All Aboard the Polar Express!

Choo! Choo! We all "boarded" a week full of fun in our class!

A quick note to start about our Christmas program on Wednesday... Please arrive by 5:45...I will take them all back stage at that time and get them in order. Hint: The auditorium fills up crazy fast...you may want to get there a bit earlier! We are asking for a $1 donation per adult when you come in...This year we will be donating to Casa Calla. Calla is a former LAP student who lost her battle with a rare brain cancer over the summer. She was only 9... Her wish was to go to Romania and serve others as a missionary. Her parents have set up a foundation in her name to fulfill Calla's dreams of helping others. Any donation is greatly appreciated. Let's honor this sweet girl and her family. They currently have another little gal at our school in Kinder Prep...

Back to this week... We packed in a lot of learning on Thursday! Our focus was letter Rr... R is for "Run, run, reindeer!" See if your child can remember this sound! We enjoyed dotting Rudolph with our dot markers and tracing the letter R. We also got to write a letter to Santa and draw three things we are hoping for for Christmas! We saved these for portfolios! We also colored our own "Polar Express" book. We used these on Friday to discuss the Polar Express story, practice turning pages when we read, and also find letters we know on each page (all important early literacy skills)!

Some of our other fun fine motor work on Thursday included practicing our cutting skills with wrapping paper, stringing Christmas beads, and building "stables" out of play dough and craft sticks. We also painted Christmas lights to find a surprise message! These light reminded us to "Be a light!" My mom also dropped by this week to help us all make Santa Bananas with Mrs. Laura's class! We listened and followed directions so well!!

Our Polar Express day was a hit! 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 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, see if your child can...

1. Practice for the Christmas program with you. PLEASE PLEASE! :)

2. Read their Polar Express paper book with you. 

3. Put the letters of their name in order. 

4. Cut a piece of wrapping paper out for you and wrap their own gift. 

5. Help you label three objects in your house with their initial sound.

Such good painters!

Several of us are writing our names

independently now! Wow!

Santa banana!

Yum!

Look at these good scissor skills!

Fun with beads and pom-poms!

Counting marshmallows for our hot chocolate!

We are so good at putting together our name puzzles!

All aboard the Polar Express!!

Grandparents and Gingerbread Men :)

We had another great week as we began celebrating the Christmas season! Grandparents’ Day was an absolute blast. We are so thankful for each grandma and grandpa who took the time to come and make their little person feel special and loved. Everyone loved painting the beautiful ornaments from Earth and Fire and doing other fun activities with their grandparents in our room. 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. Katie and I were reminded what a blessing families truly are.  

On Friday, we had fun learning about gingerbread men! We read The Gingerbread Bear and Gingerbread Man Lost in School, tried gingerbread cookies, decorated gingerbread cookies, went on a gingerbread man hunt, and ran as fast as gingerbread men! We also had fun decorating cardboard gingerbread houses with foam beads. Our poem this week was "My Gingerbread Man", which we will add to reading folders next week! We even got to write letters in cinnamon sugar!

We also had some fun with Christmas trees this week (and reviewing the shape triangle)! We worked on matching colors by decorating a paper tree with colored "ornaments" and had fun hanging real ornaments on our class tree. Everyone loved getting to decorate the tree themselves! We also dot painted lights onto a paper tree, which is now hanging in the hallway!

This week, we introduced the Christmas story with talking about the angel Gabriel visiting Mary. We will continue with the story next week!

At home, see if your child can...

1. Count the ornaments on your tree. 

2. Tell you the shapes of the ornaments on your tree. 

3. Name all the colors they see on your tree. 

4. Make a name ornament to put on your tree. 

5. Tell you our new Bible verse: "God has sent a son to us!" (Isaiah 9:6)

The smiles were endless!

Christmas tree fun!

Our adorable gingerbread men got saved for our portfolios!

We are becoming experts on our names!

"Fishing" for ornaments!

We loved writing in cinnamon sugar!

We are playing and learning together so well!

Our gingerbread man ran away!

We had to go on a search!

We are getting so strong!

Clothespins are a great way to build

hand strength. :) 

We can't wait for Polar Express next week!