Merry Christmas!

I'm really hating that I tried to cram all this Christmas fun into 2 days instead of 4, but it was still so fun and magical, and that leaves me lots of activities with no repeats for next year!

Dramatic Play

Christmas tree! I only decorated out of reach, so they could finish the bottom half. I want them to know they can touch something they might be told at home that they can't (and I get that, but at preschool, it's theirs, so I want them to feel some ownership).  They could hang up some of my shatter proof ornaments, or had 2 options to make their own.





I also have Christmas masks and hats, plus presents they can open and shut and add things too, and bags and stockings. Their turn to play Santa! It's fun to watch them fill and deliver the gifts to each other.




Their finished tree and ornaments:









Blocks

Christmas Duplos. Aren't they the cutest? I found them last year when my then 3-year-old threw me for a loop and asked for a reindeer toy. He treasures these so I was excited he offered to let the preschoolers play with them.




Magnatiles and jingle bells. It's so fun to play with magnets and metal!


Art

We made waffles for snack, then had these beaded Christmas trees to decorate. It's a great fine motor skill!


Christmas stamps


Small Manipulatives

Christmas puzzles


Beanbag toss. It's obviously more of a large motor skill than the fine-motor skills I usually keep in this area, but an important skill either way!


Fun Christmas magnets


Reading Center

2 stuffed animals dropped by for reading time!



Writing Center

Christmas cards. I could NOT believe how popular this one got! They all attacked it at the same time and were so dang excited about envelopes. And the fact I said they could take them home, but mostly because there was a little mailbox by the tree they could put them in. They used every card I had. I had to refill the center a few times.


Snack

Day 1, we had Christmas tree waffles with blueberry ornaments. A huge hit, inspired by Pinterest!

Day 2, we had hot chocolate and graham crackers.

Large Group

We learned about the word celebrate and sang Jingle Bells with real bells.

Day 1, we read Llama Llama Holiday Drama. Then we played this fun movement game where they got to move their bodies around the room like these Christmas objects or characters. It's from this blog.

Day 2, we read Polar Express and did our small group centers with mom helpers.

Small Group

Day 1, I helped the kids make "name trees" to review the letters in their names.

A mom helper did ornament counting with the other group.

Day 2, my group made candy canes with red and white beads to learn an AB pattern, and practice the letters in their name with letter beads.

Another group with a mom helped practiced their letter names on a Polar Express coloring page. She helped them add puffs of smoke with the letters of their name in the right order.

The other mom helped the kids make bead patterns on bell necklaces.


Also, I hope you enjoy your ornament gift! I was inspired by these on Pinterest, and found supplies at Dollar Tree to make them work. Their pictures were adorable. I just used clear plastic cups, foam snow, and added a character eraser, and a little sequin ribbon to jazz it up. They were so excited to take their pictures when I showed them what it was for. Hope you liked them as much as the kids did! I let them help put them together (besides the hot glue), but they got to watch that part.

Fairy Tales

Castles castles everywhere! I love getting out these dress-ups and toys! The hardest part is always narrowing down which stories to tell, I probably need 6 weeks to give this theme justice, but here's what we did in two:

Dramatic Play

Medieval Castle


Filled with dress-ups fit for a queen. Or princess, king, prince, knight, dragon, or magician.




And a modern kitchen with a microwave, because they gotta eat, and the kids keep asking when they can play with the kitchen again. It was played with constantly! At one point, a castle full of princesses defended their castle with a banana, whisk, and grapes from a horde of attacking dragons,  so I'm sure they're grateful it was there!

Week 2, Jack's beanstalk was added after we'd read that story.

Blocks

Toy castle with fingerpuppets




Jack and the Beanstalk figures and story cards were added to the castle.





Can I just share one of my biggest teaching regrets that comes around every time I pull out my Jack and the Beanstalk box? I bought this at a UEA conference over a decade ago. There were a whole bunch, all marked down. I couldn't afford much and was getting some other puzzles and dominoes kits I love, so I only bought the one. I don't remember getting to use it while teaching Kindergarten, so I didn't see it's value then either. The kids LOVE it! Every year I pull it out, they go crazy for it. We use it together in large group, but I have to have it out to play because they love it so much. They love retelling the story and acting it all out with these little wooden figures. And the CD and story cards are so great at telling the story and helping us sequence it. I decided a few years ago to go to their website and get other stories and I was shocked at how expensive they are! So I just continue to be grateful for the one I have, and covet the others on their site. If you want them for your kids, or you're a teacher visiting the site, you can find them here.

I also had out nursery rhyme puzzles and a Frozen memory game. The memory game was a big hit, and I helped get them into small groups to play and they did great at taking turns and getting along. I was impressed!

Art

Glitter glue! So much better than the loose stuff, and such a good small motor skill to squeeze those little bottles!


Paint stamps


Sequins and sparkles! I love how it even shines in the pictures. Sparkly pom poms too, plus leftover glitter glue.


We also used the art table one morning to make our gingerbread men snack. They made the dough, and rolled and cut out the cookies. Then played play dough, and I added a Princess Sofia and Cinderella play doh toys. They shared and played impressively well with those!

Small Manipulatives

Gingerbread Man floor puzzle


Fairy lacing cards


Opposites puzzle (after we'd done it in small group)


And by popular demand, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears mini-dramatic play set up.  They loved acting it out so much, they begged to do it again. So it was out for free play time when they came back the next day, and they played it over and over and over. I loved hearing them retell the story again and again and tell each other the lines "my porridge is too hot!" etc. It was darling. And such great reading comprehension!!!


The magnet board had the alphabet and a pic for each beginning sound.


Writing table

"Magic" color changing markers


Fairy tale stickers


Striped markers


Snack

Day 1, we made, decorated, and ate gingerbread men, and decorated an extra to take home. We also read the story that day.

Day 3, we ate porridge to go along with our reading of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Most of them really liked it! My family eats it for breakfast regularly. I don't think it's even technically called porridge, but thanks to preschool, it's what all my kids call it! We use this:

Large Group

We learned the word "pretend" and determined with each
story we read, if it was real or pretend. And that fairy tales are pretend stories. Because pigs don't build houses and bears don't eat porridge! They loved pointing out those silly things in each story.
We also learned the song, The Knight Chased the Dragon. It's to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

All around the castle, the knight chased the dragon.
The dragon said it was so fun, pop goes the dragon!

We held hands and danced in a circle as we sang, slowly, then faster and faster. They loved it.

Day 1, we read The Gingerbread Man, then did the floor puzzle together.


Day 2, we read Jack and the Beanstalk and put the story cards in order, and listened to the song and acted it out with the wood figures.

Day 3, we read Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, then used the masks and props to act out the story a few times so everyone got a turn.

Day 4, we read the 3 Little Pigs and put story cards in order of the story. Then they each got pieces from a sequencing puzzle to put together, first-middle-last. Each child got to "read" their story by telling what happened in their puzzle first, next, then last. They did so so great!

Small Group

Week 1, my group read The Tortoise and the Hare and talked about the opposites in the story (fast and slow). Then we matched these opposites puzzles and took turns telling what our opposites were.

The other group made these cute sticker scenes.

Week 2, my group decorated crowns and I helped each child review the letters in their name, and add their name to their crown with letter stickers.

The other group played with my math counting bears.

Oceans

This was a short theme, but I think one of the kids' favorites so far! We had 1 day spent on our field trip to Seaquest (thanks to a great preschool mom for getting us passes!), and then another short week because of Thanksgiving. Here's the fun things we did:

Dramatic Play

An ocean! And beach!




It changed a bit each day. The first day, we had the blue blanket for the ocean with lots of big and small ocean animal toys. There were beach towels, floaties and goggles for kids on the beach. The highlight is the sensory table with kinetic sand and seashells.


The next day, I added a few more dress-ups.


The last day, my son had requested pirates, since pirates sail on the ocean, so I added pirate costumes and a treasure chest. They had a lot of fun with it! Also, the small ocean animals were now in the water on the art table, but we happened to find another awesome bag of ocean animals at the store this weekend, that had a few animals we didn't have yet. So, more ocean animal fun!






I think my favorite part of their play at this center this week was wanting to learn all about the animals they were playing with. They wanted to know their names, what they ate, etc. So we spent a lot of time checking out the reading center to find books about their favorite ocean animals, so they could learn more about them.

Blocks

The sensory table was in the block area, but we had all these fun ocean-themed puzzles and games too! They're really starting to like puzzles and get them out often.

Art

I forgot a picture, but I have seashell rubbing plates they used the first day, before we left on the field trip.

Ocean animal sponge painting


Tub of water with toy fish


Small manipulatives

Folder game and book


Ocean animal lacing cards

Flat marble animal pictures from totschooling


Magnet board



Writing table

Ocean stickers


Ocean stamps
I made these with foam stickers and milk lids and they've held up great for 6 years now!


Snack

We had Jello from ocean animal molds, with some blue "ocean" Jello

Of course, Goldfish crackers!

Large Group

Our song was 5 Little Crabs from Dr. Jean. We focused on the counting and numeral recognition.

Our word was ocean and we talked about the difference between oceans and lakes on our big world map.

Day 1 was our field trip to Seaquest aquarium.

Day 2 we chose ocean animals from dramatic play and sorted them by their beginning sound. This is new to them, so I was really focusing on them isolating that first sound and hearing what their animal started with. Then I'd tell them which letter card it went by that makes that sound.


Day 3 we read Rainbow Fish and made our own Rainbow Fish by gluing sequins on a fish picture.

Small Group

Week 1, my group played an ocean treasures counting game. The other group played ocean dominoes.

Week 2, my group worked on counting and putting our ocean 1-10 puzzles together, while the other group drew their favorite ocean animal in their journals.