Showing posts with label Winter Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Winter Holidays. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Winter Holidays - Tot School

This group of toddlers had a fantastic time this morning talking about Winter Holidays.  We started with a gift wrapping station.  They wrapped up a gift for mom and dad at home.  I love teaching kids how to use tape.  They get such a kick out of sticking the tape all over the wrapping paper.
 We talked about how the New Year means that the Earth has gone around the Sun one whole time.  I made these cut little spinning toys and the kids rotated the earth and then yelled, "Happy New Year!".  We wore hats, blew blowers, and even shot out silly string.
 We had a little Santa's Workshop happening with the building toys in the basement and the cardboard house that we worked on coloring on the main floor.
 We practiced the letter J by coloring and reading our J book.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Winter Holidays

We had a great day in preschool yesterday.  We started the day playing puzzles and reviewing the letter J.   We talked about the different holidays that happen this time of year: Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Winter Solstice and New Year's.  We read tons of books about each one.  Then we made popcorn strings to feed the birds, a winter solstice activity.  The kids did fantastic with this activity, and I think they LOVED it.
 I had pre-threaded needles for each child with a bead tied at the end (to act as a stopper).  They are real sewing needles and it was explained that if you poke your fingers it will hurt.  They did really well "sewing" the popcorn into a string with only a few pricked fingers.  I was actually quite impressed by the fine motor skills they demonstrated.  We then played a fun game making a lantern the "sun" and rolling the Earth (beach ball) around the sun.  We talked about it in terms of birthdays.  The earth goes around 1 time and then it's your birthday again.  I explained that the new year is a party to celebrate that the earth has gone around the sun one full time again, sort of like a birthday party for the earth.
 We learned to play dreidel and the kids loved it.  I changed the rule for "Hay" to just be "take one" since "take half" is to far advanced for 3 year olds.  They spun the dreidel and moved their coins (toy money) appropriately.  In art we colored pictures of our holiday decorations and played with our new alphabet stamps.  We had a little time at the end to play instruments to holiday music.  What a great morning!
Preschool B started off with reading groups. We worked on baggy books only today.  Please encourage your child to read you the books in their baggy each day.  Return baggy books on the 29th and I'll send home new ones since we'll then miss school on the 31st.
 In art we drew pictures and wrote about what we drew.  I'm encouraging them to draw and write about things in their life, such as parties, decorations and activities that are interesting to them right now.  It would be great if you would encourage similar drawing and writing at home.  Maybe a journal is a good stocking stuffer?
 This class also learned to play dreidel and they thought it was the most fun game ever!  It's a fairly simple addition/subtraction game and they get to play with coins and spin a dreidel, what could be more fun than that?
I hope you all have a fantastic holiday week!  No school next week at all, Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Winter Holidays

We had a fantastic day in preschool today.  We reviewed the letters we've already learned this year and then spent our literacy block picture reading books and doing some one-on-one quick assessments to judge where were are at this point in the year.  You can find my preschool assessment in the "A Year in Review" Pack on Teacher's Notebook.
We spent the rest of the day learning about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and New Year's.  We practiced rolling dice and graphing snowmen, singing winter holiday songs and reading stories galore. Have a great break everyone!  We'll see you in the new year!

Don't forget to swing by and enter to win the Jan-May Preschool Curriculum!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Winter Holidays

It was fun to learn all about winter holidays in tot school this week.  We enjoyed playing with the 250 balloons in our winter wonderland classroom for the first quarter of our day.
 After snack time we learned how to play Dreidel and sing the dreidel song.  We also learned about Christmas, and what makes the New Year so special (the earth goes around the sun!).  We also enjoyed drawing pictures of our favorite winter holiday.  We had so much fun!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

December Preschool Packs

Find the Year Long Theme Calendar here and follow along with us!

The preschool curriculum that is all inclusive and provides hours of fun and engaging learning!  The "December Preschool Packs" contain 7 theme based lesson plans, a total of 205 pages of lesson plans and activity printables.  My preschooler has begged to do his "homework" because it's a wonderful time that we spend together learning age appropriate concepts!  These plans are intended to be taught in a 10 month sequence from Aug-May, though may be adapted to use individually. 

You can now download the bundle of December Preschool Packs HERE, or get them individually by following the links below. 

27. Sharing and Manners {Download}
What can possibly be better than starting the holiday season with a good dose of sharing and manners review?  Start the month off on the right foot with the fun games, activities, books and lots of learning in the Sharing and Manners Preschool Pack.  We'll practice the letters and words that have been introduced already this school year and continue talking about syllables.  Work together to create a paper chain and start a study about graphing.  Continue your conversation about super friends and how they share! 
28. Gingerbread Friends {Download}
The gingerbread theme is one of my favorites to teach.  We have so much fun on gingerbread day.  It's filled with baking, sorting, graphing, syllables and ideas for Gingerbread based learning that leaves everyone happy!  Preschoolers will practice writing their letters, play with puzzles and size sequencing, read a fun position words book and explore graphing!
29. Snow {Download}
The Snow Preschool Pack continues our learning about syllables and graphing.  The letter F is introduced, don't you say /fffff/ when you're freezing?  There is so much fun to be had with different tracing pages, activities about symmetry, patterning, individuality of snowflakes and people, Tic-Tac-Toe, a spinner counting activity and a play-dough mat!
30.  Polar Express {Download}
I am thrilled with the (now 2nd) remake of the Polar Express Preschool Pack.  You'll find word family bells to practice reading all the letters that we've learned thus far. There are counting pages and a Do-A-Dot train.  You'll also find a hop along the path large motor game (one of our favorites to play at Little Adventures Preschool).  It's been introduced before as a jumping game, but now we'll start making it more challenging by adding dice. There is a pattern block train as well as patterning pages. You will practice making tally marks and discus comparison words like larger, smaller, fatter, skinnier.  There is a train for standard and non-standard measurement and a short path game with a spinner.  There are also train cards with sight words that we've learned this year for a game of Matching, Go Fish, or Memory.  You'll also find beginning sound clip cards with all the letters we've learned thus far and a few extras for an extra challenge!  
31. Ocean Animals {Download}
The Ocean Animals Preschool Pack introduces the letter J with a focus on phonemes (specifically initial phonemes).  We continue graphing with goldfish crackers and a cut and paste activity.  There is Sea Star Bingo, a play-dough mat, a beginning reader book, size sequencing activities, color matching games and a mini lesson on the different ways we can observe Ocean Animals since they live under water and we live on the ground!
32. Winter Holidays {Download}
December is considered the holiday season because there are so many holidays that we celebrate.  Different families from different cultures and backgrounds celebrate the holiday season in different ways.  This theme gives a few tidbits from a few of the December holidays.  You'll find beginning sound presents, a letter to Santa and a Santa paper doll, New Year's activities and countdown chain toppers!
33. Thank You Notes {Download}
This is a nice little set of plans to remind us to teach the importance of writing thank you notes.  There are a few letters that are set up as tracing templates to add details and write thank you notes.  We review counting the quantity of items, read a few beginning reader books, practice our graphing, play Go Fish and match uppercase to lowercase letters, and even cut out our own envelopes and practice folding it and a note card.
**Preschool packs are lesson plans intended for a small preschool classroom or homeschool.  They are not to be used individually as they follow a year long curriculum that builds upon itself.  The themes specify what the underlying topic is that we'll be talking about with literature, in our art, and any science or social studies activities.  Reading and Math activities most often do not relate to the theme and these lesson plans are heavy in the reading and math department.  Printables expand on what we're able to cover in our 2.5 hours allotted to learn the materials and are often used as homework practice. The reading lesson plans are designed to be used with all the materials from the Amazing Action Alphabet and have been proven to teach children to be successful readers.

**Each preschool pack has 3 pages of lesson plan ideas.  Each child should be introduced to activities that don't involve something you can print from a computer, such as building blocks or painting.  These first 3 pages of lesson plans have all of the ideas that match the theme in one easy spot.  The lesson plans pages are organized by subject for easy referencing.  I've linked many of the materials listed to Amazon.com to provide you with more information about products you might want to consider using.  These packs have a lot of research behind them as I am a licensed teacher with experience teaching PreK-2nd Grade for 10 years.  

December Tot Packs

Find the year long theme calendar {here} and follow along with us! This post gives details and pictures of all December Toddler Packs. Be sure to scroll down to see all of them.

Tot Packs 16-19 Tot packs are about 20 pages in length. They each have 2 pages of activity ideas, book suggestions, and links to the materials I use. You can certainly use all or part of the lesson plans.  The printable pages include songs, matching games, drawing games and other activities. Tot packs are designed to be a first introduction to math concepts, letters, shapes and colors. They are not meant to obtain mastery in any subject. Let them be a guide for educational play between you and your child.

December
{Download all 4 December Tot Packs}

16. Gingerbread Friends {Download}
I love teaching the Gingerbread Friends theme.  It is full of fun smells, textures and tastes!
  Printables in this pack include:
  • Gingerbread Body Parts
  • Letter Review M T A S B H C I L P


  • Sequencing the Gingerbread Man
  • Matching Gingerbread Men




  • Lacing Gingerbread Men
  • Gingerbread Man Puzzle



  • Gingerbread Cutting
  • Gingerbread Girl and Boy Sorting

    • Comparing Gingerbread Kids (attribute opposites)


    17. Polar Express {Download}
    Printables in this pack:

    • Letter Bell Spinner
    • Sorting People and Bells
    • Graphing Christmas Bells
    • Shadow Matching (You can also use the pieces to retell the story.)
    • Snowflake Capital and Lowercase Letters
    • Letter F
    • Pre-Writing
    • Polar Express Grid Game

    18. Winter Holidays {Download}
    The winter holidays tot pack is designed to give an introduction to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and New Year.  There is a page of informtion about the origins of each holiday as well as activities for all the holidays.  Books are listed according to each holiday as well.

    Printables in this pack include:
    • Menorah Lighting


  • Letter J
  • Kwanzaa
  • Christmas




  • Natvitiy Character Matching
  • New Year's Prewriting
  • New Year's Earth Rotation



  • 19. Thank You Notes {Download}
    Help your child understand about thankfulness by writing thank you notes.  This pack contains ideas for writing thank you notes, books that match the theme and a few thank you games to play.

    Wednesday, November 30, 2011

    Winter

    Today in Little Adventures Preschool we learned about Winter!  I had some puzzles out for them to start with, and after chatting with a mom and returning to the preschool I found all the pieces on the floor!  It was amazing how quickly the kids raced to put all the pieces back in where they belong.
     After reading a book about seasons that focused on winter we took our month cards and put them in order talking about the seasons in the pictures for that month.  Once we got to the end we took the cards from the top one at a time to add them to the bottom.
    We've been working on a few sight words and some basic words, so I created this graph for the kids who were recognizing the words. Download the graph {here}.  We read a book whole group and stopped when we found a word we knew.


     We used this cute mobile pattern from Itsy Bitsy Printables for our art project.
     All the kids are adorable, but isn't J just the most adorable in this picture?
     I loved that I decided to "trace" the letters.
     I pointed the tracing out and it caught on with a few more kids.
     After they were done coloring they got to paint the glue on their pages and add glitter!
     Playing Hop Along the Path from my Winter Math Pack.

    I've put the snowflakes on my floor with clear contact paper, and the kids picture on the fridge the same way.  The snowballs all have magnets on the back and kids hop around on the path to deliver the snowballs to make a snowman on the fridge.  We are in the very beginning stages of this game.  We're working on counting out loud one number per jump all the way to the fridge.  As we improve our math skills we'll roll a dice to figure out how many jumps to move forward.  You could even roll two dice and add them together to find out how far to move!  If you wanted to also have some subtraction, roll two different colored dice and subtract one number from the other to find out how far you should move - watch out for those negative numbers though!


     We also played the winter grid game from my Winter Math Pack.
    Be sure to enter our book giveaway!  Entries close tonight, with a winner being announced tomorrow!