Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays! This week we are listening for and looking at the letter Hh for holiday. Holiday originally came from the words Holy Day. Christmas is a day set apart for celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Table activities include making an ornament suncatcher, stamping lights, trimming a paper tree, Christmas dot painting, creating an ornament and Christmas playdoh mats.

Small group this week includes making a star popsicle stick ornament, a glitter tree ornament, some Christmas experiments and adding an Hh page to our journal.

Our KDI for the week is Art-Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine and feel through two- and three-dimensional art.

Jesus Time- This week we hear about Jesus' birth. Mary and Joseph are married and in Nazareth when an order comes down from the Roman emperor. He wants everyone to return to the town of their birth to be counted. That means Mary and Joseph will have to make the trip to Bethlehem, a small village outside Jerusalem. It takes them at least three days to walk or slowly ride a donkey. When they arrive, there is no open space for them to stay in any houses, they village is packed full of people. Finally, they find someone who has space in a stable, probably a cave in the side of a hill, used to keep animals. It's smelly, but dry and warm as Mary is about to give birth. She gives birth to a son and he is named Jesus!  She lays him, swaddled in a manger, in the stable. Some shepherds who were out watching their sheep were startled by the appearance of an angel. After the angel tells them not to be afraid, they proclaim the good news of Jesus birth and how to find him- You will find the baby, wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger.  Suddenly, millions of angels appear, as if the curtain is drawn back to catch a glimpse of heaven! All singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!" After the angels went back into heaven, the shepherds ran into Bethlehem to find this baby the angels had told them about! They found him and praise him and returned to their fields, telling everyone along the way what they had seen and heard! Mary quietly thought about everything that had happened. Pondered, is the word our Bible translation uses- thought about over and over again.

Books of the week- "Mortimer's Christmas Manger" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman,     "Snowmen at Christmas" by Mark and Carolyn Buehner and "A Night of Great Joy" by Mary Engelbreit.

This Saturday, December 14th, from 9-11am is the Christmas Service Practice. Please drop your child off by the flagpole entrance and pick them up in the Multi-Purpose Room close to the kitchen. (You'll see when you drop off) 

Also, there is a sign up for which service you would like to attend on the bulletin board in preschool. If you are unable to attend, just write that, along with your child's name on the sign up!

Thanks so much! Have a fun, festive week!