Merry Christmas to All!

What a fun week we had getting ready for Christmas!  We read lots of wonderful Christmas stories and did some Christmas math!  Kids love when math is fun!  We used cut-out Christmas lights to work on counting as well as number recognition.

 

 

We also used our Christmas lights to work on patterns.  I love when kids grasp this concept!

The 3-year-olds enjoyed working together to sort the Christmas lights by color.  Sorting different objects and organizing them helps children classify objects and prepares them for further math concepts.

 The Pre-K kids got to make Christmas cards this week.  This was a great opportunity for them to work on their printing skills.  Many of them were ready to copy words and write them on their card for Santa or someone special they love.  They also traced Christmas shapes and colored them to make them more interesting.  Giving kids the opportunity to practice and develop their writing skills is very important as they get ready for kindergarten.

 Pictures from centers!

"Santa Claus is coming to town!"

We were so happy to finally have Santa come to the preschool this week!!  What a treat!  The kids were excited to sing "Jingle Bells" for Santa too!

Santa!!!!

 

We hope you all have a beautiful Christmas and a happy new year full of blessings and peace!

Gingerbread Baby!!

Gingerbread is fun to learn about around the holidays!  We started the week off by reading the classic story of the Gingerbread Boy.  We learned a little rhyme that the kids LOVED saying as they ran around outside and pretended to be either the gingerbread boy or the fox!

Run, run, as fast as you can.

You can't catch me,

I'm the Gingerbread Man!

After learning all about gingerbread, the kids were excited to try a gingerbread cookie.  Almost all of the children liked it!

We also read a darling twist to the traditional story of the gingerbread boy called the "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett.  

At the end of the story, the witty little boy catches the gingerbread baby by making him a gingerbread house!  The kids really enjoyed decorating their own gingerbread baby and house!  They turned out so cute!

 

 

We also had fun making Play-doh Christmas shapes this week!

 

  We also delighted in Mother Goose's visit! This week she brought Christmas ornaments and shared Christmas stories and songs!

  Practicing "Jingle Bells" for when Santa comes to visit the preschool!!

Learning through play during centers this week.  From drawing to puzzles to playing pet store, these kids are learning so many social and academic skills like eye-hand coordination, role playing, and expressing emotion.  There's so much to learn at preschool!

 

 

Christmas is coming!  Next time we'll share our pictures from Santa's upcoming visit!

Winter Wonderland!

Winter is our theme for December!  I love teaching the preschoolers about the seasons!  The kids enjoyed singing "Once There Was a Snowman" and melting to a puddle on the rug!

The highlight of the week was acting out the story entitle "The Hat" by Jan Brett.  I love Jan Brett's books the illustrations are so beautiful and the books are magical.  The children were truly delighted as they played the various animals in the book as well as the little girl, Lisa.

Curious Hedgie pretended to like the sock that was stuck on his head and, one by one, told all the other animals how it would keep him warm and dry in the winter.   The other animals soon found their own "hats" to be prepared for winter like Hedgie.  

Once the little girl, Lisa, realized all her winter clothes were gone, she had to chase down the animals to get them back again!

"H" is for Hansel and Gretel!  I love reading classic stories and books to the children!  Many of them had never heard this story before.  After the story, the kids practiced their shapes as they helped Hansel and Gretel find their way out of the forest with a shape maze.

Music time!  Christmas songs as well as their recent favorite--London Bridge is Falling Down!

Working on puzzles together this week!

It was a fantastic week!  Looking forward to next week's gingerbread fun!