October 22

What beautiful fall weather God is giving us right now!  We observed "our tree" yesterday and recorded the changes in the leaves especially noting the colors.  Things like that always lead to other discussions and we had a wonderful conversation about autumn and the changes God gives to the world He created. 

We are learning about Martin Luther and the Reformation the next 2 weeks.  Little ones are very intrigued by this story and especially about God's grace and how Martin helped people to understand that "you don't have to buy papers" (indulgences!). 

There is most certainly a lot of reading going on in this classroom!  Between blending letter sounds to read words and the sight words that we are learning, I just stand back in amazement at how, only 9 weeks into school, these little ones are already becoming confident readers!  God is good!  They continue to practice number writing and number order and we just started learning about pennies. 

Thank you for all your donations to our "Morning Tubs" activities!  The little ones are so excited to use the tubs!  As they practice fine motor skills and strengthen those fingers and hands, they don't even realize they are learning and growing in so many ways!  (Social skills is my favorite learning with these tubs - okay, with about everything!)

Have a wonderful week in Jesus!

 "Starry Night Pumpkins" lesson based upon "Starry Night" by VanGogh

We Are Learning So Much!

Sometimes I think that if all these little ones remember from our kindergarten year is how important it is to love others then I've succeeded!  The pictures don't adequately show the love that my heart feels every time I take your little one to Montclair.  It starts the day before we even go when we discuss "tomorrow" and I tell them, "It's a Montclair day!' and they cheer and say, "YAY!"  Kindness and love, gratitude and joy are some of the attributes we work on daily for if these things become a habit for them at school and at home, it's easier for them to recall them as needed.

We continue to read through the Old Testament Bible stories and learn from them.  We are practicing lots of blending of words as well as sight words.  We are enjoying reading our own books and stories and love doing Literacy and Math centers which challenge the little ones as well as reinforce their learning and introduce them to new concepts.

WE MADE A GREEN SCREEN project this week!!  It was fabulous to work on a project together, taking turns reading or holding the illustrations in front of the green screen.  This helped make the reading "real" for the kiddos!  We worked together to choose the background for each story and then used an app to combine it into what you see here!  We will be making more green screen projects in the near future.

Have a wonderful week!
In Christ's Service,
Mrs. Dartmann