Thursday, September 17

This morning we had our chapel in the gym.  We learned that the bible is the word of God written for us!  After chapel, an Our Shepherd alumni, Ashlyn, came and shared with us a project she is working on.  We are going to help collect toiletry items for teens in need!  Early Childhood and Kindergarten are on "Team Toothbrush."  Please bring in an individually packaged toothbrush if you would like to add to the donations! 

We then went to the playground! 

We then went to the hill! 

During our morning meeting we crossed off the number four on our chrysalis countdown chart.  We counted to four with our fingers.  We also showed the number four using two hands!  As we playfully explore addition concepts with our hands, we are laying a strong foundation for future math learning.  

In the outdoor classroom the friends were excited to get to work!  They began assigning roles.  

"We need a number writer." 

"We need a builder!" 

"I can stabilize!" 

We moved some of the blocks to make room for all of the friends. 

Then an exciting thing happened!  The friends found a caterpillar!  They applied what we have learned so far as they discussed the caterpillar. 

"Oh no! It's a white one!  Don't touch! Don't touch!" 

"Where is he going to build his cocoon?" 

"Maybe we should put him on the flowers and let him eat the leaves!" 

"Look for the butterfly!  Maybe he came back to drink more nectar!" 

A large part of early childhood education is learning these valuable social skills.  I noticed our friends need support on how to ask for an item that they would like to have that another friend has.  We took advantage of this teachable moment and used our nature walk time to provide extra social support for our friends.   We discussed and practiced how to resolve social conflicts.  

When someone has something that you want you can say: 

"How many minutes until my turn?" and / or "Can I have a turn when you are done?" 

When you have something that someone else wants, you can say: 

"You can have a turn in -- minutes." and / or "You can have a turn when I am done." 

I encourage you to role play various scenarios with your child at home too. :)