A lot of great things has happened and many more to look forward in December as well as into the New Year.
Class pictures were taken in November, and just as the previous pre-K years, a new puppet was part of the photo. I don't know what it is a or them, but puppets seem to bring out shenanigans and silliness in everyone when used properly. Groff the blue monster puppet kicked off the tradition. Afterwards, Colin was in the spotlight. Wally was last year. And for the 2015-2016 school year, Oscar made his way into the pictures.
The lesser known Giving Tuesday follows afterwards. It's a day dedicated to giving to charities or causes you believe in. During this time of the year, amazing opportunities arise on DonorsChoose. One project of mine received a Google.org match offer. It was towards a project I created in hopes of bringing a big sensory table to our playground. The project had cost $4,000. But with the match, it was cut in half to $2,000.
Last year, I participated in growing a hideous mustache for our DonorsChoose projects. This year, I enlisted two friends, Vimal and Fahad, to grow in my place while competing against each other to see who could raise more money for our kids. Together, they raised over $1,100.
Teachers, family, and friends all pooled together to help this project for our school and we successfully reached our goal. The giant sensory table will arrive after the New Years. I created the project believing it was a shot in the dark campaign. So many things happened in our favor that helped make it possible.
December also marks three months of being in school for our pre-k kids. As you may recall, back in September, our children drew their own self portraits. The September self portraits serve as a baseline to see where our kids are developmentally. After being in preK for three months, it's time to see how far they've come. Pictures were taken and each child worked with the teacher in small groups drawing their self portraits.
It's amazing to see how far these children have come. Not only are their drawings developing, but almost all are starting to write their names. Parents are welcomed to check out their child's portrait and see the September drawings that is directly under December's.
This was asked in a whole group discussion to our students and many answered, in the play dough center, or in the store. It never occurred to them that play dough is something that can be made at home with the right ingredients.
The ingredients were charted on a Tree Map. They were separated into two categories, Main Ingredients and Optional Ingredients. Students discovered that the Main Ingredients were ingredients they are necessary to make the play dough and the Optional Ingredients aren't needed but make the play dough look more pleasing.
Parents, siblings, extended family, pets, and close friends are just some of the categories people may consider family. We hope to show our kids that all families are very different. We want to share and celebrate the differences within our class by making a pre-k family tree to showcase all families. We are requesting families send in pictures of the different people in their family for our kids to share with each other. When it's all done, the Family Tree will be our new bulletin board.
There are so many things to look forward to in December as well as into the new year. My apologies for not having updated the blog in over a month! Please be sure to send in those family photos to help complete our tree!