Blog for December 12 and 14

 It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!! Lots of snow out there make for a messy commute, but any time you get here is great!! We love to have you, so take your time and be safe and arrive when you can! Until the weather warms up a bit we aren't allowed to go outside. The licensing rules keep us in at 30 degrees, we may stretch that down to 28. So until temps are in the 20's we'll be having inside recess.

We are concentrating on Christmas this week!

Table activities are playing with jingle bells and magnet wands, Christmas clay mats, Christmas slime and a Christmas cutting bin.

Small group activities this week have us using our senses while we try the items Bear smells from "The Sweet Smell of Christmas" by Patricia M Scarry- today we looked at apple pie, pine tree bits, candy cane, hot cocoa, gingerbread men and an orange. Thursday we'll be using our small motor pinching to peel little stickers up and place them on lines to decorate Christmas trees.

The KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Observing: Children observe the materials and processes in their environment.- With all our senses.

Moral development: Children develop an internal sense of right and wrong. - We are having some trouble cleaning up and listening at clean up time, we are trying to help with self control and doing what's right. 

Jesus Time- This week we enter the stories that tell us about Jesus. Jesus' mother was a young woman who lived in Nazareth.  She was promised to be married to a man named Joseph. 
One day when she was working in her home, an angel appeared to her and told her that she was going to have a baby. She wondered how this could be since she wasn't married to Joseph and hadn't been with a man. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would make her pregnant with God's Son. He told her the child would be named Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. Mary accepted what the angel said. When she told Joseph, he didn't believe her at first. He was going to quietly cancel their wedding and try to cause as little embarrassment as possible for Mary. As Joseph was struggling with what decision to make and how to make it, he had a dream in which an angel also came to him and confirmed what Mary had said. Joseph did make Mary his wife and became Jesus father on earth.

Next Tuesday the Scrapmobile will be here from 10-11 am. Please fill out the attendance slip and put in your $7 if you would like to participate.

Preschool has school until Tuesday, December 19th. However, I will be leaving on vacation early. My oldest daughter graduates from college on Sunday, December 17th in Anchorage, Alaska, so I will be traveling up north for Christmas! I leave after school on Friday, December 15th.

May God richly bless you with a wonderful Christmas season and a terrific and healthy break!!

Mrs. Schneck

Blog for December 5 and 7

Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

This week we are listening for the other sound of Gg in gingerbread!

Table activities this week are gingerbread playdoh, decorating foam gingerbread people, decorating gingerbread people with clay on playdough mats and dramatic play gingerbread kitchen.

Our small group activities this week are decorating a gingerbread man and lacing a gingerbread man shape.

Our books of the week are "The Gingerbread Man" retold by Louise Martin and "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett.

KDIs we are working on this week are-

Pretend play: Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through pretend play.- making "cookies" with playdough, working in a kitchen, being policemen using binoculars, all part of play seen so far this week.

 Sense of competence: Children feel they are competent.  - More and more as we work to put on our own slippers, shoes and coats. We just need the time to be able to do it ourselves!

Jesus Time- This is our last Old Testament story. This week we hear about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the three young men brave enough to stand up to a king. 
Last week we heard the story of David and Goliath. David eventually became king and Israel went through a long list of kings, some good and some bad, many leading the Israelites away from God and to idol worship. After a time, God gave the Israelites a wake up call and the country of Babylon invaded and took Israel's brightest and best young people captive. The rest of the nation was scattered among other nations Babylon had conquered. King Nebuchadnezzer, Babylon's king, had a strict regimen he wanted his young captives to follow, including diet. When the Israelites informed the Babylonians that they followed their own dietary laws, they were upset. Over several weeks, the Israelites were given a chance to show that their way would work. By the end of the trial period, they were stronger and healthier than the rest of the captives. They gained the respect of the Babylonian government. 
King Nebuchadnezzer then had a dream where he felt he was led to erect a giant gold statue for his subjects to worship. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused. The punishment for not doing what the king asked you to was to be thrown into a blazing hot furnace. The king gave the young men one more chance. When they refused again, he ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal. The boys were bound hand and foot and thrown into the furnace. The furnace was so hot that the guards who threw them in were instantly killed.
When King Nebuchadnezzer looked into the furnace, he couldn't believe his eyes, not only were the boys walking around unharmed, there was also a fourth man in the furnace who looked like the son of a god- he was the Son of The God!! Nebuchadnezzer called the boys out of the furnace and ordered his people to only worship Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's God. Our God is a Mighty God!!

Please remember to sign up for the Christmas Service you are attending on December 17th-Christmas Service sign up

Also we are having Christmas Service practice this Saturday, December 9th from 9-11am. Just drop off your child at the church and we will practice the service, have a little snack and play a bit and probably practice walking in and out again.
See you then!!

Also Arts and Scraps at school field trip on Tuesday, December 19th- note coming home Tuesday!

A reminder to send hats and mittens, and boots when the time comes, with your little ones! The weather quickly changes here in Michigan. We will go outside as long as it is above freezing and not raining too hard.