Winter Wednesday!

Wednesday January 27, 2016

It was so good to see our Wednesday friends today.  Mrs. Wegener and I missed seeing you all last week and hope that you enjoyed your snow day and were able to get out and play in the cold snow!  We were a very high energy group today and had lots of fun playing and learning with our friends.  Since we did miss class next week we did some catching up today and had lots of fun glittering some snowflakes, learning the letter R and used bingo daubers to decorate a star.  Since this was the last week in January we reviewed the number 6, the shape of a star, the color white and continued to review the Christmas Story during Jesus Time and learn of what happened to Jesus when his parents thought he was lost.  We learned also about the letter R and S.  Next week there will be new themes, toys and puzzles to explore and enjoy in the classroom.  

COUPLE OF REMINDERS

Valentines

We will pass out valentines to our friends at school on Tuesday, February 9, Wednesday February 10 and Thursday February 11.  I will send a list of students for each day in a separate email.  We will make something special to carry our valentine’s home in.  Please do not send in any candy on the valentines you may attach stickers or pencils but NO CANDY! 

REGISTRATION

Our Open House on Sunday was a big success and we had a great number of families come tour our amazing school and church.  If you have not yet registered, you need to act now.  Preschool is almost full with only a few slots filled and the Early Learning Program is starting to become filled.  We are excited for the changes our Early Learning Program will be having over the next year or so and hope that you will recommend us to your friends and families.  If you still have questions please do ask. 

I HOPE YOU ENJOY VIEWING THE BLOG TODAY AND SEEING ALL THE EXCITING THINGS WE DID!  AS ALWAYS YOU MAY EMAIL ME AT HHORN@ZIONHARVESTER.ORG WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS. 

Free Choice/Centers 

Today our music selection was Disney Soundtracks we heard lots of songs that we knew.  We spent time exploring the classroom we did have a hard time using our listening ears when it was time to clean up and I did have some friends who told me "No" they were not going to clean up today.  Clean up is a big part of our routine in this classroom, the children are expected to clean up the toys with the assistance of Mrs. Horn and Mrs. Wegener.  When our friends leave our classroom and head to preschool it will be their responsibility to clean up their classrooms with their friends.  Our program is designed to help foster those types of jobs and expose them to what to expect when they enter preschool.  This is something we work on every week and some weeks we do really great and other weeks it is a real struggle for some of our friends to do this job.  

Learning the Letter R & S 

Today we did the letter R and the letter S in our Alphabet Books that will becoming home at the end of the school year.  All of our friends are doing a great job with these books and it is so fun to see what they know and remember.  

Playing with our friends

Playing is a very big part of Early Childhood Education.  We strive to make sure our friends have plenty of time to play with each other.  They may look like they are just playing but at the same time they are learning as well.   

Grant worked very hard at putting the letters on the magnet board.  He may not be able to identify the letters at this time but he is being exposed to what they look like and how they are formed.  

Reese enjoyed sitting the big rocking chair and reading a few different books.  Reese may not be able to read yet but she is learning the concept by how to hold the book, how to turn the pages.  She is looking at the pictures but is also becoming familiar with the different letters on the page how they are formed and what they look like and she is also learning how to work her way through a book left to right.  

Cutting with Scissors 

Today we got to chose a piece of paper in the color of our liking and cut it into small strips and then glue them on the shape of a star.  This activity allowed us to work on scissor cutting skills.  We are working on how to hold the scissors and how to open and close the scissors. We are also working on what the shape of star looks like and how to squeeze a glue bottle and that we need a little glue not a lot. 

More Playing and Learning

WINTER PATTERN

This month our winter pattern was a Snowman and Penguin.  Today we made our Snowman and Penguin Patterns and they are displayed in our hallway as well.  I would start the pattern and then would ask the child what would come next.  They would then have to use the glue stick to put the glue on the paper and then glue their snowman or penguin on the paper.   I am really encouraging my friends to talk to me and not just point at the pictures.  We are really doing great with our patterning. 

HOT CHOCOLATE  PAINTINGS

Today Mrs. Wegener and some of our friends got to choose what color they wanted to paint a Hot Chocolate Mug.  By allowing our friends to choose a color we are teaching them some independence as well as allowing them the freedom to be an individual and work on some color identification skills in the process.  This was a two step project after we painted our mugs we allowed them to dry and then we glued 6 Marshmallows in our mugs to help us work on the number six (those pictures are further down in the blog).  We all did a great job painting inside the lines I was really impressed by how well all my friends are doing at center time.  Be sure and check the hallway for our Hot Chocolate  Cups

SENSORY TABLE 

We have been enjoying playing in the rice that has been our table the last few weeks.  The sensory table is a great place for us to work on our pouring and scooping skills.  We did have a hard time keeping the rice in the table we had several friends who decided to dump large amounts of rice around the classroom which we then had to clean up with the vacuum cleaner.  So if your child says that it was noisy in our classroom because of the vacuum we did use it today.  Unfortunately, since we did have a hard time keeping it in the table we had to close the rice table.  

Morning Meeting 

Easton was excited to tell us today was Wednesday and then we said Happy Wednesday! 

Today after we put up the number 27 we counted how many purple squares we had on our calendar.  We had the same number of yellow, blue, green and purples squares on the calendar. 

The sun was out but it was still too cold for us to brave the outdoors.  

Our theme board for the month of January and today we counted 6 Mickey Mouses to help us with our counting skills 

Our white board along with a stuffed white kitten that made his way around the room today.  

Snowman and Penguin pattern for the month of January.  

The Letter "S" is what we are learning about this week and we are doing a great job singing our ABC's 

Transition

We have spent this month using our fine motor skills to decorate a blue sky with shiny colorful stickers.  

Jesus Time 

Today we talked about when Jesus was a little boy about the age of 12 years old he was with his mom and dad and his mom and dad thought he got lost but they found him into the church. After we read our Bible Story we sang THE BIBLE and Jesus Loves Me.  We also said a special echo prayer as we do at the end of our Jesus Time every day.  

Music and Movement 

We did not go to the commons today so we did Music and Movement twice today to help us with our gross motor skills. We had fun Clapping our Hands and doing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.  

Circle Time 

We spent time doing our flannel board story about 6 little penguins.  We have had a lot of fun with these this month.  These are great for us to work on numbers and counting and colors and shapes.  

We read this silly book about what would happen if you kept a snowman all year long and all the funny things you could do with him.  

Penguin Matching Game 

Today we had to match penguin colors with the right bow tie.  

Free Choice/Centers

Working on our Winter Words 

Today with Mrs. Wegener we had to stamp a series of different words on our paper.  These were all winter words that we have been working on and seen through out the month of January.  We would pick up a stamp and before we stamped it on the paper we would have to identify what the word was.  The stamps we had were polar bear, penguin, snowflake, snowman, star, mittens.  We did a great job being able to identify the different stamps!

WHAT DO YOU WEAR WHEN IT IS COLD OUTSIDE? BOOKS

Today we worked on some vocabulary words we have been talking about through out the month of January.  We had to identify what articles of clothing we wear outside when it is cold we also had to figure out where on our body it would go.  Today we also got to use glue sticks all by ourselves as we start to work towards being a little more independent in our center times as some of us will be heading of to Preschool next year.  These books are coming home through out the week.  Ask your child if they can "read" their book to you and tell you where they would wear a piece of clothing at.  

Star Bingo Dauber

Today we used the bingo daubers to decorate a star.  Bingo Daubers help us with our fine motor control and are ability to stay in one area.  We use bingo daubers every week and this will be a section in our portfolios that will come home at the end of the year.  It is always neat to see the progression from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Coloring with Markers

WE LOVED COLORING WITH THE MARKERS!  Today we colored a picture of a church to help us remember our Bible Story about Jesus getting lost and being found in the church

Playing and Creating 

COUNTING 6 MARSHMALLOWS (cotton balls)

More Imagination at work! 

They all worked really hard to make this path of blocks to travel on.  It was neat to see how they came up with it all on their own and how they went about getting them to fit together.  

Sparkly Snowflakes 

We had fun working our pre-writing skills and fine motor skills as we got to use the glue bottles today to trace a snowflake and then used silver glitter to make them sparkle.  We will be adding these to our snowflake walls this week.  Be sure and check them out!

Circle Time

We had a really hard time cleaning up after centers and free choice so we did not have time for more music and movement.  This made me very sad.  We did have time to read one more book and pray for lunch   

Transition 

Putting more stickers on our star paper. 

We ended our day with our lunch and our goodbye song.  I hope you enjoyed seeing what your little one has been up to in our classroom.  Please share the blog with your loved ones so they may enjoy seeing what your little one is learning and doing.  Have a wonderful evening and blessings to you all I look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday.  Remember that next Wednesday is a half day so no lunch will be served just snack!