CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had such a great Christmas party today!

We did cottonball painting, played Santa Says and Freeze Dancing, had a present exchange, read a Christmas story, sang LOTS of Christmas songs and . . . had a special visit from the big man himself!!!

A special thanks to all of you for sending the gifts and especially to Santa and his helper :). You made the day!!

COTTONBALL PAINTING AND SANTA SAYS:

CRAZY CHRISTMAS FREEZE DANCING!

GIFT EXCHANGE:

READING OUR NEW CHRISTMAS BOOKS TOGETHER: (They all felt so big turning the pages by themselves and holding thier own books. Help them learn reading independence at home by letting them figure out when it is time to turn the page.) Also! After everyone left, I found one more book--If you are missing one, let me know!!

SURPRISE!! (A few kids did not want to sit on Santa's lap, so I don't have any pics of them).

Hanukah Party

Happy Haunkah!

We had so much fun learning about Hanukah on Tuesday.

Sadly, I did not bring my camera (grrr!).

We split into 3 groups. One group read a story about Haunkah with Miss Monique, another group got to light the Menorah and learn the Dreidel song with Miss Jodi, and the last group got to acutally play the dridel game with me. You kids should have a dreidel, some stones, and an instruction sheet in their backpacks. :).

The rules of Dreidel:

נ (Nun), ג (Gimel), ה (Hei), ש (Shin)

The code (based on a Yiddish version of the game) is as follows:
Nun - nisht - "nothing" - nothing happens and the next player spins
Gimel - gants - "all" - the player takes the entire pot
Hey - halb - "half" - the player takes half of the pot, rounding up if there is an odd number
Shin - shtel ayn - "put in" - the player puts one marker in the pot

If your kids are anything like mine, you've probably been hearing some form of the

Dreidel song at your house over and over and over . . . I'll add the lyrics just in case:

I Have a Little Dreidel

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel

I made it out of clay

And when it's dry and ready

Then dreidel I shall play!

It has a lovely body

With legs so short and thin

And when my dreidel's tired

It drops and then I win!

(Chorus)

My dreidel's always playful

It loves to dance and spin

A happy game of dreidel

Come play now, let's begin!

(Chorus)

Your children also got to help make Latkas (fried potatos with onion). We dipped them in applesauce or sour cream. Yum!

Here's a recipe:

Latkas
3/4 cup bread crumbs (dry)
2 1/2 cups potatoes (grated, and squeezed dry)
1 small onion (grated)
1 egg (beaten)

1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sage
1 tsp. baking powder
dash of pepper
Instructions: Mix all ingredients until well blended. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto hot, greased skillet. Spread the batter and brown pancakes on both sides. Serve hot

Lots of Thanks to Miss Jodi for offering to come teach us about Haunkah--especially for coming 2 different days!! (2day and 3day classes).

Gingerbread Day!

We had so much fun yesterday making gingerbread houses :). Thank you so much for sending all the candy! As you can see in the pictures we had plenty (and then some). This was a great activity for the kids to use their imagination and develop small motor skills.

Other things we learned today:

• Squares: This one is a hard concept, even for some of our 4 year olds. The difference between a square and rectangle can be a little confusing. We went on a square hunt through the classroom. We spent a lot of time discussing which items were really squares and which were actually rectangles. Talk this over with your child, and emphasize the short-long-short-long concept of a rectangle as compared to a square, which has four sides of the same length :).
• Number 8: Also difficult! The kids were troopers for this one :). This is by far the hardest number a preschooler will learn to write. We practiced writing them together on the white board before I passed out their tracing pages. You can work on this at home as well. I told them to do a "loopdee-doopdee-woo." (We encourage writing the figure 8 style number instead of one circle on top of another).
• Up on the Housetop: We learned the first verse of this fun song today. We talked all about the different names that we can call Santa Clause (St. Nick, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, etc). Other words we learned about were 'pause,' 'joys,' and 'chimney.' The kids learned actions as well, which turned out so cute. Ask your child to help you sing it at home so you can get a peek of what they learned.
  

REMINDER:
Our Christmas gift exchange is on Thursday the 18th. Remember to send a $5 present for your child to EXCHANGE WITH SOMEONE! This can be rough for some of the little ones, so if you could prep them at home by emphasizing that the gift they're bringing will go home with someone else, it will help them be prepared to see the beloved toy go to a friend :). Don't forget to tell them that they will get a DIFFERENT new surprise present to bring home. They will also be getting a special surprise from Miss Penny this day.

Christmas ornaments and presents

We've been having so much fun preparing the kids' presents for their parents! I haven't taken any pictures for a few days so that we won't spoil the surprise (but mostly because I my camera has been dead :)). I've already had several parents tell me that they've been taunted about their presents at home.





Here's a quick review of some of the things we've learned:

1. Letter K--ask about Kicky Kangaroo
2. Number 7
3. "The Night Before Christmas" and lots of practice with rhyming.
4. "How Santa Got His Job" book by Stephen Krensky was a BIG HIT!
5. More Christmas songs: "Jingle Bells," "Christmas is Coming," and "We Wish you a Merry Christmas."
6. We did NOT get to squares. We'll make that one up on Thursday.
7. We made a really fun Santa Clause craft using shapes. I'll take a picture to post online, but I'll be keeping them to add to the graduation scrap books. Don't worry, though! More christmas crafts are coming :).
8. Tomorrow is our Gingerbread House day. Remember to send a bag of candy.
9. Our Hanukah party is on Tuesday the 16th. We're really excited to have Jodi Feldman coming to teach us all about it.
10. Our Christmas gift exchange is on Thursday the 18th. Remember to send a $5 present for your child to EXCHANGE WITH SOMEONE! This can be rough for some of the little ones, so if you could prep them at home by emphasizing that the gift they're bringing will go home with someone else, it will help them be prepared to see the beloved toy go to a friend :). Don't forget to tell them that they will get a DIFFERENT new surprise present to bring home. They will also be getting a special surprise from Miss Penny this day.

I just wanted to let you know that we're still here! And I'm sorry I haven't been updating very well lately. December is such a crazy month, not only for preschool, but also for home!

Christmas Starts!

We had a lot of fun today! Here are some of the things we did:

• Spanish Christmas songs: I was surprised how quickly the kids picked these up! Here are the words and pronounciations to help you make sense of what they've probably been singing all day :).

To the tune of "Farmer in the dell"

Feliz Navidad (fey-lees nah-vee-dahd),

Feliz Navidad.

Merry Christmas everyone,

Feliz Navidad.

To the tune of "Jingle Bells"

Cascabella, cascabellas (kah-skah bay-lahs) [Jingle Bells]

tra la la la la

Que alegria (kay alay-gree-uh) [what fun]

todo el dia (tow doe el dee-uh) [all day long]

Que felicidad (kay fay-lees-ee-dahd) [what joy]

AYE! (Eye!)

• Christmas ornaments: We made gingerbread ornaments for our class tree, which we will decorate next time. They smelled so delicious! Here's the recipe, for anyone who's interested:

Fragrant Ornaments
3/4 cup ground cinnamon

1 Tablespoon ground allspice

2 Tablespoon. ground cloves

1 Tablespoon. ground nutmeg

Mix above 4 ingredients. Stir in one cup of applesauce. Roll out 1/4" thick cut with cookie cutter. Poke hole with big needle. Let dry 4 to 5 days (on wire rack works well) or bake at 300 degrees for 30-45 minutes. When completely dry, thread ribbon through.

• Number 6: We had a little mix-up and learned about the letter J on the day we were supposed to do number 6, so today we caught ourselves up! (Sign language for 6 is to hold pinkie and thumb down--like you would to do the number 3).

• Birdfeeders: Finally, we were able to make our birdfeeders! We talked about why we feed birds in the winter as well. For your birdfeeders: remove the tape and push the triangle pieces in until they bend a little bit.