Holiday Programs at Trinity Preschool

Over the past two days we had three different wonderful Holiday programs at school.  

Our Terrific  2's and 3's class had a program in their classroom.  The families were invited to watch them sing a few songs and then stay to enjoy some cookies and punch.  We like doing their program in their classroom as they feel more comfortable and secure in familiar surroundings. 

 Our morning classes that are here on MWF all joined together in the church sanctuary to sing some songs for all the families and then had cookies and punch.

Our afternoon class had a special day at school where the parents were invited to stay and join the children for the day.  The parents got to see a little of how we handle group time and then they made a special craft with their child.  They had time to explore the room before the children sang some special songs and shared a treat.

All of the programs went well and it was a wonderful way to finish out before we have a couple weeks off to celebrate the holidays with our families.

Trinity Preschool Activities for December 20, 2012

Willow Room- Terrific 2's & 3's class

We had our Holiday party in our class today.

Maple Room- Thurs class

We read "Pete's a pizza" by William Steig

We made our own pizza today.
We did "Tommy Thumb", "Dog in school", and Itsy bitsy Spider" for music time.

Oak Room

We read "The magic porridge pot" by Paul Galdone

Cut bell shape and paint with glitter paint.

We did bead stringing on pipe cleaners.  We made patterns for candy cane shape.  

We had a car graphing activity and little legos out.

WE did "Must be Santa" and "5 little cookies sitting on a plate" for music time.

we asked the children "Does your name have an "N' in it?

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "Froggy's Best Christmas" by Jonathan London

We used roller painters to paint paper to make it look like a present.
We used dab a dot painters to paint Christmas ornament shapes.
 We did "mischievous elves" (The elves hide Santa's belt)

Maple Room: morning class

We read "The Gingerbread Pirates" by Kristin Kladstrup

We baked cookies for our holiday program.

Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "There was an old lady who swallowed a bell" by Lucille Colandro

We made beaded candy canes and wreaths.  We made reindeer food to sprinkle on our yards to guide Santa.
We had red, yellow and blue paint with textured brushes at the easel.

We practiced our holiday songs, S-A-N-T-A, Santa in the snow, 5 little cookies and Pass the Santa.
We also read "Mrs. Wishy Washy's Christmas " by Joy Cowley


Oak Room:
We read "Emily's Christmas Gift" by Cindy Post Senning and Where's Prancer" by Syd Hoff

We worked in our journals with the letter N - we drew pictures and wrote words that start with the letter N.
We read a book about the letter N.

Stay & Play:

We read "The three bears Christmas" by Kathy Duval

We painted with sponge painter sticks that are filled with glitter water colors.

We the The freeze dance ( to Christmas music), sticky bubble gum, a Christmas tree rhyme, and played a can you find the elves belt game.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's class

Remember the class holiday program for the Terrific 2's and 3's class will be on Thursday, Dec. 20 at 11:00 a.m.  

We read "The cookie Baker" by Monica Wellington

We asked the children "What is your favorite part about baking?"
We did a Christmas tree rhyme.

We baked today as our big project. We made cookies that we will serve for our holiday party.

We had brushes, glitter paint, and Christmas shape paper at the easel.  

Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "Froggy eats out" by Jonathan London

We baked cookies today for our holiday party.

We did Pass the Santa and The little elf for music time.

We did the mystery box for the letter N today.

Winter Art Quilt - Prekindergarten room

We used snow flake stampers and dark blue paper to create our "quilt"

The children had made a beautiful fall quilt and now we added our winter version.  Each child creates a picture and we assemble them to look like a quilt.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, December 17, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "There was an old lady who swallowed a bell!" by Lucille Colandro

We discussed make believe and the different things we pretend when we play.

We painted using green, gold, red, and blue glitter paint with springy egg beater whisks.

We played with real bread dough instead of play dough.

We got together with all the children for a practice for our holiday program on Friday.

We did a Christmas tree rhyme and had Christmas stampers at our free art table.


Maple Room- Morning class:

We read "If you take a mouse to the movies" by Laura Numeroff
We cut stocking shapes out of paper and added stampers and cotton balls to decorate them.

We had ornament shapes at the easel with water colors.

We practiced our Holiday songs with all the other children.

We did letter K activities and checked out what items that start with the letter K the alphabet monster ate.  W asked the children if they have the letter K in their name?

Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London
We made wreaths using tissue paper and paper plates and we had rollers at the easel with tree shapes.

We practiced our holiday songs.
Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "Froggy's Best Christmas" by Jonathan London

We also read "Max's Christmas" by Rosemary Wells

We made tree shapes with snowmen abd snowflakes on wax paper to hang on our windows.

We practiced our holiday program songs in a big group with all of the other children.

We are talking about the letter N this week.

Stay & Play: 

We read "How the grinch got grinchy" 

We put a star or tree shape on paper in a box.  Then we rolled a tennis ball back and forth in the box that had been dipped in paint.  We removed the star or tree shape to reveal a shape in the paper that did not get covered by paint.

You can barely see the start shape laying on the paper. The children had fun rolling the tennis ball back and forth.

Great control keeping the ball in the box and  rolling it where you want it to go.

When we pull up the star you see the shape appear.  

We played board games, had the train set out and enjoyed the bakery.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, December 14 , 2012

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "If you give a cat a cupcake" by Laura Numeroff
We asked the children "What is your favorite kind of cupcake?

We painted on cup cake shapes with spatulas as brushes, We used a mixture of shaving cream and glue as the frosting and added paper sprinkles on top. - see this previous blog post for pictures -Cutest cupcake ever- preschool art idea-.
We had holiday stencils with glitter paint at the easel.

We practiced our songs for our holiday program.

We did a cookie counting rhyme and we baked Christmas cookies for our holiday party.


Maple Room- morning class

We read "The gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett

We painted gingerbread shapes using brown paint with cinnamon mixed into it.  We painted using spatulas.  We had silver bell shape paper at the easel with bow paint brushes.

We practiced our Holiday songs for music time.

We worked on some letter J activities on our dry erase boards.

Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "Gingerbread Mouse" by Katy Bratun

We painted tree shapes with corks and paint and at the easel we had ornament shapes with "tinsel" brushes.

We practiced our Holiday songs
We also read The bakers dozen" a counting book by Dan Andreasen


Oak Room- Pre- kindergarten class

We read another Eric Carle book- Dream Snow

We made holiday cards for our parents.
 We did a counting Rudolf rhyme- "call Rudolf" and "Must be Santa" for music time

We talked about words that start with the letter M

Stay  and  Play:

We read "There was an old lady who swallowed a bell" by Lucille Colandro

We used white finger paint and added reed, green and gold glitter to it for art.

"We sang "Do as I am doing" and "Bean Bag Alphabet" for music time.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, December 13, 2012

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's class

We read "Christmas Mice" by Bethany Roberts

We painted candy cane shapes using rollers with a striped design on them.  We had magnetic trees at the easel with numbers on them and the children put that number of ornaments on the tree.

We practiced our songs for the holiday program.  We also danced around to Christmas music.  What fun!

We did a rhyme about Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and his nose that changed colors.
We have ribbons and bows in our sensory table.

Maple Room-Thursday class

We read "Llama, llama holiday drama" by Anna Dewdney

We played a game that has shapes, colors, letters and numbers and is kind of like candy land game. 

We sang some holiday songs.

Oak Room: Pre-kindergarten room

We read "Fletcher and the snowflake Christmas" by Julia Rawlinson

We did some snowflake design and we will make a winter quilt ( like our fall paper quilt) to hang in our room.

We did some wooden bead sequencing activities, a rhyming sounds match up puzzle and number match puzzles.

We sang jingle bells while dancing with jingle belts on. and we sang Hot cup of cocoa.

We asked the children if their name has the letter M in it

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, December 12, 2012 (12/12/12)

Willow Room-MWF class

We read "Christmas Mice" by Bethany Roberts

We asked the children if they like to eat candy canes?

We painted candy cane shape paper with rollers.
We had magnetic numbered trees with ornaments at the easel.

We practiced our songs for the holiday program.

We did a rhyme about Rudolf's red nose and how it changes color.

Maple Room Morning class

We painted wreaths with circles and pom poms added in the  Maple Room- morning class

We read "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett

We painted wreaths using glitter paint and added cut out circles and poms poms for decoration at art.  We had star shapes at the easel and we used dab a dot painters to add dots to them. 

 We did letter J activities and we practiced our holiday songs.   

Maple Room- Afternoon class

We read "Bunny Cakes" by Rosemary Wells

We are painting bell shape paper with sliver glitter paint.  We had dab a dot painters with start shapes at the easel.

We did our holiday songs and Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "Franklin's Christmas gift" by Paulette Bourgeois and we also read the letter M book.

We worked on letter M pictures and words in our journals.

We did some dinosaur activities with sorting and some small lego buildings.

We took the children in small groups into another classroom and played a Land of learning board game.  It is set up kind of like candy land, but the children have to name the color, shape, beginning letter, etc to move forward.

We did "two little candy canes rhyme" and Christmas ornaments rhyme" for music time.

We are doing an experiment, we put a stencil on colored paper in the window and we will observe what will happen.  None of the children guessed it will fade, they did think the window might explode though.

Stay & Play:  

We read "How the Ginch stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss

We painted using wire whisks and glitter paint. This is one of our favorite activities.

Beautiful designs made with springy whisks.  The bouncy action is fun too.

Spring type egg beater whisks, great for art activities.

We did Jump Jim Joe, and The freeze dance for music time.

We also did an elves hide and seek game.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, December 11, 2013

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's class

We read "the gingerbread boy" by Paul Galdone

We asked the children if they have ever seen a real Gingerbread Boy?

We painted gingerbread boys using a textured paint mixture of flour, salt and paint.
We had Holiday stencils at the easel.

We practiced for our holiday program.
We did a gingerbread rhyme today too.

We had stencils, scissors, markers Christmas stampers and stamp pads at free art.

Oak Room- Pre- k class

We read "Arthur's Christmas" by Jonathan London and "The gingerbread girl goes animal crackers" by Lisa Campbell Ernst

We made ornaments, we made gingerbread people, and we will add the face of the child on each one.

We did our Holiday songs, and Rudolf's colorful noses, five little snowflakes smiling at me for music time.
We do daily activities about the letter M.  
We have bread dough at the play dough table.    

Christmas Stocking activity and Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, December 10, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "The gingerbread boy" by Paul Galdone

We asked "Have you ever seen a Real Gingerbread boy?"
we made Gingerbread boys- we painted a gingerbread boy shape with a flour and salt and paint mixture.
We had magnetic colored sticks at the easel.
We practiced our Holiday songs.
We also did a 5 little gingerbread rhyme.

Maple Room: morning class

We read "The gingerbread girl goes animal crackers" by Lisa Campbell Ernst

For Art we made tissue paper trees.  The children used small pieces of tissue paper and  scrunched them up to make decorations for the tree. At the easel we had ornament shapes and glitter paint.

We practiced our songs for the holiday program and we did some letter J activities.  The alphabet monster ate some items that start with the letter J and we have to guess what it might be.  We also looked to see who has the letter J in their name.

Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "If you take a mouse to the movies" by Laura Numeroff

We are stamping designs on a Christmas stocking shape and adding their names to the top.
We have brushes and paint at the easel.

We did "Brightly colored ornaments" and "Santa, Santa, what do you see? " formusic time.

We did a book on CD, 5 little monkeys sitting in a tree.

Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" by Jonathan London
We gave the children two stocking shapes and they strung them together , then they added Christmas stamper designs and glued the letters to their name on the top. We will hang them on our bulletin board.

We practiced our songs for the holiday program, and we did "There's a little elk" and "Santa in the Red suit."

We did the mystery bag of items that start with the letter M.
We made bread dough using flour and yeast.  The children had fun playing with it instead of play dough.

Stay & Play

We read "The little bitty bakery" by Leslie Muir

We dipped cookie cutters in paint and pressed it on paper.  They filled the shape in using paint brushes.

We did "The reindeer Pokey", and "I can dance"

We had fun with the bread dough at the sensory table. 

Wax paper print trees and Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, December 7, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class 

Christmas stockings by gluing our names on the top and decorating them.  We will hang them in our room.

We practiced our songs for our Holiday program.

We decorated the Christmas tree we painted by sticking bows all over it.

Maple Room- Morning class

We read "The gingerbread girl" by Lisa Campbell Ernst

We used potato mashers with glitter paint on waxed paper.  We will frame them with a triangle tree shape as a frame.

We had candy cane shapes at the easel with green and red paint.

We practiced our songs for the holiday program.

morning and afternoon classes in Maple room made these prints using potato mashers

we use glitter paint on wax paper

add a triangle tree shape "frame", to anyplace on the paper.  Leave the excess showing

one of our favorite projects.

Maple Room- afternoon class;

We read Bruno the baker" by Lars Klinting

We used potato mashers with glitter paint on wax paper.  We will frame them with a triangle tree shape. They will be helping ot decorate our hallway for the holidays.

We practiced our songs for our holiday program.

We also read Mr. Cookie baker" by Monica Wellington

Oak Room -pre- k class

We read a couple of variations of the gingerbread man books- "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett and "The Gingerbread Pirate" by Kristin Kadstrup

We painted on crinkled up foil, then made a print of our painting.

We did some board games, an oreo cookie shape match activity and some 3 letter word puzzles.

We did 5 little Christmas trees rhyme and practiced our holiday songs.

Stay & Play:

We read "One Christmas Night" by M Christina Butler

We decorated a Christmas tree that we painted the other day - we used pom poms, fun foam pieces. etc. We did it as a group project.

We did "Deep in the jungle" and "Ring around the rosie" using different actions like "and they all stomped their feet".

group art project in stay & play

Cute Christmas Art Ideas and Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's class

We read "Snowmen at Christmas" by Carolyn Buehner
We asked the children "What do you think the snowmen do at Christmas?"

We glued red tissue paper pieces and green triangles on a wreath shape.  We painted Christmas light shapes at the easel with glitter paint.

We practiced our holiday songs.
We did a special song "Santa, Santa, what do you see?"

Maple Room- Thursday class

We read "The gingerbread Bear" by Robert Dennis

We made doughnuts as a group project today. We followed a recipe, measured, and mix the ingredients to make doughnuts.

We did "down around the corner at the doughnut shop", "5 in the bed" and "Jingle Bells" for music time.

Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "Gingerbread Baby" by Jan Brett ( a book on CD)

We painted gingerbread shapes, with pastel colored glue and shaving cream mixture.  We added ribbons, buttons, and beads to decorate our "gingerbread cookies".

We had out some board games with dice, a fruit pie sorting activity, and the letter "L" puzzle.

We did "5 little gingerbread" rhyme and "Down around the corner at the bakery shop" (with gingerbread shapes being what we bought.

We painted clay cookie shapes for our bakery.

We painted candy cane shapes at the easel.

Down around the corner rhyme:

Down around the corner at the bakery shop, all the yummy cookies with the sprinkles on top.  Along came _______ (name a child) with a penny to pay.  She took a cookie and went on her way.  (We change it up for doughnuts, cookies, pumpkins, Christmas trees, gingerbread men, etc. We give each child a penny to hold to pay- (Younger kids have the penny taped to a bigger card so we don't have to worry about them going into mouths)  

Gingerbread Ornaments & Snowman Christmas Bulletin board

Snowman bulletin board with gingerbread man ornaments

We add a picture of the child's face to the ornament.  

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class

We read "Snowmen at Christmas" by Carolyn Buehner
We asked "What do you think the snowmen do at Christmas?

We glued red tissue paper pieces and green construction paper triangles on a wreath shape.

We painted a big piece of paper as a group project at the easel.

We practiced our songs for hte holiday program.

We did a song "Santa, Santa, What do you see?  

Maple Room- Morning class

We read "The gingerbread boy" by Paul Galdone

We made "cookies" for our bakery using a salt and flour dough that we painted with food colors and baked them.  We will use them as cookies in our classroom bakery.

At the easel we had tree shapes with glue and circle shapes for ornaments.

We did the December song, Freeze dance and practiced our songs for the Holiday program at music time today.

We did letter I activities today.

Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "The gingerbread man" by Karen Lee Schmidt

We painted gingerbread shapes with puffy paint that had cinnamon added to it and used food spatulas to spread the paint.
We had " gift bows " as brushes at the easel.

We practiced our Holiday songs at music.  We read "Maisy makes gingerbread" by Lucy Cousins 

Oak Room- Pre- K class

We read "The Gingerbread Man" by Megan Lloyd and "Gingerbread Friends" by Jan Brett

We worked in our journals, we drew pictures of things that begin with the letter L and wrote the letter L.

We also took the children in small groups to play a game.

We practiced our Holiday songs.

We ad The letter L book today.

Stay & Play:

We read "Clifford's Family" by Norman Bridwell

We did dab a dot painting

We did "The circle", and "stomp and clap" for music time

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's class

We read "If you give a moose a muffin" by Laura Numeroff

We asked the children "Do you have pockets on your clothes?"

We made ornaments using fun foam and glitter glue.

We had dry erase markers at the easel.

Oak Room: Pre- K class

We read "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London

We also read "MMMM, cookies" by Michael Martchenko

We painted on white paper with blue glitter paint, then we will cut them into snowflakes to hang around our room.

We did the mystery bag of items that start with the letter L

At the play dough table we made cookies to use at our bakery.  We make a salt dough that can air dry.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, December 3, 2012

Willow Room- MWF class
We read "If you give a mouse a cookie" by Laura Numeroff
We asked the children "Do you have a pocket on your clothes?  How Many?

We made a special ornament just for our parents.  We had dry erase markers at the easel.
We are learning our songs for the holiday program.
We played a guessing game.  We hid a variety of Christmas objects under a blanket.  The children had to figure out what was removed.


Maple Room- morning class

We read "The gingerbread man" by Karen Schmidt and "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London

We made our own gingerbread men today and we baked one big one, but when we went back to the oven the gingerbread man had escaped!  We looked for him all over the building and finally found him back in our classroom!
We had gingerbread man shapes at the easel with brown paint.

We did the December song, and practiced our Holiday songs.

We did letter I activities- we guessed what the monster ate that started with the letter I and we asked if they had the letter I in their name.

 Maple Room- afternoon class

We read "Froggy bakes a cake" by Jonathan London
We made wrapping paper for our  special presents for our parents.
We painted Christmas trees with roller brushes at the easel.

We are learning our songs for the Holiday party.

Oak Room- Pre- K class
We read "The little Red Hen" by Paul Galdone


We painted paper plates with green glitter paint and added colored tissue paper to it to look like lights.  We will put them all together to make a tree for our bulletin board.

We practiced songs for our Holiday program.

We are learning about the letter K.


Stay & Play:

We read "Zoomer" ( a book on CD) by Ned Young

We did a group art project, we used green paint and roller brushes to make stay and play trees.

We did the opposites song, and I like my hat using bean bags.

We did puzzles, playdough cookies, and the farm set.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, November 30, 2012

Last day of November and we were able to play outside- yea for beautiful weather!

Willow room- MWF class

We read "Ten Christmas Wishes" by Claire Freedom

We asked the children "what do you wish for?"

We decorated green construction paper tree shapes using corks dipped in paint to make ornaments.
We painted Christmas light shapes at the easel.

We did the song "S-A-N-T-A (tune of BINGO), "sticky bubble gum", and "Late last night" for music today.

We did the Santa in a red suit rhyme too.

Maple Room- morning class

We read "The little red hen" by Paul Galdone
We are working on a surprise project for the holiday.
We have doughnut shapes at the easel with pastel puffy paint and sprinkles.  (Puffy paint is 1 part flour and 2 parts salt mixed in with tempra paint)

We did the November song, and practiced our holiday songs for music time.
We did letter H activities on the dry erase boards.  We thought of words that start with the letter H.

Maple room- afternoon class


We read "The little red hen" by Paul Galdone
We are working on a surprise project for the holiday.
We have doughnut shapes at the easel with pastel puffy paint and sprinkles.  (Puffy paint is 1 part flour and 2 parts salt mixed in with tempra paint)

We did the November song, and practiced our holiday songs for music time.


Oak Room- pre-k class

We read 10 little rubber ducks by Eric Carle in the Oak Room today.  We painted a water scene with sponge brushes and counted out 10 ducks to add to our ponds. Some children added eyes and more to the ducks too.
We had a lady bug upper and lower case letter match game out today and a lower case letter sequencing puzzle out too.  We had magnetic writing boards.

We did "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and the children acted it out.  We did "Get ready, get set, let's dance" for music time.

What starts with the letter K?

Stay & Play:

We read "If you take a mouse to the movies" by Laura Numeroff

We did marble painting today.  We put the marble in a large pretzel jar and rolled it around to decorate the paper inside.

We did "Hello everybody", "Over in the meadow" and "clap, clap, clap your hands" for music time.

Star art for twinkle twinkle little star

We used wax paper sheets that come in a box as the base for the art.

The children painted with yellow glitter paint with some glue added and placed star shapes on the tissue.

We added a stat shape frame on top, leaving the rest of the wax paper showing.

The children sprinkled some gold glitter over their star.

They look pretty on a window, and came out beautiful

Grouchy Lady bug by Eric Carle

We read the story and tied in an art activity by having the children cut a circle, use number stampers to make a clock.  Then they chose which hour to put the ladybug at.

Each child chose where to put their ladybug.

Learning colors and shapes through nursery rhymes and songs in preschool

5 little ducks went out to play, learning about yellow.  We marble painted on duck shapes. We also did 5  green and speckled frogs to learn green.

We learned about black with baa baa black sheep

We did Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater to learn about orange

close up of 5 little ducks to learn about yellow, we did marble painting.

closer look at purple and blue projects.

Add caption

triangle learning with I'm a little teapot

Queen of hearts to learn about heart shapes

Crescent shape moons with Hey Diddle Diddle

We learned about circles and squares with Hickory Dickory Dock

We learned black with "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

We did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to learn about star shapes.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, November 29, 2012

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Bear snores on" by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
We asked the children "What do you like to do in winter?"

We decorated paper with Christmas cookie cutters dipped in glitter paint.  
We painted bell shapes with glitter paint at the easel.

We did "Hello", "Animals Exercising" and "Tap your toe and follow me" for music time.

We talked about what animals do in the winter? We hunted for "nuts" that were hidden in the room for the squirrels.

We added vanilla to our playdough and our room smells like cookie dough.

Maple Room- Thursday class

We read "Splat the cat" by Rob Scotton

We divided the class into two groups and played a different game with each group/then we switch so everybody plays each game.  We played "pop and win alphabet" and "colors and shapes matching game"

Oak Room: 

We continued our Eric Carle series with two stories, "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?" and "The apron"  and Walter the Baker by Eric Carle

We cut out apron shapes and put them in a box. Then we added pine cones dipped in paint and rolled them back and forth to paint the aprons.

We did some restaurant writing - dry erase order pads.
We did " I can dance" alternate sitting still and then dancing for music time.

We asked the children "Does your name have the letter K in it?