Still Waiting

Just before our Christmas break, we took a few minutes to look around the Sanctuary and see how the church has been preparing for baby Jesus.  We saw the beautiful stars cascading down from the ceiling and looked at all of the Chrismons that decorated the trees at the altar.  A Chrismon is a Christmas ornament made from symbols in the church.  We saw many of the same ornaments that we made in our classrooms to take home.  We ended our visit with a quiet prayer for Mary & Joseph and a prayer for hearts to remember the real reason for this special holiday.  We will watch for the brightest star to show the way to baby Jesus on Christmas night and wait patiently for his number one... best helper... Santa to stop by our house too..

Music In Schools

I know you all have some time before you have to make decisions about  your child's schedule, but I cannot urge you enough to strongly consider a class in the liberal arts.  With all of the emphasis on standards and outcome based education, participation in music programs is dwindling each year.  BUT!!! I am here to tell you that music education really boosts your child's ability to learn.  It fosters creativity and is just a wonderful way to enhance learning.  This is my youngest child who plays in the concert band at River Bluff High School.  It is so amazing to hear them play at any point during the year, but I was blown away by the Christmas Concert.  River Bluff High School had the very first performance of their steel drum band.  WOW!  The children in this band were so energetic and had a blast during their performance.  The director said that over half of the children in this band couldn't even read music at the beginning of the year but they could play eight full songs.  Amazing....what a way to get your brain growing!!!  So when you get to this point in your child's education... (around 5th grade) please prayerfully consider  an investment in your child's future.  You can start earlier with piano lessons or guitar... but reading music is just one way to stimulate growth & development.  I was in the very first orchestra program and am so blessed that both of my children  have a love of music. (Oh and did you notice my son's snazzy tuxedo?  Just another reason to join the music program.)

Our Ballerina

 Congratulations to our little angel.  She appeared in several performances of The Nutcracker ballet this weekend.  We are so proud of her!!! 

Christmas Party Fun

 In all the fun of our party, I totally forgot to take pictures.  Here are the few I quickly snapped.  Thank you to our party parents who brought us a yummy lunch.  We LOVED it.  We ended our day with a birthday party for sweet Baby Jesus.  I know it isn't actually His birthday but we had to celebrate a little early because we are starting our holiday break.  

A Visit From SANTA!!!

 WOW!!!! Totally Amazing!!! Santa came to visit our preschool!  It was the biggest surprise ever.  He came to our classroom, read us a story and even knew our names!!! Best Christmas Present ever!!!  Merry Christmas Everyone!  (AND....shout out to a surprise dad visit too.... We love it when a parent stops in to take a sneak peek at our day and say Hello!!!)

Still Hard At Work... And It's Almost Christmas

 Working right up to the last minute.... of course we did!!!  Our brains have to keep growing.  AND... our elf is watching.  We've been counting down the days with Santa's beard...

 doing some totally awesome coloring...

 and just hanging out...

 we also made these cool reindeer super hero bracelets... to help us channel our Christmas energy into magic for Santa... and his elves.  (They have got to be getting pretty tired because they are making so many toys.) We kept doing our best work right up until our party day.

All Aboard!

 Okay... not only was it pajama day... but it was our Polar Express day!!! We got our tickets and boarded the "train."  It was so much fun pretending to be on Santa's train to the North Pole and we did a great job listening to this magical story.

 Mr. Andy was the conductor and punched our tickets... (which we used on our necklace project)

Our trip on the Polar Express was great... but no luck seeing Santa.  Maybe next year!

Pajama Day

Wearing pajamas to preschool?  BEST DAY EVER!!!! Yes it was rainy and we couldn't go to the playground... but it was still an awesome day!!!! It was a cozy kind of day with the gray sky outside our window, but we made the best of it!  Look at all of the amazing fun stuff we did to help us learn and have lots of fun! 

We made some strides in engineering with our block & Lego center....

in science... we developed some new theories about dinosaurs, space exploration and entomology....

Our art project was all about fine motor skills... We made some crazy cool necklaces.  You know those holes in beads are pretty tiny and takes a lot of concentration to get them on our chords.  Plus all of the options with beads... patterns, colors, shapes.  It takes a long time to get it just right.

Our boys used their "home economic" skills in our home living center... pretending to cook and take care of infants...(However... I am glad we have several years before we actually put these skills to work.)

 We even practiced our gift wrapping skills with Mrs. Kelli.  (These are super top secret gifts we've been working on since August!  NO PEEKING mom & dad.)

 We used our brains to do some phonics puzzles....

 We made time to practice writing our names and using our imaginations to make some fun postcards to send to our parents over the holidays.

 And in play dough... we used our imaginations to make some tiny snowmen.  Yes... snow isn't green... but it was a great day to think about seeing those beautiful white snowflakes falling outside our window.

 And well... some of our time we were just having plain old fun and looking adorable.  Preschool pajama day is the BEST!