Clean Up! Clean Up! Everybody, everywhere!

 

This week we are talking about cleaning up! Cleaning up the garbage we see on a walk, in our classroom, in our playground, at our home. We are talking about clean up efforts when there is an oil spill. We are looking at recycling or reusing. We're cleaning up!

The KDI for the week is ecology- Children understand the importance of taking care of their environment. We take care of the trash we make and make sure it goes in the proper place. We are stewards or caretakers of the world God gave us! He entrusted Adam and Eve with this job even in a perfect Garden of Eden. We have this job too. We don't worship the earth, but we do our best to care for it!

Table Activities- Table activities in this short week include cleaning up an oil spill (made with cocoa and vegetable oil), garbage truck clay mats, washing toys, sorting recycling and reusing items for art.

Small Group- This week our small group activities are making recycled paper and cutting and sorting trash and recycling.

Large Group- This week we will take a walk in the field and around our playground to pick up trash.

Books of the Week- "I Stink" by Kate and Jim McMullen and "Oil Spill" by Melvin Berger.

Bible Story- This week we travel time as we go from Joseph and his family living in Egypt as the heroes who saved them through a famine to the time when the Pharaoh ruling doesn't know about Joseph. He only sees a group of Israelites living in prime Egyptian real estate and having healthy, large families who could rise up and revolt and take over his country. He decides to clamp down on these foreigners! He enslaves them and forces them to work. He instructs his midwives to drown the male babies of the Israelite women when they assist them in giving birth. One Israelite mother named Jochabed keeps her pregnancy a secret. She gives birth and hides her little boy in her closet. When he is about three months old, he is getting too big to be hidden. She makes a basket-boat and places him inside. She is counting on the tender heart of an Egyptian princess. She sets the basket afloat in the Nile with her daughter, Miriam, closely watching. The little basket floats close to an Egyptian princess taking a bath and she hears the baby crying. She sends one of her maids out to see what is in the basket and instantly wants to keep the baby! Miriam is there and asks if she would like her to fetch someone who could nurse and take care of the baby for her. The princess says yes, and Miriam goes and gets her mother! The princess names the baby Moses, which means drawn from the water. Moses is taken care of by his own mother for the first five years of his life. He learns about what it means to be an Israelite and his religion and background. He then is taken to the Egyptian palace where he is raised as a prince of Egypt and learns all about the Egyptian religion and political system. God is preparing him for the job he is going to be calling him to do!

Here are a few pictures from our reptile week-

Rr is for reptiles.

This week we are learning about reptiles and the letter Rr. We will get to meet some reptiles and see what makes them a reptile.

Our KDI of the week is classifying. Children classify materials, actions, people and events. We are going to be classifying animals too! We will compare and contrast to see who belongs in what group.

Table Activities- This week we will have the opportunity to  play with a bubbling alligator swamp, make a bead snake, play with models of reptiles, color pictures of reptiles, play with snakes in jello for some texture fun and make reptiles out of pattern blocks.

Small Group Activities- Our small group activities this week include making a paper plate snake, a mosaic turtle and adding Rr is for reptile to our journals.

Large Group Activities- We will play with reptiles outside in the water table and who knows, we may see a reptile on the playground.

Books of the Week- Our books of the week are both by Eric Carle- "The Greedy Python" and "The Foolish Tortoise".

Bible Story- This week we hear the end of Joseph's story. Last week, our story left Joseph in jail. He was a model prisoner. Two men who worked for Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, ended up in prison with Joseph. They had some strange dreams. The baker had a dream that he was carrying baskets of bread on his head and some birds came and ate the bread out of his basket. The wine taster had a dream that he squeezed some grapes into a cup and Pharaoh drank the result. Joseph told them the meanings of their dreams. The baker would be put to death and the wine taster would return to service in Pharaoh's court. When they came true, Joseph asked the wine taster to tell Pharaoh that he was in prison unjustly. It seemed as if the wine taster had forgotten until Pharaoh had some crazy dreams. Then he remembered how Joseph had interpreted his dream and it had come true. Joseph was fetched from the prison and Pharaoh not only demanded Joseph tell him what his dreams meant, he also made him tell what the dreams were in the first place. God gave Joseph the knowledge of the dreams and their meanings. Pharaoh had two dreams- one was that seven fat cows were grazing by the bank of the Nile River and seven skinny cows came up out of the Nile and ate those fat cows, but they didn't get any fatter. Then he had a dream that seven fat heads of grain were eaten by seven skinny heads of grain and they didn't get any fatter either! The meaning of the dreams were seven years of plenty followed by seven years of extreme famine. Joseph suggested to Pharaoh that he find someone to coordinate storing up grain and harvest during the seven years of plenty to distribute during the seven years of famine. Pharaoh liked the idea so much that he made Joseph in charge! Joseph's prison chains were replaced by golden chains and he became second in command of all Egypt. Joseph's brothers were also experiencing famine and they came to Egypt to buy food, since they heard they had stored food up. Joseph's dreams came true as he saw his brothers bowing before him begging for food. They didn't realize that the Egyptian ruler they were bowing to was their little brother! Eventually their family was reunited. Joseph's brothers were very worried that he would seek revenge for everything that they had caused, but he assured them that God had worked it out to save them all! Even though things may seem insurmountable, we know how the story ends! God works all things out for the good of those who love Him!

Blessings on your week!

Pictures from apple week!