Sunday, December 10, 2017

Below & Beyond 5's: It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Below & Beyond 5's: It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas: Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas..... in the Preschool Room This year my preschool room is made up of 17 children between the a...

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas..... in the Preschool Room
This year my preschool room is made up of 17 children between the ages of 3 and 5. More girls than boys. Most of the boys are the three year olds. Despite their age and gender the entire group is a hands - on mix of artistic exploring minds. 

While the focus of Christmas in the minds in this group is Santa and presents, it is necessary to teach the reason for this season. Our center is based in a church so we focus on the birth of Jesus. Christmas being his birthday. So in my teaching I do Christmas, the birth day of Jesus. With that being said and the excitement of Christmas in general (through the eyes of children) I developed a way to show them how far away Christmas Day truly is. 



This chain link consists of 24 links. Each link is numbered 24- 1, with the day of the week and a child's' name. It worked out nicely having 17 children- each child gets one day that they will remove a link. The three weekends are left for the teacher. I hang the chain with the largest number on the left side. One day left until Christmas is hung next to the star which represents the star that appeared at the Nativity and Christmas.

This chain is counted daily during Greeting Time. We started out saying it is this long until Christmas. The children can see that Christmas is getting closer even if they do not recognize or understand number concepts. They truly love taking down a link.... #Christmas #Counting # Patterns # Preschool

Another favorite project is our "Preschool Room Christmas Card Project".

  

Each child receives one box of Christmas Cards purchased from Dollar Tree. The boxes of cards are sent home with the parents and it is encouraged that the children sign/ write their name on the cards. After the cards are returned to the preschool room, the children hand out the cards to the other children. A decorated envelop holds the cards and are sent home during Christmas/ Winter Break. How cool! Each child could get 17 cards from their friends and peers. What an excellent idea to practice hand writing, spelling their name and building a classroom community while learning about traditions! #handwriting #letter recognition # classroom community # Christmas #preschool #ideas




Oh Christmas Wreath so neatly hanging....Children truly enjoy making this simple wreath. It is made from large green construction paper. Simply fold paper in half (long ways) and cut on fold inward about 1/2 way down. I suggest decorating once it is cut. This year we used Christmas stickers however in the past we have glued red, white and green tissue pieces (small pieces) to each cut. After it dries or is decorated roll piece to form a circle and staple ends together. I then open and fold each cut piece into shape creating the openness of each stem. The finished product is then hung. This is an awesome fine motor activity as children cut on the drawn lines, glue or place stickers on their creation. #finemotor  #preschool  #Christmas


Christmas Sensory Table filled with red sorting trays, silver tongs, red/green/gold plastic ball ornaments, silver bells (that ring), plastic bells in Christmas colors, fill-able clear plastic ornaments and red, white and green rice as a filler. Hours of fun and learning as children fill, dump, sort and count! #sensorytable  #preschool #math #science