Monday, September 22, 2014

Welcome back to school!  I pray that you had a restful and safe long weekend! 

The teachers here at Zion visited Washington, MO to hear a presentation by Dr. Tim Elmore.  Dr. Elmore has resources for teachers and parents!  If you are interested in learning more- click HERE.

Many of the friends independently chose to write this morning.  







We also had a lot of fun at the present making center! 




Some friends explored and compared weight with the balances this morning!  This exploration fosters curiosity and the love of learning! 



Our friends love the magnetic tiles.  The children do so much more than build with them!  They use them as gift boxes for presents.  They use them as a phone to call friends.  They use them in so many ways that demonstrate understand of symbolic development.  Symbolic development is a foundational skill needed for children to understand symbols, such as letters and numbers! 




We had a great time outside today! 











During small group time, we stamped with egg cartons.  We noticed that the blue and yellow make green.  Some of the children wanted to test and see what blue and red make!  We will have to try it out tomorrow!




We also explored play doh today!  Many of the friends used birthday candles to make a birthday cake.  We extended this interest with dice.  The children rolled a dice, counted how many they rolled, and then put the same number of candles on their cake!  In this activity, the children are working their fine motor skills as well as foundational math skills including counting and one to one correspondence.








Last week we had many discussion about who was invited to our parties.  Today the children role played with me about various scenarios that could hurt friends feelings.  We discussed that telling a friend, "You aren't invited to my party" is not kind.  The children then were able to use the puppets to talk to one another in a kind way.  















After small group time, we learned a song called, "I Can Be Your Friend."  We found a partner and danced to the song.  We sang it a few times, each time finding a new partner.  This activity is not only fun, but it helps to build and strengthen the relationships between the children.  



During second free choice time, some friends made a list of friends coming to their party. They were sure to write everyone's names! 





Literacy development happens when children choose a book and "read" the pictures. The children are learning valuable concepts of print, and they are learning to love reading!




Some of the friends wanted to continue to make birthday cakes out of play doh!



Other friends practiced recognizing their letters!  Because we created the alphabet together with the children's pictures, they are able to attach letters to concrete object.  For example:

"D!  That's for Delaney!" 

In this way, they are also learning the sounds of the letters! 


During Jesus time, we extended the story of Abraham and Sarah.  We learned that God blessed them with a son- Isaac!  We learned that God blessed us with our families too!  He also blessed us by sending Jesus, His son, to die on the cross and rise again.  Because of Jesus, we are a part of God's family too! 

I apologize! I did not take the iPod to the gym today, but we had a lot of fun throwing balls and running!

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