A Report From Disney World

Here is a friend who just returned from a trip to Disney World.  She gave our class a report of her journey and was so excited to tell us about meeting the Princesses.  How fun!!!  She even let everyone try out her magic wand that she got from the "real Snow White."  Thank you sweet friend for sharing this exciting time with our class.  (And if you look below, she even got a Mickey Mouse rice krispy treat.) 

Can We Please Play?

 As the anticipation for Christmas grows, so does our need for outside play!  Even though it was a little chilly, we couldn't wait to get on the playground.  I wish you could hear the roar of laughter as the children run inside the fence.  When all of our friends arrive from the other four year old classes, it is alive with running and playing.  Thank you God for wonderful playground days and friends at our school!!!

The Christmas Tree Forest

 

 

 

Here are our fun little Christmas trees.  It was a sweet little art project and the children could not wait to take them home.  This was one of those art projects that was totally child directed.  They added their fingerprint lights and stickers and then showed me exactly where to add the pom pom ornaments.  They had the best time making these little paper keepsakes and knew exactly where they were going to be placed when they got them home.  It isn't December 1, but the excitement of Christmas is in the air!!!!

A Very Good Day

 

 

 

 

 

 It was a very good day in our class!  Everyone did their best work and had such a happy day.  These are just random pictures of the children in the classroom, but they show everyone playing and cleaning up at the end of the day!  I am so proud of them and can see them growing and learning so fast!  I cannot believe that it is already December, graduation will be here before we know it.

Our "Glittery" Gold Christmas Star

It is time for us to begin our journey to Christmas and the arrival of Baby Jesus.  We started our story this year with the beautiful Christmas star that led the way all of those years ago to that tiny stable in Bethlehem.  For a fun art project, we painted our idea of what that brilliant Christmas star looks like.  They are so shiny and pretty.

G is for Glory

G is for Glory and here are our beautiful angels to welcome you into our classroom. They are sing to us every time we walk in or out of door.

Tak for Maden

"Tak for Maden" is our Thanksgiving blessing.  It basically means "thanks for food."  This is also the same blessing that we sang at the beginning of our class feast on Tuesday.  The words to this blessing are written on the yellow place-mat that your child brought home from our feast.  I am sure that they would love to teach it to your family for your Thanksgiving meal.  I hope that everyone has a very wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and has 'lots' of time to fellowship with family.  God is so good and has given us too many blessings to name.  Thank you God for this special day with family and friends, let us never take one minute for granted.

I Just Want To Say Thank You....

Our song from Pastor Jay.  I changed the lyrics slightly, but we love to sing this.  It is such a "catchy" tune, that I have been singing it for the past several weeks.  (I think that I have subsequently "infected" my family because they are singing or humming it too.)  Is there anything wrong with being thankful?  I don't think so...I think that I most thankful for the wiggles in this video.  They just make me smile.  (Now after you hear it be sure to ask your child about all of the ways we learned to say "thank you" in other languages.) 

Native Americans & Pilgrims...Friends!!!

Look at these precious faces!!!!!  They are dressed and ready for the "first Thanksgiving."  (Okay, some of us don't look that excited about wearing our traditional clothing.  It is always uncomfortable and a little bit embarrassing.)  We have been talking about this wonderful day for several weeks and spent a lot of time learning about Native Americans and Pilgrims.  We also talked about the really hard journey on the Mayflower and how amazingly brave everyone was when they met.  For our class, it really is the story of making friends, no matter how different you are or what you look like. (Painted faces or aprons and collars...)   I know that the real Thanksgiving story is much more complicated but for us this is the "big picture."  We have many years to get the rest of the details, but had fun making our clothes and preparing the meal.  Thanks so much to our parents for making this day special and for taking the time to come to our school and enjoy this meal together.  It was our Pilgrim Community Preschool First Thanksgiving Feast! "It is good to give thanks to the Lord,.." Psalm 92. (PS - One of us did not attend our feast today due to a family trip, but I had to include her picture.  We also missed two other friends and their families due to illness but pray for a speedy recovery and very Happy Thanksgiving holiday.)

Our Family Feast

 Today was our family feast and here is everything that we worked so hard to prepare.  We made place-mats, pinch pots, Indian corn, and a beautiful book about Thanksgiving.  We also made those cute little turkey table decorations with a surprise inside. (as one student said, "it is a dishmat."  Did you find your fun turkey hand print flour sack towel?  We made these to make your holiday dish washing a little more fun?  Of course, many of us said that we help wash dishes and will use this special towel so our mama's don't have to do all of the work.)   It was so much fun getting everything ready for this special meal with our family. Just because we are little doesn't mean that we can't help.  I think we did a fantastic job with these art projects.  The children have been so excited to bring these things home to share with their families.  I hope that they make your holiday special.

A Yarn Doll

As we spent time this week learning about Native Americans & Pilgrims, we also looked at the types of toys they had.  We played with a wooden cup/ball on a string game, a wooden spinning top and today the girls got a homemade yarn doll.  (I had no idea my boys would want one so they will go home on Monday.)  These little yarn dolls are not actually specific to Pilgrims, but they are simple and close to what girls would have been given. (Made from scraps of old cloth or sewing string.)  They don't do anything...except just feel soft.  They are definitely not an American Girl.  They have no face, no fancy clothes, and make no noises...but these girls were so excited to get them. They sat at carpool sharing their dolls and pretending to have them talk to each other.  The girls were picking out names and even making pretend play dates.  How fun...simple and imaginary play!  I think I'll make one for myself just to keep around for those days when I need a hug. 

Pumpkin Muffins

 With the cold rain and gloomy forecast, it was the perfect day to make our pumpkin muffins.  We did all of the mixing and stirring and Mrs. Laurie baked them in the kitchen.  It is always so funny to see the children taste the muffins when they refuse to even think about taking a tiny bite after mixing in the canned pumpkin. (You have to admit that it is not the most appealing ingredient...texture, color or smell.)  What a warm and tasty treat on a yucky day?  The recipe went home in your child's folder so don't be surprised if they ask to make more at home.  If you really want to "trick" them out, you can add a small dab of cream cheese icing.  I am an experienced "taste tester" with this and sometimes it doesn't hurt to add a little something to "enhance" the flavor.  If you are an adult, these muffins are the perfect companions to a a cup of hot coffee.  After all, it is almost the Thanksgiving holidays.

Have A Gobble, Gobble Good Day

 

Here are our turkey friends to make your day happy & cheerful.  They are perched just above the rail as you go upstairs and are sitting there to say "Have a great day and eat more vegetables."  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

This Is The Way We Work & Play

 I don't think that I need to add much to these pictures.  We work & play and have a great day!!!

The Counting Caterpillar Starts With C

Our letter of the week is "C" and here is our counting caterpillar.  It has grown one ring at a time since school started!  We have measured little things as it has grown but even now it isn't longer than our rug!  You can see from this picture that we are getting closer and should be there soon.  We will keep adding our rings until we reach our 100th day of school...but we can't even imagine how long it will be by then.  We just know that it will be taller than we are.

We Salute Our Veterans!!!!!

 Happy Veteran's Day to all who serve or have served our country.  We are young, but understand what it means to be brave and protect us.  Here is a little salute to show you how proud we are to be Americans!!!!

Warm Your Heart

Just to share a tid bit from our classroom.  If your child is saying funny words in other languages, don't be alarmed.  Pastor Jay is teaching us how to say "thank you" in languages around the world.  This week we learned how to say this in Japanese, Dutch & German.  We are also learning a very sweet song so I will do my best to capture this on video.  Also, I wanted to share some highlights from our prayer time at the end of "circle" each day.  I know that I am so lucky to live in the world of children and that I get to be inspired by them every day, but they really do know how to appreciate all of the little things in life.  This week during prayer, we had these awesome prayer thoughts...a Christmas tree, Barbies, mommy picking me up, an absent friend, a dog's injury, getting nails done with mommy, a daddy at a beach house, daddy to stay home all day, baby brothers....Please know that your children are so full of God's love and they share this every day with us at school! 

Total Concentration

Can't you feel the concentration in this picture?  A beading project that took all of the focus in the world and we did it!!! (Not to mention that you can't even hear of the all of the distractions of friends playing and the work going on all around us.)   I can't show you the finished project because it is part of our "Feast" preparations, but I had to get this picture.  A pipe cleaner and some beads couldn't have been more challenging for each of us but we did it!  Each of our 14 boys and girls did this project and did not give up! I am so proud of everyone!  You have to stay tuned to our classroom to see how this all turned out, but I bet you can guess that it has something to do with a gift from our Native American friends also known as "maize."

Group Pictures

 Okay, it is almost totally impossible to get these sweet angels to be completely still for a group picture...but here was my best effort yesterday.  There were smiles all around, but every picture was slightly off with a head being cut off because someone moved or friends were looking all around because...."duh" we are on the playground...not a photo booth.  So these made me smile.  Maybe I should post some of the others just to see the countless efforts to get everyone together.  (I think you figured out that there was no way to get everyone so my plan "b" was to get the boys and girls together in separate groups.) If you do not see your child in these pictures, my apologies, but sometimes we just can't allow the camera to snap our beautiful face.  It is so much fun to run from the camera.

Q is for Quilt

 

 Here is our art project for the week and they are so beautiful.  As you know, we started talking about Thanksgiving and preparing for our class feast.  Along with this was our theme of thankfulness.  We made those sweet little nature angels for the bulletin board downstairs and this week, we continued being "thankful" with these quilts that we made for the letter Q.  It was a three part process for us, (four if you include getting them to sit still for a picture), but I think the children did a great job.  Isn't it amazing that God made us the same as boys & girls, men & women...but all so completely different in His image!!!  We are truly His quilt of love, goodness and light....and so many more things!!!!