Jingle Bells, Mat Man Santa and Gingerbread houses helped to usher in the holiday season in our Two Year Old Program. We had so much fun making Gingerbread houses with our families and caroling for the seniors at The Tuxedo Promenade. Thank you to all our parents, grandparents, and friends who help make our school a happy and fun learning environment!

 

G, H, and I were December’s letters. We learned G makes a “guh” sound as in guitar, H makes a “huh” sound as in house, and I makes an “ih” sound as in igloo. The children made a hat for our letter H craft, a giraffe for the letter G craft, and Icicles for the letter I craft. The shape of the month was star and the color of the month was green. The number 4 was the number of the month. We use one hand to hold up 4 fingers to show the number 4.

 

We are continuing to use our sound-around-box to help with letter recognition. Playing our shape game is helping with our shape recognition. Placing our number cards around the room and having each child look for the number called out is helping the children to recognize their numbers. We used Christmas tree mats and M&Ms to match the colors red, orange, brown and green and count up to the number 4. The children used their finger prints to create alphabet Christmas lights up to the letter I. 

 

Librarian Risa, from Tuxedo Library, came to read us a Christmas story, and the children participated in Christmas activities using her felt board. The children created a snow globe with Ms. Risa that they got to take home. 

 

During Chapel, Father Rick read stories about the shepherds in the fields, the three wise men, and the animals in the manger. Father Rick explained to the children that all these events happened during the birth of the baby Jesus. Father Rick explained to the children that the birth of Jesus was the greatest gift of all! To end our time at chapel this month, the children sang along to the songs “Away In A Manger” and “Silent Night."

 

We ended the month of December making reindeer food, singing Christmas songs, and having fun at our Christmas party. We also took time to remember Christmas is the perfect time to celebrate the love of God and family and to create memories that will last forever.

Ms. Michele

Ms. Carole

The three year old class welcomed December with glee. We began our month reviewing the letters G, H, and I before moving on to the letters J and K. For the letter J we made a jet and for K a king as our letter of the week crafts. 

We decorated our bulletin board with math crafts by arranging items in size order to make a Christmas tree and reindeer craft. We also focused on counting various objects this month.

We practiced forming the letters H, T, I, U, and C.  We also traced the square shape. 

During language and literacy, we focused on letter recognition by playing various games including a memory game, and hopscotch where we jumped on the letters in a foam puzzle as the students said them aloud.

Ms. Risa visited us and read the class many holiday books, and we created a reindeer craft. The students love when Ms. Risa comes to visit!

The three year olds had such fun creating a present for their parents that showcases their thumbprints as Christmas lights on a plate. The class also made the residents of the Promenade gifts to hand out after we had the opportunity to Christmas carol there. It was a lot of fun to welcome the parents into the classroom to help make our gingerbread houses. Thank you for joining us for a special time of fun!

Ms. Amanda

Ms. Carole

The Christmas holiday is behind us and a new year has begun. The second half of the school year is about to begin. The students accomplished a lot in the first semester, and we are eager to build on the success we have achieved.

Penmanship: The students used their Letters and Numbers for Me books to finish writing their Starting Corner Capitals and start the Center Starting Capital letters.

Word Time: We finished our chapter - Work and began the chapter - Health. With the help of Squawker, the children learn the spelling, pronunciation, and definition of words.

Math: We finished the chapter - Numbers and Operations and began the chapter - Geometry. Geometry is the study of shapes and space. Children describe position using in and out. When they know position words, they can describe the relationship between objects. They use the words before and after in reference to things in a line. We connect this activity to ordinal numbers. The students finished their I Know My Numbers - #4 booklets.

Language and Literacy: We completed the chapter - Phonological Awareness - by identifying the initial and ending sounds in words. Students learn to clap the syllables in words. Next, we started the chapter - Concepts About Print. To learn to read, children must learn how books work and develop what educators call Concepts About Print. These concepts include: parts of a book, how to hold a book right-side up, how to turn the pages from front to back, and how to read from top to bottom and left to right. They learn to distinguish print from pictures, identify the different book parts, and imitate reading behaviors when handling a book. The students started working in their My Book, a child's personal storybook.

PATHS: With the help of the PATHS animals, we continue to discuss emotions/feelings. We reinforce the concept that all feelings are OK. Children learn to understand other people's feelings. We concentrated this month on feeling angry. We provided examples of reasons for feeling angry. We went on to the lesson on Self-Control. Children learn the "Turtle Technique" for increasing self-control, decreasing impulsive behaviors, and signaling distress.

Chapel: The children enjoy visits from Father Rick on Wednesdays. The month of December brought stories about the birth of Jesus, holiday songs, and special prayers.

We had a lot of fun making our Gingerbread Houses, Christmas Caroling at The Promenade, and our Secret Santa gift exchange. Thank you to all the parents who participated and donated the items needed to make our holiday celebration so special.

We hope 2019 will bring the love and joy we experienced in 2018.

Miss Ida

Miss Cindy