T-Th Preschool News - Week of Dec 13

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families,

We've been so busy all month long preparing for Christmas! We've been busy making paper chains so we can "Deck the Halls"...


We've been painting with red and green paints...


But most importantly, we've been preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus!


Here are some of the other things we've been doing lately...
Developing our fine motor skills while we painted, played with play dough and made paper chains (you'd think it was really letter P week here!)
Decorated Christmas trees to put over our cubbies
Traced our hands onto brown paper so we could make reindeer antlers
Worked on our pre-math skills using our peg boards and colorful pegs


Listened to some wonderful Christmas stories including...
The Stable Where Jesus Was Born by Rhonda Gowler Greene
My Christmas Alphabet by Claudia Kunin
This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten
Who Was Born This Special Day by Eve Bunting
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

And of course, we celebrated Christmas in Fellowship Hall with many of you! It was so wonderful to see you there. Enjoy your time away from school, have a wonderful Christmas, and we'll see you back at preschool in 2010 (January 5th, to be exact!)

Christmas Blessings to you and your family!
Miss Jean, Miss Lacy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Dec 6

Dear MWF Families,

We have had so much fun celebrating Christmas and the birth of baby Jesus this week. For our Letter I week, our student brought in her favorite polar bear whose name is Icy. (How fitting for this time of year!) We have had some very cold and slippery days this week, so we have stayed indoors for our large motor play. Monday was extremely special because we had a special guest, one of our preschool parents who specializes in Kindermusik came in to sing many fun Christmas songs, and we played a variety of instruments too! She also had puppets! The children really enjoyed this activity! Many thanks to our special parent helper! Wednesday we had the Bookmobile arrive and each student had the opportunity to pick two books! Friday was a great day which started in the Chapel with our two pastors who shared the Christmas story with us! And later that day we went on a Jingle Bell Caroling Parade and shared some Christmas songs with our seniors at their day program. You should have seen the smiles on everyone’s faces…and the seniors joined along! We will see you at our Christmas Party on December 18th @ 10:30 a.m. We wish you peace this Christmas!

Here are some other highlights of our week…

Painted red and green at the Easels
Used stamps on Christmas Trees
Created a fun igloo/ice sculpture with sugar cubes and icing (for display only.)
Explored a variety of musical instruments during our small group time.
Read the story Ten Little Christmas Presents by Jean Marzolla
Looked at I Spy Christmas Books by Walter Wick
Played a favorite group game “Where Is Your Cookie Little Mouse?”
Heard the story Cock-A Doodle Christmas! By Will Hillenbrand
Enjoyed playing with our Christmas Manger Cloth Figurines
Explored a variety of insect replicas
Most of all we really enjoyed celebrating Christmas!!!

MWF Preschool News - Week of Nov 29

Dear MWF Families,

Brrr…as I write this newsletter it is cold outside. How quickly the winter and Christmas season are approaching! This week our theme was signs of winter and Letter H week. For Show and Share one of our students brought in a Rescue Heroes Helicopter. The children really enjoyed its working propeller. On Monday and Wednesday we were able to play outside on the playground. On Friday we opted to stay in because of the slippery sidewalks and icy areas on our playground. We played “Red Light Green Light” in the gym. How fitting for the colors of our month! The students really enjoyed this game, and it is a great game to learn how to listen carefully and follow directions. They learned very quickly green means go and red means stop! We are just beginning to celebrate Christmas in our classroom, especially with the emphasis on the birth of baby Jesus and the importance of giving. Looking forward to seeing all of you at our Christmas Celebration, on December 18th at 10:30 a.m.! Peace and Joy to you this Christmas!

Here are some other highlights of our week.
We used scissors, glue and crayons to make lovely Homes
Painted coffee filters with watercolors and cut them into snowflakes.



Used tape to make Christmas Hoops, (like a paper chain.)
For our fine motor skills, we practiced using paper punchers with paper strips.
Played Hopscotch, Rescue Heroes, and Hands Down


Read Highlights High Five Magazines.
Listened to a squirrel fingerplay and talked about Hibernation
At our Storytimes we listened to Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood and Hurry! Hurry! Have You Heard?, which is a nativity story by Laura Krauss Melmed

With Peace,
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean

T-Th Preschool News - Week of Nov 15

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families!

We were busy all week preparing for Thanksgiving! Secret art projects were being made for the parents, and we were all excited about the Thanksgiving "Feast" that happened on Thursday at preschool. I think you would all agree that there was a whole lot of Thanksgiving excitement going on in our building this week!

Here are some of the things we did the week before our Thanksgiving Break...
At greeting time, we looked at some books from our recent visit on the Bookmobile
For art, we made fun handprint pictures that we turned into Thanksgiving cards for you! We also made placemats for all of the guests at our Preschool Feast!
For fine motor skills, we cut out paper feathers and we played with play dough to increase our hand strength.
For math and counting, we brought out our Foam Number Puzzle again because it was so popular with so many of the children.
To truly celebrate letter G week...we invited Katie's dad to our classroom to play his guitar and sing some songs. It was so much fun for all of us! I think my favorite part of the visit was when he played "We're Going To Be Friends" by Jack Johnson (from the Curious George Soundtrack). Please come back to visit us again!
At our story time, we listened to the story Give Thanks to the Lord by Amy June Bates.
For music and large motor, we used egg shakers to move to the beat of "Riding on a Horse to Grandmother's House" by Geof Johnson. We really laughed a lot to this song, and we learned a lot of G words, too, such as Going, Grandmother, Giddyup and GO!! GO! GO!!

But the highlight of the week was certainly our Thanksgiving Celebration with all of you! Thank you all so much for participating - either by bringing a dish to share, helping with set up, or just by joining us! We are so thankful for you!

With gratitude on this Thanksgiving week!
Miss Jean, Miss Lacy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Nov 15

Dear MWF Families,

We had a terrific Thanksgiving week. Our theme continued to be thankfulness and Letter G Week. For Show and Share one of our students brought in a plastic Grasshopper. How clever! Beautiful weather graced our week once again and we spent some time playing on the playground. The highlights of our week included the visit to the food pantry, listening to a special guest play guitar at Story Time, and our Thanksgiving Feast! The children really enjoyed contributing to our food pantry. They asked many questions upon their visit to the food pantry. It was exciting to see them participating and sharing with others in need. Many thanks to all the families who contributed! You were quite generous! On Wednesday we had a special guest Stephen Plumbhoff come in to play some catchy children guitar tunes. The students had many requests! And, of course it was a wonderful way to end our week with the Thanksgiving Feast! Thank you to all the parents, family and friends who shared in this Thanksgiving Celebration! Thank you for being a part of our preschool family! Enjoy your week and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some other highlights of our week...

Painted Turkey Handprints
Made a foam hand Turkey Craft using glue and feathers.
Explored Indian Corn and Squash with magnifying glasses.
Used Shaker Eggs and listened to and acted out…”Riding On A Horse to Grandmother's House."
Played Board Games; Boggle, Memory, Chutes and Ladders.
Practiced drawing and writing words to make Thank You Notes
Enjoyed the story Good Night Sweet Butterflies by Dawn Bentley
Listened to “Thank You God” CD Story-by Schoolhouse Specialty Publishing


With Gratitude and Thanksgiving,
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean

Here are some of the empty shelves in our church food pantry....

And here is the cart full of donations from you!! Thank you so much!

T-Th Preschool News - Week of Nov 8

Hello Tuesday-Thursday Families,

We had a fantastic and fun-filled Letter F week! And along with all the fun, we've had some excellent opportunities to learn about our November theme of gratitude.

On Tuesday, Miss Lacy took the children to our church office in small groups, where Miss Nancy showed them our church food pantry. We use the visit to explain to the children that the food donated to the food pantry is shared with families who may not have any food in their homes. It's typical for the children to see one of their favorite foods there and want to take it home! It's a great time to talk to your children about how we are all part of God's family, and we are here to help each other!

On Thursday, we learned a little bit about the First Americans who lived in the United States. Miss Jean brought in an authentic deer skin dress that is similar to what may have been worn by a woman many many years ago, long before you could buy your clothes at the mall! The children were already in a giggly mood for the day (they must be anticipating Letter G week!) and they really laughed when they saw that dress on their teacher! When I asked them what was funny, one very insightful young man said, "Because it's different!" Of course, we used that as a quick opportunity to tell the children that just because someone may look different from them, it doesn't necessarily mean it's funny. (don't worry though, we will still be sure to give the children plenty of encouragement to laugh!!)

Here are some of the other things we played with this week...
For art, we started a super secret Thanksgiving project using our fingers and we used colorful paper scraps to decorate fish.
At our exploration station, we had fun stacking and smooshing green foam circles (they were originally swim noodles!)
To help us learn about numbers, we played with a foam number puzzle and we learned the song Five Green and Speckled Frogs using our flannel board.
In small groups, we played a very silly game called Leaping Frogs that helped us develop our large motor skills. We also worked on large motor skills when we kicked a foam ball to each other out on our playground!
We heard the story In the Pond by Milbourne and Waters and the story Giving Thanks - A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp.

Looking forward to seeing you next week for more fun and learning!
Miss Jean, Miss Lacy and Miss Pat

MWF Preschool News - Week of Nov 8

Dear MWF Families,

This week our themes were Thankfulness, Thanksgiving and Letter F Week. For Show and Share one of our students brought in a Flag, which fit in so well with our themes and the fact that Wednesday was Veteran's Day. Beautiful weather graced our week once again and we spent some time playing on the playground. Several highlights of our week were the Chapel, the Rainbow Fish Art, and the dramatic play of the grocery store.

At the Chapel Pastor Greg and Miss Jean acted out a skit/parable which related to giving to others. (I must say we have some fine talent at this preschool!) The children recited a finger play to Pastor Greg entitled “Thank You God.”

The Rainbow Fish Art Project was quite fun and it was exciting to see the children create their very own version of a colorful fish. The children loved playing grocery store with our many pretend food items, play money and cash register. We also explained how very different it was to live during the times of our ancestors. They had to plant, grow, harvest, and hunt their food.

On Wednesday, November 18th we will be visiting our food pantry. Please have your child bring in a canned good item by Wednesday! We look forward to next week as our theme of Thanksgiving continues with our Thanksgiving Celebration on November 20th @ 10:30. We hope you join us! (Please RSVP for our Thanksgiving gathering by Tuesday morning!)

Here are some other highlights of our week…Drew with Farm Animal Stencils
Practiced counting and sorting with pasta, beans, dice, and muffin tins.
Explored Indian Corn - the students loved picking off the kernels, and Miss Jean even ground up some kernels to show us cornmeal.
Listened to Native American Music, “Kid’s Pow-Wow Songs” by Black Lodge.
Played a “Colorful Feathers” Circle Game, a great recognition color game.
Heard the story This First Thanksgiving Day by Laura Krauss Melmed
Enjoyed the story The Great Fuzz Frenzy by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel. (This is a great fun story which addresses themes of friendship, forgiveness, and cooperation.)

With Gratitude and Thanksgiving,
Miss Lori, Miss Donna, Miss Pat and Miss Jean