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

MWF Preschool News - Week of Jan 17

Mighty is the Lord. Psalm 24:8

Dear MWF Families,

This week at preschool we learned all about the Letter M. For Show and Share we had two students bring in items to show the class. One student brought in a monkey to show, and another student brought in Minnie Mouse to share with the class. We also had many activities to observe the letter of the week. We colored a picture of Martin Luther King, and also completed several amazing mazes.


For art on Wednesday, we created a mural that only included items beginning with the letter M. Some of the things that were seen on this mural were moms, mice, maps, mops, and one beautiful mermaid. On Friday the students created a collage with items that they had cut out of magazines.




This week we played the game Mini Motors Math. We rolled a die to determine how many spaces we would move. The children would then move each of their cars, boats, and airplanes to the finish line. Many of the children really enjoyed this game.

We also learned some other fun activities this week. We learned a wonderful new song called “Mango Treats.” For this song each child had the chance to dance like a monkey in the middle of a circle created by their singing classmates. We were amazed to see how many different ways monkeys like to dance! The children also learned played the game “Who Took The Cookie”. The children had fun trying to guess which one of their classmates had taken the cookie from the cookie jar.

During story time we listened to the stories Elusive Moose by Joan Gannij, and the story On the Moon by Anne Milbourne. The children asked many different questions about the moon and space. We also learned that many of the children are hoping that one day they can go to the moon like astronauts.

We are looking forward to more fun and learning next week!
Miss Amy, Miss Michele, Miss Jean, and Miss Pat

TTh Preschool News - Week of Jan 17

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord"
Psalm 100:1

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families,

We've had another wonderful week of learning fun here at preschool! We started a fun science experiment this week using some fingerling potatoes. It was easy to guess why they are called "fingerlings!" We all took guesses on how many days it will take for the potatoes to grow roots. You can see our guesses below the potato picture!



We had fun painting on Tuesday using our multicultural "people paints." On Thursday, we brought out markers and crayons to add the facial features. We put all of the faces on our classroom bulletin board and added the fabric people that were made by the MWF class.


And for some additional fun for Letter M week, we played our Mini Motors Math Game!


But quite possibly the MOST fun we had this week was playing the "Mango Treats" movement game. The song is available at Teachingkidstosing.com and the words are...
"In the jungle, there's a monkey, dancing to this groovy beat
All he eats is ripe bananas,all he eats is mango treats
So jump out (one child), and jump in (another child)."
We went around in a circle several times, and had so much fun dancing like monkeys! If you ever volunteer in the classroom, make sure to request this song!!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

T-Th Preschool News - Week of Jan 10

"Let your light shine before men." Matthew 5:16

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families,

It was a snowy week for us at preschool! We had so much fun singing a song about making a snowman, and hearing a "paper story" about The Disappearing Snowman. We sent a copy of the story home with each child, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

At story time, we read one of our Usborne books called "The Snowy Day." The story talks about all of the fun things that we can do in the snow. Then we each made snow globe pictures and wrote down what our favorite snow activity was!

Since it was Letter L week, we made Lemon and Lime prints for art...


and we played with Lacing Cards that were shaped like animals (and one card that was shaped like an ark). The lacing cards are excellent fine motor practice (and might even lead some of the children to a love for sewing!).


We had some music and motion fun this week by playing with Lummi sticks. If you haven't heard of them, they are wooden sticks that can tap along with the beat of a song. The children followed the directions very well when we asked them to hold them safely and keep them a safe distance away from each other. We will definitely bring them out again some day!

Looking forward to seeing you all next week!
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Jan 10

Let your gentleness be evident to all. Phil 4:5

Dear MWF Families,

Snow! Snow! Snow! This was our weekly preschool theme, and how fitting of a theme it was after all the snow that fell this week. This week was also letter L week. Students brought in a lion and lollipops to share with the class.

Here are some of the things that we did this week…

For art, we used cotton balls to create little fluffy lambs...


We also made snowmen complete with buttons, scarves, and top hats! Each snowman was beautifully unique. Many of the children also demonstrated their creative side by creating a little person. The children were given the outlines of a person and then they could create clothes for their little person. They were given materials such as, ribbon, buttons, and for hair to decorate their little person.

For math, we brought out games to play. We played Hi Ho Cherrio which allowed us to practice our counting skills as we took turns putting apples on the trees. We also played Candy Land which helps us with color recognition and our matching skills.

For phonic and writing we used literacy mittens to practice putting words in alphabetical order. Each mitten has a picture and a word for a letter of the alphabet. The students worked in groups and individually to put the mittens in order based on the first letter of each word.


We also practiced tracing our names. The children are doing so well with their first names that we now are practicing writing our last names.

We also practiced our fine motor skills and learned about nature by making cheerio bird feeders. After we shaped them into circles, we hung them on one of the trees on our playground.


This week we also listened to the stories A Snowy Day by Anna Milbourne and Elena Temporin and Swim Polar Bear, Swim by Joam Stimson. We also went on a “real” bear hunt around the building. All the children enjoyed looking for the bear.

Our day on Friday began with chapel, and the children were particularly excited by the message that they heard. Pastor Greg told us how Jesus is the light of the world, and how we all reflect off him. He told us that we are also lights because we have Jesus in our hearts. After the message all the children sang the song “This Little Light of Mine.”

We are looking forward to seeing everyone again next week!

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

T-Th Preschool News - Week of Jan 2

"Be KIND to one another" Ephesians 4:32

Happy New Year Everyone!

We're so happy to be back at preschool again! All of the boys and girls had so much fun seeing their friends again, and were ready to get back to their preschool routines. For the month of January we are focusing on the color white and on cooperation. And we are already on Letter K this week! Can you believe that we are almost half way through the alphabet?

Here are some of the things we did this week at preschool...

For art, we used small paint brushes and white paint. We found out that most of the children prefer the larger paint brushes! We also made a WHITE collage this week. You will see it hanging over our welcome table when you come to school next week!

For math, we brought out some bowls of keys, and practiced counting them with our new counting chart table cloth. This fun "game" helps us learn how to put the numbers 1 through 10 in the right order!


For fine motor and literacy, we practice writing our first names on Tuesday. On Thursday, we practiced kindness by making cards for our friends!

Some of us enjoyed a new deck of Truck Cards that we earned from our Usborne Book Fundrasier. By the way, thank you to everyone who helped with our fund raisers! We are already enjoying many of our new Usborne resources in the classroom!!

For story time this week, we used a story apron and velcro animals to hear the story "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" The children had so much fun putting the animals on the apron and making animal sounds. The story is one of our favorites, so we listened to it in the MWF class this week, too!

For large motor activities this week, we had so much fun! We played Duck Duck Goose in Fellowship Hall on Tuesday. On Thursday, we stayed in the classroom and had fun moving and dancing to a few songs from Greg and Steve's Kids in Motion CD. Two of our favorites were "Can't Sit Still" and "Can You Leap Like a Frog." Check your local library for this CD and other fantastic music from Greg and Steve!

The children also decided on their own to play Ring Around the Rosie and to become a train in class this week. They are all playing together so well, and the teachers really enjoy our time with the children!

Looking forward to seeing you back at preschool next week!
Miss Jean, Miss Amy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Jan 2

Keep God's commandments Exodus 20:6

Dear MWF Families,

We had a wonderful week back at preschool! Everyone was so glad to see each other again.

January is a cold and often snowy month of winter, so many things that we did this week involved winter and winter animals. Wednesday we drew a winter picture on dark blue paper with white paint. We also had to bundle up in our coats to go visit the book mobile to pick out new books for our classroom. On Friday Miss Jean read us a story Polar Bear Polar Bear What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr/Eric Carle using something called a story apron. We all had so much fun as we each took turns placing an animal on the apron and making animal noises.

This week we also learned about the letter K. To celebrate letter K week all of us had the chance to look through a kaleidoscope and see the wonderful designs it made. Some of us even decided to make a picture of what we had seen while looking through the kaleidoscope. We also listened to the story Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? By Eric Carle, and learned that all animals have mothers.


Some of the other things that we did this week were practicing writing our names as well as tracing with markers in our dry-erase books. We also had so much fun when we went on a “Bear Hunt.” We sang many other fun songs too! These songs allowed us to move our bodies and develop our fine motor skills.

We are all looking forward to next week for more fun and learning!

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

MWF Preschool News - Weeks of Jan 25 & Feb 1

Dear MWF Families,

Our last week of January we focused on Numbers and the Color White! For Letter N week one of our students brought in a Nitroade Car with a launch. Each of the children took turns to practice launching it on the Rainbow rug. On Friday that week, the class had a wonderful field trip to a Neighborhood Museum, while the teachers went to early childhood learning conferences. Thanks to our board members who assisted while the teachers were away! We learned lots of wonderful information and ideas to bring into the classroom!

The first week of February we had fun learning about Groundhog Day and other winter animals who hibernate. We ended the week focusing on Dental Health and Valentine’s Day, as it is quickly approaching. One of our teachers brought in an Orange for Letter O week. We used the gym to expend some of our winter energy during these cold and icy months. The children played with balls, our basketball hoop and hula hoops. We also played Simon Says in some of our small groups and Follow the Leader. Our February Christian character trait is Love. We will learn more about Love and God’s Love during next week for our Valentines Week!

Here are some other preschool highlights…

We had several favorite art projects:
We had fun working on a Noah’s Ark Mural for Letter N Week. The children colored and cut out a picture of Noah, his ark, and the animals. Look for the mural hanging up under our hallway bulletin board.
For White Day we made winter bird feeders with bagels, white Crisco and birdseed.
We made Orange and Letter O Prints using real oranges and orange paint.
We colored Groundhog pictures using our choice of crayons, markers or colored pencils and completed a picture of the “Adventures of a Groundhog.”
We painted hearts with toothbrushes at the easel

For fine motor and prewriting skills, we sorted dried noodles and practiced writing our names
For pre-math skills, we played with number dominoes and we practiced writing numbers

We read many wonderful books:
A Day With No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch
Guess Whose Shadow and What’s Opposite? by Stephen Swinburne
and The Very Hungry Caterpillar - by Eric Carle (a class favorite!)

We played with flashlights and looked at shadows.
We used our Tunnel to play “What did the Groundhog See?”
And we sang “Oh How I Love Jesus” using sign language for the word Jesus
(Look at Cullen’s ABCs website to see how the signs are used!)

Looking forward to Hearts Week,
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean

T-Th Preschool News - Week of January 10

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Preschool Families!

Here's your LATE newsletter for LETTER L week :) and an "L" Bible verse to go with it...

"LOVE God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength!"

Deuteronomy 6:5 (exclamation point mine!)

We've been so busy in preschool LATELY, and having LOADS of fun, as usual! We played with a new batch of white play dough at greeting time this week with LETTER cookie cutters (because white is our color of the month, you know!). We also continued to sing our "Two LITTLE Blackbirds" song a LOT... we really LOVE it!!

Here are some of the other ways we were LEARNING during LETTER L week:

For art, we made paint prints using real LEMONS and LIMES!

To develop our pre-writing skills, we brought our dry erase books. We had fun writing and drawing in them, and then we erased each page when we were done with it! Hmmm... these LOOK LIKE they might be the hands of one of the teachers...LOL!!

For our fine motor skills, we played with LACING cards. I hope you enjoy the photos of these from Shutterfly - there are some fabulous photos!

In our curtain area, we brought out the train set (by popular request) and we also brought out puppets and the puppet stage.

At our Exploration Station (aka, the sensory table) we played with cotton balls, foam packing peanuts and winter animals - LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of fun!

For story time, we heard the stories Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney and My Friend Lucky by David Milgrim (a book about opposites)

For LARGE motor, we played Follow the LEADER in the church hallway. The children took turns being the LEADER and choosing what we would all "be." On Tuesday, "being a train" was the most popular choice, by a LONG run. On Thursday, Miss Jean suggested we choose an animal (adding a bit of variety to our activity!!).

Yes, indeed, it was a busy week! (Will that be a good enough reason for being 2 weeks behind on this blog??? Possibly :)

See you soon!

Miss Jean, Miss LACY and Miss Pat :)

MWF Preschool News - Week of Jan 18

Dear MWF Families,

As we learn about cooperation in our classroom this month, let us remember the golden rule from the book of Matthew..."In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you..." Matthew 7:12 New American Standard Bible

This week of January we learned a lot about God’s Love for all the children of the world. We talked briefly about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he taught the world to love one another. For our Letter M week, one of our students brought in Mickey Mouse and Angelina the Ballerina Mouse. We also celebrated another half-birthday!

With these recent cold and dreary days we have extended our center time and played in the gym during small group time. The children played with balls, and also played “The Ants Go Marching,” and “Tag, You’re It.” We also brought some books to the gym with us, in case the children needed to sit down and take a break!

With Letter M Week, we also played a few Memory Games at the Rainbow Rug. They really enjoy these group games and they have a great memory! With our January characteristic trait of cooperation, we have been doing a variety of collaborative activities! Our children are really learning to work well within a group setting!

Here are some other highlights of our week...
Worked on Partner Drawings where two persons work together to create a drawing on their half of the paper.
Created a Group Collage of Magazine Pictures of God’s Children.
Practiced drawing lines through several mazes, a good fine motor activity.
Used Magnets and Magnetic Letters and Numbers at our Exploration Station.
For Dramatic Play we set up our own Market and used play money.
We also played with Medical Kits.
Practiced writing our names on Handwriting Sheets.
We read the books We All Sing With The Same Voice by J. Phillip Miller, and On The Moon by Anna Milbourne. (This was a great educational scientific book which kept the children very attentive.)
We went to the Chapel and listened to Pastor Greg telling a story about God’s People from our church working together and building a school for some children in El Salvador .
We sang “This Little Light of Mine.”

Have fun at the field trip on Friday this week! We'll see you soon!
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean

MWF Preschool News - Weeks of Jan 4 & 11

Dear MWF Families,

Welcome to the year 2010! We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas vacation. We appreciate your kindness and generosity, and your gifts in serving. Winter has quickly arrived at the preschool. For our Letter K week, one of our teachers brought in a play set of Keys which made noises. The children had fun exploring them. We also celebrated a half birthday! For our Letter L week one of our students brought in his favorite stuffed lion. On Wednesday, our back to school day, it was fun to receive a visit from our Bookmobile. What a way to start out the year! Friday surprisingly greeted us with a snow day. We hope each of you enjoyed the day off! With our winter weather, we made use of our gym and played with balls and gave the children the opportunity to run, run and play! They loved it! We also had a lovely sunny winter day, above 30 degrees, so we went on a winter exploration walk. The students loved looking at the icicles hanging from the roof on our building.

Here are some other highlights of the last two weeks...
Decorated a Snowman Template with crayons. Also glued snow cotton balls.
Painted a wintry snow picture using special painting tools. White tempera paint on black construction paper for contrast.
Created Little People by using markers on person templates and glued fabric scraps on them for clothing.



Made a replica of our earth by tearing various colors of construction paper and gluing them on a large circle.
Looked through Kaleidoscopes.
Played with our Workshop Bench.
Some of the books we read at Circle Time were A Busy Year-by Leo Lionni, The Lonesome Polar Bear by Jane Cabrera, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and Little Cloud by Eric Carle
At our exploration station, we explored a winter scene, composed cotton balls and various winter animals.

We wish you a great New Year,
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean

T-Th Preschool News - Week of January 3

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families!

We had a wonderful first week back at preschool! It was great seeing all of those smiling faces back in the classroom again. We had a beautiful background of snow outside last week just in time for WHITE WEEK! We had fun painting with white paint on black paper this week. We used small paint brushes, which are especially helpful in developing those fine motor skills!


We also gave those hand muscles a work out when we used our new name books! We will keep these fun books in the classroom until all of the pages are filled up, then they will go home with you! But feel free to ask one of the teachers if you'd like to see your child's book before then!


And to celebrate white week (and all of that snow on the ground) we read TWO different books with the same title. An old classic by Ezra Jack Keats...

And a newer story (published by Usborne) written by Anna Milbourne and Elena Temporin. I love the stories and the illustrations in both of these books. Tough to choose a favorite!
I will leave these on top of the cubbies this week if you'd like to take a peek at them this week!

Here are some of the other exciting activities we did at preschool....

We had so much fun learning a new song called "Two Little Blackbirds" which is from Susan Salidor's CD Come and Make a Circle
At greeting time, we used crayons to make some colorful mittens
(look above our cubbies to see!)
At our math table, we sorted shapes with our shape cards and mats
At the exploration station, we played with texture dominoes
For dramatic play, we brought the train set out to our curtain area
(We also brought out keys for counting!)
For large motor, we played Duck, Duck Goose! It was amazing how fast we learned the game!

See you all next week for more fun and learning!
Miss Jean, Miss Lacy and Miss Pat