Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  I've been waiting to post pictures until I had our Christmas Party pictures to post....and today during the party I forgot to take pictures.  So, without further ado.......

 

 Everyone looked so handsome at the Christmas Program!  What a great job all of the kiddos did singing their hearts out!
 

Before break, we worked on many festive arts and crafts projects.  For this project, students had to put seven strips of paper in order from longest to shortest to make a Christmas tree.  Students were then able to decorated their trees with sequins and spangles.

Students worked on matching patterns using unifix boards and cubes.  It's so neat to see the finished product!

We made stockings for Santa!  First, students had to cut out their stocking, then lace a piece of yarn around the outside.  Students then glued cotton balls to the top of the stocking and used glue and glitter to make their names.  

This week, we practiced our cutting and gluing skills by cutting out hats to glue on snowflakes.  We've also been encouraging students to color in the lines - go slow and don't scribble! 

 We worked in our Handwriting without Tears books on Thursday and practiced tracing big and little lines.  Next week we will start working on proper letter formation beginning with the letter "L". 

We also had some sensory fun on Thursday!  Children were able to experience shaving cream on the table.  Students practiced making shapes, letters, and writing their names in the shaving cream.  It was so much fun!

We also really enjoyed our party on Friday!  We opened all of our gifts - thank you to all of the families that gave gifts to our classroom and to Miss Briann and myself.  We are grateful for everything!  We watched the movie "Cars" in our jammies and then returned to the classroom to have some delicious treats.  Thanks again to the families that brought treats and supplies for the party.  Everyone had a great time!

Next week we will continue to talk about winter and will focus our attention on the story The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We will also start to really focus on letter recognition and writing our names correctly.  Kindergarten is coming!

More Gingerbread

This week we finished up our gingerbread unit and began talking about all things Christmas.  We began the week by making a pine cone ornament using colorful puff balls. 

We practiced making uppercase letters by first rolling "snakes" from play-doh, and then forming the snakes into letters. 

We worked together with a partner to play a simple board game.  Board games are great for developing counting skills, turn-taking, and social skills.  In this game, we tried to get the gingerbread baby home to his gingerbread house!

We spent more time learning about patterns.  By the end of the year, we want all of the students to be able to copy, extend and create AB patterns.  We have also been working on ABB and ABC patterns for  additional challenge :)

Finally, we finished up the week by making gingerbread houses!  Students enjoyed decorating their houses with lots of candy and took them home to eat.  Thank you to Ayden and Jae for bringing supplies to help us make them!

Don't forget to join us for our Christmas program on Tuesday evening at 6:30.  Please have children to our room by 6:00 so we can get ready.  Light refreshments will be served in the Fellowship Hall following the program. 

Our last book order before Christmas is due Monday.  Any books ordered will be here before Christmas.  We can also "hide" the books for you if you would like to order books for Christmas gifts and give them to you discreetly.  You can order online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs using class activiation code GXPPV. 

Run, run, as fast as you can.....

You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!

We spent all week learning about gingerbread and will continue to read more gingerbread stories this week.  So far we've read The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers. 

We started the week by playing with some delicious smelling gingerbread play-doh.  Students used cookie cutters to make their own "cookies" for their bakery.  

We practiced sequencing events by putting four pictures from The Gingerbread Man in order and then gluing them to a story board.  After students put the pictures in order, they re-told the story to me.

We used holiday marshmallows to practice graphing.  We rolled a die, and then placed the corresponding marshmallow on the graph in the correct column.  The best part about this activity was eating the marshmallows, of course!

We've also been hard at work in our Handwriting Without Tears books.  So far we've been coloring pictures, really trying hard to stay in the lines and do our best work.  It's hard not to scribble!

On Thursday, we decorated our very own gingerbread cookie!  We were afraid to open the container because we thought the cookies might jump out and run away!  Thankfully, they stuck around so we could eat them!

We've also been hard at work practicing for our Christmas Program which will be held next Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM in the sanctuary.  Children need to be in our classroom by 6:00 so we can get ready.  You definitely won't want to miss the program, so please make sure to attend :)

Finally, PLEASE make sure to send hats and mittens with your child every day.  We had some cold hands last week outside. We do have some extras around the center, but we don't always have enough to go around.  If you need help purchasing winter items, please let me know.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had so much fun getting ready for Thanksgiving in P4J over the last two weeks!  I will apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, but my school camera is missing so I wasn't able to take many pictures.  I picked up a new one over the weekend, so more pictures should be coming :)

In our preparation for Thanksgiving, we learned about the first Thanksgiving.  We learned about the Pilgrims, Native Americans, and the Mayflower.  We wrote down what we knew about Thanksgiving, and added to the list as we learned new things.  We talked about what we are thankful for and made a list on our whiteboard. 

In math last week, we worked on copying, extending and creating patterns.  We used Thanksgiving themed pictures to create AB, ABC, and ABB patterns. 

We've been working a great deal on uppercase letter identification and played our "Gobble, gobble" game in small groups.

Finally, we spent time making clay turkeys, our Native American hats for the feast, as well as our feast centerpieces. 

We hope that you enjoyed the feast and THANK YOU to everyone who brought items!  We couldn't have pulled it off without you!

Also, thank you to all of the families that brought items for the food drive!  We collected 505 items and will treat the students to some ice cream later this week :)

If you participated in our fall fundraiser, all items should be ready for pick-up this TUESDAY afternoon, from 3 to 6 PM in the parking lot. 

Community Helpers

We spent this week learning about our community and the people who help us in our community.  On Monday, we tried to think of as many different places in our community as we could.  We came up with quite a list!  We then talked about all of the people that work at those places, and learned that we call those people "community helpers". 

On Tuesday, we talked about bakers and chefs.  We practiced being chefs by making our very own English Muffin pizzas!  We also used construction paper to make pretend food.  On Wednesday, we learned about police officers and had a great discussion about what police officers do.  We played community helper bingo and had to match an oral description of the community helper to the picture of the person.  On Thursday and Friday, we talked about what the children wanted to be when they grow up and children drew a picture of what they wanted to be.  Ideas ranged from "Ninja Turtle" to "Hairdresser" to "Spiderman" and "Teacher".  We have some big dreams in this class :)

In math this week, we worked on using our math vocabulary by playing a block game where students rolled a die, and then used the matching number of blocks to build a tower.  After everyone built their towers, we discussed whose tower was tallest, shortest, had the most blocks, had the least blocks,etc.

We also continued working in our Handwriting without Tears books by working on coloring in the lines using red and green crayons.  It was hard work! 

I forgot to bring my camera to school this week, so I apologize for the lack of pictures!

Don't forget about our upcoming food drive this week!  We are trying to collect 1,000 items of food to donate to a local pantry.  If we succeed, we will treat the kids to an ice cream party!

Our Thanksgiving Feast will be held next Tuesday morning at 9:15.  Please return your RSVPs as soon as possible.  We want each child to have at least one special adult join them for this event.  Thank you!

Halloween Fun!

Busy, busy week in P4J!  We talked about Halloween, spiders, and things we are afraid of.  We had our classroom Halloween Party on Wednesday.  

 

We also began our Handwriting Without Tears workbooks this week.  We've been getting ready for writing by strengthening our hand muscles, and now most of us are ready to go!  We began this week by doing "aim and scribble" activities - just aim for the star, and scribble it in!  This sounds simple, but for young children with limited fine motor capabilities, it can be a huge confidence booster - "hey, I colored in the star!"

 

Whenever we work in our "green books", we encourage students to go slow and take their time to do their best work.  We encourage proper work  habits, such as sitting with our bottom in the chair, feet on the floor.  We use our "helping hand" to hold the page.  We've also been working on proper crayon/pencil grip.  We encourage students to use a "tripod" grip - thumb bent, pointer finger pointing toward the tip of the crayon, with the middle finger supporting the crayon on the bottom.  Also acceptable is the "modified tripod", where both the pointer and middle finger are on top of the crayon, while the ring finger supports the crayon on the bottom. Please encourage proper crayon/pencil grip at home when your child is coloring or writing!

 

We continued to work on our sorting skills this week by sorting different halloween trinkets.  We placed ghosts in one spot, goblins in another, and pumpkins in a third spot. 

We incorporated several 3-D art projects this week as well.  Students made a pumpkin out of clay (what great sculptors they are!) and then painted it after it was dry.  These are currently on display in our classroom.

 

 We also made some glitter pumpkins by painting glue on to a mini pumpkin and then covering it with glitter. Glitter is so much fun!

 

More math - students placed Halloween trinkets on a game board labeled with the numbers 1-6.  They then rolled a die and moved the trinket on the corresponding number up one space.  This is a very simple math game that improves a variety of math skills, such as counting with one-to-one correspondence, dot pattern recognition, number recognition, and it even develops beginning probability understanding!  The kids don't even realize they're learning - they just want to see which toy will win the race!

 Later in the week, we spent a bit of time learning about spiders and discussing things we are afraid of.  The students came up with quite a list!  Each child also drew a picture of something they are afraid of and were helped to write a sentence about what they drew.  These are hanging on the bulletin board in the classroom - take a look if you get a chance!  

We did marble painting to make a spider web.

 

Students also made some fun spider hats on Friday that they were pretty proud of.  

Of course, the highlight of the week was our classroom Halloween party!  We played some fun games, did some Halloween dancing, and a couple of simple craft activities.  

We used toilet paper to wrap each other up like mummies!  Some students were very excited to give it a try, others were happy to watch :)

 And what do you do with six rolls of unrolled toilet paper?  Throw it in the air and dance with it of course!

We also enjoyed all of the yummy treats provided for our party!  A huge THANK YOU to all of the families that signed up and brought items for our party - they were all wonderful!  If  you didn't get a chance to bring something this time, our Christmas Party will be here before we know it :)

A few important things coming up - please don't forget that our fundraiser packets are due on Monday with payment.  Thank you to all of the families that participated!

We are planning a Thanksgiving Feast for Tuesday, November 20 at 9:15 AM. Students may invite two adults to attend with them.  Please return the sheet that was sent home Friday with the names of the adult(s) that will attend with your child.  This is a really fun event for the children and we strive to have a special adult present for every child. 

Finally - save the date - our Christmas Program will be held Tuesday, December 11 at 6:30 PM.  We will begin practicing very soon and we hope everyone will be able to attend.  It is quite the production :)

I hope you have a good weekend and can't wait to see everyone on Monday!