This morning we sang praise songs to God who is always with us! 

We then explored instruments! 

We practiced rhythm with rhythm sticks.  The friends practiced patterning and learning hoe to keep a beat.  Did you know that learning rhythm can help strengthen reading skills later in life? 

Our praying mantis died, and the friends were sad.  One of the friends asked, "Can we go look for another one?"  So we did! 

As as we were looking, we noticed a butterfly with symmetry! 

Sadly, even with all of our efforts, we did not find a praying mantis.  This was a good opportunity for the friends to practice how to handle disappointment. Sometimes things don't go the way we would like them to.  We praised God for his beautiful creation even though we didn't find a praying mantis. 

Free choice time 

Thank you to Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Borcherding for reading to us in the library today! 

During afternoon meeting we practiced rhyming.  Rhyming is an important phonemic awareness skill.  Research shows that children with strong phonemic awareness skills tend to be strong readers.