Wonderful Wednesday!

Wednesday, December 03 2014

Merry Christmas!    We have entered the month of December we have a very busy month ahead of us filled with learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus and how he was born, to learning about all the fun things that go along with celebrating Jesus birthday!  We will be busy decorating our classroom and the hallways so be sure to check out what all we have been up to during the month of December.  Today we started our studies on the color green, the number 5, the shape of a triangle, learning about the Angel Gabriel and learning about new Christmas words. 

The classroom has been decorated and we discovered new toys through out the classroom.  We had fun playing with new toys and seeing our friends that we may have not seen last week.  We are working really hard at following directions and listening to what a teacher tells us to do.  We continue to work on our life skills such as putting on our coat, turning on the water in the bathroom to wash our hands, putting our snack or lunch away.  These are all things that they will be expected to do on their own in Preschool if they will be attending next year.      

I hope you enjoy reading about our day and enjoy looking at all the pictures of what we did. 

Jesus Time: Today we began learning about the Christmas Story…. Here is an overview of what we learned about….

 Luke 1:26-38

Not long after his visit to Zachariah, the angel Gabriel went to see a young woman named Mary. She was a cousin to Elizabeth, Zachariah’s wife.  Mary lived in Nazareth and was engaged to marry Joseph, the carpenter.  Don’t be afraid, Mary the angel said.  God is pleased with you. You will have a baby and will name him Jesus.  He will be called the song of God.  This was a big surprise to Mary. 

Matthew 1:18-23

When Joseph heard the news that Mary was going to have a baby, he didn’t’ know what to think.  He wasn’t married to her yet.  God loved Joseph and wanted him to understand that the baby was from God and everything’s was going to be all right.  So God sent an n angel to talk to Joseph in a dream.  This angel told Joseph, Name the baby Jesus.  He will save people form their sins.  When Joseph heard God’s plan, he married Mary.

During our center time we water colored a picture of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  We continued to talk about how the angel Gabriel came to tell Mary she was going to have a baby and his name would be Jesus.   

Number:  We started learning about the number 5 today.  During Morning Meeting we were introduced to what the number 5 looks like and then we practiced counting to 5. We counted 5 fingers, rubbed our bellies 5 times, stomped our feet 5 times and jumped up and down five times.  We then counted 5 red Christmas Stockings. 

During center time we decorated a Christmas wreath with red, green and yellow bingo daubers.  We made 5 red berries, 5 green lights and 5 yellow lights.

Shape:  Our study of the shape of a Triangle began today as well.  We talked about how a triangle has 3 sides and how a lot of times you can make a Christmas tree out of triangles. 

Center time allowed us the opportunity to trace a triangle with a green marker and decorate it with some different Christmas stamps.  We used an ornament and put 5 ornaments on the tree, we used a reindeer and put 5 reindeer on our page as well as 5 candy canes.  We also were working on learning different Christmas words we may hear through out the month of December.

WE also worked on a special present that will becoming home the last week before Christmas break.

Color:  Green was introduced during our Morning Meeting and we filled up our green board with different objects that are green. 

Center time brought us to painting a Christmas wreath green that will help decorate our classroom. 

Music and Movement: We also had fun singing our ABC’s, twinkle Little Star.  We were introduced to Away in the Manager, which we will be singing on December 13 at the 5:00 church service.  We had fun clapping our hands, doing the Silly Dance Contest, Washing in the Wash Machine and singing the Wheels on the Bus!  

Outside Time:  WE did go outside today it was great to get out and have some fresh air run and play with our other friends from other classes.  Please remember to dress your child appropriately from warm clothing, proper footwear and outerwear.

Patterning:  We were introduced to a new pattern today of candy cane and Ornaments.  We had fun saying the words and counting to 10!  More new Christmas Vocabulary words!    

Science and Sensory:  The sensory table was filled with all different types of things we may see at Christmas time.  It will be opened each day for the children, to touch, look and feel what we may see at Christmas.  Ask them what they saw in the table.  More new Christmas Vocabulary words to learn….

During center time we had fun making an ornament with our initial on it to hang on our classroom Christmas tree.  We had to tell Mrs. Horn the first letter in our name and then we used glue to trace that letter and then we picked what color glitter we wanted to use and then sprinkled the glitter on our initial.  Be sure to check our Christmas tree out Daily to see what kind of ornaments will be on it!

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

Free Choice Play

We were treated to a variety of Christmas Music today and will be through out the month of December.  WE had fun exploring the classroom and checking out all the Christmas decorations and the new toys that we have been playing with. 

.Art Easel is always open to the children and Kate drew us a pretty picture today using chalk. 

Green Play dough 

We love to play with play dough so we had fun making different Christmas shapes.  Play dough is a great way for us to work on our hands and finger muscles. 

.Amelia went with Mrs. Linneman to get some things to help decorate our room for Christmas on the other side of the building and came back with this pony to play with 

.Sydney and Gavin were busy building ladders short and tall with some new fine motor toys. 

.Morning Meeting 

Getting ready to start our morning 

.We started a new month 

.Mr. Weather Frog is ready for chilly cold weather. 

.We learned about the number 5 and counted out 5 stockings and learned about a green triangle. 

.We identified things on our green board 

.Our Advent Calendar as we get ready for the birth of Jesus 

.Gavin helped us by putting a star in the sky 

.Sydney helped put another star on the advent calendar

.Avery helped put an angel on our advent calendar

.We read this book again today it is about an angel it is a touch and feel book and we got to feel the different parts of the angel.  

.Our Christmas pattern we worked really hard on saying Candy Cane and Ornament 

Transition Time

Mr. Turkey has gone home and was replaced with a Christmas Tree for us to decorate with ornaments of green and red and candy canes. 

.Circle Time 

We had fun today doing a variety of songs.  We started with Clapping our Hands

.Outside Time 

We were so excited to go outside and play it has been a while since we have been able to go out and play. 

.Center Time

We made ornaments for our Tree in our classroom today

Shaking on the Glitter! 

.Special Gift We are working on for our Parents

.Decorating a wreath

We had to count 5 Red, 5 Green and 5 Yellow for our beautiful wreaths that we made!

.Tracing Triangles

This was a great way for us to become familiar with the shape of a triangle, the color green and to work on our pre-writing skills as we traced the outline of triangle.  WE then used different Christmas stamps to decorate our tree. WE used three different stamps today, an ornament, a reindeer and candy canes.  We did each one 5 times.  We added a yellow star at the top to complete our tree. 

.Water Colors

We painted a picture of Mary, Joesph and Baby Jesus to help us remember the story of our saviors birth

.Painting  a Christmas Wreath

If you have a wreath on your front door at home or a Christmas wreath somewhere in your house please show it to your child so they may be familiar with what an actual one looks like. 

.I must of forgotten to take pictures of our color identification board as well as the two other books we read today I apologize for this over sight.  I hope you have enjoyed what your child has been doing on Wednesdays and I look forward to seeing you all next week!