Happy Monday!  The friends were excited to be together again today! 

Morning free choice 

During outside time we had a fire drill.  The friends did a great job! 

The friends have responsibility in our class. This not only increases the ownership in the classroom, but it also helps instill leadership qualities in the friends!  While I set up for small group time, Mrs. Zwettler reads a book to the friends.  While Mrs. Zwettler is getting the book, the kindness finder leads the friends in a song that we have learned.  

I encourage you to provide opportunities at home for your children to exhibit responsibility.  Perhaps give them the job of filling up the cups with ice for dinner or even collecting the laundry for the washer. 

During small group time, Mrs. Zwettler played a count and clip game with the friends.  The children worked to count how many items were on their card.  They used a clothespin to mark the corresponding numeral.  This increases one to one correspondence, counting, and number recognition. 

Independently, the friends put all of their pattern knowledge to use! 

With me, the friends were scientists.  We followed a recipe to make Christmas slime.  This activity promotes pre-reading and math skills as the friends "read" the recipe and measure and count out the correct amount of ingredients.  It also is a sensory experience for the friends! 

During Jesus time we talked about how Jesus is the light of the world.  We turned off the lights to envision what the shepherds felt in the field the night Jesus was born.  We then turned them back on and discussed how the angles were so bright!  Jesus shines light into the darkness!  He died on the cross and rose again to save us from all of our sins! 

During second outside time the sun came out!  Yay! 

Second free choice

Mrs. Morris was in our classroom for Mrs. Zwettler.  Thank you for your help Mrs. Morris! 

We love making gifts and pictures with the glitter and glue! 

During second small group time we worked on sorting Christmas ornaments by multiple properties.  We are working to scaffold the friends' sorting so that they are able to sort by more than just color.  For example: this group has fat lines, this one has skinny lines. 

We also wrote in our journals.

With me we worked to identify the numbers on the tree.  If we couldn't remember the number, we counted the ornaments to see.  We compared the numbers to see which has more and less.