Miss Amy's birthday party

We have had a great time with Miss Amy's birthday party. We decorated with balloons everywhere and streamers. The kids helped Ms. Jennifer make a cake. Her favorite is strawberry. She had a strawberry cake with vanilla frosting. Her favorite color is green. So, we added green sugar and sugar party hats for the finishing touch.
Miss Amy LOVES Elvis, so Madison picked out an Elvis Christmas CD and a talking Elvis birthday card. We got her a butterfly and flower balloon with matching birthday plates.
The kids have had a blast singing and eating cake.
We have had a blast with all of the balloons everywhere. We have even played games with them.

I am a little irritated that I did NOT have batteries for my camera. They were all used. So, we don't have any pictures of our fun event.

Fundraiser!!!

Hey Gang,
We will begin our JumpZone fundraiser on Friday, October 17.
You can check out the website for more information www.jumpzoneparty.com
I will pick up the packets on Thursday and will have them ready for you on Friday.

We are going to sell JumpZone passes!!! These passes will be $25 plus $2 for tax (we are not tax exempt as the schools are) totalling $27. As of a few weeks ago, they went up on price to $8 plus tax/visit/child. That would make this pass is half price. This pass includes 6 visits to Jump Zone in Conway. You can use one pass for up to 3 children at a time. Of course that will take away 3 punches at one time, leaving 3 for another visit.

We will make $5 off of every punch card we sell!

Also, JumpZone is giving away one free small party to the person who sells the most number of punch cards. Wow! A free party!!! Yes, you read that correctly.... FREE! A free small party includes 15 kids. Wow!
So, sell, sell, sell!!!

We will use the funds from the punch cards toward furthering our curriculum, improving things inside, some more chairs for the children, another small table for the kitchen... just overall things for the daycare. All money will go back to the children in one form or another!!!

We will be selling the JumpZone punch cards from Friday, October 17 - Friday, October 31. You must collect the money at the time of purchase. I will then turn in all the money to JumpZone and they will print the cards. We will receive the punch cards ONE week later. Then of course you must deliver them.

I know one gift that my children will be getting for Christmas!!!
I can honestly say that I have heard everyone loves JumpZone. Even Madison loves it and she is almost 10 years old! So, don't count anyone out.
It will be great Christmas gifts for children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, friends, etc.
Thank you all for your participation!!!!
You are all great!!!

Sunday, October 19

Sunday is Miss Amy's Birthday!

Miss Amy!!!

Miss Amy will be off on Thursday, Friday and Monday. She will be at Payton Creek Catfish House on Friday and Saturday evenings. If you see her, wish her a Happy Birthday.

She is also taking off on Monday. She says she may be too sleepy. Ok...

So, we will have a party for her on Tuesday. We will make a cake for her and I am going to let them decorate it. Can you say beautiful! We will have fun though. We will also make her some homemade cards.
Miss Amy is truly a blessing from God. She is wonderful with the kids and they all love her very much as do I!!!

Thank you Miss Amy!

Praise be to God!

October 13-17

Ok, due to a really crazy week we have had so far, we haven't started anything new. I have taken this opportunity to review what we have learned so far. They are doing great! Did I ever mention my kids absolutely LOVE to sing and dance!!! :)


We are reviewing:

• letters: Aa (Apple Annie), Bb (Benjamin Bunny), Cc (Cathy Cook) and Dd (Daisy Doll)
• colors: Red, Blue, Yellow and Brown
  
• numbers: 1 and 2
• all of our Bible stories as well
  

We are also working on our fall theme. We will continue working on our "pumpkin patch".







I have mentioned before the finger play "5 Little Pumpkins". I have been asked to post the words. I apologize for not posting them before.

5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate

The first one said, "My its getting late!"

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "We don't care!"

The fourth one said, "Lets have some fun!"

The fifth one said, "Lets run, run run!"

OOOOOOOOHHHHH went the wind,

out (clap) went the lights and

five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Next week all should be normal and we will resume our regular lessons with letter Ee, number 3, orange and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.

October 6 - 10 National Fire Prevention Week

This week is National Fire Prevention Week.

I am going to take the opportunity to work on fire safety. We will be learning about fire safety, 911, Stop, drop and roll. We have a video from the Danger Rangers to help us out. We have talked about smoke detectors and fire escape plan. We have practiced a few fire drills here as well. I have received some booklets from FEMA to send home. We will talk about them and color them. I will then send them home for your children to discuss them with you. FEMA has some really good disaster info on their website. http://www.fema.gov/kids/teacher.htm

Here is also a link to a websites and ideas for you to do things with your children at home. http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/firesafety.htm For any of you that were here last September and did Oogles N Googles, you should have the Community Helpers cd. It is loaded with safety songs! We have been listening and discussing the cd as well.

This is also October and we will begin working on Fall. We will make pumpkins for our Pumpkin Patch wall. Today we sang "5 Little Pumpkins". Ask them about it, they all know how to sing it.

We will also read the Parable of the Pumpkin Patch.

The farmer plants the seeds in June in all the neat little rows. They grow in the dark ground all through July. Then each one has a green shoot pop out of the ground and vines begin to spread all over the ground. The leaves on the vines catch the August sun, then tiny buds sprout into pumpkins. Each pumpkin is different. Some are tall, some are short, some are lean and some are round. Some even had lumps and bumps... but they were ALL pumpkins. Just as each and every one of us looks different, but we are all God's children. God loves us all the same.

Then October came and it was harvest time. All of the ripe pumpkins were harvested. The farmer picked one large pumpkin, taking good care of it. See pumpkins are tough on the outside, but soft and squishy on the inside. A pumpkin will break to smithereens if dropped. That is just like us, we may appear tough on the outside, but we are soft and squishy on the inside. If someone is mean or hurtful to us, we break just as the pumpkin when dropped.

The farmer washed all the dirt off of the pumpkin. The farmer had a special plan in mind for his pumpkin. He had to clean out the seeds and the slimpy pulp from inside the pumpkin. The farmer carved triangles for his eyes. See pumpkins have eyes that don't blink. They see everything, just as God sees everything. The farmer then made a square for the nose and a wide smile. The farmer put the pumpkin on the porch with a candle inside. Boy did that pumpkin glow! Everyone saw the glowing pumpkin smiling at them. God wants us to shine our light upon the world in the same way.

Everyone knew that the farmer turned a simple pumpkin into a simply glorious sight.

This is the same way, God offers us the chance to be made new, full of joy and full of light, shining like stars in a dark world.

"If anyone belongs to Christ, then he is made new. The old things have gone; everything is made new!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

Next week we will resume our normal lessons.

New stuff!!!

Ok, I have to admit, I could spend a whole day in Mardel's. After 3 hours in Mardel, Madison and I came home with lots of new stuff!

I have finally picked up the Frog Street Press cds for the alphabet A to Z as well as the shapes. I already had the colors. So, now they can hear someone else's voice too. Besides after looking over the alphabet, I don't know some of those tunes.

We picked up the Frog Steet press alphabet to go on the wall. We got some cool new things from Frog Street Press for matching colors, shapes and alphabets. They are all cut AND laminated. Now of course they have to be cut and some hung up.

While at Mardel's I found the new Mr. Pencil things from Frog Street Press. (Yes, I am liking the Frog Stree Press stuff!) They have a new writing concept. I found it really neat and yes, I picked some of it up. We got some paper and some name strips for our tables. I have written the children's names on them, laminated them and they are ready to put on the tables. I will also be sending one home for them to practice (I forgot to laminate those.)
The writing concept.... There is a blue line at the top with at cloud at the left side to represent the sky. There is a green line on the bottom with a flower in grass at the left to represent grass. The dotted line in the middle is referred to as the fence. When the children are writing you teach them to start at the sky and pull down to the grass or they just go to the fence. I thought it was really simple and easy for them to understand. I think it will help out with our writing skills.

I also picked up some new books to go along with our curriculum... of course Frog Street Press. I picked up the big book, Best Ideas from A to Z. I picked up the Quick and Easy Book of Circle Time things that has books to make and additional things to add to our fun. Also, while I was looking for fall things, I found the Quick and Easy Book of Fall Ideas.

I picked us up an easy to understand poster of Jesus and his 12 Disciples. They are all labeled by name. That will help me out too. I also picked up a book of fingerplays and songs to go with our Bible stories.

Did I mention that this weekend, I picked up a dressable Weather Frog? He is really cute. So, now we have to turn our song from Weather Bear to Weather Frog.

To top it off.... I picked up a catalog. There was so much more that I wanted to buy. Of course I just did NOT have the money for it all. So, a little at a time.

Week 4 (September 29 - October 3)

Week 4 brought us the story of Isaac and Rebekah. We learned that a man came into Rebekah's town to see if she would be Isaac's wife, because God told Abraham to find Isaac a wife. Then Rebekah and Isaac married. They had twin boys named Jacob and Esau. Then when Isaac was really old, Jacob lied to his father and pretended to be Esau. Jacob wanted the nice things that his father was going to give to Esau. Isaac told Jacob to take a long journey to another courntry to find him a wife. While on his journey Jacob dreamt about a ladder of angels that led to God, who told him many wonderful things would happen to him because God loves him. While far far away from home Jacob meets his cousin Rachel whom is tending to her father's sheep. Rachel and Jacob get married. Jacob does not return home for a long time. He stays with Rachel's family. Jacob then wrestled with an angel because he wanted him to bless him with nice things. Jacob later figured out that the angel was God. God blessed Jacob and gave him many presents. God later told Jacob to take his family and go home to his father's country. Jacob had taken something from Esau. Esau was angry with him. After Jacob returned home, Esau forgave him. God is pleased when we forgive.

Genesis 24:10 - 33:9

Our devotional for the week is D is for Doing what needs to be done. So please do it cheerfully; Then you'll have fun.

Bible verse: Do for others what you want them to do for you. Matthew 7:12

Week 4 also brought us the letter Dd (upper case D and lowercase d).

Daisy Doll helped us with things that begin with letter Dd.

Daisy Doll

(tune: "Jingle Bells")

Daisy Doll, Daisy Doll,

tell us what you see.

Name the things

around your house

that start with letter "Dd".

daffodils,

dandelions,

dogs that dig in dirt,

daddy working in the yard

in his favorite shirt.

The End

Then we studied the color brown.

Brown

(tune: "Bingo")

There is a color we all know.

Can you guess what it is?

B-r-o-w-n, b-r-o-w-n, b-r-o-w-n

that's how you spell brown.

Teddy bears

and squirrels are brown.

Autumn leaves are too.

Chocolate candy's always brown.

Chocolate cake is always brown.

Chocolate milk is always brown.

I like brown, don't you?

The End

Of course we couldn't study the color brown without reading "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?"... one of their favorites! This time we read the story. Then we did our own version of "Brown Bear". We all put on masks and Madison (our big visitor on Monday) helped us. We LOVED it. We played it every day! We all took turns being the different animals.

With the color brown we also dug in dirt and found the autumn leaves outside. Then of course we played the same old games they love to play.... treasure hunt and "I spy". (I think those will be every week because even when we play something new, they always want to play those as well.)

The shape of the week: Rectangle

Rectangle

(tune: "Up on the Housetop")

Rudy the rectangle is my name.

I have four sides

That are not the same.

Two sides are short and two are long.

Can you find me hiding in this song?

Look around the room,

Now do you see?

The windows and the doors

Are shaped like me.

The chalkboard and the desk

And your books, too.

You did great, I am proud of you!

The End

This week we continued with our number 2. We practiced writing them and couting two things.

Well, this week during calender and weather, we had to change the calender. We changed to October. We talked about October and what this month brings. The weather gets cooler. We did talk about it still being autumn. The days get shorter, so it will get dark earlier.