THE BIG CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Our Program started at 6:15 p.m. at the Layton Library. Friends and family were invited. The kids were excited and so was Miss Janalynn. We performed the songs that we have been practicing all month long. We started with December Holiday songs for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Then we sang songs about Christmas, Reindeer and Santa Clause. During the song "Grandmas Got ran Over By A Reindeer", the children got to go out to the audience to get grandma or mom to dance with. It was pretty fun.

Because of the weather, our special guest was a little late, but everyone enjoyed the children singing, we just sang a few more of the favorite songs. Soon our guest arrived, and we were all surprised to see Santa Clause. Each of the children visited with Santa for a minute making sure he got their list of wishes, then off he went! He must of had a lot of other little boys and girls to see.

I was so proud of the kids. They knew the songs and sang so well.

Christmas Party

Today was not a normal Preschool Day. Instead it was a PARTY! The children came to the party at 10 a.m. We bundled up good and started off to go Christmas Caroling. The neighbors loved us. We sang the songs that we will be singing during our Christmas Program. Afterwards we came back to Miss Janalynn's house for Hot Chocolate. The children brought a dollar gift for a game we played. Most of the children picked their own present, which is very typical at this age. Emmy however brought her present with Emma in mind and was so pleased that Emma chose it! I thought that was very cute! After one more practice of our program, the party ended with goodies and gifts to take home!

Who is Santa?

I showed a Santa Book. We again pulled out the world map and again traveled and reviewed each country we visited before and this time showed what Santa looks like in different countries. We also learned that children in other countries call Santa Claus by different names, such as Pierre Noel, Father Christmas, St. Nick etc.

No matter what his name, we all agreed that Santa was someone special. Someone who loved children. Someone who brought presents to good girls and boys and someone who loved to have cookies left for him to eat.

Each child received their own sugar cookie dough to roll out, cut, and bake. With sequence cards we followed the directions on how to make and decorate sugar cookies. During the baking we practiced for our up coming Christmas program. Afterwards, we got quite messy by frosting, and decorating our cookies. After eating a cookie or two, Miss Janalynn wrapped up our remainder cookies, so we could take them home to give to Santa, when he came to visit.

Christmas Around the World

After learning about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, we focused on "CHRISTMAS"! We got the world map out and traveled around to different countries and briefly talked about how the children in those countries celebrated Christmas. We read "Christmas Around The World" and Uno, Dos Tres, Posada!" The children then shared their own family traditions. All seem to own nativity sets, have Christmas trees with lights, and Santa comes to visit.

Happy Kwanzaa

I think that the children were amazed that there is another Holiday celebrated that they didn't know about! I explained that this one was a lot like thanksgiving and Christmas put together. It was a nice review of harvest, and families.

We learned a new art skill, "Rubbings". Our small motor skills were put to the test when trying to hold the crayon on it's side, and rub hard across a cardboard with lifted grooves. This is a great, and fun skill to practice at home. In case you weren't sure what the rubbings were, it is the special Kwanzaa Mat called the Mekeka. The Mekeka holds the Kinara and candles along with the fruit of the harvest. An ear of corn represents each child in the family. I of course just explained the candle, the colors of red black and green, and corn to the children. Kwanaaz is a big enough word to say, let alone understand all the meanings.

For snack, we again took turns practicing our pouring, and stirring skills in the kitchen. This time, since we had just talked about the meaning of the corn, we decided to make corn bread. Another big hit with the children.

After we celebrated Kwanzaa, we settled down to practice our Christmas songs. The children were real excited to sing some familiar songs! We played a fun human pointing game to pick the favorite songs. Don't be surprised if the children start spinning each other around on your computer chairs, to stop and point to an item in front of them. The kids loved this singing game!!

Hanukkah

We started preschool reading the story, "Four Sides, Eight Nights" This help the children recognize that there is another Holiday that people celebrate. We practiced our folding to make a menorah that will actually stand. We then glued pretend candles made out of straws to our menorah. We learned that they have stars, they look a little different, than the common five pointed star, and they called their star, " The Star of David".

We spent time in the kitchen for snack time. We made real Latkes, made with shredded potatoes, eggs, flour and salt. The kids loved them so much, we made another batch so we could all have seconds.

After snack we played with a LARGE Dreidel, and used fake coins to play with. The children loved trying to make the top-like dreidel spin. We learned a Hanukkah song and poem, and I believe the children really enjoyed this new Hanukkah Holiday.

Candy Cane Greetings!

All Children LOVE to receive mail. I showed the children my last year Christmas cards that my friends and family sent. We learned that one tradition in December was to send Christmas cards to people who we loved, and who we wanted to have a Merry Christmas. We made our cards with two small candy canes forming a heart. I told the children, that they could give their cards to whoever they wanted to as soon as they returned home. We then read a silly book called, The mixed up Christmas Card".

Since we used candy canes to creat a Christmas card, I decided to talk about the candy cane, and why we see them around Christmas time. Candy canes look like a shepard's staff. I demonstrated how a Shepard would use his staff to heard sheep, with a large plastic candy cane. (I hope your children don't start choking others, for when I gave them a regular size candy cane to take home, well...yep, they started to heard each other, and we ended up with some broken candy canes and tears.) So on the topic of shepards, we proceed to talk about the shepards who visited Jesus and gave him a lamb as a present. That is why we see lots of Candy Canes around Christmas time. We then painted a large candy cane. Some picked up on how to "stripe" a candy cane and others just painted their candy cane red. It was all good, because no matter how they turned out, when we turned the candy cane upside down, it made a perfect cradle for a baby Jesus. Gluing craft moss was a lot harder than I realized. The children were convinced it was real hay, and wanted to save it for some real horses and cows. It took some convincing that it wasn't safe hay. However, that just made them concerned for the baby that we were about to glue to the "unsafe hay". Parents, I am truly sorry if your child is now more confused about the whole manger, and hay explanation. Next time I'll use yarn.

Today was definitely a confusing topic of why there are candy canes. Lets just say that little kids don't like peppermint candy canes, and it's a good thing I already knew this and gave them cherry flavored.