It's getting exciting!

Group Meeting:  Our big day is drawing near.  We talked about our program coming up tomorrow and how the day would run. 

Story:  Since the children enjoyed the Clifford's Thanksgiving filmstrip back in November, we decided to watch the Clifford's Christmas filmstrip.  Clifford and Emily Elizabeth are preparing for Christmas.  They are counting down the days until Santa arrives.  On Christmas Eve, Santa mistakenly lands on Clifford's roof.  He can't find the chimney.  Ask you child to tell you what happens next.

Small Group:  We made a paper Christmas tree using strips of paper that were cut into different lengths.  The children had to put them in order form largest to smallest to make the shape of the tree.  They glued a trunk to the bottom and put a star sticker on top.

Large Group:  We are definitely ready for the Holiday Program!  See you there!

Snacks:  The morning class had Club crackers and juice brought by Addisyn.  The afternoon class had apples, Cheez-its, and milk brought by Jameson.  Thank you!

Costumes

Group Meeting:  Today was all about the costumes.  The costumes for our program are nothing elaborate.  They are made of poster board and glitter, but the children were very excited to try them on today. 

Story:  Our story today was How Spider Saved Santa Bug.  We read a book with the same characters at Halloween.  Spider, Ladybug and Fly are worried.  They sent letters to Santa Bug, but now the letters have come back.  Santa Bug is missing.  The bug friends decide to fly to the North Pole to find out where Santa is before Christmas is ruined.  The bugs arrive at Santa's castle, but Mrs. Santa Bug doesn't know where he is either.  With a little detective work, the bugs figure out the mystery.  Ask you child to tell you where Santa Bug was found.

Small Group:  The children helped me made adjustments and repairs to the costumes that they will be wearing on Thursday.

Large Group:  We held a dress rehearsal today.  Everything is going well.  We will take a break from practicing tomorrow.  We look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday.

Snacks:  The morning class had apples, peanut butter, and milk brought by Addison.  The afternoon class had Nutrigrain bars and milk brought by Noah.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  We planned our week as we preparing for the program on Thursday.  Today, we will wrap presents and practice our program in the Great Hall.  Tomorrow will be dress rehearsal day.  On Wednesday, the 2 Day Preschool class will be using the hall for their program, so we may not get to practice much on that day.

Story:  We read The Mitten Tree.  In this story, Sarah is a woman who lives alone because her children have grown and moved away.  Every morning, Sarah watches the neighbor children walk to the bus stop which is by the blue spruce tree.  One morning she notices that some of the children do not have mittens.  She knits  pairs of mittens and hangs them on the blue spruce tree.  The next day, the children find them.  When all of the children have new mittens, Sarah finds something on her front porch.  Ask your child to tell you what it is.

Small Group:  We are preparing our secret for the Holiday Program.

Large Group:  We practiced the program in the Great Hall.  We found that the Great Hall is a great place for making echos. 

Snacks:  The morning class had Go-gurt and juice brought by Dawson.  The afternoon class had Fruit and Grain bars and milk brought by Wyatt.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  We have been talking about gingerbread people all week, but had not tasted a gingerbread cookie.  So, I stopped at Hy-vee on the way to school and bought a package of  gingerbread cookies for us to try.  Most of the children agreed that they were yummy.  We even ate the ones with missing limbs!

Story:  We read the story of The Elves and the Shoemaker.  This is an old story, so I first had to explain to the children that a shoemaker was a person who made shoes by hand.  In this story, the poor shoemaker has just enough leather left to make one pair of shoes.  He cuts the leather and leaves it on his workbench overnight.  In the morning, he finds a perfect pair of shoes waiting on this workbench. A customer comes in and offers him two gold coins for the shoes. The next night, the same thing happens.  He and his wife hide in the closet to see who is making the shoes.  Ask your child to tell you who it is.

Small Group:  We worked on another Christmas secret.  Sorry, I can't tell!

Large Group:  Following the story, we played the "shoe game".  The children removed their shoes.  They put one in the middle of our rug and hid the other somewhere in the classroom.  Then they had to select another child's shoe and find the match for it.  To get their own shoes back, we reversed the process.  So simple, yet so much fun.

Snacks:  The morning class had graham crackers and juice brought by Grace.  The afternoon class had Christmas pretzels and milk brought by Leigha.  Thank you!

Gingerbread

Small Group:  We reviewed the story from yesterday.  I showed the children materials that we had placed in the art area for them to create their own paper gingerbread person.  Every gingerbread person looks a little different from the next, but they all look yummy.

Story:  We read Santa's Secret Helper.  In this story, Santa needs some extra help with his deliveries.  He asks a special friend to help him.  The special friend dresses up just like Santa, delivers toys just like Santa, takes care of the reindeer just like Santa, and says Merrrrry Christmas just like Santa.  Who is this special helper?  Ask your child to tell you!

Small Group:  We have plastic gingerbread boy and girl toys.  We used them to do patterning.  We could do boy/girl patterns, hats/no hats patterns, shoes/no shoes patterns, dots/stripes patterns, etc.

Large Group:  We practiced our Holiday Program.  We didn't practice yesterday because I thought that the children needed a break.  I was surprised at how disappointed they appeared to be because we didn't do it. 

Snacks:  The morning class had bread stick Handi-snacks and juice brought by Riley.  The afternoon class had Pebbles cereal bars and chocolate milk brought by Kadence.  Thank you!

Run, run as fast as you can!

Group Meeting:  We are being very secretive today.  We are making special plans for our Holiday Program including a surprise for our families.  Please don't ask too many questions today.  It's hard to keep a secret!

Story:  We read The Gingerbread Man.    We had read a very similar version of this story about a month ago.  However, this story had a slightly different ending.  I asked the children to listen and tell me how this story was different from the previous version.  Ask them to tell you!

Small Group:  Again, I can't tell you.  Sorry!

Large Group:  We acted out the story of The Gingerbread Man.  The children were very good actors as they chased the Gingerbread Man all over the room.  I love it when I hear the kids say, "Can we do it again!"

Snacks:  The morning class had bagels and juice brought by Aiden.  The afternoon class had Cheez-its and milk brought by  Lily.

Mrs. Hoogheem was absent today due to illness.  We hope that she returns tomorrow!

What a cold winter's day!

Group Meeting:  We talked about giving and receiving gifts.  This time of year, the children are telling me what they have put on their Christmas list.  We tied this back to our food pantry field trip.  Giving the food to the people that needed it was a good thing to do.  We want to continue that.  Your child should be bringing home a note explaining what we would like to do next.

Story:  The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy is the story of a puppy, Petey, who wanted to receive a boy of his own for a Christmas gift.  His mother told him that if he was good, she would get him a boy.  However, when Christmas came, she could not find any boys who did not already have a puppy.  So, Petey set out to find a boy of his own.  Ask you child to tell you if he found a boy.

Small Group:  The children were given zip-lock bags containing cubes.  They were to count the cubes and determine how many were in the bag.  Then, they had to find a Christmas present cut-out that had the numeral printed on it that would tell how many cubes were in their bag.  They tried several times to match number with numeral.  Keep counting with your children at home.  We would like them to be able to count between 10-20 items.

Large Group:  We practiced our program on the risers today.  This puts us up high for the grown-ups to see!

Snacks:  The morning class had peanut butter crackers and milk brought by Payton.  The afternoon class had bananas and juice brought by Allison.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  Our tree study is now complete.  We made a list of everything that we had learned about trees.  It was quite a long list.  I think the children were surprised at how many things we had learned. 

Story:  We read Froggy's Best Christmas.  In this story, Froggy is celebrating Christmas for the first time because frogs typically hibernate and sleep through Christmas.  Froggy's best friend Max wants Froggy to celebrate. So, he wakes him up and takes him out to find a Christmas tree.  They find their friends and take a tree back home to Froggy's house to decorate.

Small Group:  We reread the list of things that we had learned about trees.  Each child was asked to draw a picture of something that we had learned.  The pictures will be put together in a book.  We will take turns taking the book home to read.

Large Group:  We needed to practice our Christmas songs, but I knew the children were getting a little bored with standing and singing.  I got out the parachute and we practiced singing while moving the parachute to the motions.  I don't know that we got a lot of singing done, but we had fun with the parachute.

We also completed the Q page in our workbook by making 4 Q's and coloring a quilt.

Snacks:  The morning class had granola bars, bananas, and juice brought by Parker.  The afternoon class had crackers and juice brought by Campbell.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  We have been doing a lot of review this week.  Tomorrow, we will wrap up our study on trees.  In doing a review, I can see how much the children have learned about trees and get some ideas of where to go next. 

Story:  We read A Grand Old Tree.   It is a tree's life story from a sapling to when the tree dies of old age.  The tree flowers, grows fruit, and drops it's leaves many times.  It is home to birds and animals.  It's seeds begin new babies.  Even when the tree dies at the end, it provides a home for a raccoon and then turns into soil so that new trees can grow. 

Small Group:  We are learning about the letter Q this week.  We practiced making Q's on our wet, dry, try boards. 

Large Group:  We practiced our Christmas program today.  Then we enjoyed a musical dance called "Let Me See Your Boogaloo".  Ask you child to show you how they Boogaloo, Frankenstein, Hairy Gorilla, and Funky Chicken.

Snacks:  The morning class had Goldfish and juice brought by Lucie.  The afternoon class had grapes and milk brought by Gavin.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  We read the story of the Three Little Pigs yesterday.  So, today I showed the children the puppets that we have to go along with this story.  We have placed them in the media center so that the children can act out the story on their own.  We also have the flannel board story that they can use.  

Story:  We are finishing up our study on trees this week.  We read A Tree is Good For...  This was a good book for us to use as a review.  Ask your child to tell you one thing that a tree is good for.

Small Group: We learned how to use shapes to draw a house.  We wanted to draw a sturdy house like the little pig in yesterday's story.  We used rectangles, triangles, squares and circles.  This is something that you and your child can do together.  It's great for fine motor skills, learning about shapes, and how to put things together to create something else.

Large Group:  We learned a few more songs and motions for our Holiday Program.  I hope your child was able to tell you their part in the program.

Writing Center:  We have placed Christmas card pictures in the writing center along with a few word cards so that the children can create holiday cards for friends and family.  

Snacks:  The morning class had Rice Krispie treats and juice brought by Carter.  The afternoon class had bananas dipped in granola and milk brought by Robert.  Thank you!

A New Month

Group Meeting:  We took a look at the December calendar to see what events would be coming up for us.  Of course, the first thing that the children had to tell me was that it is now Christmas.  So, we looked up that date on the calendar and realized that we have a few more days to go.  We marked the date of our Holiday Program.  We do not have any birthdays in December, so we will not have a Birthday Day.

Story:  We read The Three Little Pigs.  The version that I selected was a new one that I hadn't used before.  The story is the same, but the author really stresses how the third little pig was very careful to put time and effort into his work.  The wolf could not blow down his house, and the pig thought of a way to make the wolf leave the forest.  Ask your child to tell you what that was.

Small Group:  We are going to wrap up our Tree Study this week.  We are reviewing some of the things that we have learned.  We looked around our classroom to find things that are made of wood.  We have a lot of furniture and toys that are made of wood.  We decided that trees are very important. 

Large Group:  We are beginning to prepare for our Holiday Program.  In the program, the children will play the part of a  bell, a snowflake, a cookie, or a candle.  I had them pick pictures out of a basket to determine which part they would portray.  We will work a little on this program every day.  You should be hearing a few new songs soon.

Art:  We put pine tree cutouts at the table with tissue paper and glitter glue.  The children could choose to create a tree to put on our windows for decoration.  We also added green, red, gold and silver paint to the easel. 

Housekeeping Area:  Our grocery store is closing.  The interest has subsided.  Tomorrow, we will be opening a coffee/hot chocolate shoppe that also sells cookies.   Yum!

Snacks:  Both classes enjoyed Go-gurt and juice today brought by Hudson and Leah F.  Thank you!