REMINDER: This week will be our Easter Egg hunts. Last week, you hopefully received six Easter eggs to fill with toddler appropriate treats to return this week.

Our Bible story emphasis this week will be Noah builds an ark and God's promise through a rainbow. We will sing "Mr. Noah builds an Ark" (sung to "Old McDonald Had a Farm,") "Deep & Wide," and the "Rainbow Color" song, sung with a brightly colored rainbow on a stick.

RAINBOW COLORS

Tune: Hush, Little Baby

Rainbow purple, rainbow blue

Rinbow green and yellow, too.

Rainbow orange, rainbow red.

Rainbow smiling overhead.

Come and count the colors with me.

How many colors can you see?

One, two, three, down to green,

Four, five, six can be seen.

Rainbow purple, rainbow blue,

Rainbow green and yellow, too.

Rainbow orange, rainbow red,

Rainbow smiling overhead.

Other songs we will sing include "5 Little Ducks," "Twinkle Star," and we will have a nursery rhyme of "Humpty Dumpty" with finger puppets. Our craft activity should be fun as we have pudding in red, orange, yellow, and green to make hand print pudding rainbows.

Each child will paint his/her own Easter egg on a stick. We will use the color resist method by first coloring with a white crayon. Then, when we use watercolor paints, and the colors will not adhere to the paper where it has been colored with the crayon.

Storytime this week includes "Duckie's Rainbow" by Frances Barry which follows a duck on her colorful walk and a rainbow is formed as each page is turned. Our second story is "My Easter Basket" about each of the different colored items in the basket remind us of what Jesus did for us. Green = palms. Red = Jesus' Love. Brown = Jesus' grave. White = angel. Yellow = Bright sun.

Have a wonderful week,

Mrs. Shelly

This week, we will continue with our Easter emphasis with "Jesus is Alive!" Our Bible story will be about Jesus' death and resurection. We will paint paper crosses by stamping silk flowers into pink, purple, and blue paints. During our opening music time, we are bringing out our flowers again to play "musical flowers." This time, we have bumblebee masks the children can wear and pretend to be bees flying around. When the music stops, all the little bees find flowers to stand on. We are going to try a new craft of making coffee filter flowers by coloring on coffee filters with markers and spraying them with water to watch the colors bleed into each other. When they dry, we will form these into Spring flowers to enjoy. Our songs this week include "Alive Forevermore," "Praise Him," "I've Got the Joy," "Baby Bumblebee," and "ABC Song."

We will read "Jesus Rose on Easter Morn" and "The Runaway Bunny," a Margaret Wise Brown story about a little bunny who keeps trying to run away from his mother and her steadfast love in finding him every time.

Last week, we planted seeds in a meat tray and plan to check on the progress and give each child an opportunity to water the seeds.

Over the weekend, I made four file folder games. The manilla folder opens up and reveals 10 different shapes. The shapes are different colors and cut out to fit in the appropriate spot. I am hoping they will enjoy these as all the shapes will be reinforced with the children.

REMINDER: Next week will be our Easter Egg hunt. This week, we are sending home a bag of six eggs to be taken home, filled with Toddler appropriate treats, and returned next week. Thank you so much.

Mrs. Shelly

This week begins our emphasis on Easter beginning this week with The Triumphant Entry and Palm Sunday. I have this Bible story on seven leaf shaped pages. As the story is told, each leaf will be attached to a yard stick and form a palm branch at the end that we will wave and say Hosanna. For craft time, the children will each have their own miniature version of the story leaves which they will color and glue to a strip so they will be able to wave their own palm branches. A new song we will sing to the "Farmer in the Del" tune is:

Jesus is my King

Jesus is my King. Jesus is my King.

That is why I love to sing that Jesus is my King.

Jesus is my Lord. Jesus is my Lord.

I learn of Hi-im in God's word. Jesus is my Lord.

Jesus is my King. Jesus is my King.

He leads me in everything. Jesus is my King.

Jesus is my friend. Jesus is my friend.

He stays with me-e until the end, Jesus is my friend.

Jesus is my King. Jesus is my King.

That is why I shout and sing. He'll always be my King.

On our felt board, we have a brown felt donkey and a white felt Jesus. Each of the children can wear heart-shaped sun glasses (instead of blindfolds) and place Jesus on the donkey as we sing to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down:

Here comes Jesus to the town, to the town, to the town.

Here comes Jesus to the town,

Ho-ho-sanna.

Other songs we will sing this week are "Alive Forevermore," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle Star," and "ABC." Our snack will be honey graham crackers and raisins.

Upon arrival, we will have Easter eggs hidden in our room. As the children find these eggs, they will match the egg colors to the appropriate colored bag, which are pink, blue, yellow, and orange. We are also planning to plant some grass seeds in potting soil for each class. We will water the seeds and try to find a sunny place for them. Each week, we will observe the changes and also water our seeds.

Storytime this week is a Nancy Tafuri story called "Blue Goose" about a goose, hen, chick, and duck who decide to paint the barnyard when Farmer Gray goes away, but can they finish before his return? Our second story is an Iza Trapani story song called "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" The children always seem to enjoy when the story is sung to them.

I'm sorry I haven't introduced you to our new assistant in our classroom. Her name is Mrs. Chelsea Hutchinson, and we are very happy to have her! We also have a new friend on Tuesday and Thursday--Cassie is Mrs. Chelsea's daughter.

We're looking forward to a great week!

Enjoy the Easter season.

Mrs. Shelly

Our new friend, Sophia

Listening to our Bible story

REMEMBER: Picture week is this week. Please return your order form to the office if you would like individual and/or group pictures of your children. If you did not receive an order form, please inquire at the preschool office for one. It's not too late.

This week, we will begin to talk about and observe our new friendly caterpillars we now have. Right now they are very active, and we are looking forward to seeing them change and then releasing them as butterflies. Our Bible story to go along with that is about the conversion of Saul, God speaking to him through the bright light that blinded him, and leading him to Ananias who prayed with him to receive Jesus. We will sing "2 Little Eyes," "Be Careful Little Eyes," and "Jesus Loves Me." We have two new songs about butterflies (listed below) and a picture of a caterpillar, a chrysalis, and a butterfly to show the changes as we sing.

The Fuzzy Caterpillar

(Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)

The fuzzy caterpillar

Curled up on a leaf,

Spun her little chrysalis

And then fell fast asleep.

While she was sleeping,

She dreamed that she could fly,

And later when she woke up

She was a butterfly.

The Butterfly Song

(Tune: Up on the Housetop)

First comes a butterfly and lays an egg.

Out comes a caterpillar with many legs.

Oh see the caterpillar spin and spin,

A little chrysalis to sleep in.

Oh, oh, oh wait and see!

Oh, oh, oh wait and see!

Out of the chrysalis, my oh my,

Out comes a beautiful butterfly!

During our opening time, we plan to use bug stamps in glue and then sprinkle purple sand on our paper to make them show up brightly. During our music time, big colorful flowers will be taped on the floor, and we will pretend to fly around like butterflies. When the music is paused, the children will quickly run to stand on a flower and identify the color of the flower.

For art time, we will sponge paint one butterfly wing with blue, purple, and pink paint. We will then fold the wing over and press to show symmetry in the butterfly. Then, they will add the antennae and the body. These turn out so pretty and each is unique!

Storytime this week includes one of my favorites: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Also, we will read "Wee Little Chick."

We are excited to be able to play outside on the playground once again. Please be sure to send along a change of clothes just in case.

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Shelly