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