I’m back on the blog ready to share last week’s activities! Life’s been a little hectic lately and I couldn’t seem to get into the routine of blogging. Mrs. Fesmire and her family have had a rough time of it with sickness these last few weeks. With four boys and a husband it takes awhile for these illnesses to get through her whole household. We’ve had some wonderful subs come in to help out but it is nice to have her back in the classroom. We hope and pray health is here to stay for her.

We finished all our VeggieTale characters by making a very brown Mr. Lunt and we water colored to make the last page in our color book. I can’t wait to show you the finished project.

We learned that Hannah, a woman the Bible talks about, was sad because she didn’t have any children. She prayed to God, asking Him for a child. God heard Hannah’s prayer and gave her a boy who she named Samuel. Hannah was so thankful for her son that she dedicated him to the Lord and when he was old enough he lived in the temple. He grew up to be a mighty prophet of God.

We too have been praying. Everyone was given the opportunity to talk to God. I have recorded them on the prayer wall in the hallway. Periodically I will add more of your child’s prayers to the wall. We know that we can talk to God anytime and anywhere and He will always hear our prayer. We added praying hands to the wall with painted hand prints to show how we sometimes pray. We recite the poem on top of the wall everyday before we thank God for our snack.

The kids loved to sing, Let us Pray. Here are the words:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Let us pray, let us pray everywhere and every way. Every moment of the day, it is the right time. For the Father above, He is listening with love and He wants to answer us so let us pray. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Just a reminder that this Wednesday, November 11, there will be no school because of Veteran’s Day.

We did everything in purple this week. One little boy who had no purple clothes made a purple hat to wear to school! I also saw a lot of purple clothes, pony tails and clips on the girls, even purple shoes. We had purple fruit snacks and purple grapes for snack. I love the creative ways you all think of to help reinforce the color of the week.

Our purple color page was made by gluing purple ovals onto a grape cluster shape. We will save them for our color books. We also made Larry Boy who is actually a cucumber turned super hero from VeggieTales! Many of us painted with purple at the easel too. We painted purple hand prints to make praying hands to remind us how much God loves to hear from us in prayer.

We have been learning about Joshua’s faith that God will do what He says He will do. Joshua led God’s people (Abraham’s children) to the promised land but when they got there they found a city with a huge wall surrounding it. Joshua didn’t know what to do so he prayed. God answered his prayer in a very unusual way. Joshua and all the people were told to walk around the city many times for seven days and on the last lap they blew their trumpets and shouted. At that very moment the walls of the city crumbled.  We know that our God can even knock down that big wall because our God is great and strong and mighty so we sang our song, My God is So Great. You can read the story in the Bible by clicking here.

In our story this week, The Falling Leaves by Steve Metzer, we saw four fall colored trees; red, orange, yellow and even purple. The leaves on each tree were making plans on how they would float off the tree and where they would land once the wind picked up, but the wind had different ideas for them. They landed in a mud puddle. Only yellow leaf, who was willing to let the wind take charge of his flight to the ground, ended up on the ride of his life, viewing many parts of the world that he had never seen before and ending up on a beautiful, warm pond with a family of ducks. We compared that to how God wants us to let Him lead us and obey His commands rather than try to make our own way. What a great adventure we can all experience when we allow God to take charge of our lives!

You might have noticed our very empty hallway walls. Usually, by this time of year they are filled with pictures and children’s art work. We are anxiously waiting for the go ahead to fill them once again when the fresh paint has cured. Keep your eyes open to a hallway transformation!

Looking forward to Brown Week!

We had a busy but fun week! Monday and Tuesday we decorated our November calendars with turkey hand prints. Some of us were a little apprehensive about getting paint all over our hands but we did it. We also made “I am thankful for…” pumpkins. Thank you for cutting out their favorite foods and sending them in. The children painted orange circles and pressed their favorite food pictures onto their pumpkins. We learned that every good gift, including good food, comes from God and we thank Him for all His blessings.

On Wednesday and Thursday we had some fun singing to our parents, grandparents and friends. I think their favorite song was “Five Little Blackbirds sitting in a tree teasing Mr. Scarecrow, ‘You can’t scare me, you can’t scare me.’ Along comes Mr. Scarecrow as quiet as can be. ‘Boo!’ Four little blackbirds sitting in a tree…”

We had a nice party and enjoyed all the yummy goodies you all brought in. Thanks! Thank you to the moms and dad who helped prepare and serve our party snacks too!

After our party we met the firemen. We were a little uncertain as we watched them dress up in their fire equipment but we showed the children that even though they look a little scary they are our friends and if we are ever in a fire the firemen will take us to our parents. When we got back to the classroom each of us practiced crawling  under the smoke, out of our houses and dialing 9-1-1. I hope you all got a chance to check out the fire truck.

Monday/Tuesday begins purple week! Can you think of things that are the color purple?

Wednesday October 28, 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

We’ve been busy practicing our Harvest Day songs we plan to sing to our parents on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Hope you can make it! You can stay with your child at drop off and we will sing a few songs beginning at 9:15. The sign up sheet for the Harvest Day party is up on the hallway bulletin board. If you haven’t already done so please sign up to bring one item to help us celebrate. Remember to check labels for any nuts or nut oil.

After our party the firemen will be visiting our school to teach us about fire safety. After pick up at the end of the day you are invited to take your child out to the fire truck parked in the Niagara Falls Blvd. parking lot.  It’s going to be a full day!

We met Orange and Black Crazy Color Creatures this week. I was going to save Black for this coming week but the children kept asking for him so out he came. Our songs go “Orange, orange ate a carrot, Crazy Color Creature” and “Black, Black lives in a shack, Crazy Color Creature.” Now, I know carrot does not rhyme with orange but he was pictured taking a bite of a carrot and since nothing really rhymes with orange we sang it.

We made an orange and black color page for our color books by dipping halved carrots and yams into orange paint and pressing them onto a black piece of paper. It sounded like construction workers were in our room with all the pounding. We also made Laura the Carrot from VeggieTales.

Please remember to take a few minutes this weekend to help your child pick pictures of food that he/she likes, cut them out and bring them to class on Monday/Tuesday. You can use grocery store fliers, magazines or whatever you can find. We will be making “I am thankful for… pumpkins.”

I am thankful that the sickness that has been prevalent around the local schools has not hit us. We have had near or perfect attendance all week. I pray we all continue to stay healthy.

First Trinity is hosting an awesome event for young children and their parents on Sunday, October 25 at 5:30 pm. It is called “In Jest” and features Nels Creamean, who does a comedy variety show including side-splitting, gravity-defying fun with clean comedy, flying objects, audience participation, incredible stunts and amazing yet useless skills!

Tickets are available at the church office and cost only $1. If you bring a child, the child is $1 and you are free! An offering will also be taken.

Here’s the best part: Included is a pasta buffet with mac and cheese, baked ziti and alfredo. All for $1! Let me know if you have any questions about it.

My family and I will be there. Hope to see you there too!

We had a short week because of Columbus Day and a teacher’s convention but we still had time for lots of learning and playing. We reinforced green throughout the day by marble painting green frogs to be saved for our Color Books, meeting Junior Asparagus in a short VeggieTales clip and then making him and reading about a green caterpillar in the book, Hermie by Max Lucado. We reinforced the making of green by mixing blue and yellow. We met our Green Crazy Color Creature! She is a pickle but what makes her so crazy is that she is a dancing queen!

We continue to talk about how God always keeps His promises, back in Bible times and today too! We learned that God called Abraham to move to a new land. He obeyed God and God promised to go with him. God always goes with us too. There is no place we can go where God isn’t there. We pretended we were going on a trip and everyone helped pack the suitcase with clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, pajamas, hairbrush and even a toy frog. We learned that Jesus goes with us wherever we go. He is with us at circle, in art, the bathroom, the gym and even when we go home.

I hope you will sing some of our songs we learned with your child at home:

• (Tune: Are You Sleeping) Where is Jesus? Where is Jesus? Everywhere. Everywhere. He is always with me. He is always with me. He loves me. He loves me. (We use hand motions from Where is Thumpkin)
• (Tune: The Farmer in the Dell) I’m going away in a car. I sit, sit, sit. Jesus comes along with me. Honk! Honk! Honk! I’m going away in a train. Bumpity, bumpity, bump! Jesus comes along with me. Toot! Toot! Toot! I’m going a way in a boat. Splash, splash, splash. Jesus comes along with me. Varoom! Varoom! Varoom!
• Jesus says, I’m with you. You’re never alone. You’re never alone. (Child’s name) Jesus says, I’m with you. You’re never alone my friend.

Monday Wednesday October 14, 2009

Tuesday Thursday October 13

Beginning Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22 we will be making a small adjustment in our dismissal by switching doors. Please wait outside the first door where I will have a dismissal sign posted.  I will call your child based on the order you are standing straight down the long hallway. Once you have reclaimed your child exit via the second door and then retrieve coats etc.

Please inform all friends and family who pick up. Thank you for your patience.

Tuesday and Wednesday are the only two days we will be open this week. We celebrate Columbus Day on Monday and the teachers are going to a convention on Thursday at Camp Pioneer. Remember on Tuesday there is a possibility that the Glenhurst side doors of the church will be locked due to an inside painting project. If those doors are blocked off you can enter through the double doors of the gymnasium or enter on the Niagara Falls Blvd. side.

What does Madame Blueberry, a bluebird and the whole earth have in common? They are blue and were created by our children last week! What fun we had as we painted with feathers and sponges, glued and traced our hands to complete our masterpieces. Some will be saved for color books, some for our art show in February and others to hang on our hall walls. We watched a short clip from the VeggieTale video, Madame Blueberry where we learned that a grateful heart for all that God has given us and not more “stuff” brings us true happiness. We also met another Crazy Color Creature… Blue! We sang, “Blue, Blue, has the flu. Crazy Color Creature! Blue, Blue has the flu! Crazy Color Creature!” We learned that blue is not only a color but it also means sad. Madame Blueberry was blue because she always wanted more stuff and our crazy color creature was blue because she had the flu.

We had a bewildering Science lesson when we washed different color “stinky socks” together only to be surprised by the final outcome. Mrs Ferrante  threw some red and yellow socks in the washer (blue bin) and we all helped agitate the clothes by singing, “Shake it baby, shake it. Shake it if you can. Shake it like a milk shake. Shake it once again. Hey!” while Mrs. Ferrante shook the bin. When the “wash” was finished we found the socks were no longer red and yellow but had turned orange. We then looked through red and yellow translucent circles and noticed when we overlapped them their color turned orange! Through this same method we found that red and blue make purple and blue and yellow make green. The process of making secondary colors from two of the primary colors was reinforced at our easel when the children had the opportunity to paint with two colors.

We continue to learn that God keeps His promises. Many years ago God sent a big flood that covered the whole earth but He protected Noah, his family and the animals by telling Noah to build a big boat called an ark. Noah obeyed God and was protected and blessed. When the flood subsided God put a beautiful rainbow in the sky to remind us that He would never cover the whole earth with a flood again.

We helped Noah build and get the animals on the ark. We hammered the nails in the boat with our hands, sat in our boat (chairs), felt the rain (Mrs. F sprayed us with water), and rocked back and forth to the rhythm of the waves. Each of us chose two animals from the pile of toy animals and brought them on the boat with us where we would all be safe. When we obey God’s commands we know that God will keep us safe and bless us too. The best promise God ever gave us was a Savior. He sent His very own son to die on the cross and rise again to pay the penalty for our sin. This promise is for everyone! He promises all that believe will be saved! God keeps His promises!

Monday October 5 & Wed Oct 7 2009

Tuesday, October 6 & 8, 2009