December 2014

December is always a very busy month, both at home and at school. Children thrive on routine and we work to keep things steady in our classrooms throughout the holidays. We will be making cards and gifts this month, and using lots of glue and glitter! We will share some of our holiday artwork with the Christmas bureau for their holiday fruit baskets. And we will also be collecting new and gently used socks through January for Catholic Charities.

The children in all of our classes are working hard on getting themselves dressed for outdoor play. We encourage all the children to do as much as possible themselves and this is an important step toward independence.   You can help by making sure your child’s outdoor clothing is labeled – you’d be surprised how many children have black snow pants! Having all outside clothing in one bag also makes it easier for children to find everything, and hats and mittens inside coat sleeves can’t be missed!

Thanks for the great turnout for our last parent meeting. It’s been a wonderful chance for everyone to catch up and share ideas. We won’t have another meeting for a few months to avoid winter inertia and bad weather. Let me know if there’s an interesting topic discussion you’d like to bring up for spring.

Welcome to our new students – Jack in the TTh class and Eleanor in the Twos class. We still have a couple of MWF openings if you know of any families who might be interested.

Fun with Santa is Saturday December 6^th. Please get any last minute silent auction donations in as soon as possible. Baked goods for the cake wheel should be dropped off on Thursday & Friday for repackaging. Also, make sure you’ve signed up for a shift on Saturday — we need everyone’s help to make this a success!

Important dates:

December 12th – scholastic orders due. We’ve some great new books for TCNS with the points from the last orders!

No school on Friday December 12^th and December 24^th through January 4^th for holiday break.

Terrific Twos: December will be a very busy month in our Terrific Twos class! We will read books about hibernation and caring, including Time To Sleep by Denise Fleming, When Winter Comes by Robert Maas and Bear Stays Up by Karma Wilson. We have been using different mediums for painting and has been a great hit! Circle time is a favorite with a book, singing and movement, and lots of conversation. We are constantly working on using words for needs and wants. We hear a lot of “no thank you” and “yes please”. Please follow our classroom happenings by checking out our pictures on our welcome board! Happy December!

Preschool:  In December we’ll be talking about how animals get ready for winter, nocturnal animals, family and holidays.  We’ll be reading a number of classroom favorites this month: Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming, It’s Fall by Linda Glaser, Owl Babies by Martin Waddell, Light the Lights by Margaret Moorman, and Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup.  We’ll continue to work on our cutting and gluing skills which are coming along well.  We’ll be making animal habitat collages, paper bag puppets, ornaments, and holiday gifts.  We will also make latkes for snack one day and decorate gingerbread cookies right before the holidays.

We hope everyone has a peaceful and happy holiday season!