MWF Preschool News - Week of Feb 21

Rejoice in the Lord always! I will say it again: Rejoice! Phil 4:4

MWF Preschool Families,

We had a great week here at the preschool. On Wednesday we had a visit from the dentist, Miss Lisa, who taught us all about how to keep our teeth healthy. She reminded us how important it is to eat healthy foods and to brush our teeth two times a day. She also showed us what happens if we eat too much sugar and forget to brush our teeth for long periods of time.



This week we learned about many things that begin with the letter R. The students made amazing rainbow pictures using paint dotters, and created pictures using colorful rectangles.



We also assembled rainbow colored cubes for counting and geometric shapes to create patterns.



All the children assisted me in reading the story Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Iza Trapani. The students also put on their “thinking caps” when asked to solve some tricky riddles. We played Go Fish with alphabet letters and even went on a walk around the building while pretending to be puppy dogs. The kids had so much fun using their imaginations.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend, and I am looking forward to seeing everyone’s cheerful smile again next week!

Miss Amy, Miss Michele, Miss Jean & Miss Pat

TTh Preschool News - Week of February 21

Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy. Exodus 20:8

Dear Tuesday-Thursday Families,

It's already letter R week! This week we had fun mixing the colors Red and White to see what would happen. And we learned that it makes Pink! We made some pink butterfly collages to decorate our room, and we made a pink collage on a large canvas to hang in our hallway. We hope that the bright colors remind us that spring will be here soon!


Speaking of spring, we've also noticed some "spring-like" growth on our classroom potatoes! We are now able to see shoots and roots growing on them. I wonder what we'll start growing next in the classroom.....


Here are some of the other things we did at preschool this week:
Heard the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
Practice writing our first names
Made an alphabet collage
Played Duck Duck Goose (it's one of our favorites!)
Played with dry erase boards and markers

We also sang the song "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and found out that not everyone puts Peanut Butter and Jelly on their Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches! We learn something new every day here!

See you all on Tuesday!
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

TTh Preschool News - Week of Feb 14

Quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families!
We had a wonderful week at preschool. The highlight of our week was our visit from Miss Lisa who taught us how to keep our teeth healthy. She reminded us to brush TWO times a day and to eat foods that are healthy for our teeth. Before she left, everyone had a chance to brush the teeth on her very big bear!


While the theme of our week was dental health, most of our focus has been on social skills as we continue to adjust to our larger class size. We've also adjusted some of our routines to help the new students feel more comfortable in their new school. For the time being, we have eliminated our morning "Greeting Time" and are instead starting our day with the various centers. All of the children seem to enjoy this change, because they can start the day at their favorite table.

This week we had pink paint and tooth shaped paper at the art table, play dough with rolling pins and cookie cutters for fine motor practice, and "Building Cubes" at our math table. We also had a parent helper in the classroom this week. Thank you so much for taking the time to spend a morning with us! We appreciate it sooo much!


Many new friendships have been forming in the classroom - not only involving the new students, but also between our former students who may not have spent as much time playing together before now. The new students have already been introduced to "Ring Around the Rosie" which is one of our favorite impromptu class activities. And everyone has fun when we go to Fellowship Hall to play Duck Duck Goose. We'll definitely play that again next week!

See you all soon,
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Feb 14

Quietness and trust is your strength. Isaiah 30:15

Hello MWF Preschool Families!

We had a great week here at preschool! This week we learned all about land transportation and the Letter Q.

Monday was Valentines Day and we celebrated by giving valentine cards to all of our friends. In art we made special Valentine cards for our moms, dads, and siblings. We also played many games that included counting, matching, and lacing hearts. We listened to the story If You’ll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant, and we topped our Valentines Day off with a wonderful snack.


Wednesday we learned about many of the means of transportation that get us from one place to another. For art we made tire tracks with black paint on white paper. We discovered that the wheels on different cars make very neat patterns (and some of us discovered how much fun it was to make fingerprints!). We played a Mini Motors Math game which helped us with counting and taking turns. We also read the story and listened to the song “We All Go Traveling By” by Sheena Roberts.


Friday was a busy day for us! In the morning we had our eye and hearing exams, followed by chapel with Pastor Greg. After chapel we learned about quilts, because they start with the letter Q. We decorated our own quilt squares in art and they were sewn together with yarn to make a beautiful quilt!


Here are some other things that we did this week…

Played with the train in small groups,
Used Letter Builders,
Made cards for friends,
Played with our All Around Town game,
Sang the song “Wheels on the Bus,”
Wrote in our notebooks,
Practiced throwing and catching Frisbees.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Amy, Miss Michele, Miss Jean, and Miss Pat

TTh Preschool News - Week of Feb 7

God is Love 1 John 4:8

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families,

Happy Valentine's Day! We had an exciting week at preschool playing and learning! Can you believe we are already on letter P week? Time is really flying here!

We welcomed another new student this week, bringing our total class number to 11 students. While we are still have more girls than boys, we do have THREE boys in the class now! We've made a few adjustments to our routine to help the new students adjust, but overall, it's been a good transition for everyone. I think the children will all enjoy the opportunity to make some more new friends at school!

In addition to a new student, we also had the joy of celebrating Valentine's Day and celebrating someone's birthday this week. The birthday girl brought in some Valentine's cookies, and someone brought in some strawberries, too! Yum!! We had so much fun making cards for our friends and loved ones using stickers and markers. And we all enjoyed giving our Valentines to our classmates. Maybe we'll continue to give more cards away next week!



We had fun at the rainbow rug this week reading some books by Todd Parr. One of our favorites was called "The I Love You Book". While you are celebrating Valentine's Day this week, it would be a good time to talk about all of the people who you love and who love you. And of course, don't forget to remind the children how much we are loved by God!

For counting practice, we brought out our counting cloth and some silly looking "heart people." Many of the children noticed that after we filled up the entire chart, one of the squares was empty! Maybe our missing heart person will turn up some day!

One of our other favorite things this week was playing with the wooden train set in the hallway by our cubbies. Some of the children were in charge of putting the train together, and they did a fabulous job. We'll definitely bring the train set out again soon! Playing with the train set and with our play dough this week were both great ways for us to strengthen our hand muscles and develop our fine motor skills!

We hope that all of you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Enjoy the warm winter weather,
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week Of February 7

Praise the Lord! It is good to sing praises to our God. Psalm 147:1

Hello MWF Preschool Families!

We had a very positive week here at preschool. We learned all about the Letter P. For show and shared, students brought in penguins, puzzle pieces, and even a pink and purple pillow pet. We had so much fun discussing other words that start with the letter P as well.


Art was tons of fun this week! On Monday we made Mr. or Mrs. Potato Heads. We cut out our potatoes and then gave them their own unique personalities when we added facial features and accessories. They turned out amazing! On Wednesday each child made their very own puzzle person. They colored their puzzle the way they wanted and when they were done, they were able to take them home to play with. Friday they painted polka dots on the letter P with paint dotters. They were very colorful and the students made many different designs with polka dots.


This week we also…
Put many different kinds of puzzles together
Made cards for our friends and family
Sang a new song called The "Pig And The Pony"
Examined pinecones
Listened to many stories including But No Elephants by Jerry Smath and In The Pond.
Played with a parachute

We look forward to seeing everyone again next week!
Miss Amy, Miss Michele, Miss Jean, & Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of January 31

Obey the Lord your God and follow His commands. Deut 27:10

Hello MWF Preschool Families!

Wow what a week we had with all this snow! Although we had an unexpected shortened week due to the snow day we still learned a lot. This week we learned all about the letter O, and opposites.

Monday we took a close look at ocean life and the octopus that live in the ocean. We listened to the story Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae and talked about all the amazing creatures that call oceans their home. We even created our own octopus complete with little cheerios.

Friday we discussed ideas of what it might be like if we lived in a world where everything was opposite. We tried to imagine what it would be like if daytime was actually night time, and up was down. We had so much fun using our imaginations! We created pictures of what we think an Opposite World would look like.



We also looked at books about opposites and practiced matching together opposites at one of our centers.

Miss Jean played a dice game with some of the students on Friday. It was called "Terrific Tens." We rolled all of the dice in a tray, and the children took turns finding two or more dice that added up to 10!



This week we also sang the song “Oh How I Love Jesus.” It has now become the class’s new favorite song to sing. We all agreed that it makes God happy when we sing to him. We practiced our counting skills this week by counting cheerios on a one-hundred chart. We also crawled, balanced, and hopped our way through an obstacle course.

We can’t wait to see everyone again next week for more fun and learning!

Miss Amy, Miss Michele, Miss Jean, & Miss Pat

TTh Preschool News - Week of Jan 31

Oh! How I Love Jesus! Because He first loved me.....

Hello T-Th Preschool Families!

And Oh! How we love snow days...I think! It does make for a short week here at preschool. I think we somehow managed to pack in two days of fun into one. We had so much fun learning about opposites this week. We sang a fun song called "Open, Shut Them" that I learned from a Super Simple Songs You Tube Video. We sang about Open & Shut, Big and Small, Please and No Thank You (we skipped Fast & Slow, Loud & Shhh and Peek-A-Boo, and added a Hello and Good Bye verse in it's place).

We also had so much fun learning about how to make home made play dough. It started out very wet, but as we added more and more and more flour, it got very dry! We also added some gold sequins for extra fun!




We also learned about the new letter of the week, and our new color of the month by painting with pink paint and a letter O foam stamp. Some of us even used some foam rollers to cover our entire piece of paper!



In addition to this, we made pictures and tall towers with tanagrams, we read a fun book about opposites called "Black? White! Day? Night!" and we sang our favorite song, "Two Little Blackbirds" from Susan Salidor's CD which also teaches us about opposites. So, maybe we really did have enough fun and learning to last a week! We can't wait to see you back again next Tuesday!

Stay safe and warm!
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

Preschool News - Week of January 24

Nothing is too hard for God. Jer 32:17

Hello Preschool Families!

We had a shortened week at school, because your teachers went to Chicago for an Early Childhood Conference. We had so much fun learning! I'll list some of the workshops that we attended (and will add some links soon as well in case you would like additional information).

Miss Jean went to...The Potential of a Puddle
A Sense of Art and Nature
Applying the Wakanheza Project
A Breath of Fresh Air
Author/Illustrator Todd Parr
Shuffling into Math
Play on Words

Miss Amy went to...Keeping Living Things in the Classroom
Strategies to Support Young Children's Language Development
Got Dirt? Growing Healthy Kids
Singing Games and Dances for Children
Talking to Parents About Sensitive Issues
Supporting Successful Interaction in the Classroom

Miss Michele went to...
Making Sense of Prosocial Skills
Storytelling, Movement and Comedy for the Classroom
From Craft Time to Inspired Minds
Navigating the Turbulent Waters of Challenging Behavior
Mathematizing Children's Visual Arts Experiences
KID FIT: Phys Ed for Preschoolers
Singing and Dancing for Enhancing Learning
From Craft Time to Inspired Minds

We hope that those of you who went to the Children's Museum had a wonderful time, and that those of you who stayed home, enjoyed some special family time!
See you next week at preschool!

Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Michele