Welcome to Pre-K!

Our themes for the month of December will be:
Advent
Gingerbread
Christmas

Looking Back (Week of 11/27)
Pre-K students were excited to return to school after the Thanksgiving Recess.  We enjoyed sharing our experiences and preparing for the upcoming season of Advent.  We worked on Advent wreaths and Nativity scenes in the art center.  We read about this beautiful liturgical season and learned two songs about Advent.  We added Advent words to our word wall and discussed the events surrounding the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  We also learned a poem about Advent and identified the figures in our classroom Nativity set.  We said "Goodbye" to November and "Hello" to the month of December!

Our letter of the week was the interesting letter Ii.  We practiced tracing and writing Ii on paper and in our notebooks.  We added igloos, icicles, and other Ii pictures to our clasroom letter book and we saw iguanas, ice cream, and an ice pack during Show and Tell.  We looked for Ii words on our alphabet chart and practiced our letter chant.  We also sorted our picture cards by beginning sound.  Our math activities included a shape building activity and a shape picture craft.  We also played our hidden shape game and worked on comparing quantities.  Our religion lesson helped us to view the Advent wreath and discuss the ways we prepare our hearts for the birth of God's son.

Looking Ahead (Week of 12/4)

The upcoming week will be full of delicious scents as we explore the fun theme of "Gingerbread."  We will measure and mix to create gingerbread ornaments in the art center.  We will work on a gingerbread person project along with a gingerbread house craft.  Later, we will decorate our ornaments with glitter and enjoy the story of The Gingerbread Boy during a puppet show with the Center For Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.  We will read several versions of this festive story and discuss characters, plot, and other story elements before comparing the versions.

Our letter of the week will be the joyful Jj just in time to prepare for the birth of Jesus!  We will work on a J for Jesus art project after reading about Jj and looking for pictures of Jj words on the alphabet chart.  We will practice tracing and writing Jj on paper and in our notebooks and girls may bring in a letter Jj item for Show and Tell on Friday.  Students are invited to wear jeans and/or jerseys on Friday to celebrate letter Jj.  Brown will be our color on Thursday.  Math activities will include a gingerbread button counting activity and a Christmas cookie pattern project.  Our religion lesson will help us to review the steps of the Sign of the Cross and we will prepare for another upcoming visit to the church.

Online Resources
*You can see a video about our school here!

*Fine motor activities are very important and will help the children to strengthen the muscles in their hands.  We do many of these activities in school and some of them can be done at home as well.  If you are seeking activities that can be done outside of school, you may like to refer to this list of fun and practical fine motor activities.

*Our class prays daily, including the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary."  
Before lunch, we pray:
Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts,
which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, 
through Christ, our Lord.  Amen. 

Before snack, we pray
Thank You for the food we eat; thank You for the friends we meet.  
Thank You for our work and play; thank You for this happy day.  Amen.

Additional Home Activities
You may be seeking ideas for activities that you can do with your child at home over the weekend.  Please remember to read together every day.  Here are some other activities you can do at home together at any time:

Puzzles
Building
Free Art
Drawing
Water play
Play dough
Watercolor painting
Cooking and baking