Ww is for winter woods.

This week our theme is winter woods and the letter Ww.

Table activities this week include making beaded icicles or bracelets, paper snowpeople, playing with snow inside, tinker items to make a snowflake, snow playdough, and cut snowflakes.

Small group activities include painting on snow, making a snowy tree suncatcher, adding a Ww is for winter woods page to our journals.

KDI for the week is Natural and Physical world: Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world. We look at snow and snowflakes, how animals hibernate, why is it winter and answer other questions and think of more about this time of year.

Jesus Time- This week we hear the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man. Jesus was preaching in a house in Capernaum and people filled the house to the door. Four men came carrying their friend who had somehow become paralyzed for Jesus to heal. There was no way for them to get in the house. In Jesus' day, the roofs on houses in Israel were flat, used for drying grain and storage, so the friends carefully carried the man to the roof of the house, lifted up the roof tiles and lowered him down, right in front of Jesus. Jesus' first words to the man were, "Son, be happy, your sins are forgiven." Some who were listening to Jesus thought, "Who does this man think he is, to forgive sins?" It was then that Jesus told the man to get up, roll up his mat and walk home. And the man did! Just like that, his atrophied muscles became strong and well again and he was healed. He was forgiven. We need to be forgiven too. And that is why Jesus came to live and die and rise again on earth, so we could be forgiven!

Books of the week- "Over and Under the Snow" by Kate Messner,  "Stranger in the Woods" by Jean Stoick and Carl R. Sams II, and "Best in Snow" by April Sayre.

Tomorrow is our field trip conducted by Leslie Science and Nature Center, but held at Gallup Park! If you haven't signed up, you can still come! It is $6 per participating child. We'll meet at 10:00am at Gallup Park, 3000 Fuller Road, Ann Arbor, MI.

Have a great week!

Our snow creations!

Dd is for dinosaur

This week we are learning about dinosaurs and listening for the letter Dd!

Table activities include playing with dinosaur toys, painting with dinosaur cookie cutters, trays with baking soda, dinosaurs and "volcanoes"  and dinosaur pattern blocks.

Small group activites include excavating a dinosaur skeleton and dinosaurs, baking soda and "volcanoes".

Our KDI of the week is-
Drawing conclusions- Children draw conclusions based on their experiences and observations.- We take a look at dinosaur fossils and try and figure out what part goes where, what are we missing, what did this dinosaur look like, move like, eat? Scientists do a lot of drawing conclusions without much evidence.

Jesus Time- This week we are listening to the story of the great catch of fish. Jesus was talking to his disciples who happened to be fishermen. They had just been out for a long night of fishing and had caught nothing. Jesus had a crowd of people following him, listening to his teaching. He asked the fishermen, Simon, Andrew, James and John to take him out in their boat so he could talk to the people more easily and they couldn't crowd him. As they were out in the boat, Jesus told them to let down their nets. Simon balked, they hadn't caught anything! This wasn't the right place or the right time, but Lord, because you say so, we'll let down our nets. There was an immediate tug and so many fish were caught in the nets that they began to break and the boats began to sink. Simon Peter fell to his knees, and said, "Lord, go away from me, for I am a great sinner!" He knew for sure that Jesus was God, and what right did he have to stand before him, especially since he just doubted him. Jesus then told Simon, no longer will you catch fish, but you will catch men. Simon left fishing, and followed Jesus. How often do we doubt, thinking, "I know what I should do, God, but that's not going to work right now." And God says, "Trust me!"

Books of the week are "How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?" by Mark Teague and Jane Yolen, "We Love Dinosaurs" by Lucy Volpin and "Dinosaurs A-Z for kids who really love dinosaurs" by Roger Priddy.

Next week, Tuesday, January 28th is our field trip to Gallup Park, 3000 Fuller Rd. Ann Arbor, for our "Winter Woods" presentation by Leslie Science and Nature Center- hope to see you there!

Have a great week!

This week we are listening for the letter Ll and all the other letters too!! All our activities have to do with the sights and sounds of the ABCs!

Table activities this week include magnetic letters on baking trays, letter stamps, letter playdoh mats, foam sticker letters, bathtub letters, letter dot painting and waxy strips on letters.

In small group we are listening for letter sounds and matching letter sounds to letter shapes as we try to identify objects that start with a certain sound or which sound starts each object in our ABC boxes. We will also try writing the shapes of the ABCs.

Our KDI for the week is Alphabetic Knowledge- Children identify letter names and their sounds. We are working on both this week and every week!

Jesus Time this week brings us to the story of the first miracle. We talked about Jesus baptism today, but will finish the week with the story of Jesus turning water into wine. Jesus and his disciples had been invited to a wedding in Cana. In those days, wedding feasts lasted 7 days and the families provided food, clothing and shelter for all guests. And we think weddings are expensive today! As the week was drawing to an end, they ran out of wine. Jesus' mother was also at the wedding and she told Jesus, hoping he would do something. He would, but when it was the right time. He called a servant to him and told him to fill the huge empty wine jugs with water. Then he told him to take a cup of "water" to the master of the feast. When he tasted it, he asked why they saved the best wine for the end? Jesus told the servants not to say who brought or turned the water into wine. Jesus disciples saw what was happening and wondered at who they were following. There was something very special about Jesus!

Books of the week - "Animalia" by Graeme Base, "A was once an Apple Pie" by Edward Lear and "Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z" by Lois Ehlert.

Two field trips coming up- Tuesday, January 21st is an all school field trip to AirTime, a trampoline park on Warren Rd. and Tuesday, January 28th will be a preschool field trip to Gallup Park in Ann Arbor to a Winter Woods field trip presented by Leslie Science and Nature Center.

Slips for Airtime go home the beginning of the week and slips for Gallup Park will go home Thursday and Friday. Both are in the email today.

A reminder that there is No School on Monday, January 20th for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Have a great week!

Uu is for upside-down

This week we are doing things upside down and listening for the sound of Uu.  Being upside down can be great for kids, research shows it can calm and center kids who are upset - This piece of advice comes from the website- "the inspired treehouse" informing why kids need upside down play-

Has your little one ever peered at you from between her legs as she takes in the world from an upside down point of view?  Funny and cute, right?

Well, it turns out that experimenting with being upside down (beginning around the age of two) is more than just cute!  As kids grow, they have the ability to contort their bodies into all kinds of crazy positions to get the sensory input they need to regulate their bodies and behavior and to lay the foundation for the development of important motor skills.  

We may be too old or too proud to hang our heads over the side of the bed or off of the edge of the couch, but some of us like to get adventurous with crazy yoga poses that provide us the experience of being upside down.  The benefits of this gravity-defying feat include better posture, improved circulation, improved mood, better flexibility, better balance, improved upper body and core strength and more!

When you see your little one hanging upside down, don’t redirect her!  Instead, supervise and encourage as she gives her vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, and tactile systems the input she needs to get in sync!

We won't be doing all our play upside down, but here are some of the activities we will be doing-

Table time includes stacking with upside down cups, putting rubber bands on upside down chair legs, drawing on an upside down table, dumping things upside down in water play, coloring upside down, putting orbeez on upside down bath grippers and sticky upside down play.

Small group activities include coloring upside down, making an upside down picture of ourselves, and an upside down journal entry.

Our KDI for the week is Body Awareness- Children know about their bodies and how to navigate them in space. Being upside down and seeing things from a different perspective helps us figure out how our bodies work!

Jesus Time- This week we hear about the boy Jesus in the temple. When Jesus was 13 years old, he went with his family for the first time to worship in the temple in Jerusalem. This was a huge celebration time and Mary and Joseph and Jesus traveled with a large group of family and friends to Jerusalem. There were huge crowds there to celebrate as well. They spent 7 days going and worshiping and celebrating at the temple. Each evening getting together to share a meal and sleep. Mary and Joseph prepared to leave to return to Nazareth, but Jesus wasn't with them. They assumed he was with family or friends, but when evening came and they were a day's journey away from Jerusalem, he wasn't there. Worried, they searched among their fellow travelers. When he could not be found, they returned to Jerusalem. They searched the city for 3 days. When they returned to the temple, they heard a familiar voice talking with the teachers and scribes. They had found Jesus! He was questioning and learning with the most learned men in the temple. They were amazed at his wisdom and knowledge. Mary and Joseph were upset that he had not told them where he was. He gently reminded them who he was, not just their son, but the son of God. He had work to do here on earth, this was part of it. He went obediently with them back to Nazareth where he grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man. 

Books of the week- "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon, "Silly Sally" by Audrey Wood and "Round Trip" by Ann Jonas.

More information on our January field trip should be coming soon!

Have a super week!

Jj is for Jesus

This week we are listening and looking for Jj for Jesus. Our theme is candy canes because they are an upside down Jj.

Morning activities include experimenting with candy canes, coloring wooden ornaments, painting with candy cane cookie cutters, candy cane sensory boxes, ribbon and wrapping cutting, and candy cane patterns.

Small group activities include making a beaded candy cane ornament, decorating cookies, foam nativities and opening gifts.

On Wednesday, December 18th, the Monday/Wednesday/Friday class will be decorating cookies. I have enough for each child to decorate four cookies to take home or you can bring your own cookies to decorate. Parents, grandparents, etc., are encouraged to come, but they don't have to if they are not able to make it! I have powdered sugar frosting and lots of sprinkles. We will start decorating around 10:30. They will be doing their gift exchange on Friday.

On Thursday, December 19th, the Tuesday/Thursday class will decorate cookies at about 10:30. I have enough for each child to have four cookies to take home or they can bring their own to decorate. Parents, grandparents, etc. are welcome to attend! After we decorate cookies, they will be doing their gift exchange.

Jesus Time- This week we hear the story of the Wise men coming to see Jesus in Bethlehem. At the time Jesus was born, magi in the East saw an unusual star. They had been taught about the promised Messiah by people who had been around at Daniel's time. He shared the good news of a promised Savior with them. When they saw the star, they decided to follow it to see the new king. It took them about a year of traveling to make it to Jerusalem, the capital city of Judea, where they assumed the king would be. When they questioned citizens of Jerusalem, King Herod was alerted of a new king's birth and he was not happy. He, and he alone, was the king. Herod had  the wise men brought in and questioned them concerning the star. He had his wise men look up prophecies to see where the king would be born. They came upon a prophecy in Micah that said the king would be born in Bethlehem. He set the wisemen from the East on ahead to find the newborn king, with instructions to return and tell him where the child was. The wisemen continued to follow the star when it came to stop over a house where Mary, Joseph and Jesus were living. The wisemen entered, worshipped Jesus and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Then they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod because he wanted to harm the child. Joseph and Mary were also warned in a dream of Herod's coming and they fled to Egypt until King Herod was dead.

Books of the week are "Once Upon a Clear, Dark Night" by Jeffrey Burkart, "Candy Cane Christmas" by Helen Haidle and " J is for Jesus; The Sweetest Story Ever Told" by Crystal Bowman.

On Sunday, please come to church 15 minutes before your chosen service! We will meet in the 1st and 2nd grade room, which is down the hall, across from the girls' bathroom.

I will not be at school Wednesday-Friday this week because one of my daughters is graduating from college in Minnesota. I will be here on Sunday for the Christmas Service. If I don't see you, have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year! See you in 2020!!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays! This week we are listening for and looking at the letter Hh for holiday. Holiday originally came from the words Holy Day. Christmas is a day set apart for celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Table activities include making an ornament suncatcher, stamping lights, trimming a paper tree, Christmas dot painting, creating an ornament and Christmas playdoh mats.

Small group this week includes making a star popsicle stick ornament, a glitter tree ornament, some Christmas experiments and adding an Hh page to our journal.

Our KDI for the week is Art-Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine and feel through two- and three-dimensional art.

Jesus Time- This week we hear about Jesus' birth. Mary and Joseph are married and in Nazareth when an order comes down from the Roman emperor. He wants everyone to return to the town of their birth to be counted. That means Mary and Joseph will have to make the trip to Bethlehem, a small village outside Jerusalem. It takes them at least three days to walk or slowly ride a donkey. When they arrive, there is no open space for them to stay in any houses, they village is packed full of people. Finally, they find someone who has space in a stable, probably a cave in the side of a hill, used to keep animals. It's smelly, but dry and warm as Mary is about to give birth. She gives birth to a son and he is named Jesus!  She lays him, swaddled in a manger, in the stable. Some shepherds who were out watching their sheep were startled by the appearance of an angel. After the angel tells them not to be afraid, they proclaim the good news of Jesus birth and how to find him- You will find the baby, wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.  Suddenly, millions of angels appear, as if the curtain is drawn back to catch a glimpse of heaven! All singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!" After the angels went back into heaven, the shepherds ran into Bethlehem to find this baby the angels had told them about! They found him and praise him and returned to their fields, telling everyone along the way what they had seen and heard! Mary quietly thought about everything that had happened. Pondered, is the word our Bible translation uses- thought about over and over again.

Books of the week- "Mortimer's Christmas Manger" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman,     "Snowmen at Christmas" by Mark and Carolyn Buehner and "A Night of Great Joy" by Mary Engelbreit.

This Saturday, December 14th, from 9-11am is the Christmas Service Practice. Please drop your child off by the flagpole entrance and pick them up in the Multi-Purpose Room close to the kitchen. (You'll see when you drop off) 

Also, there is a sign up for which service you would like to attend on the bulletin board in preschool. If you are unable to attend, just write that, along with your child's name on the sign up!

Thanks so much! Have a fun, festive week!

Gg is for gingerbread!

This week we are listening for and looking at the letter Gg. We are mainly focusing on the soft or /j/ sound of Gg, but we do talk about the fact that Gg makes two sounds.

Table activities include dramatic play, gingerbread playdoh, decorating paper gingerbread people, clay mat gingerbread, decorating wooden gingerbread, gingerbread coloring pages and lacing gingerbread.

Small group activites include making felt gingerbread ornaments, decorating and eating gingerbread cookies and adding a Gg is for gingerbread page to our journals.

KDI for the week is-
Body Awareness- Children know about their bodies and how to navigate them in space.- This week as we play with gingerbread, we ask how many legs, arms, etc. , where do their eyes go? We'll also play some games moving our body parts in certain ways.

Jesus Time- This week we move into the New Testament as we prepare for the birth of Jesus. This week we hear about the angel Gabriel coming and announcing Jesus birth to Mary. Mary was a young woman living in the town of Nazereth. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, but they weren't yet married. The angel Gabriel came to her and told her that she would have a baby. She didn't know how this could be, since she had never been with a man. The angel explained that the child would be from the Holy Spirit. When she told Joseph that she was pregnant, he was going to let her not marry him. Then an angel also came to Joseph in a dream and explained to him what was happening. Mary willingly gave herself over to God's will, trusting that God would do what was best for her and through her, do what was best for the world!

Our books of the week are "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett, "The Gingerbread Man" a folktale, and "Maisy Makes Gingerbread" by Lucy Cousins.

I will be pulling names for our Christmas gift exchange later this week. The Christmas parties will be held the last week of school before Christmas, the Tuesday/Thursday class on Thursday, December 19 and the Monday/Wednesday/Friday class will be on Friday, December 20. The gift should be no more than $5 and brought the day of the party with the child's and your child's name on it.

Preschoolers also participate in the Peace Lutheran School Christmas Service on Sunday, December 22nd. We have two services, one at 8:30 and one at 11:00. Preschoolers are not expected to be at both services, so you can choose which one you would like to attend. There will be a sign up on the table for you to indicate which service you will be attending. We also have a Saturday practice for this service on December 14th. I believe it will be from 9-11am. I will let you know for sure by the end of the week!

Have a sweet week!