SHOW AND TELL
Bring something that makes light.
Topic: Hanukkah
Appreciate a celebration of another culture
The value is joy, which is a very happy feeling. It comes from working hard for a worthy goal and gratitude for achieving that goal.
For cooking, we’ll make latkes.
Outside, we’ll play the troll game and human knots.
The songs we’ll be singing are Jingle Bells, It’s a Small World, Frosty the Snowman, Up on the Housetop, and Oh, Christmas Tree.
Creative dramatics is playing the dreidle game.
Our art activities are dreidles, menorahs, holiday cards, Hanukkah banner, and stars of David.
For motor development, we’ll work on stamina by running relay races and be jumping jacks. For vestibular function we’ll do twirling tops, horses and ponies, rocking boats, and rolling with a leader
TAKING CHARGE OF TIME
The children are beginning to reflect the tenseness, stress, and generally being out-of-sorts that is symptomatic of this season of peace and joy. Time managers say that today we have “over-choice”. There are so many more activities and options to fill our time that we forget that these are all discretionary choices. There’s no doubt the standards for achievement have been upped. It’s become fashionable to be crazy busy. Packed workweeks are followed by crammed weekends, and both adults and children never have time to be “off”.
Becoming conscious of how we spend our time can lead to better choices and more control. Notice the small chunks that add up so fast. You might have 20 minutes while you wait for the bus, 30 minutes in the evening before you have to start dinner, and maybe an hour after the kids are asleep. It’s challenging to make those idle minutes add up to quality time. Some people redistribute the time by cramming chores and errands into those little chunks in order to free up weekends. Others learn to “master the moment” for relaxation.
Once you’re aware of how you’re using your time, you can examine your choices more objectively. Contrary to what you might think, spending time on things we find rewarding can enrich our lives, even if it makes us busier. Keeping perspective on the large choices we make about our lives is also helpful. While our children are young, we may not have a lot of flexibility in our schedules. However, simply realizing we’ve made the choice to both work and raise children – that we derive satisfaction and confidence from our dual roles – makes busy schedules more bearable.
A couple of tips: Break your to-do list into small chunks so you can fit them into your small chunks of time – and get a sense of accomplishment by getting them done. The other tip is to say “no”. If you’re letting your small chunks of time fritter away instead of using them to bring yourself closer to your primary values, you’re missing an opportunity to keep your energy in sync with your truest self and deepest values. Say “no” to vegging out in front of the TV or going to a PTO meeting that gets you nothing.
As I talked with a mother of two preschoolers this week about how she stays centered, she responded, “We don’t get freaked about the Santa thing.” She went on to describe how she keeps the extraneous commercialism of this season out of her family’s life. She’s made the decision to keep her family in a quiet routine. It shows in her kids.
On the Calendar
Peace Flags – For a part of our New Year’s theme, we’ll be making peace flags to send prayers out on the wind. Please be thinking what your family’s very specific wish for peace would be. Using a 6”x9” piece of fabric, write the wish with an indelible pin. Then plan to use that flag for the show-and-tell the week after Christmas.
Winter Open House – We’ll begin at 3 P.M. and the event should last about an hour.
Giving Project – Thursday morning December 22, will be the last day to drop off your gift a list of items most wanted and needed is posted in the foyer near the big gift box.
Christmas Holiday – Please notice that the school will be closed both Friday, Dec 26 - 30, in observance of the Christmas holiday.
New Year’s Holiday – The school will be closed Monday, Jan. 2, in observance of the new year.
Classroom News
In our infant class Eleanor enjoys the matching work, where she matches the colors to its corresponding geometric shape. In the toddler class Blanca noticed dry pasta crumb on the tray; using a small hand broom she nicely swept up the crumbs and put them in the proper place. Samantha Echols used some of her class time working with the spooning work where she transferred acorns from one container to another. Gaspard used tweezers to transfer gum tree ball from one bowl to another bowl. In the primary class, Thomas likes the animal matching work and every morning he seeks out this work where he matches the animal to its corresponding shadow card. Ashton used some of his class time working with the spindle box, this work helps with the recognition of numbers 0-9 and also aids in applying a quantity to each number with attention placed on the concept of the zero
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