Bug Week!

 

This week we are going to focus on insects and spiders! Both our butterflies and ladybugs have gone through their metamorphosis and are adult insects. We also have plenty of spiders, ants, and other insects appearing outside and inside of our classroom, so we'll take a closer look at them!

Our KDI of the week is classifying- Children classify materials, actions, people and events. We will classify bugs as spiders, insects or others based on number of legs and body parts. We will talk about other animal classifications also!

Table Activities- This week we will have the opportunity to play with a bug sensory bin, catch spiders in webs, make impressions of bugs in playdough, sort into groups of spiders, insects and others, color bugs, create bugs, dot paint bugs and make bugs on sticky paper.

Small Group Activities- We will take a closer look at both insects and spiders, draw a spider and draw an insect, color parts of a giant bug model and make a model of an insect or spider with model magic.

Large Group Activity- Look for bugs!

Books of the Week-  "The Eensy, Weensy Spider" by Mary Ann Hoberman, "Hey, Little Ant"  by Hannah and Philip Hoose, "Diary of a Spider" by Doreen Cronin and "Are You a Grasshopper?" by Judy Allen.

Bible Story- This week we will finish our stories of just what happened on Easter Sunday! So far we have talked about the women finding the tomb empty, Jesus appearing to Mary Magdelene and Jesus walking and talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now we will hear the account of Jesus appearing to his disciples on Easter evening. 

The disciples were in a locked room, afraid of what might happen to them. Were the authorities coming to arrest them like they had arrested Jesus? As they were in the room, they were praying and Jesus appeared in their midst! He came right through the locked door. He said "Peace be with you!" He showed them his hands and side.  They were worried he might be a ghost, so he asked for something to eat to show them he was not. He invited them to touch him and see he was flesh and blood. 

As he was with them, he continued to teach them and opened the Scriptures to them, just as he had to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. He told them that he was preparing them to send them out. They were to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit that he was going to send them first.

Jesus gently instructs and prepares his disciples, just as he instructs and prepares us through his Word! We listen and learn more every time we here his Word! We continue to learn more and be better equipped to share with others the Gospel message we have been blessed with ourselves!

Ww is for wind.

 

This week we are listening and looking for the letter Ww and the effects of the wind! We will hopefully have some breeze to help us!

Our KDI of the week is movement- Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine and feel through movement. As we see how the wind moves things, we can move with the wind ourselves and see how making our own wind by blowing feels.

Table Activities- This week we will get the opportunity to make pinwheels, paint with wind, make wind socks, use straws to make underwater wind, color a fan, bead a kite tail and pin scarves to a clothesline in the wind created by a small fan.

Small Group- We will experiment to see what the wind blows, make a kite, add Ww is for wind to our journal and create a large wind painting outside.

Large Group- Hopefully we will get the opportunity to fly our kites and experiment with the wind with other objects outside.

Books of the Week- "Feel the Wind" by Arthur Dorros and  "The Wind Blew" by Pat Hutchins.

Bible Story- This week our Bible story is about a road trip. On Easter Sunday, two of Jesus followers were walking to the town of Emmaus, about 8 miles outside Jerusalem. As they were walking, they were talking about all that had happened that week. A third man asked if he could join them. As they all walked together, he asked what they were talking about. They were surprised that he hadn't heard everything that had gone on in Jerusalem that week. They filled him in about Jesus arrest, death and burial and the fact that some women claimed that they had seen Jesus alive that very day. 

They didn't know what to believe! The third man was Jesus, he kept his identity hidden. Jesus talked to them and opened up the Scriptures to them, showing them how everything that happened fulfilled what had been prophesied. As the disciples reached Emmaus, they invited this stranger to have the evening meal with them. As he said the blessing, he let them see who he was and then he disappeared!

They were astonished- didn't our hearts burn with in us?? They ran back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that they had indeed seen the Lord!

How amazing! Jesus shows us himself through his Word even today! Read it and walk with Jesus your whole life through!

 Some pictures from box week-

  

Xx is for box

 

This week we are playing with boxes and listening and looking for the letter Xx.

Our KDI for this week is gross motor skills- children demonstrate strength, flexibility, balance and timing in using their large muscles. We'll enjoy moving big boxes, balancing boxes, knowing how to move ourselves around to prevent boxes from falling over!

Table Time- This week we will color inside and outside large boxes, make a box, play with boxes of all shapes and sizes, pound golf tees into boxes, decorate boxes, "Not a Box" coloring sheets, enjoy a nail and hair salon on the boxes, use our boxes inside and out!

Small Group Time- We will use our imagination to create with a box, make a gift to go inside a box, add Xx to our journal and complete a "Not a Box" activity.

Large Group Time- We will play with boxes!

Books of the Week- "What To Do With a Box" by Jane Yolen, "Not a Box" by Antoinette Portis, and "Boxitects" by Kim Smith are our books this week. 

Bible Story- This week we hear about Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene. Mary was a follower of Jesus whom he had healed! Her life was completely changed through the love of her Lord and she followed him loyally! She had been at the cross, watching Jesus die and was with the other women who came to the tomb to better prepare Jesus' body. 

As soon as the women came to the tomb that Sunday morning, they saw the stone rolled away. It seems that Mary ran back to tell the disciples that someone had stolen Jesus body right then. The other women looked closer and that is when the angel appeared and told them that  Jesus was no longer dead. Mary didn't get to hear the good news, she was distraught. 

When she returned from telling the disciples that Jesus body had been stolen, she looked in the tomb and saw two angels. It seems she was so sorrowful that she didn't recognize them as angels and when they asked her why she was crying, she said that her Lord's body had been taken and she didn't know where they had put it! 

As she turned from the grave, she saw a man she thought was the gardener. He asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for. She begged him to tell her where they had put Jesus' body. Jesus said, "Mary."

Immediately Mary knew it was Jesus! She fell at his feet with happy tears now! She didn't yet touch his, but ran to tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord and he was alive!!

What Joy! Jesus is alive!!

Some pictures from our Tacky week-

Helen Lester Author Study

 

This week we are diving into Tacky the Penguin books and the author Helen Lester! She tackles many childhood situations with humor and wit!

This week's KDI is reading- Children read for pleasure and information. We'll take a look at Tacky books and also read a non-fiction book about penguins to see how books are the same subject matter, but such different purposes!

Table Activities- This week you can make a penguin, enjoy a penguin sensory bin, play with penguins and fake ice, make some Winter Games Olympic medals, color some Tacky coloring pages, paint with Tacky, make some Hawaiian shirts and leis and have fun with some Tacky clay mats.

Thursday will be a "Dress Like Tacky Day", so wear your Hawaiian shirt and get a lei at school! We'll be "Tacky" all day!

Small Group Activities- This week we'll act out some Tacky stories at our tables, add Tacky to our journals and learn to draw a penguin.

Large Group Activities- We'll play some games like the penguins played at their Winter Games!

Books of the Week- "Tacky the Penguin" various titles by Helen Lester.

Bible Story of the Week- This week we are going to hear about Jesus resurrection!

 After Jesus died on the cross, a man named Joseph from Arimathea volunteered to give Jesus his tomb. It was a cave in which Joseph and his family would be buried some day. Another man named Nicodemus, who had visited Jesus in the night, also came forward and helped prepare Jesus body for burial. They had to rush because it would soon be Passover Sabbath. They quickly washed Jesus and wrapped him in strips of linen. The women who had watched agreed to return early Sunday, when the Sabbath was finished. They wanted to do a more thorough job and give Jesus the burial that he deserved!

All was quiet on Saturday. The Chief Priest demanded that Pilate put a guard on the tomb since Jesus had said he would rise on the third day. They thought that perhaps his disciples would come and steal his body and say he had risen.

Sometime in the early hours of Sunday morning, an earthquake shook the tomb. The stone rolled away from the entrance and an angel came out and sat upon the stone. The guards fainted like dead men! When they woke, they fled. The women were on their way with spices and new linen, when they arrived at the tomb, they saw the angels who told them that Jesus was not dead, he was alive! They were to go and tell his disciples that he was risen, just as he said he would be!

The guards went to the Chief Priest and Pharisees and told them what had happened. They bribed the guards and told them to say that his disciples had come and stolen the body. They would run interference with Pilate so the guards wouldn't get in trouble for leaving their post.

Jesus was risen! These were the first of his appearings! He would go on to appear to over 500 people. Jesus is alive still today! What a blessing to know that because he lives, we also will live!