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.