Christmas!

This week was all about Christmas! We started out the week by reading "Santa Claus and the Three Bears". It is the same story as Goldilocks and the Three Bears but with Santa Clause as Goldilocks and Polar Bears instead of brown bears. During centers we made ornaments for the parents! The kids filled a glass ornament with fake snow and then made it look like a snowman head by giving it eyes, a nose, and smile using their fingertips. 

They turned out great! The kids loved that they were makig a gift for their parents!

The next day we read "Llama Llama Holiday Drama". During centers I let the kids wrap their present for their parents. After they warped it they colored a Christmas tree and some gifts and then had to cut and glue the gifts under the tree. They did a good job with this! 

Wednesday was our Christmas party! We started out all together and read "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas". We then split up into our three classes and had differnt centers. In one classroom the students got to play some Christmas games including pin the nose on Rudolph and snow ball toss. In anther classroom they got to do some sugar cookie decorating! In my classroom we did a craft making a Santa face. The kids loved this and looked so cute! 

When the centers were over I had my kids come back into our classroom and I gave them the Christmas present from me. They were so excited to open a present!

Each child received a book, the girls got a "Princesses and Puppies" book and the boys got a "Pete the Cat" book. They were overjoyed! Haha

Thursday my husband came to the school and read the kids "The Night Before Christmas". They always love visitors! During centers they made a stocking by lacing two pieces of red construction paper together. 

They then got to hang them over our pretend fireplace! 

Friday we read "Fancy Nancy's Christmas". We discussed the "fancy" words aroma and delectable. During centers we made fancy Christmas trees!

We had a special guest visit us Friday! Mr . Kenny Stamatis came and did a read aloud for us! He read "Santa Claus and the a Three Bears". The kids loved his voices for the bears! 

We had another special visitor that day. Santa Claus came to the preschool! 

Happy the Elf was all over the place this week! Monday we came in to find him with a plate of cookies from the North Pole! They were very yummy! 

Later in the day the kids found him by our clip up stick! He had clipped everyone up to pink! I guess he thought the kids had all been especially good that day! 

The next day we came in to find him making himself some oatmeal! Silly elf!

Wednesday he was hanging upside down in our Christmas tree! I think he was pointing out the presents. 

The next day he was haning out by our stockings and then stuffed them with candy! 

Our last day we found him hanging out with his buddy Pete the Cat! He left us a note saying he had to go back to the North Pole but that he would be back next year!

This week was so much fun! This semester has been wonderful and I'm edited to see what the spring semester brings!

Reindeer

Even though our reindeer week was cut short by snow days we still packed in a lot of fun! We started out the week reading "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". I was surprised that most of the kids did not know the story or the song! After reading the book we did a pin the nose on Rudolph game. The kids loved this! I blindfolded them and then lead them towards the Rusolph head with a red nose in their hand. It was funny how far off most of them were!

The one that is the closest is mine haha. 

Durning centers the students got to make their own Rudolph using their foot for the face and their hands for the antlers. They turned out really cute! 

We also had some Pom Pom color sorting in our centers each day this week. 

Thursday we read a book about some wild reindeer that were tamed and become Santas reindeer. During centers we made some reindeer food out of oats, red and green m&ms, and red and green glitter. The oats were for all the reindeer, the m&ms were for Rudolph because he loves chocolate, and the glitter was so the reindeer would see it glittering in the yard! The kids were told to take it home and on Christmas Eve they could sprinkle it in their front yard for Santas reindeer! 

The kids were getting restless inside so we decided to take an adventure out into the ice! We went into the backyard area and played for awhile in the ice. The kids had a ball sliding on the ice, picking it up, breaking it, digging in it, ect. 

This week we had been talking about the letter R. During centers Friday the students made reindeer out of a capital R and a lowercase r to help them remember what sound it makes. 

We also got to play with some shaving cream Froday! The kids loved this and made a few letters in the shaving cream. They mostly loved getting messy! 

Our little elf "Happy" was around our classroom again this week! 

He wanted to have a snow day too! 

He made himself a little swing! 

He was tired from his long trip to the North Pole last night! 

Fairy Tales

We had such a fun week learning about Fairy Tales! We started out the week reading about the Gibgerbread Man. During centers the students painted their own gingerbread and then gave him a mouth, nose, eyes, and buttons using a que tip and paint.

The next day we read a different book about the Gingerbread Man and compare it to the one we read the previous day. During centers the students got to decorate their own gingerbread man cookie! I told them that we had to wait until after lunch to eat them. 

While they were in lunch I hid the cookies in the closet and left a note on the table saying the gingerbread men had run away! 

The kids freaked out when they came back to the room and found that the gingerbread men were missing! I left clues around the building that the students had to follow to find the cookies. 

They LOVED the gingerbread man hunt! And they loved eating them when we finally found them! We had some special guests come to visit Tuaeday. A group if drama students came to tell the kids some stories!

The next day we read "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". After reading the story I had the students act the story out. They had SO much fun with this! Some of them are little actors and actresses! During centers we did some cutting and gluing practice. I have them strips of paper that had squares and triangles to cut out. 

Here's a few finished products! 

They also got to make play dough gingerbread men! 

Thursday we read the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". After reading we discussed small, medium, and large. During centers the students did a small, medium, and large sorting activity. 

They had fun this week with the new sunglasses and apron in the home living center! 

We had a special someone join our class this week, introducing Happy the elf! 

Happy comes to our classroom everyday and at the end of the day he flys back to the North Pole to tell Santa who has been good! Every morning he ends up in a new place and the kids have to find him. One morning we found him reading to the beanie babies! 

The next day we came it to a classroom full of snowflakes and found happy hanging from one of them! 

Stay tuned for me Happy the Elf pictures!