Merry Christmas!

Thank you for your generosity with donating many food items for our giving tree! It is always amazing how much food we receive. It is very much appreciated. Here are the MWF class sorting and boxing up the food items. 
Total food: 5 boxes and 3 full bags!!!!!

The Giving Tree is loaded!!!

Busy workers! They were impressive and
very efficient! Look out employers!!

Everything boxed and bagged!!
Thanks for your awesome help children. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Salt-dough Ornaments

I found a great salt-dough ornament recipe years ago and every year the children enjoy using acrylic paints to make them colorful! The recipe is simple and easy; a great activity to do with children. Add a string or pipe cleaner and put on your tree. 

Here is the recipe:

3 Ingredients: 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, and 1/2 cup water (or more as needed). (I usually triple the recipe - it depends on how many ornaments you want to make....)

1. Add flour and salt together; mix and then add water. Add more flour as needed. 
2. Knead dough until it's soft and pliable
3. Roll with rolling pin and cut out shapes with cookie cutters 
4. Place on un-greased cookie sheets 
5. Use straw to poke holes on top for the string to go through 
6. Prick each cut out with a toothpick (to keep it from bubbling up while baking)
7. Bake in 250 oven for 30 minutes (I take them out before they start getting brown)
8. I leave the ornaments out on the counter for a couple days to completely dry out and harden. And then they are ready to paint and add glitter if you are brave. 

https://www.mommypotamus.com/how-to-make-salt-dough-ornaments/
(This blog gives a great tutorial on how to make them with pictures included!)

Here is how ours turned out!

Pretty colorful!
(Except the plain ones on the right). 

Rhyming words

The MWF class has been learning more about words that rhyme as well as onset letter sounds. I start with a simple word like cat and then write the last part "at" on the white board and have them add other letters to the front of the word to make a new word. We've done this activity several times during large group and the children have done quite well. It's taken some practice and learning what consonants and vowels are.  We've learned that using vowels in front of the word doesn't work, but consonants sound much better! 

Here is what we did today.

Words from the "ag" family. 

Yes, we realize some of these words

aren't real words, but it's still fun

to play with sounds and words. 

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!!!

"Reading books" in preschool is a pre-cursor to learning how to read in Kindergarten and beyond. In preschool we focus on the emerging skills that are needed before they learn conventional reading in Kindergarten. Some emerging literacy skills you may see with your child: looking through books pretending to "read" while looking at pictures; re-telling stories they've heard multiple times; asking to be read to (multiple times) as they make connections between the characters, story line and text; reading a book front to back, left to right; running their fingers along the text as they "read"; enjoying books and asking to be read to, phonemic awareness, letter recognition, understanding that written words have meaning and their spoken words can be written down, and much more!

Early literacy is key to helping young children succeed as readers later on. In preschool, our focus is on appropriate activities that fit the children's developmental level and needs. We read books aloud at least 2 times a day, and more if the children request it. The books we focus on have repetition, rhyming, prediction, rich in language, informational, high-quality story and text. We also emphasize letter recognition and the phonetic sound of letters; we accomplish this by introducing a letter of the week. We talk about words that begin with that letter and the sound they make. Learning that each letter makes a different sound is also part of early literacy.

I hope that you encourage book reading at home; reading to your children at bedtimes and other times too!! Research says that children who have been read to at home have a higher chance of being good readers! 

Here is some reading that is happening here at preschool....love it!!!

A child "reading" to the teacher.
Children "read" books
by looking at the pictures.

Being read to in the tee-pee with Ms. Cassidy.

This is after closing story
before children go home! 

READ ON!!!

Santa is coming to town....

I enjoy putting out the Santa hats during Christmas time and see what the children do with them. The role playing, language and fun they have with them is always interesting and creative! 

I believe these four were planning
a Christmas party.

Santa asked for his name written down,
and then taped it in on his shirt.

Another Santa! 


HO, HO, HO!!!