Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas! These little ones had a great week celebrating Christmas. Here are a few highlights:

• talking about the birth of Jesus and the nativity
• playing "Santa Says" and doing an obstacle course
• counting, sorting and graphing bows
• making special gifts and then wrapping them
• making peppermint bark to give to others (if they didn't tell you- one bag is to share with their families and one bag is for someone special)
• playing jingle bell freeze and dancing with bells
• doing yoga and making letters with our bodies
• exchanging gifts and reminding me that it is more exciting to give than to receive
• and much more!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. We'll start up Preschool on Tuesday, January 11th with winter week-snowmen and of course a snow ball fight!

Cultural Christmas

I LOVE Christmas time and I've been anxious all year to start the preschool festivities. We focused this week on the different ways other cultures celebrate the holidays. The children really liked the idea in Germany of putting the presents on the tree and had a great time marching around the backyard with tree limbs singing "O Christmas Tree". Our Swedish Saint Lucia day began with a candlelight classroom and lots of cozy blankets for story time. It's been fun to teach them that the holidays are more than just about Santa Clause.

The children literally jumped out of their seats with excitement when they saw Porsche walk in with her snack. Snack time couldn't come soon enough!
Cutting food into quarters and halves- fractions that are fun!

Making a "Q". After everyone gets in a circle they stick one leg out to make a Q- then tumble to the ground in giggles.

Whose that hiding behind the tree?

Decorating our Christmas Tree ornaments.

Kyler really liked all the glitter glue.

Boston focusing hard to get the ornaments just right on his tree.

The finished products! Sierra thought we should have a contest and judge them, however we determined they were all unique and all winners!

This new toy doesn't quite go with the Cultural Christmas theme, but due to a delay in shipping it arrived just after builder week and it was too fun to put away. They worked on drilling the bolts into patterns and every one of them did perfect! (This toy was a huge hit so I'm sure you'll see more of it than just during building week)

St. Lucia Day! Boys in Star Hats, Girls in Wreaths (I opted not to light candles on the wreaths!), warm rolls and hot chocolate. We watched a short video of an actual St. Lucia procession so of course we then had to have our own procession around the house.

Dancing time! They actually each did a solo performance for me of a snowflake dance. Next time I'll try to video it so you can see them in action- truly priceless

Jack be nimble...

Jack be quick...

Jack jump over....

the candlestick!

Budding Builders

A while back a wheel came off a trike and the preschoolers swarmed that bike and began seeking solutions to the problem. They asked me for all sorts of tools as they sincerely wanted to fix it and did not doubt in the least their ability to do so. I knew then, that we must include a week on building in our schedule and I'm gad I did. It was a fantastic week that gave us lots of opportunities to learn our preschool skills while having lots of fun.

Sand paper letters were so much fun to rub into the journals. We will certainly be doing this again to help with letter recognition and fine motor skills.

Kyler working hard at rubbing the letter "k". He enjoyed the process so much there are about five pages of "k's" in his journal.

Sierra ready for a busy morning of building.

Boston deciding just how he should use the tools to build a house.

All the children spent playtime busily fixing the preschool room. Sierra was the "Chief Builder" and did a good job of supervising the group and of course making sure they all took breaks.

Despite the cold, our pea plants are still growing! At snack time the children peek out the window at their plants then tell me just how tall their plant is going to be.

Cooperation was key as the children worked together to build tall skyscrapers then topple them right down.

Gideon spent playtime building roads for the cars with our magnets.

Kyler just loved the tools and got pretty creative with his building projects.

Safely practicing climbing a ladder, of course they all wanted it to go much higher.

Happy Boston pausing for a moment at the top of the ladder.

Tap, tap, tap went the hammer.

Round and round went the screwdriver.

Up and down went the paintbrushes and paint roller.

More tapping of the hammer.

Pretty Porsche basking in her ladder climbing accomplishment.

Kyler measuring everything around the house.

I didn't get pictures of the children acting out the Three Little Pigs story, but trust me they were hilarious as fierce wolves who huffed and puffed quite a bit. Acting out some songs about building also brought out the inner actors in them all. They are such a wonderful group!