HALLOWEEN SPIDERS

This year our Halloween focus is on spiders.  Some people view spiders as spooky creatures that lurk in corners waiting for a chance to crawl up someone's leg.   Because of that reputation they make great Halloween characters.  Actually, most of them are very helpful.  They trap and eat many of the insects that are so annoying to us humans, mosquitos, gnats, flies, etc.  Spiders have eight legs and two body parts.  Some have as many as eight eyes!

 Try making this cute spider for a Halloween decoration.  Draw a spider web in the corner of a paper.  Paint your child's hand, except for the thumb, with black, washable tempra paint.  Print  a hand print on the paper, fingers facing left.  Repaint the hand and print a second time placing the palm on top of the original palm print with the four finger facing right this time.  Red pom-

poms make great eyes for your spider!  When dry, hang it on your refrigerator.  

Happy Halloween!

NOVEMBER NEWS

In Minnesota, when November arrives, we start “nesting.”  We gather our harvest of veggies and  freeze them, can them or store them in our basements.  Knitters knit warm hats.  Quilters quilt blankets.  Handymen fix drafty windows and doors.  At school we read books about hibernation and snowmen.  But, hey, this is Minnesota so we celebrate it all!

November begins with a bang  for Preschool.  Dinosaurs will be researched by our children with the help of Maija Sedzielarz from the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Maija will bring us dinosaur artifacts to see and touch; bones, eggs, foot prints and more!  It’s a great way to learn.

We’ll finish the month focusing on food, harvest and Thanksgiving.  Although the Pilgrims’ lifestyle was very different from ours we have many things in common with them.  As Christians we thank God for his constant presence in our lives.  Our families, friends, food, and comforts of home are gifts from God that we are thankful for.   When we face difficult times in our lives we know God has not abandon us but that he is carrying us through our trials to a better day.  Giving thanks is something can we learn at an early age and practice all our lives!

OCTOBER IS UPON US!

SALEM PRESCHOOL NEWS

OCTOBER 2013

We are celebrating the coming of fall at Preschool this month!  With shorter days we will be watching as the trees “put on their dresses of red and gold, for summer is gone and the days grow cold.”  Harvesting our garden produce is on our schedule.  We hope to donate much of it to our local food shelf!

Apples, a yummy Minnesota fall fruit, will be the theme of our first week of October.  It is almost magical to watch as the bare trees of winter blossom with white and pink flowers. Then, with the help of the honey bees, apple trees produce juicy, red, yellow and green apples.  We will eat these apples and cook them!  The four year olds will even visit Aamodt’s Apple Orchard where they will pick an apple and visit the big apple barn!

Autumn is a season that brings many changes.  As the leaves fall and days get colder we know that winter is just around the corner.  We have cozy homes to snuggle into.  What do the woods animals do in the winter?  Who lives in the woods?  These are questions we will answer this month.

Trick-or-Treat!  October wouldn’t be complete without celebrating Halloween.  At Preschool we will don our costumes and party!  We have been growing pumpkins all summer and they are ready to carve into impressive jack-o-lanterns.  What a fun way to end the month! 

WE'RE BACK

Preschool is back in session and we are excited to be together in work and play!  Our classes begin on the 9th of September but our teachers have been preparing for several weeks.  The Preschool Garden is very productive right now in spite of our very slow start in the spring.  Many family volunteers have been taking care of it during the summer.  By the end of July we were beginning to harvest beets, carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes which we have donated to the Ralph Reeder Food Shelf.   By the end of August we had donated 35 pounds of produce.  Some of our flashy zinnias have found their way to the Reflections unit at Brightondale Assisted Living in New Brighton.  It is fun to be able to give back to our community!

We currently have openings in several of our classes.  We look forward to enrolling more students as the year goes along.  Why choose Salem Preschool?

• We have been here serving the community for 42 years.
•   All our teachers have 4 year college degrees in education.
•   Our Beautiful outdoor area includes a preschool garden, large yard for playing, nature trails, park/playground, and sliding hills!
•   Our large gym provides room to grow and play.
•   Special guests, such as the policeman, firefighter, dentist, nurse and musicians, visit school each year to teach us about our community.
•   Through service projects we learn to serve others.
•   We will prepare your child for a positive experience in kindergarten.

For more information:

www.salemcovpreschool.com

651-633-0158

www.pam@salemcovpreschool.com

FUN T-SHIRT PROJECT!

Our whole family gathered at our cabin over the 4th of July weekend.  It's always fun when we can come up with an activity that everyone can do together.  This year my daughter and her boys had a patriotic t-shirt project that everyone really enjoyed and, in the end, we all had a souvenir to take home!
Although our shirts had a red, white and blue theme with stars and stripes, any theme would work.  If you have a birthday, family reunion, themed dinner, Bible School theme, or whatever, you can adapt this project to fit the occasion.   All you need is a t-shirt for each person, fabric paint, masking tape and, perhaps, some stickers that will leave negative shapes on the shirt when they are painted over and removed.  We used star stickers and letters on some of our shirts.

We began by using the masking tape to outline a "frame" for our pattern.  Some frames were square, some rectangular, some star shaped.  Next we added tape within the frame to create stripes or to divide off areas to put our star stickers in.  One person used letter stickers to add the initials of some family members.  Foam stickers come in many shapes.  You could be creative and include them on your own t-shirt  in various ways.

Next we painted our shirts.  We inserted a piece of paper under the front of our shirt so the paint wouldn't bleed through to the back of our shirt.  Using foam brushes, we painted between the stripes of tape and over the star stickers.  After the shirts were dry  we removes the masking tape and the star stickers.  Presto!  We had great 4th of July attire!

Everyone in the family had a great time designing and painting their t-shirts.  Only the one and a half year old didn't participate.  But we did make him a great shirt.

Choose and theme and try this project with your family or party!  I think you'll have a great time!

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

How Does Your Garden Grow? (5 photos)

A little rain is good for a garden! But we need some warm sun to really get our garden growing. The pumpkins are growing...so are the weeds. The beans are growing....so are the weeds. The beets are growing....so are the weeds. The marigolds are growing.....so are the weeds. So far, the weeds are winning. : )