Merry Christmas!

We had the merriest week yet at the preschool getting ready for Christmas!!  The kids loved counting how many days until Christmas after we did our calendar and numbers each day.  I love how excited they were for Christmas! What a special time of year! 

We read a beautiful story called "Memories of the Manger" and set up our little nativity set to start off our week!

The children really enjoyed decorating their own Christmas tree ornament.  Thank you to AnnaLee (one of the parents) for baking all the ornaments!  It was a great activity to let them experiment with mixing colors as well as being creative.  I think it's always fun to have a special memento to remember your sweet children at this magical age!

 We like to add math in whenever we can!  Sometimes I let the children decide which book we read by giving them 2 options and having them stand by the one they want to read.  We count how many children choose each book and figure out which group has more and which one has less.

 A basket full of Christmas books to look at after snack time!

 Thank you to Sarah for coming to teach music to our morning class!  The kids absolutely loved playing "Jingle Bells" with the instruments she brought with her.  These kids did a terrific job following her signs and playing the song together!  I love great music times!

  Paying very close attention so they could play their part!

 Dancing during Music and Movement!  Joyful smiles make everyone happy! : )

 We read a story about decorating a Christmas tree and then, for our project, we decorated our own trees.  Each tree was made out of 3 triangles which the kids had to sort and arrange from largest to smallest. 

 They all did a great job following directions and getting their trees put together just right!

Our letter of the week was "C" for Christmas!  With the Pre-K classes, we talked about patterns and arranged some Christmas cookies in a pattern on a letter "C."  Then, the kids got to "decorate" their cookies!

And then we had the most magical visitor yet...Santa!

The kids were thrilled to have him right in our preschool!

They loved sitting on his lap and telling him what they wanted for Christmas! What a memorable moment!

All of us at Treasure Tree Academy hope you had a beautiful Christmas!  And wish you and your families a happy and prosperous new year!

Winter Holidays!

 Let me start by saying "Thank you" to Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Spackman, Miss Emily, and Miss Anna for filling in for me while I was not feeling well and couldn't teach.  What great ladies!  I loved seeing this picture of a little story time while the other children were finishing their snack--precious!

 Also, a big "Thank you" to the parents that volunteered in our classroom this week!  This class loved learning about the violin from a classmate's mom.  They wanted to hear more and more Christmas favorites!

 Hands-on is such a powerful, unforgettable way to learn!

What a memorable experience to have a classmate's mom read stories to the class!  These kids loved it!

If any other parents are interested in sharing a talent or reading to the class, please let me know!  I love having parents involved and it is so sweet to see how much it means to the individual child as well!

 I couldn't resist adding these darling pictures of centers this week!  

Carefully giving the animals check-ups!

 

Exploring science with marbles!

 This week we learned about other winter holidays!  We learned about Kwanzaa and colored a color-by-number of their candle holder and candles.  I was so impressed with how the children did with this activity!  They were very careful to get the candles colored the correct colors!

 We also learned about Hannakah!  The children enjoyed placing the candles in the menorah and learning about the daily celebration that went with each candle-lighting.

Practicing spinning a dreidel!

Some of the kids were very good at spinning a top while others had never tried it before!

Then we made a countdown chain for Christmas!  It's coming soon! ; )

Making sure they had the right number of rings until Christmas!

We learned the letter "G" this week and the Pre-K students got to learn about the Grinch from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss.  We used this book to talk about what Christmas is really about as well as how being mean doesn't make us happy, but that loving and sharing with others does!

Making their own Grinch with crayons, glue, glitter, and cotton balls!

  And lastly, we had a magical visit from Mother Goose this week! 

 We are so fortunate to have such a dynamic, interactive visitor that comes to our classes each month!

I hope you had a nice weekend!  I'm looking forward to our last week of school before the Christmas break!  We'll be learning about Christmas as well as the letter "C"!

Winter and Snow!

We had a great week learning all about winter and snow!

We practiced one-to-one correspondence and letter recognition as we played this fun game!  The kids took turns rolling a numbered die and putting that number of "snowballs" on the snowmen!

Preschoolers love singing and acting out songs!  We sang "Once There Was a Snowman" this week!  Not only is it good for children to learn music, but it is a wonderful way for them to express themselves and memorize lyrics!

 

For one of our projects this week the children made individual snowmen with the letters of their name on the snowballs.  This was a great activity for both 3-year-old and the Pre-K classes because it helped them recognize their names, put their letters in the correct order and if able, write their own names!

It was fun to see the kids practice their art skills and working together as a class as they took turns and drew a colorful, classroom snowman!

Since we were learning about winter, it was a perfect opportunity to take a few minutes to lay down and listen to Vivaldi's classical piece entitled "Winter" and imagine some fun winter activities they like to do during the winter.  Classical music is so good for children to listen to as it helps their brain develop as well as giving them more exposure to various styles of music.

 

We also learned the letter "W" this week! 

It was fun to find lots of different ways to make the letter of the week!

 

The children were enthralled with stories about winter and snow this week!

 They really enjoyed music and movement time with Ms. Ann this week!

 I love seeing their joyful, happy faces as they sing together!

Next week we will be learning about other winter holidays celebrated around the world.  Then, the following week we will be focusing just on Christmas!  We are so excited for this magical time of year!