Merry Christmas!

Well, there wasn't a dull moment today but then again, with a class full of boys I don't think there ever could be.  They were busy and wild and constantly touching one another.  Maybe in some ways, they were just getting into the Christmas spirit. 
Today, we celebrated Andrew's birthday and Jesus' too.  Laura supplied the pizza and the cookies for all of us to enjoy. I do think that we all enjoyed it. 

We read about the star today and we discussed why we still put stars on our Christmas trees today.  The children decorated star ornaments with their pictures on them. I took pictures of the finished product but had forgotten to do so until Ryan and Logan left. Also, I remembered the journals today but left all of my sheets inside that were supposed to go in the journals.  I'll add that when we are back together in January. 

Our print script activity today was about Christmas.  I asked each child what makes Christmas special to him/her.  Here are the responses: 

"My choo choo train that I got when I was three-years-old.  I like playing with it."  Andrew

"Opening Presents."  Ryan

"Santa Claus brings me a Percy train." Bennett

"God and my family, Christmas cookies, and Christmas trees."  Logan

"Going downstairs and seeing what presents are there."  Jackson

I hope that the children sleep well tonight.  I know that I will.  We had a busy day together and although it was somewhat crazy, it's times like today that I learn about how patient my Heavenly Father is with me.  He never gives up on  me and he's more than patient as I grow.  I'm thankful for what he's done in all of our lives this year, over the past four months.  Thank you for sharing your children with me.  I love each of you and your children.  Merry Christmas!  See you back at preschool in 2010.   

What God Wants For Christmas

Today we read the story, Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift.  This story makes me tear up every time I read it.  Fortunately, we listened to the author's recording of the story so my voice only cracked when I sang the song at the end of the tape.  The book has beautiful illustrations and tells the story of why Jesus came as a baby.

Prior to reading, we opened seven boxes to find out what God really wants for Christmas.  Each box included a figurine such as Mary, Joseph, and Gabriel.  Each figure tells a story about the first Christmas.  The 7th box was a mirror.  What God really wants for Christmas is us!  Before we did this activity, I asked the children what they thought God wanted for Christmas.  Here are their hilarious responses:

"A bubblemaker."  Bennett
"A small thing." Ryan
"A big jacket like him."  Andrew
"Good smiles on our faces when we open presents."  Jackson

We finally were able to go outside today.  Jackson and Andrew found a stream of water in the woods and all of the children enjoyed seeing it.  I did wish that I had raincoats and rainboots for all of them so that they could play in it.  It reminded me of my childhood when we used to go outside after a big rainfall.  Maybe we can do that another time! 

Even though we went outside today, we did a lot of music and movement.  The boys seems to benefit so much from this.  We ended the day with a calm activity, shaving cream.  I think everyone will sleep well tonight.

Enjoy the posted pictures.  See you next week! 

We kicked off our Christmas crafting activities this past week.  The boys sure seemed to enjoy our first craft/art project of the month.  Each one decorated pine cones with shimmery sequins, Christmas buttons, and white snowy glitter.  I was so impressed with how much attention they gave to this project.  They worked a lot longer than I thought that they would.  Check out the picture that is posted of the finished product. Didn't they do a wonderful job?

Our story for the day was, O Christmas Tree.  We learned how the evergreen reminds us of how God's love for us lives on forever.  We learned about the tradition of decorating Christmas trees which was started by the pastor, Martin Luther.  We learned how he puts lights/candles on his tree, a tradition that continues today.  We talked about how the lights remind us of how Jesus is a light in a dark world. So many of our traditions actually have religious meanings. 

We played a Christmas matching game in which the children had to match the number of stars on each card to the corresponding card with the same number.  We also used flannel board Christmas pieces for the children to pretend with and during music, we rode on a sleigh with our jingle bells.  Now, if I can just remember to put the Christmas tree in the classroom this week! 

This upcoming Wednesday, we will decorate glass Christmas ornaments.  This is an activity that the children enjoy every year.  We have one more Wednesday left after this week.  That's our extended day so plan on getting your last minute shopping in that day.  I'll have the kids from 9:30-3:00. We'll be celebrating Andrew's birthday that day with pizza and desserts and we'll watch a Christmas movie together.  Mark your calendars!

Check out the music and movement pictures.  Due to another Wednesday rainfall, we had to do some extra music, movement and tumbling. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had our annual fall harvest party last Wednesday.  A great time was had by all! 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!  See you in December. 

Rainy Wednesday Activities

Wow!  We seemed to have an endless amount of time to do everything yesterday.  I almost ran out of activities for the children to do.  We've not had many rain days that have kept us inside.  I did have quite a few movement activites planned.  I've posted a few pictures of the children in action. 

We are wrapping up our fall harvest unit study of apples and pumpkins. Yesterday, we worked on positional words using an apple and worm. The children were asked to place the worm on, beside, behind, etc. the apple. We'll continue to work on these spatial concepts throughout the school year. We also read the book, Thanksgiving Cats. The children talked about being thankful and we started our "thankful for trees" during our art time. They are going to make lovely Thanksgiving table centerpieces when they are completed!

Next week is our fall harvest party. The kids can get all decked out in their favorite costumes. We'll be having a hayride and pizza party and we'll be making our own dessert for the party. I'll email reminders about the party this weekend so stay turned!

Pumpkins

We read the story, Pumpkin Circle, this week.  This book is a story about a pumpkin garden.  It taught us about the life cycle of a pumpkin.  We learned that pumpkins need a sunny spot to grow getting at least six hours of sunlight.  The seeds do best when planted in warmer soil during the spring months.  They need sun, water, and soil in order to grow.  We used the book to help with the illustrations during art. The children made pumpkin prints using their painted knuckles.  They used colored pencils to create vines and tendrils.

The children are mastering the Day of The Week song.  I've been teaching them the signs too so hopefully by the end of the year, each one will be able to sing it and sign it.  We also worked out letter sounds this week for the letters A, B, and R.  Ryan insisted that we do his letter sound so we skipped on over the R.  Children do best learning letters and sounds when they are relevant and meaningful.  Because of that, we'll spend more time on the letters in the names of each child. 

There are only two class meetings before Thanksgiving week.  We are going to be learning the "Mr. Turkey Song" between now and then.  We'll also get started on a project next week which will include things that we are thankful for.  Don't forget, we'll be having a party during our last meeting of the month.  I'll send out more details soon. 

How Do Apples Grow?

We had a wonderful day together on Wednesday.  The children were all very happy and content and got along well with each other.  The bright sun and mild temperatures made for the perfect day! 

We began today with our art project.  Jackson was very gracious and collected leaves for us to use since the ones that we collected last week were too dry to paint.  Our project consisted of the children painting the leaves with warm fall colors and then making impressions on white paper of the leaves.  The prints were beautiful as were the painted leaves.  I hated to throw them away but we may use that project another day. 

We read the books, How Do Apples Grow and The Apple Pie Tree.  We learned about apples and how they grow.  We found out that bees are very helpful in helping apples grow and that apple blossoms help the bees make sweet honey.  Several of the children wanted me to comment about the apple flowers in their journals so after reading this, you know why they were talking about apples and flowers.

We also baked apple treats.  We cut the cores out of the apples and filled the holes with brown sugar and cinnamon.  We microwaved them for four minutes.  They were delicious!

We are off next week but I'll see you all back in two weeks.  Can you believe it will be November then?