Holiday Traditions Around the World

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!

Our Halloween Party!

Goodness gracious! Time has certainly gotten away from me! I had such a great time talking with all of you at conferences last week (that time was way more beneficial than blogging anyway, in my opinion)! Thank you so much for being fantastic parents!

I wanted to share pictures of our Halloween party (before I forget to do that...), so this post will be dedicated to our Halloween fun!

We started the party by reading the story, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. The kiddos loved it! They have asked me countless times since then to read it to them again. I love when that happens!

After our story, we had a special snack of Halloween cookies and Spooky Juice (green Hawaiian Punch and Sprite).

We went on our costume parade after snack. In the morning, we visited Helen in the office and Darla in the hallway. In the afternoon, we added Pastor Jordan to our list of stops.

When we got back into the classroom, we split into three groups to rotate through our Halloween stations. At one station, the kiddos listened to another Halloween story, I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat.

The second station was the art station. The kiddos made "stained glass" pumpkins with contact paper and tissue paper. These are hanging in the classroom now, so feel free to stop by and check them out if you get the chance.

The last station was the cooking station. We made spider cookies with Oreos, licorice, and mini M&Ms.

By the time the day was over, I think we were all happy, full, and exhausted! It really was a great day!

Thank you to the parents (Jennifer and Robin) who spent some time with us during our party! I really appreciate your help! 

Celebrating Our Rock Knowledge

We have been having a fantastic week so far! Our days have been jam-packed full of learning, and I'm so pleased with all of the growth I am seeing in the children!

We are wrapping up our rock study this week. On Monday, the children voted on how they would like to celebrate their knowledge. I presented two choices to the children: writing a book or creating a rock museum. The children in both classes voted to create a rock museum.

Today, they got busy creating their rocks for the museum. They have been using all kinds of things (everything from pom-poms to yarn to fur and fabric) to make their rocks look cool and unique. We'll continue working on our rocks tomorrow and Thursday.

Our museum will be open on Monday and Tuesday. I plan to set the museum up in the hallway outside our classroom. Please check it out when you drop-off/pick-up your child! The kiddos are so proud of the work they've been doing on their rocks, and I know they will be pleased as punch to share their work with you!

Today, we also spent some time learning about fire safety. The Lake Mills firefighters visited us during both sessions. Experience has taught me that this can be a scary time for preschoolers. Seeing the firefighters in their full uniforms (including mask and helmet) is a new experience for most of them. This was definitely true today. While we talked about the firefighters coming, how they would look, and what they would sound like, a handful of children were scared. We fought through it though, and most of the children had an enjoyable time!

After talking a bit about fire safety (calling 9-1-1, stop, drop, and roll, and having a meeting place), we got to meet the fire pup! One of the funnier moments of the day came when one of the students caught on that the fire pup was really a person wearing a costume and asked, "Can we see your face?" We also got to go out and see the fire truck. We heard the sirens and the horn and got to see the lights.

Overall, I'd say the firefighter's visit was successful and got many of the kiddos thinking about fire safety.

Just a heads up for Thursday: I will not be at school on Thursday. I will be attending a conference in Des Moines. Rebecca May will be my substitute.

(I apologize for the lack of pictures from the morning class. I used two cameras today - one for the morning and one for the afternoon. I left the one I used this morning at school. I'll try to edit this post and add pictures tomorrow.)

Aloha! Welcome to Hawaii!

Our last day luau was so much fun! Between our special snack, a chance to play in water, and a decorated room, the children could hardly contain their excitement!

We started the whole thing off by boarding the plane and getting ready for take off. We fastened our seat belts and chewed some gum (so our ears wouldn't pop), and set off for Hawaii. While on the plane, we watched an in-flight movie, Mickey's Hawaiian Holiday.

When we arrived in Hawaii, we got our very own leis! Then we headed off to explore (interest areas). The kiddos made their own grass skirts, relaxed on the beach, made sand castles, and watched a volcano explode.

The next part was my favorite part of the whole day! Judy brought in a sprinkler for the kiddos to play in! They couldn't have been more excited! It was a little chilly (and sprinkling a little in the afternoon) so we weren't out for very long; it was long enough for them to enjoy the experience though!

After the sprinkler, we came back inside and enjoyed a tasty Hawaiian snack. We made kabobs with some traditional Hawaiian foods - pineapple, bananas, cherries, ham and cheese. Not only did this taste fantastic, but trying to get their food on their skewers was a great fine motor experience for them.

After snack, it was time to hop back on the plane and return to Lake Mills. We got some more gum for the flight, and enjoyed another in-flight movie. This one taught us to say the name of the state fish of Hawaii - the humuhumunukunukuapua'a.

We had a fabulous time in Hawaii! It was such a blast to share this with your children. Hopefully, they had as much fun as I did!

Costume Party Fun!

Happy Halloween!!!! We had a blast at our costume party today! Here’s what we did:

We started the day off with one of my favorite Halloween books, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. It’s a lot of fun to read with young children, because there are many opportunities for them to help tell the story. They really got into it!

We made some Spooky Hands with Mrs. Twedt. This was a great exercise in fine motor control; it was kind of tricky getting that popcorn into those gloves! The children loved it, though. Most of them took it out of their bags to share with the parents and family members who picked them up at the end of the day!

Then it was time for our parades. In the morning, we walked over to the “big school” to visit Mrs. Hunchis and Emma’s mom in the AEA office, the secretaries in the high school and central office, and the lunch ladies. I want to thank all of those people for letting us stop in and show off our costumes! It meant a lot to the kiddos! In the afternoon, we were able to be a part of the elementary school’s costume parade. The children had a blast showing off their costumes and looking at everyone else’s. Most of them were very excited to see the 3^rd grader dressed as ketchup to match my mustard costume!

After the parades, we came back for a much needed snack. We made Mummy Pizzas! When I first told them we what we were going to make, most of the kids looked at me with disgusted looks and said, “I am not eating that!” Once they saw what they really were, they were a hit though.

To finish off our day, we had a game and an art activity. The group was split in two and one group played a game with me while the other did the art activity. The game was called Mix and Match Pumpkins. The kids took turns racing to some big cut-out pumpkins and gluing one piece of the face to it. By the end of the game, we had some pretty crazy looking pumpkins. Painting pumpkins was the art activity. The kids got creative as they painted. One kiddo even said, “They can be anything we want them to be, Mrs. Hansen!” That’s the kind of creativity I love to see.

What a great day it was! Thank you to everyone who made it wonderful!

Don’t forget to help your child with his/her homework tonight! It shouldn’t take long at all, and you can send it back with him/her tomorrow! Thanks!

Have a great time trick or treating!