J is for Jesus!

We will truly miss all of our sweet friends over Christmas break! We had such a fun final week of our fall semester. I cannot believe our school year is already halfway over! We have definitely come a long way since our first day in so many ways... Too many to count! From holding a crayon, to our attention span, to how we interact with our friends, we are growing and learning so quickly!

These past few weeks have been packed with fun! We wrapped up this week with an awesome Christmas party on Friday, as well as lots of Christmas fun on Thursday. Mrs. Nicole and I truly worked to make the focus remain on Jesus. We pray that the scriptures and the story of Jesus' birth will be what remain in their hearts and minds the most... The true reason for all of the celebrations around Christmas. As their teacher, my deepest desire is that they would leave this year knowing and loving Jesus more than when they started.

Our letter for this week was J because J is for Jesus! If you are practicing letters at home, the way we tried to remember the letter J was by turning over a candy cane and talking about how a candy cane reminds us of the love of Jesus. We also continued to review our numbers 1 through 5. We will begin focusing on 6-10 after Christmas break. We also had fun making our Nativity paper plate craft and our snowman ornaments! We hope that those can decorate your house and tree this year and for years to come. On Thursday, we also enjoyed practicing cutting with Christmas wrapping paper, sorting colors with Christmas tree ornaments, tracing numbers to match the story of Jesus' birth, and working on our fine motor skills with Christmas beads. 

We also had so much fun at the party on Friday! Thank you SO much to all of the parents who came to volunteer and help! We are so appreciative. We enjoyed doing a science experiment, coloring, making reindeer food, and doing a jingle bell toss. We also enjoyed all our yummy snacks of course!

We can't wait to see everyone in two weeks!

Here are some things you can ask your child this week! 

Do you remember...

1. The letter J and its sound?

2. The numbers 1 through 5?

3. What a candy cane reminds us of?

4. Who was involved in the story of Jesus' birth?

5. How to hold your scissors when cutting? 

We are experts at sorting colors!

These two spent a lot of time in the library reading!

Who knew cutting wrapping paper could be so fun?!

Our tracing skills keep getting better and better!

Thank you to everyone who brought goodies or

helped with the party!

It doesn't get much cuter than this!

We enjoyed a special visit from a special visitor!

Grandparents and The Polar Express... Doesn't get much better!

We are so very thankful for our grandparents this week! We had a blast during their visit! A big thank you to every single grandparent for coming to make this day so special for your grandchild. We are very thankful for you!

Some of the highlights from our grandparents' day were... Of course painting the beautiful ornaments from Earth and Fire, presenting our beautiful gifts to them, and enjoying snacks together. It was so fun to see the smile on each child's face as they enjoyed their special time with whoever came to be with them. Mrs. Nicole and I were reminded what a blessing families truly are.

We also enjoyed our Polar Express day! While we weren't able to watch all of the movie, we did have fun drinking our hot chocolate and eating cookies while we watched some fun clips from the movie. Ask your child if they can hear their bell when they ring it! (Everyone should have made it home with one.) ]We all even got our own ticket to board the train! 

We did not have as much time for focus on the letter this week, so consider spending some extra time on the letter Rr if you get a chance! Our focus was Rr is for "Run, run, reindeer", so see if your child can remember this sound! We also made name trains, a craft that gave each child a chance to practice putting the letters of their name in order. You will find these beautiful works of art on our bulletin board in the hall. Any craft such as this that you can do with your child at home to work on their name would be wonderful! We will continue to practice with spelling names after Christmas. 

This week, we also focused on the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary to let her know that she would be the mother of baby Jesus. You might see if your child can remember any of this story! Next week we will focus on the birth of Jesus! 

Some of our other fun activities included dotting paint ornaments on Christmas trees, counting and sorting with Christmas bows, working on our hand muscles/pencil grip with dot markers and stamps, and doing color-by-number. We have noticed a huge improvement in everyone's fine motor skills and and strength since the beginning of the school year!

This week, ask your child to...

1. Practice for the Christmas program with you. 

2. Read the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary with you. 

3. Put the letters of their name in order. 

4. Cut a piece of wrapping paper out for you. 

5. Count all the ornaments on your Christmas tree!

We loved The Polar Express!

Such hard workers!

We enjoyed reading Christmas books

with our Christmas puppets!