New post coming soon with the New Year!

Jan. is coming! It is going to be a busy month in K!! We'll have beach day, 100th day (if we don't have any snow days), and Open House! Winter crafts are coming too! This teacher is going to enjoy her snowy Christmas break and get rested up because there will be no rest in Jan.!!

Happy New Year!

Dr. Jean~

"Let's all do a little ringing
Let's all do a little ringing
Let's all do a little ringing
It's a Happy New Year!"

Then you add dancing, clapping, stomping, and whatever else. It's sung to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

What God Wants For Christmas

Tomorrow is the last day of K until 2010! We have been going through the book and boxes of What God Wants For Christmas. You can get the box set at your local Christian book store. In each box is a member of the nativity. We'll open box # 7 tomorrow. I love that one! What God wants for Christmas is you!

We'll end our day tomorrow with a tradition at our school, the Happy Birthday Jesus Party. We use this time to focus on Jesus and the great gift He is to us. This is always such a special time. The whole elementary meets together and the teachers read the Christmas story. In between Bible verses we sing Christmas songs. Then, Principal reads a story focusing on Christ and His gift to us. To end our time, each class has a cake that is chocolate (for our sin), iced white (Jesus covers our sin), with a red cross on top (for His sacrifice), and a lit candle (Jesus is the light of the world). The classes leave to go to their rooms singing "Silent Night". It's such a wonderful time and gets our focus on the real reason for the season, Jesus.


"What Can I Give Him?"
"What can I give Him
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I'd bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man
I'd do my part.
Yet what can I give Him?
Give Him my heart!"

May all our hearts be full of His love this Christmas!

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!

4 days left of Christmas fun!! Our parent gift this year is a cute fun foam gingerbread frame. I ordered it from Oriental Trading. Just a tip, sometimes the crafts from OT have LOTS of tiny pieces that little fingers have trouble with. This year I took a chance and it was easy! They did a great job on them too. I took each of their pics in a gingerbread baking hat and apron so they could be the "Gingerbread Baby" in the gingerbread house. :)

We had two other fun OT crafts that a mom sent for us to do. One was a little gingerbread notebook. Our writing center this month has been the Gingerbread man. The notebooks came with fun foam stickers so that the kids could decorate it. I was thankful for them, they were perfect for our writing center AND we didn't have to make our own journal! The other craft I had to do some work on myself. It was a gingerbread house that was like a puzzle. It came with all the extras to decorate it. I put the house together. It took some time, but the kids really enjoyed decorating them.

You can find these things at the Oriental Trading website. Sometimes they have specials too.

I'll leave you with a few fun Dec. poems~
"A Package"
"If you see a package
Happily wrapped and tied.
Don't ask too many questions
'Cause the secrets inside!"

"Christmas Goodies"
"It's hustle and bustle at our house,
So I try to keep out of the way!
But I sniff with delight at the cookies,
That are baking for Christmas day!"

Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and other hand print decorations!

We've had a handprint Christmas this year!! We made a handprint Christmas tree, handprint wreath, and my favorite a handprint Rudolph!

The Christmas tree~ We used glitter green paint from Lakeshore, I love the glitter! Then we added tissue paper for the ornaments. Good fine motor!!

The wreath~ We traced our own hands and cut them out. My aide cut out the middle of a regular sized paper plate. The children cut out their hands, about 8 to fill up the plate, and glued them around the plate. To decorate, I had some Christmas sprinkles that I found at Super Target last year. We put a dot of glue on each hand and sprinkled the various sprinkles on the dot.

Rudolph~ I bought brown fun foam. Each child traced their hand and cut it out. The thumb is the head, so they had to stick their thumb out a bit. Then we glued on two curled pipe cleaners, a google eye, and some glittery green fun foam for a collar. Last, they used a sharpie to color in the hooves at the bottom of each finger. So fun!!

Whew! There are so many fun crafts to do at Christmas and not enough time!! Maybe you'll get your hands on some fun crafty things this Christmas season too!
Merry!!

Hat and mitten day in K!

The weather outside was cold~ high 39, so it was a great day to celebrate our author of the month, Jan Brett! We had hat and mitten day in honor of her books The Hat and The Mitten. Fun times.:) It's amazing how excited the kids get to just have a special dress up day. Again, here's a plug for Jan Brett's website~ she has a hat print off that kids can design their own hat and a large mitten too. She also has the character masks so the kids can do a reader's theater. Check it out! It's free!!

Still cold, so be sure you bundle up and wear your hats and mittens!

We Caught the Gingerbreadman!

What a fun Dec. 1 in K! Yesterday we made our gingerbread dough and today we baked "the man"! He escaped out of the oven leaving a trail of ginger crumbs on the floor. We were on the hunt! We visited almost every room looking for Ginger using his smell to lead our noses toward him. When we finally found him, he was yummy!! It was an exciting time. :) We doubled the Jan Brett gingerbread baby recipe so we'd have plenty of gingerbread to enjoy!

There are so many fun things to do in class this time of year, just not enough time! We are reading One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham. It's a little longer book, so we are reading a few chapters at the end of each day. If you've never read this Christmas story, it's wonderful. It talks about our need for a Rescuer, Jesus. It tells the story from creation to Jesus' death and resurrection. It's truly one of my favorite Christmas stories, and Ruth has such a way with her story telling. Truly a must read this time of year!

Hope you have visions of Gingerbread dancing in your dreams tonight!
Merry December!

You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbreadman!!

http://janbrett.com/gingerbread_baby_recipe.htm

I found our Gingerbread recipe on the Jan Brett website. Our author of the month this month is Jan Brett. We'll read her gingerbread books (The Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends) this week. We'll also be reading The Hat and The Mitten this week. We are going to make our GB dough on Mon. in class and then bake him on Tues. Yes, he is going to run away! :) The kids love it when he does. I'm going to crumble some cookie pieces outside the oven and leave the oven door open when we go in to check on him. Then we'll go all around the school asking if anyone has seen him. It's always a fun time!

On Friday, in honor of The Hat and The Mitten, we'll have hat and mitten day. I'm glad the weather is going to be cooler. :)

Another fun thing I've found on Jan Brett's website are character masks. I'm going to print some off and either make puppets or masks for our dress up center. Check out her website. It's got lots of great projects, ideas, and printables.

It's a busy start to Dec. Many merry wishes!! Love this time of year! I'll post pics on Tues. of our Gingerbreadman.

Last fall idea post

One last fall idea because Christmas is coming!! These pumpkin paint pictures are free handed by the kiddos. We used orange glitter paint that I found at Lakeshore. I put the paint in bowls and then added cinnamon to make them smell like pumpkin pie. :) The kids love it and it makes the room smell really good too. When we put them in the hall, the hall smelled like cinnamon too! The turkeys next to the pumpkins were finger print turkeys. We had a turkey pattern with feathers that the kids cut out. We used several colors of washable ink to use on the turkey.

Well, that's the last of my fall ideas for this year!! Next week~ the Gingerbread Man is coming! As my niece always says, "I hope he doesn't run away!" Hm... We'll see!

Feast Day!!

Whew!! What a day Friday was! We had so much fun at our feast. The K kids dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians. Before we feasted we sang some of our Thanksgiving songs and said some of our poems. They did a fab. job! One of our Moms brought pin the hat on the turkey, so we got to play a game. Then it was time for the feast! We feasted on corn muffins with butter, deli turkey, popcorn, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. We also got to eat our ice cream cone tepees. For our drink, we made a special cranberry punch, and it was a hit! I put vanilla ice cream, cranberry juice, and 7-up in a punch bowl and mixed it up. The kids really liked it. It was a fun time had by all.

Now it's time to get ready for Christmas! Hard to believe after our break we will be one day from Dec. I'll post again soon. When we get back, it's gingerbread time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tepee Treat Comments

Our first round of Tepee treats turned out well!! We mixed powdered sugar and water to make some thick icing. We kept adding powdered sugar until the icing was so think it was hard to stir. The kids dipped various candies into the icing and stuck them to their sugar cones. I bought multi colored twizzlers that we cut into smaller pieces, multi colored life savers, gumdrops, and skittles. I tried not to get Christmas colored candy. The kids had lots of fun, and the best part was getting to lick the "glue" off their fingers!! We are going to put the tepees by their plates as a sort of placecard holder at our feast on Fri.

We also made our corn muffins today. I bought jiffy corn muffin mix. All you need to do is add an egg and 1/3 cup of milk to the mix. We used mini muffin pans. They turned out well and will be enjoyed by all at the feast!!

"The Feast"
"Thanksgiving table, this is it.
And a chair where each may sit.
For each a plate, a cup, a spoon.
We'll eat and eat 'til afternoon!"

Enjoy!

Tepee Treats

Tepee Treats

http://familyfun.go.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-kids-table-fun/thanksgiving

Tomorrow starts a busy week of Thanksgiving feast prep.!! The above link is something we are trying this year. We may use the tepee as a placecard holder.;) I think we are going to decorate them with candy. I'll post pics of how they turn out. It will be fun and messy!! Can't wait to get the week started. We are making one food item a day this week. Tomorrow is corn muffins and of course starting the Indian tepees. Better hold on to our Pilgrim hats, this week is going to blow by!!

Happy day!

q-tip painting (Indian Corn)

I brought some read Indian corn to school so the kids could see the various colors. The children used q-tips to put dots to create Indian corn. Last year we used raffia for the husks, but this year I let them paint. It's a fun activity with lots of great fine motor work! They did a great job. :)

BTW~ The hanging rope with the clips is from Lakeshore. It worked well to hang our papers to dry. We have very limited table space(for drying) in our room, so it was a great find!

Aburquerque Turkey

Holidays are so fun! I've found several songs and poems about Thanksgiving. My kiddos love them and are so excited during calendar time! One of their favorites is Alburquerque Turkey sung to the tune My Darling Clementine. I also found a new song this year, "It's Almost Time for Thanksgiving" sung to "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". Very fun! Alburquerque Turkey is featured on Dr. Jean's c.d. Happy Everything! This c.d. is full of so many fun holiday songs for your kids. A must have for a K classroom. You can visit Dr. Jean's website drjean.org or most school supply stores carry it. Another wonderful resource for poems is the text Creative Activities for Young Children by Mary Mayesky. It's a text book from college, but one I will keep always. I tried to find it on-line, I think it's the 4th edition, but I had some trouble. If you can find it, it's worth it! Lots of poems, activities, songs, and recipes!

Next week is our Thanksgiving Feast! My K kids sort of have a "Charlie Brown" Thanksgiving. I'll post what we are making for our festivities next week!

I'll leave you with one last poem~
"Gobble, gobble, who is that?
Mr. Turkey big and fat!
He is big and fat,
And he gobble, gobble, gobbles!
He spreads his wings,
And he wobble, wobble, wobbles!
But when it is Thanksgiving Day,
Gobble, gobble, gobble is what we'll say!!"

Happy Singing!!

Indian Necklace and Fun Foam Turkey

Wow how times flies the weeks before Thanksgiving! We've been busy making Indian necklaces, turkeys, and Indian corn. 3 craft projects in one week, I must be crazy!! My aide and I were SO busy!

Indian Pasta Necklace

Materials:

Uncooked Pasta ( I used Wagon Wheel and Penne)

Food Coloring

Rubbing Alcohol

Gallon Sized Zip Loc Bags

Yarn

Put pasta in bags. I did 5 colors so I divided up my pasta into 5 bags. I poured enough rubbing alcohol in the bag to get it wet, it didn't fill the bag. Then I dropped several drops of color in the bag and shook it up. I added more color as needed to get the right brightness. After the pasta was covered with color, I dumped it onto white construction paper to dry. We had red, green, purple, orange, and blue. The blue actually turned out turquoise which was fun! I let it dry over night just to be safe. Next year I think I'll let my kiddos shake the bags of pasta, but I will probably double bag them to be safe! ;)

Then my aide cut pieces of white yarn and covered one end with tape so the children could begin to string it. The penne was a little difficult because it was long, so we used sharpened pencils to push it through. The children were able to make patterns and get some good fine motor exercises!

Fun Foam Turkey

Materials:

Several colors of fun foam

scissors

glue (I like Aleen's tacky glue)

small turkey pattern

small google eyes

My aide made a small pattern of a turkey. We thought it might be fun to make a pin out of it later. My aide, my sister (who is my homeroom mom), and I traced all the pieces. We decided to cut out the smaller pieces; the waddle, feet, and beak. The children cut out their body and feathers. Then all they had to do was glue the pieces on. Some of them got carried away with the glue, but the beauty of Aleen's is that it dries clear! ;0)

I have a class of 23 K students, so we divided them up for these crafts. 1/2 of them did the pasta necklaces and 1/2 made their turkeys. We'll switch it up on our next craft day.

I'll post pics tomorrow.