Christmas Elves Give from the Heart

The school friends at Harmony's House know what Christmas is all about: bringing joy to those around you, and sharing in it too!  These are the ways our "Christmas Elves" gave from the heart this season:

Each school friend made ornaments for their families, from helping to roll out the dough, selecting cookie cutters, and painting them with glitter when dry.

They hung ornaments on the trees with great precision and care.  

Some friends reverently arranged the stable to create a Christmas scene, reflecting on who was there, what happened so long ago on a very special night, and what this means for us today.

Some friends made festive decorations to ready the house for a big Christmas party!

The "bakery" was busy with little elves making Christmas cookies and cinnamon toast, and other yummy treats!

And finally, we celebrated all together with songs of joy, yummy Christmas tree snacks, and fellowship.

 Merry Christmas to you from us at Harmony's House!  We'll see you back in the new year!

Christmas is Coming!

And we've been preparing to celebrate this holiday!  These are some of the ways we are getting ready for Christmas.  We like to use these village blocks and magnetic Christmas tree to create a complete Christmas village.  

We've engaged our senses with a variety of textured ornaments, Christmas ducks, finger puppets, chimney tubes, sparkly trees and gingerbread boys, and even cinnamon pinecones.  One of the most enjoyable results from this provocation is hearing the children invent stories about Santa going down the chimneys, snowball fights, gingerbread boys outrunning reindeer, and more.  Additionally, the children engaged their fine motor skills by threading fuzzy sticks through the ornaments and hung them on the Christmas tree.

We've worked with green and white paint at the art easel, determining what happens when these colors are mixed.  

One of the BEST part of the Christmas season is driving after dark and seeing the lights!  Night time field trips for preschoolers are impractical, so we turned off the lights and turned on our glow sticks to play with lights.

Some of our friends have become more interested in letters.  Ms. Harmony planned a Small Group activity where each child was given a large letter 'C' for Christmas with a pencil, a fuzzy stick, and a ball of play dough.  One friend in particular, loves the letter 'C' because it is the letter the starts her name!

The children were encouraged to trace the letter with their fingers or pencil.  We talked about how the letter 'C' has a curvy shape.  We tried to form this shape with the fuzzy sticks and/or play dough.

Some of our friends were even able to hear the /c/ sound that 'C' makes and thought of their own 'C' words: candy cane, Christmas tree, carols, and cookies!

Christmas is coming, and we are almost ready!  Songs, lights, smells, letters, and stories... so many ways to fully experience the joyous holiday.