Grace Garden Preschool

Looking for a stocking stuffer or last minute gift?  We suggest watercolor paints!  The Robins love to paint with watercolors.  So many things can be learned while painting.  It’s a wonderful way to hone fine motor skills. Holding a paint brush helps promote fine motor skills by enhancing eye-hand coordination, finger dexterity and muscle strength. Toddlers can exercise their hands by using a paintbrush.

Fine motor skills involve the small muscles of the body that enable such functions as writing, grasping small objects, and fastening clothing. They involve strength, fine motor control, and dexterity.

These skills are important in most school activities as well as in life in general. Weaknesses in fine motor skills can affect a child's ability to eat, write legibly, use a computer, turn pages in a book, and perform personal care tasks such as dressing and grooming.

Other tasks that help build fine motor skills include:

·      tying shoes
·      zipping and unzipping
·      playing games that require precise hand and finger control
·      drawing, painting, and coloring
·      manipulating buttons and snaps
·      putting small objects together
·      doing puzzles
·      making crafts
·      opening and closing objects
·      picking up and holding onto small objects
·      pinching objects between fingers
·      turning things over or turning pages of a book
·      screwing and unscrewing
·      doing ANYTHING that requires small precise hand and finger movements

We hope you have a fun and safe holiday!  We will see you next year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Ms. Sasha & Ms. Susana

This week we continued talking about different winter holidays and how Christmas is celebrated around the world.  We focused on our closest neighbor, Mexico, and practiced saying “Feliz Navidad." We talked about Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn or posada, and performed our own version of this journey by walking from class to class, searching for an open room at an inn.  It was great fun to watch the kids’ expressions during our search. 

We absolutely love art!  All week long we painted!   We painted Christmas trees, colored in snowmen, and made handprint reindeer with paint on our sweet hands.  We painted and glittered paper dreidels, too!  You will be able to take these home for keepsakes during the holidays. 

We have made it half way through the alphabet and are on the letter “M”.  We have completely mastered the numbers 1 -10 in English AND Spanish.  Our beautiful color for the month of December is red and the children get to see this color all throughout the hallways of the church! 

In chapel, we learned that each of us is a gift from God.  In music, we danced and sang Christmas songs like “12 Days of Christmas”, “Feliz Navidad”, and “Mele Kalikimaka” with Ms. S.  

Don’t forget to come by early next Wednesday at pick up to find your little one’s precious profile silhouette for purchase.  There will be frames available as well!  These make great gifts for the family. 

We hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Stay warm, 

Ms. Sasha & Ms. Susana

(P.S.)  Grace Garden's Breakfast with Santa this Saturday from 9-10:30 a.m. in the Great Hall. Please bring an unwrapped toy for your child to give to Santa, so that he may deliver that toy to a child in need. There will be photos, cookie decorating, and plenty of milk and coffee to enjoy.

Shalom friends!
 
It’s officially cold outside!  Please bring a seasonal change of clothes for your kiddos to exchange for their warm weather clothes that are in their cubbies now.  We go outside in the morning and afternoon each day and we want to keep those little bodies warm!
 
This week we talked about different winter holidays, such as Hanukkah.  We practiced saying “shalom” and learned that it means “peace” and is used to say hello and goodbye to friends.  We also practiced saying “Happy Hanukkah”.
 
We honed our painting skills this week and painted every day!  We used many shades of blue for our Hanukkah themed art of dreidels and the Star of David.  We painted with watercolors and learned that when you mix red and blue you get purple!
 
We are now up to the letter “K” in the alphabet and made it through the numbers 1 -10 in English and Spanish.  We focused on the color purple.  Next month our color of the month will be green.


Upcoming events:

Coffee Chat - December 6th
Breakfast with Santa - December 10th
Silhouette Funrdaiser - December 14th
Winter Break - December 20th - January 6th

 
We would like to thank you for our “cup runneth over” gift. What a wonderful surprise! We were very touched by your kind words and feel so privileged to work with your children.  They are amazing and so full of love.
 
Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Sasha & Ms. Susana