Don't forget to turn in your registration forms. Enrollment for 2015-2016 opens to the community on February 1^st.  PDO, PS and younger grades will fill up fast.  Please don’t delay on getting your paperwork filled out online to make sure you have a spot.  We look forward to healthy enrollment in many classes for the upcoming school year!  

What a fun day we had in preschool! 

Thank you for all of the participation in the change war!  We raised so much money for Pastor Sam and the ministry to spread God's love in India!  Whether we win the pizza party or not, we have accomplished a huge thing and should be proud!! 

We were excited to explore the light table today!  As the children manipulate the shapes they are learning about spatial relationships and mixing colors! 

We also extended our castle play with small castles and figurines.  

We also added some props to our throne room! 

During morning meeting, we watched a video of a drawbridge.  

(You can watch the video HERE )

We discussed our observations about the drawbridge.

"We need a moat."

"We need string to make it go up and down."

"How can we make it go up and down?" 

We then discussed possible solutions to make the drawbridge go up and down.  We will test these solutions next week!

Capitalizing on student interest and curiosity provides a great opportunity to engage in learning that is meaningful.

During small group time, we started working on our moat.  I asked the friends what kind of things live in the moat, and they drew pictures of those things.

(Fish, turtles, sharks, etc.) 

We also started painting butcher paper for the castle door! 

We made chains with Ms. Emma for the chains that we saw on the video. 

We also worked together to make a sign that says, "Welcome to the Preschool Castle" 

This was a great opportunity to engage in meaningful writing practice! 

During second free choice time, the friends continued to explore the various roles in a castle.  

We also decorated our welcome sign! 

We hung the sign above our classroom door.  Some of the friends were concerned that no one would see it.  We brainstormed ways to solve that problem.  We tried hanging it on our classroom door, but it was too big.  "If we close the door, it will get all bended!" 

We discussed cutting it in half and hanging it on the window.  "But what if we cut the letters?!" 

One of the friends had an idea:  "I know!  I will make an arrow to hang that way people know to look at the sign!"

Another friend added, "And I will write LOOK UP so that they know to look up."

The friends got to work, and with a little help they made and hung up their signs. 

They wanted to be sure that everyone saw their signs, so they invited their friends to read the signs they made. 

During Jesus time we acted out the story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead.  We remember that Jesus healed the little girl, and Jesus heals us too from our sins and bad choices! We thank Jesus for the gift of salvation! 

We had another great day in school!

Many friends brought in change for our change war! The change war ends tomorrow, so if you would like to bring in change tomorrow is the last day! Let's support Pastor Sam's ministry in India and work towards a possible pizza party! 

The friends played house with the miniature items this morning.  They are not only making sense of the world, but they are creating and extending their impressions of it! 

"A child's play is not simply a reproduction of what he has experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired." Lev Vygotsky

Look at this hard work in the blocks!  We are preparing to build our castle next week! 

Castle play.  

"I'm the king, but the cook has the day off so I am helping to prepare the dinner." 

The guards stood watch! 

Extending play through artistic expression

Fun in the commons! 

During small group time, we practiced making blue prints.  We observed some good junk materials and thought through how we could use them to create our own castle.  We wrote a blueprint of our ideas.  This activity helps children to think through the process of building. The goal is process not product.  The finished product might not look like anything, but we are more concerned about the children learning the process of thinking through a plan. This activity also helps us prepare to build the castle in our classroom next week! 

We made cards to share God's love with some of the teachers here at Zion! 

We continued to elaborate our creations in the blocks.  Our structures continue to become more elaborate as we learn to work together and as we learn from our experiences in the blocks. 

"This one will fall over.  It's too tall." 

We also made a collaborative art piece! 

Free choice play

Look how elaborate our block structures have become! 

Castle play :) 

All of the friends in the castle took an ice fishing trip! 

This collaborative, thought out play is what we strive for in preschool.  This mature play is where cognitive development happens! 

During Jesus time we acted out the story of Jesus raising Jairus's daughter from the dead.  We remember that Jesus healed the little girl, and Jesus heals us too from our sins and bad choices! We thank Jesus for the gift of salvation!