Christmas and Hanukkah

Christmas and Hanukkah was the theme for the last week of December at Shawnee Home Preschool. We learned about each holiday and its origins. We celebrated throughout the week with holiday activities and special surprises!

In Art, we did a variety of festive crafts.

For Circle, we focused on the letter O and the color red. We were excited to get to change the season from fall to winter. The outside weather seemed to correspond to the season change as the snow came down and the pond eventually froze.

During Center time, we celebrated by opening a new gift every day – a new toy for the preschool that they could play with during center time. We also had a nativity scavenger hunt. The children enjoyed finding and hiding the nativity pieces and then arranging them into a scene as we discussed who the characters were.

We had a lot of dance parties, some with costumes and tinsel. The tinsel eventually turned into a tinsel monster! We also got a lot of exercise on the mat, playing charades and with the hula hoop.

Outside the children enjoyed taking walks. We hunted for my dog Aspen’s sweater that he had lost and were so excited to find it! We also threw rocks and leaves into the pond. We talked about why some things float and some things sink. And we discovered what happens when you throw a stone into a frozen pond. It doesn’t sink!

We did a couple of science projects. We made a crystal snowflake using a pipe cleaner and some dissolved borax. We also discovered how to create static using a balloon, some rags, and some paper Christmas trees. They magically stick!

The children enjoyed tasting the leaves from the basil, parsley, and dill plants we grew in one of the indoor gardens. However, when I whipped them up into a pesto they were not having any of it! My family loved it though!

We built lots of forts this week. The first was a teepee using long sticks, the second one was under the pool table, and the third one was one of the gifts they opened which was a real-life princess fort and their favorite one yet!