Merry Christmas!!

Christmas!!

Hi,
Sorry that I neglected the blog last week! I hope you all enjoyed your snow day!

Last week and this week, our focus has been on Christmas!

Last week for table activities in the morning, we used our fine motor skills to decorate paper gingerbread men, put pom pom decorations on Christmas trees, use Christmas play doh and make Christmas decorations. This week we will make Christmas tree suncatchers, dot paintings, cookie cutter stamp painting and using our scissors skills to cut out stars and put them together for a 3-D effect.

For small group we have done capitol and common letter recognition when we put "lights" on our tree, small motor fun making graham cracker houses, working on making patterns when we painted our lights and looking at the letter Jj for Jesus. Candy canes are shaped like Js too, when you turn them upside down.

Large group we have been dancing to Christmas music, balancing candy cane ornaments and tinsel and having our Christmas P.E..

Jesus Time has been focused on the story of Jesus birth, the shepherd's visit and the wise men's visit. Thank you so much for taking the time yesterday to give your children the privilege of sharing Jesus's story too! They did a great job!

Books of the week have been various Christmas Books. "Bright Star, Bright Star, What Do You See?" by Cassandre Maxwell, "Jesus is Born" by Gail Pawlitz and Sehee Jung, "No Tree for Christmas" by Marilyn Lashbrook, "Snowmen at Christmas" by Caralyn Buehner and "The Pine Tree Parable" by Liz Curtis Higgs.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful work you do with your children!! Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

In Celebration of Christ's Birth,
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

Peace Lutheran Preschool 4 year olds for the week of December 5

This week we are talking about the concept of our 5 senses. In table activities we felt and smelled holiday slime- green mint and red cinnamon. We tried to build with hard, soft and rough materials in the yellow room. We will have the chance to play with and hear jingle bells on Friday as well as paint with scented paint.

For small group activities, we tried tasting different things associated with Christmas- candy canes, chocolate kisses, oranges, cookies. We also tried to see if we could pull out of a pillowcase what our teacher asked us to by feel only. We will be making a sensory Christmas tree on Friday with things to feel, look at, smell and hear to decorate.

Some of the KDIs we are working on this week are-

Natural and physical world: Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world.- Doing this through all our senses.

Tools and technology: Children explore and use tools and technology.- We will have an opportunity to really do this at the Outdoor Adventure Center.


Jesus Time- This week we are learning about the angel Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her that she would be Jesus' mother! How brave Mary was! And how brave we can be too, when God asks us to do work for Him, He will give us what we need to accomplish that work!

Books for the Week- "Little Bunny Follows His Nose" by Katherine Howard and "The Sweet Smells of Christmas"  by Patricia Scarry.

Your children have been memorizing a speaking part and a song for the Christmas service. Please sign up for what service you would like to attend at the following link. I will also have a paper sign up at school if you would prefer. 

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c45afa72fa3fe3-christmas

We will also be drawing names on Friday. Please bring the gift, $5 limit, to school on Wednesday, December 21st. 

See you Wednesday at the Outdoor Adventure Center at 10am! Should be fun!!

Have a terrific week!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

Four year old preschool for the week of November 28th

8, 9, 10- Ready or not, here I come!
We played Hide and Seek today as we begin our week of looking for things! We are listening and looking at the letter Ll for look. We will learn to look all week!

Some of the KDIs we are hitting on this week are-

Sense of competence: Children feel they are competent.- Hats, gloves or mittens, boots and zipping up our coats, give us time and we can do it. My rule of trying is they try once for every year old they are, so 4 year olds try 4 times, etc. Many times they get it on the first or second try! One of my college professors sayings was, "Nothing succeeds like success." Once they master it, they are ready to take on other challenges!

Observing: Children observe the materials and processes in their environment.- We are looking at everything this week.

Tools and technology: Children explore and use tools and technology.- We are talking about things that help us see like binoculars, telescope, glasses. How can we use those tools?

Jesus Time- This week we are hearing the story of the Three Men in the Fiery Furnace. King Nebuchadnezzer demands that the young men from Israel bow down to his false idol. When they refuse, he has them thrown into a fiery furnace. God delivers them in a miraculous way and the King sees the power of the King of Kings!!

Books of the Week- "How to Hide an Octopus" by Ruth Heller and "The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown.

Next week is our field trip to the Outdoor Adventure Center on Wednesday, December 7 at 10am. Please return the attendance slip by this Friday.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Schneck

Four year old preschool for the week of Thanksgiving

This week there are only two days of preschool because on Thursday, we celebrate Thanksgiving!! We pray that you enjoy the blessings God gives you in food, family and friends on that day!! He has richly blessed us all!

This week we are looking at the letter Tt for turkey and for Thanksgiving. We talked about the sound t makes when it is all alone and the different sound it makes when it teams up with h.

We practiced our fine motor skills by putting feathers into the holes of colanders-



We also used fine motor to paint Indian corn with lego stamps.

We used our letter knowledge to put the letters from our names in order as we glued them on as the tail feathers to our name turkeys.

Our Bible Story this week is David and Goliath. God can and does use little people to solve big problems!! We can do anything God needs us to do when He is on our side!!

Our books for the week are "Let's Celebrate God's Blessings on Thanksgiving Day" by Lise Caldwell and "Clifford's Thanksgiving" by Norman Bridwell.

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

For the week of November 14. 16 and 18

This week instead of working on a specific letter, we are working on a concept- what do animals do to get ready for winter? They hibernate (sleep), migrate (move) or adapt (change). We will be talking about these ideas all week and I encourage you to talk about them when you go to the zoo on Thursday.

Some KDIs we will be working on as we investigate this topic are-

Cooperative play: Children engage in cooperative play- We can migrate together;like geese,  hibernate together; like bats or snakes. we adapt every time we put on our coats to go outside. We work together.

Fine-motor skills: Children demonstrate dexterity and hand-eye coordination in using their small muscles.- Today we used scissors and glue sticks, we will continue to flex our little muscles all week.

Vocabulary: Children understand and use a variety of words and phrases. We are introducing the words hibernate, migration, adapt and others this week.

Natural and physical world: Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world- We will learn about and observe alot of animals this week.

Jesus Time- This week we are learning about Joshua and the battle of Jericho. Our God is a mighty God and he keeps us by his strength. We will also have the special opportunity on Friday of going to chapel with the kids in the "big school". They are going to have chapel at 8:30 so we can join them. If you arrive later that 8:30 on Friday, please bring your child over to the elementary school. You are also invited to join us for chapel!! It only last 30 minutes, probably even less this week. We will try to join the big kids once each month.

Books of the Week- "Bear Has a Story to Tell" by Philip Stead,  "Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep" by Heidi Stemple and Jane Yolen, "Good Night, Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann, and " When We Went to the Zoo" by Jan Ormerod.

See you at 10 am at the Detroit Zoo!!

Have a great week!
Mrs. Schneck

Four year old preschool for the week beginning November 7th

This week rocks!! That is what we are learning and talking about. Rr is the letter rock begins with. We are having fun with rocks this week!

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on are-

Sense of competence: Children feel they are competent- As they carried buckets of rocks in each hand, they found out how strong they were. Success is a great motivator!

Gross-motor skills: Children demonstrate strength, flexibility, balance, and timing in using their large muscles.- We carried rocks in many different ways, we will experiment with balance and flexibility in our movement to songs while balancing a beanbag on different parts of our bodies.

Patterns: Children identify, describe, copy, complete, and create patterns. - Looking at patterns God makes in nature is also part of our exploration this week.

Some of the other activities we are doing this week are playing with Pop rocks in shaving cream, looking at rocks through a magnifying glass, counting rocks, identifying letters written on rocks, rock tumble painting and doing our journal page for Rr is for rocks.

Jesus Time- This week's Jesus time is about Moses receiving the 10 Commandments on two large, stone tablets on Mt. Sinai. We talk about all ten of the commandments, how the first ones talk about our relationship to God and the last ones about how God wants us to show love to those around us. We are learning the Bible passage 1 John 5:3- This is love for God; to obey His commands." We can't obey God's commandments perfectly, no matter how hard we try! We are so grateful that He sent His Son Jesus, who did obey them perfectly and died in our place so we can have a home in heaven!!

Books of the Week- "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" by William Stieg and "Stone Soup" by Ann McGovern.

Next week at the Detroit Zoo- we will meet in the tunnel as you go into the zoo at 10am and meet again for the snack at 11:30. In between times, you and your child are welcome to enjoy the zoo at your own pace, there is no set program. In school we will be talking about getting ready for winter and how different animals do that, so you may want to point that out as you walk around. However, with the weather we have been having lately, I'm not sure winter is coming!

Have a great week!!
Mrs. Schneck

4 year old preschool for the week of October 31

Welcome to the week! This week we are learning a little bit about Halloween and a little bit about pumpkins which are seen everywhere this time of year!

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Use of resources: Children gather information and formulate ideas about their world.- We are looking at the world around us and how our culture celebrates Halloween, we talked about All Hallow's Eve and All Saints Day on November 1st. We talked about how dressing up is just pretend, not real.

Empathy: Children demonstrate empathy toward others.- As we play with each other and run into little conflicts we encourage the children to put themselves into their friends place. We also prayed for two of our friends who were sick this week.

Pretend play: Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through pretend play.- As we dress up and pretend to be someone else, we practice different roles and jobs. Wonder Woman can still cook and Spiderman can still be a dad.

Jesus Time- This week we are hearing about how Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the desert. Wherever they went, God took care of them. He miraculously separated the Red Sea so the Israelites could walk across on dry land, provided manna and quail for them to eat in the wilderness. God is with us and takes care of us too!! Everyday!

Books of the Week- "Teddy Bears Trick or Treat" by Sam Williams, "A Halloween Scare in Michigan" by Eric James, and "The Pumpkin Patch Parable" by Liz Curtis Higgs.

For the zoo, car parking needs to be included in the prepayment. The cost is $6/ vehicle.

I would ask all of you to keep our 3rd and 4th grade teacher Jan Murphy in your prayers, she is hospitalized with pneumonia.

Hope to see all of you that I haven't yet seen Thursday or Friday of this week for our little conferences!

Have a fantastic week!

Mrs. Schneck

Four year old preschool for the week of October 24th

Fall weather is here!! A little chilly and windy today, but we listened to waves and imagined ourselves on the beach as we talked about oceans today. We are listening to the many different sounds of Oo, seeing how Oo is written and experiencing different things to do with oceans.

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Reflection: Children reflect on their experiences.- This week we are trying to figure out why we changed our plan of play or if we didn't change, how we played. We are thinking about why we make the choices we do.

Alphabetic knowledge: Children identify letter names and their sounds. - We are continuously working on knowing the letters at the beginning of each child's name and the sound it makes. We are also exploring the many different sounds vowels make.

Patterns: Children identify, describe, copy, complete, and create patterns.- We have a four color pattern on our calendar and the students are very adept at recognizing what comes next. November will soon be here and we will have a new pattern to figure out.

Art: Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through two- and three-dimensional art- We are coloring and painting with the underwater world in mind, doing our best and trying to do it ourselves!

Jesus Time- This week our stories are about Moses. We start out with Moses as a baby, hidden by his mother, put in a little boat to float on the Nile where Miriam watches over him. He is drawn out of the water by an Egyptian princess. Raised by both his mother and his royal mother, God is preparing him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God uses our life experiences to prepare us to do his will, we are all given gifts to use in His service!

Books for the week- "Somewhere in the Ocean" by Jennifer Ward and T. J. Marsh, "Swimmy" by Leo Lionni, "The Three Little Fish and the Big, Bad Shark" by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton and "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister.

The note for the Detroit Zoo Attendance will be coming home on Wednesday.

Thanks and have a great week!!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

Four year old preschool for October 17, 19 and 21

Happy Monday!
This week in my plan book was marked as emergent- that means I plan according to the students' interests. Lately we have been looking at seeds, watering plants during play time, seeing leaves fall to the ground and been interested in what is going on outside. So, I decided to look at plants this week. We listened to the letter Pp at the beginning of plants and we will continue to look at, play with , make with shapes and just generally investigate plants this week!

If your child is especially interested in a topic, please email me and I would love to make it so we can share each others interests at school too!

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Use of resources: Children gather information and formulate ideas about their world.- We are doing this as we look at the falling leaves, look at plants and observe how they grow and what they need to grow.

Personal care: Children carry out personal care routines on their own.- Especially hand washing and washing our food this week to keep ourselves healthy.

Vocabulary: Children understand and use a variety of words and phrases.- Plant talk this week- photosynthesis- leaves are food factories- they may not totally understand how it all works, but it is great to hear the language and try it out.

Ecology: Children understand the importance of taking care of their environment.- How can we help plants to grow? Water, sun, soil and air. Take care of the creation God has entrusted us with.

Jesus Time- The students were excellent listeners today as we heard the story of how Joseph helps and forgives his brothers. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  Genesis 50:20. Joseph knew and trusted that God would make it all work out for good and God does the same in our lives too!!

Books of the Week- "Tops and Bottoms" retold and illustrated by Janet Stevens, "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Kraus, "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle.

Book orders were sent home today, due by October 28.

Our next field trip is the Detroit Zoo on Thursday, November 17th. I will be sending home attendance slips for that next week as we need a head count and payment ahead of time.

 And we did get confirmation for a field trip to the DNR's Outdoor Adventure Center on Wednesday, December 7th!! We need a minimum of 20 guests to get the $2/person price. Looking forward to that exciting field trip.

Have a wonderful week!!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

Four year old preschool- October 10, 12 and 14

Welcome back after our little break! We are ready to learn and play and discover our world!!

This week we are talking about fruit! Today we looked at many different kinds of fruit, took apart a grape, an apple and an orange to look inside each one, look at its peel or skin, see if it had seeds, see if we could squish the juice out of it.

We will continue to investigate fruits, especially apples, on our field trip on Wednesday. I have heard that it is best to take the highway, 275 and 96 and not try to go surface roads as some roads are closed in South Lyon.

The KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Problem solving: Children solve problems encountered in play. We did this as we learn to cooperate with each other and how best to use tools to do what we want them to do, like a plastic knife cutting open fruit.

Sense of competence: Children feel they are competent. As they experience success in cutting, painting, counting and zipping coats and putting on shoes, they realize, they can do it!

Counting: Children count things. We counted the seeds in our apples and counted beads to put in ice cube trays.

Classifying: Children classify materials, actions, people, and events. What is a fruit? Classifying by whether you eat the peel of the fruit or not, how do fruits grow?

Jesus Time- We are learning about Joseph this week. How his brothers sold him into slavery and he was wrongly put in jail, but God was with him and he became the second in command of all Egypt! God is with us too and works things out for our good!

Books- This week we are reading "A Busy Year" by Leo Lionni, " The Apple Pie Tree" by Zoe Hall and "Strega Nona's Harvest" by Tomie dePaola.

Hope to see you Wednesday at 9:30 at Erwin's Orchard!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

September 26-30, 2016

The year is starting to roll along!! And the week we get to talk about and experience camping, it starts to rain!! Oh well, we are having a great time anyway!

This week we are looking closely at the following KDIs-

Use of resources- Children gather information and formulate ideas about their world- we are looking closely at nature, using it for printing in playdough, painting and cutting.

Cooperative play- Children engage in cooperative play- We camp together. More children are choosing to play in the same area, kitchen and outdoors, in the tent. They are finding different things to do in the same space and sharing and working together.

Natural and Physical World- Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world.

In Jesus Time, we are talking about Noah and the Ark, maybe that's why it's raining! We talk about how the world had become more and more turned against God and his will, how Noah and his family were the only ones who still listened to God, 40 days and 40 nights of rain, God kept them safe through it all and promised never to destroy the earth with a flood again. We are reminded of that promise every time we see a rainbow.

The books we are reading this week are "Curious George Goes Camping" by Margret and H. A. Rey, "Flo and Wendell Explore" by William Wegman, and "Our Great Big Backyard" by Laura Bush and Jenna Bush Hager.

Next Tuesday we are planning our field trip to Camp Killarney, rain or shine. Hope to see you there! We will just meet there at 10am. There is no school for the rest of the week, October 5,6 and 7, due to teacher's conference.

Our next field trip is Wednesday, October 12 at Erwin's Apple Orchard. We have a quick turnaround on the attendance slip for that one!

Book orders due by Friday, September 30th.

We will be going outside everyday unless it is pouring rain or lightening and thunder are occurring. Please make sure you have given your child a coat to wear, rain boots are great too. They have received a note concerning inside shoes.

Have a great rest of the week!!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Dostal

Four year old preschool for the week of September 19

Hi,

We are busy bodies this week. "Body" is our theme, so we are learning different parts of our bodies and moving them around to music. We had our bodies drawn around on Monday and we will decorate them on Wednesday.

The KDIs we are working on this week are-

Art- Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through two and three dimensional art. Wait and see what we think we look like when we draw ourselves!

Natural and Physical World- Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world. One of our table activities this week is looking at things through a magnifying glass to see what they look like up close.

Gross Motor Skills- Children demonstrate strength, flexibility, balance and timing in using their large muscles. We stick our right hand in, wiggle all around, dance in a circle- all staying steady on our feet!

Our Jesus time this week focuses on the sad story of Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's two sons. Cain and Abel both offer sacrifices to God. God finds Abel's acceptable, but Cain's is not because of the attitude of his heart. He kills Abel out of jealousy and anger. God still loves Cain and is ready to forgive him, but Cain is not sorry for what he did. God continues to be with us and wants us to be sorry for the things we do wrong. He is always there and waiting for us, he show his love for us by giving us his Son to pay for our sins!

Our books for the week are "Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb" by Al Perkins, "Shake Your Sillies Out" by Raffi and "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle.


We are planning a field trip for Tuesday, October 4th. The K-8 school has activity day which means the parking lot will be in use which will make preschool pickup impossible. Mrs. Dostal is the camp director for Camp Killarney in the Irish Hills. We would like to meet out there with whomever would like to come! Lots of nature to explore, lakes to play in, fishing and boats. I will be sending home a permission/ plan to attend slip next week! I will also be getting a list of field trips for the future to you then also!

Have a great week

Four Year old Preschool September 12, 14 and 16

Welcome to week two of preschool! I have started separate blogs for the four year old and three year old classes. It makes it a little less confusing. You can still look and see the other blog anytime you would like, but this will just concentrate on the four year old class.

This week we are looking at ants. Ants do start with the letter a, but we may not go in ABC order. We are going to be observing ants, seeing what foods ants like when we make an ant restaurant and using our fine motor skills to pick up rubber ants with plastic tweezers.

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Use of resources- children gather information and formulate ideas about their world. Ours and the ants as we see how they act and move and what they like.

Reading- children read for pleasure and information- some of our ant books are non-fiction, some are fictional stories whose characters are ants.

Predicting- children predict what they expect will happen. Each child gets to choose an item for the ant menu, what will the ants like best?

Counting- children count things- we count ants as we march one by one, two by two, etc.

Our Jesus time this week is the story of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin. God created a beautiful garden for Adam and Eve with everything they could want or need. He walked and talked with them each day. He gave them the opportunity to show their love for Him by obeying His command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were tempted by the devil disguised as a snake and ate from the tree. They were immediately ashamed and guilt-ridden. They knew they had done wrong. God promised to send his Son, Jesus, to save them. He would crush the serpent and the serpent would just strike his heal. God saves us through Jesus too!!

As we plan our play this week, we are crawling like ants, placing ants on little pictures of each area and looking at where we want to play with a magnifying glass.

The books we are reading this week are - "One Hundred Hungry Ants" by Elinor Pinczes, "Army Ant Parade" by April Pulley Sayre and "I Saw an Ant in a Parking Lot" by Joshua Prince and Macky Pamintuan.