MORE CHRISTMAS FUN!

It's crunch time in our classroom as Christmas quickly approaches. We still are finishing up a few last minute details on our ornaments. Here's hoping everything dries before our Christmas party!

Our classroom Christmas tree decorated with all of our ornaments!

 Here we are in all of our Christmas splendor as we wait to go perform our Christmas songs.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Christmas Tree Decorating

One of the best things about Christmas is decorating the tree! We are making ornaments during project time to decorate the big tree in our classroom, but we are also spending some time decorating some smaller trees!

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree.....

OUR SAVANNAH SLEIGH RIDE

On Monday, it was a beautiful. The weather was absolutely perfect for taking a Savannah Style sleigh ride. Of course, we had no snow, so our sleigh was really a carriage made up to look like a red Christmas sleigh. Our whole class could fit at the same time, so we could all enjoy the ride together!

 

  The boys in our class were very gentlemanly, and let the ladies sit in the first two rows. The boys took up the back seat! Such sweet young men.

 The two gigantic horses that did the pulling of the sleigh were actually twin sisters - Kate and Pearl.

They were really big, and the children were amazed at how big their feet were.

Get ready. Get set. Go!

BEHIND THE SCENES

While we waited to line up for the Thanksgiving program, we worked on some puzzles. It was strange that the chairs weren't down and there weren't any papers to color and cut. This was certainly going to be a different kind of day, but we were ready for it! At first, we had several little pilgrim girls arrive, but finally we also had a couple of pilgrim boys. Yippee!!!! Here we are getting ready to perform. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

WHAT WE DO AT SCHOOL

We come to school Monday through Friday to learn new things. And learn we do. Upon arriving, we work on developing and strengthening our fine motor muscles by coloring and cutting and playing with smaller sized toys. We say the pledge everyday before circle time. We review colors and shapes and talk about all kinds of things. Everyone always seems to have something to share with the class. We listen to the stories that are read to us and then discuss them as a group. It's like our own little "book club".

After all of that "work", the real learning begins! Project/free play time!

Free play is when we get to talk and play with friends and use our imaginations.

As we play school, we learn to take turns being the teacher and listen to one another. We are reinforcing our communication skills.

Working with puzzles helps us develop spatial recognition.

And Mr. Potato heads certainly encourage creativity!

Here we have learned that sometimes books are just more fun than cars, especially when you are reading with a friend. And then again, sometimes it's just fun to line up all the long neck dinosaurs (things that are alike) for a big dinosaur race! Yes, there is so much to learn while we play.
(Don't worry about the mess in the back ground - we've learned how to cooperate and clean it up in no time!)

OWL FUN

During a whole week in November, we learned all about owls. We know owls are birds with wings and feathers, and they lay eggs. We learned that most owls are nocturnal and are awake when we are asleep. We also know owls can see better than any other animal on Earth.

We read books about owls and owl families and did projects to create different types of owls.

Here is our owl family from the book, "Owl Babies", which is one of our favorite stories!

One of the interesting things we found out about owls is they have two stomachs! They swallow their dinner whole and then vomit up the indigestible parts in the form of a pellet. We were able to spend some time dissecting a real owl pellet to find the bones of the animals the owl had eaten.

Even though it might sound a little gross, the children found it very fascinating to find tiny bones in the pellet. I am looking very forward to beginning our science lab work with them after the holidays.

HALLOWEEN FUN!!!

Here we are right before we lined up to go to Summer Breeze to trick-or-treat. I've included more than one picture of us in all of our Halloween splendor since it's virtually impossible to get 16 three year olds to look at the camera and smile - at the same time.

Here we are practicing our patience skills as we wait for everyone to get seated at Summer Breeze. Everyone did a great job using their listening and following directions skills as we sang our Halloween Songs for the residents. Good times!

A VISIT FROM THE FIRE FIGHTERS!

It was a beautiful day to have a visit from our local Southside Fire Fighters. The children were very excited, especially since it was a surprise, and who doesn't love a surprise?! We spent a lot of time learning about the fire engine and the EMT emergency vehicle and some of the tools the fire fighters use to help people and put out fires.

  They actually asked a lot of questions about all of the things the fire fighters have in the back of their truck. They really kept those firemen on their toes!

 We learned not to be afraid to go to a fire fighter, even if he is dressed in a lot of strange clothes.

 Some of the children even ventured up to touch and make sure the fireman was really only wearing a heavy coat.

 Now that's some brave three year olds!

 

Then we got to the best part - SPRAYING THE WATER HOSE!!!

It was a really a great day. Thank-you Southside Fire Department.