Ee is for egg.

 This week we are listening and looking for the letter Ee and learning and experiencing things having to do with eggs!

Our KDI of the week is observing- Children observe the materials and processes in their environment. We will be taking a close look at the materials that make up an egg and the process from growing in an egg to being a live bird or snake or turtle or frog, anything that comes from an egg and thinking about what does and what doesn't come from an egg.

Table Activities- Table activities this week include playing with plastic eggs and playdough, making eggs out of playdough, painting a paper egg with watercolor paints, exploring with plastic eggs, using scissors to cut paper eggs in half, coloring pictures of egg layers, painting with plastic eggs and stacking plastic eggs.

Small Group Activities- Egg explore- each child will get a chicken egg to crack and explore what's outside and inside (this could get messy ;), decorating an egg shaker to take home, adding Ee for egg to our journals and making a mosaic out of eggshells- if you use any eggs between now and Thursday- I would welcome your shells- I know I should have asked earlier!!

Large Group Activities- Egg on spoon relay, dancing with an egg, egg toss and an egg hunt outside.

Books of the Week-  "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" by Ruth Heller and "An Egg is Quiet" by Dianna Hutts Aston.

Bible Story- This week our story is about Jesus healing 10 men who had the horrible disease of leprosy. These ten men had heard about Jesus and his ability to heal people miraculously. They knew he was in the area and when he came close, they cried out to him for mercy. When he saw them, he told them to go show themselves to the priest. As they went, they saw that they were healed. Out of the ten, only one man turned back and went to thank Jesus. The Bible mentions that he was a Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews did not like each other in Jesus' time, but leprosy had brought these men together. The other men took Jesus' healing for granted and never turned around to say thank you. Jesus didn't take away the healing from the others, but he did ask the man who returned, "Weren't there 10 men? Where are the other 9?" Remembering to say thank you is something we ingrain into our children. When someone gives our child something, we say, "What do you say?" I pray that we remember to say thank you to a God who gives everything we need and remember to thank him for each and every miraculous day of grace we receive!

Have an eggs-citing week!!

Magnets!!

 

This week we are going to have fun with magnets and explore the KDI of experimenting- Children experiment to test their ideas.

We are going to test what is magnetic, how far does the magnetic field stretch, what are magnetic poles and do they attract or repel, and what else can magnets do?

Table Activities- Our table activities this week include pipe cleaner monsters, magnet explore, painting with magnets, building on trays with magnets, underwater with magnets, magnetic construction tub, and pipe cleaner spiders.

Small Group Activities- Small group this week will be experimenting with what is magnetic, making a magnetic sculpture to test our magnetic field, drawing/writing about magnets in our journal, and decorating our own magnet.

Large Group Activities- This week we will move to music like "The Rubber band Song", "Tap Your Sticks on the Floor" and others. We will also make ourselves like magnets and test for magnetism outside.

Books of the Week- "What Magnets Can Do" by Allan Fowler, "Magnets: Pulling Together, Pushing Apart" by Natalie M. Rosinsky and "A Look At Magnets" by Barbara Alpert.

Bible Story- Our Bible story this week is about Jesus feeding the large crowd of over 5000. Jesus had been preaching and teaching and healing a large crowd of people and as he taught, he walked. Many people joined in and when he was finished teaching, they found themselves far from their homes. It was near the evening meal time and they were not near a town to go buy enough food and they hadn't brought food with them. Jesus' disciples came to him and said, "Tell the people to go home, it's almost dinnertime. Let them go to the villages and buy food on their way home." Jesus turned to his disciples and said, "You feed them." The disciples were astonished, how could they afford to buy enough food for a crowd this large??!! After asking around for food, they came to Jesus with 2 small dried fish and 5 loaves of bread. "This is all we could find." they told him.  Jesus took it from them, he blessed it and broke it into pieces, the disciples gave the pieces to the people and the whole crowd ate until they were satisfied. When the disciples went to collect the leftovers, they had 12 baskets full of leftover bread and fish, more than they had to begin with!! How did this happen? It was a miracle! But as always, something to strengthen the disciples faith and remind them who they were following, the Son of God! I often think it's a good illustration of my faith life, what do I bring to the table? Not much!! Jesus provides all I need to believe and so much more!  Also- Jesus' compassion- I have been telling these Bible stories to students and my own kids for almost 30 years, every time something new strikes me- every miracle so far starts with "Jesus had compassion..." This one, Jesus had compassion on the crowds to begin with, Jesus had compassion on Jairus and his daughter, Jesus had compassion on the man who couldn't walk. Compassion means to recognize the sufferings of others and then take action to help. I pray that I would be more compassionate to those I see in my own life and I pray that through these stories of Jesus, we can all become compassionate to those around us.

Mornings of crafts and afternoons of pets

 

Since this is a short week, we are using it to expand on popular play subjects in each class. 

The morning class has been into crafting, lots of glue, paper, sequins, cutting and tape. The afternoon class has been into playing puppies and kittens, building houses and bringing food to their puppies and kittens.

The KDI for the week is Engagement- Children focus on activities that interest them. Throughout the week, each class will be given the opportunity to engage and expand their play in these areas that seem to interest them already.

AM Class 

Table Activities- This week table activities include building with popsicle sticks and glue, painting and using glitter, making sculptures with noodles, beads, pipe cleaners and buttons, construction paper and glue.

 

Small Group Activities- We will sculpt with model magic and make a multi media collage on cardboard.

Large Group Activities-  Move to music with rhythm sticks and scarves.

Books of the Week-  "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds and "Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson

PM Class

Table Activities- Vet and Pet Shop Dramatic play centers, pet coloring pages and playdough with pet and dog bone cookie cutters.

Small Group Activities- Add "My Pet" to our journals and make houses for our little pets.

Large Group Activities- Animal Action songs and music movement

Books of the Week- "Not Norman" by Kelly Bennett and "Clifford, the Big Red Dog" by Norman Bridwell.

BOTH GROUPS

Bible Story- This week we hear the story of the daughter of Jairus. Jairus was a ruler  in Jerusalem and he was a father. His daughter became ill and the doctors and healers could do nothing to save her. He heard that Jesus was in town and desperately went to get him. As Jesus followed him through the streets, a crowd followed too and by the time they reached Jairus' home, it was too late. The girl was dead. Jairus was told not to bother the teacher anymore, the mourners were there, weeping and crying, the girl was dead. Jesus told Jairus not to listen to them, she wasn't dead, but merely sleeping. At that, the mourners laughed and made fun of Jesus, he didn't know what he was talking about. Jesus took Jairus and his wife and his disciples, Peter, James and John into the room where the girl lay. He took the girl's hand and said, "Little girl, get up!" And she did! He told her mother to get her something to eat and instructed them all not to go and tell everyone what they had seen. Jesus had compassion on this father and showed love by raising his little girl from the dead. The disciples were amazed also. Jesus wanted the people to listen to his words, not just follow him for his miracles! More and more proof that Jesus is God, but it is faith, not proof, believing in what cannot be seen, trusting in His promises and words, that save us. What blessings we have to be able to read the stories of God in his Word!

Some pictures from our Valentines week-

Vv is for Valentines!

 

This week we will be celebrating Valentine's Day and listening for the letter Vv. 

We will be having a low key Valentine's party on Wednesday, February 10th. I sent home a list of names for each class, I will email them again along with the blog link! We will play some games and deliver Valentines, we will eat our own snacks still and enjoy time together!

I don't know how long we will be going outside this week because of the predicted cold weather- we will still attempt to have a ten to fifteen minutes of fresh air at the end of each day!

Our KDI for the week is Art- Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through two- and three-dimensional art. We will be having a chance to create lots of different art this week with various mediums. There are always opportunities to create and craft every day!

Table Activites- Our table activities this week include Valentine's sensory bins in oatmeal, painting/ stamping with heart cookie cutters, Valentine's slime and playdough, coloring a wooden heart, hole punching heart, Valentines coloring pages and foam heart decorating.

Small Group- We will be decorating our own Valentines bag, adding Vv is for Valentines to our journal, our Valentines party and painting a large heart shape with watercolors.

Large Group- A Valentines "Simon Says" , Cupid's balloons, Valentines games and bean bag songs.

Books of the Week- "Click, Clack, Moo I Love You" by Doreen Cronin, "Slugs in Love" by Susan Pearson and "How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?" by Jane Yolen.

Bible Story- This week's story is about Jesus Calming the Storm. Jesus had been preaching, teaching and healing all day and was exhausted. He and his disciples were sailing across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee and as soon as Jesus got into the boat, he put his head down and was asleep. As they were sailing, a violent storm came up! The disciples were worried at first and then terrified. They weren't inexperienced when it came to the sea, four out of twelve of them were fishermen. This storm made them fear for their lives. Jesus slept through it all! Finally, the disciples shake him awake- Don't you care that we might drown??!!  Jesus turns to the storm, puts up his hands and says "Peace! Be still!" and immediately the storm stops. Not a gradual dying down, just stops. He turns and looks at his disciples, disappointed! Do they have such small faith? They have seen him do miraculous things, why did they doubt he knew their fear and they would be taken care of? They, on the other hand, whispered "Even the winds and the rains obey him!" Jesus created it, it obeys him. How often do we worry or despair- Does God even care or know how desperate my situation is? Why isn't he doing something? Trust Him- he is doing what is best for you! God's got it, we need to let it go!! Pray for peace and trust that the one who created the stars, has you in his hands and he will not let you go!

Pictures from our week of winter woods fun and spirit week!