CIRCLE TIME

 
The birth of our Lord and Savior has been the focus of our school this month, filling the air and infusing our discussions with excitement, joy, and love!    

The Christmas Story:  We began the month by introducing the story of Jesus’ birth, including the roles of Mary, Joseph, the angels, shepherds and wise men. 

Feelings:  Pictures of different facial expressions as well as puppets, dolls, and animals helped us recognize then discuss how to label and handle a variety of feelings including anger, sadness, embarrassment, shyness, pride, happiness, and love!    

Christmas Traditions:  The children enjoyed sharing and comparing stories of the many plans, decorations and activities going on at their houses during this busy season.  We appreciate the information you sent us about your special traditions.  It really helped stimulate the children’s conversations and provided a learning experience about some of our different cultures too.   

Celebrating Jesus’ Birthday:   Following song time on Wednesday and Thursday, we made a large circle, surrounding Jesus’ birthday cakes, and shut off the lights.  We lit the candles on the cake and watched the precious faces of the children glow in the flickering light as they all held hands and sang “Silent Night” and “Happy Birthday to Jesus” – “…and the glory of the Lord shone around them…”- Luke 2:9.   

Painting Christmas Ornaments:  The children were so excited to choose and paint their Christmas ornaments for their Moms and Dads!  They worked so carefully to paint it “just right” for you.   They used glitter paint with small-tipped paint brushes.  It took them some time to cover the ornaments with their paint choices.  When finished, we heard many of them say “My Mom and/or Dad will be so proud of me!”  We hope you enjoy your precious mementos. 

Wrapping Gifts:   This activity always proves challenging and fun!  The children love to wrap and use tape – it takes a lot of patience and skill.  What a sense of accomplishment they feel when the job is completed!

SCIENCE

Exploring with Magnets:  Magnetic items were buried in sand, and the children enjoyed using magnet wands to find the different items and then identify them.  The children were also able to use their hands to dig in the sand if they chose. 

 Learning about small machinery, strengthening fine motor skills, eye/hand coordination, and perseverance:  Screws, different screw driver heads, and a block of wood are being used to practice screwing and unscrewing. 
 

MATH

Matching & sorting:  The children enjoyed sorting four different Christmas-shaped items (a star, a candy cane, a tree and a bell) into ice cube trays, either by matching shapes or by making a pattern in the tray.
 

WRITING/LANGUAGE CENTER

Observation, imitation, & descriptive language skills:  Lots of laughter was heard as the children played a game called “Silly Expressions”.  A player picked up a picture card showing a child making an expressive face.  The player had to mimic the face, using a hand mirror if they chose, and the other players tried to guess which face on the game board he/she was imitating! 
 

CREATIVITY ROOM

Sensory table

Creating color & a sensory experience:  The children enjoyed choosing their favorite shade of liquid water color, placing a few drops into a ziploc bag filled with white rice, and shaking it up until the rice turned a beautiful hue.   They then added their rice to the table, creating a rainbow of colored rice which was not only pleasing to the eye, but also to the ear, making a soft, rain-like sound as the children poured and scooped. 

Fine motor skills and patterning:  Following up on our small group experience, we have had a variety of large beads and string in the table for the children to create different necklaces or “snakes” over and over as they laugh and talk together. 

Playdough

Strengthening fine motor muscles, promoting social skills and creativity:  The children had fun making holiday “cookies” and sharing stories of family festivities as the playdough changed from cinnamon-scented brown with turkey-shaped cookie cutters to green with glitter and Christmas-shaped cookie cutters.  They are currently creating snow sculptures with sparkly white playdough.  

Easels

Creativity and experimentation:  Feathers were used and marveled at as the children painted with liquid water colors, using the feathered side to paint, or trying out the quill tip to write and draw.    

Stamping is always fun, and the children experimented first with rolling stamps and then with square Christmas-themed stamps and different colored stamp pads.    

A lot of thought and work went into writing their names and decorating the star, bell, or ornament-shaped gift tags the children created for you using red, green and gold shimmer paint.   They were proud to then tape these tags onto your special present!  

Currently metallic paint in gold, silver and bronze is being used to decorate green, triangular shaped paper. 
 

DRAMATIC PLAYROOM

For the past two weeks in the Dramatic Playroom the children have been learning about the birth of baby Jesus, and have had the opportunity to re-enact the Christmas story. Costumes such as Wisemen, Shepherds, Kings, Angels and, of course, Mary and Joseph were available for dress up.  To finish off their attire were crowns, angel wings and halos.  Some of the children who were dressed as Angels “flew” about the school spreading the word that baby Jesus had been born!  A stable has been built to resemble the one that Jesus was born in. Sharing the stable with baby Jesus are three fluffy white sheep, Nativity books for the children to look at, and three gold gift boxes brought by the Wisemen and placed by baby Jesus’ side.  Several different types of Nativity sets were also spread about the room, made of either soft cloth, wood, or plastic, including one that played songs and told the story of Jesus' birth. The children have really been enjoying their time spent in the Nativity.  After our Christmas break the Dramatic Playroom will be changed back to our regular housekeeping.
 

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

Rhythm, rhyme, and awakening the senses!  The month began with such songs as   “Razzama Tazzama”, “Hip Hop Hokey Pokey”, a funky version of “Five Little Monkeys”, and “Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum”.    Next, beautiful sounds of Christmas were heard as we sang “Away in a Manger”, “Silent Night” and “Deck the Halls”.  The children and teachers alike had fun shaking sleigh bells and singing “Jingle Bells”, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”  and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.   

The children also enjoyed shaking the bells during Gross Motor time as they donned reindeer antlers or Mr. & Mrs. Claus outfits to “ride” in a cardboard “sleigh” painted bright red by the Tuesday extended day children. 
 

QUOTES

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Miss Kelly

Miss Nancy

Miss Meg

Miss Julie

Miss Brenda

Miss Maryann

Miss Chris

Miss Andrea