"What are we interested in?" week

This week we have a short week and our themes for the week reflect what a lot of students have been playing or showing interest in over the last few weeks. Not everyone has been playing these themes, but some of the other interests have already been focused on or will be focused on!

Our KDI of the week is engagement- Children focus on activities that interest them. We will get the chance to expand on what they seem to be interested in .

The AM class loves their cars, trucks, and planes so we will be focusing on transportation. Table activities will include making paper airplanes, floating boats, playing with trains and cars, coloring pictures on those themes, printing with wheels.

 Our small group will be working on our auction project- we will be painting squares of fabric with liquid watercolors and making them into a quilt, we will also paint a vehicle to go with our transportation theme.

Our large group includes singing along with Laurie Berkner's "Drive My Car" and pretending we are in different kinds of vehicles.

Our books of the week are "Cars and Trucks" by Richard Scarry, "Blue Boat" by Kersten Hamilton and "Freight Train" by Donald Crews.

The PM class has been moving chairs, collecting food and throwing parties on the ABC rug! So we will have a party theme this week. Table activities will include Happy Birthday bins, making party hats, playdough cake decorating and painting a giant cardboard cake.

Our small group will be working on our auction project which will be painting mini canvases and putting them together for one work of art and having a "party" with games and favors.

Our large group will include singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing our pretend candles and a dance party.

Our books of the week are "Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party" by Kimberly and James Dean, "Groovy Joe Dance Party Countdown" by Eric Litwin and "Bunny Cakes" by Rosemary Wells.

Bible Story- Our Bible Story this week is the feeding of the 5000. A large group of people were following Jesus as he preached, he shared God's word with them all day long. Late in the afternoon, the disciples came to Jesus and reminded him of the time. They told him it was getting late in the day and the people are hungry, he should send them away to buy food for themselves. Jesus said, "No, you feed them." The disciples were stunned! How could they possibly feed so many people? The crowd numbered in the thousands. They told Jesus they couldn't afford to buy enough food, even with a year's wages and there just wasn't any place to buy it from! How could they do it? One disciples found a young boy with five loaves of bread and two small fish, but that wasn't enough to feed so many people. Jesus told the people to sit down, he took the lunch and blessed it and began to break off pieces of the fish and loaves for his disciples to pass around. The food kept coming and the disciples kept passing. The people ate until they were full and the disciples went around with baskets to pick up the left overs. There were 12 baskets left! More food was left over then there was to begin with!! Do we ever have to worry that Jesus won't take care of us? Never!! He has us in his hands! Unfortunately, people liked this part of Jesus and wanted to make him their "Bread King" they would never have to work again!! That was not why Jesus came, so he left the crowds to go away and pray. Jesus takes care of us all the time!! 

How often do we say thank you? We will be coming up on the story of the lepers who were healed. They forgot to say thank you. Many of these people probably didn't remember to say thank you, they just wanted more. We live our lives in constant thankfulness for what our Lord has done for us, not just physically, but spiritually more important!

Some Valentines pictures- Thank you for all the wonderful Valentines gifts!

Vv is for Valentines!

 

This week we are going to celebrate Valentine's Day and look and listen for the letter Vv.

Our KDI  that we are focusing on for the week is conflict resolution- children resolve social conflicts. We work on this all the time! Using our words instead of being physical, taking turns, compromising with our ideas. Conflict isn't bad, it's how we resolve it that can turn ugly. Conflict happens when two people have two different ideas about how things should go. We want to listen to each other and work out a way to work together. That doesn't mean one person always gives in, but we figure out a way that both ideas (if they are good, God-pleasing ideas) can be honored. We'll have some examples in our books of the week about this topic!

Table Activities-  Table activities this week include Valentine playdough and slime, using those hand muscles to hole punch some hearts, painting with heart cookie cutters, Valentine's coloring pages, Valentine sensory bins, melting baking soda hearts with vinegar, making heart bead necklaces.

Small Group Activities- Monday we will be decorating bags to take our Valentines home in (if your student isn't here Monday, they can do it Tuesday morning), Tuesday we'll have our Valentines hand out time and games while handing out, we'll add Vv is for Valentines to our journals and Thursday we'll paint a big heart.

Large Group Activities- Heart balloons and Valentine's games will be our large group activities this week.

Books of the Week- "I Love You Even When" by Donna Keith and "Click, Clack, Moo I Love You" by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.

Bible Story- Our Bible story this week is the story of Jairus' Daughter. Jairus was a leader in the local synagogue. His 12 year old daughter was very sick. They had tried everything, doctors and family had come and gone and she had not gotten better, only worse. Jairus went out to get Jesus as a last ditch effort. When he found Jesus, a large crowd had gathered around him. Jairus begged him to come! As they slowly made their way through the city, messengers came to Jairus and told him it was too late, his daughter had already died. Jesus told Jairus, "Don't be afraid, only believe!" and he continued with him until he reached Jairus' house. When they got there, the house was full of mourners crying and wailing. He said to them, "Why are you crying? The child isn't dead, only asleep!" They mocked and laughed at him, so he sent them out of the house. He took Peter, John and James into the child's room along with her mother and father. He took the little girl by her hand and said, "Little girl, get up." And she did! He told her parents to get her something to eat. He also gave them strict instructions not to tell anyone else what happened. Jesus was not here on earth as a magician or miracle worker. He could do miracles, but his main purpose here was to save us. He was here to live a perfect life and suffer death, be abandoned by his father, God, in our place. He loves us and doesn't like to see his children suffer. He was the opposite of what we see in the many "faith healers" on television. They perform their healing and miraculous deeds for all to see and praise. Jesus healed in private for the love of those he served, not for the love of Himself. It's a good test for ministers and churches, are they focused on praising themselves or is their focus pointing to Christ? Jesus is the focus of our worship and praise!

Some pics from our dinosaur week-

 time and  time and game