Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man brought a coloring picture of himself for us to do together.  I picked colored letters out of a bag.  The children had to find the letter on the gingerbread man and use their crayons to color it.

Story:  The story for today was The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo by Laura Murray.  The Gingerbread Man, and the class that he lives with, took at field trip to the zoo.  While there, a giraffe tries to eat the Gingerbread Man.  As he escapes the giraffe's mouth, he gets lost.  How will he find his class?  On his way, he helps another animal.  Ask your child to tell you the rest of the story.

Large Group:  We practiced our program on the risers with props today.  Only one more day to practice!

Snacks:  The morning class snack person was Julia.  She brought bananas and milk.  The afternoon snack person was Jaxon.  He brought French toast bagels, cream cheese, and juice.  Thank you, Julia and Jaxon!

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man hid candy kisses around the room today.  When we found them, some had numerals printed on them and some had a number of dots.  We had to match the number of dots to the numerals before we could eat them.

Small Groups:  Sorry, I can't tell you what we did today.  You'll find out on Thursday.

Story:  The story for today was Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner.  In this story, a boy wonders what snowmen do at night while he is asleep.  He dreams that they meet at night in the park to celebrate Christmas.  Ask your child to tell you who visits them in the park.

Large Group:  The children practiced the program in the Great Hall today with a piano accompaniment.  They are sounding very good!

Letter Learning:  Because of the program this week, we are taking a vacation from letter learning until we get back from break.

Snacks:  The morning snack helper was Jay.  He brought grapes, Goldfish and juice.  The afternoon helper was Greta.  She brought cheese sticks, grapes, and milk.  Thank you, Jay and Greta.

Group Meeting: The Gingerbread Man brought us gingerbread cookies to decorate for Birthday Day.  We watched a video of lady decorating gingerbread cookies to give us some inspiration.

Small Groups:  The children decorated a paper gingerbread boy or girl.  These will be  props in our Christmas program next week.

Story:  Today's story was Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.  In this story, Mattie wants to make a gingerbread man cookie.  He follows the recipe and puts the cutout cookie in the oven.  The recipe says to leave the cookie in the oven for 8 minutes, but Mattie can't wait.  He opens the oven too early. Because the cookie wasn't finished baking, it is a gingerbread baby.  The baby runs through the house and out the door.  Many animals and people try to catch him, but he always gets away.  Mattie has an idea of how to catch him.  Ask your child to tell you how!

Large Group:  The Yellow Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ll.

Snacks:  The children decorated gingerbread cookies with frosting and mini M&Ms.  We had milk to drink.  We celebrated Jackson, Spencer and Rifa's birthdays.  

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man had a nice surprise for us today.  He hid 20 candy canes around the room.  We had to find them and count them to make sure we had found them all. 

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in Monday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Green Group
Activity #2 Red Group
Activity #3 Yellow Group

Story:  The story for today was Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun.  In this story, a little mouse is looking for a new home.  She peeks in the window of a house nearby and sees a little gingerbread house.  She sneaks in and make that house her home.  One night, she hears someone coming down the chimney.  Ask your child to tell you what he brings for her and why.

Large Group:  Once again, we practiced the songs and movements for our Christmas program.  The children are bringing home invitations for the program in their backpacks today.

Snacks:  The snack person for the morning class was Jade.   She brought Goldfish and juice.  The snack person for the afternoon was Grace O.  She brought animal crackers and juice.  Thank you, Jade and Grace!

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man brought us a board game today.  The game is a race to see who can get to the gingerbread house first.  Board games are a great way to work on counting skills and taking turns.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in yesterdays post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Yellow Group
Activity #2 Green Group
Activity #3 Red Group

Story:  The story for today was If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff.  If you take a mouse to the movies, he is going to want popcorn.  When he gets the popcorn, he will want to put it on a string.   When he is finished making a popcorn string, he will want a Christmas tree to put it on.  This story continues until he remembers the popcorn string and then, of course, he will want ____?

Large Group:  The children did a Count the Room activity.  They were given a paper chart with Christmas figures on it.  They had to find the corresponding figures around the room, count how many were on the picture, and print it on their paper.  I put the correct number of the back of the picture to help in numeral formation.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Jj.

Snacks:  The morning snack person was Jacob.  He brought pineapple, Cheez-its, and juice.  The afternoon snack person was Grace K.  She brought cheese sticks and juice.  Thank you, Jacob and Grace!

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man was back today with another note.  This time, he brought pattern block mats for us to use at the Light Table.  The children can use these to make pictures of Christmas things such as a tree, wreath, snowman, etc. 

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed below as well as the schedule for today.
Activity #1 (Red Group) The children took turns reaching into a guessing box to pull out snowballs that had pictures on them.  They had to match the beginning sounds from these pictures to make snowmen out of the balls.
Activity #2  (Yellow Group)  This activity is a secret.  Sorry, but you'll figure it out at the Christmas program. 
Activity #3 (Green Group) The children were given school items that were wrapped in tissue paper.  They had to guess what was inside without opening it.  They could feel it, smell it, and shake it.  They recorded their guesses on a paper with matching pictures.

Story:  The story for today was The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray.  This is another book in the series that started with The Gingerbread Man Loose at School that we read last week.  The Gingerbread Man and his classmates are making cards and baked goods to deliver to the community helpers in their neighborhood.  They go on a walk to deliver them through town.  The Gingerbread Man has made a card to deliver to someone special.  Ask your child to tell you who it is and why that person is special to him.

Large Group:  The children practiced songs that we will be singing at our Christmas Program.  They're getting pretty good!

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ii.

Snacks:  The morning snack helper was Jackson.  He brought apples, graham crackers and milk.  The afternoon helper was Freyja.  She brought bread, cheese, and juice.  Thank you, Jackson and Freyja!

We added wrapping paper, tape, ribbon and bows to the housekeeping area.  As you can see, they enjoyed it!

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man brought us something interesting today.  He brought Christmas lights that had been cut from the string.  In order to get them to work, we had to put each end on a battery.  When we made the circuit complete, the bulbs lit up!

Small Groups:  The children made a booklet with a Let's Find Out Magazine about mailing Christmas cards.  We watched a holiday video that came with the magazine.

Story:  The book that I read today was a new one from our latest Scholastic Book Order.  It was a picture book about animals and snow.  The title was Best In Snow by April Pulley Sayre.   The beautiful photographs show images of native animals and birds in the snow.  There were just a few words on every page to describe what was happening.  Ask your child to remember a few of the animals in the book.

Large Group:  The Red Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Snacks:  The morning snack person was Isaac.  He brought granola bars and juice.  The afternoon snack person was Emmy.  She brought blueberry bagels, berry cream cheese, and juice.  Thank you, Isaac and Emmy!

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man brought a basket of Christmas cards for us to use to send greetings to our family and friends.  The children can use them at the writing table until Christmas.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in Monday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Green Group
Activity #2 Red Group
Activity #3 Yellow Group

Story:  The story for today was Santa's Secret Helper by Andrew Clements.  Santa has a helper this year who looks and acts just like him.  Who is it?  Ask your child to tell you!

Large Group:  The children learned a few new songs for our Christmas program.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Gg.

Snacks:  The morning class snack person was Graham.  He brought Cheez-its and juice.  The afternoon snack person was Colin.  He brought blueberry muffins, coconut chips, and milk.  Thank you, Graham and Colin!

We have been feeding the squirrels in the yard.  I brought in some field corn from home. The children took it off of the cob to give to the squirrels.  We've enjoyed watching them.

Group Meeting:  The Gingerbread Man brought us new sign-in sheets today.  They were green, and instead of a smiley face in the left corner, there was a little gingerbread man.  He also brought another book to read.  It was a counting book about 10 gingerbread men. 

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in yesterday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Yellow Group
Activity #2 Green Group
Activity #3 Red Group

Story:  The story for today was the Shoemaker and the Elves retold by  This is a classic fairy tale about a poor shoemaker who has only enough leather to make one more pair of shoes.  He cuts the leather and plans to sew it in the morning.  However, when he wakes up, he finds the shoes finished and ready to sell.  This repeats for several days.  One day, he and his wife decide to stay up late to see who is making the shoes.  Ask your child to tell you how the story ends.

Large Group:  Following the story, the children played "The Shoe Game".   Everyone took off their shoes.  They hid one and put the other on the rug.  Then, each child selected a shoe from the pile and had to search for the mate.  To get their own shoes back, we repeated the game.  So simple, but so fun!  It was a good game for practicing following directions.

Letter Learning:  The letter for today was Ff.

Snacks:  The morning class snack person was Dominic.  He brought bologna, bread, mayonnaise, and juice.  The afternoon snack person was Charlie.  She brought Cutie oranges, cheese crackers, and milk.  Thank you, Dominic and Charlie!

We have been adding several new activities to play time.  I've attached a few pictures below.

Gingerbread House

Oatmeal, cinnamon, and glitter.

What will stick to the magnet?

Cookie bakers

Painting pine cones for the tree

Our tree

Group Meeting:  As I mentioned in our newsletter, we had a visitor in our classroom today.  When I arrived at school, a gingerbread man was sitting on my easel with a note.  In the note, he asked he could join our classroom during Christmas.  He also had a book for us to read about how he was made.  He promises to bring fun things to our classroom everyday. 

Small Groups: The activities for this week are listed below along with the schedule for today.
Activity #1 (Red Group)  The children played Roll and Write.  They were given a paper with a grid to fill in with letters and a dice with letters printed on it.  They rolled the dice and printed the letter in the grid until it was full.
Activity #2 ( Yellow Group) The children did a "smoosh" painting at the art table.  They were given fingerpaint paper and were told to select a color of paint as well as a metallic color (gold or silver).  A piece of plastic wrap was placed over the paper and paint.  The children "smooshed" the plastic around the paper.  When the plastic was removed a colorful texture was created.
Activity #3 (Green Group) The children made ornaments for our tree with sparkly pipe cleaners, beads, and jingle bells.  They made patterns with the beads.

Story:  The story for today was The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy by Jane Thayer.  Petey the puppy would like a boy for Christmas.  Because he has been such a good puppy, his mother tries to find one for him. .  However, she cannot find any boys who do not already have a dog.  Petey sets out on his own search to find a boy.  Ask your child to tell you if he finds a boy of his own.

Large Group:  The children began to learn a few songs for our Christmas Program.

Letter Learning:  Our letter for today was Ee.

Snacks:  The morning snack person was Brooke S.  She brought Cheez-its, watermelon, and juice.  The afternoon snack person was Cameron.  He brought Teddy Grahams and juice.  Thank you, Brooke and Cameron!