Welcome to Mrs. Douglas Full Day Preschool Class at Zion Lutheran School!

We have had such a fantastic year.  I am so thankful for each of your children, and I am also thankful for your support and love throughout the year!  

The last day of preschool is Wednesday, May 21.  Please note that there is no school lunch program next week.  Please be sure to pack a sack lunch for your child next week.  

Join us for "Popsicles at the Park" on Thursday, May 22 from 9:00 - 11:00 am at Laurel Park.  Just to clarify, if your child would like to come and play on this day, a parent, grandparent, etc. needs to be in attendance the entire time your child is at the park.  Come and play with your preschool friends and enjoy some yummy popsicles to kick off the summer! 

Look at all of our fun with the magnatiles this morning! 

"If you put these cubes together, it will make a big tower!"

A large part of early childhood education is learning social skills.  Our friends have learned and continue to learn how to cooperate, how to communicate, and how to problem solve together.  They have also developed strong friendships!  A friend truly is a blessing, and we are so thankful that God brought us all to Zion to be friends! 

Some of the friends worked on creating in the writing center this morning too! 

We walked to chapel this morning!  Mrs. Kuhlmann read us the Parable of the Lost Son. (Luke 11:15-32).  We learned that although the ran away from the father, the father still loved his son.  He welcomed his son back to him.  God, our heavenly Father, is the same way!  Even if we run away from God, He still loves us.  He waits for us to come back to Him!

Today was also a baptism remembrance!  If your child is not baptized, we would love to have him/her baptized here at Zion!  Please contact me if you would like more information. 

We were able to go outside for a few minutes before it started raining! 

During small group time we explored the slime that we created yesterday.  We expanded our vocabulary as we described the slime too! 

"It's so gooey!"

"It's squishy and sticky!"

"It is very wet!" 

Some of the friends chose to wear a glove while other friends chose to dig in with their bare hands! 

We explored shapes in the mirror box! This activity is not only fun for the children, but it also allows them to explore shapes from all angles.  Furthermore, the children enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror!  This can help to boot self image as well! 

The bear pattern game was requested today as well!  We played the pattern game with Mrs. Buchholz. Fostering child-initiated interest helps promote the love of learning to develop life-long learners!  

We had fun creating in our journals too! 

We also felt four balloons filled with various items.  We felt the balloons, and discussed what we thought could be in the balloon.  We documented our responses on paper by writing our names and the corresponding balloon number.  Next to the number we wrote what we thought was in the balloon.  

Some friends wrote their own chart.

Some friends asked for help writing a chart. 

Some friends dictated what they thought could be in the balloon.

Some friends drew pictures of what they thought could be in the balloon.

Some friends sounded out the words of what they thought could be in the balloon. 

“Sensory play also contributes in crucial ways to brain development.  Think of it as ‘food for the brain.’ Stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that help to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning.  Fro example, as children explore sensory materials, they develop their sense of touch, which lays the foundation for learning other skills, such as identifying objects by touch, and using fine-motor muscles.  The materials children work with at the sand and water table have man sensory attributes – they may be warm or cool, wet or dry, rough or smooth, hard or soft, textured or slimy.  Discovering and differentiating these characteristics is the first step in classification, or sorting- an important part of preschoolers’ science learning and discovery” (Gainsley, 2014, p.2)