School is Fun, No Matter What They Say

More pictures to share of your beautiful children. They work & play together and celebrate successes for each other. It is God's love that helps us all help each other and your children definitely show it when they care for friends in our class. Small things such as learning our address, finding our name, getting a sticker, writing a letter, counting to 10 - your children know that it is not easy for all of us and cheer our friends on with kind words. Ask them if they know our "trucker cheer." It is great fun to celebrate achievements for and with our friends. Thank you God for these wonderful, loving children.

Are these your little monsters?

Here we are!!! Happy Halloween!!! This was part of our Halloween fun. We painted masks with bright paints and learned that no matter what - God Loves Us!! It doesn't matter how we act, God is with us and always lights our way. We loved being creative with color and stickers and take great pride in our work.

Can Children Vote?

We held a four year class election for the President of the United States of America. It was very enlightening to see that the children were aware of the current political race and voiced many views about the candidates. Our class learned about why the right to vote is so important and even made voter registration cards. We checked in at our "poll" by finding our names and reciting our home address. It was a close race, but John McCain won by 2 votes. We also talked what the President does and made a list of things that are important for being President of our country. We will continue to learn about this great land of ours in the upcoming weeks as we learn about the Pilgrims.

The Pumpkin Patch

Even though it was really chilly, we made it to the pumpkin patch today. I had to share the photo of our class. They were so excited to get their little pumpkins and were heartbroken to leave them at school today. I promised that we could take them home tomorrow or Thursday if we can get our decorating done. We used the democratic process to decide on the manner in which we will accessorize our little orange friends. Stay tuned for more on this topic. Also, just a reminder to dress warmly for the playground. We did stay in today because of our field trip to the "pumpkin patch." We already have lots of sniffles and coughs and I don't want any of us to miss out on Trick or Treat fun this Friday because of illness.

I had to share this funny photo. My sister & I had fun helping with our church trunk or treat. We are best friends and I love her very much. This was too good not to share. Happy Fall!

More Pictures Are On The Way

Parents, don't fret. If you don't always see your child's pictures here, there are many being taken. (And I don't always get the best picture.) I try to get as many pictures as possible, but teaching is my priority. I love to take photographs and try to share them when I can. I really hope that you enjoy this blog. There are 16 wonderful angels in our room and they share so many things with myself and Mrs. Julie. This blog is my way of sharing things that I can't include our newsletters. Have a wonderful weekend. "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

"O" - Our Preschool Is So Much Fun

This is "Carl the Candy Corn Man." We made this little guy to brighten our classroom and replace our beautiful stained glass apples. He got his name by chance, but actually discovered that Carl is Mrs. Julie's father's name. We are so happy to honor his memory with this cheerful creation. The children had a great time painting, cutting, pasting, and creating. If you have some time, stop by our room and see your child's work. He hangs from our ceiling and makes us feel cheerful when see him move with the breeze.

"O" what a great week we had. We learned about the letter O and all about pumpkins. We are now building on the skills we have learned and will soon start writing some things on our own. (We have been in school for 30 days and have several letters in our memory banks to choose from.) The children did a great job changing their "morning check in" to their home address and are proud of learning more about responsibility. It is so much fun to see them achieve tasks on their own. We have posted a special chart in our room for children who can do puzzles on their own. (This was something that many thought was too hard.) They understand that solving a puzzle builds "brain power" by using their very own problem solving skills.

We made our very own "pumpkin life cycle" after we watched a great video about how a pumpkin grows. (The children were very excited to learn that they can recycle their own pumpkins at home by letting them turn into compost for next year.) A pumpkins grows from seed, to sprout, to plant, to flower, to green pumpkin and finally the big orange pumpkin.

We also liked our Bible verse from Psalms, "it is good to give thanks to the Lord." We all agree that we especially give thanks for the friends in our classroom.

We ended our week by making an owl craft and learning a silly song about a little brown owl. Ask your child if they can sing this for you, because we all know owls really say "la de da di da."

Have you ever played hopscotch?

We had so much fun this week with the letter H. The letter sound is fun to say and we learned how to play hopscotch. It was really great to see the children enjoy a good "old fashioned" outside activity. If you haven't tried this at home lately, let your child explain hopscotch to you. Help them draw it out on the driveway, or even better, use a stick to draw it in the dirt. It helps them with coordination (hopping on one foot) and number skills. You will not believe how much fun such a simple activity can be.

We also made haystacks with Chinese noodles and milk chocolate chips. This was the closing activity for our unit on the five senses. This was a snack that you could see, hear, taste, touch and smell. Your child should be able to give you simple directions for this project. We sent home a sample for each family to try. (This was a parallel activity to our mini book about making jam, only we made a yummy chocolate treat.)

It was a wonderful week. Thank you for having such wonderful children and sharing them with us. It is a blessing to see God's love in their smiling faces and see him working in their hearts by sharing the gift of friendship.

Thank you Lexington Fire Department

Thank you Lexington Fire Department for our visit today. We loved the puppet show and meeting the firemen. The children were given a homework assignment about a home safety plan. We know that talking about fire safety can sometimes be frightening, however, it is so important. Please take some time to talk about this with your children and reassure them. Practicing safety plans also helps them feel more in control.

Fire Safety Day is Tuesday

Don't forget that Tuesday(10/14/08) is Fire Safety Day. The Lexington Fire Department will visit the preschool at 10:00 AM for a puppet show and fire safety education. We will get to explore the fire truck and review our safety skills.

PICTURE DAY is Wednesday. (10/15/08) Bring your beautiful smiles to school for individual pictures. We will follow other classes for pictures and don't know exactly what time we will get to "say cheese." Sometimes it is later in the day. This being said, Mrs. Julie and I do our best to keep our clothes and hair "fixed," but we can't make any promises. Remember that we do go to the playground after lunch, so be conscious of this when dressing for school for pictures.

Five Senses, Columbus Day and the letter J

What a busy week. It was "jam packed" with activities and learning. We made fall decorations for a church member stationed in Afghanistan. Our class decided to do a creative interpretation of a jack o'lantern. Each class in the preschool is sending fall decorations for a coffee shop on the military base. It will bring a sense of home to our soldiers who bravely protect us. (I couldn't post the pictures due to names on papers. Sorry.) It was a fun art project done completely by each child. We also celebrated Columbus Day a little bit early, due to a school holiday on Monday.
We made a Columbus hat and learned that he was a great explorer. History is fun, but some of us had a difficult time understanding why Columbus didn't use a cell phone or GPS to help him find his way.

We also continued to play in centers and do great work.
This was a coloring activity that involved our sense of hearing (listening for instructions) and our sense of sight. We also used our sense of touch when coloring. It was a great week and we look forward to finishing the unit on our five senses next week. There was lots more to share, but space limits the photos. Mrs. Julie and I love teaching your children and appreciate your support from home.

Peace to Mrs. Julie's Dad - Mr. Carl

I have refrained from updating our blog until I had news of Julie's father. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Carl went home this morning. Mrs. Julie is doing well and she even came to school today. Please send all of your prayers to her family. Services for her father will be held in Atlanta.

Pray for Mrs. Julie

Please keep Mrs. Julie and her family in your prayers. We have been praying for her father for many weeks and he really needs our prayers. It is a very difficult time for her and I know that she would appreciate smiling prayers of love and support from all of us. Send loving, healing, supportive prayers her way any time of the day or night. She loves the children in this class very much.

Welcome Back Friend & More of our Work

Welcome back to our friend who was on a long trip. You can see from our faces that we are so happy that he is back. It was neat for our class because we received a post card and learned about a new place in the United States. Thanks to our friend for sharing his trip with us.
Here is our October Bulletin Board. We painted leaves with glitter paint and colored some fall quilt squares. We love to see our own faces and work posted for everyone to see. Parents, don't forget to stop in and admire our work. (It is posted on the downstairs bulletin board.)
We also spent time painting "fingerprint fish." These were inspired by the book Rainbow Fish to the Rescue. This was a great book about the importance of friendship.
It was a great week. You can see our number work, the "things that start with F" pattern (four, five & fish), our shape nurse, the cool leaf man and our paint experiment. (The class wanted to know what happens when you mix red and bright green paint. We discovered that it makes "Santa" red. The children gave the resulting paint color this name because they said it is the color of Santa's suit.)

Tomorrow we will finish our math project called "measuring our foot" and we will make a graph about the size of our feet. We will also conclude community helpers with the book, Jesus and the 12 Dudes Who Did.