Wow! It's been a busy few weeks and today's concert and winter break parties were the perfect culmination to 2011! We've done lots of cooking and baking, continued to experience, discover, and learn, made gifts for our parents and brought in gifts for those less fortunate than ourselves. In just three short weeks the children, working with Mrs. McIvor learned Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanzaa songs  to do concerts for our neighbors in the adult community next door and for their parents in our theater! Check out E-Bytes, our Shorecrest online newsletter for pictures and videos of those performances. Here's just a small representation of what's been happening since my last entry:

Mrs. McIvor really got into the spirit of our Holiday Gift Drive,

The response of our generous school community was overwhelming!

Our open art center leads to great creativity. These boys got great joy out of creating beards and mousetaches!

Both visual perception and fine motor control were involved in fitting these wooden shapes into the appropriate spaces.

Our budding architect is using symmetry and experimenting with balance.

Playing music with tambourines and bells works well with seasonal music.

These girls were decorating the snow booth that was later used at the winter party.

Jumping rope is a hard skill for 4 year olds but our children love to practice.

Look at the broccoli and tomato we grew!

Music makes us all happy!

We made decorations for all the holidays we and our friends celebrate at this time of year.

 The following pictures are all from our winter break parties in Alpha and Junior Kindergarten. The children had a blast and so did the parents. We are so grateful to our parent community for all their support and help!

 Decorations were made using shells and more to imprint self-drying clay. The children then painted and their designs with sparkly paint.

JK made reindeer cupcakes that were fun to make and really delicious.

Winter bingo reinforced shapes, numbers and holiday symbols.

Homemade sundaes were a real hit in Alpha!

Throwing snowball bean bags at a target was a great gross motor exercise and a favorite spot to go during the alpha party.

Parents and children worked together to create snowflake decorations - You can never use too many sequins!

The children measured hot chocolate mix, marshmallows and chocolate chips into a cellophane cone, then tied the top with a ribbon to create a treat to take home and enjoy later.

Making gingerbread houses is also a creative outlet.

The children had very definite ideas on how they wanted to decorate their snowflakes.

Even grandparents came to help!

the train set always presents opportunities to learn to work together collaboratively and cooperatively.

I wish you all a happy holiday and new year! Watch for more news about our activities in 2012!