Happy Friday!  

Today we celebrated Elijah's birthday!  We thank God for bringing Elijah to Our Shepherd! 

Even after a week and a half, our name writing has improved! 

We are also developing friendships with each other.  Learning to make and maintain a friendship is a lifelong skill! 

During free choice, many of the children assigned each other roles.  Assigning roles in play scenario is an indicator of mature play.  Mature play is a goal of free choice time as mature play increases cognitive development. 

Free choice time is also a great time to engage in meaningful writing!

During free choice time,  we are working to equip the children to solve their conflicts themselves.  Positive conflict resolution is a social skill that will benefit the children throughout their lives! 

Some of the friends ordered the bugs!  Great job sequencing! 

Today we went to the library.  We were able to check out books!  We learned to be super careful with our books too.  Books are due back next Friday.  (August 26th)

ELijah brought a yummy treat to share to celebrate his birthday!  Thank you Elijah!  

Outdoor play

During small group time we explored counting bears.  Although the name suggests that these bears are simply used for counting, they are used for so much more!  The friends sorted the bears, put the bears in lines, and worked to share the bears.  They are learning foundational math skills as well as important social skills. 

We also made a flower for a collaborative flowerpot artwork. 

Finally, the friends worked to make labels for our classroom.  They wrote words such as:

door

window

flower

Look around our classroom for these labels!  This activity not only increases writing skills, but also strengthens the connection between spoken word and written print.  Because the children wrote the words themselves, they are more meaningful to them.  For example, after small group time some of the friends were excited to show their labels to each other.  

"Look!  I wrote this one!  It says door!"

The friends even hung their labels themselves!  This increases the meaning to them as well as their interest.

During Jesus time we reviewed the creation story.  We learned that Adam and Eve sinned in the garden when they disobeyed God.  We also learned that God promised them that He would send a Savior. He kept His promise; He sent Jesus to be our Savior!  We thank and praise God for the gift of salvation! 

After lunch and quiet time, we headed back outside to play.

Avery brushed off the steps for his friends!  

We noticed a spider on the playground...

and everyone came over to observe it! 

Pastor Matt saw us observing him his window and he brought us a jar to collect the spider for further investigation.

We then found another spider, exactly like the first one, and collected him too! 

Back in the classroom we engaged in free choice play.  

Olivia and Karissa cooked some delicious meals for us! 

Block play lays the foundation for future math learning as well as problem solving!  Not to mention, block play is fun!  :) 

We loved observing the spiders during free choice time!  We compared the spiders to the picture of a spider that we have in our classroom. 

During second small groups we made one more flower for our flower pot. 

We had a choice to observe the spiders or explore the bears. 

Finally, we worked to write a few more labels for our classroom.

We had a great week of school!