For Community Time last Friday, the entire school came together to make place mats for "Meals on Wheels" recipients. Students were grouped according to their HCA families and worked together to choose and create either a snow scene, a wreath, or a Christmas tree for their place mats. All the boys and girls enjoyed spending time with their families and made some wonderful creations that are sure to bring joy to people this holiday season.
Fine motor skill development is vital in any early childhood classroom. While technology has been able to provide us with many valuable tools to assist a child's learning, research has also shown that it is hindering children's fine motor skill development. In our Pre-K classroom, we use a variety of materials and lessons to help the boys and girls develop and strengthen their fine motor skills.
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| Mira is practicing spooning. |
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| Lily is pouring sand slowly and carefully. |
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| Charity is tweezing pom-poms. |
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| Foster is fastening snaps. |
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| Blaine is fastening buttons. |
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| Scarlett is fastening buckles. |
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| Marcus is practicing lacing. |
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| Jordyn is placing beads. |
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Kellan traced and is punching out Europe
for his continent map. |
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| Austin is using the Metal Insets. |
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| Vincent is coloring - and holding his crayon so well! |
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Nora is completing the "Write the Room"
activity. |
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Braela is practicing stringing beads and showing
quantities from 11-20. |
At home, you can provide your child with some opportunities to practice their fine motor skills. Here are some ideas:
- Cutting
- Pasting
- Playing with Play-Doh
- Zippering coats
- Coloring
- Putting puzzles together
These ideas, along with many others, will strengthen your child's fine motor skills, develop hand-eye coordination, and refine the pincer grasp - all things that will help them learn to write!
Our Weekly Reader this week was about bears and hibernation. The boys and girls learned all about what bears do in the winter - and decided that they could never hibernate for that long! The Pre-K students also learned about measurement. They knew that measuring meant they would find out how tall or how wide something was. As a math activity, we measured things in our classroom. The children loved estimating and then measuring how tall or wide each thing would be.
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| The chair is 2 paws tall. |
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| Our friend, Kellan, is 5 paws tall. |
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| The shelf is 4 paws wide. |
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| The rug is 11 paws wide. |
The Pre-K students brought their worksheets and bear paws home and are ready to measure things around the house!
Yesterday, we celebrated St. Nicholas Day! We learned that St. Nicholas lived a long time ago. He was a bishop who helped to care for the poor and needy. He secretly left money and gifts for families in their stockings or shoes. Nicholas inspired others to give to others and remember those in need.
We gathered with our friends in Nursery and Kindergarten to watch a movie about St. Nicholas. The boys and girls left one of their shoes in the hallway during the movie, in the hopes that St. Nicholas would come! To our surprise, we heard some bells ringing and went out into the hall to see. St. Nicholas had come and left us all a surprise in our shoes - just like he did for the boys and girls years ago!
Operation Advent
Throughout the Advent season, Holy Child Academy will be collecting materials to support The Providence Center in the Fairhill section of Philadelphia. The Providence Center offers the hardworking families of this neighborhood education, love, and possibility.
Please send your items into school by Monday, December 17.
Reminders:
- The HCA Family Christmas liturgy is this Sunday, December 9, at 10:00 am in the MPR. We hope to see you there!
- Show and Tell will be on Friday, December 14. Please send your child in with something to share that has to do with Christmas time!
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Pajama Day was so much fun!
Thank you for your support of CHOP! |
