Holiday Fun
12/19/2020
This week in the Beluga classroom as we have been preparing for winter break, we have had LOTS of holiday fun! We have been painting and crafting every day, and made several holiday gifts. The children's excitement has grown each day! We began the month of December by decorating for the holidays. Miss Cassy made a giant paper Christmas tree in the hallway, and the children loved making decorations for it! She also made us a menorah to help us celebrate Hanukah. Our classroom window was decorated with lights and a garland of candy canes which the children had painted. We also had a garland of gingerbread boys hanging across the hallway! One of the benefits of all our crafting and some of our other activities is that they have provided opportunities to work on our fine motor skills. Good fine motor skills help children develop the hand and finger strength needed for a good pencil grasp and control of a writing instrument, and they help provide a strong foundation for handwriting. Lacing the edges of the gingerbread with white yarn to look like icing was a difficult task for many of the children. We also decorated a few projects with beads, sequins and jewels which could be challenging for little fingers to pick up. Managing glue bottles and trying to get small dots rather than puddles also was a bit of a challenge. They were all determined though and did a great job! They were so proud of their creations! In the play dough area, children used rollers and gingerbread cookie cutters of different sizes to cut gingerbread people out of play dough. We also added trays which became "cookie sheets" which the children used to pretend to bake their "cookies". The best part of the week by far, was when Ms. Anna came in and shared with us some of Sweden’s holiday traditions and helped us make pepparkakor, which are Swedish gingersnaps! This was a two-day project which involved mixing the dough one day and baking on another. It was hard to wait, but it was SO worth it! The Belugas wish you all the happiest of holidays! See you next year!!
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Melissa SmithMs. Smith has a degree in Early Childhood Education and has taught kindergarten for many years. Alaska has been home to Ms. Smith for 28 years, and she can't imagine living anywhere else! She has four children, a dog and two cats. She loves reading, camping, gardening, and genealogy! Archives
April 2021
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