Christmas in Pre-K (It's never too late to post these, right??)

We had a very special visitor in pre-k before Christmas break. The children were unusually speechless :)
Hope all our pre-k students had a very Merry Christmas!
I can't wait to start the New Year with all of you!

Preschool Christmas Fingerplays

We have learned two Christmas fingerplays in preschool during December. See if your child will say them for you at home.



Here is the chimney.

Here is the top.

Open the lid. Out Santa will pop.

The second one is called When Santa comes to my House.

When Santa comes to my house......

I would like to.......

peek.

But I know he'll never come,

Until I'm fast asleep.

Up on the Housetop student made books

On Thursday in pre-k the students made a book that they can "read" and take home.

The reindeer in the book can be manipulated to follow the directions given in the book.

At the end of the book is a snowdrift pocket that the reindeer lands in.

Christmas projects in preschool

On Thursday we read the Jan Brett book, Gingerbread Friends. For an art project we glued sandpaper gingerbread cookies to aluminum foil "cookie sheets." The children really got into giving their gingerbread boys and girls details like google eyes, bow tie pasta, ribbon, and sequins.

On Friday we read a story about Santa getting stuck in a chimney. He got out when his reindeer, a dog, some cats and a mouse pushed and pushed. During art we made spicy reindeer. First we put glue on the sandpaper reindeer. Then we sprinkled spices on them to make them smell yummy. Finally we gave them eyes, sequined harnesses, white tails and red noses.

The children really enjoyed putting their individual touches on their reindeer. Some of them had a lot of bling!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Since we returned to school from Thanksgiving break, we have been busy getting involved in Christmas activities. It's hard to believe that there are only three weeks of school left before winter break!! The three year old class has started working on a special present for their families. We can't put any pictures on here of that since it's a secret :)


The sensory table has been transformed into a glittery snowy village.

The pre-k class has been working on fine motor skills by making a special Christmas bulletin board. We made a Santa Claus, Christmas tree, and laced a stocking. I was so impressed with their sewing skills.

I love how all of their projects turned out!

Pre-K Thanksgiving Bracelets

We have been reading the story of the first Thanksgiving in pre-k. On
Friday, we made bracelets with special beads to help us remember the story. The children were really interested in the story, especially the details about the long cold winter and what the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims about life in the United States.
Stringing the beads was good exercise for our fingers!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Pumpkin Pie Painting

Our classroom is smelling delicious these days! Thanks to a donation of some spices (plus a few leftover from the Spicy Turkeys), we have a sensory table full of Thanksgiving smells. It's a slightly strange mixture of powdered milk, salt, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, and various other spices we use to make a Thanksgiving dinner. The children in morning and afternoon sessions are having a great time pretending to mix up a Thanksgiving feast.

The preschool students made slices of pumpkin pie this week during art. We started with a small triangle cut from a paper plate. The first step was to color the crust on our pie. We had to have steady hands to give our pie a nice crust.

Next we painted our slices of pie with orange liquid watercolor paint.

The next step was to sprinkle the wet paint with pumpkin pie spice. We put them on the counter to dry. Next week we will glue some "whipped cream" on before we send them home.

We've had 50 days of pre-k!!!

We started something new this month in pre-k. We are going to learn a poem for every month of the year. Above is a picture of our November poem. The children can practice reading the poem with a tiny hand pointer.....

There is also a basket of items that are in the poem that they can use when reciting the poem.

The poem is also written in the big pocket chart so we can practice reading it during group time. I have been amazed at how quickly the children have learned this short poem about the month of November. This activity helps build vocabulary and also gives us the opportunity to work on print concepts, such as reading left to write.

We celebrated our 50th day of pre-k today. We are now officially half way to the 100th day of school! We played some games today to celebrate.

There are 50 marbles in our jar!!

Spicy Turkeys and Handy Work Center Activities

I wish I could have recorded the way the classroom smelled this afternoon when the pre-k students were working on their spicy turkeys! It smelled just like a Thanksgiving dinner. We used paint brushes to brush glue onto the turkey bodies and feathers. Then we used spices in shakers to decorate the turkey. Onion salt, garlic powder, paprika, sage, nutmeg, and parsley flakes were some of the spices we used. We hung them in the hallway so the rest of the school could enjoy the smells!

The handy work center is where the pre-k students go during center time to give their fingers exercise. One of the new activities here is tweezing tiny fruit from a bowl and sorting it into the tea light tray. This activity takes a lot of focus to complete!

Last week we added some Native Americans to our Thanksgiving bulletin board. This week we will be learning more about the story of the first Thanksgiving.

Preschool Turkey Painting

We used the paint rollers to make turkeys in preschool this week.
Everyone started with a litle brown, red, and orange paint.




Then we rolled and rolled and rolled the paint to make the turkey's feathers.

Next we glued the beaks, waddles and eyes on the turkeys.

A turkey is a funny bird,

His head goes wobble, wobble.

And all he knows is just one word,

Gobble, gobble, gobble.

Also this week we painted our hands to make spiders for a

giant spider web on our bulletin board.

Pre-K

We have been working on identifying lower case letters in pre-k. Yesterday we pretended to cross a river by stepping on stones with letters on them. We each took turns helping our friends cross the river by telling them which letters to go to next. We did a great job identifying the letters and no one fell into the water!

Also in pre-k we have been learning the story of the first Thanksgiving. To work on our fine motor skills, we made some Pilgrim boys and girls and Mayflower ships for our bulletin board.