Is He Here?

Still watching the empty manger. Is He here? These sweet faces are looking into this empty manger with the anticipation we all feel...Is it time for Baby Jesus?

Waiting....

Waiting...waiting...waiting....it seems like it gets harder to wait for this manger to be filled with hay and our beautiful baby Jesus. Only 6 more days until God is with us.

Christmas Party!

It was our favorite day of the year...our class Christmas party! I am surprised that you can't feel the energy as I write this post. (It is now hours past and I am still hearing little voices tell me, "you know what I am going to do at Christmas....) It is truly magical...childhood that is. The angelic faces filled with excitement and wonder. Every year it is the same and every year my sense of hope for the future is restored. With the influence of technology, I worry that childhood is being stolen away, but these sweet faces still enjoy listening to a Christmas book and singing songs and even going on imaginary "elf" hunts. Thank you parents for making this investment in your child. As you hear me say so many times, it will be really different next year. Public school moves at such a fast pace and it seems to get more academically challenging for kindergartners. Being little should be the best thing ever...so that is what we did today. We made fun Christmas necklaces and played. There was a tiny bit of work, but it was an "emergent" reader about a little angel and practice for positional words. (The children had no idea it was even work because they loved flying their little angel all over the place.)
At our party we played a fun game where you tossed a Nerf dart through a Christmas wreath....
we had a fun "sing along" and learned about musical instruments....
One of our friends said this mandolin sounded like a cowboy guitar, but loved singing along to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." This friend's daddy could even play the harmonica and play the guitar at the same time... we were amazed!
and went on an imaginary "elf hunt." You can see from the picture just below that we had to start by pretending that we were asleep....
Then we used our imagination to go all over the place to find the elf. We even went swimming in a river of cocoa...yummy!
It was an awesome day! Everyone was very well behaved and we had so much fun. Thank you very much to the parents who helped coordinate this party and make it special. Our lunch was chicken nuggets, fresh fruit salad, and of course...a Christmas cupcake. Happy Christmas to everyone and best wishes for a restful holiday. Take time over the next weeks to truly enjoy your family and share in the wonder and awe of the gift of Baby Jesus. Let your lights shine as brightly as Rudolph's red nose and have fun remembering what it means to be a child during this magical holiday. (Stay tuned for a few more posts from our class. We have some special things to share as the arrival of Baby Jesus approaches.)

Pajama Day

Every day should be "pajama day," but unfortunately, life doesn't work this way. As we grow up, we have to be more and more responsible and the fun stuff starts to go away. Well, we celebrated the joy of childhood and Christmas by having "pajama day" in our room. Everyone was so excited, especially about going to the playground in our "jammers." It was so much fun to see all of the children just being children. Of course we did a little bit of "work" but mostly we played and enjoyed our day.

A Visit From Mrs. Claus

Okay it is hard to believe, but Mrs. Claus came to visit our preschool today. She came around to each room to say hello, but was helping Santa by making his list and checking it twice. She knew our names and read us a story. She also gave everyone a candy cane. (It was small to help us keep our teeth healthy.) How lucky are we to have such a special guest? We sang her two songs and were so happy that she was helping Santa with his Christmas duties. Thank you so much Mrs. Claus for coming in to Pilgrim Preschool.

Popcorn

It was a fun snack day for our class when a friend's mom came in with an air pop machine and made us some freshly popped popcorn. It smelled so good and everyone enjoyed watching the kernels move around to get puffy and fill our bowl. What a tasty and healthy treat? You can't see it in the pictures, but the popcorn is actually blue and is called "Amish Popcorn." It tastes like regular popcorn only a little sweeter. Even our friend's little brother sat with us to have snack. Thanks so much to this friend's mom for volunteering to share this treat with us.

St. Lucia Day

Today we learned about more holiday traditions from around the world. We celebrated St. Lucia day and here are our girls wearing their beautiful crown of candles. (Not real candles of course.) On St. Lucia Day, the oldest daughter in the family serves sweet rolls to their family members. Our young ladies helped serve a very special birthday snack, it wasn't a sweet roll but it was just as good. No pressure in serving our friends because we used our very best manners and looked so graceful while carrying our treats.. Happy St. Lucia Day!