During Lent, the 4's group made beautiful crosses to hang in their bedrooms. The crosses were made with disassembled clothes pins glued to a piece of cardboard in the cross shape. They finished by painting their crosses with acrylic paints and attaching a hanger to the back. Some of the children put glitter paint over the top of the colored paint. They really turned out lovely. This is the kind of project they can have and keep forever.

This year we tried something new with the Leprechaun traps. I wanted to approach it with an innovation/design aspect in teams. We split the classroom into four groups, each with an adult advisor. I had a collection of materials like boxes, net produce bags, tubes, foil, pipe cleaners, etc. available. The object was to create a Leprechaun trap as a team, starting with conceptualizing it and then building it. I was very surprised to learn from the adults that each group went forward with their plan, building on each idea and not going back- all the way to completion. There was an abundance of enthusiasm! When they finished, each group explained their design to the whole class. Interestingly enough, the traps were all different from each other. We did set the traps, and even though we didn't catch a Leprechaun this year, I am positive we could have, the traps were that good.  

January 2013

 

One of January's Themes was Arctic Animals. We learned all about animals that live in the Arctic region. I incorporated a "following instructions" activity with a listening comprehension activity and I really liked the results.

 

 

                          

                                              We learned about Polar Bears,
 

                                                                            Walruses,

Beluga whales,

  Snowy Owls,

 

and the Arctic Fox.

  

 

 Plus we learned some new watercolor techniques! The results are little works of art suitable for framing.

 
 

Today I ventured out to deliver letters to Santa at Macy's. They really make it look magical, with the giant, sparkly Christmas decor and shiny red mailbox. It reminded me of taking my own young son to Meier & Frank downtown Portland to see Santa and have his picture taken. These are memories I will always treasure. And it really is too bad that the whole classroom couldn't deliver their letters themselves and see this with their own eyes. There just aren't enough hours in our day, or days of the week for such an excursion. And it just had to be done today.

Why today? Well, you may be aware that Macy's donates one dollar to Make-A-Wish Foundation for each letter to Santa dropped there, and Macy's doubles their donation on National Believe Day. Today just happens to be National Believe Day.

 

The children worked very hard on their letters, too! I had to make sure that Santa got all 17 letters in case they couldn't tell him in person before Christmas. I also wanted him to see how well they are doing in school. If any of Santa's Elves see this post, you have my word that these children are definitely on the "nice" list.

 

 

 

We really decked the halls this December! And I mean it, literally! Each child gave a 'hand' in the project, too. I thought our little string of Christmas lights would look great above their all-about-me project.

                                    While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
                                                                                                               John 9:5

Late November and early December the children made their first initial with construction paper mosaic. They chose their own colors for the project. I really love how they turned out.

The St. Paul Parochial School Christmas Concert was held in the St. Paul Catholic Church on December 4, 2012. Pre-K kicked it off with "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". This picture was taken from the very back of the church and so it is a little blurry. (Our classroom camera died just after the Pumpkin Patch trip, so I purchased an inexpensive one to take it's place on black Friday, which explains why there are no photos the whole month of November.) We finished our performance with "Hush! There's A Baby". The other grades then followed. They all did a fantastic job!