Christmas ... the outtakes

As you can imagine, taking a group photo with multiple preschoolers often results in some, ummm, interesting facial expressions! I couldn't resist sharing some of the outtakes ... they are hilarious! 

Thanks to the magic of photoshop and an app on Mrs. LeeAnne's phone, we WERE able to get a few decent ones as well. (But those don't get shared here ... they're a surprise ...) :)

Little gymnasts

Several of our K3 students enjoy taking a weekly gymnastics class with the wonderful Angela's Angels & Athletes, who brings the classes to our school. Her students performed two weeks ago at Circle, and we loved watching our K3's be part of the fun!

Apologies for the blurry photos ... it's hard making gymnasts be still!

We're so proud of our students!

New twist on Jingle Bells

On Thursday after Santa visited HVCS, Mrs. Grimes and our third-grade buddies stopped by to help us remember the real reason for Christmas. They told us the story of the first Christmas and sang songs with us. Check out this video of "Gospel Bells" -- we even had some real bells to shake!

More monster fun

Before Thanksgiving, I shared the monster fun we had while learning about letter M. We had such a great time with the book "Go Away, Big Green Monster" that we wanted to share one more cute activity with you ... our own colorful monsters! We let the children pick out their favorite color, then we made monsters that resembled the one in the story.

This was a great exercise in shapes and colors, and it was lots of fun! Check out our big green, orange, pink, purple, yellow, and blue monsters the next time you come to the K-3 classroom!

The first Thanksgiving

We hope you had a chance to see our First Thanksgiving bulletin board when you were here for the Thanksgiving Feast. K-3 spent the month of November learning about the first Thanksgiving, and as such, about the origins of our country (albeit in a very basic manner). With each simple lesson, we did a corresponding craft, and we displayed the narrative outside our classroom. Mrs. Connie and Mrs. LeeAnne selected the best work each time, and those were displayed on the board. All students had some piece of art featured ... we were so proud of how hard they worked!

Men and women pilgrims came to America.

They sailed on the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock.

The men built log houses for their families.

Native Americans befriended the pilgrims and taught them how to survive in this new land.

They learned to grow corn and catch fish.

They hunted turkey.

To celebrate the first harvest, pilgrims and Native Americans dined together; this was the first Thanksgiving!

The finished product, all together.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday together, giving thanks for the good things God has granted. Next up is the most wonderful time of the year ... Christmas with preschoolers is SO MUCH FUN!! 

M is for Monster

Part of our letter M study this week has been to read the book Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly (and its sibling Glad Monster, Sad Monster). We've had a lot of fun playing different monster games! Yesterday we traveled to the computer lab to play a design-a-monster game on the SmartBoard. Our kiddos LOVED the interactive game, which allowed them to use a stylus to drag and drop monster parts ... kind of like a monster version of Mr. Potato Head! (Word on the street is that there are also apps for the iPad/iPhone and Droid that will do the same ...)

(If you're wondering why your child isn't pictured above, it's because we also played an interactive pilgrim game on the SmartBoard ... pictures of that activity to come soon. Some students played the monster game, others the pilgrim game.)

This morning, the students took turns sorting colored candies onto a Big Green Monster graphic. We had to watch some of them closely to make sure they didn't eat our supplies! Some of our children even noticed the sweet smells of the candy ... we love that they're building on our five senses lessons from earlier in the year! 

They were so proud when they finished their monsters!

Finally, we also played Mrs. Connie's "Feed the Monster" game. The monster only eats items that start with the letter M, so students must look at picture cards to determine what things to feed Mr. Monster. They did GREAT!

Who knew monsters could be so much fun?!?

How we spend cold days!

Today was a very exciting day—we saw the first snowflakes of the year! It is priceless to watch the children's faces as they stare out the window at the snow falling down!

Our rules state that we can't go outside if the temps are lower than 32, and today it was definitely less than 32! In lieu of outside recess, we had some fun in the gym! In addition to some running, hopping, and jumping games, we broke out an old favorite friend ... our trampoline! It's a great way for the kids to expel some energy on a cold day, and we try to make it into a learning game by counting the number of times each child jumps.

Cold days aren't so bad when you get to spend them watching snow and jumping on a trampoline! :)