Merry Christmas

Our last week of school was spent making and wrapping gifts, learning about the Nativity, and celebrating the birth of Jesus.






We were busy little elves and so happy at our work.










We sang Happy Birthday for Baby Jesus and all shared in cake on our last school day.





Our books centered on the Nativity and we used a child-friendly set to share the story over and over. We talked about Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, and Kings as we imagined the first Christmas night.
Everyone was very attentive and involved during story time each day.












All our efforts of creating and wrapping were sent home. We hope you enjoy our "kitchen" gift this year. (We told our friends it was a trivet for "hot pots", to protect the tabletop.)







Hopes are high for a wonderful Christmas holiday and we
feel sure that this expectation will be more than met.





















We modeled our birthday crowns during our party on Wednesday.






Have a blessed and safe Christmas and we'll see you in 2010!

Reindeer Games

December weather may have shortened our week, but not our fun! Ms. Amy and Ms. Martha (Cole's grandma) helped us to trace our hands for our reindeer antlers and deftly painted on red noses.


Santa need not fear for any help to guide his sleigh, we've got him covered.


In addition to all the talk of what we're Getting, we're also focusing on what we can Give. We're making cards and gifts for those we love.

We have truly grown in our ability to share our space and materials with each other. We are kind with our words and actions. We have been so "good" this year!


Ready for take off!

Christmas really is the most wonderful time of the year, especially in a class of active, excited three year olds.


We've begun our celebration of the season with stars and trees made from a most familiar shape - the triangle.


We made lovely candles (that can't burn us) for the window.


We painted with sticky, shiny corn syrup to make a sting of Christmas lights.



Our fine motor skills were exercised and working hard this week.


We even "wrote" the word TREE with stamps. We are recognizing that words are made up of letters and are able to read many names from our name cards at group time.



We hammered in our sensory table - Santa's workshop has nothing on us!

Our first ornament of the holiday was made from fruit loops to share with the birds (if we didn't eat it ourselves on the way home).

More excitement to follow these next few weeks - we can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We shared our "What we are thankful for" homework with our friends. Everyone enjoys their turn speaking in front of the group!

We strung beads and paper medallions to make necklaces. Favorite foods cut from magazines made for yummy-looking art.















We're wishing for you, a safe and happy Thanksgiving with those you love!
Here at Lafayette Academy, we are truly grateful for all the families who make up our school community.
Thank you.

Thankful for Turkeys

We were doing the "turkey trot" at group time. We played a game, choosing "turkey feathers" that told us how to move.

Everyone loves to get a turn being the leader in the game.

Teachers helped to paint hands to make one traditional hand-print turkey, then our friends took off on their own.

We used colorful feathers to dress our plain brown turkeys. We chose where to place the eyes and beaks all by ourselves.

We sang a rhyming song about a Turkey and used the flannel board to move the items in the song.

Hearing those rhymes helps prepare us for reading in the future.

Thankful for corn.

Another week of thankfulness.
We talked about corn and how it was introduced to us by the American Indians. We used our senses again to help us learn more about this food.






In art, we made paper mosaic corn to look like "Indian corn" and printed with corn on the cob.




We used dot markers to show the kernels on the ears of corn.














In our sensory table, we played with feed corn and used scoops and cups to transfer it and "bake" with it.


We tried out our new tape dispenser and loved using all the colored tapes.

It was tricky to figure out how to stretch it and cut with scissors.



We had a visit from Ms. Lois who talked about the children in Romania that she helps.


We are helping them too! We're collecting money in our "banks" to send the children Christmas presents. It makes us feel good when we help.

Thankful for Apples

Children are quick to give thanks for the things they enjoy. We began our month of Thanksgiving with a favorite fruit - Apples.




We used our senses to observe, touch, and taste.

Art activities used the apples themselves for printmaking and for drawing and painting inspiration.


The tasting was our favorite! We tried three different colors of apples and chose the tastiest to vote for. Our graph was useful to see the winning color of apple appear and we were able to count and compare numbers as we worked together.














New vocabulary words we listed: core, stem, flesh, peel, seed.




The cool tool we used to prepare apples for snack: The apple peeler-corer-slicer!
Our arm and hand muscles worked to turn the handle.






























What can you do with apples at home? Look for a yummy treat that your child can help prepare and share.