Merry Christmas!!

From: Ms. Kim, Madison, Tanner, & Logan

Love you all!

December 23 birthdays

Happy Birthday...

L.O. -- 3 years old

C.H. -- 4 years old

Some CRAZY days!

Well, in the last few days we have all had some treats... other than Christmas parties.

Last Tuesday we all got a day off because the road were horrendous! That was a wonderful breat. I love the kids, but my house was seriously neglected. Since I wasn't going to get out in that mess, I was kind of forced to clean the house. Good thing too, because on Monday, Dec. 22 we came to the daycare in 13 degree temps with NO power. Well, we sure couldn't leave the door open with those kind of temps. There isn't any windows in the main room (yea, most of the time I don't like that either). So, off to my house we ALL went! We headed to my house for a day of... fun! It actually went well. The kids behaved pretty well and surprisingly enough... most took at least a one hour nap.

Most of the kids were extremely excited because they have never been to my house before and others hadn't been there in over 2 years. We all had a good time. The older girls got to watch ICarly during nap time... we don't have cable at the daycare. Then in the afternoon... Disney Sing It on the Wii. Boy was that a treat! Of course if I hear "Best of Both Worlds" again, I may scream.

So, amongst all of the Christmas presents and surprises, they got another nice treat by spending the day at my house! And of course I got some laundry cleaned too. ;) (Now, keep in mind, I didn't say folded, nor put away. It is clean and dry though!)

Friday, December 19... Christmas party!!!

We had a great party! We started out with the Christmas story. Then we made bracelets where each bead represented a part in the Christmas story.

yellow or gold -- Angel that told Mary she was going to have baby Jesus

light blue -- Mary

gray -- donkey that Mary rode to Bethelehem

brown -- manger that Jesus laid in

white -- Jesus

clear or star -- the star that led the wisemen to Jesus

purple -- 3 wisemen who brought gold, frankinsence and mirrh

green -- the shepherds in the hills that came to see Jesus

We then moved on to a game of hot potato. Only thing was... EVERYONE got a prize! We all brought books wrapped for exchanging. We passed around a book and when the music stopped, the person whose hands the book was in got to open it. Well... we had a few meltdowns when some of them didn't get the books that they brought. They just didn't understand. By the end of the day though, all was good with the world!

Then was the really fun part! We made yummy Christmas trees! We took sugar cones, turned them upside down to make a tree. We then took white icing, I couldn't find the green food coloring so ours had lots of snow on them, and smeared it all over the cone. Then we "decorated" our tree with m&ms, colored sugar, chocolate chips and reindeer corn. Most of them tried a bite of it, one actually ate the whole thing. When finished, all the kids were nice and messy! You know, it was a special occasion. They wash! :)

After running for a few minutes to get some energy out, we moved to the "art" room to make a craft for our families. We made beaded candy cane ornaments. It was so neat to see the smallest ones beading their pipe cleaners. They were all proud of their creatins!

Oh, what is a party without pizza? Of course we had pizza for lunch! It is their favorite!

For snack... round 2 of the junk food! We had sugar cookies with icing, cupcakes... sugar, sugar, suger!

Before lunch we also decorated our treat bags. While they were sleeping we put their gifts in their bags. They included... the Frog Street Press cds of colors, shapes, numbers and the alphabet as well as candy! So, now they can sing their lovely songs at home for you all. I hope you enjoy going around singing them in your head all day. Amy and I shouldn't have to be the only ones that sing Elmo the Elephant while we are cleaning. ;)

Thank you all for having such wonderful children! We had a GREAT time!!!!

Unit 11: December 8 - 12

Sorry, I am so late posting.

Bible story: We are working on the Christmas Story for the rest of the month. It is very important that we learn that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and the spirit of giving with our heart.

We have read several different versions of the Christmas story from different books and such.

We learned that the angel spoke to Mary and told her that she was going to have a son. The son of God and that she will call him Jesus. The angel came to visit Joseph and told him to marry Mary, because she was carrying the son of the Holy Spirit.

The mean king Herod, wanted everyone to be recorded so that they could be taxed. Mary and Joseph had to travel by donkey to Bethelehem to be recorded. While in Bethelehem, they could not find a place to stay. Then an inn keeper offered up a stable for them to stay in to get some sleep and keep warm. That night in the "stinky barn" with all of the animals around, Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ. God sent us His son because He loved us so very much. The world was becoming very naughty and God wanted to save them. He wanted them to come live with him for eternity. So, He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.

Oh sins are the bad things that we CHOOSE to do. When we don't obey. When we sin, we should pray and ask God for forgiveness. God forgives us, but we have to ask Him. That doesn't mean that we can be naughty all of the time. We still have to make good CHOICES. God wants us to live for Him.

Letter of the week: Kk

Katy Kangaroo
(tune: Reuben, Reuben)

Katy the Kangaroo,

lives down in Kalamazoo,

flying her kite with kids all day.

She'll help us learn to say

things that begin with "Kk."

Watch and she'll show us as we play.

Kirby that goes kerplop,

kittens that like to hop,

Kelly, the kicking kangaroo,

Kelsie, the kitchen maid,

will serve us lemonade.

Learning is so much fun to do!

The End

color: We have covered them all, so we have white hanging up to remind us of Jesus and winter. We will just randomly choose one each week now.

shape: We have also covered all of the shapes except for the rhombus (trapezoid). We will cover that in January and then randomly go over all of them again.

nursery rhyme: We didn't do one this week. We are doing fingerplays and songs with Jesus and His birth. We will get back to that in January as well.

Number: 6
We touched on number 6, but since we have lots of time, we will start over with it again in January.

Congratulations Ms. Jennifer!!!

Aidan K.

came into the world Monday, December 15, 2008

@ 11:51 am

Both mom and baby are doing well and hoping to come home soon!

Christmas Party

We will be having a Christmas party! We will have it on Friday, December 19. We will be exchanging books again this year. It has worked best in the past. They are inexpensive. So, don't spend a fortune on a book. Go to Dollar Tree, dollar isle at Target or something of the sort and by an inexpensive book. Wrap the book and bring to on Friday, December 19. We will play Hot Potato or something of the sort.

We will also be eating junk food and having a good time. We are going to make the Christmas trees out of ice cream cones. I will put up a sign up sheet for items that we will need.

Oh, and what would Chrismas morning be, without being in our Christmas jammies! So, wear your warm jammies, bring your books and your junk food! We are going to listen to Christmas music and have a great time!!! I will of course take pictures and send them out to everyone.