Wednesday's Holiday Fun

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas! 

We are in a really great groove in our classroom right now.  We have adjusted to our new set up in our classroom and how our center times are being done.  We are in the Christmas mode in our classroom, lots of time being spent learning about Baby Jesus' birth and learning the Christmas Story.   Our room is becoming a Christmas Wonderland and I am so proud of how everyone is working together to make our classroom beautiful for the Christmas Season.  Makes me sad that we will not be able to enjoy it longer than we will, so it might stay up after we come back from Christmas Break so we can enjoy all of our hard work and efforts.  Please be sure and look in the hallway for all the neat things we have been busy doing and in the classroom as well.  We have been very busy learning about the color green, the shape of a triangle, counting to the number 5, learning the Christmas Story and about the Holiday Season.   

A few reminders:

Next, Thursday is our last day of school and we will have a special Chapel Service in the church starting at 8:15.  Please be sure to arrive at school by 8:00 so we will have plenty of time to walk over to the church.  If your child does not attend on Thursdays, I strongly encourage you to join us for this special Chapel Service that Mrs. Haun, our Early Childhood Director will be leading.  It will be very informal as we hear the Christmas Story and sing a few Christmas songs.  

Christmas Break will start on Friday, December 18 and we will not return to school until, Tuesday, January 05, 2016.  Please remember that the campus will be closed during this time in observance of Christmas.  

Diapers…..I have lots of friends in desperate need of diapers for the next few weeks of school.  Mrs. Wegener is sending home notes in lunchboxes and backpacks if you are in need of some.  It would also not be a bad idea to check in with Mrs. Wegener this week to see how your pull-up and diaper supply for your child is.  I have some that need them for rest time so even if your child is potty trained during the day but wears a pull-up or diaper at nap time please check with Mrs. Wegener as well.  

Peanut Butter……A friendly reminder that we are A PEANUT FREE FACILITY.  NO PEANUT BUTTER CAN ENTER THE SCHOOL BUILDING.  Also, be sure your child's hands and faces are being washed before you enter the classroom in the morning.  I know it may be a pain but this is for the safety of our friends and teachers who are allergic to certain foods.  I appreciate your help in keeping our school safe.  

Enjoy viewing the pictures and reading about what we did today.  All questions and concerns may be directed to my email address at hhorn@zionharvester.org.  ENJOY!! 

FREE CHOICE/CENTERS

We continue to enjoy our selections of Christmas Music during this time of the day.  It has been a blessing to see how much these little friends of mine have grown in the few short months we have been together.  

MARKERS ARE BACK!!

I made the bold decision to bring out the markers for our friends and they didn't skip a beat as they got right back to coloring, drawing and having lots of fun!   

IMAGINATIVE PLAY

We have had a lot of fun playing with the airport  and house this month and we are much more engaged in the different toys that have been put out to play with over all this month.  

BUILDING WITH BLOCKS

We had fun this week building different buildings and towers with the big mega blocks.  It was a great way for us to work on our fine motor skills in getting the blocks to fit together.  We were also able to work on color identification and counting skills as well.  

GREEN PLAY DOUGH! 

We have enjoyed making different Christmas Cookie Cutter cut outs this month with our green play dough.  

LETTER N

This week we are learning about the letter N, today in our alphabet book we used a brown bingo dauber to trace the outline of the uppercase letter N and decorate a birds Nest.  We also talked about different letter N words, new, neighbor, next, newt, Nightingale. 

DECORATING A CHRISTMAS TREE

Last week we painted a Christmas Tree green this week we used different colored paints and q-tips to add some "lights" and "ornaments"  to our green trees.  As we finished them and they dried we are hanging them on our wall in our classroom to create a winter scene.  This was a great way to work on our fine motor skills as we had to hold the q-tip in our hand and dip it in the paint.  

Kate was excited to show me the number 10 from one of the books in the books we have in our classroom.  

CHRISTMAS LIGHT PATTERNS

Today we used red and green bingo daubers to make a pattern of red and green Christmas Lights.  We worked on matching the colors and figuring out what color will be next.  Patterning is really big in Early Childhood and something we expose our little friends to on a daily basis.  It is neat to see how many of our little friends are catching on to the concept of patterning. 

FIVE GREEN TRIANGLES TO MAKE A CHRISTMAS TREE

I was not sure how well this center would turn out, but after I was done with each friend I was so pleased with how well it turned out.  First, each child had to help me count out 5 green triangles.  After we had them counted out we laid them on the table and the students picked a green triangle to make their very tall Christmas Tree.  We talked about how some of the triangles were bigger than others.  When we were done gluing on our triangles and the trunk we added a little sparkle to our fabulous looking trees.  All of the trees turned out great and are proudly being displayed in our hallway.  They are unique and different just like all of my beautiful friends.  We worked out recognizing the color green, the shape of a triangle, our fine motor skills of gluing on the triangles, spatial awareness as well as using our creativity.  

PUZZLES & BOOKS

These always make Great Christmas Gifts! 

BINGO DAUBER CHRISTMAS TREE

Today we worked on our fine motor skill as we decorated a Christmas tree using a green bingo dauber, we had yellow for the top of our tree and brown for the trunk of our tree.  We use bingo daubers a lot in our classroom we were able to work on our fine motors skills and pre-writing skills.

DECORATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE

This activity has been great for the students this month they are able to decorate the Christmas Tree however they wish and they are able to take them on and off and rearrange them to their liking. They are working on fine motor skills as well as color, shape and object identification.  

Isaiah was so excited and proud of the tree he had decorated I had to take his picture! 

COUNTING BOOK

Today we worked with Mrs. Horn on a counting book.  On each page we had to count how many ornaments there were on the tree.  After we counted the number of ornaments, we place a star sticker on top of the ornament.  We were able to work on number recognition, as well as counting and fine motor as we placed our star stickers on the ornaments.  We also were able to work on pre-reading skills as we had to turn the page.  These books will becoming home this week leave out so your child can "read" their book to you and practice counting with you.  

PAINTING A STOCKING

Today we painted a stocking either red or green that we will hang on our fireplace that we painted last week.  

MORNING MEETING

Happy Wednesday! 

Today our calendar card had a shepherd and sheep on it.  

We were not sure how to dress Mr. Weather Frog so he had a little bit of everything on today! 

We counted 5 berries on a wreath we had made last week to help us with the number 5 

Our green Color board ask your child if they can name on the different pictures on our board.  This is a great way to reinforce the color of the month and increase our vocabulary and the world around us.  

Our studies for the month of December 

Our pattern for the month of Christmas Trees and Wreaths

Letter of the week------Letter N. 

We read this book that told us about the special night that Baby Jesus was born.  

Our prayer for the month of December.  

Transition and Snack Time

We decorated a Christmas Tree with different color ornaments.  We worked on what color ornament we had to put on the tree today.  

Yummy Snacks--remember we need to bring something that easy for us to eat and our friends can eat on their own.

GETTING READY TO HEAD OUTSIDE

Look how great we are doing at standing in line!  

OUTSIDE PLAY

So happy we were able to take advantage of this beautiful weather we are having!  Please remember to dress your child in appropriate clothing for us to go outside.  All students must have a coat to wear outside and appropriate footwear. 

Jesus Time

 Today we talked about the Christmas Story with reading this book and talking about all the important people that helped in the making of the Christmas Story.  It is neat to see how much my friends are remembering about the story.    

CENTER TIME

NATIVITY STICKERS

Today some of us were able to tell the story of Baby Jesus using stickers as we re-created the story on paper.  It was so neat to see the children place the stickers on their paper and be able to tell you who the characters were.  Ask your child when they bring home their Nativity Scene who the people are on their paper.  This center also allowed us to work on our fine motor skills as we had to peel the stickers off the sheet and place them on our paper.  As well as pre-reading skills as we were re-telling the story we have heard quite a few times already this Christmas Season.  

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS GIFTS IN THE WORKS

Today we started working on a special Christmas present for our Mom's and Dad's that we will be bringing home next week.  

PUZZLES

MORE IMAGINATIVE PLAY

READING BOOKS 

DECORATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE 

MOMENTS TO CHERISH! 

Today Ella wrote her name all by herself on the Magna Doodle Board and was so excited to share it with me and I had to take a picture to share with her mom and dad.  This is one of the many reasons I teach….I love to see little ones faces light up when they do something BIG!   

Transition and Lunch Time

We took off our ornaments today when our name was called and then we washed hands for lunch after we prayed.  

Another fantastic  day we had here in our room.  We finished our day off with our goodbye song.  The past few weeks have been amazing for our class and I have been leaving the classroom with a heart full of Joy and accomplishment knowing how wonderful and loved each of my little friends are.   Have a wonderful and blessed evening.