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.