Happy Rainy Monday! 

Today we began our morning using our new name tags.  Some of the friends practiced writing their last names!

Free choice time is a great time for the children to develop relationships with one another! 

During morning meeting we played a game that helps us increase our phonemic awareness (the ability to play with the sounds of language).  I included a picture of the game below.  You can play this game with your child at home!  Research shows that a strong understanding of phonemic awareness leads to further success in reading skills.  We will play many games to increase our phonemic awareness throughout the school year.

Due to the rain, we were unable to go outside.  We stretched together in the gym instead! 

We then ran and played with our preschool friends from Mrs. Helmkamp's class.

Before small group time we read a book about how we are all different.  We discussed what we like about how God made us.  

Then, during small group time we worked to create our own self-portrait. This activity promotes a positive self-identity as well as reminds the children that they are fearfully and wonderfully made.  

We had fun doing a watercolor painting! 

Finally, we graphed our names! In this activity the children worked to count the letters in their names.  They then wrote each individual letter in one spot on the graph.  This activity promotes understanding of one to one correspondence (attributing one item per number counted), letter recognition, and name recognition.  Furthermore, it helps develop number sense as we discuss less, more, and equal.  Finally, in this activity we discussed how God knows our name and loves us very much!

During Jesus time, I illustrated for the children how God carefully made them.  I slopped a person together with play dough and asked the children if it looked good.  (See below- does it look nice?  ;) )  I shared with the children that God did not just slop us together.  He was careful when He created us!  We discussed how God knows all about us because He lovingly and carefully created us.  He sent His son, Jesus, to be our Savior! 

After lunch and quiet time we headed back to the gym to run and play.  We played Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox too!  This game helps one to one correspondence, counting, and give the children a chance to run. :) 

We then played a game where we cross the gym in different ways.  (Crawling, hopping, etc.)

Back in the classroom, we had second free choice time.

During second small group time we created another watercolor painting. 

We then measured how many crayons tall we are and wrote down our findings.  We discussed how we are all different, but God loves us very much! This activity promotes number recognition, counting, measuring, and fine motor growth. 

Finally, we made a poster to show various emotions.  We will hang this poster in our classroom. (We saved some for our half day friends to add.  :) ) This helps the children identify their emotions and can lead to emotional regulation.  We also discussed that no matter how we are feeling, Jesus loves us! 

(Can your guess our emotions?)