Welcome Back and Welcome Mrs. Jacks!

Wednesday January 07, 2015

Happy New Year!  It was so wonderful to see all my little friends today at school.  I was excited to hear how everyone’s holiday break was and what all they got for Christmas.  It sounds like everyone had a great two weeks off.  I know it was a bit rough getting up for school today and adjusting back to our routines and schedules. Don’t be surprised if your little one takes an extra good nap today or crashes early tonight. 

As you all know Mrs. Linneman started her practicum work this week.  She was able to come in today and help Mrs. Jacks become acquainted with what we do in our classroom and to help her learn what she will be doing.   Mrs. Jacks has taken Mrs. Linneman’s place and will be with us on Wednesdays.  We are excited to have Mrs. Jacks in our classroom and join us this semester on our crazy fun school adventures. 

Today we became re acquainted with the classroom, rules, and routines and of course our friends.  With the start of a new month we had all new things to checkout, learn and explore in the classroom.  The sensory table has been replaced from Christmas things to a table full of rice.  New toys were found throughout the room to play with as well as we found some big Duplo blocks to build with and new puzzles to try and books to read.  We also had white play dough to try our hand at rolling out and making star designs. 

We started learning about the number 6, the shape of star, the color white and a pattern of red and blue mittens.  We will spend most of January reviewing our letters and catching up on our letter books.  We started a new Bible story learning about the bright star, the wisemen and the three gifts they brought Baby Jesus.    Please read below about our day and enjoy the pictures. 

Jesus Time: Today we learned about the wisemen, the bright star and the gifts that were brought to Jesus.  Below is the story that was told to my friends….

Gifts for Baby Jesus

Matthew 2:1-12

Soon many of the people who came to register in Bethlehem went home. Mary and Joseph moved into a house. One day they had visitors who came from far away in the east. These visitors were wise men. They had followed a bright start to find little Jesus. They bowed down and worshiped God's only Son and gave Him expensive presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Number:  Today we were introduced to the number 6.  We practiced counting six fingers.  In which we discovered we now have to use both hands to count to six!  We practiced clapping our hands 6 times, nodding our heads 6 times, stomping our feet six times, jumping up and down six times and rubbing our tummies six times.  We also counted six snowmen. 

Shape:  The shape of the star is what we will be learning about during the month of January.

Today during centers we cut out strips of white paper and glued them onto the shape of a star.  They are hanging in our hallway so please be sure to stop and look at the great job our students did! 

Color:  We will be studying about the color White during January.  During Morning Meeting we identified objects that could be white and put them on our color board.

Our center time was focused on making a snow globe with a white snowman inside.  Be sure to check these snow globes out in our hallway on the bookshelf. 

Music and Movement: We had fun singing Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Little Star as Jumping and Counting. 

Outside Time:  With the frigid temperatures upon us, we will probably not be going outside very much in the next two months.  If we hit a warm day we will go out.  For now we are having fun playing in the commons with our other friends from the PDO Classes.

Patterning:  We started a new pattern today of Red mittens and Blue Mittens.    

Science and Sensory:  The sensory table was filled with a lot of brown rice. We had fun feeling the rice, picking up the rice, dumping and pouring the rice from scoops to buckets and back into the table.  It was so much fun to watch the children feel and explore in this area today.  We also talked about the cold weather and when we hear snow fall to the ground we decided it would be soft and not loud. 

Pre-Writing Skills:  We will really start to work on this area a little more this semester. 

Today during center time we practiced drawing a straight line to OLAF everyone’s favorite snowman.  Some of my friends were able to complete this task without any help and some needed a little assistance. Some of my friends who were here on Tuesday already completed this center.

As a reminder many things will come home over the course of the month but something’s will not as this will be put in your child’s portfolio that you will get at the end of the school year!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Free Choice Play

We had fun exploring all the new toys and manipulatives we had in our room today. We listened to a variety of winter music during our free choice time. 

New White Play dough.  

Play dough is a great way for us to work on our finger and hand muscles.  We work on rolling it out with a rolling pin and with our hands.  We practice rolling it into a ball and pressing down on a cookie cutter to make an imprint of the shapes.  

Art Easel

This is always available to my students.  They have the opportunity to draw with chalk and markers on the dry erase side.  This is a great way for students to work on their pre writing skills as well as work on holding a writing tool.  We are also working on strengthing our arm muscles.  We have some pretty creative artists in our class

Lacing Buttons

Another great way for us to work on our fine motor skills. We work on threading the big button onto the strings so that we can put as many buttons on our string as possible.  This is also helping us with our hand eye coordination 

Magnetic Board

This month the magnetic board has letters to the alphabet on it. This is a great way to allow the children to become familiar with the letters of the alphabet.  

.Independent Reading

Books are also always available to my friends.  I love to see them sit down and "read" or look at a book.  

.Morning Meeting

Happy New Year from our Wednesday Class! 

This book talked all about the fun things we may see or do during the season of Winter. 

Transition Time

Today we had to put mittens on our snowman. Each of us had a different color mitten.  When our name was called we listened to the sound of the first letter in our name and then heard our name.  Each student was then asked to identify the color of mitten they had.  

Commons Time! 

Playing ball with Mrs. Jacks

Center Time

Today  we made snow globes using a clothespin and a pompom as our paintbrush.  This made our snowman, we then used our finger tips to make the snowflakes and the end of paintbrush to to make the eyes, mouth and buttons.  We had to use glue to glue on our hat and nose.  This was a little different activity for us to do today and we all did a great job. 

Our completed Snow Globes! 

Cutting with Scissors

We had fun cutting with scissors today to decorate our stars.  Some of our friends were able to cut the strip of paper unassisted, others still needed help and that is just fine we are all at different stages in the cutting process and each center is tailored to meet the individual needs of each student in the class.

More Independent Reading 

There is nothing like curling up in a big chair with your friend to read a good book. 

Prewriting Work 

Today the students were given a blue marker and had to trace a straight line from the bottom of the paper and stop at our favorite snowman Olaf!   This activity is helping the students become aware of how to hold a writing tool and how to have self control and to work in a smaller space when writing.  

Music and Movement

We do some sort of music and movement everyday somedays is more than others.  Today we were running a little behind schedule so we only had time to do one song.  We had fun jumping and turning around! 

.Last book of the day we saw what 10 little puppies like to do in the snow! They did some funny and silly things while they were out in the snow. 

Transition and Lunch Time

At the end of our last circle time of the day we listen for our names and when our name is called we need to find our mitten and take it off the board and give it to Mrs. Horn.  This activity allows us to work on our listening skills as well as working on following directions.  We are also incorporating letter, name and color recognition with this activity. 

.Today we began watching the story of the The Snowman. I try during the second semester to incorporate different media centered activity for the students so that they are being exposed to a wide variety of reading material.  This is one of my favorite books we will look at the book at a later date but this week we just watched the movie.  They did a great job watching it and really seemed to enjoy it.  

.We had a great first day back to school, we had minimal tears and did really well with listening and following directions.  I am looking forward to seeing you all next week.  Remember to take time to worship this weekend if you can we would love for you to join us at Zion if you do not have a home based church.  We offer services on Saturday at 5:00 and Sunday at 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00.  Blessings on a wonderful evening and remainder of the week stay warm!