Grace Garden Preschool

With boots on our feet and hats on our head, the Ladybugs celebrated Texas's birthday in style this week! Aside from riding stick horses and herding the plastic animals in our sensory table, we talked about the color blue, letter H, and numbers one through five.

On Tuesday, the Ladybugs colored Texas flags on paper, learning the proper spots for the flag’s colors red, white, and blue. We also cut a huge state of Texas out of white paper and filled it with red and blue hand prints, to mimic the Texas Flag. We read Cowboy Small by Louis Lenski and talked about the animals, plants, and food that make up our Texan culture. We also took the Ladybugs on a buggy ride so that we could see the Texas flag flying high above the HEB across the street!

The Ladybugs began their Wednesday, brushing blue paint onto paper at the easel. They also colored pictures of cowboys, cows, and horses, which we made into puppets! Pastor Amy taught us in chapel that the cowboys of the Wild West would get lonely on their cattle drives and they would long for home. We then sang, "Home on the Range" and "Happy Birthday" to Texas. Later that day we dressed in suede (aka polyester) chaps, bandannas, and hats and posed for funny photos! We read a sweet book by Adam Gamble called, Good Night Texas.

By week's end, it was time to party! We donned our western wear and cut armadillos, boots, hats, and chili peppers out of Play Doh. The Ladybugs made bluebonnets out of glue and blue tissue squares. We baked our own cornbread muffins and ate them around a "campfire" while we read Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa by Betsy Lewin. Mrs. S. led us in our favorite tunes in music class - and even taught us some new cowboy-inspired songs. By the end of the day, we brought out the country music and we had a dance party. What a fantastic week!

Thank you, Jude, for the delicious snacks this week--you sure know how to treat your friends well. And thank you all for turning in your Summer Palooza and enrollment forms to Ms. Kym! 

Next week, we will talk about Spring and all of the wonderful things the season has to offer the Ladybugs! Enjoy your weekend with your adorable kiddos!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

"Brush your teeth, brush your teeth, brush them twice a day!" The Ladybugs have been singing that song all week, as they have learned the importance of taking care of their little teeth. In addition to talking about dental health, we focused on the color green, the letter G, and counting from one to five. 

The Ladybugs painted with dental floss and green paint on Tuesday and were surprised to see how the thin string left such interesting patterns on paper. We gathered a box full of green items from around the room and read Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox. We finally got to visit our garden after all of that rain last week! We were happy to discover tiny green sprouts where we planted our carrot and spinach seeds. 

On Wednesday, we painted with toothbrushes and colored a huge piece of white paper with green crayons. In chapel, Pastor Amy taught us to take good care of the body God gave us so that it stays strong and healthy. The Ladybugs also enjoyed playing with feathers in our sensory table and brushing our baby dolls' teeth!

We constructed pretend toothbrushes out of card stock and white felt on Thursday, and we read The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist. Mrs. S's music class didn't disappoint that morning, when we shook egg shakers and belted out our favorite tunes, as well as a new one about dental hygiene, of course!

This week we were happy to fill up our "Who is here today?" chart, because all of the Ladybugs are healthy and back together again! Thank you, Jamie, your snacks were a hit this week. 

Please remember to turn in your child's Summer Palooza registration form, as well as your child's enrollment paperwork for next year. Enrollment will soon open to the public, and we want to be sure your child has a spot at Grace Garden next year!

Next week, we'll don our boots and hats while we learn about cowboys and celebrate Texas's birthday. Have fun together this weekend, and we'll see you Tuesday.

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

What a week of friendship and love! 

The Ladybugs kicked off the week in a huge way with a Valentine's Day celebration on Tuesday. One by one, each Ladybug put valentines in their friends' bags. They were so proud to give a special gift to each of their friends! The children helped set the table for our red lunch: they helped spread the table cloth and hand out our place mats, plates, napkins, and utensils. We enjoyed the longest lunch of the year with happy conversation and lots of "mmmm"s and "more please"s!

On Wednesday, Pastor Amy helped us continue the theme of love during our chapel time. She taught us that we can wear invisible clothing of kindness, just as Paul wrote in one of his letters. We "tried on" these invisible socks, shirts, and pants of kindness and sang a new song about love.

The Ladybugs also made self portraits, by gluing eyes, noses, and lips to a circle on paper. We made puzzles out of the Ladybugs' photos, and the children did a super job putting together the faces of their friends. On Thursday, we made collages out of magazine cutouts, showing friends and families sharing time together. 

We talked a lot about treating our friends kindly, using gentle words and hands. We have also been focusing on covering our coughs, wiping our noses and washing our hands, and keeping toys out of our mouths. We have been trying our best to keep our room clean and your kiddos healthy. We sure have missed our sick friends...we hope you are feeling well soon!

Thank you so much, parents, for all of your beautiful valentines and for donating such delicious items for our lunch. We just love our class! 

If you have not already, please return your Summer Palooza form to the office, so that Kym knows if you would like your child to attend Grace Garden's summer camp program this June. Thank you! We are excited to get plans underway for what will surely be a fun way to spend our early summer days. 

We will see you all again on Tuesday, when we will begin our unit on dental health. 

Have a terrific weekend!

Love, 
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

We were feeling the love in the Ladybug room this week, as we focused on Valentine's Day, love, and friendship. We also talked about the letter E, the color red, and the number4.

The Ladybugs started the week by learning the heart shape. On Tuesday, the Ladybugs dipped heart cookie cutters in red and pink paint and stamped them on white paper. We cleared some space in the garden and planted spinach and carrot seeds. We explained that valentines are special cards for the people we love by reading Happy Valentine's Day, Mouse! by Laura Joffe Numeroff. In this book, Mouse works hard making valentines for all of his friends. We explained that we will be doing the same thing next week! 

The Ladybugs painted red letter Es at the easel on Wednesday. Pastor Amy taught us about the Paul's letter to the Corinthians--she had two Caterpillar students clang noisy cymbals to demonstrate what life is like without love. She then had two more Caterpillars ring sweet bells to show how beautiful life is with love. After chapel, we taught a finger play called "One Little Valentine" and a song, "Do You Know My Valentine", the words to which you have in your folders. Our friend Jude also showed us the hand sign for "I love you"!

On Thursday, the Ladybugs decorated "mailboxes" out of red paper bags, which they will use next Tuesday for our big valentine exchange. We sang about love in music class with Mrs. S, and we made a heart shaped bird feeder for our back porch. We Ladybugs do love watching the birds outside our windows! We also read the silly book Max's Valentine by Rosemary Wells.

Please remember to bring two things Tuesday morning: your child's valentines and the item you are donating to our Red Lunch. There will be no need to send a regular packed lunch that day! 

We sure hope our sick Ladybug friends are feeling better soon. We really miss you!

Next week, there will be more hearts, hugs, and kisses, as we celebrate Valentine's Day and continue our talks about love and friendship. Have a great weekend together!

Love, 
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

It was more long necks and pointy teeth for the Ladybugs this week, as we continued our unit on dinosaurs. We also focused on the color green, the letter D, and the number 4.  On Tuesday, the Ladybugs spent a lot of time at the easel, painting and coloring with green. They discovered that many dinosaurs were green, and that dinosaur starts with the letter D!  The Ladybugs used markers to color coffee filters, on Wednesday. We sprayed them with water and watched the colors bleed together.  In chapel, Pastor Amy talked about what traits God gave each dinosaur to help it survive on Earth. She then taught the children that God gave us the abilities to talk and love, which help us happily survive on Earth.  We took a brief departure from dinosaurs to talk about Groundhog Day on Thursday. The Ladybugs made shadows on the wall with flashlights and then fashioned little groundhog puppets out of popsicle sticks and pom poms. We also played a game with shape cutouts. We placed the shapes on the floor and asked the Ladybugs to stand on a certain shape. The Ladybugs loved this and are really coming along with their shape recognition! In music, we sang our usual tunes, as well as our new favorite, "We are the Dinosaurs Marching!"

Thanks, Jude, for the delicious, healthy snacks this week!

Valentine's Day is fast approaching, and planning is underway for a festive red lunch and valentine exchange on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Please sign up to bring a red food item to our party. Also look for a class list in your child's folder, which will help you and your Ladybug prepare cards for their pals.

The Ladybugs will actually learn all about Valentine's Day next week as we begin our study of love and friendship. Have a super weekend together!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

"We are the Dinosaurs Marching!" is what the Ladybugs sang this week, as they stomped around the room pretending to be prehistoric friends of all shapes and sizes. 

Our sensory table overflowed with plastic carnivores and herbivores, and the Ladybugs had a great time maneuvering them through sand. The Ladybugs read Oh my Oh my Oh Dinosaurs! by Sandra Boynton and Dinosaurs Roar by Paul and Henrietta Stickland, both sweet dinosaur books with gentle illustrations. Pastor Amy taught us the story of creation in chapel, using beautiful oil paintings to signify light, water, and the living things God put on Earth. We also learned a song that thanked God for making dinosaurs! The Ladybugs made dinosaur masks out of construction paper and they glued sand to cardboard Tyrannosaurus Rexes.

In addition to dinosaurs, the Ladybugs learned about the color yellow, the letter C, and the number 3. We painted at the easel with yellow paint, made yellow play dough, formed shapes with yellow yarn as we glued it to yellow paper. The Ladybugs colored letter Cs on paper, used C cutters to shape play dough, and we talked about some familiar words that begin with this letter.

We have also been focusing on being kind to our friends. The Ladybugs are doing a great job! We love watching how they hug each other throughout the day.

Thank you for doing such a great job coloring the homework assignment! We hope you have enjoyed the display in the hall as much as we have. And thanks to Hudson and Grace for our yummy snacks.

Next week, more dinosaurs! Have a terrific weekend.

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

The Ladybugs became firefighters, doctors, and construction workers this week, as we continued our unit on Community Helpers. 

We wore firefighter hats and sang, "Down by the Station"; we hung stethoscopes around our necks and played "Doctor, Doctor, Nurse" (instead of Duck, Duck, Goose!); and we mixed cookie dough by pounding it with hammers and other tools, as we pretended we were construction workers! Our sensory table was filled with dirt, rocks, and sand, so the Ladybugs could drive toy police cars, ambulances, and construction vehicles through it.

We moved on to the letter B, the color red, and the number two this week. The Ladybugs painted with red, drew with red markers and crayons, and investigated our red prop box, filled with red objects from our room. They also discovered what the letter B looks like and learned what words start with B. And the Ladybugs learned to hold up two fingers to count to two! We talked about colors and shapes as the Ladybugs rolled Play Doh and drew with rulers and stencils.

In chapel, Pastor Amy taught us about how God taught Moses the 10 laws on the summit of Mount Sinai, focusing on "Love your neighbor, as you love yourself". We took that idea to our classroom, and applied it to how we play together and share our toys. The Ladybugs sang "The People in Our Neighborhood" in music class with Mrs. S, which you may remember hearing on Sesame Street when you were a child!

As you already know, we gave the Ladybugs some homework this week. After noticing how much taller your kiddos are getting (some have grown nearly two inches since the beginning of the year!), we decided to trace their little bodies so that they can decorate them with you at home. There's no deadline, but we would love to hang their finished projects in our classroom. Thank you for taking time to do this!

How thrilled we are to report that Koen is now a Ladybug! Hooray! Edie, thank you so much for making the Ladybugs' tummies so happy.  Your snacks were a huge hit this week! 

We are going to have a blast next week when we begin our two week unit on dinosaurs. Until then, have a fantastic weekend. We'll look forward to seeing everybody on Tuesday.

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

The Ladybugs didn't miss a beat transitioning back into our school routine this week!
Community helpers were the topic, as we talked about how we all work together to make our communities a better place. We started off looking at the book, ABCs of Jobs by Richard Brown, a terrific book with detailed photos and descriptions of various professionals. We decided to focus on mail carriers this week. On Tuesday, the Ladybugs played in a pretend post office, where they could mail boxes, letters, and envelopes. They also put mail in our very own mail box. On Wednesday, they made mail bags and wrote postcards to send to themselves! Have your child check the mail box with you in a few days, and they should be surprised to see their postcards arrive at home. In order to enjoy the beautiful weather on Wednesday, we took a buggy ride, and pointed out the mail boxes we saw at the homes across the street.

The Ladybugs also focused on the letter A, the color blue, and the number one this week. We talked about the letter A, and cut out magazine pictures of things that start with that letter. We also filled a box with blue items from our room, including a ball, a lego, tape, tissue paper, and a musical instrument. We taught the Ladybugs to hold up their pointer fingers to count to one!

We tended to our garden on Tuesday and under all of the leaves that had accumulated over break, we found radishes that were ready to harvest! What a great surprise!

The cold weather on Thursday inspired us to put on our chef hats and bake a batch of warm blueberry muffins for our snack. The Ladybugs love to cook, and they especially enjoyed mashing a portion of our berries to flavor the batter! We included our recipe in the folders.

We were thrilled to welcome our newest friend, Hudson, to our class. We are so happy she is a Ladybug!

Next week, we will continue learning about community helpers. Have a terrific weekend together!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

The song says, "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Those lyrics rang true in the Ladybug room this week, as we filled our days with Christmas stories, carols, and crafts.

We started off our week making paper reindeer, of course! We fashioned the faces out of the Ladybugs' foot prints and antlers out of their little hand prints. Because we read and sang about Rudolph, we just had to finish off our projects with a special red pom pom nose!

The Ladybugs also decorated cookies and made a variety of ornaments for our classroom's tree. We could tell those Ladybugs have watched someone hang ornaments from tree limbs before! They knew just what to do to make our tree look beautiful. The sensory table was filled with all things needed to wrap gifts, and some of the Ladybugs just loved jumping up and down on bubble wrap. What fun to hear the popping sound under their feet! The children also worked really hard on making lovely gifts for their most favorite people in the world (we hope you like your pine cone trees!).

The story of the nativity was the topic in chapel this week, as the Ladybugs learned that Christmas is actually our way of celebrating Jesus' birthday. The church's beloved Ms. Sally illustrated the story with a wooden nativity scene, and we ended our lesson with the whole school singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.

Mrs. S's music class was a blast, as usual, as we sang and danced to our favorite Christmas carols. The Ladybugs are starting to love, "Jingle Bells".

On Thursday, the Ladybugs learned how to say, "Ho Ho Ho!", as we read and talked about Santa Claus. They learned that Santa gives children presents, just as the three wise men gave presents to baby Jesus. They ended the week with a thrill, as they painted big red paper candy canes with marbles that had been dipped in white paint.

We hope you enjoy every minute of this holiday season, as it is truly wonderful when you can share it with a child. We will miss the Ladybugs like crazy over the next three weeks, but will be ready to see how much taller they are when we head back to school next month. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

What a magical week it's been in the Ladybug classroom! We've studied holidays that are celebrated this time of year all around the world. Your little ones' curiosities were in high gear - and it's a good thing, because the cold weather kept us inside!

We talked about the African holiday, Kwanzaa, on Tuesday and read books about this day. We also made a construction paper kinara, which is used to hold the candles that represent the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Those principles are unity, self-determination, community responsibility, shared work and wealth, purpose, creativity and faith. Although these principles are interesting to you and me, the Ladybugs enjoyed most looking at pictures of families cooking and eating together, and sprinkling glitter on their seven paper candles.

Menorahs and dreidels were the topic of discussion on Wednesday, when the Ladybugs explored the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. They were enamored with a wooden toy menorah we had in the classroom that day, as well as a wooden toy skillet, spatula, and two pretend latkes that they took turns cooking in our "kitchen". You can't keep these Ladybugs out of the kitchen, they love to cook! We sang "The Dreidel Song," as we inspected a dreidel and pretended to play the dreidel game. The Ladybugs colored paper candles with their beloved markers, which we used for our paper menorah in the hall. They also counted and arranged six blue triangles and silver glitter to form the Star of David.

We turned our eyes to Christmas on Thursday and talked about how the holiday is celebrated in Mexico. We toured the halls at Saint John's and looked at the beautiful red poinsettias lining our path, and talked about how these plants are native to Mexico. We decided to make our very own poinsettias out of tissue paper! We also talked about Las Posadas, a celebration re-enacting Mary and Joseph's long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of lodging. We examined a Mexican nativity set, and lastly, the Ladybugs made their version of a Mexican tin ornament. What a great day!

We, and our favorite jolly old elf, hope to see you at Grace Garden's Breakfast with Santa this Saturday from 9-10:30 a.m. in the Great Hall. Please bring an unwrapped toy for your child to give to Santa, so that he may deliver that toy to a child in need. There will be photos, cookie decorating, and plenty of milk and coffee to enjoy.

Next week, we will end our first semester with a BANG! as we celebrate Christmas for three days straight! See you on Saturday!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy