Tis' The Season!

This week the children were eager to decorate our classroom and make it look festive!  We decided to make snowflakes to put in the windows, Christmas stockings, and a 'countdown until vacation' chain.  The snowflakes and stockings were a lot of fun for the children to make and these particular activities helped with small motor strength and control.  The children had to use scissors to cut out triangles in the folded up coffee filters and then rip the tissue paper into small pieces to make their snowflakes colorful.  Check out the windows to see how great they came out!  While the snowflakes worked on strength the stockings focused more on small motor control.  Each child had to string their own stocking.  They had to start from the top and move the string in and out through the holes all the way around.  This was tough for the children but with a little help they all quickly got the hang of it.  When they were done they then had to decorate the top of the stocking with cotton balls.  The countdown chain is a fun way for the children to actual see how many days are left before break.  They each got to write one number on a ring and will each get to rip one off daily.

This week we began celebrating holidays around the world.  On Tuesday we celebrated Krampus.  This is a holiday that is celebrated in Austria and Hungary.  The children leave their shoes out and Krampus and St. Nick go around together rewarding all the good children and leaving stones in the shoes of the bad children.  The adults celebrate this tradition with a big party on the streets where adults wear masks and run around the city.  We had the children leave their shoes in the hallway and when they heard the bells they went out to check their shoes and of course they ALL found treats!  We also had the children make Krampus masks at the art table.
                                   


















The children really enjoyed the survey sheets that were a choice at the bean table this week.  The sheet said "Do you like...".  The children had to think of something they wanted to ask their friends and write it at the top.  Some of the ones the children chose were ice cream, cookies, cats, flowers, and pancakes.  They went around the class with a clipboard and a marker and asked their friends.  If the children said yes they would put a check or write the first letter of the child's name in that column.  If the child said no they would do the same in the other column.  When they were done asking everyone in the class they would count how many said yes and how many said no and write the totals on the bottom of the paper.  The children REALLY enjoyed going into the preschool class and asking those friends.

This week we went outside to check out the tree we have been observing in the last couple months.  The first time we went out and the children noticed it had brown and green leaves on it.  This week when we went outside they observed something different.  There were no leaves on the tree so they could only draw the trunk and the branches.  The children brought their notebooks outside with them so they could draw exactly what they saw.  Shortly after we had to run inside because it was too windy!

Music

In music this week we had rhythm wars where half the children were doing one rhythm while the other half of the class was doing another.  We took the big drums out and had a rain storm since it was raining outside.  We also started learning holiday songs.

We had a special visitor from the dentist office on Thursday.  She came to talk to the children about proper ways to brush their teeth and floss.  The children enjoyed listening to her and sharing how they brush their teeth.  She also showed them all the different tools from her office.

Thank you to Sophia's nanna for coming in to read There was a Cold Lady who Swallowed Some Snow by: Lucille Colandro to the children.  They all really loved the story and enjoyed singing along with her.

Another thank you to Taryn (Adrian's mommy) for giving us two large maps to hang in our classroom!  One of the United States and one world map.  We are looking forward to begin tracking where family members and friends are from.  Please remember if your going away or having visitors come in from out of town we are looking for postcards or mementos to hang around the maps.