This Week’s Newsletter
Theme: Music and Movement

My husband and I went on an overnight, stayed in a nice hotel and went to dinner on Tuesday after school. It was wonderful to get a way for a night, to see all the lights, to only feed myself dinner, to wake up at whatever time not to my “Timothy alarm clock” between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. and to just be together…just us . I praise God for that time He set aside for my husband and I. Today I went to the memorial service for Mrs. M’s (a former St. Tim’s teacher) husband. The service was nice…they did a great job. There were tears, laughter and a lot of love in that room. Tomorrow we are off to cut down our Christmas tree a tradition that both my husband and I grew up doing and are continuing to do. I look forward to it every year and am especially excited this year to watch my son Timothy explore and take pictures of him. Now if I can just get caught up on my scrapbooking that would be fabulous…I am so close…though I need a few supplies and a huge block of time ;o).

We had a busy week in the classroom with the Holiday Gift Shop, going to the library, 2 storybook readers, and talking about our theme…music and movement. The children had fun at the holiday gift shop finding the perfect gifts for the people on their list. I asked the children if they had fun and what some of the things were that they purchased. One child was telling me about a light-up snowman that she got for her mom. I asked if her mom was going to love that and she said with great confidence “oh yes.” The children love going to the library each week. They check out books that we take back to the classroom for the week and hear a story from our wonderful librian. Thank you to our storybook readers this week…you both did a fantastic job and the children just loved having you come in.

Our wonderful director came in to sing some songs with the children. They asked if she could come back again sometime. They absolutely loved having her come in. Thank you!

For worship this week we talked about the birth of Christ and we also had our first Pastor visit. Each of the Pastor’s are going to switch off and come into the classroom and share a story with the children. I am thrilled that they are going to do this. Pastor Jim came in the classroom to talk with the three 3 year old classes about being thankful. He showed a picture of a turkey and asked the children what it was and what we do on Thanksgiving. They said that we eat turkey and a lot of food. One little girl showed him her pink fingernails…they can get distracted so easily ;o). Of course he was able to talk about how Thanksgiving is not just about eating turkey that it is about being thankful and thanking God for everything. He did a great job, it was wonderful to have him visit and for the children to know who he is.

For art this week the children worked on their small motor skills and colored a two paper bowls to make instruments. To make the instruments they had to follow a 2 step direction. First they colored the plates and then they added beans or pasta to their bowl. When they were finished we hot glued the edges of the bowls together. When they were finished making their instruments a lot of them choose to play with them.

The children had a wonderful time playing instruments this week. Each child had a chance to choose an instrument to play and we sang a few songs. Sometimes we played our instruments quietly and sometimes we played them loud and fast. I am sure you can guess which speed and sound they like the best .  We also worked on our listening and large motor skills by playing with the parachute. The children LOVED the parachute. We shook it slow, medium speed and fast. We held the parachute handle with one hand and walked with it and then ran with it. Each child also had the chance to go under the parachute while the rest of us shook it. They just loved it and listened really well.

See you on Tuesday,
Cullen Wood
Child of the King of Kings!
cullensabcs.com
Go Gators!

October 27, 2009

I know that this week I would not send out a newsletter but I feel that I have to tell you all about our morning together. Today was all about pumpkins and windy children .

Since it was a very windy day the children were also very windy too. I don’t know if you have ever thought about this but children seem to change with the weather. On windy day’s they seem to act extra twirly and are busy going from one activity to another…more so than usual .

We made pumpkin bread today and the smell of the classroom was simply delightful. I love this time of year with all the smells, they make me feel so cozy. We worked on measuring, counting, small motor skills when stirring and pouring, making a mess (a good mess) and cleaning it up, and waiting their turn to help. It was so cute when I measured out the flour and used my finger to level it off, one boy said: “my mom does that.” A lot of the children said that. I think it is wonderful that you have your child in the kitchen with you…they are learning so many things from you and watching your every move. Now that I really think about it I do believe that every child ate the pumpkin bread at snack time and I didn’t hear anyone say they didn’t like it.

We had a pumpkin patch at school where the children picked out their own pumpkin and took it home. We set up some pumpkins, scarecrows, and a pumpkin patch sign on the lawn. The children were so excited. We talked about the best way to hold the pumpkin. Of course the pumpkins kept slipping out of their hands and dropping on the ground. I am always surprised that there aren’t any pumpkins that break. We took a few pictures too .

We read a great book called Pumpkin Pumpkin. It is so simple, perfect for their age, and talks about how a pumpkin grows. I asked the children what we feed a pumpkin…do we feed it ice cream, pizza and spaghetti? No we feed it water, wind and sun…that is how a pumpkin grows. Of course there were a few giggles about the people food comment .

After we read the book we carved a pumpkin, well I carved a pumpkin. I started cutting the top of the pumpkin with a pumpkin carving knife which worked okay but then used a kitchen knife that worked the best. I talked with the children about being safe around knives and that only adults should use them. Each child had the opportunity to stick their hand inside and pull out the pulp and seeds. Some choose to do it while others choose to watch. I asked the children what it felt like and “slimy” was the most used word. Later I carved a face into the pumpkin.

I almost forgot about the finger-painting. The children finger-painted white construction paper pumpkins with orange paint. Light orange, orange, and glitter orange were the colors they had to choose from. They had a delightful time squishing the paint between their fingers and rubbing it onto their pumpkin (great small motor skills).

So to sum up our day…we made and ate pumpkin bread, read a pumpkin story, picked out a pumpkin to bring home, carved a pumpkin and finger-painted a pumpkin…Oh and we sang “5 Little Pumpkins.” Here is a link to the pumpkin bread and 5 little pumpkins if you are interested:

Pumpkin Bread: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewtQv8tm5XE

5 Little Pumpkins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9r65lQUqMg

Happy day,

Cullen

Week in Preschool
October 20 &22, 2009
Mrs. Wood’s Tuesdays & Thursdays 3 Year Old Class
Highlighted Themes: Nocturnal Animals and Spiders

Hi there,

Awww this week’s newsletter…have my glasses on (can’t believe I need these now), my peppermint hot chocolate Starbucks in hand (my favorite), I won’t be interrupted for 45 minutes (let’s hope), and I am ready to tell you all about the week that your wonderful child has had the opportunity to experience. Our theme this week is “nocturnal animals” but I was worried that I wouldn’t have time to talk about spiders next week so I had them crawl over to this week. Next week we talk about pumpkins though we really only have one day to do so because our costume parade and party are on Thursday (you will be receiving a separate email regarding the parade…so you know what to expect) and what a fun week that will be.

Art:
Owls

On Tuesday we talked about the many different kinds of owls, how they can turn their head almost all the way around, and that they are nocturnal. We talked about the meaning of the word nocturnal. We also talked about some other animals that are nocturnal. For art each child received a cut out of a brown owl where they glued on large wiggle eyes, an orange beak and brown and white feathers.

If you are interested here is one of my interactive video called “Brown Owl What Do You See?” involving owls you can do with your child at home.

Spiders
On Thursday we talked about spiders and for art the children made Styrofoam spiders. Each child painted a Styrofoam ball black and then stuck black pipe cleaners into the ball for the legs. They worked on their small motor skills painting that ball and worked those muscles in their hands sticking the pipe cleaners into the Styrofoam. I have to say those are some pretty cute spiders and they will look cute hanging in your house for Halloween!

Itsy Bitsy Spider is wonderful spider song to do with your child that involves finger movements that work on your child’s small motor skills. Here is a video felt board story with the Itsy Bitsy Spider you can watch with your child.

Cooking:
We had a fabulous parent helper come in to do cooking with the children on Tuesday to make owls. Each child spread some brown frosting (can use peanut butter-but with peanut allergies we didn’t want to chance it) onto a half of a graham cracker, that was the owls head. Then the children counted out two banana slices for the eyes and stuck those onto the graham cracker. After that they added two (or more) raisins for the black park of the eye onto the banana. Your child worked the muscles in their hands by spreading the frosting, worked on following directions and counting. One child, when she was eating her snack said: “this is like a treat.” All the children seemed to enjoy eating their owls.

If you are interested here is one of my videos on making meals with children.

Spider walk:
On Thursday we talked about spiders and while it is wonderful to read about them in books I think it is even better to go and look for them outside. We saw a couple of amazing spider webs and spiders in the middle of the web. This webs were like the ones you see in books…simply amazing!

Dramatizations:
We pretended to be owls on Tuesday. I paired the children up and gave them a hoop that was going to be their nest. Each child decided if they were going to be a mommy owl or a daddy owl. They got inside their hoop (nest) and we turned out the lights pretending it was night time. The children flew around and collected pretend twigs and feathers to build their nest. Then they flew out and brought back food for their babies in the nests. Then we turned on the lights and went to sleep.

Spider web game:
We made a spider web out of yearn today. The children sat in a circle on the carpet and we tossed a ball of yarn to each other making a web. Now I have to say I was a little hesitant doing this with 3 year old’s because of the steps to take to made the web but they really did a great job. We sat in a circle and one child holds one part of the yarn with one hand and throws the ball of yarn with the other hand to another child. The next child holds onto the yarn and throws the ball of yarn to another child. As long as the children hold onto their string of yarn it will make a neat web that looks like a spider spun it.

Here is fun spider web art activity you can do at home.

Happy Weekend!
Cullen Wood