Happy Wednesday!

Hello Wednesday!

We started the day out under a cloud of fog and when we left today there was the rumble of thunder followed by large golf ball size hail!  What a crazy weather day here in St.  Louis, I pray that your homes and cars were free from damage and that you all are safe.  We had  great day in our classroom and despite the strange and crazy weather today we were able to go outside and play for a while today which was great.  We continued to work on learning and counting to the number 10, we continued to become familiar with the shape of diamond and reviewing the colors of the rainbow (ask your little one if they can sing the rainbow song).  Our Jesus time was spent learning about what happened after Jesus went to heaven.  Dinosaurs have over taken our classroom and we have been enjoying doing some dinosaur related activities.  It is hard to believe that we only have 2 Wednesdays left before the school year comes to a close.  It has been a privilege to have your child in the classroom and truly enjoy coming to school everyday and learning and exploring with your child.  Thank you for choosing Zion to start your child's educational career and I hope that you have been pleased with how your child has grown over the past 10 months. 

IMPORTANT DATES

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2016

SCHOOL RESUMES FOR THE 2016-2017  ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2016.  

Enjoy viewing the pictures and reading about our dinoriffic day! 

DINOSAUR PUZZLES

Today we had the opportunity to work on a large dinosaur puzzle.  It was tricky but we did a great job trying to put it together.  We then were able to look at all the different dinosaurs that were on the puzzle.  We also were able to compare them to the dinosaurs in a big book that I had brought in for my friends to look at.

WORKING ON FINE MOTOR SKILLS

The past few weeks we have been building up our fine motor skills with linking little people together and putting dried pasta noodles in spice containers.  As we linked the little people together it allowed us to talk about our friends, teachers and family members. 

PLAYING WITH DINOSAURS 

We have really enjoyed playing with the large variety of dinosaurs.  Imagination is starting to really come through in some of our friends and it is amazing to witness and observe.  A lot of time is spent in our classroom playing and we are doing so much more than just playing lots of learning is taking place during this time.  

BLOCK BUILDING

The small blocks in our classroom have really been a hit these past few weeks.  Lots of time and imagination has taken place in building these creations.  All of my friends have explored with the blocks and it has been so neat to see what they build or how high they can make a tower before it falls over. 

TEN DINOSAURS

Today we counted out 10 dinosaurs and then we used a glue stick to glue them onto a prehistoric scene.  We have really come a long way since the beginning of the year.  All of my friends were able to use the glue sticks without any assistance and when done we practiced counting the 10 dinosaurs on our paper as well as identifying the colors of the dinosaurs.  

MAKING A KITE

This morning we water colored a diamond with the colors of our choosing and then after they dried and were cut out we practiced our cutting skills by cutting a piece of colored paper to glue our bow ties on to complete our kites.  They are displayed in our classroom to help complete our spring theme.  

OUTSIDE PLAY 

We enjoyed playing outside with our friends from the other PDO classes today.  Since the ground was wet from the rain we have had some of God's smallest creatures made appearances today, such as worms.  We had a lot of fun picking them up and placing them back in the grass.  

CUTTING WITH SCISSORS

We have worked with scissors all year long and today we practiced cutting out dinosaurs and gluing them in the right order.  Some of my friends still need some help with the scissors and others have totally amazed me with how far they have come with using scissors.  I encourage you to buy some safety scissors and with adult supervision have your child practice cutting over the summer if you can.  It does need to be anything pre planned give them a piece of scrap paper and another piece of paper and some glue and let the create away. 

FINAl BOOK OF THE DAY 

We have really enjoyed reading books about dinosaurs the past two weeks and this was another favorite.  This series of dinosaur books is great for us to relate to as little people, the dinosaurs in these books do a lot of the same things that our little friends have done or experienced.  

Music and Movement 

We had fun singing and dancing today to Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck ( a favorite of this class), 10 Little Dinosaurs, Shaking our Sillies Out.  

JESUS TIME 

We learned today that since Jesus rose up into heaven after 40 days of coming out of the tomb, that it is our job as Jesus followers to spread the good word of Jesus.  We were then able to watch a short video of this Bible Story. 

MORNING MEETING 

Happy Wednesday! 

We have been busy this year and learning how to sit during Morning Meeting and Circle time is one one of them and we have been doing an awesome job.  We counted 11 squares on our calendar and talked about the color of the dinosaur on the calendar card, we dressed Mr. Weather Frog for spring/warm weather with a chance of rain.  We counted 10 dinosaurs and 10 fingers and toes and talked about the shape of  a diamond.  We also have been learning a new prayer during our time together called the Johnny Appleseed Prayer.  All the different prayers we have learned this year are ones they will be using and learning in preschool here at Zion. 

TRANSITION

We had to wait for our name to be called and then we came up told Mrs. Horn what letter was at the beginning our name and then we had to find a Mickey Mouse to stand on while we waited for our friends to all stand in a line.  Standing in a line is something else we have been working on all year as well and we have gotten pretty good at waiting and standing in line until it is time to go. 

Circle Time

After our time outside we had circle time where we read a book about 10 Naughty Dinosaurs.  We also worked on the flannel board story we have been doing during our Dinosaur unit.  

D IS FOR DINOSAUR 

We used the bingo daubers today to decorate the letter D and a dinosaur.  We were able to chose whatever color we wanted to use.  Bingo Daubers is a writing tool we have used and worked with all year long.  This helps us with control and working in small spaces and holding a writing tool.

READING & PUZZLES 

We have enjoyed a large variety of puzzles and books in our classroom this year and this month is no different.  Books have been available to my friends to look at any time they wish.  We have read lots of books this year and I encourage you to read with your child 20 minutes a day with your child.  Puzzles are a great way to have your child have some quite time and for them to work on their fine motor, problem solving skills and pre math skills. Puzzles are always available to the students in the classroom.  

MORE IMAGINARY PLAY 

MY NAME BEGINS WITH THE LETTER?

We told Mrs. Horn what our name began with and then we used different colored circles to work on learning the outline of the first letter of our name.  Using stickers is a great way for us to work on our pincer grasp as we pull the stickers off the sticker sheet onto our paper.  

WRITING OUR NAME

We have been working on our name since the first of April. Today we used crayons to trace the letters in our name to add to our name portfolio that will becoming home on the last day of school.  We have been using markers up until this week and this week we had to press a little harder to make a mark on our letters with the crayons.  

As you can see we had a very busy day in our classroom and a lot of fun was had by all.  Again I hope everyone is at home and safe from the storms and blessings on the remainder of your week.