Happy Monday!

We started our day in the car shop.  We practiced writing skills as we checked each other into the shop. 

The friends are learning self-regulation.  They did a great job following our rule of only three people in the fixing room. 

We love writing in our journals too!  The journals provide another opportunity for meaningful writing.

During small group time, the friends played environmental print go fish.  As you know by now, when children recognize environmental print, they are laying a strong foundation for future reading.  

We also worked on building a car in our car shop!  As we build the car, we use the knowledge that we have learned so far about cars.  We are learning to express our ideas and listen to our friends as they express their ideas.  We are practicing teamwork too!  The car will also enhance our play in the car shop! 

We first investigated the boxes, and discussed how we could use them. 

Andrew showed his friends how to make each box into a car.  

The friends then decided to use all of the boxes to make one big car. 

Then, we brainstormed various parts of the car that we need to make. 

Some of our ideas included:

the muffler

the oil filter

the oil checker

the engine

the license plate

the windshield wipers

the doors

the headlights

the steering wheel

The friends worked hard to create accurate representations of each of the parts. 

JJ made a door for the car.

Bella and Megan drew what the muffler should look like. 

We then added the wheels we made on Friday.

Devereux, Claire, Joey, and Ethan secured the car with tape. 

  Hunter was sure to put the muffler on the back of the car, since that's where the mufflers go. 

Jack made headlights for the car. 

Alma made a steering wheel

Sammie made the taillights. 

Blake made some windshield wipers and a license plate. 

Allison made the cords for the engine. 

During Jesus time today we learned the story of Jacob and Esau.  We learned that Jacob made a bad choice and tricked his dad.  We also learned that no matter what we do, Jesus forgives us!  We discussed how even though Jesus always forgives us, we still try to make good choices.  Praise God for the gift of forgiveness! 

Happy Friday!  If you are looking for a place to worship this weekend, you are always welcome here at Zion! Our worship schedule is:
Saturday  at 5:00 pm
Sunday at 8:00 am, 9:30 am, and 11:00 am.

See you there!

There are many fun things coming up in the next few weeks!

October 11th Trunk or Treat

October 16^th and 17^th Picture Retake Day

October 17^th (evening) and October 18^th (morning and afternoon) Parent Teacher Conferences

October 19 Bobcat Shuffle 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run

October 23 – 25 LEA Convocation – No School

Today we exercised our fine motor skills with some real tools.  We screwed the parts of the tools together.  Some of us used wrenches to help too.

Thanks again to Bruce over at Gray's Automotive in Richmond Heights, MO who donated these items for us! If you want to know more about Gray's Automotive, click HERE.

We practiced writing in a child-initiated and meaningful way as they played check-in for the car shop.  Meaningful writing opportunities help children become skilled and enthusiastic writers.

Look at the tall towers Hunter and Drew built! 

Alma and Devereux strengthened their spatial relationship skills; this will lay a strong foundation on which to build future math learning.

 We were busy during small group time today!

We started off small group time by brainstorming what we still need in our car shop.  The children made their own list (again, practicing those writing skills!) of what we still needed.

Even if your child is scribbling, scribbling and attaching meaning is a large part of learning to write.
 Learning that print has meaning is a foundational reading and writing skill!  More formed lines and letters will come with time and practice.

One of the friends said, "Let's put the tire in the car shop!"  

The problem was we didn't want to get our white carpet dirty. 

"I know! Let's see if there is a table we can put it on!" 

So we did. 

We went to ask Ms. Keane if they have a table we could use for the car shop.  (I reminded the friends to take notes as we were asking.  Again-writing skills!)

Well Ms. Keane did not have a table.  One of the friends said, "Let's ask Ms. Derrington!"  

Ms. Derrington was outside with her class, but we stopped in and asked Mrs. Schneck if she had a table we could use. 

(Look at the note taking!)

Mrs. Schneck did!  She said we could borrow this green table.  I wondered out loud, "Will our tire fit on the table?"  We took the table back to the classroom to find out. 

We put them side by side and made our predictions. 

We voted whether it would fit on the table or not.  We graphed our votes to see which one had more. We discussed less, more, and equal too! 

Bella decided to make her own graph on her paper too! 

Well it turns our that the tire does fit on the table! 

The table also has cool nuts and bolts underneath, just like the ones we were using this morning. 

 As Devereux was investigating the bottom side of the table, one of our friends said, "Hey! That's like a fixer!" 

We then decided that the green table should turn into a car, but how would we do that? What do we need?

"Muffler!"

"Wheels! 

"Oil!"

We started with the wheels first.  We traced the tire four times- once for each wheel. 

We then used teamwork to cut out and color the tires.

During the second small group time, I again asked the friends what we still need for the car shop.

"Windows!"

"Doors! 

Of course we each made a list of what we needed! 

We wondered what we could use to make windows and doors.  

One of the friends said, "I know! Boxes!" 

I asked where we could get boxes.

"Let's ask Ms. Derrington!" (She must have everything over there in PDO. :) )

We predicted if Ms. Derrington would have boxes or not.  We graphed our predictions and discussed less, more, and equal. 

We asked Ms. Derrington if she had any boxes we could have. 

She did!  

We were very excited about the boxes Ms. Derrington brought.

"Let's use the boxes as the car!"

Capitalizing on the children's interests and ideas is one way to foster the love of learning!

We decided that we would use these boxes to make cars throughout the week next week! 

Ethan brought his Favorite Book in the Favorite Book Bag today.  Thanks Ethan! 

During Jesus time, we reviewed the story of Abraham and Sarah. We remembered three very important things:

1. Jesus always listens when we pray. 

2.  Jesus always answers when we pray.

3. God always keeps His promises! 

We sang a new "I Love Jesus" echo song.  I included the lyrics below: 

I love Jesus (echo)

Yes I do (echo)

I love Jesus (echo)

How about you? (echo)

(all together) 

I love Jesus, yes I do! 

I love Jesus, how about you?