Grace Garden Preschool

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

The weather cooperated with our lesson plan this week, as the Ladybugs learned all about our next season, WINTER!

We started off the week painting with cold ice cubes, using powdered tempera paint. As the ice melted, the powder turned a beautiful blue. The children loved this, and they'll be proud to show your their art hanging in the hall. The Ladybugs also practiced their scissor skills on Wednesday when they cut snow flakes out of white construction paper. We hung them from the ceiling and are pretending it's snowing in our room. By Thursday, enough snow had fallen to make snowmen! The Ladybugs glued cotton balls to paper and formed precious little snow people as a result.

Speaking of cotton balls, the sensory table was filled with the fluffy little bits this week. The Ladybugs loved filling measuring cups with them, sorting them into piles, and tossing them into the air!

We worked on matching according to colors this week, when the Ladybugs matched pairs of paper mittens. They did such a great job with this! We also learned a new finger play, called Five Little Snow People. The Ladybugs are quickly learning that they have five fingers on each hand, and how to count them.

We had a camera on hand all week, as we tried to catch the Ladybugs enjoying various aspects of winter. We photographed them wearing their coats and trying on colorful hats, mittens, and scarves in the dramatic play center. We also took pictures as they sipped hot chocolate on the chilly playground on Thursday. We will make another book for our classroom, using all of the photos we printed. Please stop by our book shelf next week and have your Ladybug show it to you!

The children loved our book selections this week, as they were all about snow, something very mysterious to our little friends who grow up in Austin! We read Winter Rabbit by Patrick Yee, A Very Special Snowflake by Don Hoffman, and one of our favorites, Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. This book illustrates all the fun snowmen have after everyone goes to sleep!

The Ladybugs were thrilled to welcome our new friend, Edie, to the gang this week. We're so happy you're a Ladybug, Edie! Next week, she will join us in learning different ways the holiday season is celebrated around our world.

We sure were happy to see your children's little faces on Tuesday! It's great to be back. Have a terrific weekend.

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy

Ask a Ladybug what a turkey says, and we hope she or he will say, "Gobble, gobble, gobble!" What a week it's been learning about Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, we read Spot's Thanksgiving by Eric Hill, which introduces holiday traditions through a dog named Spot. We worked so hard on our turkey centerpieces that day, which we used as decorations at the Thanksgiving Feast. We painted, colored, glued, stamped, stuck, glittered, and feathered during the process! We also made turkey hand print place mats for the Ladybugs and their families.

Our sensory table was filled with birdseed this week, and the Ladybugs' motor skills got a workout as they moved the seed from spoons to containers and back again.

We taught a lesson in colors and shapes on Wednesday as we formed turkeys out of geometric shapes. The children accessorized the birds' tails with popcorn, which they painted by squishing it around baggies filled with red paint! We read This First Thanksgiving by L.K. Melmed, when the Ladybugs learned about how the pilgrims and Native Americans worked together to prepare the first feast.

The Ladybugs also learned what a cornucopia is, as we made our own out of paper and filled them with paper fruits and vegetables. Speaking of food, we began sprucing up our kitchen play center, which we are filling with empty food containers from home. The Ladybugs just love pretending to cook using the same products that Mom and Dad use! After the holiday, we will ask you to please help us by bringing in any containers you may have tossed in your recycling bins.

We had a lot of fun teaching the kiddos the finger play, "Funny Bird", as well as the song, "If You're Thankful and You Know It Clap Your Hands." Your children are such a blast to teach, because they are so enthusiastic about everything!

We culminated our week, all together, in the Great Hall for our Thanksgiving Feast. What a fantastic time, for the entire school and their families to come together in fellowship. Thank you, parents, for all of your donations and for helping to make this event so special.

And thank you so much, Jude, for sharing your favorite snacks with us this week. We love cheese and pretzels, just like you!

We wish you a fun-filled and blessed Thanksgiving together. We are so thankful for each of the Ladybugs and their wonderful families! We will look forward to heading back to school on the 29th, when we will begin our studies of winter holidays...December is sure to fly!

Love,
Ms. Shannon and Ms. Tammy