New Toys!

I took advantage of Cyber Monday deals and ordered some new toys for the little peeps and I had to share! Amazon.com was having a 50% off Melissa and Doug toy sale. One of my favorite brands of durable, educational, and fun preschool toys. I picked up three puzzle sets:

Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

Melissa & Doug See & Spell

Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks

They are now the most requested activity. We've covered colors, shapes, patterns, and letters. Multi-tasking at it's finest! I love the hands-on learning applications. We've used the letters to spell the puzzle words, spell the kid's names, and review letter names. The kids can hold the letters in their hand or trace them with their finger. We've used the shapes for size comparison, patterns, and colors.

Here's the kids in action with the See & Spell:

Las Posadas and Poinsettias

Today we talked about Christmas in Mexico!

Using ideas from here and here we talked about Las Posadas and the legend of the Poinsettia flower.

 printable found at:

http://www.sundayschoolkids.com/activity-christmas/7pointsettia-to-color-activity.htm

Feliz Navidad!

Christmas in Germany

We can thank Germany for bringing evergreen trees and wreaths to our Christmas celebration. In honor of the evergreen, the little peeps practiced their pre-writing skills by tracing a simple christmas tree shape. It can be a tough skill for a 4 year old, but as they are learning to write, tracing becomes an important part of correct letter formation.

In honor of evergreen branches, the little peeps made wreaths.

I was short on pine boughs, so we improvised.

Green and reddish-orange pasta turned out to be quite festive. Let the sorting begin!

We used small paper plates with the centers cut out as the wreath base. White school glue helped keep everything in place. I let the kids decide how they wanted to lay out their wreath. There were basically two results. Line the pasta end-to-end and make a circle like so:

or the pasta starburst:

Tomorrow, after they've had a good day to cure, I'll attach the ribbon for hanging.

While they were working, Gabriel spontaneously broke out into song. I captured the last little bit.

Santa Claus is Coming!

Countdown to Christmas!

Today the little peeps were busy counting down to Christmas! They successfully mastered the art of paper chain making including counting the days, matching the right number of links and gluing each link together.

This simple activity is one of my favorites to do with kids. It involves hand-eye coordination, counting practice, patterns, and it gives kids a visual representation of time. It's much easier to point to the chain when your little peep asks, "How much longer?" for the upteenth time.

St. Nicholas Cookies

Recipe of the Month

This is a great gingerbread man type of recipe. The cookies are flavorful and crisp, but won't chip a tooth on the first bite. Also, a great dunking cookie (we've tried both milk and hot chocolate).
 

Speculaas Koekjes (Dutch Spice Cookies)

2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt, scant
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ginger

Cream butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix, adding enough flour to form a stiff dough. Press well chilled dough into cookie boards or chill for 1 hour, roll out and cut into shapes.* Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 12 minutes, or until light brown. Decorate as desired when cool. Store in sealed container to retain crispness.

* This recipe works well with cookie stamps. Or shape into a cylinder of desired size and chill thoroughly in a covered container. Slice and bake as above. Makes approximately 6 dozen.

For preschool I halved the recipe, but used 1 whole egg. The dough was a little soft, but after an hour in the fridge it was a good consistency to make cut out cookies. The halved recipe made 2 dozen medium-sized rocking horses and 2 dozen small cookies.

Christmas Trees

The little peeps created festive Christmas trees to kick off our Holiday celebration. (They also got some fine motor skill practice too!)

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

December 6th is celebrated by many children in Europe as Saint Nicholas Day. In honor of the event, we read:



made St. Nicholas Cookies (spice cookies in Christmas shapes):

and colored wooden shoes for St. Nicholas:

Christmas Around the World

Today was our first day of Christmas Around the World! We talked about the children in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Some of their traditions include decorating Christmas trees, hanging stockings, and decorating with holly. Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, visits boys and girls on Christmas Eve to fill their stockings with goodies. In Ireland, families place candles in the window of their home to show that they would have welcomed Mary and Joseph.