We  hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! A lot has happened in our classroom since the last update. We were very busy in November learning about squares and the color brown.  We continued to talk about Fall through songs, stories and art.  The boys and girls enjoyed listening to the stories such as Run Turkey Run , I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, and The First Thanksgiving.  Hopefully during the holiday your little ones shared with you the song, "Hello Mr. Turkey How Are you?" because it was a classroom favorite!  We have been fortunate to spend time stomping through the leaves on the playground but our weather is slowly getting colder.  Please make sure your child has extra clothing in their cubbies that is seasonably appropriate and continue to send in hats and gloves on the colder days. 

November has come and gone, and we had lots of fun talking about fall and Thanksgiving.  We sang songs and learned poems about turkeys and golden leaves.  Our projects included tail feathers for our big turkey, footballs, rakes and leaves, acorns, fall trees, and cornucopias.  We enjoyed working on our gluing and cutting skills, and we enjoyed many beautiful days on the playground.  December should bring us colder weather, so now is a good time to check cubbies for seasonally appropriate clothing.  Keeping a hat and a pair of mittens at school is always a good idea.  December will also bring many Christmas projects and new songs.  As always, thank you for sharing your children with us.

The classrooms are busy and festive as we start to decorate and  create holiday treats and special gifts!  The children are using their emerging skills while making their Christmas treasures....wreaths, trees, glittered lightbulbs and angels.... just to name a few!  Many holiday stories and songs are planned for the month for your little elves' enjoyment!  We are enthusiastically practicing all of the songs for our Christmas performance which will be in the church on Tuesday, December 20th at 9:15.  We will gather  in our classroom immediately following the service for a brief party; all family members are invited to join us. ( Party Mom's are.... Mrs. Szymanowski. Dr. Hensley, Mrs. Haith and Mrs. Galarraga....Details to follow)  Little Jack Horner is our December nursery rhyme and green stars are our color and shape of the month! Enjoy your "little ones" at this very exciting and joyful time of year!

We tried to wait 'til December 1 to start on Christmas fun, but there is so much to do! Before Christmas, we will focus on letters J and K as well as get busy with our crafts. This first week, we have been working on the Five Senses of Christmas so please encourage your child to notice what they are seeing, hearing, smelling tasting, and touching that are unique to this holiday season. Next week, we will focus more on secular activities, and the week of the 12th we will concentrate on the Biblical story of Jesus' birth. All our crafts do provide motor skill practice, opportunity to follow directions, decision making and time to be creative. We go outside almost every day so please label and send in appropriate clothing for outside play as the children need that large muscle exercise. Most of the children like to play silly rhyming games so consider rhyming when you are waiting somewhere!  

December is here and the air is simmering with excitement!  Carols are being sung, little red noses are being added to reindeer, and "Christmas is ......."  books are being created. So much of what we do this month reminds us of the innocence of childhood as well as the pitfalls of too many activities, late nights and lots of presents. Please take time for rest, good books, and late sleeps on the weekends. We are marching into December with Amelia W. as our line leader, Brinley, Harriet, and Amelia M. as our snack helpers, and Maggie as our cook (we made jam muffins and Maggie loved it!).  Charlotte was our calendar person and Lane was our weather girl. We've also gotten lots of extra help from those on "vacation" as there is SO much to do this month! We will finish "J" this week and go on to "K" next week but will leave the following week empty as there is much work to be done by our little elves! Please make sure there are appropriate replacement clothes for your little girls- It gets muddy and wet out there!

We have been so busy in kindergarten recently! We have started to practice for our Christmas pageant, and we have been busy elves creating holiday art while also learning many new things in math and language arts. In math we have been practicing writing our numerals, learning about tally marks, creating a holiday number book, and playing a new game called "monster squeeze". In language arts, we have been reviewing all of the alphabet sounds, learning new sight words, and have been learning to read three letter words by "tapping it out". We have been having a ton of fun learning new skills and being together in our kindergarten groups!

This is such a special and magical time of year...Pre-first has been  busy decking our halls with artwork as well as writing pieces! We are  currently busy writing our very own Reindeer, Reindeer, what do you see  books. In Language Arts, we continue to dive into our phonemic  awareness, practicing letter formations, sounding out words, learning  about glued sounds, pluralization, suffixes and reading with accuracy 

and fluency. Our Math skills continue to develop as we practice  patterning, sequencing, skip counting, place value, addition and  subtraction. Please ask your children what they would do if Santa got  stuck in your chimney. They had some creative and imaginative ideas.  Enjoy this time of year with your children!!

Lunch Bunch is feeling Merry! We are full of cheer and in the Christmas spirit. We have a large variety of Christmas activities planned for this month! We are going to stamp, glitter, paint, bead and glue! We will make ornaments, necklaces, trees, cards and so much more! Aside from Christmas crafts we will also be focusing on helping the children learn how to put on their own coats, hats and gloves. In lunch bunch we ask that the children always out on their coat or whatever their parents have packed when it is cold out, so packing various layers (labeled with your child's name) can help in the afternoon! Thank you so much for sending your children to Lunch Bunch we are looking forward to a great month!  

Family Holiday Baking Bonanza

All PDS families are invited

 

Saturday, December 10, 2016

8:30 am - 10:00 am

Redeemer's Parish Hall

 

Please join other PDS families and Redeemer Parishioners for a family baking project to benefit the students at Govans Elementary. We will spend the morning rolling dough and cutting and baking cookies for the annual Govans Winterfest holiday party. Please plan on also taking a few extras home to sample and decorate with your own families.

 

Please bring: your little ones, rolling pins and cookie cutters - we will supply the rest!

 

For set up purposes and an accurate headcount, please R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, December 8 to

[email protected]

Redeemer Gear

UPCOMING CALENDAR EVENTS:

 

Saturday, December 10, 2016 8:30 am- Family Holiday Baking Bonanza- Parish Hall

Tuesday, December 20th 9:15 am- Christmas Service-break begins after service- no afternoon programs