Blog for February 27, March 1 and 3

Welcome to Pet Week!

This week we are going to be talking about and learning about pets. Pets are lots of fun and lots of responsibility. Come on Tuesday at 9:30 to hear Westland Humane Society talk about pets!!

Table activities this week focus on our pets! We will match pets with their homes, experiment with printing some pets' footprints, use bone shaped cookie cutters to make prints, and decorate bones. We will also have some pretend pet store play.

The KDIs we focus on this week are-

Pretend play: Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through pretend play.- We will have fun pretending to take care of our pets.

Ecology: Children understand the importance of taking care of their environment.- Especially our responsibility when pets are part of our lives.

Cooperative play: Children engage in cooperative play.- We play different roles in our pretend play, some are customers, some cashiers, some workers. We all learn to take turns.

Jesus Time- Our story this week is the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells his followers a striking story. A man is on a journey and is robbed and beaten. He is lying near the road. This man is a Jew and a Jewish priest and a priest's assistant walk by, crossing to the other side of the road, in order to avoid helping this man. A Samaritan walks by and takes the man, places him on his donkey, cleans him up and takes him to an inn. He gives the innkeeper enough money to take care of the man for several days and promises to return to pay more if there is a need. What is so surprising about this story is that Jews and Samaritans were enemies. They would not normally help each other. This man went out of his way to help someone in need. He gave up his time and treasure and I am sure he was way out of his comfort zone. Who is our neighbor? How far would we go to help someone in need? We were Jesus enemies, but he came and gave up his life in our place. Out of love for him, we should love and care for all our neighbors! 

Books of the Week- " Not Norman" by Kelly Bennett, "Clifford's Kitten" by Norman Bridwell, and "Angus and the Ducks" by Marjorie Flack.

A reminder about the Spirit Days this week-

Monday- Comfy, Cozy Day-


Wednesday- Guys in Ties, Girls in Pearls- 






Friday- Crazy, mixed up day- 

Don't forget Spirit NIGHT on Thursday from 6-7:30! Come enjoy a root beer float, pep rally and have fun throwing pies!!

Have a super week!
Mrs. Schneck

Blog for February 22 and 24

Welcome back to school after a short mid-winter break, though it hardly seems like winter at all!!

Our theme this week is snow! I certainly didn't expect the temperatures that we are having, but we will improvise!

For table activities this week, we played with pretend snow made from baking soda and conditioner and pretended cotton balls were snow that we stuck to contact paper. On Friday we will have some "snow" from the local ice skating rink to paint on and some snowflakes to practice our cutting skills on.

We will look at the letter Ss again for our journal.

Some KDIs we will concentrate on this week are-

Use of resources: Children gather information and formulate ideas about their world.- Where does snow come from? What is it made of? How does it feel? Why isn't there snow right now?

Body awareness: Children know about their bodies and how to navigate them in space- We do this during exercise times, still working on not "popping" one another's bubbles.

Observing: Children observe the materials and processes in their environment.- We will do this as we look at snow this week and make predictions about its behavior.

Jesus time- This week we are hearing the story of Jesus feeding the 5000. Imagine, a group of close to 15,000 people followed Jesus all day, listening to him preach and teach and heal and bless. They followed him as he walked and soon it was close to the time for the evening meal. They were too far from home and Jesus did not want to send them away hungry. To test the disciples, he asked them to go in to a small village that was close by and get all these people something to eat. The disciples said they didn't have nearly enough money and even if they did, there was no way that small village would have enough food for them to eat! Then one disciple brought forward a small boy who was willing to share his lunch. He had two small dried fish and five small barley loaves. Jesus took the food and blessed it and began breaking it apart and handing it out, after everyone was full, the disciples collected 12 baskets full of leftovers! How did that happen? Another miracle that Jesus performed! He had to set the people straight though, after this they wanted to make him their "Bread King", they would never be hungry!! He left because that is not why He came, He came to save us by dying on the cross and rising again! He never stops caring for our bodies or our souls! Hallelujah, What a Savior!!

Books of the Week- "White Snow, Bright Snow" by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin, "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats, and "Snow" by Roy McKie and P. D. Eastman.

Next week is a special week! It is Spirit Week! The basketball players in the big school have a tournament next weekend! 
We would love for you to participate- Monday is Comfy, Cozy Day- wear your pajamas, Tuesday is Sports Jersey Day and the visitor from the Westland Humane Society also comes at 9:30 that day, Wednesday is Guys in Ties, Girls in Pearls, wear your best, it's Ash Wednesday, church for many of us and Thursday is Red and Black day, our school colors.

On Thursday night, from 6-7:30 is Spirit Night- the pep band will play, pompom girls will do their routine and root beer floats will be served. You will also get the chance, for a small fee, to through a pie at some teachers, me included!!

We are scheduled to not have school on Friday. but I would like to have it anyway. If you come, great, if not, that's okay too. We can have a mixed up day- wear polka dots, checks and stripes, as many patterns and crazy colors that you can!!

Have a great week!!
Mrs. Schneck

Blog for February 13, 15 and 17

Happy Valentine's week! We look forward to celebrating Valentines on Wednesday, February 15th with our four year old friends!

We are loving learning!

Some KDIs we are concentrating on this week are-

Fine-motor skills: Children demonstrate dexterity and hand-eye coordination in using their small muscles.- From lacing our valentine bags and picking up plastic hearts with the small muscles of our toes, we are continuing to work on our fine motor skills to rev up to kindergarten.

Experimenting: Children experiment to test their ideas- We are going to try mixing different things together to see what happens as we make our "love potions" on Wednesday.

Phonological awareness: Children identify distinct sounds in spoken language. - We will use this knowledge alot this week to identify each other's names by the letters they are made of.

Table activities this week are- Valentines sensory box, stamping with cardboard hearts, Valentine Slime, heart suncatchers, red and pink art choice and threading beads on pipe cleaners.

Jesus Time- We are learning about Jairus' daughter. A man had a daughter who was very sick and as a last resort, he sought out Jesus for help. As they were coming to the house, crying was heard, his daughter had already died. Jesus told the mourners in the house that she was only sleeping- they thought him crazy! He went into the girl's room, sat on the edge of her bed, took her hand and said, "Little girl, get up!" and she did!! He then told her mother to get her something to eat. Because Jesus lives, we also will live! 

Books of the week- A Valentine's theme- "I Love You, Clifford" by Norman Bridwell, "Valentine Friends" by Ann Schweninger and "Hedgehugs" by Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper.

Have a lovely week!!
Mrs. Schneck

Blog for February 6, 8, and 10, 2017

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10! We are counting this week and working on number sense.

We are matching what symbol means how much, looking at simple addition and just having fun with numbers and counting.

Some of the KDIs we are concentrating on are-

Number words and symbols: Children recognize and use number words and symbols.- We are using numbers, reading books about numbers and making numbers this week.

Counting: Children count things. - We are counting many things this week!

Patterns: Children identify, describe, copy, complete, and create patterns.- This week we are looking at the pattern in numbers, those digits appear over and over again, in different places, but always in the same order when counting.

Jesus Time- We are hearing about the miracle of Jesus healing a paralyzed man. Jesus was preaching and teaching in a house in Capernaum in Galilee and so many people were in the house, there was no room for any more. Four friends, desperate to get their paralyzed friend to see Jesus, came through the roof of the house and lowered their friend on a mat right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he had compassion on him and said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Some of the teachers of the law thought this too bold of Jesus- Who was he to forgive sins? He showed them who he was, God's own son, by then telling the man to get up, pick up his mat and go home, which he did!! Jesus cares for us too!

Books of the Week-  We are reading many counting books this week, we have read "Count" by Denise Fleming, "Bears on Wheels" by Stan and Jan Berenstain and "Chicka, Chicka, 1,2,3" by Bill Martin, Jr. We will be reading "1-2-3 Va-Va-Vroom" by Sarah Lynn, "Frog Jump" by Steven Kellogg, "Warthogs in the Kitchen" by Pamela Duncan Edwards and "10 Little Rubber Ducks" by Eric Carle.

We had vision testing today for the 4 year olds and everyone passed!

Those of you wishing to visit kindergarten will get a separate email, telling you which day your child will be going. I was going to do it last week, but too many were sick! This week so far, we are much more healthy!

God bless and keep you!
Mrs. Schneck