Winter Time and Christmas Joys

Winter Time and Christmas Joys

Christmas time is without a doubt a magical time of the year. During the month of December we learned the letters W and C and our class focused on the following themes:

Ë Winter weather

Ë Giving and Charity

Ë And of course, CHRISTMAS!

During winter weather week we decorated our little tree and discussed the changing weather, what it looks and feels like, and what activities we partake in during the wonderful winter weather. One of our discussions and lessons was how to dress for winter weather. We created a graph of what and what not to wear and of course some crafts.

And after talking about our favorite snowy activities we made a snowman craft.

Here is my snowman. Each kiddo used a circle stamp to make the eyes and mouth and counted out loud as they did so. They also decorated their own hat and wrote their name to personalize them.

We spent a lot of time discussing and reading the story of the nativity. The children were very drawn to the story and of course had a lot of questions like "Why did God choose Mary to be Jesus' Mommy?" and some real kickers like, "How do babies come out of mommies?" 

They kiddos seemed to identify personally with the different characters which was a great opportunity to see more into their personalities. To go along with the nativity story we had made some adorable Christmas crafts.

Another lesson we learned was Christmas Traditions in our homes and around the World. The kids talked about different things their families do, such as decorate the tree and leave out milk and cookies. We also talked about the history of good old Saint Nicholas.

Our Santa Poem Read:

When Santa got stuck up the chimney,

He began to shout:
“You girls and boys,
Won’t get any toys,
If you don’t pull me out!”

“My beard is black,
There’s soot in my sack,
My nose is tickling too!”

When Santa got stuck up the chimney,
 “Aaachooo, achoo, achoo!”

One of the best and most important lessons we discussed was Giving. Christmas is such an exciting time for these munchkins and there are visions of toys and goodies dancing in their heads all month long. To reflect on giving and make the topic personal we read the story of the 3 kings. We discussed how they brought gifts to baby Jesus because they knew he was very special. To stem from this we made a little craft where the kids were prompted to think of a gift that they would give to baby Jesus. (This craft melted my heart) Picture 1 is the front and picture 2 is the back.

 

As a side activity we collected hats, mittens, and gloves for our “Giving Tree” to give to the needy in the community. We also collected canned goods for the local soup kitchen. This was a great lesson for the kids. A lot of the kids asked questions like “Who are these for?” and “Why don’t they have their own already?”  It was a great opportunity to share with the children how important it is to take care of each other and the world around us. You could see the pride in their little faces as they pinned their mittens to our “Giving Tree.”

December was a truly fantastic (and busy) month for us and now we have the new year ahead of us! Can't wait for all of the fun and learning to begin again!

Thanks for checking in,

Mrs. Winter :)