Happy Holidays in the OC! - Teachers Christine and Meghan

This week was full of holiday cheer! Our students were very busy creating beautiful gifts for their families and, of course, enjoying all of the winter and holiday fun around the classroom!

On Monday the children decorated gift bags for a super secret holiday gift for their families!

On Wednesday we played the Dreidel game! They had a blast learning the rules and working collaboratively.

On Friday we ended our December unit by looking back at all of the fun we had this month. The children added a special treasure to their memory boxes to remember this fun season in preschool.

We were busy as ever at creation station cutting, gluing, and taping to make beautiful holiday gifts for our families! 

We poured the water out of the water tub and turned it into a magical gift wrapping station! The children were inspired to make lots of gifts for their families and wrapped them up so beautifully! This was also a fun way to practice fine motor skills by cutting paper and learning how to get tape out of the dispenser.

The children were delighted to find their pictures on the flannel board!

As usual, the children love to relax and play at the playdough station.

Over at the fine motor table, we played a holiday themed memory game. We also set out scales and the children weighed various wrapped gifts and counted out how many bears they needed to add to the other side to make the scale balance. It was a lot of fun to watch them figure it out. :)

Baby Mabel loves her daily salads and cuddle time!

Here are some pictures of your wonderful children playing around the room! They are having so much fun together and really working on their collaborative problem solving skills.

At circle time this week we did the bean bag dance...

We practiced holiday yoga!

We read lots of holiday themed books.

We had a special friendship circle on Friday, and the children had the chance to tell us what they were most looking forward to doing over their winter break. We loved hearing what they are excited about!

And last but not least, we celebrated two special birthdays!

It has been rather blustery outside, but we still managed to enjoy lots of running and playing this week. The children love to play hide and seek, tag! They are also working on learning how to swing on their own! 

We wish all of you a joyous winter season, a very happy new year, and can't wait to see your wonderful children in January!

Warmly,
Christine and Meghan

All wrapped up in the OC - Teachers Jelena and Lisa

As we wrapped up the month of December, we also wrapped up the gifts we made for our families! On Monday, the students decorated gift bags and gift tags for their presents. A big effort was put into making a beautiful product.

Some very fun creations of gingerbread boys/girls were decorated on Wednesday.

We put some new items in our memory boxes on Friday.

At creation station, we made some beaded jingle bell bracelets that we used during our music time.

Around the room, we did Elf on the Shelf puzzles and Christmas themed bingo game.

A memory game challenged some of us to find matching cards.

Magnetic bows could be attached to the A-framed ‘gift’ and repositioned or a pattern made.

The texture table was a fun mission of finding hidden gems while scooping flax seed into the water wheel or some cups.

The water tub remained a car wash like last week since it was such bubbly fun!

Play dough was another gingerbread creative outlet. Our gingerbread man chanted “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man”

And our gingerbread girl said “I’ll run and I’ll run, with a leap and a twirl, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread girl”

Lots of playing with friends…

Including a return trip from the North Pole (also known as the loft)!

While some friends enjoyed the North Pole, others were busy making needed kitchen repairs!

Others enjoyed a game of dominos or floor puzzles.

We had a breakout freeze dance session where the kids spontaneously held hands in pairs. 

During music we used instruments in a parade around the classroom while singing Jingle Bells!

We read lots of stories and had recess, but we don’t always get many pictures! 

We finished off a fun-tastic week with our friendship circle.

And just like that, we finish the first part of our school year! It’s been an exciting few months! We wish you a  happy, healthy and fun filled winter break. Looking forward to 2022.

Happy holidays,

Jelena and Lisa