Happy Advent everyone! I hope that all of you are enjoying this season of joyful preparation for celebration of our Savior's birth. We are really enjoying this season at school. On Monday, the students noticed right away that our prayer table was different. I had a purple table cloth on it (the liturgical color for Advent) and a gift bag. All through free choice time, the kids asked me what was inside. I told them they would find out at circle time. Every day I place a gift on the table. The gift contains a part of our nativity set. I get the piece out and read a short reflection relating to the piece. The kids have kept up their enthusiasm about this reveal each day. I love seeing them get excited about the reason for the season. We also had a nice prayer service around the Advent wreath on Monday, and will have one each Monday of Advent. We ended the week by taking a little time on Friday to talk about St. Nicholas on his feast day. We also had another change in our classroom this week. Our Teacher's Aide, Mrs. Moore, has left St. Rose. She decided to use her degree in psychology to use in a position providing therapy for children with autism. We wish her well. Her replacement started last Wednesday, Miss Megan. We are excited that she has joined our class. This week we introduced the letter L. The kids did Christmas "light" finger paintings, learned the lion yoga pose, and, of course, had lots of fun guessing what Olatide put in the clue can. Since we missed a lesson the previous week, Miss Katie, the school counselor, came in twice this week to implement the kindness curriculum. She labeled lots of feelings that we have. The kids practiced making faces that showed these emotions. If the kids can make these faces, they can start to notice the faces of their friends to know how they are feeling. This is the first step in developing empathy. We also had a lot of fun playing with our new gingerbread playdough, creating AB patterns on candy cane ornaments, strengthening fine motor skills making pine cone ornaments. and writing letters to Santa. I told the kids that I will mail their letters to Santa. Be on the lookout for a sealed envelope in your child's folder addressed to the parents of ____. I think these will be a nice keepsake. Our class Christmas party will be at 11:00 on Friday, December 20. If you would like to help out, please contact our head room mom, Paola Ramirez. You must have taken Protecting God's Children to come in for a classroom party. This is archdiocesan policy. Thanks for all that you do. Blessings, Mrs. Hale Dates to remember December 20 - 11:00 Christmas Party 12:00 Dismissal December 23 - January 3 No School for Christmas Break January 6 - classes resume |
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