Grace Garden Preschool

The Busy Bees were all about Christmas this week! Tuesday we had a great time getting our little hands painted and making hand prints ornaments as a keepsake. It's always nice to hang this ornament and see how much your child grows each year.  You can look back on these early years fondly. We also made some jingle bells to use with our favorite Christmas carol – “Jingle Bells".

The children had a great time with the sensory table this week. We had a small Christmas tree with ornaments that kept everyone busy for a while. They enjoyed decorating the tree but also sorting the ornaments in to different categories. There was definitely a lot of Christmas spirit in our room!

On Wednesday we made Santa faces complete with white fluffy beards and we enjoyed hanging them up in the room. They made us happy all day long! We also made a paper Christmas tree, decorated ornaments and hung these on the tree. Wednesday in chapel we heard the story of Baby Jesus. Most of the kids were familiar with this story but were so excited to hear it again. On Thursday we had so much fun in music singing Christmas songs.  What a week!

All week long we enjoyed some beautiful Christmas stories. We read about what Santa must be doing to get himself all ready for his big trip. We talked about the magic of Christmas and the wonderful feelings that we feel all through this special holiday. We ended the week with “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” A true classic.

We topped the week off caroling to all the classrooms. We took our jingle bells with us and showed off our singing skills. Lots of fun!

We hope you enjoy your time away from school and will be wishing you a very merry Christmas!

Take care,
Ms. Andrea and Ms. Melissa

This week the Busy Bees learned about Christmas traditions from Germany, England and Mexico. Tuesday we talked about Christmas trees and how this tradition started in Germany. Wax candles were used on these early trees for decoration. So, we made our own construction paper trees with tissue paper glued on to look like wax candles. The children all worked so hard on this! On Wednesday we talked about how the practice of sending Christmas cards started in England and then we made our own Christmas cards. They glued on a felt Christmas tree with glitter and then had free use of mixed media to decorate these however they wanted. On Thursday we discussed Christmas traditions from Mexico and made poinsettias. On our map, we put a mark on Austin to see where we live. We then put a mark on Germany, on England and lastly on Mexico so they could see how far away these places are from Austin. Many of them decided they could walk to all of these destinations and still be home in time for bed! They have all done a great job this week participating in the art projects and we have witnessed them being very proud of their work. It's great to see!

In chapel we had the opportunity to hear a story from Ms. Sally. She talked to us about the most wonderful gift that God gave all parents - their children! She emphasized this by showing them a "present" as they walked out of chapel. It was a mirror so that they could see themselves and realize that they were the most precious gift of all.  

In music  we sang Christmas songs from all around the world, such as "Feliz Navidad", "Mele Kalikimaka," and "The 12 Days of Christmas".  It was great fun for all!

Next week we will be celebrating our 'traditional' Christmas customs. We will create many fun art projects and will listen to a variety of Christmas stories. If you have any special Christmas books your child would like to share with the class, please feel free to send them to share.  We have a story time in the morning and again in the afternoon.

Please be sure to send a winter coat with your child on cold days. We go outside in the morning and the afternoon, and it's been chilly!

This week we are discussing winter holidays. How appropriate, at least by Texas standards, that it has been cold!  We started the week off with a guessing game that let each child choose a clothing item out of a bag.  They then had to guess if this item would be worn in the summertime or wintertime. They had a great time with this and wanted to feel all the cozy winter clothes. We also read several books about snow. Since most of the time we are deprived of the frozen precipitation, some of our friends from colder places told us a little bit about what they remember about snow and living in a cold climate.

Our class had a great time playing outside as well as inside. There was a new mound of sand on the playground, so many of the children had a great time playing in that with either trucks or their hands.  Inside the Bees were busy artists painting mittens, snowflakes and snowmen. Some of them even made a snow globe.

We continue to fill our kindness jar up a bit more by witnessing acts of kindness or by hearing kind words being used.  We are hopeful that this continues and then becomes a routine. They are so excited when they realize they have done something kind and can't wait to get a pom pom to put in the jar.

Next week our unit of study will be Christmas around the world. We will talk about the different ways Christmas is celebrated as well as learn new traditions.  Then we will devote an entire week discussing how we celebrate Christmas. We can't wait to hear about some of the traditions in your family.

(Please remember to send a jacket or coat for your child. Weather permitting, we go outside once in the morning and once in the afternoon.)


Take care,
Ms. Andrea and Ms. Melissa