Spiders and spirals and shadow tag and such (Ss week)

 Cutting spirals to work on some fine motor skills.

Our science experiment: there is double-sided sticky tape made into a web on the tray.  We tried to slide our fingers across the web, but it was tricky.  Then we dipped our fingers in oil and we could slide all over the web without getting stuck - just like a spider since God made spiders with special feet so they don't get stuck!

 We rolled a ball of string around the carpet to build a spider web, which we walked around on.

Then we sang a silly song about elephants dancing on a spider web (the song seemed new to everyone, but they enjoyed it)

We ended today by playing shadow tag outside.  Do you see the dinosaur shadow?

(And can you tell these pictures were taken on yellow and green day?  I love all the bright colors)

Friends Bring Friends to Jesus

In chapel this morning, Pastor Van Dalen read the story of some friends digging through a roof so they could bring their friend to Jesus.  He talked about how we can bring our friends to Jesus by bringing them to church, praying for them, etc.  Then most of the school gathered around Ms. VP and laid hands on her or just held hands with those nearby and prayed for her and her surgery tomorrow.  It was really neat.

Super Ss!

 Some centers from this week (sorry for the poor pictures): matching lettered spiders to a corresponding picture, alphabetizing spider webs (I think I got these from Shannon over at the Kinderpond), stamping spiders -aren't they cute? - and some fantastic fine motor skills trying to make spider webs.  We also used scissors to make spirals, and read/acted out The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

 And our favorite: making sparkly spider webs.  Today some children used their center time to make more spider webs...so there may be more glitter headed your way.  And then they asked "Can we do it again tomorrow?"  But I said no (because I don't want all you parents to hate me :), and brought the glitter back to the art closet.

The Story of Joseph - Sort of

For your reading entertainment, here are the Bible retellings of the story of Joseph.  Also, a good reminder of why children need to hear these stories at school and church and home - they don't get it all the first time!

All I remember is that he was sold to Egypt.  He went to jail.

Joseph were jealous because he had like these dreams that everyone would buy him.  And Joseph got threwed in the well.  And one of his brothers got him out.  Then they worshiped him, then they slaved him, then they put him in prison.

He got into the well and the brothers said they will kill him.  Then these people got him out.  Then they selled him.  Then this guy buyed him and liked him because he took his animals and he did everything for him.  And then some girl said "Kiss me, kiss me" and then he runned away out the door.

His brothers got so mad that their dad gave him a rainbow coat.  Then they got so mad.  When they came by, their plan was to kill him and when he comes by to get ready to throw him in the system - sister [cistern] and see if there's a ferocious animal that will eat him.  And later another guy came by and he got tooken.  And another guy said "Wait, how 'bout we throw him down the system and then see what happens?"  And they all agreed.  And then later an army somebody came by and took him and he got tooken by this guy.  And he got sold to be a slave in Egypt.

He got throwed into the thing and then he went to the new state and then he wanted to go home.

First he started as a baby.  And second he grew to be a man, and then he had a dream.
He got in prison because somebody else's wife told a lie and then he got in prison.

Joseph made a plan.  He got somebody to help him.  And he got people to help him run away from being a slave.

Alphabet Party! (and other awesomeness)

I think this may be the first class picture we have.  Thanks to my favorite preschool teacher for popping over and snapping it.

This morning Miss Keili from the AZ Farm Bureau came and read to us about apples and then showed us how to make a Fall and Spring apple tree.  

Today was our alphabet party day!  That means we did lots and lots of literacy activities, like reading alphabet books, singing "Who let the A out?", writing letters, and doing fun alphabet pages (dot to dot, letter matching, missing letters...), and alphabetizing letters.

 It's amazing how much more fun it is to put cards in order if they are first thrown into the air.

  We ate alphabet snacks (and rocked out to the ABC disco)

 We played more games like, alphabet cover-up

 and matching upper and lower case letters

 and put together a really long alphabet puzzle.

 At the end of the day we went outside and made fruit prints with our buddies.  (We used to do apple prints, but after 6 years I was getting a little tired of apple prints, and we saw this really cute idea here so it was time to try something new.  Not sure if we'll add faces though)

 And a little dress-up during centers to end the day.

Happy Friday!

Don't just read it, sing it

You all know the tune...
One student came back from recess singing:

"Mr. Schout, 
sitting in a tree, 
K-I-S-N-A-U-G!"

They don't quite have the spelling down yet :)

water, paint, glitter, glue, sand, apples

Apple day started with apple math.  We graphed our apples by colors and by whether or not they had a stem.  Then we measured our apple's height,

and weight

 and tested if it would float or sink

 Some apple centers: making patterns,

 making apple fingerprints to match numbers

We did non-fiction writing

 apples are good. they help us grow.

 apples are yummy

In science class we made a diagram of an apple and labeled the different parts.

and at 2:00 we finally got to eat the applesauce that we had smelled all day long.  About half of the class liked it (some could not get past the fact that it was chunky and warm).  Everyone at this table had seconds or thirds despite one of them telling me ahead of time that they didn't like that kind of applesauce.

 No pictures of our awesome apple seasons art - we were too busy with glue, paint, sand and glitter... but since we already had the mess out, we had a messy art option at center time.  

 

See this creation?  It features glue, sand, glitter, crayon, and dot markers as the media.

 And since the water table was filled from the morning, that center was also open later.

Update: here's an apple seasons picture:
 

It was a very messy, very fun day!

Happy birthday, Ms. VP! (and other Friday adventures)

In case you missed the party this morning, here is the beautiful card your children made for Ms. VP.  Count the candles...

 This afternoon we had fun on Jacksonpollock.org creating more action 'paintings.  Some children were very precise in their movements, while others just enjoyed flinging the mouse around.

 One masterpiece (your child's masterpiece will be emailed to you):

 We turned on the projector so the paintings showed up on a really big canvas.

Free choice center time this afternoon - reading with 3D glasses

 experimenting with sound (thank you to Mr. G. for lending us the xylophone so we could learn more about sound in science)

 Dress up!  (I think someone stepped on the glasses)

Sight

Science explorations are so much fun!  Today we reviewed sight a little, talked about how to protect our eyes, and then just had a lot of fun exploring with color paddles and magnifying glasses.

"It's like 3-D glasses!"

 

Then around 2:15 we finally got to go outside for splatter painting (which was originally scheduled for Ss day - Tuesday, but we changed it so we didn't have to worry about rain).  We read part of a book about Jackson Pollack and then did our own action paintings.

 Some children were very careful, others more haphazard in their approach, but everyone had fun and ended up more colorful than when they began.

I wasn't sure this painting was going to even make it from the ground to the drying rack, it was so saturated, but it made it and the colors swirled together nicely.  Not sure if this masterpiece will be dry enough to go home yet tomorrow...

If we have time tomorrow, we'll try this digital variation of a Jackson Pollack action painting: 

http://jacksonpollock.org/