Christmas Party

We had a great Christmas party that W put on for our last day of Blue Preschool of this year.  It was a lot of fun and we were so glad to have everyone there!

The kids started out by painting popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments with their Moms.  After they were dry the Moms could put a picture of their child in the tree!

After the painting we played pin-the-nose on Rudolph (that R had made) and the kids thought it was pretty fun to put on a blind-fold.

 Next B helped the kids play Santa bowling. All the kids were pretty good at this and had fun knocking the pins down and helping B set them back up again.

The kids then got to take a whack at a candy cane piñata that C had brought.  Some of those kids have very strong arms!  They thought that was fun and were excited to get little airplanes and treats from the piñata when they broke it open.

B and J then took the kids into another room and they read some Christmas stories while the other Moms got lunch ready.  For lunch we made quesadillas, carrots, snowman pretzels, reindeer sausages, and had a wonderful fruit Christmas tree that J made.

Finally all the kids got to sit in a circle and pass around their white elephant presents that they had brought while singing Once There Was a Snowman!  After the song ended they got to open up the present and see what they got!  It was a fun party and we hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year!

Temple Square

We took a fun trip to Temple Square for our Christmas Nativity week.  T, EW, and G loved all the fountains and also were excited to see the shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus on the different nativities. 

Here is G and T at the waterfall- probably their favorite thing.

We had a fun time in the Visitor's Center and were even able to watch a 20 min presentation on the family be the sister missionaries.  They thought that was pretty fun- they liked moving from room to room- although they kind of wanted to run around at the end, but it was really nice that they could have that experience with the missionaries.  Afterward we went outside and looked at the fun Nativity displays.

 The last nativity we saw was a large white one right in front of the temple in the fountain.  It was beautiful and the kids were excited to see baby Jesus in the water and they loved the temple.

 

Christmas and Giving Lesson

We had a lot of fun in preschool this week though we did miss little EM. I was sure grateful to have helper M (EW's daddy) around to help out too.

As the boys arrived we put on their paint shirts and had them stamp white paper lunch sacks with fun Christmas stamps. These were then put aside to be used later to wrap a parent gift.



We gave the boys a little free time while we cleaned up the stamp stuff then we gathered them back together and sang "Higgely Wiggely Bumble Bee" to get there attention. We went over the calendar, wather, etc., and counted the number of days until Christmas. Then talked about the letter G. I had each child trace an uppercase and lowercase G with a dry erase marker on a laminated sheet which they all really enjoyed.

For a number review I had 10 red ribbons with the numbers 0-9 on them hidden throughout the room and had the boys hunt and find them. We then put the numbers in order and counted them.

I then had each boy pick a nativity mask and we quickly acted out the nativity.

T, EW, J, and G showing off their masks.

Then we went back to the table for our blue binder project. We made pictures of baby Jesus with a red bow to remind us that Jesus was Heavenly Father's gift to us and Jesus made it possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven. (Not sure if the boys got this point but we tried).



Once again we gave them a little free time while we prepared snack.

For snack we had triangle shaped triscuits, peanut butter in a cup with a toothpick for spreading and craisins. The idea was to have the boys make trees with craisins for decorations. I don't think any of them actually put theirs together but they enjoyed the snack anyway.



While they ate their snack, helper M (EW's daddy) read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which the boys loved especially because he did fun voices and really got into the story.

T, P, Helper M, and G enjoying the story

Once again we gave them free time while we got the last activity ready.

We finished the parent gift (Spoiler alert: The parent gift was a 1/2 sheet of paper with a 2011 calendar printed on the bottom half. the top half had a picture of the boy and a space for the boy to color a picture. We then laminated them and put magnets on the back so they could be hung on a fridge or file cabinet.) The boys then wrapped their gifts in their stamped bags and wrote their names on the tag.


We finished with a little free time as parents arrived.

I really liked breaking things up with the short free times rather than one big free time at the end. Something to consider for the future.

Gardner Village- Elf Hunt

We had a really fun field trip to Gardner Village for a Christmas Elf Hunt.  (We had been planning on going sledding for our snow/winter week, but the snow all melted before we got the chance!)  It was a lot of fun and the weather pretty much cooperated- it was a little cold at first, but once we started walking it was great.  C had printed off a bunch of Elf Hunt scavenger hunts for us to follow and we walked around the village looking for the Elves on our list.  We actually ended up finding all but one, which they told us later was up high on a building so we didn't see it.  They were nice and gave each boy a candy cane anyway.  Afterwards we went over to the bakery and got some lunch.  We missed P and EM and hope to see them next week!

Here's the whole group in front of some of the first elves we saw that were roasting marshmallows by a fire.

T and G in front of a cute covered bridge.

 The Preschool boys on a Christmas truck with some elves.  G did not want to sit on the truck so he sat on the wheel which worked out just fine.  (Boys from left to right: EW, little J, G, and T.)

 

 T about to blow a kiss to this elf carrying Christmas packages.

 The Elf barbershop.  Really cute. They had very clever displays like this all over the village.

**Moms: if you have more pictures please share them!

Snow/Winter Lesson

S gave a fun lesson about snow and winter on Tuesday.  The kids even got to put on their snow gear and play in the snow at her house!  Here are her lesson plan and pictures:

Gathering activity: Play in snow
Welcome: Song, pledge, calendar, weather.
Introduce: color White, pointed out things throughout the lesson that were white. 
Number 10:  Sang 10 little snowflakes....One little two little three little snowflakes, four little five little six little snowflakes seven little eight little nine little snowflakes 10 little snowflakes falling down.
Letter W...W is for Winter,  Learned the sound wuh wuh.
Shape:  Snowflake - Made snowflakes for book.
Free time
Snack time: two biscuits with raisins as eyes and buttons
Reading time: Hurray for snow!Discussion:  Winter is one of the four seasons.    Snow is water that freezes as it falls to the ground.
Project: Made snowmen out of different shapes.
Playtime

 

 

The Aquarium

We took a fun trip to the Living Planet Aquarium for our Under the Sea week.  All the boys had a great time and loved looking at the fish, octopus, jelly fish, sea horses, manta rays, sharks, turtles, and penguins.  We were also sad that EM and P couldn't make it.

T, little J, and G climbing on the sea horses waiting to go in.

 T and little J cheesing it up on a giant frog.

Little J waiting to touch the manta rays.

 

The boys working on puzzles and matching games.

 E, little J, G, and T sitting in a little boat.

Before we left the boys all got their pictures taken in a little photo booth.  They all were really cute and had fun posing for the camera.

Afterwards we went to Chick-fil-A for a little lunch and playtime.

Under The Sea

We had a fun week at school. It was an "Under The Sea" theme. I had the boys use a fishing pole and they fished for sea animals then we talked about them.When we got to the crab I taught them about to do the crab walk...then they raced and had a fun time. We learned about the color blue, letter S and the number 9. This week we are also taking them to the Aquarium.
For their snack I made blue jello and put cut up grapes in it. I told them it was the sea with fish in it.

We made a fish bowl for their craft. I love how they all have thier own style when coloring.


They were so excited to take a fish home. We love these kids!