S is for SNOW PICTURES, SERVICE & SHARING This week we focused on the Letter 'S' and many things that start with the letter 'S' in this season of giving as our theme for the month of December is, 'The Joy of Service'. On Monday we had a lot of songs, poems, and books that focused on Snowmen. We made a snowman for one of our snacks - the children took marshmallows and pushed them onto a pretzel stick, building a snowman that had pretzel arms and raisin eyes and mouth. This was indeed a sugary snack, and most of the children that wanted to eat their snowman only ate a little way before they turned back to their crackers, apples and raisins! What wonderful healthy choices they are making on their own! For our lesson today we discussed how wonderful it is to give service to others, and talked about the definition of service as, "Being kind to someone and doing something nice for them". We drew a present on the board and talked about that there are times we can give a present to someone, and sometimes what we give doesn't or can't fit inside a box; such as a smile, helping someone in your family (playing nicely with a sibling, help Mom with a job, or draw a picture for Dad for when he comes home). It is always fun to hear ideas that the children come up with and what they want to share with everyone during lesson time!
On Wednesday, we continued talking about Service and ways to look at doing something nice for someone. I had in mind trying to get them to think of someone that they have seen that might be in need of something nice done for them - such as someone without a home or a car. However, they took this as someone in their family, so instead we talked about ways that we can give service in our homes by helping clean-up and being quiet in the car when Mom and Dad are driving so that we can also be safe. We thought up a lot of words that started with 'S' and wrote them on the board, along with a picture clue for what the word was, i.e. Smile :) We underlined the 'S' in each word and sang the song 'S says ssss and S says ssss. Every letter makes a sound, S says ssss'. They then looked around the room to find an object that started with the letter 'S' or the actual letter 'S' in a word that was posted in the room. For art the children were able to use white paint and their brushes and create their own Snow Picture. I loved watching them draw their picture and talk about what was going on their pages - what appears to us to be big spotches or blobs of white are the hills, mountains, and really big snowflakes to our children! We also did 'snow' (packaging peanuts) in the letter S and then for a fun treat at the end, we each shared a piece of a chocolate letter'S'...I'm sure all snacks and treats will pale in comparison from now on!
NEW this week! We introduced the Calendar, and so are practicing counting and also looking for patterns that are introduced through the numbers that are posted on the Calendar. We also have formalized the Classroom Helpers, and the children have a wall where each job is posted as well as their names, and we rotate through each day. Some jobs are more favored than others - such as the coveted Line Leader - hopefully as we explain that each child gets a turn each day to be something new they will understand that their turn will come shortly and to practice the art of being patient.
