"Forsake Not Your Mother's Teachings"

I Peter 4:8 - Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.

This has been a very busy month for us. Our school year is coming to a close and Mother’s Day is just around the corner. We will be working on craft for our moms and our end of the year project. These are happy and sad occasions. We love to celebrate Mother’s Day, but I am sad to see my kids move on to another class or school.

I asked the children what they would like to do for mom on Mother’s Day. They gave me wonderful ideas, but one struck me as really cool sounding. Julia, who loves art a lot, wanted to do something with all the pictures that we have been taking throughout the year.

We decided to go on a nature walk and pick up leaves, flower petals from the garden and anything else flat that they wanted. We put these items in the flower press for a few days and talked about how we wanted to display them.

In our classroom we have four great windows and I try to put see-through items in them. The children are used to doing a lot of activities for our windows.

We took all the nature items that we collected, pressed them on the sticky side of laminating film along with five of their favorite pictures. This was about 8 ½” wide and about 12” long. Once they were happy with their activity we added a thin border of scrapbook paper around the edge. We ran it through the Xyron® No-Heat Laminator (NOHEAT). This laminator allows the children to laminate their own art without fear of burns. We punched holes in the top and strung red ribbon through the holes for hanging.

These keepsakes made a great Mother’s Day gift, that was completely done by the children.

It will be exciting to see the expression on mom’s face when she opens her gift. We had so much fun making these and hope you do too.

Rainbow Promises

“I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and all the earth. Genesis 9:13”

This is one of my favorite times of the year. Spring is just around the corner and we can experience the wonderful weather where we can head outside. We are going to explore the wind and the rain, planting seeds and making wind chimes.

Our first week in March was all about the wind and spring rains that we get in Arizona. We have cool temperatures through March, April and May, before the desert heat sets in.

In circle time we talk about how God planned for seasons. This is the life cycle for all living things and spring is that renewal of life that has been hibernating during the winter. In our classroom we have wonderful window that we look out each day to see what the weather is like. We looked at clouds and tried to guess what they looked like. We read the story, “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” and made our own blotter art with White paint and dark color construction paper and laughed at what we thought they were.    

With spring weather, it changes very fast. It can be raining, than the wind blows all the clouds away and behold a beautiful rainbow. The children wanted to make rainbows like they saw out our windows. We read the book “The Rain Came Down” by David Shannon . We talked about how the rainbow is a promise from God that he would never flood the earth and that a rainbow is always seen after each rain when the sun comes out. We sang the rainbow song so the children would learn the color order of the rainbow and the shape we learned was an arc. We set out to create our see-through rainbows.

We each had an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of wax paper. I set out BioColor® paints in the rainbow colors. I use BioColor® because it is the only paint that will adhere to wax paper, not flake off and the colors are translucent. I gave them the freedom to use their fingers and paint to make their rainbows. After they were dry we put construction paper frames of their color choice around the wax paper and hung them in the windows. They looked awesome and were a lot of fun to do.

This is just the beginning of so many spring activities that we all enjoy so much.

God bless and have a wonderful March.
Lynn

Oh, the Wonderful Things of Valentine’s Day!

“We Are Wonderfully Made”

I so love Valentine’s Day that I make it the two weeks of Valentines. I love the wonderful colors of pinks, reds, purples, and all the lace, doilies and ribbons.

I also love to cook in the classroom during these two weeks. We love to make pancakes in heart shapes and waffles with red strawberries and yogurt.

This is a great time to use so many books and activity extensions. One of my all-time favorites is Jamberry, by Bruce Degan. I use this book to help my children understand that God has given us our five senses to experience all the, wonders of everything In this book.

For the sense of sight, I put all kinds of glitter, sparkle, and construction paper in the art and writing center for them to use to make cards and hearts.

For the sense of touch, we used silk scarves for dancing. We filled the sensory table with lace, doilies and material along with scissors for cutting. They used these items also in the art center. This was also a great small motor skill builder.

For the sense of taste, we made, Jamberry Tarts. We took refrigerator biscuits, rolled them in to small balls and put a thumb print in them and a spoonful of jam. We went to the school kitchen and watched them bake.

For the sense of hearing we make sound sensory bottles with all the colors of pinks, reds and purples.

For the sense of smell, we made Valentine heart potpourri that we could give away. We used the large doilies from Discount School Supply®. If you double them it makes them pretty sturdy and can be sewn easily with yarn and stuffed with whatever scent that the children would like to put in them.

We made red, pink and purple play dough with koolade and of course used a lot of heart, cupids and Valentine shaped cookie cutters.

Valentines is a great time to talk about love for one another and that God loved us so much, “We are Wonderfully Made”.

Have a blessed week.

Lynn

It's a New Year

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;
old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new."
2 Corinthians 5:17

Our first week back at school and our theme is The New Year. I thought long and hard about how I wanted to help my kids understand that we are now in a new year and the old year is gone. Being four years old, they really can’t grasp the "New Year" concept so I decided we would go with celebrating the old things we still love and the excitement of discovering new things.

This was a good theme for me and the kids. I am in a new school and I am a new teacher for the kids in this class. They are used to Miss Jessy, whom they felt comfortable with and knew the class routine. Change is going to be hard for me but harder for them. We talked a lot about how we like to hold onto things that are the same, and it is hard to give those things up. We also talked about how something new can be very exciting and a little scary.

We talked about what is old and what is new. For show and tell they brought in something old that they have had for a long time and something new they just got. They talked about what they liked about the routine in their classroom and if they would like to change anything. We prayed each day that God would help all of us not to be scared and that we could all work together, have fun with the old and enjoy the new.

I started with adding "New Year” items to the sensory table. I put in sensory bottles that had glitter. We put in confetti, hats, noise makers, streamers and glasses that said “2012" on them. We sprinkled in Insta-Snow® (SNO) for winter along with Opal Glitter (OGLI) which made it shimmer. This was a very popular activity for the kids. They wore the glasses, played with the snow and enjoyed making noise with the noise makers. They continued to make suggestion of new items to put in and you can see by the picture.

We all learned that if we trust in the Lord, no matter what changes come along, he will guide and protect us. When we become a new creature in God, old ways pass a way. It is exciting to see what new things He has in store for us.

This is a new year. Enjoy the changes that happen in your classroom and remember to thank God for all the things that stay the same and all that are new.

Have a blessed week.
Lynn

The True Meaning of Christmas

Christmas is rich with all the gold, silver, reds, blues and green colors that surround our room. We are talking about, exploring and using all of our senses to experience the sights, sounds, textures and smells of Christmas. 

For this post, I am going to let you know what we are doing in my classroom to help my children understand the true meaning of Christmas and to get the feel of how it felt on the first Christmas morning.

We read the Christmas story from the Bible and other children's books to help them understand that first Christmas morning.
Mary was going to have baby Jesus very soon, so she must have been tired and uncomfortable riding on the back of a donkey or walking. I invited a mom, who is pregnant and due very soon, to come talk about how she feels and if she would like to travel a long way on the back of a donkey. The children had many questions for her.  

We talked about how there was no hotel for them to stay at so they had to stay in a stable where the animals lived. I brought in hay and animal feed so they could experience the smell of the stable.

We talked about the shepherds and how they travel a long way outside of Bethlehem to see baby Jesus and the glorious angels. We dressed as Joseph, Mary, shepherds and angels for dramatic play.

We also put out lots of items that help us celebrate the Christmas holiday. We put colored bows in the sensory table for matching. We added wrapping paper, scissors and tape to wrap packages. We made candy canes with red and white pony beads and white pipe cleaners. This was great for sorting, making a pattern and developing small motor skills. I put angel shapes in the free art area and let them decorate them however they wanted. This was one of the most popular art activities. We had a host of angels throughout our room. Our angels were beautifully adorned with gold and silver paint, opal, red and silver glitter.

The children enjoyed all this, unstructured time for exploring the many things of Christmas. We don’t talk a lot about Santa Clause unless the children bring it up. We try to focus more on the caring and sharing of this blessed holiday.

Enjoy your Christmas time in the classroom.

God bless.
Lynn

Giving With a Cheerful Heart

Jacob made Joseph a special robe with long sleeves. 

Genesis 37:3

With Thanksgiving coming up in November we started our giving with a cheerful heart theme.  We started by telling the story of Joseph's coat of many colors. Joseph’s coat was a gift from his father, because he loved him very much.

At circle time we talked about what kind of gifts we have received and which ones were our favorites. This was very easy for my kids because they all receive gift throughout the year. When I asked what kind of gifts they have given to people they love, this was harder for them to come up with an answer. 

My goal for this theme is to help them understand that we give as well as receive and we give with a cheerful heart. I asked for them to bring in two of their favorite toys. I asked if they were to give away one of their favorite toys, which would it be. Several of my children were ok with giving away one of their toys to another child who does not have a toy, but most did not want to give one of their toys away. 

We talked about how God wants us to give to others and that we need do so with a cheerful heart. This means helping others with our time, money and even our toys.

We took brown grocery bags and cut them into the shape of a vest. I gave the children glue, brushes and pieces of colored tissue paper to put on their vest. They also could use dot markers and regular markers to decorate as they wished.

When our vests were complete and dry, we drew names out of a bag and the vest they made was given to another classmate. I reminded them that we often don't know the person we are helping but we give with a cheerful heart.

We all loved doing this activity, the girls more than the boys, but we all had a good time and a good lesson on the act of giving. We will wear our vests for the Thanksgiving feast.

Hope you enjoy doing this lesson with your class as much as we did.

Have a blessed day.

Lynn

Winter in July

“God Helps Us Weather the Storm”

We are continuing our Vacation Bible School theme, of “God Helps Us Weather the Storm”, and this week it is, “Winter in July.”

It is very hot this time of year all across the country, so we wanted to help cool us and our kids off, even if just for a little while.

We set all of our centers up with snow, ice and cold air for play and art. During our circle time we talked about how snow and cold make a difference in our lives. We asked how many have played in snow or gone ice skating? Many of our kids have done both and they talked about their experiences of playing in the snow and ice. We looked at a lot of pictures of children and how they were dressed for playing in the winter weather.

We talked about how to be safe in winter weather and what can be scary about snow and ice. My children gave answers like heavy snow coming down, hail hitting the car, and snow being too cold for their hands and faces.

Just like any weather we experience, we always have to be prepared and pray that God helps us weather the storms. We talked about how we can ask God to help and be with us through all the stormy times in our lives.

Our children went to all the different centers. They played in Insta-Snow® (SNO) in the sensory table. We put winter clothes in the dress-up center, kool-aid and ice cubes painting in the art center. We made rainsticks with white packing peanuts and cardboard tubes. They had a great time making snowflakes with coffee filters and Colorations® Liquid Watercolor. We ice skated to music with paper plates on their feet on the blue carpet.

This was the last lesson in our Vacation Bible School, but I thought they had the most fun exploring all the winter activities that we did. We helped these young children understand that God will help us weather all that happens in their lives, all they need to do is ask.

Hope you enjoy doing these activities with your young children.

Have a blessed week.

Lynn