Our Christmas Program was wonderful and the boys and girls did great!  We all brought our best manners and did our very best singing!!!!  AND we had some treats to take home for our parents.  We made these Nativity Banners to help us remember the story of Jesus' birth.  And took a sweet picture to help our parents remember how cute we were when we were in preschool.

 And... of course... we sang our songs just like the angels we are!

 It is hard to be patient on such an exciting night but we did it!!!

 Thank you boys and girls for such a wonderful Christmas Program!!!!

Santa's Little Classroom

 These last few weeks have been kind of like a "secret Santa classroom."  We've been putting the finishing touches on our gifts for our parents so it is has been pretty hard to take pictures to post. We have not stopped learning new things and practicing our letters and numbers, but we have been hard work making Christmas ornaments to teach us about Christmas Around The World.    We made gingerbread ornaments....from Germany.

AND decorated some tasty gingerbread cookies with Mrs. Kelli. 

We had fun celebrating St. Lucia Day.... And our girls made these beautiful wreaths to wear as they served snacks to our boys.

 We have also been watching Jingles and had a great time trying to guess where he might be each morning that we arrive at school.  He sure does land in some scary places.  We think it is because it takes so long to fly back and forth to the North Pole.

AND!!!! We had a totally adorable and precious little puppy stop by to say HI!  This friend and his Nanny brought her new puppy in to meet our class.  He is SOOOOO cute.

 We have still had lots of fun playing in centers...

and enjoying brisk, sunny days on the playground...

And I can't forget..... WE also wrapped presents for our parents!  Presents that WE made!!!!!  Presents that are supposed to go home and be placed under the tree... WITH NO PEEKING from parents.

 And finally... we spent lots of time practicing for our Christmas program.  Whew!  It sure is hard work to be a preschooler at Christmas.  We have been busy, busy, busy!

Our Preschool Christmas Tree Lighting

 Not only did Sinterklaas visit today... BUT we had our annual Christmas tree lighting!  Each class prepared an ornament and we all gathered around the tree.  This brings more Christmas magic into our preschool...and we LOVE seeing this every morning as we start our day!  The official countdown to Christmas has begun!  

A Visit from Sinterklaas

 It was a great day in our classroom... it started with Jingles landing perfectly rested right at Baby Jesus.  Then we had lots of fun playing in centers and painting...

 And then... we learned about Sinterklaas.  He visits children in Holland and leaves treats in their shoes.

 Now we did leave our shoes in the hall... but planned ahead by making these "wooden" paper clogs... just in case Sinterklaas made it all the way over here on his horse.  (We thought it might be better keep treats out of our real shoes since we had just come in from the playground.)  It was one of our favorite days at the preschool... LIBRARIAN DAY!!!!  So we went ventured to the chapel in our sock feet...

 And she brought some AWESOME Christmas books to share with us.

 It was so much fun hanging out without our shoes....and really very cozy on our reading rug.

 SO!!!! Sinterklaas did make it to our little preschool!  These treats were the perfect surprise today! Thank you Sinterklaas!!!! It was an awesome day!

Christmas Magic

This is about the cutest dancing candy cane I have ever seen in my life!!! Okay... so I've never seen an actual dancing candy cane... but if I did.... this one is completely adorable.  She is in a church production and I'm pretty sure we can all feel the computer screen oozing with the excitement of Christmas... also known as "Christmas Magic."  It is such a brave thing to participate in a church production no matter the size, so we are all very proud of our friend sharing the story of Christmas!

Jingles Is ONE Busy Elf

 So last week we welcomed our little classroom elf, Jingles, to our classroom.  He doesn't really look at all like our elves at home... but he is just as busy.  We never know where we might find him when we arrive at school, but we know he is watching to see if we are doing our very best.  And we know for sure that Jingles watched as we colored our Santa face for our daily countdown to Christmas.  Hopefully everyone is on their way with a daily trim of Santa's very long beard... Christmas will be here before we know it.

Waiting....

 Advent is the church season that is all about waiting....waiting on sweet baby Jesus... BUT our class has also been waiting on the arrival of 2 beautiful babies!!!   Congratulations to the two newest big brothers in our classroom!  Prayers of thanks to God for a healthy baby brother and sister.  We are so excited for our classmates!  Now... we continue to prepare our hearts for the arrival of Baby Jesus on Christmas... but seeing these two sweet babies sure does make it a lot easier!