Good Shepherd Nursery School
April, 2008

Calendar Notes

April 16       Family Night, 6:00–7:30 p.m.

April 21 – 25     No School – Spring Vacation

May 14             Field Trip to Zoo (P1/PK1) (rain date 5/21)

May 20             Field Trip to Zoo (P2/PK2) (rain date 5/27)

May 26             No School – Memorial Day

June 2, 3          End of Year Celebrations

We hope to see all of you on Wednesday evening at our 21^st annual Family Night.  The children love to show their school to siblings, parents and other family members! 

We were delighted to see so many family members at our Sing-Along events.  Music is such an important part of our curriculum and we hope you enjoyed seeing the children share some of their favorite songs. 

Thank you so much for your support of our flowering bulb fund-raiser.  Your generous response resulted in nearly $1200 for our bathroom renovation project!  Special thanks to our top sellers and contributors.

Mother’s Day is coming up soon, and Father’s Day falls after the end of our school year.  The children will be making a special gift for their parents during the week of May 19 – 23.  

We still have a few openings in our September classes.  Please tell your friends about Good Shepherd!

Happy Spring! 
--Miss Cathy
 

Carpentry was the theme as we talked about different tools and what they are used for. 

Frogs and their progression from egg to tadpole to mature frog made for some exciting conversation and stories of catching frogs and bugs! 

Gardening is our current theme, as we discover how wonderful it is that God gave us seeds to plant so we never run out of plants and flowers.  We also planted our own seeds and talked about how a plant grows and is nourished

We will end April with an Under the Sea theme after our spring break. 
 

Tambourines-  In celebration of “music week” the children made their own instruments.  They decorated paper plates with markers and streamers, filled them with pasta and made “music”.  Children really do enjoy making noise! 

Carpentry-  Our “carpenters” were very busy building cars, planes, trucks, houses, playgrounds and a variety of other things during Carpentry week.  They each drilled a hole into a block of wood with an electric drill, and then used a hammer to bang a nail into the hole while wearing safety glasses and working one-on-one with a teacher.    

“When I grow up…” is the title of the pictures the children are currently drawing at the craft table.  They enjoy sharing their dreams about what they want to be and do when they’re “bigger”!
 

Exploring the world of music and sound-  guitars made from baking pans and elastic bands, a small harpsichord with easy to follow music notes, and a set of handbells helped the children understand how different musical sounds are made. 

Studying nature- Real worms are moving around in a plexi-glass viewer and providing lots of conversation as the children watch the worms wiggle through layers of dirt and sand.   
 

Counting, color-matching and turn-taking are being practiced as the children laugh over the game “Ants in my Pants”. 

Counting and matching skills are being honed as the children match the number of dots on a large die to the number of dots on their puzzle piece, and try to be first to complete their puzzle in the “Ladybug Game”.

During Easter week, the children enjoyed decorating cards with Easter stamps, markers, and crayons.  Some children were able to write or copy words inside their cards.    

One-to-one correspondence was showcased with “Boggle Jr.” as it promoted letter and object recognition.  Picture/word cards were assembled in a game tray allowing the children to match letters on the plastic letter cubes to the letters on the picture/word cards. 

Currently, eye/hand coordination, duplication and pre-writing skills are encouraged with The “Write Stuff” game.   A set of dry erase cards offers the children an opportunity to practice letter and number formations.

“ The Dramatic Play Room has returned to the ever popular house-keeping theme complete with dress-up attire, pretend food and kitchen appliances.

Finger Painting to music has provided a fun sensory experience as the children enjoy coming back again and again to experiment with different colors of paint and styles of music.   

Spin Art-  The children are currently using squeeze bottles with different colored paint in them.  They choose what colors they want and then squeeze a drop of color onto their paper as the wheel spins.  This has been a very popular spot as they enjoy watching not only their own creation, but also what their peers have created once the wheel stops!
 

The children were able to use their fine motor skills and imaginations to build  unique shapes and creations using a construction set with many different types of screws, screw drivers, nails, and wooden shapes.   

Gardening-  With spring here the table will turn into a gardening table with sand and  gardening tools, and maybe even some hidden surprises!
 

We have gone from green floam to aqua playdough.  The children are using many different tools and cutters to create spring shapes as they build strong fine motor muscles.
 

The children have had a lot of fun singing and moving to

• “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”,

• Let’s Get the Rhythm of the Head”,

• “She’ll be Riding Six White Horses”,

• “Uncle Noah’s Ark”,

• “Johnny Works with One Hammer” and

• “Five Green Speckled Frogs”!

See you on Family Night!

   Miss Brenda             Miss Kelly

   Miss Maryann          Miss Meg

   Miss Andrea            Miss Nancy

                                  Miss Julie