Tuesday, December 23, 2014

'Twas the night before the night before Christmas

Good evening,

Thank you to all those who gave me such thoughtful gifts, you really didn't have to but I loved everything! 

I had so much fun with the kids today, thier excitement is through the roof! (Mine is too, I'll admit it)!

I hope you love the special gifts they made for you!

Have an amazing, wonderful and magical Christmas and New Year!

With love,
Mrs. Miller
Mrs. Pohl
Santas Elf ;)

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Gingerbread Man

I'm getting really bad about posting on Fridays but it's such a busy time of year.

Your kids have been so busy creating some pretty special gifts to you from them for Christmas! We just put the final touches on yesterday!

We had so much fun "traveling around the world" learning about how so many different countries celebrate Christmas. We learned how we are all different and the same.

One country we focused on a lot this week was Germany. We learned that Germany is famous for the Gongerbread cookie and make beautiful gingerbread houses. We watched an animated story version of The Gingerbread Man. During centers one of the things the kids were able to do was pretend to bake gingerbread cookies. Rather than using play-doh like we always do we made a gingerbread scented salt dough that resembled cookie dough. The kids LOVED "baking cookies" this week. 
1cup flour
1cup salt
1/2 cup water
Gingerbread or Anise flavoring (small drop)

Friday we ended our journey with the last stop to the North Pole. We read a special story about Santas Elf and watched a short movie, The Elf Story. We learned how important it is to be kind and the magic of Christmas. 

Monday we will have a fun filled day of all things Christmas/holidays, from crafts to games to holiday themed dance party. 

Tuesday is our last day before winter recess, your child came home with a reminder that they can wear their pajamas, bring a special stuffed animal and blanket. We will go to the community room to watch The Polar Express and have Polar Express Hot Chocolate and snack! 



I hope you're enjoying your weekend!
Mrs. Miller

Sunday, December 14, 2014

All Aboard!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...and also a very busy time so please forgive me when I have late posts.

This past week we started our adventure on Mrs. Millers' Polar Express.  One thing I always start out teaching your child as soon as school starts is that we are all different. My famous saying is "we are all different and that's okay".  During this holiday season your child has been learning about how people all around the world celebrate Christmas. We have been reading stories, watching videos of actual families and their traditions, finding the countries on our globe and comparing and contrasing other ways people celebrate Christmas to how we do in America.

Day 1:
All Aboard! Today we read the Polar Express. I showed the kids a globe and explained what it is. I showed them where we live and we discussed what we see and do in the United States of America at Christmas time.  We talked about what each of our families have done and do at Christmas. We painted a Christmas Tree with water color paints.

Day 2: Mexico
The kids learned that in Mexico posadas is a holiday they celebrate and Christmas. They celebrate for 9 days and spend the night at family or friends house having dinner and giving thanks. We only celebrate two days. In Mexico they play a game called the piƱata, some of us have played that at birthdays but in Mexico it's one of their games at Christmas. They do have family dinners and Christmas trees like in America. The Mexican Christmas flower is a poinsettia which we can find in stores at Christmas time. The kids painted poinsettias with pretty red glitter paint. 

Day 3: Brazil
Brazil is similar to Christmas in America, Santa comes on Christmas Eve, they have lights and Christmas tress and give gifts. But, on Cheistmas thousands of people gather to see millions of lights and the largest Christmas tree made of lights illuminate. There is also a big firework display, we do not do that in America on Christmas Day.  The kids painted fireworks with neon paint and forks (the forks were a fun way to easily create the firework design). We watched an actual home video on YouTube of the light illumination and firework display in Brazil!

Day 4:  South Africa
South Africa celebrates Christmas with a tree, Santa, family and gifts also. But, in South Africa the weather is very warm so many families have BBQ's for Christmas! There is also a big parade and carnival that thousands of people attend on Christmas. We watched an actual video of people in a parade and at the carnival on Christmas in South Africa. 

Friday we reviewed all of the countries we have learned about so far! The kids are really excited and into Christmas. They look forward to finding out where we are going to go on our globe each day and with some prompting they can recall many facts we learned about each country. The kids are learning that while others may look different, speak different and even celebrate different there are also things that are the same that they can relate to.

We've also been very busy working on Christmas surprises! 

This is such a fun time of the year (and very busy) time of the year!

My apologies again for the late post,
Mrs. Miller



Saturday, December 6, 2014

5 senses

What a great week we had learning about the five senses! The kids really this unit.

We watched a video as an introduction to the 5 senses and while some of the information was a bit advanced there were parts that really broke down what each sense for us.  

We focused our whole week on being in tune with our senses in our classroom environment, we:

-painted gingerbread cookie cut outs with anise flavor added to the paint to get the scent of cookies. The gingerbread pattern we painted was on sandpaper so the kids were able to explore sense of touch as well.

-discussed what we see, hear, smell, taste and touch when at school

-learned about what it means to be deaf and blind and how people rely and use their other senses in their daily life

-played a game where we had to guess a shape only through our sense of touch.  I placed one shape block at a time in a bag and the kids took turns trying to guess the shape by only being able to feel the block.  When we learned about shapes we talked about their attributes, the kids were able to use their prior knowledge to help them with this game.

-Around the home bingo.  The kids used their sense of hearing and sight to play a bingo game which entailed various sounds you would hear in your home.

-Shape tree, as you may have seen in their folder the kids made a Christmas tree out of various shapes!

Friday we wrapped up the Five Senses unit with a fun activity where the kids were able to get in touch with all of their senses.  I made popcorn with the popcorn air popper.  The kids loved listening, seeing, smelling, touching and of course tasting!

We worked on many other things this week also such as the Letter J, number 8, rhyme and shape review.

The kids also have turned into busy little elves as we spent all week working on a VERY special Christmas gift for YOU!

This week we hop on our imaginary 'Polar Express' and learn about Holiday's around the world, this unit will lead us up to our last day before winter break!

Don't forget that I am hoping to place a Scholastic Book order online Monday, in case you want to order and special gifts for the Holidays.  Use the classroom code L96PC if you order online!

Have a GREAT rest of the weekend!
Mrs. Miller