Christmas!!

Christmas is here! Hallelujah!

Boston putting the final touches on his sticker manger scene.

Giggling together over the Grinch story.

The nativity play. Gideon was Joseph; Avah was Mary; Boston was a Wise Man; Porsche was a camel; and Kyler was a dog.

Avah so reverently rocked her precious baby.

Boston the Wise Man relished his role of bringing treasure to the baby Jesus.

Porsche continuing the nativity play with the Little People manger.

Avah putting together a nativity puzzle.

A reindeer, an elf and Santa- the perfect Christmas trio.

Playing "Santa Says".

Happy 4th Birthday Avah!

Kyler loving his reindeer puppet.

The impromptu reindeer puppet show.

The entire class exchanging gifts.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is Almost Here!

We've been anticipating this time of year for months now and we are all so excited that Christmas is finally here! Preschool at Christmas time is so fun because we get to explore the holidays in different ways. Using our five senses really seems to enhance the season.

Making shape figures for our gathering time. I pull this activity out from time to time and it's fun to see their improvement in these very important skills.

This is one version of the castle they built outside. They make these elaborate creations, then knock it all down and do it again differently. It's amazing to watch them work together in this creative endeavor.

Dancing to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. We also learned two new songs this week, "Christmas Bells are Ringing" and "O' Christmas Tree".

Gingerbread decorating. First they used cinnamon sticks to make them smell so very real. Not quite sure how all the eyes became a part of it all, but they did :)

Charlie showing off his seeing Gingerbread man.

Making gingerbread ornaments. I had to remind the children that even though the smell of cinnamon was heavy in the room, and they looked like cookies, these gingerbread boys were for their Christmas trees at home.

Oh how we love glitter this time of year!

Comparing and contrasting the types of Christmas tree branches. We also isolated most of the five senses to learn even more about these trees.

Making a Christmas tree creation outside. Here is the girls version...

and the boys version.

Using the branches and pine cones to make art masterpieces.

At the end of the day we drew names for Secret Santa gifts. If you need me to remind you of the name- let me know. Otherwise, bring the wrapped gift on the 15th. The children are excited to make/buy a gift for one of their friends.

Budding Builders

This week we learned about how our homes are built. They were quite interested in the process and were so anxious to use all the tools I brought to show them.

Counting windows on houses then clipping clothespins to the correct number- math & fine motor skills all rolled into one fun gathering activity.

Building houses just they way they want (and they were all so different!)

Using sandpaper letters to make letter rubbings.

During free play time the children first chose to retell the story of the Three Little Pigs. They couldn't get enough of this story! We read two different versions of it in story books, used flannel board pieces to tell it and acted it out. Lots of huffing and puffing!

Silly Porsche doing letter rubbings.

Kyler was so excited to use the hammer to nail the wood together. He stuck with it and did it!

Climbing to the top of the ladder!

Measuring the ladder and making sure it is level.

Painting the train tracks.

What a wonderful week with some super children. We actually also spent a little bit of time talking about the upcoming holidays- they are soooo excited for Christmas (and so am I!)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! It is so fun to spend the week talking about our heritage and our many blessings. We went on a blessing walk where at each stop they got to tell me more things they are thankful for. I was reminded of how it is the simple things in life that most often children recall and express their gratitude for.

Gideon focusing on making some noodle necklaces for our feast.

After a ride on the "Mayflower" we got to have a Thanksgiving feast.

The ever helpful pilgrim girls.

The enthusiastic pilgrim boys.

The chief Indian.

The children loved the sensory bin full of beans. They sorted, measured, counted and just had a great time exploring with many of their senses (not taste though).

Using those beans to make beautiful works of art.

Classic hand print turkeys. They loved doing this so much we repeated the activity in our journals where I also wrote out their blessings.

Porsche is quite the dancer and hardly stopped moving to get this picture quick.

We read the book "Turkey Trouble" where the turkey disguises himself like many farm animals so the farmer won't find him on Thanksgiving (his final costume is a pizza delivery man:) the children loved getting to disguise their own turkeys.

Boston working on building a home just like the pilgrims might have.

Avah built a grand house that I'm sure the pilgrims would have loved to live in.

When I count my blessings this Thanksgiving (and always) I include my preschool kids. They bring such light and life and joy into my home. I am so thankful for each of them.

Furry Friends

We learned about those furry friends we see around our neighborhoods and we heard all about Max, Stella and Minnie Mouse at preschool this week (the children's pets). We watched the rain and made predictions about when it would stop and start. We learned a new game, "Doggy, doggy where's your bone" that just maybe will replace the reigning favorite game "Duck, duck goose". We reviewed the letters Q and R and practiced using one-to-one correspondence when counting as we counted a lot around preschool. We learned the song "Bingo" and danced to the song, "Oh I want to be a dog". What a great week!

Dogs play Frisbee and catch balls, which is exactly what these little "puppies" did.

It takes a lot of bones to feed all the dogs.

The bones were a perfect manipulative for this theme. They counted them, sorted them, graphed them, put the letters written on the bones together to form the words "dog" and "cat" and they also got to toss them into the dog bowl.

Playing veterinarian.

Counting out the whiskers on the cats. .

The cats somehow morphed into aliens and they began counting the number of eyes and noses on their creatures.

The children created this "castle" and wanted to eat snack inside of it. And since it was so nice outside (and those days are few and far between) how could I say no? Their creativity and problem solving skills are amazing!

Working on their cat ears.

Cute cats!

After the cats were all ready we went on a walk and talked about all the dogs we saw - no cats were prowling about though. We discussed how animals communicate without talking and how their bodies do some pretty great things to protect them. I know my little guy keeps asking about getting a real dog now, which is pretty impossible with the allergies this family has. It was fun though to pretend for a week that puppies and kitties were bounding about the house.