We are working hard getting ready for Christmas. This is our week to learn about how children all over the world celebrate Christmas. On Monday we took a trip to Holland and even had a visit from Sinterklaas. He rides a large white horse and has a helper named Black Peter. Sinterklaas day is December 6, but he made a special trip to our school since we were not here that day. Here are our shoes filled with goodies. Look at our faces when we see the small treats that were left for us.
We all know there is something else special that happens at Christmas. Can you guess what it is? We painted our own version of Santa Claus and they all turned out very well. Here are a few. If you have a few minutes, stop by our room to see your child's art. It is so important to allow our children art projects where they can be totally creative. They love to paint and are all so proud of their jolly fellows. We have been talking about how Santa is part of God's love for us. God loves us so much that he gives us Santa - who shows his love for us by giving us gifts at Christmas. But - we also learned that we have the important job of sharing God's love to others by giving his love to others at Christmas.
We are getting ready for the baby! Not just any baby - THE BABY! We are learning about Advent this week and what is means to get our hearts ready for baby Jesus. We made angels for our door to sing about the baby on the way. You can also see our Advent wreaths that we made for our classroom to help us countdown how many Sundays there are until he comes. Each Monday we will light another candle. We are all so excited about Christmas.
"We gather together, to ask the Lord's blessings..."the words from this old hymn came to mind as we prepared for our class feast. The children looked the part as we gathered with the other four year old classes for our Thanksgiving feast. Our feast consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes, red hot applesauce, corn muffins, homemade butter & pilgrim hat cookies. Some children were surprised at the taste of our "red applesauce." It is so yummy. 
It is so hard for our children to comprehend what it means to be thankful, however, they all thank God for their families and friends. So many of us were excited about the upcoming holiday and visiting with family from far away. Many blessings to all of you this Thanksgiving holiday.
One of our class projects this year is to send seasonal art to soldiers in Afghanistan. I couldn't post the Jack O'Lanterns from October, but here is our Christmas Tree. We collected gum and mints to send with our art project and pray that this small token will brighten a soldier's day.
We have been preparing for our four year old class feast next week. We learned about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and will dress appropriately for our class Thanksgiving meal. Here is one our Native American students. He is wearing a Native American vest, wampum bag, headdress and necklace.
We had a great fall performance. The children were dressed and ready to share their singing voices with all our parents. We sang "Gobble, Gobble"; "My County 'Tis of Thee" and "Tak for Maden." It was fun, but some of us said that all of the attention made us feel embarrassed. Thank you parents and children for this wonderful fall season.
This was our week to study the letter Gg. Part of this unit was our "Grandparent's Wall of Fame." We invited grandparents to our class and each child introduced them when they arrived. Here are some of our grandparents that we love so much. Many thanks to these special folks who took the time to visit our classroom. For those of us who weren't able to arrange a visit, we posted pictures of our special grandparents. 
Next week we will be learning about the letter G. Part of our letter study will be the addition of a "Grandparents Wall of Fame"to our room. I will be sending a note home in our newsletter requesting pictures or visits from grandparents. Since you already met Nana, here is picture of "Grand Suka." We have been very blessed to have grandparents visit from far away states. It is so special for the children in our class to meet family members from all over the United States.
This week we continue to learn about Native Americans and Pilgrims. We are so thankful for their friendship. It is still very hard for us to understand that the Pilgrims came to America without a house to move into or grocery stores to buy food. At the beginning of the week we found a teepee in our room. It is a great learning tool for the boys and girls to play in. Some of us have asked how the Native Americans kept warm during the Winter in a home made out of sticks and animal skins. (This really makes them appreciate our warm homes.) This unit is also teaching us about symbols and the importance of our land. We are working on our own Native American names and read a great book about a little boy named Blue Sky. We also made a cool cornucopia snack and talked about what this funny word means. (Attention parents, Bugles are a huge hit in our room. Do not be surprised if your children ask for them.)
This Thanksgiving season is so much fun to experience with your children. We are planning for our "Four Year Old Class Feast" before our holiday break. It is very rewarding to see how much the children are growing and learning.
This picture was too priceless not to share. These guys had a great time after school playing in our home living center. Look at their cheerful faces. I can see God's light shining right through their smiles.
Following our theme of thankfulness for our family, two of our students proudly introduced their grandmothers to our class. We were so happy to meet Grand Suka and Nana. (This is nana. I am working on getting picture of Grand Suka - my camera was not working during her visit.) We are very fortunate to have lots of grandparents in and around our school. It is a special event, however, when they travel a great distance to visit.
Everyone knows that October has gone away and November is new. We are learning all about the Pilgrim's journey to the new world and how brave they were. We made a class "Quilt of Thankfulness." It was a two part process of decorating a traditional quilt square (for the letter Qq) and drawing something that we feel thankful about. Most of us are thankful for our family.
We also made a new door decoration. There were many pilgrims this year. Stop by our classroom to see your child's work. They have done a beautiful job. Don't forget our School Art Show and Program on 11/20/08 at 6:00 PM. There will be more of your child's work to see.
More pictures to share of your beautiful children. They work & play together and celebrate successes for each other. It is God's love that helps us all help each other and your children definitely show it when they care for friends in our class. Small things such as learning our address, finding our name, getting a sticker, writing a letter, counting to 10 - your children know that it is not easy for all of us and cheer our friends on with kind words. Ask them if they know our "trucker cheer." It is great fun to celebrate achievements for and with our friends. Thank you God for these wonderful, loving children.
Here we are!!! Happy Halloween!!! This was part of our Halloween fun. We painted masks with bright paints and learned that no matter what - God Loves Us!! It doesn't matter how we act, God is with us and always lights our way. We loved being creative with color and stickers and take great pride in our work.
We held a four year class election for the President of the United States of America. It was very enlightening to see that the children were aware of the current political race and voiced many views about the candidates. Our class learned about why the right to vote is so important and even made voter registration cards. We checked in at our "poll" by finding our names and reciting our home address. It was a close race, but John McCain won by 2 votes. We also talked what the President does and made a list of things that are important for being President of our country. We will continue to learn about this great land of ours in the upcoming weeks as we learn about the Pilgrims.
We made our very own "pumpkin life cycle" after we watched a great video about how a pumpkin grows. (The children were very excited to learn that they can recycle their own pumpkins at home by letting them turn into compost for next year.) A pumpkins grows from seed, to sprout, to plant, to flower, to green pumpkin and finally the big orange pumpkin.
We ended our week by making an owl craft and learning a silly song about a little brown owl. Ask your child if they can sing this for you, because we all know owls really say "la de da di da."
We had so much fun this week with the letter H. The letter sound is fun to say and we learned how to play hopscotch. It was really great to see the children enjoy a good "old fashioned" outside activity. If you haven't tried this at home lately, let your child explain hopscotch to you. Help them draw it out on the driveway, or even better, use a stick to draw it in the dirt. It helps them with coordination (hopping on one foot) and number skills. You will not believe how much fun such a simple activity can be.
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