We are getting ready for Christmas in the Kindergarten room. On Monday we had a special visitor, St. Nicholas. He stopped by to help us celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas. We started the week by learning about needs and wants. Then we created a class book called, All I Want For Christmas. We each wrote about something we really need and something we really want for Christmas. We also wrote about what we would do if Santa was stuck in our chimney. Next we listened to the story, The Legend of the Candy Cane. A candy cane looks like a shepherd’s staff and the shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus's birth. When you flip it over, it looks like a J for Jesus. After we finished our story, we made candy cane ornaments. We also spent some time learning about the poinsettia with the story Legend of the Poinsettia and then creating a paper poinsettia flower ornament. On Friday, we had an all day Advent Retreat at church.
Monday:
Happy Second Week of Advent! We started our day with we Brother Francis. He told us about the Advent Wreath. Then Finn unwrapped our story, The Legend of St. Nicholas.
Happy St. Nicholas Day! We had a special visitor this morning, St. Nicholas. As part of our Catholic faith, we honor many saints. They lived their life the way Jesus's taught us to live. St. Nicholas is one of those saints and today, December 6th, is his feast day. Nicholas liked to give away his treasure and help people at night so no one know it was him. In many countries, St. Nicholas gives out gifts on St. Nicholas day instead of Christmas Eve. He leaves little treats for children in their shoes. Besides listening to our story, we watched a short video about St. Nicholas.
We were also introduced to a new letter sound and letter, Dd. After video, we created a list of words that began with the /d/. Then we did a letter D sorting sheet.
We started reading with the story Santa’s Stuck. As we listened to the story, we identified the problem. Santa ate too many treats and cookies and got stuck in the chimney as he was trying to leave. Instead of finishing the story right away to find out what happened. We each took time to write about what we would do if we woke up in the middle of the night and Santa was stuck in our chimney. We had to be specific. We couldn’t just say we would help him. When writing, we had to use our sounds to figure out what letters to write. We broke big words up into syllables to help us figure out the letter sounds and letters. We also used the word wall to help us spell our sigh words correctly. When everyone was done writing, Ms. Torborg finished reading the story to us.
In Math we were introduced to the calculator. We started with just exploring the different buttons on it. We had fun putting in numbers and see what happened when we pushed the side buttons. Then Ms. Torborg gave us different tasks to complete. We practiced entering specific numbers both one and two digit numbers, entering numbers greater and less than a specific number, and entering numbers one more or one less than a given number.
In the afternoon, we created a picture of Santa stuck in a chimney. Santa’s feet dangling in the fireplace opening. We started by creating the background, a brick fireplace. Making the bricks were tricky. We had to use a ruler to make line all over a piece of red paper. Then we had to trace all of our pieces before we could cut them out. Ms. Torborg helped us glue them together. Then we added some cotton balls as fur trim on Santa’s coat. When it was dry, we added our writing on the bottom and hung them on the wall for everybody to see.
We ended the day with a VeggieTales movie about the life of St. Nicholas.
Tuesday:
We started our day with we Brother Francis. He told us the story of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary and asked us to thank God for all that we have. Isaac unwrapped our story today, The Crippled Lamb.
In reading, we listened to the story, The Crippled Lamb. As we listened to the story, we talked about what was happening to the lamb and how he was feeling. At the end of the story, we identified the different parts of the story and details from the story. We were also introduced to two new sight words, we & have. After reading through all of our sight words, we were given a new emergent book, Merry Christmas. We worked together to read our story. Then we read it with a partner.
After snack, we learned about the difference between wants and needs. We listened to the story Lily Learns about Wants and Needs. Then we watched 2 short videos. A need is something you must have to live and a want is something to make life easier or better. We determined our needs are air, food & water, clothes, and shelter. Wants are things like cupcakes, bikes, video games, and fancy clothes. Together on the Smartboard we did a sorting activity in which we had to classify things as wants or needs. We also did a worksheet on our own.
Then we worked on a writing activity. We each wrote a letter to Santa. In it we had to list at list one thing that we needed and one thing that we wanted. We also listed one thing that we would read and one thing that we would wear.
In the afternoon, we had music and PE. Then we finished up some of our work from this morning. Plus we colored St. Nicholas in our Saint Books since we didn’t have time yesterday.
Wednesday:
Today was a special feast day within the Catholic church. It is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Mary the mother of Jesus was born without sin. We went to church at noon today, so we had lunch a little early.
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about Mary. The angel Gabriel visited Mary and asked her to be Jesus’ Mother. In honor of Mary saying “Yes”, Brother Francis asked us to make some flowers and put them next to a Mary statue. Joe unwrapped our story today, The Legend of the Candy Cane.
In reading, we listened to the story, The Legend of the Candy Cane. Throughout the story, we made predictions about what we think might happen and we explained why things happened. We also used word clues and the pictures to figure out “big” words in the story. Finally, we used the clues in the story (pictures and words) to figure out the setting (when and where) of the story. At the end of the story, we talked about the meaning of the candy cane and the message we should spread to others just like Lucy and Mr. Sonneman. We also reviewed our letter sounds, discriminated between words that s
Today our theme was the Candy Cane. In the story, The Legend of the Candy Cane, we found out that a candy cane looks like a shepherd’s staff and the shepherds were the first to hear about Jesus's birth. When you flip it over, it looks like a J for Jesus. The two colors also have a special meaning. The red is for the blood Jesus shed and the white is to remind us that Jesus took away all of our sins.
In the afternoon, we made candy cane ornaments. We had to put red and white beads in an AB pattern on a pipe cleaner. Then we bent the top to create the hook. Finally, we added a message about the meaning of the candy cane.
In math, we worked on patterning. After reviewing patterning and identifying different patterns, we created 3 different candy cane patterns on our worksheet. Our first pattern was AB. Then we created an AAB or an ABB pattern. And finally, we created an ABC pattern.
At the end of the day, we watched a movie called The Legend of the Candy Cane. When it was over, we talked about how it was the same as the book and how it was different. We decided it was really different from the book except for the information about the candy cane.
Thursday:
For Advent today, we heard Brother Francis tell us about the Kingdom of God and to slowly pray the Our Father and to think about that wonderful kingdom. Noah unwrapped our story today, The Legend of the Poinsettia.
We read our story today after we learned a little bit about St. Juan Diego and watched a video about him. Today is his special feast day, December 9th. Mary visited Juan and asked him to build a church. When he needed a special sign for the Bishops, Mary told him to put some flowers from the hillside in his tunic. When he brought them to the Bishops, her image, Our Lady of Guadalupe, was left.
Our story, The Legend of the Poinsettia, had many words in Spanish. We worked together to figure out the meaning of each word from the context clues around it. We also established that our story was set in a Spanish speaking city near Guadalupe since the Virgin of Guadalupe played such an important role.
In reading, we worked with the -ip word family. We started out creating a list of word on the chart paper. Then we completed a -ip word family graphing worksheet. We started it together since it was a new activity. Once we got the hang of it, we finished it on our own. Then we made our -ip flip book.
In math, we were reviewed our pattern block shapes (triangle, square, rhombus, trapezoid, & hexagon). Then we used the pattern blocks to build hexagons. With a partner, we gathered our supplies, a bowl full of pieces and pattern template. Then we went to work. We used the pattern block pieces to create hexagons. Once we found 6 different ways to make a hexagon, we recorded our answers on our worksheet.
Our theme for the day was the Poinsettia. National Poinsettia day is December 12th. We started our by reading the story The Legend of the Poinsettia. The poinsettia, also called the Christmas flower, is usually red. Our project for the day was to make a paper poinsettia. We had to trace and cut out two different red flowers and one green flower. Then we layered them and glued them together. We added a yellow button as the center and a ribbon to hang it on the tree.
Friday:
Today was our Advent retreat day at the church. We spent the whole day at church. Our focus today was on the 4 candles of the Advent Wreath, Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. We started our day off with Mass. Then as the older kids attended Reconciliation, we watched a Brother Francis movie about Forgiveness. When it was over, we joyed the older kids for a little bit of adoration and Benediction.
After lunch and recess, we completed 5 different stations. Each station focused on one of the 4 words with Christmas being the last station. At each station, we made something to give away. Some of the items are going to people in the community and others our for our family.
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