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 Winter Holiday Unit

Happy Holidays to all of my Pre-K families.  We had a lot of fun this week working on our Winter Holidays Unit and were very creative making beautiful homemade cards, pictures and art projects made from a place of love and gifted to you. After the new year, we will do a Winter unit, including Snowmen and Gingerbread Men.

Monday -  We wore Holiday Colors for Winter Spirit Week and started our circle time by playing the game, "What's My Rule?", that works on classification and attribute awareness. The rule could be based on color, length of sleeve, type of clothing, patterns, or images on what each person is wearing. We have played this game many times.  However, a random students always gives a "classroom rule" as a first guess when we begin. For example, I ask, "What's My Rule? and I invite students wearing clothing with letters/words to stand up. Without a doubt, someone will say "No hitting!"  It makes me chuckle every time. Our Monday circle time share topic was Elf on a Shelf.  It was a popular topic and the students shared fun stories about places they found their Elf on a Shelf. We made homemade cards with colorful Washi tape, markers, dot paints, and some glue and glitter.  These cards were made with lots of LOVE.  The students made multiple cards by choice for different people in their families. We also did some dot painting of a Christmas tree and had Hanukkah and Menorah pictures available for coloring.

Tuesday- We wore Comfy and Cozy (Think Fleece and Flannel) for Winter Spirit Week. We started our Christmas Light Name project where kids build their names using printable light bulbs with a letter in their name in each bulb. After several stages completed throughout the week, the end project will be displayed on fork painted "garland."  The benefit is reinforcing letter recognition and spelling by coloring, painting, cutting and stringing bulbs for each letter to spell the  students' names correctly. We also "unwrapped" and worked to make the Slime gift I game to my students. Each student was able to choose a color and was given lots of choices of things to add to personalize their slime. Sorry if slime is not popular in your households. I had one student say, "Mom doesn't like slime. She likes play dough better!" Another student said, "My mom says to play with it at school.  She doesn't want slime in her house!" However, the students loved the process ad all of the choices they had while making the slime. Plus, the benefit of playing with Slime is that it strengthens the small muscles needed for writing, buttoning, and using scissors. We also made more Holiday Cards with Washi Tape and glitter. In the afternoon, we listened to the 3rd and 4th Grade Chorus perform at an all school assembly in the gym. Then enjoyed our Music Class with Ms. Li. We danced and moved to Putting on the Warmies. The students used blue and white streamers to act out and sing the song JACK FROST. We also danced with colorful battery operated tea lights to a beautiful song, Twinkling Lights. The song and movements were so pretty. We were all exhausted by the end of the day.

Wednesday-  We wore Wacky Holiday Wear for Winter Spirit Week.  We learned how to spin a dreidel and then practiced for awhile before using this skill to paint with a spinning dreidel. After drying, the dreidel pictures were cut out and glued to blue paper. Some kids finished water color painting their name lights while others started fork painting the "garland/tree" background where the kids will attach their name lights.  We also dot painted Chritmas Trees and Ornaments, adding glue and glitter to add a little bling.  Glitter seems to be a popular part of the process for the Pre-K students this week. They produced very creative and beautiful designs. 

Thursday- We wore Holiday Bling for Winter Spirit Week.  We worked on building and Elf which included coloring and cutting out the body parts of the elf.  We then glued them together like a puzzle.  Some glued them together and others glued them directly onto the construction paper to create their very own elf. We also made snow flakes with glue and glitter on black paper.  Using bottled glued helps strengthen little muscles in hands and wrists, and works on pincer grasp, as well as eye to hand coordination. We continued to work on our light name project, with some kids still cutting out their light bulbs and others beginning to attach the lights to the "garland/tree."  

Friday- We wore Fun and Festive Pajamas.  We celebrated Eve's 5th birthday with some GoNoodle and Danny Go birthday songs, as well as some other movement activities of her choice. We were honored to have Nikki's mom read the book, Grace Learns about Yalda by Ellie Fard to an engaged group of Pre-K students. Dec. 21 is the longest night of the year and it is called Yalda Night. It is a special celebration for Persian communities. Families and friends stay up late or all night together.Traditional tables are decorated with pomegranates, watermelons, nuts, and other fruits.  The red colors symbolize life and light. Our Pre-K students were very attentive and respectful to our guest reader. We have come so far this year.  We made watermelons with green, red and black tissue paper for Yalda.  Some students chose to color with markers instead.  

A Yalda table on Dec. 21

We also finished making our Christmas Lights Name project and they turned out great.  The students worked so hard on all aspects of this and other projects this week.  They had to stay attentive, follow many directions, use many skills, and show patience throughout the process. Well done Spoede Pre-K students.  We went to a Spoede Winter Sing Along with the whole school and enjoyed participating. Mrs. Nutt, our Spoede Elementary Music teacher MC'd the assembly and led us through singing the songs, while Kristina Lodes our Technology Coordinator took on the DJ duties. Coach Williams led us in the "The Sid Shuffle" from Ice Age: Continental Drift. At end of the Winter Sing Along, Principal Bjerk and Assistant Principal Koenig played tube intruments to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as we all sang along. It was a lot of fun.  We enjoyed a little free choice after lunch, and then it was time to go home for early release.  

 

We have completed the first semester of Pre-K and I have seen so much growth in the students' social emotional, physical and cognitive areas. I am grateful for being able to teach such amazing students and for the support I receive from their families.  I want to thank everyone for the generous Spoede Pre-K class gift and for the individual gifts that I received. I hope you all have a wonderful winter break and that you are able to spend time during the Holidays with family and friends.  Looking forward to a wonderful 2026 and we will see you in the New Year!

Upcoming Dates to Remember

12/22 - 1/5/2026 Winter Break:  No School

1/6/2026 -  School Resumes from Winter Break

1/16 No School Students.   Teacher Professional Development Day

1/19  No School.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day

PRE-K WEEK IN REVIEW!

Enjoy the photos. See all of the wonderful things we did this week. 

Holiday Cards for our Families and 4th Grade Buddies, using Washi tape, markers, glue and glitter

Dot painting Christmas trees.

Practicing writing the Alphabet

Outdoor Recess! Yay!

Coloring the name part of our Christmas Light Name project with pastel oil crayons.

After coloring the names, the students got to paint the lights with water colors. 

Decorating and making individualized slime as a gift from Ms. Davenport. 

More Holiday Card Making

One creative Homemade Kite

Music with Ms. Li

Let's Put on our Warmies.   (Movement and Singing)

Using Blue and White Streamers to dance and sing to JACK FROST.

Using battery operated Tea Lights to gracefully dance to the beautiful song, Twinkling Lights. They danced with the lights off which added to the beauty.  

Selfie fun at Carpool

Outdoor Recess

Learning and practicing how to spin a Dreidels before using Dreidels to paint a dreidel picture. 

Painting the "Name Lights" with water colors

Christmas Tree and Ornament Dot painting, with glue and glitter.  Produced creative and innovative creations. 

Snowflakes with glue and glitter. 

Fork Painting our evergreent tree branches to hang our Christmas "name lights."

Using packing  tape hand loops to pick up glitter from the table.

Holiday Bling for Spirit Week and kids just happy to be at Spoede!

We are working on Building an Elf.  Color and cut out the shapes.Then Glue them together

 to build their very own elf! Finally Place the elf ontoconstruction paper,

Snowflake designs with glue and glitter.

Working on our names in lights projects.

Holiday Pajama Spirit Day

Brothers Conor and Charlie looking like a happy "Grinchy" family. 

Happy 5th Birthday, Eve!

We were honored to have Nikki's mom read the book, Grace Learns about Yalda by Ellie Fard to an engaged group of Pre-K students. Yalda is a Persian celebration that takes place on Dec. 21, the longest day of the year (Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere).  

Our Pre-K students were amazingly attentive and respectful to our guest reader. We have come so far this year.  

Making Watermellon with green, red and black tissue paper for Yalda.  Some students chose to color with markers instead.  

Spoede's Winter Sing Along

Coach Williams leading Spoede students and staff in the "The Sid Shuffle" from Ice Age: Continental Drift.   Sid is the sloth from the movie and the song is in a line dance format. Pre-K needs a litlle practice but we tried.  Play a Danny Go or a DJ Raphi tune and you'll see some confident dancing! :)

Principal Issac Bjerk and Assistant Principal Taylor Koenig playing tube instruments to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as the students and teachers sing along.  Well done!

Last Free Choice of 2025

See you next year!