2013-14+4K+What+Happened+Today?

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 28, 2014
Weather was not quite as nice as last week Wednesday, but we still were able to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. We had table time and circle time. We got to suggest favorite songs that we wanted to sing. We had a story about the prickly porcupine and talked about a Bible verse that teaches us that we have to treat others how we want to be treated and not be "prickly" like the porcupine. We did our wacky Wednesday song: //The Freeze!// Then we talked through our plays and looked at our props. We had our outdoor time and snack and then got our costumes on so we could have a dress rehearsal (we invited the 5K students to see our dress rehearsal so we could practice with an audience). It was fun to have all our costumes on. Then it was our LAST choice time. We enjoyed dressing up and having picnics and playing ice cream store and playing with the cars. We finished our day reviewing Psalm 100.

May 21, 2014
Wordless Wednesday!

May 19, 2014
We had a little extra table time today as we were playing some new games. We started our day sharing exciting news (lost tooth, found insect skin, dance recital medal) and then we did our morning routines. We sang //Stand On the Rock// and then had a story about the amazing singing ability of humpback whales. We talked about how God loves to hear us sing, as well and we reviewed Psalm 100 which tells us to shout and sing to the Lord. We sang a song called //Make A Joyful Noise.// After our drink break and monkey position, we sang our ABC song with letters in the right order and with letters mixed up. We then reviewed how to make each of our letters. We had a time of outdoor play and then we had snack. During snack we heard one of our favorite stories that was performed by the John Michael Kohler Readers' Theatre group: //What Was I Scared Of?// It was about those "pale green pants with no one inside them"! After snack, we went through our plays and then had choice time.

May 16, 2014
Well, the 4K kids whose favorite time of the day is "outdoor time" had a great day. The 4K kids whose favorite time of the day is "choice time" had a sad day! Mrs. Otten is just trying to get in too much good stuff before the end of the year! Today we started with writing our 9s. They were not as hard as the 8s, but still presented a challenge to make them the Handwriting Without Tears way (and there were no tears, so that is a good thing!) When we got our jobs, we again tried to figure out the next number for teens. About half of us already have it and the rest will get it in kindergarten! We had a story about how our lives change when we follow Jesus and our story compared it to a chameleon getting a new skin. After thinking about some "old skins" and "new skins" we looked at another old skin: a skin that was shed by a snake. Lincoln also showed us a type of "old skin": the empty shells of robin eggs. Then it was time for outdoors! We first practiced our fire drill. Instead of being inside in the gym, we got our exercise at walking and running to Vollrath Park and playing on the equipment there. When we came back, we practiced our play parts. During snack, we listened to and looked at Kevin Luthardt's newest book! For our project today we drew him a picture to send with the letter that we are writing to him (which is why we had so little choice time). We were excited to show our show and tell, which is another one of our favorite times of the day!

May 14, 2014
Today we began with learning to write that **tricky** numeral 8! First of all we had to remember how to make letter s and then we had to curve around and back to the beginning. //We// think two circles is easier, but Mrs. Otten said that it will be faster to make the 8 the right way when we do lots of numbers when we get bigger. After our table time, we started our day with our circle time. We sang //All in All// and //Shout Hosanna.// Maybe we will remember our signs for //All in All// and be able to teach our B-1 groups next year! Our Bible story was a story of the rest of the life of Paul and how God saved him and everyone that was on the boat after the shipwreck. We also learned how Paul wrote many letters and we can read them today! We finished learning verse 5 of Psalm 100 and will continue to practice reciting it. After our wacky Wednesday song (//Couch Potato Pokey)// we practiced one of our plays, took a break for outdoor time, practiced two more plays, took a break for snack, and practiced our last play. Finally we had choice time and project time.

May 12, 2014
We did have our friends, Abigail and Paulo, back in school! We started our day writing our numeral 7 and having table time. Most of us chose to play a game with a teacher or a friend. When our day started, we did our schedule and calendar and sang //All in All.// We learned a new part of Psalm 100 and have only one verse left to learn. Our Bible story was another story of Paul and how God kept him safe. He escaped the city in an amazing way! After our monkey Monday position, we read the first and second books by Kevin Luthardt. Again, we enjoyed his stories, with most of the text being sounds. We then took time to write down what was our favorite book so we could send it to him in a letter. We also had the opportunity to check out his website on the smart board in the second grade room. We learned about what he was like growing up and we looked at some of the murals he has made in schools and other places.(link to website is on our wiki!) We had snack and heard another story that the illustrator made a hole in the pages. We had a short choice time and then we started practicing for our plays.

May 9, 2014
Oh no! This is NOT the direction we want to take so near the end of the year! Our absence number was doubled! We hope to see you back on Monday, Abigail and Paulo! Today we had Mrs. Tislau helping us because Mrs. Kiel was leaving for a wedding in Michigan. We had the Bible story of Paul's escape in the night on horseback. We practiced the part of Psalm 100 we know so far. For gym, we had stations and did the balance beam, the hula hoop, the scooters, bounce and catch, throwing, soccer ball dribbling and kicking, animal walks and hand stands at the wall. We kept very busy and then we all helped clean up the gym and carry our equipment back to our room! We were excited to read two more books by Kevin Luthardt. We learned a little about how he came up with his ideas for his books and about his family. We added our own author page to our books and told a little about ourselves as well. Faith brought fruit kabobs for snack, and we enjoyed another book with a hole in the back cover! After snack we had choice time and were weighed and measured. Luke's grandma from Montana visited our classroom for a while since she missed Grandparents' Day. We had show and tell and talked about what we like to do with our dads (ride bikes, play games, play soccer or catch, find rocks and play princess, and plant trees). We talked about next week and then we were dismissed //on time!//

May 7, 2014
Well, all good things come to an end! We were sorry that Paulo was sick today, ending a nice couple weeks of having everyone in school! We hope to see him on Friday! Today we worked on our Psalm 100 again. Oh no! Mrs. Otten forgot a part and we had to learn two parts today! After singing and saying our Psalm, we had the story of Paul and Silas and more changed lives. Our wacky Wednesday song was the "Cool" Bear Hunt. We read two more books that had sounds as part of the text. //The Red Sled// was only sounds We did centers and then had snack. After snack, we were able to get on the wood chips to play, but could not use the tire swing because of a huge puddle underneath it. When we came back in, we learned about our other two plays and then had choice time.

May 5, 2014
Many exciting things happened in 4K today: some were planned, and some were not! We were excited to hear about Naomi's birthday. Isabel also shared about her sisters' birthday. We did our morning routines and were able to sing //All in All// with a cd. We reviewed our stories of how Jesus changes hearts and sang our song about Zaccheus. We had a story book that told us the story of Saul/Paul as if he were saying the words. We practiced the verses of Psalm 100 that we are learning. Our monkey position was fun; we got to do it laying down and standing up! Next, we looked at some stories that had sounds as part of the text of the story. We thought about places that we hear sound and the kinds of sounds we hear. In centers, some of us made a book with sounds as the text. We illustrated our books and thought of a title and a dedication, as well. The other centers were a coloring and writing center. After centers we went outside and then came in and enjoyed Paulo's "Cinco De Mayo" snack. We heard another story about sound that was written by Mo Willems. We did not find his picture in the book, but we looked at the story about hats and learned about that author/illustrator. After snack, we had a suitcase surprise, which was parts of the costumes for our plays. We talked only a little about the plays so that we could have some choice time. Most of these activities were planned. The author study was in response to a question that Naomi posed. During choice time we had another **//very unplanned//** occurrence: the discovery of a dead mouse in our bean bucket! It was interesting, and sad, and quite a mystery. Did it come from Mrs. Otten's basement where she keeps the plastic flowers? Why did it die? Such a mystery! Sydney thought she might make a book about it. (Mrs. Otten will be burying it in her yard).

May 2, 2014
A happy day for Naomi! We were able to celebrate her //real// birthday. Her crown was her favorite color: green! We looked at our May calendar and noticed some NO SCHOOL days, Mother's Day, a 3K birthday, our last day in 3K, our last day in 4K, and our field trip to Bookworm Gardens (big cheer!) We learned the second verse and signs for //All in All// and will be singing it with music next week. We had two story books that demonstrated one of our Bible verses: //Do to others as you would have them do to you.// After talking about the books and how they made us feel, we had gym. In gym we played four games: Stone Teacher; Ship to Shore; Pepperoni Pizza, and Cut the Cake. We did a lot of running today! When we came back to our room we heard a fun story with a surprise at the end called, //Again!// Then we got with a partner or two and we read our pumpkin stories to each other. We all had the same pictures in our story, but we each had our own words. It was fun to read our stories and it was fun to listen to the stories that others wrote. Some of us "forgot" some of our words, but that's okay! We would just think of new words to say! During Naomi's birthday snack, we listened to //Again!// **AGAIN** and we saw a story called //Circle of Friends// that was like our //Love Grows// song. Our suitcase surprise was a tape of Miss Mary Mack. After choice time, we had show and tell. We like to play games, vacuum, play, bake, snuggle, do bead crafts, play Mario Cart, and look at president cards with our moms. I wonder what we will like to do with our dads?

April 30, 2014
Last day of April! YIKES! We were glad that we were all in school today. Our day began with a little discussion about "strangers". We talked about the difference between someone who is a stranger to you, but who knows your grown-up when you are together with your grown-up and someone who is a stranger to you and approaches you when your grown-up is NOT around. We talked about needing to say NO to that person and running to your house or grown-up. We also talked very briefly that we also need to talk to our grown-ups if someone (another child or an adult) ever touches us or makes us feel uncomfortable. We addressed these issues just because there was some talk at table time amongst the children about "bad people". (I think there was a recent alleged child abduction attempt in Plymouth that was reported in the news and some families may have been talking at home). After a time of prayer to begin our day and to remind ourselves that God is watching over us, we started our day with our routines and some songs. We had the Bible story of Philip witnessing and baptizing the man in the desert. We did our wacky Wednesday song, which was a clapping chant (//Miss Mary Mack)// We tried to get the clapping pattern, but it was quite tricky. It was fun to try! We did our centers and then enjoyed some time outdoors. Many of us took off our coats, only to put them back on in a few minutes. It was not as warm as we thought! Sydney brought one of our favorite snacks: yogurt covered raisins and juice boxes! We heard the story, //Are You My Mother?// We did a tornado "duck and cover" practice and then had a short choice time. There were some tornado scenarios being acted out, buildings made, and calendars created. At the end of the day we talked about show and tell.YES, THERE IS SHOW AND TELL! The sign in the hallway said "NONE", but show and tell is "Something you like to do with mom".

April 28, 2014
Abigail was back from her trip! Hooray! Faith was out sick. BooHoo! Today we had letters by our name tags and had to name the letter, give its sound, and think of a word that started with that sound. We are doing so well with our letters and sounds. Today our Bible story was about Jesus returning to heaven. We also talked about how we have his words in the Bible and that doing what the Bible says keeps us strong. We sand //Stand on the Rock// to remember to obey God's word. After our drink break, we had a story and then learned about what we would be doing in centers. We made numerals 1,2, and 3, with our letter pieces. During snack we listened to a book that was two books in one: //What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best.// After snack we got ready for outdoor play and just when we got outside, it started to rain. So we came back in and had our suitcase surprise. SURPISE! It was a different suitcase! In the suitcase were two books about tornados and we learned how to stay safe in a tornado. We practiced doing "duck and cover:". Then we had extra indoor choice time.

April 25, 2014 GRANDPARENTS' DAY!!


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April 23, 2014
Wow! I just realized that we were apart for a whole week! It was nice to be together again, although we were missing Abigail, who is visiting out-of-town grandparents. Today we found a numeral with our name tag. We used it with another numeral to make a two-digit number. Most of us could name our number without any help! That is some good learning! When we began our day, we switched the order of the digits and said our new number (except for Kyra and Isabel whose number did not change! Can you guess why?) After doing our calendar counting with Lincoln, we talked about practicing for Grandparents' Day and we also changed the words to one of our songs so we could make a song to sing to the "office gals" for their special day today. We went to the gym to practice, but there were band lessons in the gym, so we just did our song for the secretaries. We went back to our room and emptied the coins from our banks and took turns lifting the heavy bag. Then we had the story of Zaccheus and how meeting Jesus changed his heart. After our drink and wacky Wednesday (see question of the day), we had a story about grandparents and then made a book page for a book about //our// grandparents. Then it was time to head back to the gym for practicing. We needed this practice to help us realize that we need to talk **LOUDLY** and **S-L-O-W-L-Y** for our grandparents. We also had to practice standing safely on the risers. We came back to our room for snack and the story //It's Too Noisy,// which was similar to the story we heard performed by the JMKAC Reader's Theatre troupe last month. We enjoyed some refreshing outdoor time. We looked at and talked about the story in another wordless picture book and then, during choice time, we started dictating the words to a book we made in centers. At the end of the day we reviewed our schedule for next time.

April 16, 2014 PAJAMA DAY!
I think this is one of our favorite days of the year! I am glad that everyone was in school to enjoy it! We came into a darker room with soft music playing. We had a short table time and then began our "night" with our bedtime prayer and resting. We finished the story of Good Friday and Easter and sang both verses of //Shout Hosanna.// Our first story was a big book with animals and a zookeeper as the characters. Our second story also had animals, but the illustrations were photographs instead of artist drawings. We had fun with our wacky Wednesday song, acting out different kinds of shoes that were put on our feet while we slept. After our drink break, we had a story about Jack and the things he needed to make pancakes. Since the story took place a long time ago, we learned about some new words about old things like sickle, mill, flail, chaff, and butter churn. Our suitcase surprise was the ingredients for our pancakes, and we went very modern, using a mix that only needed water! We made our own chocolate chip pancakes during choice time. After choice time, we practiced again for Grandparents' Day and then had three more stories. We helped make noise with the first story. At the very end of the day, we pretended that we had fallen asleep and our grown ups had to wake us up!







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April 14, 2014 === We had a marvelous Monday! After our table time and morning routines, we practiced saying our poem for Grandparents' Day. We read a book about Grandpas and Grandmas and noticed the similarities and differences in the stories. We thought of verses for a song we will sing to our grandparents, as well. After our drink break, brain gym, and monkey Monday, we did our letter of the week activities....for the last time! We have reached the end of the alphabet and were able to attach a zipper to our letter page. Since it was wet and windy outside, we did an activity inside with our big line wood letter pieces. We heard a story about new old shoes. After snack we had our Bible story of the way that Peter said that he did not know Jesus. During our project and choice time, we made a gift for our grandparents and did our letter page. At the end of the day, we talked about next time: jammie day! We are soooo super excited about it!

April 11, 2014
A fun and fabulous Friday! We matched our upper and lower case letters for attendance. We had a "new student" today, as Naomi came in dressed in an "Elsa" cape and had to make an Elsa nametag. After prayer time, we got to make new numbers by choosing two numerals and combining them. We even switched Lincoln's numerals and made two different numbers. We got to sing our //Shout Hosanna// song with some music and we heard the part of the story when the disciples promised to say by Jesus, but then fell asleep while he prayed and ran away when he was arrested. Since we could not use our gym we got our exercise walking to Vollrath Park and playing there. It was so much fun (but Mrs. Otten forgot the camera so you will just have to ask us what we did). When we came back, we had a story that was about sharing cookies called //The Doorbell Rang.// We talked about our new AND FINAL letter of the week: Z. Faith brought carrot cupcakes for snack and Mrs. Otten read a new book that Isabel brought to school. During choice time we added paint to our Jasper Johns projects and then we had show and tell. We talked about our special and short week next week. Mrs. Otten did take a couple pictures of project time and they can finally be uploaded again! Hooray! I will add in a couple from our dentist visit as well!

April 9, 2014
A wonderful Wednesday! Today we had a longer table time again while Mrs. Otten worked with us individually. We began our day with our routines and then practiced our Grandparents' Day poem. Our Alphabet Town story was about Jack and Jill and the /j/ things they liked and the /j/ things they did in their show. We had two new things in our box: both were drawings of people we know whose name starts with /j/. Sydney added "Josie" and Naomi added "Jennifer". Our wacky Wednesday song was //Peanut Butter and Jelly.// We did center time next and then were very excited to get outside. It was so nice that most of us took off our jackets. When we came in we had a snack brought by Abigail and we heard the book //How Rocket Learned to Read.// We could even listen to the sounds he made and think of the words he made by putting the sounds together. After snack, we had our Bible story of the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples. We had a very, very, very, short choice time (but we are getting very grown up about enjoying and accepting our short times and not getting upset when the bell rings. -

April 7, 2014
Another day of having everyone at school! We did a lot of things today, including playing outside, which we love! After a little longer table time, we began our day with prayer, our schedule, and our jobs. We were introduced to the poem we will say for Grandparents' Day and will begin working on our parts next time (I will also send a copy home so you can practice with them at home). We did our letter of the week activities for J. After our drink break, some jumping jacks and our monkey position, we learned about our new centers and did center time. We enjoyed the wonderful spring weather and played outside for a short time. We came in for snack and then had a Bible story about the first day of the last week of Jesus' life on earth. We learned part of a song called //Shout Hosanna.// We had a short choice time and then finished our day.

April 4, 2014
We were happy to have all our friends here today! We began our day with prayer and then looked at our schedule and put sounds together. We sang //The Wa-Wa Song//, and then had our Bible story about manna. (Mrs. Otten forgot all about the calendar!) I was an amazing way God provided this food for his people. After Bible we had gym. We warmed up with a lot of wiggling and then we had stations in the gym. After cleaning up our equipment, we went back to our room for our calendar and then a story about Wemberley. We learned that our new letter of the week is J and we sang a song about our Savior and Friend: J-E-S-U-S! We enjoyed Naomi's snack and heard Faith's book called //Waddles.// You will never guess what kind of animal Waddles was! Just try to guess! After snack we had a short choice and project time and we all added details and cool water colors around our warm color frog. We enjoyed showing and telling about our things made of wood for show and tell. We had some very interesting things to show.

April 2, 2014
Oh no! Two friends were sick today! We prayed for them and hope to see Abigail and Faith back on Friday. We looked at our new calendar for April and noticed some specials days (Good Friday, Easter, Jammie Days, and Grandparents Days) Lincoln counted the numbers very quickly and we try to clap and count as fast as he pointed at the numbers. We had our Alphabet Town story about a walrus who had a wonderful Wednesday. After our drink break, we did our wacky Wednesday song and did a lot of wibbling and wobbling! After centers we had our snack and listened to the story //Wacky Wednesday//, looking for wacky things in the illustrations. We enjoyed getting outside for a short time. Our Bible story was about the miracle Jesus did with a lunch of 5 little loaves of bread and 2 little fish. We got to eat 5 little pieces of the bread and 2 little pieces of the (candy) fish. Choice time! At the end of the day we had a suitcase surprise: another new toothbrush! We talked about show and tell and Sydney had to correct Mrs. Otten who confused the 4K show and tell with the 3K show and tell! Our 4K show and tell is something made of wood!

March 31. 2014
Too much vacation for Mrs. Otten! Forgot all about the wiki today! We all came back from our spring break with excitement from the fun we had and the new things we got during break. We had to count all the way to 31 for our calendar today. We sang a new song called //The Wa-Wa Song// and learned a song with our Bible words, as well (//When I am afraid I will trust in God).// We did our letter of the week activities, our monkey Monday position and our centers. After trying to put our snack crackers together in words, we ate them while listening to a story about a boy who wanted to learn to whistle. We have waited a long time, but finally it was time for outdoor play without snow pants! We had to watch out for puddles, however. We came in for indoor choice time. We are saving our Bible story for next time.

March 19, 2014
Everyone in school today! We had a short table time and did our morning routines, and then we had our Bible story in the first grade room because our visitor from Dr. George's dentist office needed to set up in our room. Our Bible story was about the prophet Elisha and how God provided for him through the man and woman from Shunem. Then God provided for the man and woman and blessed them with a son. When we got back to our room, the 5K students joined us and we learned all about our teeth and how to take care of them. Ms. Janis had some songs that she taught us so that we could remember how to take care of our teeth. //(I brush my teeth,; I brush my teeth; Morning and at night. I brush my teeth; I brush my teeth to keep my smile bright)// We had our snack and watched a movie about a wiggly tooth. After snack and book time, we read B//obo's Dream// again, this time with the words that we thought of for the story. We also wrote a thank you note to Ms. Janis. We did not have a project today, but Mrs. Otten met with some of us to talk about what we have learned about words. At the end of the day we talked about spring and what was going to happen next time.

March 17, 2014
We were missing Paulo (sick) and Mrs. Kiel (sick child). We reviewed our counting by 5's and then did our morning routines. We sang our "friend" songs. Our Bible story was about Eli**sha** becoming the prophet after Eli**jah.** We had a partner monkey Monday position and then looked at a big storybook that only had pictures. We had to figure out what was happening on each page. The name of the book was //Bobo's Dream.// Isabel brought a special snack for St. Patrick's day: a rainbow of fruit and a pot of gold (Rolo candy) at the end! After our own book reading time, we again looked //Bobo's Dream// and wrote our own words for the story. We talked about project and then we had project and choice time.

March 14, 2014
Today we had to figure out where to put our "five" number and we reviewed counting by 5's. We did the //Exercise and Count by 5's// for our gym warm up as well. We had the rest of the Bible story of Elijah and learned how God showed that he was the true God. In gym we showed what we can do with balls: throwing, catching, bouncing, and tossing. We even tried dribbling! After gym we heard some nursery rhymes and then sang a song with nursery rhymes and the ABC's. We enjoyed Naomi's snack. We were guessing what it was, but no one guessed that they were acorns! After snack and book time, we found out that the Friday fun project was making something with magic noodles. At the end of the day, we really enjoyed showing the things we brought that had numbers on them.

March 12, 2014
Another day with all our friends together! Today we did a little work with numbers. We are starting to learn about counting by 10's and 5's. Our wacky Wednesday song added fun exercises to our counting by 5's. Our suitcase surprise was a bag of 20 nickels that we counted and learned that 20 nickels makes a dollar. We also learned a fun fast song called //HaLaLaLa (Shake a Friend's Hand)// Kyra said that she knew the song from cubbies. We also tried "talking like robots" and breaking a word into its three sounds, After centers, we had a tasty snack from Faith and heard a story with the same "big idea" as the story we heard last time. Both stories had characters that wanted to be something else, but ended up being happiest to just be themselves. After snack we had our Bible story and found out how God provided for Elijah during the time of no rain. Then we had a special treat: Abigail finished her book, //Kitty the First,// and read it to us! We were running out of time, so we decided to just have indoor choice time. It's a good thing we did that, as the wind chill was below zero by this point of the day. During our choice time today we had friends making cloud dough, fairy wings, and playing princess. We had a quick end to the day and reminded ourselves of show and tell for next time.

March 10, 2014
We had a busy day in preparation for our program tomorrow. With our practice time in church, we only had a short, short choice time. Next time we hope to have both indoor choice time and some outdoor time. Today we did our letter of the week activities and added many words to our list. We were introduced to our new sign language and Bible words. We did centers. During snack we heard a story called //Noodle//. After snack we had a Bible story about Elijah and how God provided for him when there was a time of no rain. We practiced our songs at church and used our BIG voices! We saw again where we will meet before the program and some of us started remembering and singing the songs from our Christmas program! We had fun running back to school in the spring-like weather and then we had our short choice time.

March 5, 2014
Oh no! Naomi was out sick today :( but our friend, Faith, returned! Today we put together our own consonant-vowel-consonant combination, sounded it out, and decided if we made a word. We did not make many words...only cab and mat. Today we practiced our program songs, and we really, truly had to use our BIG voices, because Mrs. Otten had very, very little voice. Mrs. Kiel was able to read our Alphabet Town story about an umpire who could not find his uniform and was looking for it while wearing his long underwear. How silly! Our wacky Wednesday song was like our //Apples and Bananas// song, but this time it was about eating pepperoni pizza. After centers we had snack and were glad that Isabel had brought emergency snacks because no one had signed up for today. Isabel was glad, as well, because she was able to pass out the snack and lead the prayer. During snack we watched a cup stacking dvd and saw some cool stacking tricks and some fast stackers. We finished the story of Jonah and learned how God gave him a second chance. After our indoor choice time, we were able to go outside for a short time and enjoy the snow.

March 3, 2014
We were happy to hear that Faith was back from Florida, but sad that she was sick today. We hope to see her on Wednesday! Today we looked at the new calendar and the special days that are coming in our new month of March. We sang our program songs (in BIG voices, with a reminder!) with Mrs. Hendrikse playing for us. We did our letter of the week and sang a silly name for our cow. We did a monkey Monday position with a friend. We did our new centers. We are making a new decoration for our room; counting things in our room and making a graph; putting an umbrella and a United States flag on our letter page; and decorating coin banks for collecting coins for the children in Uganda. During snack we had a story of a girl living in Uganda and how she earned money with her goat so that she could go to school. We are so blessed to have our wonderful school and so many other special things! We are blessed so we can be a blessing to others. After snack we had the beginning of the story of Jonah and then we had choice time.

February 28, 2014
Well, we are turning the calendar after today. I wonder if the weather will finally "turn" as well. Today we talked about all the things we cannot wait to do outside when it finally gets to be spring! (Discussion was precipitated by listening to our long U sound for our letter next week and seeing pictures comparing a unicycle, bicycle, and tricycle.) For our job calendar today, we put together three sounds (/t/, /a/, and one other consonant) and decided if the sounds together made a word. After singing our friend songs, we had a Bible story that was a story that Jesus told so we would know who to treat as a neighbor (or friend). After our Bible time, we had gym. We warmed up with a song that had us moving different ways to different sounds. Then we had to remember what sound went with which movement. Then it was STATION TIME! We did many fun things that challenged our balance, strength, and hand-eye coordination. After learning our new letter of the week, we had snack brought by Kyra and listened to a story called //Lissy's Friends.// We read with a friend after snack and then we saw that our Friday fun project was drawing with a friend on special paper that made a copy of what we drew (so each friend had a copy of the drawing they did together!). After choice time, we showed the things that we like to do with a friend.

February 26, 2014
Today we had three girls and three boys! We hope to see Sydney and Kyra on Friday and are eager to Faith to be back from her vacation. Maybe she can bring some warm weather back with her.....Today we compared the number of vowels in our names to the number of consonants to see which was more. Two friends had a "tie". Paulo and Naomi had the same pattern in their names: consonant, vowel. vowel, consonant, vowel. Isabel's name had a pattern of vowel-consonant and Luke's name had a pattern of consonant-vowel. We used the magnet letters to put together some consonant-vowel-consonant combinations and we sounded them out to see if the combination made a word or not. We sang our friend songs and then did our alphabet town book. Someone ate ape's apple pie while she was asleep! Was it the actress? the acrobat? the artist? Nope! it was someone with a lot of friends! Guess who? We sang our wacky Wednesday song with the long vowel sounds: //Apples and Bananas!// We had center time and are getting very speedy with our cup up stacking and down stacking! During snack we heard a story of two friends: Elephant and Piggie. After snack we read books with a friend. We reviewed our Bible story from last time and then we took time to say "thank you" by writing a letter to the J.M.K.A.C. Readers' Theater. During choice time some of us added our names and pictures to the letter. The rest of us will do that next time. We talked about our show and tell theme and then finished our day.

February 24, 2014
Another day of only 7 friends! Today we counted the number of vowels in our names for our attendance. After jobs and calendar, we did our letter of the week activities. We learned to make letter A in sign language and learned sign language for our verse //A friend loves at all times.// We sang two songs about friends and then did our letter box things. We had the story of short a and LONG A playing a game. Short a won the game and found more things with his sound in it. For centers we did our letter page, adding a sticker for short a (apple) and long a (angel); we had to hide toys in boxes; we practiced our cup stacking, and we made an origami angel and an origami animal (butterfly).After centers we had our snack and heard about the life of George Washington. After snack and book time, we had the Bible story of the healing of the ten lepers. Then we enjoyed choice time.

February 21, 2014
With Faith in Florida and Naomi out sick, we only had 7 friends in school today. We had a little bit of a different schedule because the big kids were having a pep rally in the gym during our usual gym time. We also did our letter page today since we did not have centers this week. Our hello song was a little bit different, too, as we greeted each other with the Japanese good morning. We counted our calendar numbers forward and backwards. We talked about being the "light of the world" and telling people that they need to believe in Jesus. We re-read the book //Yo! Yes?// (Mrs. Otten read one character's parts and we read the other character's parts) We did our letter page, our names, played an alphabet matching game and read books. In gym we did our snow song for the warm up and then had 5 stations to practice our overhand throwing: we tried to knock down a tower; we threw across the gym; we tried to throw at the basketball hoop; we threw at a dinosaur target; and we threw balls over a mat "fence". Abigail brought our snack of goldfish crackers and cereal bar and we heard a story about Abraham Lincoln as a boy. During snack a special visitor knocked on our door. After snack we sang a song about vowels and learned that our letter of the week next week is letter A, which is one of the vowels. We had choice time, but no project. We enjoyed showing our souvenirs for show and tell.



February 19, 2014
Hooray! We were all in school today! Next time and next week Faith will be in Florida. We prayed for a safe and fun trip for her. Today we matched beginning sounds for our attendance. We also keep practicing putting three sound together to make words. We are good at listening to sounds! We had a Bible story about a woman who was healed by //just touching// Jesus' robe! After Mrs. Otten told the story, we read it in a children's Bible. (Many of us shared how we have children's Bibles at home and love to read the stories!) We practiced our program songs with Mrs. Hendrikse and then took our drink break. After that it was time for WACKY WEDNESDAY! We sang //Tooty-Ta// but changed the beginning sound to our letter sound for the week: /y/ and it became **Yooty-Ya.** It was so silly! We started looking at the cover of a story and then our guests came: readers from John Michael Kohler Arts Center. They read fun stories and poems in very expressive voices. When they left, we talked about what stories we remembered. During snack we talked more about what we learned about Japan on Monday and then we had some book reading time. We finished the book we had started earlier and had to figure out what was happening in the story because there was only a word or two on each page. We had some indoor choice time and then we finished our day and got ready to go outside to play on the snow hill. We are getting very proficient at changing and packing up! It was nice and sunny and fun on the hill!

February 17, 2014
Paulo and Lincoln missed our special country visit day. We are sad for them, but we will talk about it next time so they can learn about Japan, too. Today we practiced our program songs with Mrs. Hendrikse. We had a good first practice and will continue to work of singing with big voices and remembering the words and signs for our songs. For our monkey Monday position, we started out like letter Y and then added a tricky balance. We learned our Y sign language and verse and then read //Yola's Y Book// and added things to our letter box and word list. After getting a drink, we learned about George Washington, our first president. We had some book reading time and then we went to JAPAN! We met Miku, who lives with Mrs. Otten and is from Japan. We made a fan, ate sticky rice with chopsticks and "sushi" and drank barley tea, made a samuri helmet or doll (for boys' day or girls' day), colored a kimono while Miku wrote our names in Japanese characters, and we did some sumo wrestling! It was busy, fast, and fun!

February 14, 2014
Happy (belated) Valentines Day! Today we did our parts (syllable) clap for our attendance. The hardest ones to clap are those one part words! We always want to make them two part words (of course, in Sheboygan-ese, the word "boat" does become a two syllable word!) We practiced our program songs acapella in preparation for practice with Mrs. Hendrikse and the keyboard next week. We played a listening game and then read a book with sounds. We had the story of Jesus healing the man who could not hear. For gym we warmed up with our song about Peter and John healing the lame man so that we would have lots of room to walk and leap and praise God. Then we did animal position balances and locomotor movements across the gym. When we came back from gym, we found out our new letter of the week. Mrs. Kiel read our story while Mrs. Otten brought "Sharlene" to our room. Then Mrs. Otten left and Mrs. Tislau help us with the rest of our day.

February 12, 2014
Today we talked about three birthdays. We celebrated with Sydney, who turned 5 today. She shared a

with Mrs.Otten's son, who turned 26. We also learned about our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, who

also had a birthday on February 12. We read an informational book about Abraham Lincoln and we got t

take home a penny that has his picture on it. Since we are doing letter X for our letter of the week, we did

the wacky Wednesday song, //Make the Shape of an X,// and we got to make all sorts of silly shapes with our

bodies. We read another book about the bones in our skeleton and we talked about the different kinds of

joints that we have. We did our centers and then had Sydney's birthday snack. Of course it was decorated

with her favorite animal: a jelly fish! After snack we had to feel a marker that we could not see (it was in a

sock). We talked about not being able to see and then had our Bible story of Jesus healing the blind man

We had choice time and then finished our day with reminders about show and tell and valentines,


 * OKAY! SORRY ABOUT THE CRAZY FORMAT! I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIX IT!**

February 10, 2014
Yes, we had school today; Mrs. Otten is just late with the update! It was a **GREAT DAY** because we were all together in school It seems like a long time since that has happened. Today we reviewed rhyming words for our attendance. We found out about Sydney's trip to the Dells. We did our morning routines and then compared our snowman glyphs. It was very interesting! There were no ways that we were all alike! Each bar on our graph was a different number! We did our letter activities and found it strange that our sign language for X was made with one finger like a hook. We thought it should be two fingers that make an X. Our suitcase surprise was some real X-rays that we looked at and identified the body part that made the X-ray. We learned three things that our bones do for us. After our drink break we did centers. We used special paint to make a print that looks like an X-ray! (I'll post a picture next time). After snacks from Lincoln (we all loved our yogurt!) we reviewed our Bible story from last time. Then we had a nice time of choice time.

February 7, 2014
Mrs. Otten gone! Tell me what happened: answer the question of the day!

February 5, 2014
Lincoln back :) Paulo sick :( After our table time of playing counting and matching games,"sewing", puzzles, and drawing we did our morning routines. When we saw our name for the helper hand, we listened to two sounds and then put them together to make a word. Lincoln picked the heart wand to count our heart calendar numbers. Luke noticed the pattern for our hearts: pink, red, red, pink, red, red. We sang our program songs. Most of us know all the words and the signs for our songs. Soon we will practice with Mrs. Hendrikse. We read our Alphabet Town story with Victor the vet and then passed around our cow, singing Vandy Vae Voo. Center time was next and we had two new centers. We learned about tally marks and used them to show how many balls we threw in our buckets. We sorted beads and made a bar graph and compared our graphs. We made our valentine bags and did our letter of the week page. Luke brought snack for us and we listened to the story //Sweet Hearts// during snack. After snack we had another story of a lame man who was healed by Jesus. We only had indoor choice time today because the wind chill was below zero. At the end of the day, we found out that Sydney would be gone on Friday for a family vacation and that Mrs. Otten would be gone learning about reading and writing. Mrs. Kiel will be our teacher and Mrs. DeRoos will be her helper. It will be a fun day!

February 3, 2014
Today we only had one student absent. Hopefully we will be altogether soon! We missed you, Lincoln! Today we looked at our graph for "did the groundhog see his shadow?" Most of us had sunshine start the day yesterday and put YES. One person woke to a cloudy day and put NO. But we know that the groundhog doesn't //really// know when it will be spring. After looking at the special events on our February calendar and counting the numbers with Naomi, we sang our program songs. We did our letter of the week activities and then matched upper and lower case letters for lining up for our drink break. Our monkey Monday position was a sideways V with our legs making the sideways V when we layed on the ground. We did our centers and then had snack. After snack we had another story of healing. This story was of Jesus healing the lame man. Jesus forgave his sins //and// healed his legs so he could walk and jump and dance. Finally it was our favorite time of the day: choice time! We hope to get outdoors on Wednesday.

January 29, 2014
Welcome back to Faith and Lincoln and prayers for speedy recovery for Paulo and Naomi. Today we did our morning routines and then our letter of the week activities. We had some new things in our letter box and had an Alphabet Town story of a squirrel and her sister going to the seashore. We saw many things in the book that we hope to see on our upcoming beach day. We did our center activities and then ate the cupcakes that Kyra brought (she did the sprinkles!) We had a story at snack called //Stone Soup//. After snack we talked about the story and our Bible words: //Share with others.// We talked about ways to share and not be selfish. We had choice time indoors because it was too cold to go outside. At the end of the day, we had a story of Sam, Pam, Will, and Jill and their beach day (which ended up being a beach //**night**//).

January 27, 2014

 * BRRRRR! ** Yet again we are very thankful for our warm room and the chance to have school today. Faith and Lincoln were not at school, but we prayed for them. We did our morning routines and then had our letter of the week activities. We learned s in sign language, talked about its sounds, learned the sign language for our Bible words, read the s sound box book, sang about Sandy Sae Soo and Shandy Shae Shoo, and wrote down the words for the things that were in our letter box. After our drink break and monkey Monday position, we learned about our new centers and had center time. Paulo brought our snack. We had the story //Six Snowy Sheep// during snack. After snack we had the Bible story of Captain Naaman and his skin disease and how God healed him. We had indoor choice time. After clean up, we talked about the words bandana and kerchief (a word in our K book last week).

January 22, 2012
BRRR! Another blast of winter air prevents us from getting outdoor time. Unfortunately, it looks like the blast is going to be with us next week as well. **//Good thing we are heading to the beach next Friday!//** Today we celebrated Luke's birthday with him. He treated us with our snack bags and he shared his rock collection with us and we each got to take home a special rock! We practiced one of the spring program songs and then did our letter of the week activities. Isabel got to find the K house in Alphabet Town. We had a story about a kangaroo that had a day when everything seemed to go wrong until the end. In the end she was able to show kindness and help a mama goat. Our wacky Wednesday song gave us exercise //**and**// we counted all the way to **100**. We had center time. Look for a new gallery of paintings in the hall. We looked at and talked about the art of Paul Klee and made paintings in his style. During snack we read other books with "I See" in the title. We had our Bible story about John who was pointing people to Jesus. He baptized people in the river and even baptized Jesus. We had indoor choice time and then talked about our days off, our week next week, and got our new letter of the week and its TWO sounds.

January 20, 2014
Today for our attendance, we had to look at a picture and listen for the two little words that join to make one long word. There were pictures of a basketball, a football, a lighthouse, a jumprope, jellybeans, watermelon, a rattlesnake, a motorcycle, and a butterfly (that was funny! Did you ever see butter fly?) We practiced one of the songs for the spring program and then did our letter of the week activities. Letter K is a tricky one for our fingers for our sign language. Our Bible words are good, though: //Keep your tongue from evil.// After our monkey position we did our centers. In our art center this week we are painting in the style of Paul Klee who used geometric shapes and liked to put a sun or moon in his paintings. Isabel brought out snack and during snack we read a book with words and rebus pictures. We had indoor choice time and then we finished our day.

January 17, 2014
Yay! Paulo was back. He said that he missed school on Wednesday because of a sore throat. We were glad he felt better today. Today we made a graph for if we had pockets or not. More people had pockets than people who did not have pockets, but only 1 more. We celebrated Faith's half birthday with her. She was also our line leader. Today we said our names with the /r/ sound. We sang another new song for our spring program (and did a little dancing!) In gym we had some pretend snow balls and then we played a game with real balls and got in lots of throwing practice. Most of us are doing well with stepping with opposite foot. We will keep working on our form and try and get those arms over our heads, as well. After gym we read a book about being afraid., with the reminder that Jesus is always with us. We heard a story about a missing mitten and it had some real parts and some parts that were just the girl's imagination. We had a different story about missing mittens at snack time, and they were also red. After snack we looked at mitten pairs and we talked about how we could make a heart shape with our hands. Some of us painted our hands to make hearts. We had show and tell with our red things. We finished our day singing our good bye song with the /r/ sound and then the /k/ sound. K is our letter of the week for next week. We need some labels for our bag...a perfect excuse to buy some chocolate kisses!

January 15, 2014
Paulo was sick today, so we prayed for him. For our attendance today, we had to compare the number of females and males in our families and see which was more or if the number was the same. We had 4 families with more females; 2 with the same; and both of the boys that were in school had families with more males! We changed the first sound in our names to /w/ for our job chart. That was a wacky way to begin our Wednesday. After our calendar and song, we did our alphabet town book and reviewed our Bible words and sign language for R. Faith added two things to the box that we already had, so we added the "s" to the end of those words to show more than one. **We read more books!** Both had the words "I See" in the title. One had photographs for illustrations and one had drawings. We counted and read the words and we learned about a new way to end a sentence (an exclamation mark). We took a drink break and then did //Granny at the Fair// for our wacky Wednesday song. We had our center time and then our snack time. (Abigail brought in something RED). During snack, we looked at some art work and decided if the artist made it with a plan or if it was //random.// After snack we had a story from Psalm 139 again, reminding us that God knows everything about us and sees everything. We told about something God knows about us. We had a shorter indoor choice time. Several of us continued with the "building" theme of our red center this week. We were excited to be able to play outdoors on the snow pile! (oops, Mrs. Otten forgot to take out the camera!)



January 13, 2014
Yay! Sydney's dad was able to get her slivers out of her hand! We were all in school today and we talked about the people in our families. After our calendar, we were introduced to another new song with some sign language. We did our letter of the week activities and the we read the books we made in centers last week! (because the story was told with letters and pictures it is called a rebus story). After our monkey Monday position, we did our centers. We had a long center time and then had snack. During snack we looked at a book without words called //Changes, Changes.// After snack we went to choice time right away and several of us worked on a castle using the cardboard bricks in our room. After choice time, we had a book that illustrated the words of a song in the Bible (Psalm 139). It told us how God always sees us, is always with us, and even saw us before we were born! New snow is predicted for tomorrow, so we hope to go outside to play on Wednesday.



January 10, 2014
No Mrs. Kiel today :( She had to take Jackson to the doctor. We started our day with our morning routines and singing //Happy Birthday// to Isabel. We were going to play the flashlight game, but Mrs. Otten made us wait. We did our letter of the week, but did not add anything to our box or bag. We talked about the meaning of some new words: grin and greedy. We still did not get to do the flashlight game; we had to wait until after gym. In gym we played //stone teacher// again and then practiced our throwing with silly band hand/tape toe with bean bags. During gym "Miss Chris" from the Sonshine House came to help us since Mrs. Kiel was gone. After gym we **still** had to wait to play the flashlight game. Instead we did our centers. After centers we had our snack and heard the story //Snowballs. **Finally**// it was time to play the flashlight game. After we played, Mrs. Otten told us that the waiting was part of our Bible story! It was the story of Simeon and Anna waiting for the Messiah (Jesus) to be born. We had our choice time and then were excited to show and/or tell about our new things! At the end of the day, we found out about our new letter of the week for next week: R! At the end of the day Sydney got a sliver in her hand. She was upset and Mrs. Otten could not pull it out. We hope she gets better!

January 8, 2014
Too cold for outdoor play, but at least we were able to come to school! We were happy to see Faith back at school. Most of us played with the play dough for table time. When we started our day, we talked about what we did on our NO SCHOOL day. When our name was posted for our job today, we had to say our name beginning with a /D/ sound. How funny to make a rhyme for our name! Isabel counted our calendar numbers with the new helicopter wand. We started learning one of the songs that we will sing for the spring program because it will be in March this year. Our suitcase surprise was the books that belong in the book jackets that we had last time. We looked at the cover and the title page and we had a chance to look at the story and talk about what we noticed in the book. After our wacky Wednesday song, //Bubblegum,// we did our letter of the week. Most of our letter box items had the /g/ sound like green. We did our centers and then we were very hungry for snack! During snack, Mrs. Otten read a wacky bubblegum story called //Gubble, Bubble.// After snack we turned off the lights in the room for a game called Hiders and Finders. We had to find the person hiding by looking for the light of the flashlight. We had a Bible story about some men who did just that! They found baby Jesus by following the light of the star! We ended our day with some choice time and a reminder about Show and Tell next time.

January 3, 2014
Welcome back to a new day, a new month, a new year! We were sad that Faith was not in school today. For our attendance we had to put our card in by boy or girl. We have double the amount of girls than boys when we added Faith's card. We looked at our January calendar and are already excited about Beach Day at the end of the month. There are many birthdays this month and one NO school day. We sang one song and tried to see if the girls or the boys could sing louder...Mrs. Otten ruled it a tie! For gym we warmed up with a game called "Stone Teacher" and then we each got our own mat for stretches and strength challenges. Our last gym activity was learning how to throw using opposition. We had a **//silly band hand//** and a //**tape toe**// to help us learn stepping with opposite foot when throwing. We will have several gym classes with activities to practice. After gym our suitcase surprise was a book //**jacket.**// We looked at our book jackets and found the author, looked at the picture and guessed about the story, and counted the words in the title on the book jacket. During snack we heard some stories with rhyming words and we predicted the rhyme. After snack, we had the story //All You Need for a Snowman// and then we talked about the snowman project that we were starting today. During choice time, we had some **//real snow//** to play in since it was too cold to go outside to play in the snow. We talked about our new letter of the week and the two sounds that it has. We thought of things that could go in our letter box or food labels that we could look for. I wonder what will be in our box and bag on Monday?

December 20, 2013
The last time I type 2013 (well, I will probably forget and still type it and have to edit!) We were glad that we were all in school for our special last day together before Christmas. We prayed for Mrs. Kiel and her family, as they were travelling. We were happy to have Faith's mom helping us today. We had an extra long table time and then we found out about our schedule. We sang the peppermint stick song and then learned how the candy cane can remind us of the reason that Jesus came to earth on Christmas morning. We warmed up for gym by playing the Find the Bow relay. It was so fun to find our team's colors. Afterwards we put the bows on the parachute and shook them off. We put bells on the parachute and sang some bell songs. Then we made a **great** tent. After gym we went to the second grade room to see the video of the Christmas program. **TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!!!** We found a solution to our problem and we were flexible and did some things while we were waiting. We had two Christmas stories with a similar message. We did our bathroom break and we watched a demonstration of our Friday Fun project (marble painting). Finally we were ready to see ourselves at the program. Many of us sang along with the video. We liked seeing ourselves. We went back to the room for a cupcake snack from Faith. Then we had a short choice time. We played party games and opened presents for our room and spent an extra 15 minutes together in order to fit it all in!!! **MERRY CHRISTMAS!!**

December 18, 2013
i am so happy that we are staying healthy in 4k this week, especially as the Christmas holiday approaches.Today we had to figure out what word our picture card rhymed with when we hung up our attendance name tag. It is sometimes hard to change for listening for rhymes because we are so proficient at matching the sounds at the beginning of words.We did not have any new things for our box or bag today. Our Alphabet Town story was about Quincy the quick quarterback and a magic duck.We had a suitcase surprise that helped us practice making //one// quarter.Our wacky Wednesday song was one of our favorites; //Tooty-ta;// but we sang it with the /k/ sound instead.After our center time, we had a special ice cream Christmas tree snack from Abigail. We then had to make a choice between outdoor **indoor** choice time or **outdoor** choice time. At the end of the day we talked about next time. It will be a little bit the same, and a little bit different. We will have gym and fun Friday project, but our helper will be Mrs. Tislau and we will play party games in our room!

December 16, 2013
I'm sensing a little bit of "excitement of the season"! This is such a special time of year for making family memories and for teaching our little ones the reason for the season. Today we enjoyed singing some songs with our bells and we did the //Peppermint Stick// song, as well. We did our letter of the week activities and heard many new words. Our monkey Monday position was very silly today. During centers we did our letter Q page and learned about "one quarter". We colored a quilt in a pattern. We made and embellished a poinsettia picture with the diamonds that we had cut out last week. We played a game with opposites. Isabel brought our snack. After snack and book time, we had another part of our story of the birth of Jesus: angels and shepherds! We stayed inside today because it was too cold outside and we had our choice time. At the end of the day, we talked about the rest of our week. We got to take home our cloud pictures. Many of them were still puffy.

December 13, 2013 MAKE AND TAKE WORKSHOP DAY!
We were so sorry that Abigail was sick today! We prayed for you, Abigail! Mrs. Otten saved the projects for you to do at home. We hope you will have as much fun as we had! Take a look:

December 11, 2013
Another wonderful (and slightly wacky!) Wednesday! We were all in school, although those stuffy noses are bothering some of us. We began our day by singing //Happy __Half__ Birthday// to Paulo, who has a summer birthday. We sang our bell song from the program and then used our bells to sing several other fun songs. We had a story that was a __parable__ today. It was called //The Pine Tree Parable// and it told about a farmer's wife who sacrificed her most special, perfect tree for a family too poor to buy a tree. Mrs. Otten said that it was a story about Christmas because God had to sacrifice his most special, perfect son, Jesus, to take away our sins because we could not pay for them. After our story we read a new book (from the book fair!) with an opposite: //Good News, Bad News.// We read each page together and talked about why the news was good or bad. After the story we did our wacky Wednesday song called //Opposites//. We did our centers and then had a special snack that Paulo brought for us: robots! We got to choose two of his parts to eat or drink. Mrs. Otten forgot to read our snack story, but that was okay because we were able to read the story together at circle time. We could read it ourselves because the story was told with letters and pictures. The story was about some children who dressed up and acted out the story of Jesus' birth. They were "stars" (even though only 1 was dressed like a star.) After the story we guessed that our suitcase surprise was stars (cookie stars made by Mrs. Otten because we were the stars of the Christmas program last night!) Since it was too cold to go outside, we had extra indoor choice time, which was fun. We talked about Make and Take and then finished our day. Kyra got to pick out the goodbye because she could not do her "real" job of feeding the fish. (see question of the day)



December 9, 2013
We are getting so proficient at clapping and counting word parts! Today most of the words had 2 parts. Mrs. Hendrikse was teaching other children today, so we practiced for the program on our own making pretend steps in our room with tape on the carpet. We had the story of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem. We did our monkey position in three ways: laying down on our backs, standing up, and supporting ourselves with our arms. We did our centers next. Lincoln brought our snack today and during snack we listened to //Away in a Manger// while looking at a storybook with pictures for the lyrics of the song. We had a time of indoor choice time and then WE GOT TO GO OUTSIDE TO PLAY IN THE SNOW! We were also very proficient at getting ourselves dressed in our winter gear! Hopefully we will have many fun times in the snow this year! //**See you tomorrow night for the Christmas program! Please be at church by 6:45!**//

December 6, 2013
We were so happy that Abigail was back! God said "yes" to our prayers for safety and a great visit with G'ma and G'pa. We all successfully clapped and counted the parts of the picture names with our attendance today and there were the most of 3 part words today. After our calendar and weather we headed over to church to see where we will dress in our costumes for the Christmas program. Then we went in the sanctuary to practice with Mrs. Hendrikse. We used big singing voices and we all sang so clearly! High fives from Mrs. Otten!! We went back to school and had gym, playing two relay games: find the bow and mailbox relay. We did lots of fast running! When we got back to our room we read two books about twins who liked opposite things. We also sang the O verse for //Apples and Bananas// for Abigail since she missed our wacky Wednesday song. Naomi brought our snack **and a treat!** During snack we first talked about who Saint Nicholas was and why some people put gifts in stockings on the eve of his birthday. We also read a book called //Dot// that showed opposites. Our Friday Fun project was making paper chain decorations for our room and Luke, Paulo, Abigail, and Kyra helped to make our room festive with their Christmas paper patterned chains. We enjoyed showing opposites with our show and tell. We showed: old and young (Mrs. Otten); soft and hard (Naomi and Luke and Faith); big and little (Paulo and Lincoln); black and white (Sydney); on and off (Isabel); round and rectangle (Kyra); Princess Person and Mermaid (Abigail). No letter of the week next week.

December 4, 2013
Today most of our words had one part. Naomi noticed the opposite for the other parts: there were 3 two-part words and 2 three-part words! We practiced for the Christmas program with Mrs. Hendrikse again and then did our letter of the week. We learned a new word in our alphabet town story: opera. The only thing added to our box and bag was a label that Mrs. Otten found. Since the letter o is a vowel, we had to sing //Apples and Bananas// for our wacky Wednesday song. It makes us scream with laughter! We did the same centers and then we were able to spend our moving time in the gym playing with balls (since it was so wet outside and we were ready for our moving time at the same time as the big kids who //were// going outside.). We had a lot of fun and got a lot of exercise running after our balls and kicking them, and throwing them. During snack we heard the book //Who Is Coming to Our House?// We had to talk about some of the new words we heard in the book, and we also heard a word that we are learning for our Christmas program: ajar. After snack we learned about the angel visit to Joseph and then we got to hang another ornament on our tree. We had a nice long time for choice time! The girls were all in dress up clothes and had many different adventures. The boys were making bridges and ramps for the cars with blocks and tubes. We have some Christmas things for our hand stamp and Naomi picked the Christmas tree. We also talked about our "opposite" show and tell.

December 2, 2013
A new month! With our attendance name tags today, we also had a name card and we had to clap and count the parts in our names. There were the most names for 2 parts (four) and then least for 1 part (two). We looked at all the special things happening in December on our calendar and then Mrs. Otten counted the numbers because Abigail was still out of town visiting her grandparents. We practiced the words for our Christmas songs and then Mrs. Hendrikse came and played for us while we practiced. We were able to use our bells today for our bell song. We did our letter of the week and in our story long o found more words than short o. We added words to our list and looked at all the labels that Mrs. Otten found. Our suitcase surprise was the same as one of the words on our list: ORNAMENT! We were able to add an ornament to our classroom Christmas tree. After our outdoor time, we did our monkey Monday position and then found out about our new centers. We are putting shape stickers on our o page; making a book about opposites; picking up candy corn (and eating them!) and playing a cariboo game while we practice clapping word parts. After centers and snack, we had our Bible story and choice time.

November 27, 2013
Thankful for this day before Thanksgiving! Thankful that our friends, Naomi and Lincoln, were back in school, but missing Paulo. Thankful that Isabel was feeling well after being sick. Today we talked about preparing for special guests. We said that we needed to decorate, prepare food, pray for safe travel, and clean. We learned that the baby that was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth was going to help people prepare for Jesus to come. He told people that their hearts must be clean and he baptized people who wanted to show that they were sorry for their sins and wanted to be clean. (a good reminder for all of us to spend as much time getting our spiritual "houses" as prepared as our physical houses during this Advent season!) Since it was too cold to go outside, we did some extra activities inside. We first had our suitcase surprise, which was our costumes for our Christmas program. Naomi and Luke were our models and we each got to choose which costume we wanted to wear. Then we had an activity with secret "collections" in a brown bag. We each got to open our bag and lay out the things inside it, and then try to figure out what thing did not belong. Sometimes it was easy (like having a wooden button in a bag with three insects) and sometimes it was a little harder to figure out (like having a hard stone in with three random soft things). After our wacky Wednesday song about Bubblegum, we picked feathers off a "turkey" and did the action that was printed on the feather. That was fun! Faith brought cornucopias for our snack, which were fun to eat and tasty. We could even eat the cornucopia because it was an ice cream cone. During snack, we read a book called //Gray Rabbit's Odd One Out// and we figured out what was the thing that did not belong on each page. We also did a "What's Missing" game with a picture of a Pilgrim holding a turkey. After snack we went to a different room and Mrs. Hendrikse played our Christmas songs on the piano so we could practice and we could learn a new song, as well. Our project was to make a decoration for our room for Christmas. At the end of the day we found out our new letter of the week (a vowel!) and its two sounds. We were able to take home our Advent Christmas countdown tree.

November 25, 2013
We had two friends absent today. Mrs. Otten got to pick the bell sound and do the calendar counting (she used the birthday hat and the pointing finger because her grandson was having his first birthday today!). We practiced //Christmas Is a Time to Love// and started learning //Bells Are Ringing// and we practiced our poem. We had a Bible story about another old man and woman who were promised a baby. The man was the priest Zechariah and the woman was his wife Elizabeth. After our Bible story we had our drink break and our monkey position. We really had to s t r e t c h today. In circle time we learned about fact books and fiction books. We are making our own fact book with the photographs of the collections that we brought for show and tell last week. We had some book reading time while we worked on our book page with a teacher. Kyra brought our snack and we heard a story with some facts about the first Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims who came to America. After snack, we had a suitcase surprise. We knew it was a treat, but we had to wait and wait for it because it was packed up In many boxes and bags. We talked about waiting and then saw that our project was something that would help us wait and count the days until Christmas. We were very disappointed that we did not have enough time to get in our winter things and have outdoor time, but we will hopefully be able to do that soon!



November 22, 2013
We were missing Paulo today :( We finished our Indian corn coloring project at table time and then had a short time to do other activities. We practiced our first Christmas song and a poem. We had the Bible story of God calling Samuel while he was in bed. In gym we did activities that worked on our strength and flexibility and balance. We had a suitcase surprise that was like the story we read on Wednesday called //The Button Box.// We looked at a box of buttons and talked about what groups we could make by finding buttons that were similar. Sydney brought our snack and we were able to open everything by ourselves! During snack we heard a story called //Jacob's Collection.// It was written by a 10 year old boy! We found out about our Friday project and then went to choice time. Only Abigail decided to make the project today! After choice time, we showed our collections, talked about them, and photographed them. No letter of the week next week!



November 20, 2013
Even though we are experiencing the side effect of the season: sniffles and stuffy noses, we were glad to all be in school. We are getting good at taking care of ourselves and keeping our hands washed. Today we practiced on of our Christmas songs. We did our letter of the week activities and listened to the story of cat and her cousin at the carnival in alphabet town. We did a new circle activity called //I have...Who Has?// We are practicing our recognition of teen numbers. Our wacky Wednesday song also had numbers. It was called //The Chicken Count.// We sure were a flock of funny chickens! We did our centers and then we had snack. Paulo brought us clementine cuties and Mrs. Otten also shared cups of corn chex left over from our letter page. After snack we brought our food pantry donations from last week's show and tell to the first grade room. We each got to carry in two things, even Mrs. Otten and Mrs. Kiel. We had some time outside and we each got a turn on the tire swing, three friends at a time. Our Bible story was another story about a baby. This time it was Hannah who wanted a child and God answered her prayers for a child. We enjoyed out choice time and then saw an example of a "collection" so we could think about what we wanted to bring for show and tell next time. We sang our Good Bye song with the emotion of being scared. We got to pick out our own good bye for the teachers today.

November 18, 2013
This month seems to be flying by! Today the card under our frog name tag had two stickers on it. We needed to determine if the stickers were the //same// or just //similar.// After our morning routines, we listened to the first song we will sing for the Christmas program and we learned the chorus. We did our letter of the week and named things in our story book with the /k/ sound for c and the /s/ sound for c. In our box, we added things with the /ch/ sound, as well. We played outside in the wind and then came back in for centers. For our letter page, we glued on CORN CHEX CEREAL so we would have all three sounds on our page. We did a counting and coloring center, a cup stacking center, and a project center making clouds. For our snack, Isabel brought C things: cheesy chex mix and clementines (also called cuties). After snack, we had a story about last week's verse called //Charlie's Be Kind Day.// We had a short choice time and then our day was already over!

November 15, 2013
During table time we finished the project we started in centers this week. Then we began our day with our morning routines (singing our hello song very fast because we were starting later than usual). We talked about some of the promises that God makes to us. We know that God kept his promise to Abraham and Sarah and he will keep his promises to us, too. During gym we warmed up with a dancing song and then we got to use the **B**EACH **B**ALLS! After gym, we read a **B**IG **B**OOK together, figuring out what the words said by using the picture clues. The book was called //**B**UTTONS, **B**UTTONS.// We also found out that our new letter, C does not have its own sound, but makes a /k/ sound, a /s/ sound and a /ch/ sound. We might need help finding things for the letter box this week! Our snack was a special snack from Luke that looked like a turkey. During our snack we talked about "same or similar". We also found out about our fun Friday choice project. Four of us decided to do the project today. At show and tell we showed the food we brought and then we made groups of things that were the "same" or "similar".

November 13, 2013
Today we started our table time by practicing writing our names. During table time we had our photographs taken with our placemats for the Meals on Wheels clients. They are beautiful! At circle time we sang a song from last year, which was a new song for some of us: //Jesus, I Love You.// We looked at our numbers and talked about the number pattern. Paulo got to find the B house in alphabet town and the Big Bear had an adventure with a Bad Bird. Our wacky Wednesday song was //The Bee Song.// We did our centers and then enjoyed some outdoor time. During Abigail's birthday snack we heard the story //Bye-Bye Big Bad Bullybug.// We decided to save our Bible story until next time and we had a short choice time. We reminded ourselves to bring in canned or boxed food for the food pantry and we sang our goodbye song with our letter B sign language, singing "bye-bye" instead of "goodbye".

November 11, 2013
There were some different /b/ sound things out for our table time (beans, beads, bristle blocks, boom-boom game; bones puzzle). We also had a picture with our name tag and had to decided if it was a picture of something that started with the /b/ sound or not. After our morning routines, we started with our letter of the week activities and then Mrs. Otten noticed: SNOW! We were so excited! We had many things in our letter box, so our list of words is very long already! (But you can still bring in letter box and bag things on Wednesday). Since we could not go outside, we did a moving song inside and got to move like animals. Then we played with some pretend snow. After our drink and monkey position, we found out about our centers. We are adding bubble wrap and a bow to our letter B page; playing a bones hide and find game; playing a counting bones game; and doing a project that allows us to blend blue paint with other colors to make the blue lighter or darker. After snack and books we had our Bible story. It was the story of how God gave Abraham the promise that he would be a father to many, many children. During our choice time today, we had a doctor's office, a restaurant, and a princess talking on the phone. We forgot our hand stamp today! No wonder we got out a few minutes early!



November 8, 2013
Today it was Lincoln that we were missing, so Mrs. Otten had to water the plants for him. Mrs. Otten was happy because she got to wear her "dungarees" today and a few other friends were also wearing dungarees (a word we learned when we read //Peter's Pocket// on Wednesday). Luke chose the snowflake wand for counting our numbers. We sang a new song, //Praise Him, All Ye Little Children.// We reviewed our stories about Moses and how God cared for his people through Moses and kept his promise to bring them to their own land. We reviewed our rules for the parachute and then had a great time in gym making waves, crawling in the waves, making a mountain, running under the parachute, and making a tent. After gym we had our centers. Naomi brought our snack and most of us finished the whole snack bag! After snack and books we took a /p/ picture out of the purple purse. Then we found out that next week's letter of the week was **similar** letter p: using the same letter pieces and our mouths making the same shape as we say the sound. Similar, but not the same! We started our choice time and then...and then...FIRE DRILL! (With the loud fire alarm!!!) We got out of the building quickly and safely. When we got back in we finished our choice time. Here are some of the things we did today: ===

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November 6, 2013
We were glad to see Faith back at school. We were missing Paulo and prayed for him to have a safe trip to his doctor visit. Luke picked the spaceship sound for our bell today. Our day began with noticing the pattern on our calendar. We learned a big new word with 5 parts: corn-u-co-pi-a! We sang our song about the Noah's ark story, which always makes us giggle. Sydney got to find the P house in alphabet town and we had a story of a penguin and a parade. We added pin and paper clip and picture and pulling to our word list and looked at labels that Naomi, Abigail, and Mrs. Otten found with letter P. After our drink and brain gym we sang our wacky Wednesday song about the restaurants. Our suitcase surprise was about things that we use to set a table for a meal. Isabel knew we needed a plate. We also learned that we sometimes use a placemat. We are making placemats for the people who will receive a meal from "Meals on Wheels". Our other centers were our letter page and the "corn kernel challenge"! Luke was able to pick up and hold 20 corn kernels in one hand! Lincoln actually was able to do three centers because he will be done next time. We also made patterns for our centers. Faith made a dot pattern of red and orange. We were excited to have a P snack and were able to keep a snack bag for our letter of the week bag. We had PALO popcorn and pretzel sticks. Since it was rainy outside, we did a short moving time in the gym with balls. Kyra got to use a ball that was one of her favorite colors: purple! On our way back from the gym, we stopped at several places in the hall to look at and talk about the art work of other classes. We made our bodies look like the bodies on one of the projects. We looked at circles turned into birds and other shapes made into cities. When we got back to our room we had our Bible story and learned how God protected his people even when Pharoah came after them with his army. God did a miracle! Our day ended with choice time and we were not happy when choice time ended. Some of us were just ready to have our picnic. We did not have any books to pass out today because we are waiting for friends to finish reading them and bring them back. We had a pink hand stamp today. What a wonderful P day!

November 4, 2013
We were so sorry that Faith had to miss today because she was sick! We prayed for her to get well. We were not in our room very much today because we had our field trip to the arts center. We had just enough time for table time, our morning routines, our letter of the week, and our snack. Our cow sure has a silly name this week! Kyra and Sydney found many of the same things for our box, so we have many words with the "s" at the end. We spent a short time outside and then had a quick snack before our bus ride to the arts center. Bus driver David was our driver again and he got us safely to and from the arts center. While we were there, we looked at the collection and art of Ray Yoshida; some very large photographs and an old car filled with corn; and some masks. We got to make our own decoration mask from clay and found materials. When we got back to school, we read a book called //10 Black Dots// and our new classroom book called //Dots.// Kyra was the first one to take the new book home.



November 1, 2013
We started our day finishing our dot Indian corn by cutting them our and adding husks. Our beautiful creations are hanging in our room. We looked at the special events for our November calendar, reviewed our Bible words and then sang two songs. Well, we mostly giggled while we sang //HoHoHoHosanna.// We had our Bible story of Moses going to the King of Egypt and telling him to let God's people go. Ten bad things had to happen before the King would let them go. For gym we warmed up with our //Dancing Machine// song again because it was so fun. Then we had a **DOZEN** stations in gym. We helped put away our gym equipment and carried it back to the room when we were done. Then we reviewed our letter D sound and learned that our new letter of the week is P. We put the penguin in the letter box. We were excited to share the snack we brought. We got to carry a tray and put a **DOZEN** thing on it. None were the same, but we counted 5 crunchy things; 3 things in packages; 5 chewy things; 2 animals. During snack we read the book that Lincoln had put in our letter box this week, //Diary of a Wombat.// Our Friday Fun project was printing "dots" with various objects and paint. After choice time we did our show and tell...I mean, tell and show! We had fun giving our clues and guessing what was in the bags. We had some very good descriptions! FIELD TRIP MONDAY!!

October 30, 2013
We enjoyed our table time and creating with the KidK'nex builders and drawing at the project table. We sorted dinosaurs and made jack-o-lantern faces, as well. Our day started with having to count to **30**. Abigail did a great job leading us. We were glad to see her back in school. After we counted to 30, we also tried counting to 100 by 10's. We added more dinosaurs and a drawing to our D letter box and Mrs. Otten added a label for Dark chocolate. Dinosaur had an adventure in alphabet town that involved some daydreaming and dilly-dallying and a dripping double dip ice cream cone! After our letter of the week, we made our bodies into dancing machines for our wacky Wednesday song. We did our centers and then had our suitcase surprise while waiting for the big kids to be done with their recess. Our suitcase surprise was a reminder for the 2 things we need to bring for Friday (show and tell in a bag and a dozen snack) We also were surprised to have a new book to take home which contains our Maywood Memories. After a snack mix snack and a cupcake to take home from Faith, we had our Bible story of Moses and how God talked to him from the burning bush. Then we had our choice time. At the end of the day, we prayed for Sydney, who left school early with an earache.

OOPS! October 28, 2013
Sorry friends! I started a project after school and forgot to update the wiki. My apologies, especially to Abigail who was sick and was probably wanting to read about what she missed. Today we had to count all the way to 28 and Luke pointed out the numbers with the rocket wand. We did our letter of the week and added many D things to our box (and Doritos and Donuts labels to our bag!). We were hearing the /d/ sound in many words, as well. After our outdoor time and a hard monkey position, we found out about our new centers. LOTS OF DOTS! We learned the meaning of "dozen" and put a dozen dots on our letter page. After centers, we had our snack THANK YOU, ABIGAIL!!! We loved our pumpkin, chocolate chip muffins! We had our Bible story of the baby, Moses, who was hid by his mother and rescued by a princess. God was watching over him. We were excited for choice time and enjoyed pretending and measuring and creating. At the end of the day we had a suitcase surprise and got a bag for our show and tell--well, this week it will be "tell and show" instead!

October 23, 2013
Kyra was still sick today and we prayed for her to get better. We hope to see her back after our extra days off of school. Mrs. Otten counted the numbers on the calendar with the rocket wand. Luke also chose the rocket sound for the bell today. We counted the vowels in our names as Mrs. Otten hung up our helper hands. We sang a song about one of God's most important commands (//This Is My Commandment That You Love One Another...)// We did our alphabet town story about an iceman named Ichabod. After our drink break we sang our wacky //Apples and Bananas// song, changing the vowel sound. It was so funny. We did our centers and then had snack. Paulo brought us chex mix in jack-o-lantern bags. During snack we listened to the story //Inch By Inch.// We had our outdoor time. When we came in, we talked about measuring by inches. Some of us used tape measures at choice time to do some measuring, as well. We had a story about a boy named Mark who learned an important lesson about why following the rules is important and we reviewed God's two most important rules. We had choice time and then we finished our day learning about our letter for next week and counting the days that we would be off school.



October 21, 2013
Paulo returned to school, but our friend Kyra was sick and Faith was having a special family day. So Mrs. Kiel watered the plants and Mrs. Otten picked out the hand stamp. We started with our letter of the week activities today and learned our letter I in sign language and our verse. We sang //Indy I I// for our cow friend and added some words to our word list from the things that were in our box (no labels for our bag). We learned that an insect has three body parts and six legs and we sang a song about that. After our outdoor time (and needing to run to stay warm!) we did our monkey position and learned about our centers. We did center time and then had a delicious snack of crackers, cheese, and cookie from Isabel. During snack we read the books we made called //The Book.// After snack we looked at pictures of apple pie days and then went in the gym to see the pies being made firsthand. We came back for a short choice time.

October 18, 2013
We had to sing our hello song very fast because we had a lot to do today! We are sorry that Paulo missed our busy day, and we prayed for him to feel better. It was a different schedule today because of not being able to use the gym. We started the day with a story about our Bible words. It was about how our actions can give a message. We heard a story about a mime and we talked about how our actions tell about what we are like. Then we had our first exciting activity: walking to the park for our "gym" time. Along the way we saw big leaf piles and some workers. After enjoying Vollrath Park, we walked back and were able to watch the workers use their equipment to vacuum the leaf pile. When we came back, we sang a song about the vowels and learned that our new letter for next week is a vowel (and it is in several of our friends' names). Next we reviewed our senses and talked about how making our own snack would use all our senses. We made our own apple pies!! While they were baking, we watched a movie of a mime and then we used our eyes to find out what was missing from a Johnny Appleseed picture. Finally our pies were done and they were very hot, so we had to let the cool before we could enjoy them (some ice cream would have helped here!) We had a short choice time and during choice time we thought of a book dedication for the book we made at centers this week, and we thought of a title for our paintings that we also did at centers. Finally we did our show and tell and enjoyed showing our own choice and telling our classmates about what we brought.



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October 16, 2013
After table time, we did our morning circle time. Lincoln told us about one of his birthday presents and Faith told us why she was not in school last time. Naomi's stick was picked so she found the E house in alphabet town. Elfin and Elephant had an adventure making and hiding Easter eggs. After our drink break and brain gym, we sang a wacky Wednesday song that made us giggle: //Apples and Bananas.// We changed the vowel sounds in the song each time we sang it. It was so funny! We had center time next and then we had snack before going outdoors. We were excited for Faith's cupcake snack. During snack we looked at some famous paintings and learned about how artists give titles (or names) to their art work. After our outdoor time we had the rest of the story of Joseph and learned how God took something bad (what the brothers did to Joseph) and made something good (the food that Joseph saved). We learned how Joseph forgave his brothers and how they were able to come to Egypt to live there and have enough food to eat. We had a longer choice time today, but it still felt "short" to Sydney. At our end of the day circle we did a clapping echo and then learned that show and tell next time would be our choice. We also talked about going outside instead of having gym.

October 14, 2013
Happy day.....sad day! Happy day for Lincoln as we celebrated his birthday. Tomorrow he will really be 5! Sad day for Faith, who was sick. We missed her and were sorry that she missed Lincoln's birthday. We prayed for her and hope to see her next time. Mrs. Otten had to pick the bell sound for Faith and picked the ringing clock. Our letter of the week book told the story of a game between short e and LONG E and how they tried to find words with their sound. At the end of the game, short e had more words. We had more long e words on our word list and several things that were the same. After a time outdoors, we did our brain gym and learned the "pretzel stand". Then we did our monkey Monday position and found out about our centers. We learned what "equal" means and used that for our blue center and our red center. In our green center we worked on books using the word "THE" which gave us more practice in writing those letters and doing our best coloring. Our yellow center was painting at the easel and we got to paint whatever we wanted. We had a special birthday snack from Lincoln: cupcakes filled with ice cream! During snack we looked for a cat in a book that had famous art work in it. After snack we had our Bible story about Joseph and his brothers who came to get corn from him. One brother had to stay behind and now the youngest brother, Benjamin, has to come back with the brothers. We will find out what happens to him next time. The end of the day really snuck up on us...we only had 10 minutes of choice time which was not nearly enough! We will try to get more choice time on Wednesday!

October 11, 2013
Today we added a new song to our repertoire. It is one that went with our Bible words for T and is the scripture song //When I Am Afraid.// We had the next part of our story of Joseph. There were many times when he could have been afraid, but trusted in the Lord. We learned how he got the meanings of dreams from God and how that helped him to become a very important man. After Bible we went to the gym and were excited to see our circuit of balancing activities. We warmed up with the days of the week song and then used balance beams and balance stones, and the hopscotch mat to work on different kinds of balancing. After gym we reviewed our letter T sound with the activity Pass the Tissue Box. We got to reach in and pick out a picture and decided if it started with the t sound. We reviewed all our alphabet letters with the alphabet song and then talked about the special letters (AEIOU) because our letter of the week for next week is the letter E. We read the books that we made during one of our centers this week. We found the letter e at the end of the word "tree". We pointed to the words and read our books! We are excited to read our books to you, too. We had "opening" practice with our snack from Abby, and we even looked for letter T on our packages. During snack we read a book that taught us about trees. After snack we found out about the free Friday project. Only 4 of us chose to do the project today. After choice time, we had our show and tell and saw many things made from wood, which comes from trees. Paulo picked the purple butterfly for our hand stamp today.

October 9, 2013
Another wonderful autumn day! Today we did our morning routines and then did our letter of the week, adding another turtle and truck to our box, along with a tree and a T.V. from a true story. We also added the words to the list from our letter page: tape, toothpick and temporary tattoo. We did our Mandy Mae Moo song with the/t/ sound (Tandy Tae Too) and we tried the /th/ sound as well (although it was hard for some of us to get that tongue between our teeth!) After our alphabet town story with the turtle who visited a tiger, we had a drink and than our wackiest Wednesday song yet: //Tooty Ta//. We did our centers and then had our snack. During snack we heard a story of a boy with a very, very long name. We enjoyed outdoor time and then had our Bible story about how Joseph's brothers sold him and then lied to father Jacob. Next time we will learn how God cared for Joseph. We had choice time and then talked about our show and tell (something made of wood). We had a suitcase surprise, which was another book made by us! Isabel got to check that one out first.

October 7, 2013
Today we tried the //Hallelu, Hallelujah// song at circle time again. We clapped the parts of our names again when we did our jobs. We learned our T sign language and practiced our new verse. We have a long list of /t/sound things in our letter box and we thought of new ones from our room, like tissue and timer. Since the wood chip playground was wet and slippery, we did our outdoor time on the blacktop and brought balls and hula hoops to use outside. When we came in we did our monkey Monday position (it was with eyes closed today). We found out about our new centers and are most excited about the red center because we get to look for treasure when we count and open doors with a special key. After centers we had a snack that Sydney brought and heard the book //Mop Top// about a boy who did not want to get his hair cut.After snack we reviewed our Jacob and Esau stories with our echo song and then learned that Esau also forgave Jacob and that Jacob came back to the land that God had promised him. We had a shorter choice time today. Abigail chose the lightning bold hand stamp and we had the handshake for our goodbye again.

October 4, 2013
Today at our circle time we clapped the parts of our names as we were assigned our jobs. We sang our fun songs: //Father Abraham, Hallelu, Hallelujah, and Hinges.// Then we had the story of Jacob running away from Esau. God forgave his sin of tricking Isaac and he obeyed God by finding a wife who loved God. On his way he had a dream and heard a promise from God. After our Bible story we went to the gym and used hula hoops. After having fun rolling and spinning, and playing with our hoops, we went back to the room to find out our new letter of the week. We learned that our new letter, T, will have its own sound (like a ticking timer) and "bossy H" will also give it a different sound like in the number three. We had a snack of pretzels, candy corn and chocolate milk from Naomi and then had our book time. Then we sorted some real leaves and did our rhymes with them. Our suitcase surprise were plastic leaves that we got to stick to the windows to decorate our room. Our free Friday project was making leaf prints. WE ALL decided to do it today! Finally we finished our day with show and tell and we all showed something we made with our hands or was made for us (Faith had a special doll made by her great grandma!) Mrs. Otten had made hand cookies (shaped like "I love you") made with honey for her show and tell and we each got to eat one!

October 2, 2013
Sorry about the late post today...busy afternoon and evening for me. We had a wonderful Wednesday! We did our morning routines and then sang our song about Noah and the flood which always gives us the giggles. Then we really had a "laughing" song, singing //HoHoHoHosanna, HaHaHallujah; HeHeHeHesaved me, I've got the joy of the Lord!// We did our letter of the week activities and learned a new song with that too: //God Made Me with Hinges//. We had a very silly story of a Hippo with hiccups for our alphabet town story, as well. After our drink break, our wacky Wednesday song was the //Goin' on a Bear Hunt// chant. We did our centers and then switched our schedule and had snack before outdoor time. During snack we read //Going on a Leaf Hunt// and we matched real leaves to paper leaves.We also got to choose colorful laminated paper leaves to use for some fun leaf rhymes! After a nice time outdoors, we had our Bible story about twin boys who were very different and about how one of them tricked his father. We had a shorter choice time and then we talked about our show and tell theme for next time. Two different friends were able to take home our classroom books.

September 30, 2013
We had to say a new word for our calendar number today. After Luke pointed to the numbers with the ladybug wand and we said the numbers to thirty, we had a surprise fire drill with our room bell. After our fire drill we did our letter of the week activities, learning our /h/ sound, our h sign language and verse, and how to write our H with the letter pieces. We added things to our letter box and bag. We had some outdoor time and then came in to do our centers. This week we get to find H in our room. Some of us found H in twelve different places (posters and book titles). We get to grab handfuls of stuff and count the number in our handful. We get to put a happy face with a hat on our letter page. We get to make crayons hot and color a leaf with the melted crayon. After centers we had a snack that Faith brought. We had to open three packages! Our Bible story was about how Abraham's servant was able to find a wife for Isaac. God listened to his prayer and helped him find just the right woman for Isaac. We had choice time after our Bible story, too! Two new friends were able to check out classroom books to take home!

September 27, 2013


What a blessing! We had wonderful weather for our field trip to Maywood! We had great naturalists: Emily and Derek and we were able to investigate three habitats. We were looking for water, food, space, and shelter. We felt leaves in the prairie, and saw an ant mound and ground squirrel hole. In the forest we felt some real fur and we saw how animals could be camouflaged. We got to find acorns. At the pond, we felt a turtle shell and ate a delicious snack that Faith brought. We had so much fun on our bouncy, noisy ride on the school bus. When we got back to school and found out that our new letter of the week was H with the sound of a hot hound dog (lots of air), we even figured out what Mandy's new name will be!

September 25, 2013
It was a wacky Wednesday! We started our day with table time, but then had to leave our room for our school pictures soon after. When we came back from pictures, we counted our calendar numbers, sang the days of the week song, and then heard a story about our letter L Bible words. God love us so much he gave us wonderful things in the world and wonderful people like grandmas, and then Jesus died for our sins. But Jesus rose and lives again and L-O-V-E is why. Our wacky Wednesday song was the Looby Loo. We added another lion to our letter box and then had the alphabet town story of the little lady with the lost locket, We had some wonderful outdoor time and then did our centers. After centers we enjoyed Sydney's wonderful snack of applesauce, fruit snacks, and juice bags. We had a story told by a leaf. We learned that the leaf had a summer job of making tree food. After the story we went for a walk to find a leaf for our letter L page. Wacky, wacky...we did not have time for indoor choice time. That was disappointing news, but sometimes that happens when things are different like on picture days. Next time: Maywood! That will be exciting!

September 23, 2013
We had a marvelous Monday in 4K. We had a nice time of table time, doing some new activities (Dora the Explorer Chutes and Ladders game, building with Duplos, doing a puzzle with locks, and drawing). After our opening prayer, we were given number cards and we put the cards in order 0-9. Then we saw how those symbols are used for //all// the numbers and that the pattern of the numbers stays the same. We ordered numbers to 29 and then saw a chart that showed the numbers to 100. We will keep working on this concept throughout the year. (Some of us will "get" it this year, and some may not get it until another year) We sang two songs about how God made and takes card of the whole world. Then it was time for letter of the week. We were good listeners and found many interesting things that started with the /L/ sound. We did our new Bible words with their sign language. We went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. We came in and did our monkey Monday position and then learned about our new centers: letter page L; a listening game; sorting and counting leaves; and making a beautiful autumn tree. Paulo brought our snack today. During snack we had a book about the different kinds of leaves that trees have and saw real examples of the leaves in the story (except the hickory leaf). After snack we learned that our Bible story was about Abraham moving to a new country. Only he didn't know where he was going; he had to follow and trust God. We did the same thing. Mrs. Kiel was out "Abraham" and she led us throughout the building. She stopped and asked God (Mrs. Otten!) if it was the place. God said, "No; keeping walking" until we finally got to the new place. When we were there Mrs. Otten read us a story book that showed the story of Abraham going to his new country. After getting back to our own room we had choice time. Then at the very end of the day we had our suitcase surprise. It was two classroom "library" books that we will take turns taking home and reading with our families.



September 20, 2013
Today we were observant and noticed that there was only one helper hand hanging on our helper chart: Faith's name was by the bell (she chose the chimes). After we had our morning prayer and went over our schedule for the day, Mrs. Otten had us look at her mouth and listen for the first sound of the name of the helpers. We were able to guess quite a few! Sydney chose the star wand for counting the numbers. We were glad that it was our gym day, because it was raining outside. We had a story about our Bible words that showed how God forgives us. It is like washing away chalk and starting over. He does not remember our sins. Our Bible words say that we are to forgive like God forgives us. For gym today we warmed up with //The Freeze// and then we played the corner game. We moved and moved until the music stopped and then we had to run to a corner. If Mrs. Otten picked the marker with the same color as the color spot in our corner we were the winners! Everyone got to be a winner at least once. After gym we reviewed our /f/ sound by putting our picture card in the fish bowl if the pictures had /f/ for the beginning sound. We then found out that our new letter of the week is L and we learned how to make its sound. We decided that the lamb and the lobster needed to go in our letter box. We read a book about the changes that will happen in the fall. The book had illustrations that were photographs of real things. We had our snack and book time, enjoying the delicious, sticky caramel apples with sprinkles that Faith brought. Mrs. Otten showed us the color wheel and we reviewed the way white rabbit turned colors and how the colors mix. She also demonstrated that on the light box. Then we found out that our Friday project was a "Free choice" project, meaning that we could choose to do the project or not. We had to make a decision and then show our decision by how we put our name cards on the table. This week one boy and four girls decided to do the free project of finger painting in a primary or secondary color. After project and choice time, we had show and tell and were excited to show our favorite things. At the end of the day we talked about the two different and special things that will happen next week: our school pictures on Wednesday and our field trip on Friday.



September 18, 2013
Our rainy day gave us extra indoor choice time. But the rain stopped in time for us to have our first fire drill. Then, the sun even came out and we were able to let our butterfly fly free on its way to Mexico! Today Isabel chose a /f/ wand to count our calendar numbers. I'll give you a hint: it is a kind of shoe that we **//must not// wear** at school. After calendar we did our letter of the week and added more things to our long list of /f/ words. We also added a couple more labels to our letter bag. We had a story from Alphabet Town. It was about what four foolish fish did to the fountain at the fair. We took a drink break and then our wacky Wednesday song had us making shapes with our bodies and freezing in those shapes. We did our centers. Since it was raining we went right to our snack, which was good because several of us were already hungry. During snack we read a book called //Fire Drill// and we learned what we needed to do for a fire drill in school. Mrs.Otten also showed us a video of firefighters fighting a real fire that happened in the house she used to live in (the fire did not happen while she lived there, but after she moved to a different house). Some of us might want to talk about fires and what would happen if our house caught fire. (We may need reassurance and an extra prayer time tonight so we are not scared of a fire!) After snack we had the story of a real flood that God sent to make the world new again. God saved Noah and his family and the animals on the ark. During choice time, we had a fire drill! It was just for our class, so we just used our bell (not the very loud school fire alarm). We remembered to walk, to say "here I am" when our names were called, and to stay in line. When choice time was done, Mrs.Otten was going to do a suitcase surprise, but SURPRISE! the sun was out, so we used the time to let our butterfly go instead. When we came in we talked about the open house tomorrow night and what we needed to remember for show and tell.



September 16, 2013
We enjoyed some new things at table time today: **F**rench fries, **f**ishing game, **f**ish puzzle, **f**eel and **f**ind, **f**lipping **f**rogs (can you guess what they all have in common?) After table time, Mrs. Otten showed us the exciting thing that happened when we were not at school: our butterfly emerged from its chrysalis! We loved seeing it fly around its cage and exercise its wings. After our morning routines (Abigail chose the **f**inger for counting!) we reviewed our song, //That's Good// and learned a song with numbers called //1-2-3-Jesus Loves Me.//Next we did our letter of the week activities. Our cow had a new name! We had a long list of 14 things for our letter box. We heard the story of little f. We learned to make an f in sign language and learned some Bible words for F. Enough sitting! We were ready for outdoor time. When we came back in, we had a drink, did our monkey Monday position and we were introduced to our centers for the week. In addition to our letter page, we worked on writing our names, identifying numbers on the math mat, and fingerpainting. Then it was time for Isabel's snack. She brought sticks that had **f**ourteen pieces of **f**ruit (in a pattern!) We enjoyed this healthy snack! During snack we heard the story of white rabbit and how she learned about mixing colors.Then it was time for our Bible story. It was a sad story today because Adam and Eve disobeyed God. We had some choice time and some of us played the game of **f**eed the **f**lies to the **f**rog! At the end of the day we found out about our **f**ield trip.

September 13, 2013
How glad we were to see Paulo return with a big smile on his face! Playdough was out at table time and most of us enjoyed using the animal cookie cutters or using our hands to make people (just like God used His hands to make Adam and Eve). Abigail chose our bell sound: the cheering sound. We did our morning routines, and then reviewed the Bible story of creation. We were introduced to how to count from 1-10 in sign language, and we used numbers 1-7 as we sang a new song about creation called //That's Good!.// Today our story was about Adam and Eve obeying God by taking care of the creation and enjoying what he made. After Bible, we went to the gym. We moved fast and slow, loudly and quietly and then played the mailbox game two times. The second time we used our "mail trucks" to deliver the mail. After gym we had our letter of the week, reviewing our M sign language, our M Bible words, our M sound, and hearing an Alphabet Town story. We also learned how we were going to do our letter of the week handwriting page. During snack we looked at a pop up book called //Mighty Machines.// We had choice time and did our first letter page (they are drying on the drying rack). After a quick clean up, we got our backpacks for show and tell. With Mrs. Otten's example of the can, we showed what we brought that was made of metal. There were 10 things in all. Can you guess how many stuck to the magnet? (only 4) Mrs. Otten told us that the medal needed to be iron in order to stick. After closing our day with our prayer song, we **F**ound out that our new letter of the week starts **F**aith's name and makes a sound made just with air! Don't **F**orget to look **F**or things with the /**F**/ sound!

September 11, 2013
I am even remembering to put the latest post on top of the page! So today had its ups and downs. Most of our day was really good, but we were sad that our friend, Paulo, got sick during snack time. I guess he really was not over whatever kept him home on Monday :( The rest of our day was really good. We had our table time and our circle time. We made up a lot of different verses to //If You're Happy and You Know It.// We sang //The Butterfly Song// again and then reviewed what was made on each day of creation so far. Today we learned that God made man and woman in a different way than he made everything else. After our Bible story, we had our drink break and then sang the alphabet with a rock and roll tune! How wacky! **We added lots of new things to our letter box!!** Paulo even added a "medallion" which we learned was another name for a medal (and it even has the letters that spell "medal" in it). After our letter box, we learned about __//doing//__ //__centers__,//Mrs. Otten demonstrated the four different centers we would do. Then we learned that we would know what center to do my finding a stick with our photograph on it and going to the color of the center next to our stick. Today we did all four centers for just a short time, so we could practice how to do centers. Our centers today consisted of listening for the /m/ sound in words and **m**oving our game piece on the game board if we heard **/m/**. The green center was picking things out of a bag and seeing if the thing we chose stuck to a magnet. The yellow center was doing our best coloring and naming something that we are good at. The red center was rolling the die and coloring the matching number on our paper. We will usually do centers on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each child will do two centers per day. Our letter of the week page and our art project will usually be done in centers. Today we took a break between centers to have our moving/outdoor time. Since the woodchips were wet and slippery and the playground equipment was wet, we first did some moving in the gym and then we took a walk around the block looking for things that God created. We even found something living on a dead stick. We were ready for brain food after our centers and enjoyed Naomi's snack. We only had a short time for books and then we had choice time. At the end of the day we talked about show and tell next time.

September 9, 2013
Oh boy! It is time for Mrs. Otten to get back in the swing of things! I //**completely** **forgot**// about updating the wiki! I am so sorry, faithful readers! We had a great day, although we were sad that Paulo was sick and had to miss school. We had table time and then circle time, learning the song //God is So Good.// Our Bible story was the story of the creation of all the animals and after our Bible story we learned the signs for singing the song //If I Were a Butterfly.// We took a drink and brain gym break and then tried our "monkey Monday" position. We then did all of our letter of the week activities. Only Lincoln contributed to our letter box today: he brought in a marker. We learned our Bible words for M and also sang the Mandy Mae Moo song. We enjoyed some outdoor time and then had a delicious healthy snack from Lincoln. After book time, we had our suitcase surprise. It was our friend, MAT MAN. We listened to his song and put his body together and then we drew his body. For our project, we drew ourselves for a book that we will be able to check out. See you Wednesday and bring in some more things for our letter box!

September 6, 2013
Busy day! We were so excited to see that the very hungry caterpillar in our room has made its chrysalis. Our poster about Monarch butterflies says that it will be in its chrysalis about a week. We will be very careful not to touch the cage so it does not fall down. We had jobs today! After finding out our schedule and doing our morning routines we looked at the covers of some books to see if they were "real" or "pretend". Then we heard the real, true story of how God made light, sky, water, land, and plants. He said that each thing he made was "good" and we learned the sign language for "good". Then it was time for gym! We learned where to stand to start gym; we warmed up our muscles with a song; we moved in the "track" around the gym; and we played a relay game, looking for frogs under cones. After gym we learned about "letter of the week". Please help me find something that has the /m/ sound for our letter box. You can also have me look at label on boxes and cans of food that we eat this weekend and see if I can find a label with a word that starts with a M and bring that label to school on Monday. Our suitcase surprise was a growth chart. Mrs. Otten measured us and we will see if we grow during this school year. We enjoyed a birthday snack from Kyra and heard a story during snack. After our snacks, we had some book time and then it was choice time. Our project was just talking with Mrs. Otten about some of our favorite things. And our day was still not done! We also got to do show and tell and everyone remembered to bring in something with a letter of the alphabet on it. After getting our things in our backpacks, we got our hand stamp, gave the teachers a hug good bye and our busy day was over! See you MMMMMonday

Wednesday, September 4, 2013 FIRST DAY OF 4K
We had a great first day! We have 10 children in our class: 4 boys and 6 girls. Four of our friends were in 3K so they were great helpers and examples to their classmates. Everyone quickly settled into our routines like table time, what to do when the bell rings, sitting pretzel lets, and listening at blue carpet time. We started our day learning about the jobs and doing our morning routines. We had drink break and did "brain gym" and then got to sing and act silly for our "Wacky Wednesday" song about 5 little speckled frogs. We then had a story about the BIG WIDE-MOUTHED frog. We enjoyed some wonderful time outdoors and many of us are fast runners, good climbers, and strong hangers. Naomi can even do the monkey bars! We came in and did our bathroom break and had a snack that Faith brought. Her mom was very thoughtful and sent bags in case we could not finish our snack. A lot of us saved some of our snack. We enjoyed finding the bunnies in our snack. After snack we read books for a while and then had our suitcase surprise (it was something to make paper stick together). We then had our indoor choice time and also did our project during this time. At the end of the day we finished with prayer and learning about our end of the day routines. But Mrs. Otten forgot to tell us about show and tell! (Please bring show and tell on Friday. Bring in anything that has a letter of the alphabet on it! Keep it in your backpack until show and tell time!)