Letter of the Day: Yy

The year is almost over.  =(   

Next week is our very last class together before the graduation.

 I have loved this year so very much. 

It has been unique to other years in so many ways. 

My heart is overflowing with love for my students.

 I decided that today the children would make

 a Mother's day present as our opening time together.

First they needed to glue little hearts around the frame. 

(I poured liquid glue into cupcake wrappers and allow them to use 'q-tips' 

to dip into the glue and spread onto the surface of the item being glued).

Next, I painted their hands!

They giggled!

Then 'stamped' their hand next to a poem...

and done!

This poem is too sweet!

(Some wanted more hearts!)

I LOVE it!

I told the girls when your mommy comes later

 to hide the present behind your back

and say, "Happy Mother's Day!"

Well, at the end of the day,

my son came to me, 

with present behind his back,

and yelled, "Happy Mother's Day!"

The girls laughed! 

How precious is this class!!!

We had our Circle time together- they know so much!

Then snack and finally our Bible time.

Our lesson today was on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

All the children know the story of Jesus,

 but I have always appreciated our sharing time.

While I was teaching my son went to Annika and asked,

"Do you have Jesus in your heart?"

"Yup."

Then went to Madelyn,
"Do you have Jesus in your heart?"

"Yes."

Then he went over to my 21 month old, 

"Joy, do you have Jesus in your heart?"

"Yeah." (said with her binky in her mouth). 

I teared-up. 

These children know Jesus

and they love Him.

Afterwards we went to the table to do our Bible craft.

We worked with our pre-cut characters to recreate and 

talk over the resurrection story.

This is the BEST!

Letter of the Day: Xx

On this new day of a new week

I decided to introduce my little ones to

counting bears!

First they were asked to sort all the teddy bears by color.

It looked alittle bit like the game "Twister" at times,

but they were really working hard to give a helping hand!

Tah-dah!

They did it!

Next, they were asked to choose a color teddy bear to work with.

They then had to sort them by little bear and by big bear.

In this task they worked alone and
 took their time to sort them properly.

After sorting their teddy bears they needed to
count the little bears

and then to count  the big bears.

We talked about which group had more!

And finally, I gave them an 'addition' sheet
 to go along with the teddy bears.

We talked about 1+1=? and 1+2=? and so on.

This was fun!

Watching them think about how to add new numbers was great!

Today, we had a special helper! My oldest daughter!

After watching me teach Joy School for years and years

 it was neat to see how well she could teach 'Circle Time' concepts.

She did great!

Our Bible lesson today was taken from the New Testament~ the book of Acts.

The story of Peter and John healing a lame man.

I love this scripture story because we see
 a healing of a lame man

created by the touch of the apostles

not the physical touch by Jesus.

Early in the year, Ll week, we studied
 how Jesus touched a lame man

and healed him. Today we studied
 how the apostles created the same miracle!

With Christ in us we can perform the same miracle!

After our lesson we went back to the table to make our Bible craft.

We painted today!

They all work so hard to create beautiful work!

Today we showed how the lame man became excited about his own healing.

"He went walking and leaping and praising God."

I cut a slit, using a craft knife, in their work sheet.

                          Then I attached their lame/healed man to a pop-sickle stick using tape.

                                             Next, I put the pop-sickle stick into the hole.

Finally, allow the children to play with the man by manipulating the pop-sickle stick

 to go up and down. As he healed man jumps up and down you can sing the song, 

"He went walking and leaping and praising God!" 

After all our work was done we moved into our Bible songs time.

I taught them the song that goes along with our Bible story and as we sang

they acted it out!

"Peter and John went to pray...

"...they met a lame man on the way..."

"He asked for alms,

and held out his palms,

but this is what Peter did say."

"Silver and gold have I none,

but what I have give I thee,

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth

RISE UP and walk."

"He went walking and leaping and praising God."

Walking and leaping and praising God.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth RISE UP and walk!"

We sang and reenacted the song many times!

The Joy was full in the house today!