I need to apologize. I have been the worst at keeping up with this blog this year. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It means I have been putting more and more time into plans and activities for the kiddos, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it means I haven't been in touch with you, parents and family members, nearly as much as I should be. I'm very sorry about that.
I have much to say to you today though!
First of all, thank you so much for making sure your children were at Salem to sing last Sunday! I was so excited to see such a large group (27 kiddos!!!!) this year! They did so well too. To be totally honest with you, while I was smiling huge smiles (The kiddos tend to imitate the faces I make. I was hoping they would smile too.), I was also fighting back tears. I think about the children where they were when I met them, and I can already see huge growth in them. It makes me happy to see how mature they are becoming. Thank you for all of your help in this as well!
I also need to thank all of the parents and family members who helped with the fundraiser on Sunday afternoon. We had many, many tasty baked goods and more wrapping paper than we knew what to do with. We also had a group of fantastic parents who donated their time to help wrap present and sell the baked goods. Thanks you so much! We made around $500 to help with our playground, which will (hopefully!) be finished this spring.
Last week, we started to answer some of the questions the kiddos came up with after looking through books about holiday traditions throughout the world. We started with their questions on Hanukkah. We read a book, watched a segment of Elmo's World about Hanukkah, played the dreidel game, made a poster about Hanukkah, and wrote a book about Hanukkah.
This week, we'll be learning about Kwanzaa and Mexican Christmas traditions. All of this is in preparation for our holiday tradition celebration. The week before Christmas break (the week of December 17) we will be celebrating one holiday tradition each day. Here's what the schedule looks like:
December 17: Hanukkah - Playing dreidel game (this time with real dreidels!), making and trying latkes, exploring a menorah, and dancing to Hanukkah music
December 18: Kwanzaa - Making and trying cornbread, creating our own rain sticks, and playing Mancala
December 19: Mexican Christmas - Making and trying bunuelos, creating poinsettias, and breaking a pinata
December 20: American Christmas - Pajama Party! - Making Christmas cookies, decorating a tree, and watching The Polar Express (I'll send home more information about this at the end of next week.)
I am incredibly excited about these celebrations. Nichole and I spent almost an hour on Friday planning them, and I am sure they are going to be a blast for the kiddos! I especially love this idea because it opens the children's eyes to cultures and traditions they may not be familiar with.
We have continued to work on our goals this week as well. We sorted M&Ms to practice counting and number recognition, sorted shapes to practice shape recognition, learned a new alphabet song for letter recognition, and wrote in our journals.
Have a fantastic Sunday! See you tomorrow or Tuesday!
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