Thanksgiving

All month long, we've been doing cute crafts that deal with our theme of The First Thanksgiving. Little by little, we've put them up on one of our bulletin boards, each time featuring a different child's artwork.

Now, the students of Hickory Valley Christian School K-3 proudly present, the first Thanksgiving ...

The pilgrims came to America. 

They sailed across the ocean on the Mayflower.

Men built log houses for their families.

Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to fish, hunt, and grow food.

Corn was one of their best crops!

They hunted turkey.

Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered together to feast at harvest time.

We wish you and your families a very happy, blessed Thanksgiving!

Child of the Day

Every morning, one of the things the children look forward to most is answering the question "Who will be our child of the day?" (We even sing about it ... lyrics at the end of this post.) Much pomp and circumstance surrounds the morning drawing of the Child of the Day's name out of our hat -- Child of the Day is a very big deal! They get to sit in a special chair, they get to answer questions first, and they get to be the line-leader for the whole day. The whole day!

There are often tears when a child's name is not drawn, but the sadness quickly dissipates as we take turns sharing the things that, in our opinion, make the Child of the Day special. Answers range from "He plays with me" to "She is pretty" to "God is in her heart" to "He's kind to me at lunch." We're trying to show the children how we all have unique qualities that make us special. The smiles on their faces as they hear affirmations from their classmates is priceless!

Child of the Day listens to what his friends have to say about him.

Each day, Mrs. Connie makes a big deal out of "dubbing thee Child of the Day." Looks like royalty to us!

The Child of the Day chair.

Rest assured, it's all very fair. Each child has one of these "stick children," which we made at the beginning of the year. Once a child's name is drawn, it's removed from the hat until everyone has been Child of the Day. Then we refill the hat and start all over! So even though to a three-year-old, it may feel like "I never get to be Child of the Day!!!!" everyone gets the same amount of turns!

Here are the words to our Child of the Day songs. We've heard rumors that some of our kiddos are playing Child of the Day at home with their parents and grandparents. We love it!

(to the tune of "London Bridge")

Who will be our child of the day, child of the day, child of the day?

Who will be our child of the day? They're so special!

Connie is our child of the day, child of the day, child of the day!

Connie is our child of the day! She's so special!

Crafty K3's

We've been having a lot of fun with our fall crafts! Here is a peek at some of them ...

This letter F activity is GREAT for fall! Our fall tree features the children's handprints in brown as our tree and their fingerprints in red, yellow, brown, and orange as the fall leaves. We finished the project with a few shiny leaf embellishments.

Pumpkin collages ... students tore orange paper into small pieces (great for improving fine motor skills!) and glued them into a pumpkin shape. 

We spent all of October reciting and acting out this cute pumpkin poem, which is great for counting and learning ordinal numbers. The students painted the fence, the moon, and the pumpkins, and Mrs. Connie added the vine later.

Remember last week's fall treasure hunt? This is what we did with our beautiful discoveries! We love these fall wreaths, and we hope they last until Thanksgiving!

G is for ghost!

H is for hungry hippo! We used marshmallows for the hippo's teeth, and the students practiced their counting skills as we glued the marshmallows down.