Happy Holidays!

What a delightful Turtle Day! We began the day making cut-out cookies with Matthew's mom. The children chose their cutters, and (liberally) applied sprinkles. They were delicious!

Next we went over to John Barnes Room for a Music Concert with Allison! It was so much fun as we sang and danced!

We played on the playground, and then returned to the classroom where Carol read an instant classic, "When the Turtles Are Away, The Guinea Pigs Play!" The Turtles absolutely loved the book, and after the first reading ran from place to place, exclaiming, "And the guinea pigs were here!"

HAVE A WONDERFUL BREAK TURTLES!

WE WILL MISS YOU!

Winterfest!

The all-school annual tradition of Winterfest happened today! The Turtles bundled up and headed over to the gym where the entire school had gathered to celebrate our community, our traditions, and all the things that make AFS so wonderful. After the initial shock of seeing all those people gathered in one place, the Turtles settled in, enjoying the songs, and playing our part, decorating the Christmas Tree. Other grades decorated a Hanukah table, a Kwanzaa Table, played songs in bands, and performed skits about equality, peace, light, and holiday traditions.

Back at the preschool, we settled down for a nice long Choice Time. The children have been newly interested in a few dramatic play themes: Super Heroes and Families. For the most part, they co-exist, and it is amazing to see how the children are able to negotiate with each other to sustain common play themes and negotiate when they have different ideas.

We had a breif meeting to talk about the new year coming up, and to plan for putting away old toys and activites to make space for new ones. Part of this process involved "un-decorating" the climber, with the thought that we might tranform it into something else, perhaps a "flamingo-decorated superhero rocketship!" (We shall see what January brings!)

The Sun-Turtles

Naomi's mom Michelle came in to share some of their holiday traditions with the class. First she read the children the hilarious book, When Cows Come Home for Christmas in which a cow actually is decorated like a christmas tree! Then she and Naomi put treats in the Turtle's drawers and many children worked on lacing and decorating stockings.

Today we also had some visitors from the Sunflower Class! Connor, Alyssa, and Ella all visited with us! The Turtles were great hosts, showing them how we do things, and asking them tons of questions. We read the book, The Three of Us by Angela Johnson, about a family with three sisters, and the "Sun-Turtles" (as we called ourselves), had lively conversations about who was in their families.

Choice Time included some old favorite activities as well as a new activity. The children did some "Wire Art" experimenting with banding, twisting, and beading the wires. The children used both their imaginations and their strong fine motor skills in this work!

We bundled up and went for a short walk. The children were so excited that it started to flurry as we walked, and we even found some frozen ice!

Bassooning and Ballooning

We were so busy on this frigid day! We began the day with a marvelous introduction to the bassoon. Tamara's friend Colleen is a classically trained bassoonist, and came to share her instrument with the Turtles. Colleen showed us how to put it together, and Kailyn wanted to know, "But how does it make music??" She showed us how the instrument played high (like Bolero) and low (like the grandfather from "Peter and the Wolf"), or happy (like the "Sorcerer's Apprentice")  or sad (as in the berceuse from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite). The children were absolutely entranced! Then she played some of our favorite songs like Twinkle Twinkle, the ABCs, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and the children sang along! They wanted her to play The Wheels on the Bus, but she didn't know the music, so we sang it for her!
(Check out the video at the end of the blog!)

We made Apple Crisp for tonight's Bread and Soup dinner and read Ann Morris's classic book Bread, Bread, Bread about all the ways that people eat bread around the world.

And then we headed to the John Barnes Room for some indoor exercise. We played balloon games, and then ran races in circles, trying out all kinds of movement, including crawling like "Walking Mountains!"

 

More Holiday Traditions

The month of December is always filled with such wonderful sharing of traditions! Today Sarah Lynne's mom Dawn brought in cookies to decorate (and eat!!) They were delicious! We listened to classic Christmas songs.

Julian also brought in a basket of instruments and things for his friends to investigate.

Carol also brought in a new stop light that was a big hit on the playground! The kids would ride by, going on green, stopping on red, and looking both ways when it said, "Look both ways!"

Movement with Missy was filled with hula hoops, balloons, and a great new game called, "Hullabaloo!" that involved listening carefully, identifying shapes, colors, and categories of objects. They were truly excellent at it!

The morning concluded with a beautiful parade by the Chipmunks for St. Lucia with the singing of songs, the sharing of ginger bread cookies, and the reading of the Tomten book.