Daily Update - Change for Christmas & Polar Express

Thank You to all of the families that sent in pennies today!  The children were very excited to add their money to the jar during Circle Time.  We collected $10.60 in Pennies!!  Yay!  Great Job!  Keep it up.  Tomorrow is nickel day :o)

This week our Theme is Polar Express it is always one of our favorite themes!  Trains and PJs what’s not to love!  During table time today we drew a picture of something we want for Christmas!

Daily Update - Buddhism

Buddhism began in northeastern India and is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).  The religion is 2,500 years old and is followed by 350 million Buddhists worldwide.

How is Buddhism different from other religions?
Buddhism is different from many other faiths because it is not centered on the relationship between humanity and God.  Buddhists do not believe in a personal creator God.
December 8^th is Bodhi Day “enlightenment day” This Holiday honors Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha).  On this Holiday Buddhist will make offerings to Buddhist Statues.  Doing this creates positive energy and develops respectful attitudes.  Today we showed the children different types of offerings that can be given:
Food-offering of food reminds us to not be greedy or selfish
Light-symbolizes wisdom and drives away darkness in one’s self.
Incense-the fragrance of pure moral conduct.
Water- symbolizes purity, clarity and calmness in one’s self.
Flowers- symbolize what you have now and living in the present.
 

In China it is believed that rubbing the Buddha’s Belly is good luck, all the children took turns rubbing his belly!

There is only about 1% that celebrate Christmas in China. Those that do, decorate their trees with lanterns.So we made our own little lantern ornaments.

            Thanks for joining us for Breakfast and Circle Time!  We love special visitors!

Our Star of the Week's mom reading a story, and she also had lunch with us!  Thank You for joining us!

Daily Update - Hanukah

Yesterday we hung up our boots that we made in hopes that St. Nicholas would come.  This morning we found that he brought us some goodies, and a stick (switch).  This is because children are never all good or all bad so they get both. 

We also learned about Hanukah today.  In 165 B.C.E., the Jewish Maccabees managed to drive the Syrian army out of Jerusalem and reclaim their temple. The legend of the menorah: When the Jews prepared to rededicate their temple by relighting the "eternal flame," after driving out their oppressors, they had just enough consecrated oil to burn for one day, but the oil miraculously lasted for eight days until new oil arrived to fuel the flame. This is why Jewish families light candles or burn oil in a menorah for the eight days of Hanukkah, adding one candle each day.  We also made Latkes!  Most of the children loved them!  We read a book called I have a Little Dreidel.  They may come home singing Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay. Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play.

Read more: How to Teach Children the Meaning of Hanukkah | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5890_teach-children-meaning.html#ixzz2EJ3EdvcK

Daily Update - Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa was our holiday today. Kwanzaa is not a religious or a political holiday. Kwanzaa is a reflective holiday, created by an American teacher in the mid-1960's. Kwanzaa is based on ideas borrowed from Africa, from an ancient Swahili seven-day-long festival. Kwanzaa begins each year on December 26 and lasts through the first day of January. An important symbol is the wooden candlestick. It holds 7 candles, black in the center 3 red on one side and 3 green on the other. Day one the black candle is lit; this is a day of togetherness. Day two a red candle is lit, this is a day of sharing traditions. Day three a green candle is lit, this is a day to share a common goal. Day four a red candle is lit, this is a day of sharing a family gift. Day five a green candle is lit, this is a day of sharing dreams and hopes.  Day six a red candle is lit, this is a day of sharing creativity.  Day seven a green candle is lit, this is a day of sharing a feast. 
http://holidays.mrdonn.org/kwanzaa.html is the website I used.  During table time we used our fine motor skills and made ears of corn, we colored with a marker and painted the inside with yellow paint and a q-tip.  We also painted at the easel with the colors of Kwanzaa red, green and black. 

Thank You to our star of the week’s Grandparents for joining us for Breakfast and Circle Time! 

REMINDER: Next week is the week to help us fill up our jar to make Christmas special!  Monday Pennies, Tuesday Nickels, Wednesday Dimes, Thursday Quarters, and Friday Dollars! Book Orders are Due Monday, December 10!  Books make a great Christmas Gift!  https://orders.scholastic.com/GLLVF 

 

Daily Update Christmas Around the World

We have a family that celebrates Hungarian Christmas Traditions, and another that celebrates Chinese Christmas Traditions. It has been a learning experience for me this year too learning about all of the different cultural celebrations! It is fun to learn about all of the similar and very different traditions. Today we learned about St. Nicholas (a Hungarian Tradition). On December 5th children sit out their boots or shoes, St. Nicholas visits their house and fills their boots with goodies (candy, small gifts, oranges, etc...) if they have been good, if they have been naughty they get a stick (switch), Since most children are not all good or all bad most children will get goodies and a switch. At table time we decorated a boot that we will sit by the windows tomorrow to see if St. Nicholas will visit our classroom! 
For Elfie Updates check the blog and click on the Elfie 2 Names our Elf on the Shelf... I have been updating it daily with all of his mischievous adventures.

Daily Update - Christmas Around the World

This week our Theme is Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas Around the World. Today we learned about Christmas Trees from around the world. Not all countries put up Christmas Trees, some put them up, but use different things to decorate them. In Brazil they decorate their tree with cotton to look like snow, in China there are very few trees, but the ones you do see are artificial and usually decorated with lanterns, Japan also very few and they like to use Gold Fans to decorate theirs. Germany is the source of many of the world's Christmas traditions, they use red balls to symbolize apples that represent the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden they attach small candles to represent the stars. We asked the children if they had their tree up at home yet and 10 said they did and 4 don't yet. We decorated our class tree during circle time, and during table time we made Christmas Tree Ornaments decorated with buttons. http://www.pickyourownchristmastree.org/global.php

Elfie 2 Names our Elf on the Shelf...

Our Elf came Wednesday Night.  Thursday we found him Ziplining across our tables with a note.  It said that Santa sent our elf to watch over the children.  He will report back to him each night with the good, bad and ugly.  We had 2 rules we have to follow 1. Don't Touch Him or he will lose his magic and have to be sent back to Santa so Santa can fix him.  2. We had to give him a name.  After throwing around a bunch of names the children settled on two Clifford the Little Red Elf and Elfie 2 Names.  We voted and Elfie 2 Names won, but just barely!

Friday Morning we found that he had been playing with the copy machine and took over our Bulletin Board!

Monday Morning: Uh Oh I don't think the other toys like Elfie 2 Names very much... Poor Elfie!

Tuesday 12/4 Elfie showed his mischievous side today!  No wonder the toys were trying to kick him out of our school!  He made a huge mess at Circle Time!  There was confetti everywhere, he turned our months upside down, and he was flying on a paper airplane with a friend!

Wednesday 12/5 Elfie 2 Names was found making a Naughty/Nice List!

 Thursday 12/6 Elfie 2 Names was found doing a little fishing!

Friday 12/7 Elfie 2 Names is wishing for some Snow!  He added snow (cotton balls) to our Christmas Tree!  He also made a sign that says Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow... Please!

 Monday 12/10 Elfie was found floating in the classroom on a homemade hot air balloon!  He made it out of a balloon and an extra pair of underwear we keep in the extra clothes bag! 

 Tuesday 12/11 All of Elfie's adventrues have made him tired... This morning he was found snuggled up in a box of tissues!

 

 Wednesday 12/12 Elfie was found in the Motor Room Just A Swingin'