an oval looks like an Easter egg.  It kind of looks like a circle but it is taller and skinny, not short and fat. We looked at some of the Easter eggs in our classroom today and decided if they are the shape of an Oval.

During our center time some of us finished and completed an Easter Bunny face.  His head was the shape of an oval, and we talked more about how an oval is different than a circle.  This was also a great way for us to do some more body awareness as we had to put eyes, nose and mouth and ears on our bunny.  We talked about where those different parts are on our face.  These are already displayed in our hallway be sure and stop and look at them. 

Color: Purple is the color we are learning about during the month of April.  We had objects to put on our purple board today. 

During our center time we painted a purple butterfly that we have displayed with our flower, clouds and sun in our classroom.  They are nice addition to our pretty spring scene.  We were able to all do this activity together.

Music and Movement: We sang Jesus Loves Me, and our ABC’s.  We also did Beethoven’s’ Fifty Symphony, Five Days Old, The Wheels on the Bus, The Silly Dance Contest and The Washing Machine Song.  We also continued singing 5 Little Ducks. Our music time was a little shortened today, as we were able to play outside a little more. 

Outside Time:  We did go outside today.  We had such a good time playing this morning early on the playground and it was so beautiful that we stayed out extra long and then returned outside for another 30 minutes before we had our lunch for the day.  We had a lot of fun playing with all our friends today.

Patterning:  We continued our pattern today of pink and purple bunnies.    

Sensory and Science led us to the sensory table where we discovered the Easter Grass was gone and it was replaced with CORN!   We had so much fun scooping, digging, pouring and just feeling the corn.  We had fun putting the tractors and animals in the corn and exploring this new fun thing in our table!   We also had the opportunity to play and created with purple play dough.

Pre-Reading:  Today we started learning about the farm so we put or scissor cutting skills to work and had to cut out different farm animals and then glue them to match the farm animal on the top.  This was a great way for us to build our vocabulary of words and to also work on different animal sounds as well.  We are all doing great cutting with scissors and this is something we will continue to do each week. 

Some of us also started working on our 5 Little Ducks Story Board to help us finish up our little study on Ducks.

Enjoy the pictures for Today!   

Free Choice Play 

We started our morning exploring our classroom and playing with our friends and the new toys that were in our classroom. 

.We love Purple Play Dough! 

What a great way to strengthen our finger and hand muscles and to work on exploring our senses! 

.Sensory Table Fun

We love playing with the corn in the table.  We have the opportunity to scoop, dig, pour, touch and play in the corn.  The tractors are a big hit in the table and lots of things are happening in the table 

.Sorting/Counting/Identifying

We are having lots of fun putting together Easter Eggs and placing them in the container.  This is a great way for us to work on our shape of the month the oval as well as our matching skills, color identification and problem solving skills.  We also are practicing  our counting skill. 

.Farm Puzzles! 

.Climbing Fun! 

Thanks to Reese's Family for the donation of the climber and slide there were lots of pirates on the climber today! 

.Morning Outdoor Fun

.Free Choice Time Round 2 

.Morning Meeting

Happy Thursday!  Have I told you how much I love these Kiddos! 

.Mr. Weather Frog was ready for the beautiful weather today in the STL. I am starting to allow the students to tell me what Mr. Weather Frog needs to wear and they are doing a pretty good job.  Nicholas, said he needed a hat, I only had a winter hat I think he needs a Cardinal's Hat and should have one next week! 

.Today we counted 9 different animals/persons that are on the farm.  After we counted them out we talked about things that were the same and different about the different animals and people we had.  I was very impressed by how many different combinations that they came up with.  

.After I read this story to my friends today one of my little friends blurted out, "Mrs. Horn Jesus is a Super Hero! "  It is quite amazing to me how smart my little friends are sometimes and I responded with, "Yes, He is a Super Hero to us all"  

.This book was great as we learn how to accept one another for who they are and that it is ok to be your own person. 

Transition/Snack Time

Today we each were given a farm animal to place on the Farm.  Each child had to tell me what farm animal they had and what type of noise they make.  

.What a Great Looking Farm! 

.Circle Time 

."Beethoven's Fifth Finger Song

.FIVE DAYS OLD 

.The Wheels on the Bus

.We read this silly book about a cow that clucked and how is was trying to find his MOO! 

.We are learning a new prayer that we will work on till the end of the school year. 

.We had fun with this flannel board story of five little bunnies, it was a great way to work on color identification, and pre-math skills as we had to count five bunnies and count backwards from 5 to none.  

.We played a fun flannel board game as well during circle time.  Each child was given a farm animal and as we sang Old McDonald I would say the name of the animal and the child with that animal would tell us what noise they made and we would add to our song. 

.Center Time

More Puzzles

 We have a lot of farm puzzles out and it is a great way to work on our problem solving skills, spatial awareness, and animal names and sounds 

.Here come the pirates 

.Stamping Fun 

.Jesus Bible Craft 

.Sarah working hard at squeezing the glue out what a great way to work on our hand strengths. 

.Pre-Reading Activity

We had to cut the animals out and then we had to match them to the correct animal.  Each child was asked to find the animal I said and then they told me the sound the animal makes and then glued it underneath the right animal.  We were working on lots of different things with this activity.  Cutting, gluing, following directions, vocabulary as well as animal sound and name identification

.More Number 9 Stamping 

As the students worked on this center they were practicing counting 1 to 9 out loud with Mrs.Wegener. 

.More Farm Puzzles 

.I love to see my friends working together and helping each other out with God's Love.

.Finishing up the number 9

 .Making an Easter Bunny 

Be sure and see these in the hallway they look great! 

.Farm Fun 

It was so neat to see so many of them all on the rug engaged and playing with all the farm animals and barns.  It was so neat to listen to the conversations and just observe what they were doing. 

.Goofy Boys and Imaginative Play 

I am not sure why, but all of a sudden I had friends with buckets on their heads and cups on their mouths marching around the classroom.  They were playing some sort of game and it appeared to have super heroes in it! 

.Five Little Ducks 

Over the course of the year we have been learning and singing about Five Little Ducks.  Today we began making our story boards of this song.  We had to sing the song to figure out how many ducks were needed in each block.  It was so fun to watch each student sing the song and figure out how many ducks we needed in the box and then together we counted the right number of ducks.  This is something that we have been doing through out the year to help on sequencing and pre reading and writing skills. 

.Painting PURPLE Butterflies 

.OUTSIDE FUN 

.Final Circle of the Day 

.Heading off to Wash Hands and Faces and then to lunch we go! 

.We finished lunch early so we had a little more time for some music and movement 

.We ended our time together today with this cute book about a bunny and his friends on the farm.  

.We had a busy fun filled day today.  It was so nice to see everyone transition back to the classroom after the long Easter Break.  We had fun learning exploring and playing.  Have a wonderful weekend take time to worship and spend time with those who love you.  I look forward to seeing everyone next week as we continue to learn about the FARM!