100 reasons for thanks

Our Bible time was a little different today. Instead of hearing a story, I posed the question, "What are you thankful for?" We worked together to make a list of 100 things for which we are thankful - things God made or did or has given to us. This was surprisingly hard for some children, so it reaffirmed that being thankful is something we need to consciously work on. We tried to think of 100 different things, but there are a few repeats (for example Johnny is thankful for his mom, but Mary is also thankful for hers). So without further ado, the list:
1. Being at school with all my friends
2. He made the toys
3. my mom
4. Macy
5. flowers
6. the world and everything on it
7. my 2 dogs
8. my sister
9. my baby sister
10. my mom and dad
11. my baby brother
12. a family
13. my sister, my dad, and myself
14. that we can all have a wonderful time when we die up in heaven
15. the weather
16. that we can go up in heaven and have fun
17. my school
18. that I could have a house
19. all the teachers
20. my family
21. holidays
22. my family
23. all our friends
24. He gave us a lot of games and friends
25. frogs
26. that we have all sorts of weathers
27. that we have all sorts of seasons
28. everybody can have a good day at school
29. bees to give us flowers
30. soft and cuddly snow
31. my mom and my dad and my house
32. everybody in the world
33. bugs
34. the whole world
35. flowers
36. all the animals and Adam and Eve
37. my rat
38. God
39. the school
40. the snowmans
41. for Him
42. the universe
43. all the wonderful food
44. being healthy
45. I can grow tall
46. our mom and dads
47. the workers so they can make money
48. for China and the whole entire state
49. our teachers
50. money so we can buy stuff and not be poor
51. trees
52. President
53. snow
54. water
55. honey
56. the Bible
57. that I lost 2 teeth
58. someday that I'm going snowboarding
59. that God gave us sledboards so we can sled on the ice
60. pets
61. He gave us all brothers and sisters
62. snowflakes
63. everybody here
64. that we can be teached by teachers
65. our school
66. my friends
67. my bed
68. He's made me a good soccer player
69. for my sister
70. animals
71. ground (otherwise we wouldn't have anything to stand on)
72. food
73. our toys
74. our houses
75. cousins
76. aunts
77. I can see a real mouse
78. sky
79. He made Kindergarten
80. weather
81. my shoes so I don't get too much sand on my feet
82. He made all the wonderful stuff on the Earth
83. that I can play kickball
84. that God made the Israelites get across from the running rivers
85. the Christian school
86. today (1oo Day)
87. babies
88. grownups
89. children
90. our skin so people don't have to see all your blood
91. home
92. He made the alphabet
93. He made my family
94. air so we can breathe
95. that I can be here with all my friends
96. legs
97. snowflakes
98. songs
99. Psalm 23
100. numbers

It's a pretty good list, isn't it? So, what are you thankful for? And did you have a favorite?

Gung hay fat choy!

Happy Chinese New Year! We had a very brief social studies lesson on this today and made a cool Chinese paper craft. The new decorations hanging caused some excitement, but the twirly paper craft was even more exciting.
Another center this morning was practicing writing numbers (stamping and tracing)
And Ll is for lacing cards (also known as fine motor skills)

Indoor icy fun (picture heavy)

Ice activity: freeze plastic animals in water in an ice cube tray then tell children to rescue the animals. Super easy, super fun, super wet table afterward :)
They used some of the same strategies they tried earlier this week when we just observed ice and helped it melt: rub it, breathe on it, drop it to break it.Then we brought out the hammers.
We pretended it was an iceberg...
While the class was in PE, I gathered a bucket of clean snow from the mound outside and brought it inside so we could build snowmen inside. It was harder for the children than I expected, but overall they enjoyed it. We went back to observe them several times throughout the day. We divided into three groups; your child will probably remember which is their snowman.

Group 2
Step 1: building the snowman (noonish)
Step 2: observing ('without touching it' - this was the hard part) it about a half hour later. This group has a castle in the background and I think the snowman was actually a snow alien, at least for a while.
2:15ish observe and illustrate/write in science notebook
3:20 end of day
6pm
Group 1 building. They wanted to have lots of snow around their snowman.
12:30
2:15
3:20
6:00
Group 3 building
12:302:15
3:20
6:00

As promised, the pictures

Climb. Slide. Run. Throw. Yell. Repeat.
There was a high level (movement, volume) of excitement when we first got to the snow.
"Look! A snowball!" And yes, she was wearing a coat earlier... but this is what happens with Phoenician snow days - children get warm.
I think everyone is yelling "snow" or maybe "cold" or maybe just yelling as they try not to fall off the 'mountain'.
Notice the slider in shorts.
Some children discovered that if you kick the pile, it looks like it is snowing!

All the coats and sweaters drying in the wonderful, warm Arizona sunshine (and that's a compound word!)Gloves and mittens:
Very short video clip

Snow!

"I'm washing myself so I'm sparkly!" ~student rubbing snow on her arms

"Look! LOOK! Look what we found! Grass! We found nature!" ~student who dug a hole in the snow pile.

"Can we put some snow in a bag and take it home to show our families?"

It was an exciting morning. Now the children are warming up as they run around in PE, and their coats and gloves are all drying in the sun.

*Pictures coming this evening or tomorrow

One picture from the field trip

At the end of the field trip everyone was supposed to use what they learned (shape, color, line...) to draw a self-portrait. We got to look in some cool mirror paper to see ourselves.

Weather (Science Stuff)

We are learning about weather/seasons in science. Today's topic: wind.

We did this simple experiment that I stole from another teacher, but long enough ago that I don't remember who (sometimes I wish I was the creative teacher who thinks up simple yet age-appropriate and engaging activities, but I'm not, so I just blog stalk other Preschool, Kindergarten, and First grade teachers).

Anyway, this is how it works: place the feather on the start line. Blow. Cheer. Mark how far it went. Surprisingly entertaining.
Then we made wind tassels. Here we are checking the wind outside. Not much movement, but more than when we were inside.
So we made some wind by running.
Earlier this week we were talking about rain. Sorry about the poor picture, but trust me, it was cool. We used cotton balls for clouds, soaked up some water, and then squeezed out the rain. We noticed that the clouds were heavier when they were full of water. Then we did it again. And again. And probably a few more times. Apparently it is fun to make a cloud rain. (Thanks to Mrs. Karen for the idea!)

Your smart children

Here is a picture of all the information your children came up with (there may have been a little prompting) as we compared/contrasted several versions of the gingerbread man/boy/girl/cowboy/baby :)
I think if you click the picture, you can see it larger. Or, ask your child something about the story.

:)

"Miss Vis, is E a vowel?"
"Yes."
"Miss Vis, do you know the vowel song?"
"I know a few vowel songs. Which one do you know?"
"The first one God made."

Thank you!

You may not all have gotten a chance to see it, so here is a picture of the picture your children all made. It is super cute and I love it! Thank you!