December is always an exciting month for the kids. We enjoyed preparing for Christmas. Because we were so busy making our parent's Christmas gifts, we didn't have time to learn about the theme "Animals Around The World". We will integrate this theme into our January calendar. It felt like Santa’s Workshop here as the children created fun Christmas crafts. The children really enjoyed the visit from Santa.

This month we learned about the concept of "giving". The children made beautiful angel and dove ornaments for the senior residents at Hillview Residence in Orcutt. Teacher Aundreana's daughter Alexa helped to deliver them to the sweet seniors. One woman hung the ornament immediately on her tabletop tree that was displayed in her room. Another we left on the dresser of a woman who was sleeping. What a surprise to wake-up to!

I want to thank all the parents and our kids for participating in our "Giving Tree". We are overwhelmed with how caring and generous everyone has been. We are so proud to have the greatest parents and children ever! All the gifts and Avon gift bags were given to Domestic Violence Solutions. They will help women and their children who are in a "safe place" have a wonderful Christmas. This was all made possible because you cared. Thank you!
Next month our themes will be Fairy Tales, Community Helpers, Nursery Rhymes, Animals Around the World and Entertainment.

We look forward to jumping back into our kindergarten readiness activities. During the rest of the month please review letters A-I and numbers 0-8 at home. Name writing practice (first letter capital only) is important too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TEACHERS AUNDREANA, CHERYL AND VERONICA

Wow! 2010 is over, Hello 2011. We had a great year of fun in the Red Group. At the end of 2010, we learned about people around the world during Christmas/Winter time. We had a blast talking about celebrations such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. We also talked about animals around the world.

The children enjoyed working on their Christmas gifts for their families and filled the month of December with many art activities and Christmas music. Everyone had a great time when Santa came to visit. The children had huge smiles on their faces! Thank you Santa!

Welcome 2011! Our themes will focus on Fairy Tales, Community Helpers, Nursery Rhymes, Opposites and Sequencing, and Entertainment. We will continue to do name recognition and our calendar routine.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TEACHER TRESHA

We had great fun at the end of the year. We learned about different animals from the Arctic to Antarctica. We focused on people and traditions around the world and talked about Kwanzaa.

The children enjoyed working on Christmas gifts for their families and filled the month of December with music and art activities. We had a great celebration when Santa came to visit us. Thank you Santa!

Welcome 2011! The class themes of Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes are always fun to visit. We will integrate the basics of shapes and colors and the alphabet into these well loved stories. To introduce Community Helpers into our curriculum, we will have a visit from an ambulance company, the Fire Department, and the Police Department. If you have a community helper job, we would love to have you come in and tell us about it.

WE HOPE YOU HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
TEACHERS CHRIS & KAREN