Trees

"I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree" Joyce Kilmer

This week we are looking at trees and the letter Tt. 

Table activities are using playdough with tree parts, building and exploring with parts of the tree like bark, pinecones, cut rounds of branches, a Tt letter hunt, tree geoboards and leaf rubbings.

Our small group activities include making a leaf person, painting a tree and adding the Tt is for tree page to our journal.

Our KDIs of the week are-

Use of resources: Children gather information and formulate ideas about their world. - we use what we have to build and stack and investigate it. Using leaves to make a person- how to make it look like legs, arms or a body.

Natural and physical world: Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world.  - Seeing the different parts of a tree, talking about how trees grow, what they are good for.

Jesus Time- This week our story is about Abraham's grandchildren- Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau were twins born to Isaac's wife Rebekah. Even in the womb, she felt these babies wrestling with each other and Jacob was born holding on to Esau's heel. As they grew older, their rivalry continued. Esau was an outdoorsman, hunting and bringing back game for the family to eat. Spending nights away from home on his excursions. Jacob was a shepherd who stayed close to home, keeping his family's sheep. God had promised that Jacob would receive the blessing of the elder son even though Esau was the oldest. When Isaac was very old and close to blind, he instructed Esau to go and kill a game animal and make him the spicy stew that he loved and he would give him the blessing. Rebekah and Jacob overheard and decided to trick Isaac. She told Jacob to kill one of his sheep, dress in Esau's clothes and put sheepskin on his arms so they would feel hairy like Esau's. She made the spicy stew and Jacob served it to his father, pretending to be Esau. He received the blessing.

When Esau returned and brought the stew to his father, he found out that Jacob had stolen his blessing and was furious!! 

Rebekah told Jacob to run away to her brother's house and he did. That night in the middle of nowhere as Jacob laid down with a stone for a pillow, he had a wonderful dream. In the dream there were angels going up and down a staircase and God was at the very top. Even though Jacob had sinned, God still loved him and was with him! 

When Jacob woke up, he anointed the stone and every time he passed that place, he remembered how God was with him. 

He is with us everywhere, too! God loves us no matter what! 

Books of the week- "A Tree is Nice" by Janice May Udry, "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert and "As An Oak Tree Grows" by G. Brian Karas.

Our next field trip is coming up quickly! It is Tuesday, October 9th  at Camp Killarney in the Irish Hills. The address is 1200 Chisholm Rd, Onsted, MI 49265. 

We plan to meet there at 10:00 to have some fun in tents and trees!! We will be done with the formal program at 11:30, but you are welcome to stay and adventure on your own!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Schneck

Apples. apples, apples!

This week we are concentrating on the letter Aa and apples!

Table activities include apple printing, apple orchard sensory bins, sorting apples and apple pie playdough.

Small group activities are comparing and contrasting apples- we tried 8 different kinds

Our KDIs of the week are-

 Natural and physical world: Children gather knowledge about the natural and physical world-Looking at how apples grow on trees and how apples make more trees- the cycle that God put in place to keep making apple trees!

Pretend play: Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through pretend play.- Our apple orchards turned into things we never imagined! A lot of role playing this week- superheros in dollhouses, beans turn into tea, great use of our imaginations!

Jesus Time- Our story this week shows how God keeps his promises, even though sometimes it seems impossible. We are learning about God choosing Abraham to be the beginning of the line that Jesus would be born of someday and the beginning of our family of faith. God instructed Abraham to move to a place that he would show him. He and his nephew Lot followed God to the land of Canaan where they set up their tent homes. They kept sheep and goats and cattle and camels and waited for what God had in store next. God told Abraham to go out and look at the sky and count the stars. God promised Abraham that he would have that many children. Abraham was 90 years old and didn't even have one child yet, but he believed in God's promise. Years later, three men came and visited Abraham, he served them a meal Sarah, his wife, had cooked. They told him that next year at this same time, he would have a child.  Abraham was 100. Sarah who was 90 at this time, laughed, overhearing them in the tent. She would have a baby??!! But she did, and God kept his promise. Generation after generation of Abraham's children and grandchildren followed God. Not always perfectly and not always all of them, but enough, that when the time came for his promise of a Savior to be born, he was born of Abraham's family. And we who believe in Jesus as our Savior are also children of Abraham- more that the stars in the sky!!

Books of the week- "The Biggest Apple Ever" by Steve Kroll, "The Apple Pie Tree" by Zoe Hall, and "Under the Apple Tree" by Steve Metzger.

We will see you Wednesday at Plymouth Orchard, 10685 Warren Rd. at 9:30 am- our tour leaves at 9:45, but please be there at 9:30!- This is school for Wednesday- then we will see you at preschool on Friday!

Have a apple-tastic week!!!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Oetzel

Blog for September 10-14, 2018

This week we are talking about the letter Mm and marshmallows!

Table activities this week include drawing on marshmallows, sorting marshmallows by color and size, painting with marshmallows, stacking marshmallows and playing with marshmallow playdough.

The KDIs of the week are-
Observing: Children observe the materials and processes in their environment.- This week we will be looking at marshmallows with all 5 senses. Observing what happens as you make it warm, freeze it and heat it up in the microwave. 

Classifying: Children classify materials, actions, people, and events. - This week we are classifying by size and color and even when we build a tower, we are classifying building material- what makes a good foundation.

Small group activities this week include- building with marshmallows and toothpicks, observing with our 5 senses and adding an Mm is for marshmallow page to our journals.

Jesus Time- Our story this week is the flood. We reviewed creation, how God made everything perfect. Adam and Eve chose to not follow God, their children wander farther away from God and a relationship with Him, their children farther yet, and so it went, until only one family was left that had a relationship with God. That was Noah's family. God told them to build a huge ark to carry them and at least two of every kind of animal and keep them safe while he destroyed the world in a flood. It rained for 40 days and nights, covering the world with water to the tops of the mountains. Then it stopped and for 150 more days, Noah and his family and the animals waited for the waters to dry up. When they finally did, the first thing Noah did when he left the ark was to build an altar. He thanked God for keeping he and his family safe during the flood. God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the promise that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood again. 

Books of the week - "The Marshmallow Incident" by Judi and Ron Barrett, "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" by Laura Joffe Numeroff and "Groovy Joe Ice Cream and Dinosaurs" by Eric Litwin.

A reminder that this Wednesday is the Preschool Parent meeting- learn more about our K-8 school, finish up any remaining paperwork and get your sign in code for the Ipad. It is at 6:30 pm, should be over by 7. If you cannot attend, just shoot me an email and I will let you know if you have any paperwork outstanding and your code for the Ipad.

Field trip papers due this week for next Wednesday's field trip to Plymouth Orchards!!

Have a fun filled week!
Mrs. Schneck

Blog for the First Week!

So glad to have so many friends together with us this year! We were off to a great, but warm start!!

This week we are talking about the letter Ss and the sun! It sure is making itself known these last few days!

Table activities are making a paper plate suncatcher, playing in sunshine yellow bins, cutting sun's rays with scissors and making little suns out of styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners.

Key Developmental Indicators for the week are-

Fine-motor skills: Children demonstrate dexterity and handeye coordination in using their small muscles. - Whether we're picking up just one piece of tissue paper, picking out gems or pearls in a sensory bin or ripping paper in strips to glue on to our suns, we are getting our fingers and hands ready for writing and cutting.

Experimenting: Children experiment to test their ideas. - On Friday, we'll see what melts in the sun, probably should have done that today!! Hopefully, it will still be warm enough to melt something! We'll talk about the scientific method- watching things, making guesses or hypothesis and testing our guesses!

Our small group work this week was making a ripped paper sun and on Friday we'll experiment with melting.


Jesus Time- This week we learn about the creation of the world. We talked about what God created on each day and how it was all good. We are so glad God gave us this wonderful world and we can take care of it! 

Books of the week- "The Sun" by Justin McCory Martin, "First He Made the Sun" by Harriet Ziefert, "Sun Song" by Jean Marzollo.

Next Wednesday, September 12th, there will be a parent meeting for the parents of the preschoolers. At this meeting, Pastor Kieta will be explaining about a program that could make enrollment in our day school something to think about. I will also be giving parents their individual codes for when we switch to our Ipod sign in and collecting any paperwork I am missing at this point. It will be held at 6:30pm at the church! Thank you in advance for your attendance.

Today I sent home a slip about our first field trip which takes place on Wednesday, August 19th at Plymouth Orchards- all are welcome to attend!! Make sure to pick one up on Friday if you didn't get one today!

Have a fantastic week!
Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Oetzel

Some Pictures from Day One-