Tiskets N Taskets: March 2022
One of the most important needs of human life is our need for connection: connecting with God and connecting with each other. When we think back on fond memories, it’s the heart-warming moments of closeness that we remember the most. It’s not only essential for your child to have these connections, but it also brings you joy too!
Research says that we need five positive interactions for every negative interaction. Think of the time you spend correcting, redirecting, guiding, and reminding your child throughout the day. For many of us, the time after school is rushing through afternoon and evening routines. Most of our conversations with our children are spent on giving directions. Try to be mindful of how many directives you give your child versus moments of true connection.
Try making connections as a daily habit. These habits can be so simple, yet so powerful, and can heal the disconnections between you and your child. Not to mention they help build emotional intelligence. Start with just a few of the daily habits listed below this week and note the positive changes you see.
Here are 10 daily habits to connect with your child:
- Aim for 12 hugs (physical connection) a day
- Play with your child
- Turn off technology and interact with your child
- Connect before transitions
- Make time for one-on-one
- Welcome emotion
- Listen and empathize
- Bedtime chat and snuggle
- Slow down and savor moments
- Show up and be present
With love,
Allison Lee
22-23 Contracts
By this time you should have received your tuition contract for next school year in the mail. Please sign and return by April 1. We are looking forward to the next school year and all the blessings it will bring. Please let us know if you have any questions.
2022-2023 School Year
We have just a few spots left for the 2022-2023 school year. If you know anyone interested in joining our Faith family for next year, please have them call the front office (850) 385-0725 or email us at faithpreschool@embarqmail.com and register today!
Summer Camp
Summer Camp is May 31- June 10, from 9am-12pm for currently enrolled families. We have limited spots available for our fun-filled camp and will enroll on a first come, first serve basis. Looking forward to a great summer!
Classroom News
Two Year Olds with Mrs. Fenstermaker and Ms. Baker
Happy March and welcome warm weather! Our 2’s class has been enjoying running around outside without jackets as this spring weather feels like it’s come to stay. It came around just in time for us to kick off the month of March with our very first unit of Spring! We have been learning about the parts of a plant while we build our own in art. The children have learned about the leaves, stem, flower, and petals. This week we are moving onto weather and then insects. The children will be able to dive into a sensory bin with different types of bugs and learn about the different things they eat and do.
We do want to say a big thank you to our wonderful parents Logan Tharpe, Jessica Lowe, and Audrey Rierson who provided yummy snacks and cool plates for our Valentine’s party, and to Allison Kostelnik for bringing in double stuffed Oreos for our 2’s to celebrate 2-22-22: two’s day!
Two Year Olds with Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Roberts
Spring is in the air! We had a busy month in February with Valentines and finishing up our bear unit. We were excited to learn about different kinds of bears, the different habitats and foods they eat. While our plans to build a bear cave had to be changed because of illness and absences, we made up for it with all the fun bear art activities!
March is the start of spring and new growth. This month we will be learning about the changing season and what it means for our garden. We are learning that plants and flowers need rain, sunshine, and even worms and bugs to be happy! This is a fun unit to incorporate lots of sensory play with dirt, worms, and our planting bin, which is full of beans and flowers to plant. Eric Carle has so many books to help us learn about the garden and creatures we might encounter there. Many of our art activities will reflect his stories and art style.
Three Year Olds with Mrs. Larkin and Ms. Fannin
February was an exciting month as we explored “Cultures around the World” and traveled through the 7 continents. Thank you to all the families for joining us for our annual art show to celebrate all your little artist!
The children enjoyed the fun activities for Valentine’s and sharing the love we have all around us, along with honoring our Dads and Grandpa’s to celebrate how special family is to all of us. A big thank you to the Bench and Soni family for making our valentine’s party and heart hunt extra special!
Spring is around the corner and we will be on the farm learning about the different animals, foods, and many jobs of the farmer. Our farmers market will be open soon for the children to experience being a junior farmer, milking our class cow and making homemade butter. Also, the number 8 (ocho), color purple (marado) and the shape oval will be our focus as we move through the month of March. When we return from spring break we will introduce the changes and beauty that spring brings, growing plants from seeds and enjoying the outdoors.
Three Year Olds with Mrs. Marsh and Mrs. Rowan
We began February with lots of love! We spent time celebrating those we love and those who love us unconditionally – most importantly God! We had an awesome Valentine’s Party on the 14th. Thank you to Eleanor and Caleb’s families for providing all the treats! During our Valentine’s unit, we focused on the heart shape and the color pink.
After Valentine’s we “moved” on to our transportation unit. We had so much fun with garages, tracks, cars, and trains! We learned about different types of vehicles from the land, air, and sea. We also studied road signs. When talking about traffic lights, the students played “red, light, green light” and made yummy graham cracker lights with lots of icing and M & Ms! We enjoyed ringing bells to our fire truck song and reading and singing along to Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus. During this unit, we created a road on the wall to display our school bus art and our favorite creative project was our large hot air balloons. We focused on the letter “T” for transportation, traffic, and trains. The very best part of this unit was our guest speaker – Ellen’s Dad. Ellen’s Dad, who works at Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet and was a tour bus driver for musical groups, treated the children to a slide show and a chance to see a Chevrolet crane truck! The kids LOVED it!!!
With the beginning of March, we will switch our studies to Farm. We will spend one week learning about farm animals and the next produce/dairy and farmers’ markets. We have many exciting plans for this theme including nearby “field” trips, cooking, science experiments and guest speakers!
We have all missed Mrs. Rowan very much and are thankful that she is doing much better and should be back playing with us very soon. We are so grateful to Mrs. Engelker for being a consistent and an amazing helper these past weeks!! We pray you have a safe and fun Spring Break, and we will see you when students return on Tuesday March 22nd.
Four Year Olds with Mrs. Bearss and Mrs. Jacobs
Hello! We had a wonderful week celebrating Read Across America week! We read lots of books, did some wacky things, and even dressed as our favorite book characters. The children had so much fun and I hope they are on a path to love reading as much as I do! Check out the pictures I've uploaded to our Sharesite showing our Wacky Day and Dress Up Day fun!
Next week we will begin our Jumping Into Spring theme. We'll start with color theory and weather and then move to plants and growing after Spring Break. Our letter focus next week is Qq.
SAVE THE DATE! I'm so excited to announce that since our COVID restrictions have been loosened, we are able to go forward with plans for our annual Donuts with Dads! I have reserved the covered courtyard outside of the Fellowship Hall for this event on Monday, April 11th, from 9 - 9:30 am. Please mark your calendar as this is a very sweet and treasured time for your children! More information (and a confirmed date for our Moms event) will be coming soon!
As always, thank you for sharing your sweet children with us! Let me know if you ever have any questions or concerns!
Four Year Olds with Mrs. Cherry and Mrs. Poucher
March is here and so is the promise of Spring and all of the beauty that it brings. Our class was filled with LOVE in February and we had fun learning about God’s Love, Space, Chinese New Year and celebrating Mrs. Poucher’s b-day. Thank you to Leila and Lila’s family for providing valentine snacks and to all the families for showering Mrs. Poucher with beautiful cards and kindness.
So far March has us exploring lots of silly tongue twisters with Suess Week and dinosaur fun. Our letter focus this month will be S, T, U & V. The warmer weather will give us plenty of opportunities to take our learning outside, where we can explore, create and move. After spring break, we learn all about Pond Life and officially welcome Spring.
Four Year Olds with Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Engelker
Happy Spring! We are enjoying the beautiful weather and spending some time on our patio this month. Our March themes are Dr. Seuss, Plants/Spring, and Insects. We have been observing birds on our patio as they build a nest in our outdoor play kitchen! We are hoping to see some eggs soon and if we are really lucky, baby birds. Our letters this month are S, T, U, and V. We are getting closer to being able to put together our Alphabet Books!
We celebrated our Dr. Seuss week by reading many favorite stories written by Dr. Seuss.....enjoying a yummy Cat in the Hat snack (thank you to the Branham family), decorating silly socks for Fox in Socks , and finishing off our week with "silly socks day". This month we will be planting seeds and learning all about the parts of a plant.
The children have really enjoyed sharing their Star Student of the Week posters. We have learned so much about our friends!
Kindergarten with Mrs. Hamrick and Mrs. McConnaughhay
3-2-1, Blast off! Kindergarten has been “out of this world” the past week! We have started our unit on the planets and Space. The children will be making a Space book with facts about each planet in the solar system. They will also learn information about the moon, the sun, constellations, and the stars. At the end of the Space unit, the Kindergarteners will share all their knowledge about Space with family and friends during the Space program.
After Spring Break, we will resume our Space travels for the remainder of March. In Math, the children have been working hard learning all about money. They have learned about a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. They learned how much each coin is worth, what is pictured on each side of the coin, and the color of each coin. Money is a favorite unit of study for the Kindergarteners!
Music with Mrs. Lloyd We are marching into spring in music! Our main musical concept for the month is Tempo, fast & slow. We are focusing on listening to music and moving fast or slow to match what we hear. Streamers have been a fun activity for our two-year-olds, while the older classes love the wooden guiro instruments.
The musical themes for March include songs about Transportation, Animals, and Weather. Some of our favorites so far have been songs about driving a car and frogs jumping into the pond.
Although we spend lots of time having fun exploring instruments and musical concepts, we also devoted time to singing about God’s love for us. In early March we had our first Chapel day of this entire school year. We learned the words and sign language to “Jesus Loves Me,” and all of the children got to sing together. We are looking forward to the next Chapel in April, and we are excited to see some of our parents in attendance.
After Spring Break, we will start learning our songs for the Spring Program. Perhaps you will get a sneak peek with your children singing at home!
