LEARNING ABOUT HANUKKAH AND CHRISTMAS!

Dear Parents,

We began our holiday unit by learning about Hanukkah and Christmas.  If you celebrate a different holiday please let us know so we can celebrate your holiday as well.

We had lots of fun this week preparing for the Jewish holiday.  We introduced Hanukkah by reading Jeremy's Dreidel by Ellie Gellman. We then painted and decorated spinning tops. The children made a star of David using popsicle sticks, jewels, and sequins. They also made edible dreidels using a marshmallow, a Hershey kiss, and a pretzel.  Mmmm... were they good.  A couple of children became so excited with the project that they ate it before they even made it.

On Thursday, the children created 3-D dreidels using Hanukkah stickers and various decorations. They look spectacular displayed across the top of our classroom window. We then played the dreidel game.

Some of the new holiday songs we haven been practicing are:
"O Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah, "The Dreidel Song," "We Wish you 
a Merry Christmas," and "Jingle Bells."

Mandarin with Ms. Peishuan:
This week we learned about colors in mandarin. We named the colors on their T-shirt, pants, socks and shoes. Also we read a Chinese book, 愛瑪的顏色 (translation from Elmer’s colors)

blue	lán sè	藍色
yellow	huáng sè	黃色
green	lǜ sè	綠色
red	hóng sè	紅色

purple               zǐ sè                         紫色

orange              chéng sè                 橙色

white                 bái sè                       白色

black                 hēi sè                       黑色

In the book we reviewed some words：

run fast 跑得快 pǎo dé kuài

Sleep 睡覺 shuì jiào

Another book we read about colors was  Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. Kids laughed out loud when the turkey was wearing his pants the wrong way. In the book we also reviewed: 

hat 帽子 mào zi

socks 襪子 wà zi

shoes 鞋子 xié zi

                      

                They played "Find the Color game"!

Notes from Ms. Yuting:
The children practiced the proper hand position while playing the piano.  They were instructed to use their index finger and thumb to form the letter "C." This is important to use this position when playing the piano.

On Friday, we read The Runaway Latkes, by Leslie Kimmelman and then made our own potato latkes.  This is a traditional food that is eaten during Hanukkah. The children absolutely loved making them as well as eating them!

Reminders:
~Please include eating utensils in your child's lunch box and with     his/her afternoon snack.

~We invite you to our HALF NOTE HOLIDAY PARTY  held in our classroom at 9:15AM on Friday, December 21st.  The children will be singing  several holiday songs for you.  Refreshments will be served afterwards. 

Love,

Ms. Bonne & Ms. Denise