2015-2016++WHAT+HAPPENED+TODAY+IN+4K?

WELCOME TO WHAT HAPPENED TODAY?" On this page you will find Mrs. Otten's blog of happened in the classroom on a daily basis. Reading this blog will give you a snapshot of what your child experienced in school. Sometimes there will literally be snapshots (photographs) of things we did or made

May 23, 2016
Sorry for the late update! The wikispaces website was down for a time, so I used the time to get the weeds grass in the yard mowed in hopes for our picnic on Wednesday. I am not liking the forecast, but hope there will be enough break to get in our picnic (it may end up being a living room floor picnic!). Today we spent most of our day practicing our plays, including doing a dress rehearsal with the first graders and kindergartners for our audience. We also enjoyed outdoor time, celebrating Zion's pretend birthday, a Bible story and choice time.

May 20, 2016
BOOKWORM GARDEN FIELD TRIP!

May 18, 2016
Today was very much like Monday! The only thing we did differently was to sing two songs and have the Bible story of the woman, Dorcas, who let her light shine for Jesus by making clothes for others. We also did a wacky Wednesday song with a clapping rhythm. Otherwise, it was more play practice, outdoor time, choice time, and yearbook pages.

May 16, 2016
After some table time (and a new game for some of us), we did our morning routines. We sang one song and then reviewed what we knew about Paul. We had a new story with a word that rhymes with Paul: WALL! Then we practiced ALL of Psalm 100. After our drink break we started to work on our plays. We took an outdoor time break and did more plays. We started our yearbooks for our project today.

May 13, 2016
Mrs. Otten gone today!

May 11, 2016
Today we had the excitement of the REAL LOUD fire alarm and whole school fire drill. We did a wonderful job walking quickly and quietly outside (even better than some of the big kids!) We did a lot of singing today because our Bible words tell us to worship the Lord with gladness and come before him with joyful songs. We also had the Bible story of how Paul and Silas sang joyful songs when they were in jail and how they helped the jailer come to know who Jesus is. We had fun doing the second version of //Animals in Action// for our wacky Wednesday song. We read a book where the animal //name// was also the animal **//action//** and we learned what some of those words meant (like "yak", and "badger" and "slug") We enjoyed some run around time on the parking lot playground because the wood chip area was wet. We decorated bags for the meals on wheels clients. We had an extra special snack from Liam's grandma. We enjoyed choice time and then finished our capital letter handwriting page. At the end of the day we talked about Friday. We will have our last show and tell and Mrs. Kiel will be our teacher.

May 9, 2016
Everyone back! Zion and Levi had safe and exciting travels. We did all the usual morning business and then sang All in All, trying to remember our signs for all the words. We had a story of a life that was changed from an enemy of Jesus to a friend of Jesus. We did some monkey positions and then talked about how to make a garden and what plants need to grow. We read //Eddie's Garden// and then talked about some of the things we learned that we did not think of before the story. We enjoyed some lovely outdoor time. When we came in we worked on our project with flowers, adding stems, soil/grass, leaves, and insects. During snack we read another story about growing seeds. We had a short choice time and then reviewed making some of our letters.

May 6, 2016
Two boys and two girls today! After table time and our morning routines, we learned about what kinds of things shepherds did during Jesus' time. Then we listened to the story Jesus told about a shepherd with a missing sheep and how he found that sheep. Jesus calls himself a good shepherd and looks for his lost "sheep" too. We learned verse 3 of Psalm 100, which refers to us as his "sheep". We sang a song that comes from Psalm 100 (//Make a Joyful Noise)// and we sang a song about the joy that Jesus gives by giving us salvation (//Happy All the Time).// We read two books. The first story had us listening for rhymes and looking at pictures of animal daddies and their children. The second story had us looking for picture clues to figure out //Who Done It?// We had a bathroom break and then headed to Vollrath Park for our gym class. We got lots of exercise and had so much fun getting that exercise in the fresh warm air. We noticed many interesting things along the way, as well. When we got back to our room, we had show and tell, showing what we like to do with our dads. During snack we got directions for our project and then we worked on the project during choice time. At the end of the day, we practiced making numbers with tens and ones.

May 4, 2016
We were glad to have Huxley back today. We did puzzles and games and coloring and construction at table time. We sang our friend songs and then had the story of David being chosen to be king and David defeating Goliath with God's power. We had a fun, dancing wacky Wednesday song! We talked about moms and dads and the jobs they do in our homes. We discovered that our moms and dads share a lot of the work in the home. Then we read an old story and noticed that moms and dads dressed differently and did different things in the "old days". Although it was not as warm as Monday, we enjoyed our outdoor time, especially the slide today. We had a suitcase surprise and did the first part of our project. During snack we read another book that was two-books-in-one about mommies and daddies. After choice time we finished up our project and then we reviewed our number art work and identified the number by using "tens" and "ones".

May 2, 2016
Only two boys and two girls today! We talked about the special days on our May calendar (Zion finally saw his birthday cupcake on the calendar and was very excited! After singing two songs, we learned about how David the shepherd boy protected his sheep and we began to learn one of the Psalms that he wrote. After drink, brain gym and monkey positions, we listened to a story written by the same author as //Good News, Bad News.//This book only had the words "aahh" and "ah ha" in it and it was about a frog and his adventure in his pond. We enjoyed sunny outdoor time! We learned about another artist who like to make BIG leaves and flowers and other shapes. He used paper instead of paint. We put the shapes on his walls. We finished our BIG flowers and then had book time. We had snack and choice time. Then our suitcase surprise was our cow! We picked letter cards and changed her name and sang her name some silly ways.

April 29, 2016
We were all in school again today! We played games and constructed during table time. We counted the calendar numbers with Veyda and talked about making 29 with our cubes. We did our letter page and remembered to "stop" so our Z would have points and not curves. We added zig zags and a zipper to our letter page for the /z/ sound. After singing our "old" counting song and our new counting song, we talked about our Bible words and a time when Jesus had zeal for the house of God and chased the people selling out of the temple so it would be a place of worship. For gym we used the parachute. We tried popping balls in the air and making a tent. It was difficult because there were only 7 of us, but we had fun trying. During show and tell we got to talk about things we like to do with our moms. Liam, Veyda, and Huxley brought games to show. Levi had a "find it" book and Aly had a coloring book with fancy things to color. Zion brought an animal that his grandparents gave him and talked about playing pretend with it. We thought we might play games with each other at choice time, but only Aly and Veyda played Veyda's Guess Who game. During snack we had a story of a character named Choco who was looking for a mother. He did not find any other creature that looked like him, but he did find a mother. After choice time, we began a project that was in the style of Georgia O'Keefe and will be a giant flower. We drew it and just painted the background today.

April 27, 2016
Sorry for the late post! We were all in school today and enjoyed being together. We did activities together at table time like building and playdough. We did our Bible words and our cow song. We listened for /z/ in words and we read a book that had some new z words: zinnia, zeppelin, zither, zinc, and zodiac. We listened to rhythms with our wacky Wednesday song and "chomped" the rhythm we heard. We read a book that talked about the reason our moms love us and then worked on our project and had some book time. After our outdoor time, we sang one song we knew-//Just Say Thanks,// and one new song-//The Counting Song.// We had a story of a young king who loved God and rebuilt the temple and knocked down idols. We got to find the objects from the story hidden in a temple picture. We had a story during snack and then had choice time. We did not have time for our last circle time.

April 25, 2016
We were tied today! Two boys and two girls, but we were sad to be missing Levi and Liam. At our morning circle time we talked about the days left in April and what month comes next. Huxley counted with the parrot wand. We got our last letter of the week! It is also the last letter of the alphabet! It is the first letter in Zion's name! We sang our song and got our new Bible words, which speak of our desire to spend eternity with God in his home (heaven). We made rhymes for our names by changing our beginning sound to /z/ (except Zion, of course!) After a drink break, we reviewed the stories we heard last week during snack and read another in the series by Laura Numeroff (//**If You Give a Moose a Muffin, eg.)**//. Our "suitcase" surprise was that four 5th grade students came and sat on our author chair and read books they made that followed the same pattern as the books we read.Then we had our outdoor time. We reviewed our Daniel and friends stories and then had the Bible story of Daniel's faithfulness to God in prayer and God's faithfulness to Daniel to save him from the hungry lions. After bathroom break and snack, we had choice time and then finished our day with a project. But it is a //**sh!**//project and that's all I'll say!

April 22, 2016
We had table time while waiting for everyone to come. Aly was sick, but Liam and Huxley were back, so only 1 girl today! We did our letter page for A adding two stickers: and angel for the long sound and an apple for the short sound. We sang our friend songs and then read a book about how to be a good friend. We also read a book about making friends. After a drink break, we did our show and tell. We read Levi's favorite book before we went outdoors. Because of the cool wind, we did not do our scheduled trip to the park playground, but just played on our school playground. We will save the park trip for a warmer day. After our outdoor time, we read Veyda's book and learned interesting things about alligators and pythons. During snack we read Zion's favorite book and looked for things in the pictures. After our choice time, we went outside again because our first outdoor time was rather short. When we came back in, we read a section of Liam's book about how sleep keeps us healthy and we read Huxley's favorite book //Go, Dog. Go!// Many of us knew the story so well that we realized that two pages had stuck together and we missed a page!

April 20, 2016
Two friends gone...new "friend" spending the morning with us! Liam was sick and Huxley was with grandparents, but Rachel joined us for the morning. She played play dough with us at table time. We also played games, colored and constructed. We had a new version of the apples and bananas song that we sang with our letter of the week and then had the story of ape's adventure in alphabet town. Our wacky Wednesday song had us doing animal actions. Then we had center time and Rachel played the wormy apples game with one group and Mrs. Otten played the alphabet bingo game with another group. We enjoyed some great outdoor time. We sang our friend songs again and then had the story of Daniel's friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We learned how God protected them from the fiery furnace and showed the king the one true God. During snack, we had another story by Laura Numeroff, this time with a moose and a muffin. After choice time, we had our suitcase surprise: a duck. But we did not learn about the animal "duck" but how to "duck and cover" to stay safe if there were a tornado. We looked at some books about tornadoes, too.

April 18, 2016
It was so nice to start the week with a sunny day! We had some new play dough for table time. There was something different about it....After table time, we began our day and did our letter of the week activities. We only have two letters remaining! Today we did the FIRST letter of the alphabet and next week we will finish off our letter pages with the LAST letter of the week! We listened to the long and short sound for A and did our cow song. We learned new Bible words. Our Monkey Monday was to **a**ct like the **a**nimals: **a**nt, **a**lligator, and **a**pe. We did centers again this week and our choices were alphabet bingo, wormy apples game, or abstract art. After centers we enjoyed wonderful warm time outdoors. We sang two songs that go with our Bible words: //A friend loves at all times.// We had the story of Daniel and his friends and how they obey God and did not eat the foods offered to the idol. God blessed them and made them strong and smart. We had our snack and a story. After choice time, we did some work with tens and ones with cubes and numerals. We identified the numbers we had made for our art project last week. At the end of the day, we learned about our special visitor next time.

April 15, 2016 GRANDPARENTS' DAY
Instead of table time, we finished up the bookmarks for our grandparents. We got the sad news that Levi was sick and had to miss this special day. We did our morning routines and practiced our song and poem. Then we talked about the activities available to us and our grandparents. After a story about a girl who sent letters and special paper cranes to her grandparents living in Japan, we welcomed our grandparents for activities. Take a look:

[[image:grandparentday 024.JPG width="640" height="480" caption="scarves"]]
After all this fun (and more) our grandparents left and we used the bathroom and got ready to head to the gym to sing for them. We sang great! (although we had to start over when Mrs. Otten realized our words cards were out of order! Oh well! It gave us a good warm up!) After singing we enjoyed snack and a story and then outdoor time. The BIG KIDS came out shortly after us. That was a crazy outdoor time!

April 13, 2016
Another full day! We did our letter of the week activities, including our letter page. We attached a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and a "jewel" to the page.We read books about grandparents and drew pictures of our grandparents. We practiced our song and poem. We had a short time of running outside in the damp weather and then finished the story of Esther. After our snack (and more grandparent stories) we had a short choice time. At the end of the day we worked on the bookmarks that we will be giving to our grandparents.

April 11, 2016
After table time, we did our morning routines, reviewing our "tens" and "ones" for number 11. We were introduced to our new letter of the week: J and we identified words with the /j/ sound. We did our new Bible words and our song with the cow name Jandy Jae Joo. After our drink break we did our J movements: jogging in place and jumping. We read a book about wheels and then talked about a different kind of "wheel"-the color wheel. We reviewed "primary" and "secondary" colors and then chose one of the two for our project. We practiced our song and poem for grandparents day after some book time. We went outside and enjoyed running, sliding, and swinging. We had the first part of our Bible story about Esther. During snack we heard the story //The Numberlys"// and then we had a short choice time (although it actually ended up being 10 minutes longer than it should have because the battery was wearing out in the timer!

April 8, 2016
Today we did our letter N page and reviewed how to make the numeral 9 to add to our page. Verrry tricky! Most of us made a P instead of a 9. We got to put 9 stickers on our letter page. We heard a Bible story which demonstrated our verse for this week. It was the story of how God's people learned that there is only one true God that is a living God that hears and answers prayer. It was the story of Elijah and how he proved to King Ahab that the idol Baal was not a god. Only the one true God could send fire and even burn up wet wood and water. For our gym warm up we did a circuit of activities. After practicing, we did it several times (stopping to talk about what choices we can make when we are not "first" instead of pouting and crying--something that will probably take us many years to understand and practice!) We did a review of our ball skills and really showed how we have learned to throw, bounce and catch, and toss and catch. Our first show and tell was pretty exciting: Aly's mom brought in their baby chicks and Aly told us all about them. Veyda told about her soft giraffes that she loves (that she loves so much that she took them out of her backpack and could only tell us about them!) Huxley and Zion brought in vehicles they made with building blocks. and Liam brought in flying vehicles. Levi did his show and tell at the end of the day. He introduced us to Owen and Melody, his new brother and sister! After show and tell we had snack with a guessing book about animals. We had a very short choice time because we needed to start practicing the song and poem that we will do for our grandparents next week.

April 6, 2016
April showers......After morning routines, we did our letter of the week activities. We gave thumbs up if we heard the /n/ sound at the beginning of a word; we sang the cow song with the name Nandy Nae Noo; we recited our Bible words (//Nothing is too hard for God);// and Zion found the N house in alphabet town and we had the story of a nightingale who was bopped on the neck by a falling nut. We did our knee scales after our drink break and did a number song for our wacky Wednesday song. We looked at some more art work by Joaquin Torres Garcia and finished our art project using cray-pas and water color wash. Because of the rain, we did our moving time in the gym playing the Steal the Cookies game. After gym we had our snack and had a story that told us about all the good things that can happen if we SMILE A LOT! We sang our Zaccheus song and then had the Bible story where Jesus showed his power over the storm. We finished our day with a short choice time. At the end of the day we prayed about something Liam had seen on the way to school: a fire truck and an ambulance by a house. We prayed for whoever was needing that help.

April 4, 2016
We returned from spring break amidst snowflakes swirling in the air:( After some table time and conversation about things we did over our break, we began our day and looked at our new calendar for April. Liam counted the numbers and did the weather. We did our new letter of the week activities, learning our new sound and verse. We did a song that echoed our verse: //My God Is So Big.// Then we did a "n" position (knee scale) after our drink break. We looked at some art work and talked about making our own version. Today we drew lines and made boxes and we drew (with pencil) some things we like. We will add color to the project next time. We had outdoor time and then we came in for our Bible time. We had the story of Zaccheus and sang a song about our story. During snack we had a story called //That's Good, That's Bad// about a boy's adventure in the jungle after he floated away holding his balloon. After choice time, we taught Zion how to do our "I have...who has?" circle activity. We had a story at the end of the day about a Chinese boy who was honest and courageous.

March 23, 2016
Most of our day we followed our usual schedule. We had table time, we did our morning routines, and then we did our letter of the week activities. Aly found the K house in alphabet town and we enjoyed a story of a kind kangaroo that kept making mistakes. We did our center time. We went outside in the blustery weather, and enjoyed running and swinging and sliding. When we came in we did our //Shout Hosanna// song with the music. Then we had an object lesson to teach us about how having Jesus in our hearts takes away sin. Our suitcase surprise contained the things we needed to have another object lesson about how Jesus rose and his body was not in the tomb on Easter morning. We did this by covering his pure white body (marshmallow) with oil and spices and wrapping it in linen (biscuit dough) When the snack was done baking, the body was gone! (The biscuit was empty!) Since we had choice time during the baking time, we finished our day with our letter page for K.

March 21, 2016
Today Huxley chose our bell sound (the ringing clock) and Zion counted the calendar numbers (with the rocket wand). We talked about our new letter sound/k/ and identified pictures that begin with that sound. We learned new Bible words. We had three new centers and had center time next. We were excited to be able to enjoy some outdoor time. When we came in we sang some songs and then had the story of Good Friday and Easter. During snack we had a story of a piglet who tricked a fox into giving him a bath, a good meal, and a massage! We had choice time and then read books at the end of the day.

March 18, 2016
After table time, jobs, and calendar, we did our letter page. We wrote in yellow for our /y/ sound and added yellow yarn and a yoyo for the y sound. Our Bible story was the story of the last supper of Jesus and his friends. Jesus was a servant to them by washing their feet. At the supper he told them that they could remember him by the bread and juice. In gym we did a circuit of activities, including the pull-up bar, the balance beam, the hand stand mats, forward rolls, and some body positions. We did some exercises as well. We all helped clean up the gym. We had show and tell and saw little babies, pokemon character, lego creations, a sparkly hat, and a piggly wiggly pig wearing jammies. During snack we heard a story about counting our blessings. We had choice time and then story time. Mrs. Otten read a book about a monster who wanted to be friends with some bunnies. Then we had some reading time. Our suitcase surprise: we each got a copy of the thankful book!

March 16, 2016
Hooray! Levi was back in school. He told us the name for his new brother: Owen and the name for his new sister: Melody. We were happy that they are doing well and prayed that they would continue to grow stronger so they can come home from the hospital. We started with our Bible words and a song about letting our light shine. We talked about how Y does not always make its sound. Veyda found the Y in the room and found the Y things in //Yola's Y Book.// After our drink break, we made X and Y with our bodies and then did an echo song for our wacky Wednesday song. We did centers. After centers, we went to church to practice for tomorrow's program. We came back and had yogurt and asnack (thank you, Levi, for the special cookies!) Then we had our choice time. After choice time, Huxley and Zion read their books on the author's chair. Huxley's book was about a boy going fishing and Zion's book was about a robot who was naughty at school. Then we had a book about //**a book!**// We had quiet reading time for a few minutes at the end of the day.

March 14, 2016
We were missing Levi, but we got the good news that his brother and sister were born! We will pray that they grow quickly and can come home from the hospital. We had a longer table time today: finishing our tooth pockets and doing some drawing as well as doing beads and playing games. Mrs. Otten did the calendar for Levi and then we did our new letter of the week. We went on a hunt for letter Y in the room. We learned the sign language for our new verse. After our drink break, we got directions for our new centers: a yarn art project; a letter bingo game; and book making. After centers, we had to go to the gym for our moving time because the big kids were out on the playground. We took balls with us and had fun throwing them, kicking them, and chasing them. We practiced our program songs in our room and then had the Bible story of Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey. During snack we looked at a book and made up tiny stories for the pictures. After choice time, Aly and Veyda were able to sit on the author chair and read the books they made at center time. Veyda's book was about fish. Aly's book was about a birthday party.

March 9, 2016
Welcome back to Veyda! Today we did our routines and then had some handwriting and book time while our visitor was setting up for the program. The 5K joined us in our room and we had a presentation from Ms. Janis from Bullard Dentistry and she told us how to take good care of our teeth. She sang some really great songs to help us remember to brush our teeth and eat healthy foods. She brought BIG teeth to show us how to brush and floss and she brought puppets that squirted us with water! We each got a new toothbrush, some information on dental emergencies, and a chart for keeping track of our tooth brushing. After she was finished, we went to Mrs. A.'s room and practiced our program songs. She said we sounded even better than last time. When we got back to our room we had fun with our wacky Wednesday song, //Make Any Shape and Freeze.// We had a Bible story about God providing a husband for Ruth. During snack we read a book about having loose teeth. After choice time, we started to sew pockets for holding teeth that we loose, but we ran out of time for finishing that, so we will finish those next Monday (no school on Friday).



March 7, 2016
Levi and Aly were back! Veyda was having a special family day. Today we did our new letter of the week. Our letter (X) has two sounds, so we put a picture of a xylophone on our letter page for the sound it makes in the beginning and we drew a box and stuck an "x-ray" picture in it for the sound it makes in the middle and at the end. We made X in lots of ways with our bodies. Then we had a suitcase surprise: real x-rays. We got to see what the bones in our hands, arms, head, shoulders, feet, and legs look like. We read a book about our bones and got to look at a model of our bones (Charlene from Mr. V.'s room!) We had a fire drill since Zion needed to know how to do a fire drill. We practiced our program songs without tape or piano. Then we had a Bible story of how God provided a wife for Isaac. During snack we read another book with pictures of our bones. During choice time, we made an "x-ray" picture with paint. After choice time, we sorted picture cards and put them in number order.



March 4, 2016
Only 4 of us in school today. At table time we looked for the letter W and traced it each time we found it. We spent time working on our sculptures, as well. After our morning routines, we did our letter page for W adding a wire for the sound box. We did a wiggle song and then practiced our program songs acapella. After our Bible story of the woman at the well we had our show and tell time. We each brought something different that was made from wood. Next, we had a silly story about a boy and some worms and some salad. Then we went to Mrs. A.'s room so she could play the piano for us while we sang our program songs. During snack we had another story about a boy and worms that he drew. After some choice time, we got on our outdoor things and headed out for some fun snow and playground time.

March 2, 2016
We had table time-playing games, coloring, doing the finger puppet theater, and doing letter sounds with Mrs. Otten. We started with a suitcase surprise: a fierce animal and a gentle animal. We talked about the saying "March comes in (starts) like a lion and goes out (ends) like a lamb." We agreed that the first part was certainly true for us! (Hopefully the second part will be, too!) We listened for the /w/ sound in words and we are getting more confident of hearing sounds each week. After our cow song and our Bible words review, we did our alphabet town story. After our drink break (Mrs. Otten had to be the line leader for Levi), we did a Silly Willy Workout song. We reviewed our centers and had center time. After center time, we practiced some spring program songs and we had the rest of the story of Jonah. During snack, we had the story //Whistle for Willie.// Then we enjoyed choice time-creating at the writing center and pretending with each other. For our last circle time, we reviewed what we know about stories and talked about those features with the book we read at snack time. Then we made up a story for some pictures. We each got to tell one part of the story. We reviewed our show and tell theme and we found things made from wood. After ending our day, we got ourselves ready (in record time!) and had a nice time playing on the snow piles on the parking lot.

February 29, 2016
Happy Leap Day! We talked at calendar time that the next time that the children would have a February 29, they will be nine years old! (They were not impressed... since at this age their "sense of time" is still developing!) After the rest of our morning routines, we talked about our new letter having the same sound as our state: Wisconsin! We made the /w/ sound and identified it as the beginning sound in window, watermelon, wagon, and wolf. We were already familiar with our Bible words as we know a song that comes from the same Scripture: When I am afraid, I will trust in God." After our drink break and a wiggle walk song, we did our center time. Our choices were wood block structures, sculptures with wire and other material, or write the room, looking for the letter W. After center time, we enjoyed some outdoor time on the playground. We practiced one of the songs for the spring program and had the first part of the story of Jonah. Then we took a look at a map of the United States and we learned a little bit about our state, Wisconsin. We had a snack and then took the dried tissue flowers off of our violet art work. We had choice time. After choice time we talked a little about parts of a story and made up stories to go with a sequence of pictures.

February 26, 2016
We started with table time, of course. Then we had our morning prayer and did our hello song talking and then singing. We went over our schedule and got our jobs. Levi made the 26 with the counting cubes and counted the numbers for us. He did not choose the wrench wand this time! He chose the pink crayon. We did our letter page with **violet** v's of course, and added a **valentine** for the /v/ sound. We talked about our Bible words and then listened to words Mrs. Otten said. If we thought they were God's voice, then we did thumbs up. If was not God's voice, we did thumbs down. We learned another song that we will be singing for the spring program. After warming up and stretching, we did some gymnastic skills for gym. We worked on body positions, rolling positions, hand stands, bar hangs, and balance beam walking and balancing. We worked on strength when we cleaned up the mats and then did lots of running while Mrs. Otten stacked the mats away. We enjoyed showing our **very** show and tell. First, Mrs. Otten told about four very cool things she saw in the morning. Then Zion, Levi and Huxley and Veyda showed things that were very special. Aly showed something very colorful, very soft, and very snuggly. Liam showed something very special and very soft. We had our snack and got to see the pictures that went with one of the stories that the Reader's Theatre had shared with us. We had a short choice time and then finished our **vase****s** with color **value** by adding **violet v** blossoms made from **very** thin paper and **vinegar**. We had book time after our project and then read a book that someone wrote about the lullaby song with the baby in the tree top. At the end of the day, we prayed for Levi, who will be in Michigan with Grandma while Mom rests and waits for her babies to be born.

February 24, 2016
Another special day this month! Today we welcomed the Reader's Theatre from John Michael Kohler Arts Center into our room and our 5K friends joined us, as well. We heard some great stories and poems! Some made us laugh. All had us listening with enjoyment. The rest of our day had some usual things and some unusual things. We had our usual table time and morning circle time. We listened for the /v/ sound in words and gave them "thumbs up" if we heard the sound. Aly found the letter V on the charts and in alphabet town. Our story was about Victor the vet. After a wacky Wednesday song with animal movements and sounds to echo, we listened to a story about sheep and listened for rhyming words. We talked about the new words in the story, as well. After the Reader's Theatre, we had our Bible story about Peter and John healing the lame beggar. Then we sang a song about our story and acted out walking, leaping, and praising God. We had the mats from the gym in our room, which was unusual. We used them for more leaping and jumping. We had fresh vegetables for snack, which was also unusual. Then we had choice time. Because of the way things went, we postponed project time until next time. At the end of the day, we talked about show and tell and Mrs. Otten showed examples of two "very" things: a photograph of //**very**// **special** people and some **//very old//** money.

February 22, 2016
Another day of only 5 friends...Levi was sick today :( After our table time, we did our morning routines. Then we learned that our new letter of the week is the first letter of a friend's name: V for Veyda! (Veyda also noticed that Levi has v in the middle of his name) We named some /v/ sound words and learned new Bible words for v and sang our cow song. We colored violet vases that had v flowers. Then we took our drink break and made v by stretching our legs for our monkey position and we pretended to vacuum. We began a painting project, first drawing a vase and then painting it with different values of violet. Can you guess how we made the violet lighter? We enjoyed some outdoor time since it was not too cold or too snowy. We ran and used the swings and did some climbing on our playground. We sang some songs and had a Bible story of Jesus healing another man who was paralyzed. We had snack and choice time. At the end of the day we played clear the board and we made it a race to see who could clear the board first. We played several times and had several "winners". We talked about our special visitors for next time.

February 19, 2016
We had only a short time in our room today because of our field trip. We were sad that Zion missed our trip today. Before we went on our trip, we had our Bible story about how God did a miracle for the widow with Elisha's help. Elisha told the woman to collect as many jars as she could. When she started pouring the oil, her jar kept filling and filling the other jars! Next we did some counting (to 100) and moving. Then we each got to read our counting books on the author's chair. We read another counting book, that made new words out of parts of other words. After snack, we reviewed how we should act at the arts center and we got ready to go. But first we stayed to watch the big kids bang the drum and get everyone excited for the basketball tournament. We took a bus to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. We looked at some amazing photographs and then did our own shadow picture for our project. Here are the steps we took to make our art (it is in our hallway gallery for 1 week!):

February 17, 2016
YAWN!! It was pajama day in 4K! Our room was darkened and we got to lay with blankets and cuddle friends. We had lots of fun bedtime stories. We acted out two songs in the gym on our big blue "bed" (the mats). We got to make our own pancakes! It was a fun day!

February 12, 2016
HOORAY! We were all in school this special day! We had a longer table time so Liam could make up two projects and then we started our day. We sang our hello song looking through our fingers shaped like a heart. We sang a heart song. We reviewed our letter U sounds and then did our letter page, adding a United States flag for the long U sound and an umbrella for the short u sound. We learned the chorus of a new song about love and then had the story of how the prayed-for boy born to the woman and man from Shunem suddenly died and how Elisha prayed for him and God raised him up. For gym we did a warm up song about our hearts and then did a relay race, mailing valentines. We played a circle game (A-Tisket, A-Tasket) and did more running. After gym we had show and tell and saw many unusual things! We also looked at the book pages we made for our unusual book. Our snack was unusual, too! We had cupcakes! And we all had the same snack! Zion brought the cupcakes for us...YUM! We had a long choice time and took time to distribute our valentines. Then we had a lot to clean up. But we had time for a story about some unusual rain! We also talked about our unusual week coming up!

February 10, 2016
With two friends out sick, it was a quiet day in 4K! We prayed for you, Liam and Aly, and hope you will get better by Friday so you can celebrate Valentines Day with us! After table time, prayer, schedule, job assignments and calendar, we listened for the short u sound in words putting thumbs up if we heard it. We sang our cow song and did our Bible words. Then Zion found the u on the charts and in alphabet town. Our story was about an umpire searching for his uniform. After reviewing the vowel letters, we sang our wacky Wednesday song with the vowel sounds: //Apples and Bananas.// We looked at some books that we are familiar with and talked about their stories and how the author made a title for the book. We then talked about possible titles for the books we have been working on, made our book covers, and dedicated our books. After singing //Stand on the Rock// we had the story of the woman and man from Shunem who provided a room for the prophet Elisha. He was so grateful that he asked God to give them a baby and a son was born to them! After Bible it was time for our suitcase surprise. It had to do with a special day in February. Can you guess what was in the suitcase? We had some moving time and then we reviewed the concept comparing "usual" to "unusual". During snack we used our eyes to spot what was missing from a snowman picture. We had a longer choice time and took a lot of things out. But we also cooperated and got all of them put away again. We had some quiet book time and then we each got to choose a book for Mrs. Otten to read. Veyda took a new book that she had looked at during quiet time. Huxley, Levi, and Zion chose books that they have at home and are favorite stories. We finished the day with a song that had us moving around the room and connecting with each other in a usual way: hand to hand and in some unusual ways! We talked about our show and tell for Friday; were reminded to bring in our valentines on Friday; and prayed for our sick friends to end the day.

February 8, 2016
Liam was not feeling well today. We hope he gets better soon! Today we got our new letter of the week and our cow has a silly name because our letter U has a short and long sound. We finished the 10 page in our number books, tracing our fingers and numbering them. Our Bible story was about the healing of Naaman in a very unusual way. We also talked about other things that demonstrate "unusual" and we read a book about things colored in an unusual way. For our project we worked on pages for a classroom book about unusual colors. We had a (half) birthday snack from Aly. We had our usual choice time. Afterwards we guess our suitcase surprise was bags again. These bags were white and we decorated them for collecting valentines.

February 5, 2016
We started our day getting our hands traced on the back of the bags we decorated for meals on wheels because we could make a heart shape with our hands! We learned about "half" and "quarter". We used cheese and paper.We learned that a dollar is 100 pennies and we divided the pennies into 4 groups to make quarters. Then on our letter page, we colored in one quarter of the box. We had fun stations in gym! We got to use the balance beam, throw over the mats, jump far and over, play with scarves, walk on the riverstones, bounce and catch, and try bowling! After gym we started learning a new song with sign language. Then we got to show what we like to do that is quiet. Quite a few of us brought a nice soft cuddle friend that we like to hold in bed or when watching a movie or T.V. During snack we had a story about making something good out of something bad called //It's Tough to Lose Your Balloon.// There was just enough time at the end of the day for choice time. We will have to save our number 10 page until Monday.

February 3, 2016
Today we talked first about what makes a shadow and we talked about our groundhog's day homework. We did some careful listening with a CD. First we identified sounds and then we listened for same/different sounds. Then we listened for our letter of the week (and friend) sound. Veyda found the Q on the charts and in alphabet town. Our story was about a quick quarterback, named Quincy, who rescued a queen's duck and was rewarded with quarters. Our wacky Wednesday song had us moving! We were shaking, moving like stick men, dancing, and bouncing. We had book and center time. Then our Bible song also had us moving-first right side and then left side. Then we tried to move across the floor without using our legs or even bending them. That took a lot of arm power! Our Bible story was about a lame man and he actually had friends carry him to Jesus. But they could not get in the house where Jesus was! Guess what they did? We talked about how Jesus healed TWO parts of the man. During snack time we played a shadow guessing game. We had a couple extra things for choice time and Mrs. Otten explained those. Zion, Veyda, and Aly chose to make the groundhog puppet and Aly and Zion also chose to decorate hearts. After choice time we had our suitcase surprise. Here are the clues: it was brown, made of paper, and you can put something in it. Veyda guessed what it was and then we decorated it for the Meals on Wheels clients. At the end of the day we talked about our show and tell theme.

February 1, 2016
So sorry for the late post! I ran off to my library job and completely forgot about getting the wiki updated! Everyone in school for this first day of February! We had lots of special days on the calendar to talk about this morning. After we did that we did our snowman rhyme (and changed the words so it was the rain that that made the snow man melt...just like the weather we had this weekend). We did our letter of the week activities and learned about our Q usually takes friend U with and the sound they make together is /kw/. We identified the Q words queen, question, quilt and quarter. We sang Quandy Qua Qoo for our song. After our drink break and some quiet moving and quick moving, we did our center activities. After centers we got to use the rhythm instruments and we used them for //Play and Rest.// Then we had fun moving around the room and playing with the music. Our Bible story was about how Jesus was able to give life to a girl who had died. After snack and choice time, we started working on the nine flags we are adding to our 9 page in our number book. At the end of the day we had our suitcase surprise: HOMEWORK! We talked about groundhog day and what we should do for our homework.

January 29, 2016
On this partly sunny Friday, we had an extended table time and then did our letter page after our morning routines. The glitter glue for our G page did not cooperate so we just ended up putting blobs of glue on our page for /g/ sound. For the /j/ sound, we added a small flag from Germany. We sang our new songs about love and then talked about our Bible verse and how we know that God loves us. We made up some new verses for our song //Praise Him, All Ye Little Children.// Before gym we each made 6 paper snowballs and we used them for our warm up song. We did a relay race game, dressing in winter stuff. Then we reviewed our overhand throw and threw balls over the mat walls again. We enjoyed showing our choice for show and tell. Everyone showed something special to them. During snack we had our number 9 book. After a short choice time, we did just the writing of number 9 on our book page. We will add 9 flags on Monday. At the end of the day we got a suitcase surprise: a treat bag for Mrs. Otten's half birthday!

January 27, 2016
Hurrah! Levi was back in school so we were all here for a wonderful Wednesday. We had __even more__ cards in our schedule, but we worked hard to keep on task and get them all done! After our table time and morning routines, we did our letter of the week activities. We listened for the /g/ sound at the beginning of words (thumbs up!) and sang the song for our cow with her name being Gandy Gae Goo. Zion found our letter on the charts and in alphabet town (with some help because the house in alphabet town looked different from the book cover). We had the story of a goat and her birthday. After a wacky Wednesday song abut Bubblegum, we read a book about some gooey gum. We did center time. We learned two songs about love-one with sign language and one with a clapping pattern. We listened for same (thumbs up!) and different (thumbs down!) sounds that Mrs. Otten made with rhythm instruments. We are thankful for good listening ears. In our Bible story, Jesus healed a man that was deaf so he could hear wonderful sounds. Before we used the bathroom, we looked at the 5K snowmen projects. During snack we had a story about what you need for a snowman and then we decorated our shave cream snowmen. After choice time, we got our stuff together and went out for some play in the snow.

January 25, 2016
Today we were missing Levi and prayed for him to get better soon. There were still a few beach things out for table time and choice time. We did our morning routines and counted 15 things to do today!!! It was a busy day. We did our new letter of the week activities-making its sound, finding the upper and lower case letters, singing a new cow name, and learning Bible words. We took a break and did some letter of the week moving (galloping). For centers we had a project with cutting and printing; a graph; and a letter naming game. Our Bible song was the same as our Bible words. We talked about being blind and we had an activity using other senses instead of our sense of sight. We had a story of Jesus healing a blind man. We took some time to play with our pretend snowflakes and then we played a hide and seek game with them. We read a book about number 8 and then did our number 8 page, adding 8 colorful scarves. During snack we had a rhyming book about winter. After choice time we did the first part of a project and we got to use shave cream for pretend snow. Then we had fun playing with the shave cream!



January 20 BEACH DAY!
It was nice and warm at "the beach" today! We enjoyed being able to lay out our towels on the beach and kick off our sandals! We acted out a beach song and a beach story. We put our toes in the sand! We enjoyed beach balls in the gym. We used sand for our letter S page. We found shells and matched them to the letters of the alphabet. We had fun pretending the slide was a water slide. We enjoyed looking at shells and playing in the sand.





January 18, 2016
Levi was back and we were back inside for the whole morning due to the extreme cold! Our running time was in the gym and we ran across the gym to find matching mittens. We did our letter of the week activities and our cow was Miss Sandy Sae Soo. We sang three old favorite Sunday school songs: //Hallelu, Hallelujah; This Little Light of Mine; and I've Got the Joy Down in my Heart.// We had a story about Sadie and her snowman. Then we made our own page for a snowman book. We had another story with good news (fortunately) and bad news (unfortunately). BEACH DAY ON WEDNESDAY!

January 15, 2016
We were sad that Levi was sick and not able to join us today. Today after morning routines we did some moving in "opposite" ways before we did our letter of the week page. Since our letter was O, we did our writing in ORANGE. We added an Oval for the long o sound and an Octagon for the short o sound. Our Bible words this week were //Oh, give thanks to the Lord// so we took time draw or write things we were thankful for on strips of paper. We each made a thankfulness chain and then put them all together in one long chain just like the "big kids" did in B1 groups. After our warm up song in gym, we played three different activities with the stacking cups. We are getting to be good cup stackers! We enjoyed showing what we brought for show and tell and we each found at least one shape on the thing we brought. We had a story during snack that was similar to //Good News, Bad News// only the good news was called "fortunately" and the bad news was called "unfortunately".After choice time we worked on our number 7 page for our number books. We added 7 ovals and turned them into beautiful colored Easter eggs. We are getting excited about getting our books finished so we can take them home.

January 13, 2015
We reviewed cup stacking during table time; matched opposites; cut; and played games. Our alphabet town story was about owl and an opera. Our wacky Wednesday song was the song we sing with the vowel letters: //I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas.// We did center time and then had book time. During book time Mrs. Otten set up a game with the cups called Blasters and Stackers. The girls were the blasters and the boys were the stackers. After two minutes we counted the cups to see if there were more stacks or more blasts. There were more blasts because blasting is faster. We sang a song that used the opposite sides of our body called //Father Abraham.// Our Bible story was about John and Jesus. We learned how John prepared the people for Jesus and what happened when he baptized Jesus. During snack we had a funny story about some rhyming dust bunnies (and one who did not rhyme, but warned!) We had choice time, followed by a story with opposites. The story was //Good News, Bad News.//It was about a rabbit and a mouse and a picnic. After our story we played a matching game together and then had just enough time to enjoy indoor snow!

January 11, 2015
BRRR! A very cold day outside, so all of our activities were inside today. At table time there were new games and puzzles out for practicing opposites and shapes. The bell sound that Liam chose did not work, so he chose the spaceship sound instead. After prayer and calendar, we did our vowel letter song. Our new letter was the vowel that is made just with curves. Can you guess what it is? We learned our new Bible words and then took our drink break. We did some moving with opposite sides of our bodies and we moved in opposite ways. We put together opposite puzzles. Our centers were the snowball fight counting game, the Cariboo game with opposites, and sponge painting ovals and octagons with orange paint. After centers we had a little book time and then did some moving time in the gym. We had the Bible story of when Jesus stayed at the temple when he was 12 years old. During snack, we read a book with opposites and then had choice time. We had one more story time at the end of the day and we practiced some rhyming.

January 8, 2016
During table time we had the opportunity to do any centers that we did not do on Monday or Wednesday or to add embellishments to the projects we started. During our circle time, our bell rang all on its own! Silly bell! We reviewed our cup stacking using two hands in preparation for our gym activity. Then we did our letter C page.We used circle cereal for the /s/ sound of C and a colored cotton ball for the /k/ sound of C. For our Bible time, we sang our L-O-V-E song and then had a story about a boy who learned that the stain of our sin needs a special cleaner (Jesus) just like the stain of his spilled paint needed a special cleaner. After warming up in gym, we did a stack and run activity with our cups. Next time we will try it with a timer to see how fast we can go! We were excited to show our new things for show and tell! During snack we read the book //Number 6; What Can We Mix?//After choice time, we did our own 6 page for our number books.

January 6, 2016
Today we needed something else new: BATTERIES! Our bell hardly made any sound and our "power sander" in the tool area was not working. During table time today, Mrs. Otten showed us how to do cup stacking with two hands. We definitely favor one hand and it is hard to remember to alternate hands, but it is good brain work! We will keep practicing and will be playing some games with cups in the gym as well. Zion got to count the calendar numbers today and he chose the soccer ball wand! After doing a couple snowman rhymes, we listened for the /k/ sound of C and did "thumbs up" if we heard it. We sang our cow song with the /k/ sound and then Zion had a turn to find the letter C on the wall charts and in alphabet town. In our story today, Cat and her cousin went to the carnival. For our wacky Wednesday song, we did the Chicken Count. We got to choose a new center and do center time. We sang a song from last year: //Stand Up and Clap.// We had the story of the wiseman coming to see Jesus and how the evil king wanted to kill Jesus. God protected Him by warning the wisemen and warning Joseph. We had snack and choice time and then headed outside to play for a few minutes, too.

January 4, 2016
A new month; a new year; a new friend! Today we welcomed Zion into our class, and we were very helpful showing him our routines. A new year, but the same schedule, so we started the day with table time. Most of us took a turn playing the "Cooking Cookies" trying to be the first to collect all the ingredients we needed for our cookies. Our bell was goofy today! Aly picked the ticking clock, but the loud buzz was just a quiet click. Mrs. Otten didn't mind that! We showed Zion how we start the day with our prayer and hello song. Then we looked at the special days in January. We have a new job now! The line leader position is now one of the helper jobs, so we will all get our turn as line leader. We did a couple snowman rhymes and then did our new letter of the week. We found things in the can with the /k/ sound and also learned that our letter (c) sometimes borrows the /s/ sound or makes the /ch/ sound when bossy H is around. After our drink break, we did our center time. This week we have a choice of collage; a snowman project with cutting and gluing; and a color and count game with dice. Since our outdoor time is at the end of the day on snow play days, we did our Bible time next, learning about Anna and Simeon and how they waited for baby Jesus. During snack we had a story about waiting for snow. We had some indoor choice time. Then we learned about all the steps to get ready to go outside to play in the snow, got ourselves ready, and went out for fun in the snow!

December 23, 2015
Our last day together for 2015! Unfortunately Levi's mom was sick so Levi could not join us today. During table time we wrapped the ornament that we made for our moms and dads. Then we started our day and got to use a new wand to count! I was a pointer finger in a red glove. We sang songs with bells and then heard a story about a shoemaker who learned about why we give gifts for Christmas (because of God's great gift to us!). We played steal the bows in the gym and then played party games in our room. We got to guess what Christmas thing was in a stocking; throw "gold, frankincense, and myrrh" in the manger of hay, find "sheep" in the snow, and guess who stole the bow. We got to go to the first grade room to watch our part of the Christmas program. That was fun and we started singing along with ourselves. We had snack and did a "what's missing" picture. Our wacky Wednesday song was a rock and roll ABC. We opened the presents that we purchased for the MOPSmart and took them to Mrs. Kaat in the office. We received a gift from Mrs. Brashaw and Sadie in 3K...a project for making a nativity set. We wrote her a thank you note and also wrote a thank you note to Liam's grandma for the treat bags that she gave us. Then we had some choice time to end our day.

December 21, 2015
During table time, we added more embellishment to the paper trees we made last week. We also did (or redid) centers that we had done last week. When our day began, we used our cubes to make the numbers for the weekend days and then we had to join with a partner to make today's date. Veyda counted the calendar with the silver star wand and changed the weather to rainy. We were excited to cut off more links from our advent chain and count only 4 days until Christmas. We sang songs with bells and then had a parable story about how the candy cane can teach us about Jesus. After our drink and monkey position, we read a number 5 book and did our number 5 page for our books. We had some reading time before snack. We had a blue, blue, blue half birthday snack from Levi and listened to a story book. Then we went outdoors on the parking lot playground and did a lot of running. (all that cupcake energy!) We found out about our project and then had project and choice time.

December 18, 2015
One week until Christmas! We used our counting cubes to make 17 and 18 and did our advent chain for 18. We saw snow! We did our letter of the week activities. First we reviewed our letter sound. We each got three picture cards,. Only two of the pictures started with the same sound as red. We put those on the red paper. Then we figured out the letter pieces that make R and we talked about how to make R and what "mistakes" to avoid. We worked very diligently on our letter page and made great letters. We added a red ribbon for the sound. For our Bible time, we talked about our Bible words for the week and what it means to "rely" because our Bible words tell us //Rely on the love God has for us.// We had to decided if we could rely on Mrs. Otten and trust that she would only bring good cookies for us. We tried them at snack...they were good! For gym today we warmed up with the rumble boogie song and then explored the different things we could do with the beach balls. It was so much fun! After gym we showed our RED show and tell. During snack we read the book //Red Light, Green Light.//We did choice time and then a project.

December 16, 2015
Aly and Liam back! There was new playdough to use during table time. Huxley and Mrs. Otten played a counting game and Huxley won by being the first to cover all the circles on his Christmas tree with shiny circles. Aly and Liam enjoyed coloring at the easel, as well. We used our counting cubes to demonstrate the day's date and then Huxley counted the calendar numbers for us. We are stuck in a cloudy weather pattern and have not changed our weather chart in a long time. We used the bells to sing some songs and then did our letter of the week. Huxley also was chosen to find the letter R on the charts and in alphabet town. We had a story about a raccoon who was a rascal! After our wacky Wednesday song (we did the candy cane rhymes again), we did our center time. We sang one of our program songs and then had a story that was a parable. In the story a farmer's wife gave away her favorite Christmas tree to someone who could not pay. We talked about how Jesus died for us because we could not "pay" for our sins. While such analogies/parables are beyond our realm of understanding for children who are younger than 7or 8, they can understand that sometimes people will show love by sharing and sacrifice. We did our running time in the gym, and we played Red Light, Green Light again. During snack we heard the story of a Moose who forgot to buy a Christmas tree. After choice time, we did a project that involved cutting, "measuring", and ordering. Most of us need a bit more time for the embellishing!

December 14, 2015
We were sorry that TWO friends were sick today! Aly and Liam, you missed our new letter of the week (it makes the sound /r/ like rocket and robot. Our letter movement was run in place. We also did running in the gym because it was a rrrrrrainy day. We played Red Light Green Light. We read two story books about the angels appearing to the shepherds. During centers we had a choice of a rhyme book, a roll and build game, and using paper to create either a rocket or a robot. We listened for rhymes in the story called //Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Christmas.// We also talked about some words in the book that were new to us.

December 11, 2015 MAKE AND TAKE WORKSHOP
Here's a sneak peak:

December 9, 2015
It has to be wonderful Wednesday because we finally saw some sunshine today! This morning during table time, we helped Mrs. Otten make some fuzzy sheep for the 3K to use in one of their songs. Then we did our morning routines and practiced //our// songs. We had the story of Jesus' birth and then did our number 9 link on our advent chain. We took a drink and brain gym break and then sang two wacky Wednesday songs with candy canes. We had another rhyme story called //The Bus Is For Us//. After listening to the rhymes, we reread it and supplied the missing rhyme. Then we made more rhymes for each "word family". We had some nice outdoor time and then we headed over to the church to practice for our program. We saw the room where we would get on our costumes and practiced walking in and lining up in front. Mrs. A. came and played the piano for us so we could practice singing, too. When we got back we had snack and choice time before doing page 4 in our number books.

December 7, 2015
Today we just practiced our songs in the room and next time we practice at church! We had a Bible story about the angel visiting Joseph this time. We listened for rhymes with our story and then played the Cariboo game using rhyming words. After our outdoor time, we worked on another page for our number book. Our number, 3, was very similar to our letter of the week last week (B). Thinking about the B helped us to make our curves for the 3. For snack we had cheerios and oranges slices. We heard a story about ways to be kind. During choice time we worked on a project for our hallway (look for it next time). Our last story was about Christmas trees and our suitcase surprise was ornaments that we hung on the Christmas tree in our room!

December 4, 2015
Another fabulous Friday in 4K! We were all in school to enjoy this wonderful day. We played games and made bead necklace and cut little pieces for our "reach to the stars" jar during table time. We started our day with prayer and our hello song in quiet voices and in big singing voices. We looked at our schedule and Liam did our calendar and weather. We reviewed our alphabet town story by talking about the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story and then we did our letter B page. It is not an easy letter to write, but we put forth good effort to make our big lines straight and our little curves just the right size. We added a beautiful bow for our /b/ sound. After a drink, we had a story about our Bible words for the week: //**Be kind to each other.**// It was a story book called //Charlie's Be Kind Day.// After a grouchy start to his day, Charlie chose to be kind and he helped several people. For gym we did a circuit with balancing activities: hopscotch, beams, and stones. We walked forward, backward, tip toe, and even kick walk or dip walk on the high beam. We all cooperated to pack up the mats and equipment when we were done. Once back in our room, we enjoyed showing our "kid's choice" show and tell. Then we went to Mrs. A.'s room and she played the piano for us while we practiced our songs for the Christmas program. During snack we had a story of a big bad bullybug and then had choice time. For our last circle time, we listened for rhymes in two big books (and we made some of our own rhymes, too!!). Our suitcase surprise was a project we did to be kind. We decorated the meal bags that will be used to deliver food for people receiving Meals on Wheels. We enjoyed doing this special kindness and coloring in and decorating a Christmas tree on the bags. At the end of the day, we made our advent chain one link shorter and did the echo chant.

December 2, 2015
We enjoyed having everyone back at school today. We had a new calendar to look at and we noticed the special days on the calendar and talked about them. We did our letter of the week activities, including passing around our cow (this week she is Miss Bandy Bae Boo); listening for /b/ sound and showing whether or not we heard it with thumbs up or down; finding the letter in the room and in alphabet town. Our alphabet town story was about a bear who was invited to Beaver's birthday. There was also a bad bird in the story. After our wacky Wednesday song (with bees) we did our centers. We had our outdoor time on the parking lot playground and enjoyed running around in the snow! Our Bible story today was similar to our last Bible story. It also had an angel and a birth announcement. We practiced our program songs and started to get the idea of using BIG voices. During snack we had a silly story with all B words-//The Berenstain's B Book.// After choice time, we played a new game that was in our suitcase. It had dogs and bones in it. Aly and Liam collected the most bones in the game. At the end of the day we cut off a link on our advent chain.

November 30, 2015
A birthday today in 4K! Liam turned 5 yesterday! He wore his crown of many colors and chose a Clifford book for his birthday book. He brought robot snacks made of a juice box, candy, applesauce, wiggle eyes, and a pom.We were sorry Levi was sick and missed this special day, but we saved a snack for you, Levi! After talking about the calendar numbers since we were together last, Aly did the counting for us. We learned that our new letter of the week makes the sound of three colors: blue, brown, and black. We took the /b/ sound words out of the basket and then we found the letter B or b in the bubbles on our coloring page. We learned our Bible words and the sign language for them. We did center time with two friends choosing beads and two friends choosing a dog bone game. Since it was rainy, we got our exercise in the gym, playing the guessing game and Man from Mars. Our Bible story was about the Zachariah, Elizabeth, and John. We practiced our program songs and then had snack and choice time. We read a big book together, figuring out the words from the pictures and letter sound clues. We had some book time and then it was time to go home.

November 25, 2015
We missed Levi today because of car problems :( So Mrs. Otten did his calendar job today. We counted to 25! We sang our thanks song and looked at out thankfulness placemats. We read a story about giving thanks on Thanksgiving. //It is good to the thanks to the Lord!// After our drink, we did our wacky Wednesday: the chicken count. We read a book about counting the days in December until Christmas and about some of the special things we do during the month of December. We learned about our Christmas program and our suitcase surprise were the costumes we can wear. We will choose our costume next time. We practiced the three songs we will sing. We saw the new basic skills board that we got for our room with our fall fun fest proceeds so that we can practice zipping and tying and buttons and other fasteners. We had outdoor time. When we came in we made a paper chain that will help us to count down the days until Christmas. We had snack and listened to a counting book, enjoyed a short choice time, and then made our number 2 page for our counting book.

November 23, 2015
After our table time (making turkeys out of play dough; trying to pick up kernels of corn with just one hand; coloring; and reading) we did our morning routines. We sang //Just Say Thanks// and learned a new thank you song and added our own verses for what we were thankful for. We heard a Bible story about 10 men who were healed by Jesus...but only one said "thanks!". After our drink break we heard the story of the first Thanksgiving so long ago. We had our outdoor time on the parking lot and did running and hopscotch. When we came in we talked about "same" and "similar" and sorted some things into similar groups. Then we sorted our food pantry food into groups. During snack we heard two thanksgiving stories and during choice time we listed some things we were thankful for. At our last circle time, we looked at number books and made the first page in our number books.

November 20, 2015
A FULL Friday! We started with table time and some of us used the dot markers or paints to do our own project. Aly worked with the magnets, copying the pattern cards. We talked about our calendar number going to 20, which is 2 tens. It was the first time we talked about "tens" as a group, so we will be exploring that concept more in days to come. We did more patterns of movements and then did some sound patterns with the -om sound family. We listened to a story about Pom Pom Panda and his grumpy day. We did our letter P page and added a pattern of paper for the /p/ sound. We did the parachute in gym! We shook it slow and fast, crawled on it, ran under it, made a mountain and a tent, and popped balls in the air. After singing a thank you song, we heard the rest of the story of Joseph and how God's plan for him was a good plan. Although the brothers meant to harm him, God used him to help the brothers. During snack we looked at pictures of a Pilgrim holding a turkey to see if we could find out what was missing. We had show and tell and showed off the patterns we found or made. After a short choice time, we made a book with a turkey moving to different positions in the book. Let me read it to you!

November 18, 2015
Here's to hoping our good health streak continues! We followed our usual pattern: name tags, table time, clean up, prayer, hello song, schedule, jobs and calendar. Before we started our letter of the week, we each got to suggest a body movement pattern (clap, stamp, clap, stamp...) Then we used our ears to listen and eyes to watch Mrs. Otten's mouth as she said words and we decided if we heard /p/ at the beginning of the word. After we had our list of words, we said them again and felt the air on our hand when we said the /p/ at the beginning of the words. Huxley found the letter P on the charts and in Alphabet town. Our story was about a penguin who like planning parades. After our drink break, we did our brain gym, complete with our pretzel stand at the end. Our wacky Wednesday song was all about fast food restaurants. We looked at word families, starting with the long a family and the oo family, adding the letter sounds that we have learned so far. We tried to decide if the two sound made a real word. Next we worked again on our placemats and had book time. Since we could not get outside, we did a moving activity in the room, moving around a "turkey" and taking feathers off of it. Each feather told us something different to do. For our Bible time, we sang a song with a pattern (//Hallelu, Hallelujah; Praise Ye the Lord//) and our //Just Say Thanks// song. We had the second part of our Joseph story, learning how he was put in jail and how God helped him to interpret dreams. At the end of today's story, he was #2 to the king! When we got our snack today, we made some patterns with the snack foods. We listened to a story about Mrs. Gumm who found a turkey egg that she fed so it could become her Thanksgiving dinner, called //Sometimes It's Turkey, Sometimes It's Feathers.// Do you think she ate that turkey??? We had choice after snack and then we did some sound patterns with rhythm instruments (play and rest; listen and play; play and pass).

November 16, 2015
Another marvelous Monday! After our routines, we made our new letter sound. Then we passed around a pizza and took off one of the toppings, which was a /p/ sound word. The only one that tricked us was the old fashioned smoking pipe (I suppose that is a good thing!) While we were doing our letter of the week activities, Mrs. Eggebeen came in to warn us that we were going to have a fire drill with the real fire drill sound. We continued with our activities, learning our verse and our pretzel stand. We were working on patterns when the VERY LOUD drill sound started. We covered our ears and got out quickly and quietly. We showed how we know how to be safe! We talked about our center time, which will be different this week. We divided into two groups and each group did a different part of the project that we are making for Thanksgiving. Some painted and some patterened. We enjoyed outdoor time after center time. For our Bible time, we learned two songs about giving thanks to God. Then we had the first part of the story of Joseph (the bad part). We will hear how God turns bad into "good" in the other parts of the story. We had another story about a mouse in the house during snack time. This time the mouse was asked to stay!! We had our choice time and then practiced continuing patterns during our last circle time.

[[image:003.JPG width="640" height="480" caption="kicking the bean bag...good aim"]]
Today we did a dozen stations in gym. This is just a sample of the things that we did. We also did our D letter page and added a dozen dots for the sound of D. We had a dozen cheerios on our snack plate (along with crackers and craisins). We read a book to help us to understand what it means to //Do to others as you would have them do to you,// which were our Bible words for this week. We had fun describing what was in our purple bags for tell and show. We had good description words, but could not guess any of the things that were brought! It was fun to try to guess, though. Can you guess any of them: red, hot and you can cook it; brown fur and brown eyes and eyelashes; a vehicle that is from a show and starts with M; has spots and stripes and sharp teeth and lays eggs; is found in a bathroom and is brown. We also listened to the authors who had made books at center time this week read their books on the author chair.

November 11, 2015
Today we continued with things that we started on Monday. We listened again to our letter of the week sound and tried to hear that sound in words (and show we heard it by giving a thumbs up). Aly found the letter D on the charts and in alphabet town. Our story was about a dinosaur who had a problem with day dreams and dilly-dallying. She got lost as she daydreamed and ate her ice cream cone. Her dad was able to find her...can you guess how? After our letter of the week, we took a break and did our wacky Wednesday song: //Dancin' Machine!// We read another book that showed things that could be made with dots. Then we reviewed our center choices, and did our center time. We enjoyed another wonderful day outdoors. We finished our Bible story when we came in. We learned how God helped his people to win a battle in a strange way: with just marching and noise. We enjoyed snack time and choice time next. For our last circle time, we tried to listen to descriptions (riddles) with a book of riddles. We each got a bag with something from our room and thought of a way to describe it and then we tried out our descriptions on each other. We came up with some great descriptions and made some great guesses. We got small purple bags to use for our show and tell and we will get to do the same thing on Friday. I can't wait! At the end of the day we had time for Mrs. Otten to share the book she wrote that had the same title as a book in our room (which we also read). The question for the day is about the books!

November 9, 2015
It is always a marvelous Monday in 4K when everyone is in school! We used table time to create with magnets, draw, stamp alphabet letters and cut a curve. We had circle time next, starting with prayer and looking over our schedule. We got job assignments and clapped word parts. We listened to the sound for the new letter of the week and made the sound. We thought about the sound when identifying pictures that began with the sound. We sang our new song for the cow: Dandy Dae Doo. We practiced our new Bible words and will talk about them with our Friday devotion. We did dancing for our D movement and our monkey position was a double! (two friends together). We read a book called //Ten Black Dots//, noticing the parts of the illustrations that were dots. We found things in the room that were made with one or more dots. We found out what our new centers were. For construction and creation we will do Duplos. For writing we will do our own Dots book. For counting and number identification we will play a dice game and record our counting with dot markers. After choice time we had a very short outdoor time (**too** short so we planned to do another outdoor time later). We had the first part of a Bible story about God's people getting to the promised land. Today's story was about the spies who escaped in a basket with help from Rahab. We had snack after Bible and then spent a bit more time outdoors. We had our choice time. For our last circle time, we started to learn about what it means to "describe" and we guessed animal riddles from the description. We reviewed how we are going to do show and tell this week. We will practice more on Wednesday.

November 6, 2015
We were so happy that Liam was back in school! We are listening for word parts when we get our job assignments. We say the word and clap the sound parts. All of our names have two parts. The one part words are the hardest to discern, but we are working together and doing well. Today we spent some time looking at books that are information books. We found interesting things in books about insects. We did our letter page and sang the insect song. We added an icicle to the page for the long i sound and stamped an insect for the short i sound. In gym we reviewed our overhand throw, holding the ball in our tattoo hand with a "muscle arm". We rocked to our back foot and then stepped with our tape toe and threw our balls over the fence of mats. Then we played the "clean up your yard" game, trying to through all our balls into the other "yard". Each team won the game once. We had a story about our Bible words, learning that it is important to follow rules. God's most important rule for us is that we love each other. When we keep God's rules, we show we love God. We showed some of our favorite foods for show and tell. During snack we had the familiar story of food that someone does not like: **//Green Eggs and Ham!//** We had choice time after snack. At the end of the day, we played a couple rounds of "I have...Who has..." with our vowel letters. We read a book together.

November 4, 2015
We were so sorry that Liam was still sick and prayed that God would help his body heal and bring him back to school next time. Today we reviewed our letter of the week short and long sounds and tried to discern which sound we heard when Mrs. Otten said a word. Veyda found the I on the charts and in alphabet town. I was an iceman named Ichabod. In his adventure he was stuck on an iceberg that was melting in the sun! We had a drink break AND A FIRE DRILL! We did a great job remembering to walk quickly and quietly and to respond when our names were called. When we came back inside, we did our vowel wacky Wednesday song: //I Like to Eat (Apples and Bananas)// We reviewed what makes an insect with our song. We reviewed how to measure and talked a little about why it is important to know how to measure. Veyda reminded us about the writing center by reading her book to us again (while sitting on the author's chair). Then we had center time. After center time, we enjoyed time outdoors. When we came in, Huxley and Levi each got to sit on the author's chair and read their books about things they like. We had a Bible story about another baby that was promised...Samuel. During snack today, we listed many foods that we like. We talked about show and tell and that we should bring foods that don't have to stay in the refrigerator and are in a box, bag, or can. We had choice time after snack. At the end of the day, we read two books with the same title! But each author had their own ideas on the inside of the book. We compared them and found that some parts were the same and some parts were different, just like in our books.

November 2, 2015
New month! The special days on our calendar are a birthday at the beginning and a birthday at the end and two days off of school for Thanksgiving. Today we celebrated Huxley's birthday! He is 5 like Veyda! We were sorry that Liam was sick and could not help us celebrate (but we saved you the special snack, Liam!) After finding out about Huxley's special birthday, we did our morning routines. Our new letter this week is another vowel so we sang our vowel song and the new name for our cow. We learned our Bible words. Then we learned about some concepts for I words: inches and measuring and what makes an insect. We did center time with these concepts and also had the writing center available for making a book about things I like. We also read a book called //Inch by Inch// and learned to walk like an inchworm. We enjoyed some fabulous outdoor time. Before our Bible story, we looked at pictures of a boy and put them in order from youngest to oldest. We talked about what a boy/man would do at each age. Then we had our Bible story of Abraham and Sarah doing something that very old people usually do not do: becoming parents! God kept his promise to them, even though they were so old. God gave them the baby Isaac. We enjoyed snack provided by two classmates: Aly brought roasted pumpkin seeds and Huxley brought cinnamon sugar chips and chocolate chip/m&m cookies. It was a big snack and most of us took some of it home. We had choice time. For our last circle time, we looked at kinds of books and read books about spiders: a story book about a spider who wanted to be a pet; an informational book about spiders; and a list book with names of spiders.

October 30, 2015
We had a small class today! Huxley was gone on a special birthday trip and Veyda was home sick. We have //so much// to teach them when they return!! They will need to learn about different kinds of books. We learned about story books, information books, and list books. We did a lot of reading today. First we read books about elephants. One was a story, one helped us learn information about real elephants and one was a counting book with elephants (a list of numbers). They will also get to learn how to make the letter T, add /t/ sound things to their letter page, and maybe we will even teach them about how "bossy H" changes the T sound! Next Friday we will be able to teach them how to do an overhand throw and they will get to throw balls over the mat wall like we did today. Our Bible time was a devotion about our Bible words for this week: //Trust in the Lord.// In the story a boy was worried about moving to a new house and town. However, he realized that he could trust in the Lord because God is good and would have good things for him in his new house and town. It was just like he trusted that his Grandma would only send him good things. And she did! She sent chocolate chip cookies. He knew they were good because he trusted his Grandma. Mrs. Otten brought cookies too. We trust Mrs. Otten and so we were not afraid to eat the cookies she baked! After snack we had show and tell. Liam brought an airplane that he got on a trip to Mexico. Aly brought a camo hat and a ketchup package that her mom brought back from a trip. The ketchup package had very different symbols on it for words. Levi brought a soccer jersey that someone brought back from Venezuela for him. And Mrs. Otten brought Eiffel Tower keychains that her daughter Betsy brought back from the REAL Eiffel Tower. We each got to choose one to keep so we could remember our "trip" to France with the 5K. We have one for you, too, Huxley and Veyda! We had choice time after show and tell. Then we read three more books, deciding what kind of book it was. We read an information book about dolphins (did you know that a dolphin is not a fish?!) We read a story about some children and an elephant they found (his name was Phil). and we read a book with a list of pickle things you will never see! It was so funny!

October 28, 2015
After some table time today, we started our day with our circle time. We did our hello song with the opposites of quiet and loud. Huxley figured out the next number for the calendar and we counted the numbers with him. Unfortunately, he had to change the weather to "cloudy and rainy". We did another opposite for our "get the wiggles out" rhyme. We moved slow and fast. For our letter of the week activities, we first listened for the /t/ sound and did "thumbs up" if we heard the sound. Then Levi found the letter T on the alphabet charts and in alphabet town. Today's adventure was about Turtle, who was going on a trip to see his friend, Tiger. After letter of the week, we took our drink break and then had a very wacky Wednesday song: //Tooty-Ta.// We did center time next. Today Levi built with Tinker toys; Liam and Huxley played the treasure game; and Aly and Veyda did tracing at the light box to make their own coloring books. After centers we did our snack break. We learned a new song //Trust and Obey,// and we heard a Bible story about Abraham and how he had to trust God and obey him and move to a new land, even though he did not know where that was going to be. We went into the gym for our moving time, since it was too wet outside. We played a guessing game: Mrs. Otten hid a stone in one hand. We ran to the side of the gym we thought was the side the stone was in. If we guessed right, we were the winners! We played lots of times. We won some and lost some, but we all did fast running and got good exercise (that's a win for all of us!) After gym we enjoyed some choice time. For our last circle time, we reviewed our alphabet town story, figuring out the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then we read a book that was a story about why children in China have short names called //Tikki Tikki Tembo.// We talked about show and tell and then finished our day with prayer.

October 26, 2015
It was nice to be together again after a few days off. We did some numeral recognition and counting during table time. When our day started, Liam found 26 and we counted them as he used the flip flop wand to point to the numbers. After getting our wiggles out, we listened for the sound of the new letter and some of us already knew that it was the sound of the letter T. We passed around a tissue box and pulled out pictures of things that started with the /t/ sound. We also did our cow song, with her new name being Tandy Tae Too. We learned our Bible words and sang a song with the Bible words in it before getting a drink and doing our monkey position. We went over the directions for our new centers. Aly and Liam made a project with tape and tubes. Levi and Veyda played the game looking for balls to open the treasure chest. They had to find the //next// number in order to open a door. It was not always easy to find the number because some of them were teens or twenties. Huxley built with Tinker Toys and constructed a really cool boat. After centers we enjoyed outdoor time. Our Bible story was about Jesus providing food for the people that came to hear him teach. He did it in a different way than the way God provided the Manna. We learned a song to go with our Bible story. We had a special snack today. We got to eat the "loaves" from the Bible story and we also enjoyed a cookie from Liam's grandma. (Aly wrote her a thank you note during choice time!) We had a story about some mice and a scary cat during snack time. After snack we had choice time. After choice time, we did another couple rounds of "I have...Who has?" with numbers. Then we had some book time. During book time we were "looking for treasure" in the book we had chosen. Book "treasure" is anything we noticed that we found interesting or remembered from the story, or made us wonder.

October 21, 2015
Another special day! After table time and morning routines, we learned a new game called, "I have...Who has?" We did a wacky Wednesday song called //The Echo Dance.// We had to listen and copy. Next we talked about looking for treasure in books by taking time to look at each page and find special things on the page. We read a big book called //I Am an Apple.// Then we each had a chance to read a book about apples and find a treasure on one of the pages. We showed the treasure that we found. After some outdoor time (with the 5K!!!) we took our trip to France! We ate food and juice pairings, made an Eiffel tower, painted like Monet, made our own perfume, and played the Escargot hopscotch game.

October 19, 2015
With our short week, we did not have some of our normal Monday activities. We don't have a letter of the week this week. So after our morning routines, we had our Bible story first. We sang //My God Is So Big// and then reviewed the "big' things God did in the stories we have had so far (creation, Noah, and Moses) Today God did another "big" thing for his people: he provided them with food in the desert. It was a food they had never seen before called Manna. After our Bible story and drink break, we talked about how to make apple pie. We thought of different steps and then Mrs. Otten cut them apart and we tried to put them in the right order. We looked at a picture book of the apple pie production in our gym and then we toured the apple pie production! We got to help push the boxes of pies down to the tent. After our outdoor time, we had our suitcase surprise: the ingredients to make our own apple pies! While they were baking we had choice time and project time. For our project we drew pictures for a book about pie. We will add some words next time.

October 16, 2015
We were missing Levi today, who was taking a little extra time to get healthy before returning to school. Today we played the equal or not game that had been a center that no one had chosen this week. We took turns rolling the dice. Only Veyda rolled equal numbers one time. So our final tally was 17 times not equal and 3 times equal. After we played our game, we did our letter page and made an equal sentence for the long E sound and glued on an envelope for the short e sound. We looked at the pictures of girl planting the sunflower that we had sequenced and we wrote words to go with the pictures. We named the character in the story "Leah" and we names our book "Leah's Flower". After our outdoor time we had a story about our Bible words, //Even a child in known by his actions.// Next we had show and tell and everyone remembered to bring in a number of things equal to their age. Veyda brought in 5 shells; Liam brought in 4 window markers; Huxley brought in 4 building pieces; Aly brought in 4 wood faces (all the kids in the family); and Mrs. Otten brought in 59 m&ms!! We counted the m&ms with the number chart and talked about counting by tens. We each ate a group of 10 m&ms with our snack, too! After choice time we had a suitcase surprise: the //**real**// **book with the sunflower story!** It was called //Sunflower// and the author's words were kind of like our words. After our end of the day prayer, we talked about the special, short week coming up.

October 14, 2015
Today we did counting, coloring, and playdough at table time. For our letter of the week, we first sang our song about the vowel letters. Each time we sang it, we left off a vowel and put a clap instead. Then we tried to listen for the difference between the long E sound and the short e sound at the beginning of words. It is not easy to distinguish sounds yet, but we will keep working on it. Liam finally had his turn to find the letter E on the charts and in alphabet town. Our wacky Wednesday song had us change the words by changing the vowels: //Apples and Bananas.//That sure sounded silly! We had our center time and then we had gym TODAY because the gym will be full of apple pie workers on Friday. We used the bean bags in a bean bag dance and then practiced tossing and catching the bean bag. After we did that individually, we tossed back and forth with a partner. After gym we had snack. Oh NO! Levi got sick during snack time. Our wonderful office ladies helped us out! After snack we had our Bible story about how God saved his people from Egypt and from the army that was chasing them. Liam made up a song about our great God. Mrs. Otten said that was just like Miriam and she sang Miriam's song from the Bible. We had a shorter choice time, but still enjoyed playing with duplos and ponies and pretending to be puppies. At the end of the day, we again sequenced the sunflower story since Liam missed that on Monday and we will be doing more with that story next time.

October 12, 2015
BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION! Veyda turned 5 today so she wore a crown, picked out a book to keep, had her photograph taken, showed us a birthday gift, and treated us to yummy apples and dips! We were sorry that Liam was missing the day. Today we had our first vowel for letter of the week so we had to talk about vowels and their sounds. We read a book about an animal with the short e sound: Elmer (the Elephant). After the explanation of our new centers for the week, we enjoyed some outdoor time. When we came in, we did our centers. Veyda and Huxley were "embellishing" an Elmer; Aly was eating different color apples and electing her favorite; and Levi was moving candy corn with a pinching tool and putting one each in a tray. After centers, we had some book time and then sang a new song, //Hallelu, Hallelujah.// We had the Bible story of Moses and Aaron speaking to the king of Egypt to let God's people go. Each time a bad thing happened, the king was going to let them go. However, when the bad thing stopped, he said, "NO, NO, YOU CAN'T GO". After Bible, it was time for snack. While we were eating our apples, we tried to figure out what was missing from a picture of Johnny Appleseed. We enjoyed choice time next. At the end of the day, we looked at pictures of growing a sunflower and put them in order.

October 9, 2015
During table time we were able to do the centers that we did not get a chance to do or to do one over again that we liked. Huxley and Aly were being great H detectives! Veyda was working on grabbing and counting and recording numbers and Levi did the heat tray leaf. We did our morning routines and then read a story about kinds of hats. We learned a new word for a chef hat. We did our letter page and attached a hard hat for the /h/ sound. After our drink break, we sang a new song and talked about God and how God is holy and awesome. For gym we used the hula hoops in many different ways. We enjoyed showing our show and tell. Aly and Levi had something special that someone had made for them. Liam and Huxley had made some artwork and Veyda had made a necklace. During snack we had another story about hats and it helped us to learn how to treat others. After some choice time, we had book time and worked some more on putting stories in order.

October 7, 2015
Oh no! The bell did not work....even with new batteries! So we had to use the old bell today. After morning routines of prayer, schedule and learning target review, job assignments and calendar number counting, we did some more rhymes with our laminated leaves. After listening closely for our color, we were ready for careful listening for the /h/ sound in words. It is not easy to hear that first sound. Since the /h/ sound is air, we tried saying the words with our hands by our mouths so we could feel if it was a word that started with air. That helped some of us some of the time! Since our letter was H, Huxley got to be the one to find the H on the charts and in Alphabet town. Our Alphabet town story was about a hippo. After we read the story, we recalled the beginning, middle, and end of the story. After our drink break and wacky Wednesday song, we did center time. After center time, we enjoyed outdoor time and decided that we did not need to wear our jackets. We sang the same songs from Monday and then had a suitcase surprise. There were things to start a campfire and a bag of ashes from a campfire. Our story had fire, too, but the bush that was on fire did NOT burn up into ashes. God used the burning bush to get Moses' attention and then he told Moses about the special job he had for Moses to do. God had to show his power to Moses to get Moses to trust him and obey him. Our snack today was a variety of things in a snack bag. After snack we talked about "book reading time" and how we could "read" books even if we don't know all the words. We had some book time and then it was choice time. During choice time we also got to dictate captions for our photographs of the Maywood trip for another class book. At the end of the day, we talked about show and tell for this week.

October 5, 2015
After doing some leaf action rhymes, we started with our new letter of the week. The sound is made with just air and is the sound we hear at the beginning of Huxley! We identified pictures that start with our letter and learned some new H words (hog and hen). Liam correctly figured out that our cow's name would be "Handy Hae Hoo" this week. We also did our Bible words and used the sign language for letter H when we signed the word holy. After our drink, our H exercise (hop) and our monkey position, we were introduced to our new centers for this week: grabbing things by the "handful" and counting them and finding that number on a number line; coloring a leaf with crayons on the heat tray; counting and coloring in squares of a heart; and being Hh detectives and finding the H or h on words in our room. After our center time, we were glad to get outside to run and slide and swing and climb. When we came in, we learned another new word: hinge. We talked about the hinges on doors and the parts of our body that act like hinges. We sang a song about our hinges. Our suitcase surprise were all things you might use to take care of a baby. Today our Bible story was about a mom who had to hide her baby. We had snack and choice time. For our final circle time, we reviewed putting story pictures in order and then we put the photographs from our Maywood trip in order. We will be dictating words for the pictures and then Mrs. Otten will make another classroom book for us to check out.

October 2, 2015
After our table time (Veyda and Aly were building the ark and Liam, Huxley, and Levi were cutting lines and gluing) we looked at the calendar and the special days ahead for October. After our morning routines, we read a book called //Look!// After reading the book, we looked at each page again to figure out what was happening in the story. We did our letter L handwriting page. Then we reviewed our Bible words and heard the story of Jesus showing love by washing the disciples' feet. We talked about what it means to love like Jesus loved....helping and serving other people. For gym we got to use the bean bags. We did a couple moving songs with them and then practiced how to toss and catch and then we slid them across the floor with our feet. When we returned to our room, we were excited to show each other what we had chosen to bring for show and tell. During snack we had a story about a girl named Nora who built an ark just like Noah...well, not //just// //like// Noah... After snack it was choice time. At the end of the day we had another story about Ten Thank You Letters.

September 30, 2015
We counted all the way to 30 today! Levi used the wrench wand to point to the numbers for us. We learned a new word: laminated. We used laminated paper leaves and did some rhymes with them. We also showed that we knew the meaning of "same" and "different" when we chose the leaves to use. We listened for the /l/ sound and then Veyda found the letter L on the chart and in the alphabet town book. The little lady had the adventure in alphabet town today. For our wacky Wednesday song, we needed to practice finding our LEFT and RIGHT. Guess what? Our LEFT hand makes letter **L** when we stick it our in front of our bodies and stick our our thumb! We did centers next. Veyda got to do the listening game that she was hoping to do. Liam and Levi used the light box to make pictures with shapes, and Aly and Huxley made Lincoln log creations. We enjoyed outdoor time, but we needed our jackets today. Our Bible story was about the flood and how long Noah and his family were on the big boat called the ark. We also learned that God put a rainbow in the sky and gave Noah two promises. We sang a new song about the Noah story called //Rise and Shine.// Then, during snack, Mrs. Otten read a book with the same title and the same words as the song! After snack, we sequenced pictures that told a story and made up our own words for the stories. We enjoyed choice time in the castle and kitchen area today.

September 28, 2015
This morning we noticed that there were only 3 days left for our September calendar. Levi counted our numbers with the train engine wand. We listened to our new letter sound: the sound we hear at the beginning of Liam, Levi, and Love: /l/ We identified pictures with the sound and sang a song with L-O-V-E. We learned our new Bible words and then sang our new song for our cow: Landy Lae Loo. We found upper case and lower case letter Ls on lollipops. After our drink break, we did our brain gym and did some Leg Lifts. Then we were introduced to our new centers: light box, Lincoln logs, listening game and line cutting project. Veyda was disappointed when the spots for the listening game were taken, but she enjoyed cutting lines and making a colorful piece of art work with her lines. Aly also did the line project, Liam built with Lincoln logs, and Huxley and Levi did the listening game. After centers we enjoyed our outdoor time and did swinging, monkey bars, climbing, sliding, running, and fireman's pole. Our Bible story was about how God was sad at how mean people had become except for Noah. He decided to protect Noah and his family and two of every animal in a very big boat. After enjoying a snack of pretzels and cheese sticks we had a story called //Otto the Book Bear.// We learned some new words in the story and we talked about the beginning, middle, and end of the story. During choice time we had fun playing together and creating stories with our imagination. At the end of the day, we had another story. This one had 6 parts and was about a frog and a fly. It was a slurpy story. Can you guess why?

September 25, 2015
At table time we finished the coffee filter fish project from our center time this week. Then we colored or played a game. After our morning routines we had read a new library book called //The Fly.// After we read the story, we went back and talked about some of the words and features that the author/illustrator used in the book. We read it again, and read the **FLAP!** part together. We did our letter page next, practicing our F on the chalkboards and on the trace one/make one part of our letter page. We added ffffoam ffffish, a ffffour and a ffffive to our page. After a drink break we had a story about forgiving. For gym today, we played Follow the Leader and a game of stealing fish called High Five. After gym we did our show and tell. During snack we reviewed how to draw a body. Then we made a book page for a book about the favorite things that we brought for show and tell. We had choice time and then we read the story Liam had brought for show and tell about "filling buckets". We also got to read our book pages while sitting in the author chair. Huxley got to take home our first classroom book, //Meet the 4K Class.//

September 23, 2015
We had play dough out for table time today and just used our hands to play with the play dough, not tools. We had fun making hamburgers and cakes with cherry tomatoes on them! After talking about our schedule and getting our job assignments, we counted the calendar numbers with Aly and the flower wand. We did an action rhyme and then our letter of the week activities. We tried to hear if a word started with the /f/ sound and we did thumbs up if it did, and thumbs down if it did not. Aly also found the Ff on the alphabet charts and in the alphabet town book. The story was about a Fox at the fair (the beginning of the story...ask me about the middle of the story-the problem- and the end of the story-how the problem was solved). After our drink break we did the monkey position we forgot on Monday, and our wacky Wednesday song. We had center time and today Veyda and Huxley did the coffee filter fish project; Aly and Liam did the Go Fish for Ff game; and Levi did the French Fry number activity. We enjoyed great outdoor time and were glad to see the tire swing was fixed! After singing //Jesus, I Love You,// we had our sad Bible story. It was sad because Eve and Adam disobeyed God and listened to the lie that Satan told them. We were reminded, though, that God did forgive them and he does forgive us because of Jesus, so we reviewed our Bible words for this week, //Forgive like God forgives you.// We had a special snack from Liam's grandma and listened to a story about the season of fall. After snack, we wrote a thank you letter to Liam's grandma. We enjoyed choice time and worked together to clean up after choice time. We talked about our show and tell for this week.

September 21, 2015
Today we reviewed writing our letter M before doing our table time. There were new things out for table time today. After morning routines, we learned our new letter of the week sound. We used the mirrors to see how to make the sound by putting our top teeth on our bottom lip and blowing air. (Can you do it? Do you know a word that starts with that sound?) We identified pictures that started with that sound. We learned that the letter that makes that sound is F. We found upper and lower case F's on a paper and then learned our F Bible words. Finally, we did our song with Mandy Mae Moo, but with her new name: **F**ANDY **F**AE **F**OO! After a drink and moving break (FLY), we got instruction for our new centers: Go **F**ish; Coffee **F**ilter **F**ish; **F**rench **F**ries; and **F**rog toss game. When our center time was finished, we had outdoor time. We sang //Jesus Loves// Me today and then our song with all the things God created. We learned what God did on day 7 and then what he asked Adam and Eve to do: take good care of my world. We got to look at and touch some things from God's wonderful creation and we did our own bit of taking care of the world: collecting trash from the Sonshine House back yard. During snack we had a book about **Friends.** We learned about making stories and how stories have a beginning, middle, and an end. During choice time we had a **FIRE DRILL!** We did a great job leaving our toys and walking quickly and quietly outside.

September 18, 2015
Welcome back to Liam! He told us that he went on a vacation to a hotel. There was a playground there and a pool, and a hot tub. During table time today, we did some of the activities we had done at center time this week. During letter of the week time, we showed Liam how we did "thumbs up or thumbs down" for the letter sound of M. Then we reviewed our letter pieces and did //The Letter Pieces Hokey Pokey.// We learned how to write the letter M. We did our letter M first with the chalk boards. We did the "wet, dry, try" with our chalkboards. Then we did our letter page for M, learning how to do "trace one, make one". Finally we attached two things to our page that have the /m/ sound: a piece of **m**agnet and a piece of **m**etal. (The metal stuck to the magnet). When we returned to circle time, we reviewed the days of creation and then learned how God made man and woman. He did a different thing for man and woman. He used his hands and his breath. After our Bible story, we had gym. Today we learned about doing activities in a circuit. Our activities today included bear walk, tip toe, running, jumping up and down and over, balancing on our "stones", walking backwards, walking on a balance beam, and hopping forward. We did the circuit several times and then we helped to clean up all the equipment. After a drink break, we did our show and tell. The magnet stuck to a wrench, a sculpture, a necklace and a hammer. The magnet did not stick to the zipper pull. Huxley brought fresh apples for our snack today, which we enjoyed very much. After snack we learned how our letter pieces can make Mat Man. Learning how to make Mat Man helps up learn how to draw a body. We practiced that and then we had choice time. Here's the bodies we made:

September 16, 2015
After putting up our star name tags and picking our blue star for our line order, we had table time. After morning routines (with Mrs. Otten counting the calendar for Liam, who was still gone), we did our letter of the week activities. We listened to words and watched Mrs. Otten's mouth to see if we could see/hear the /m/ sound. If we heard the sound we did "thumbs up". If we did not hear the sound, we did "thumbs down". We sang our Mandy Mae Moo song and passed her around the circle. Then Levi was chosen to find the M letter on the letter chart on the poster and on the wall. He also found the M house in Alphabet Town and then we read the story of the friends Mouse and Mole. After our drink break, we did our wacky Wednesday song and moved like machines in motion. We had center time and then our outdoor time. When we came in we sang our creation song and then talked about what was created on day 5. We sorted animal cards into what needs to live in the water, what has feathers and flies, and what lives mostly on the land. We only had one water animal and one bird and lots of land animals! During snack we read a book about the different ways animals move. After snack we did the magnet center together to determine what kind of things stick to the magnet. On Friday we will bring in something "made of metal" for show and tell and see if it has the kind of metal that sticks to the magnet. During choice time we had a time to tell Mrs. Otten some of our favorite things.(OOPS! I just realized that we forgot to talk about open house at the end of the day! I wanted to prepare the children for seeing lots of adults and children in the room. Please do that if you have a chance!)

September 14, 2015
We were missing Liam today. He is gone on a trip with his family. We prayed for their safety and look forward to his return on Friday. Today at table time Mrs. Otten checked to see what letters and numerals we could identify. Some of us did some coloring at table time and some did games or magnets. When our day started we talked about our schedule and got our job assignments. We did our calendar counting and weather and then we were introduced to the first letter sound we were learning: mmmmm. We looked at ourselves in mirrors so we could watch our mouths as we said the sound. We listened to the sound at the beginning of words. Then we identified the letter name (M) and read a book together called, //Mmmm!// After our drink break, we did a mmm movement (march) and a monkey position. Then we learned about our new centers and chose a center to do. Huxley and Veyda did Math Mat, Aly did a matching memory game, and Levi tried the magnet center. After centers we enjoyed some wonderful time outdoors. When we came in we sang our song about creation and learned about day 4. Next we enjoyed snack and a story. Our story was about black cat and white cat. One like the night and one liked the day. Can you guess which was which? We reviewed what we learned at Maywood about habitats and then Mrs. Otten remembered that we had not done a special letter of the week song! So we learned the //Mandy Mae Moo// song. We also learned to play a new game called Mr. Mouth. Some of us kept playing it for a while during choice time. Our project today was a book page for our Maywood Memories book.

September 11, 2015
MAYWOOD FIELD TRIP DAY! We started our day with some table time. After our morning prayer, schedule review, job assignments, and calendar, we talked about what we might see at Maywood. After just a short time, we boarded the BIG bus and went to Maywood. We were met by Mary, who first introduced us to the word "habitat". She showed us pictures to help us to understand what that was. Then we were off to explore three habitats: the prairie, the forest, and the pond. Along the way we got to use our eyes, ears, hands, and nets! We saw many wonderful things and Mary told us interesting things about what we were looking at and experiencing. Our morning went by so quickly that we ended up eating our snack back at school. Next time we will review what we learned and draw one of our favorite memories from Maywood!

September 9, 2015
Today we added our day of the week song to our calendar time. We started with our suitcase surprise today. In the suitcase was something that only grown ups touch because it makes fire (matches). We talked about getting out of a burning building and how we needed to practice. We read a book about children practicing and we learned that the special name for that is "fire drill". We talked about where we go in a fire drill and then we did a fire drill. We remembered to walk and not talk until Mrs. Otten called a name. The person whose name was called said, "Here I am". After our fire drill we had our wacky Wednesday song and then we had center time. We got to choose a different center than last week. After centers we went outside and played on the playground. Since the tire swing was broken, we tried the monkey bars, the swings, the slide, climbing, and running. When we came in we learned what God created on day three. During snack we listened to a book that told about the kinds of plants that make food for us. Some food grows above the ground; some grow under the ground; some grow on trees or bushes. After our own book time, we did our project adding land, water, and plants to our fingerpainted sky from last time. After choice time, we talked about our field trip.

September 4, 2015
A fabulous Friday in 4K. Today Liam was our bell person and chose the ringing clock for our bell sound. He was also our line leader for the day. After our morning prayer, we looked at our schedule and got our jobs for the day. Levi counted the numbers with the wrench wand. We also added numbers for the days we will not be here and noticed the pattern of colored apples on our calendar. We sang our ABC song and then looked at some of the parts of a book. We reread our story from Wednesday, and this time we supplied the rhyming word for Mrs. Otten. After our drink break, we did our brain gym and then sang a song. We learned that God made the sky on day two and we added the sky verse to our song. In gym we learned about where we do our warm up song and then we did the song and warmed up our muscles. Then we talked about the safe ways to move in the gym. We learned about moving in a circle, moving across the gym, and moving around the edges of the gym. We tried a lot of different movements. After a drink, we got our backpacks and did our show and tell. We had two things that made light and three things that were shiny. Our snack helper was Aly and our snack was applesauce today. After snack we made a sky picture with fingerpaint...can you guess what color hands we had? We had a time of looking at books and then we had choice time.

FIRST DAY OF 4K: September 2, 2015
Where was this summer weather in July??? Thankfully our room was just a tad bit cooler than outdoors, so we survived the warm start to our school year. We met our new friend, Levi, today. This year we have 3 boys and 2 girls so far, so we should get a lot of individual attention and will probably become like a little family. We started our day with some table time as well as getting our first day photograph taken and getting measured and weighed. When we went to circle time, we started with our prayer song and reviewed our routines. We got our jobs for the day and listened to the different sounds in the big bell. Veyda chose the space ship sound for our bell today. Liam used the rocket wand to count the calendar numbers and point to the ABC's as we sang our ABC song. We talked about the letters making sounds and we made some silly rhymes for our names by changing the first sound in our names. We read a book and talked about how some of the things in the book were also in our school. After a drink break, we did some "brain gym" and our wacky Wednesday song. Then we learned about doing centers and had our center time. Liam and Veyda chose to draw; Aly chose a dice game; and Huxley and Levi chose a sorting activity. After we shared what we did in centers we had our outdoor time. When we came in we left the room dark so we could talk about God creating the light. We sang a couple verses to //He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.// After Bible time, we used the bathroom and had snack. Huxley was the snack helper and we ate the yogurt tubes that he brought. After snack we practiced using glue dots for our project. Then it was choice time. Here are a few pictures of our first choice time: