Oo is for ocean.

 

This week we are looking and listening for the shape and sound of the letter Oo. We are also learning and having fun playing with our ocean theme!

Our KDI of the week is Ecology- Children understand the importance of taking care of their environment. We will clean up an "oil spill" and read about how oil spills and other pollution affect wildlife in our oceans and what we can do about it! As Christians, we have a special responsibility to be good stewards of the world God entrusted us with and balance that with caring about people, who are the crown of His creation. It is a precarious balancing act, for sure!

Table Activities- This week's table activities include ocean water play, oil spill clean up, ocean coloring pages, sand playdough, stamp painting, seashell investigation, coloring foil fish and making an ocean bead necklace.

Small Group- This week's small group activities include making an "ocean bottle", painting seashells, adding Oo is for ocean to our journals, and making permanent sand castles.

Large Group- This week's large group activities include "surfing" to surfer songs, ocean animal body shapes, singing "Baby Shark" and "Five Little Fishies"

Books of the Week- "Oil Spill" by Melvin Berger and "Somewhere in the Ocean" by Jennifer Ward and T. J. Marsh

Bible Story- Our Bible story this week takes place on the ocean, probably the Mediterranean Sea. We are about 100 years past Naaman, foreign invaders continue to attack Israel. The temple has not been destroyed yet, so there are still believers in the promise and God continues to speak to the people through his prophets. One of God's prophets is named Jonah. Jonah is commanded by God to go to the people of Nineveh and preach repentance. The Bible says the people of Nineveh had done great evil against the Lord. Nineveh was huge!! Kind of like Los Angeles, millions of people who wanted nothing to do with the one true God. Jonah did not want to preach to them. So he bought passage on a boat headed to Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction of Nineveh! He promptly went below decks and fell asleep- it's exhausting running from God! While he slept, a fierce storm began, the sailors were desperate to keep the ship afloat and began throwing over cargo. The captain went down and woke up Jonah and told him to pray to whatever God he served to save them!! When Jonah said he worshipped the God who created the sea, the captain asked what Jonah had done to anger him. The captain wanted to know what they could do to calm the sea down. Jonah told him to throw him overboard, so they did- and immediately the sea was calm. God sent a giant fish to swallow Jonah whole. Jonah prayed and repented as he was in the belly of the fish for three days. God had the fish throw Jonah up on a beach. Imagine how uncomfortable it was for Jonah, tightly cramped, stomach acids stinging your skin, breathing and the smell must have been horrible. God was showing Jonah that not obeying would lead to far worse consequences for him and all the people of Nineveh. They would end up in hell, much worse than the belly of a fish. And they would be there for eternity, not just three days! After Jonah was deposited on the beach, he cleaned himself up and went to Nineveh. He preached throughout the city that God would bring judgement on them if they did not repent. That judgement would come in 40 days. The Ninevites repented and believed, everyone!! From the King to the lowliest citizen, they all repented and came to faith in the one true God!! God's word spoken by the prophet Jonah, worked faith in their hearts. Jonah's book in the Bible leaves me wondering if Jonah himself had saving faith. But God brought many to faith through him. God's Word works, whether we want it to or think people are worthy of it. God loved the world!! That's what your children are learning for Christmas! 

John 3:16- For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

A few picks from last week- We had Christmas music on and dancing was all the rage! We used bugs to count and they became hair accessories!

Nn is for numbers.

 

Nn is for numbers is our theme this week. We will listen and look for the letter Nn and it's sound while we count and practice recognizing our number forms and what they stand for!

Our KDI for the week is 31-32-Number Words and Symbols and Counting- Children recognize and use number words and symbols. and Children count things. We will be doing both recognizing numbers and counting.

Table Activities- This week table activities include bath numbers and bubbles, stamping numbers, making numbers from playdough, number magnets, matching big foam numbers with little number stickers, number puzzles, and number stickers.

Small Group- This week we will match the number symbol with the picture for one to one correspondence, trace our numbers 0-9, add Nn is for number to our journal and continue working on matching the number symbol with that number of items.

Large Group- This week we will make number shapes with our bodies, play number hide and seek, dance to the number boogie and play "Mother, may I take __ steps?"

Books for the week- Our books for the week are "Chicka Chicka 1,2,3" by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, "Ten Black Dots" by Donald Crews and "Mouse Count" by Ellen Stoll Walsh.

Bible Story- Our Bible Story this week takes place years after David was king of Israel. Now the Israelites are not following God and God has allowed other countries to conquer and invade Israel. One of those countries is Aram. There is a commander in Aram's army named Naaman. Naaman was a legendary army commander, but he had contracted leprosy. Leprosy was a horrible disease that would rob Naaman of his career and his family. Because it was contagious, people moved away from their families and lived in colonies with others who had leprosy. There was a young girl who was captured from Israel who served as a slave in Naaman's household. She told his wife that he should go and see the prophet Elisha who lived in Samaria. Naaman went to his king who sent word to the king of Israel. The king of Israel was greatly distressed, he thought this was an excuse for Aram to attack Israel again. How could a prophet possibly heal Naaman? Elisha heard about this and told the king to send Naaman to him and they would all know the one true God is still in control, even if they don't believe in him.

So Naaman went to Elisha's home and Elisha sent out his servant to tell Naaman to go and bathe in the Jordan River and he would be healed. Naaman was insulted!! First, the prophet didn't come out himself to talk to this great army general! And then, wash in the filthy Jordan, they had pristine rivers back in Aram to wash in!!

Naaman's servants reasoned with him, "If the prophet had told you to do some great feat, would you have done it? How easy this is!! Just go do it!"

So, Naaman conceded and went and washed and was healed!

The little girl, who was enslaved, in a foreign land, was brave enough to speak up and give her master hope. 

The little boy, who usually watched his father's sheep, was brave enough to go up against a giant!

The little boy, who worked in the tabernacle was brave enough to tell Eli some bad news.

Being brave doesn't depend on size! God has given little children the bravery and courage to tell others about him!

We get less courageous the older we get sometimes! God bless the little ones who tell others about Jesus, their Savior!

I didn't take as many pictures last week, but here are a few-

Ll is for leaf.

 

As fall arrives and leaves fall from the trees, we're going to look at and listen for the sound of Ll and play with leaves!

Our KDI for the week is the Natural and Physical World- Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world. We will look at leaves and see what colors they are and where the veins are in our leaves and hopefully find some still bursting with chlorophyll. 

Table Activities- Table activities this week include making leaf prints, cutting leaves, a leaf sensory bin, painting on leaf shapes made of color diffusing paper, making sticky leaves, playdough leaves and leaf rubbings.

Small Group Activities- Our small group activities for the week include making a "Leafman", hunting for and sorting leaves, adding Ll is for leaf to our journal and making a leaf collage.

Large Group Activities- Large group activities this week include a leaf toss, a leaf hunt in the field, pounding a leaf, parachutes and leaves and an outside sticky wall.

Books of the week- "Leafman" and "Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" both by Lois Ehlert and "We're Going on a Leaf Hunt" by Steve Metzger.

Bible Time- Our story this week is about David and Goliath. Last week we heard about Samuel and when he grew up he would be the last judge of Israel. Israel decided they wanted a king, just like the other nations around them. The king they chose was Saul. Saul was a tall, king-looking man, but that did not make him a great king! The Israelites were at war with a people called the Philistines. At the time of our story, the Israelites were camped on a hill on one side of a valley and the Philistines were camped on the hill on the other side. Several times a day, the Philistine's champion, a giant named Goliath, would come and challenge the Israelite army to send someone to fight him. He was over 9 feet tall and a seasoned warrior. Goliath mocked the Israelites' God and made fun of them and God! David was a shepherd who had already been chosen by God to be the next king of Israel. He was still a boy and his older brothers were part of the Israelite army. David's father, Jesse, had sent him to bring them supplies. When David arrived at the encampment, Goliath happened to be in the valley mocking God and daring someone to come fight him. The Israelites were all hiding in their tents. David could not believe his ears!! No one was fighting this God-mocker??!! No one was standing up to him!? David volunteered to fight him! Saul, the king, called David to his tent and encouraged him to put on his armor to be protected (maybe to make it look like Saul was doing the fighting) David refused, the armor was so heavy, he couldn't even move! David went up against Goliath in the same way he fought against the lions and bears who came to attack his sheep. He took 5 smooth stones and his sling shot and went to meet Goliath in the valley. Goliath laughed when he saw David- "Am I a dog that you come after me with sticks?" David proclaimed , "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head.
And David took one stone, put it in his sling and struck the giant in the head and down Goliath fell!
At that point, the Philistines began to run! The Israelites chased after them and defeated them. God had secured the victory for the Israelites through a boy named David!

God has secured our victory too, through his son, Jesus, who defeated death and sin for us on the cross!!

Here are some pictures from pumpkin week-