Little Busy Bodies Preschool
Newsletter
November 28 & 30, 2011
Dear Preschool Parents,
I love the Christmas season and all the festive, magical books that come with it! It’s not quite December yet, but I couldn’t wait. This week we read two wonderful books on the idea of giving and sharing during the holiday season. The first book we read was “Claude the Dog, A Christmas Story,” by Dick Gackenbach. In this book we learned about the spirit of Christmas. Claude gives away all his Christmas presents to his down-and-out friend, Bummer, but receives an even better present from his young master. After reading this story, we discussed how it is fun to receive gifts, but often times it is MORE fun to think of something nice you could do for someone else or a gift you could give to another to help brighten their spirits. We feel better about ourselves when we are thinking about others. So that is what we did! We made Rolo turtle bites with a secret friend in mind. Unless you’ve already eaten them, the children can secretly deliver their small bag of treats to a friend, and hopefully ignite a spirit of giving in them as well.
The second book of the week was “Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree,” by Robert Barry. The Christmas tree shows up at Mr. Willowby's home by special order, aboard a big pink truck: "Full and fresh and glistening green--The biggest tree he had ever seen." But it's just a little too big, so he asks his butler, Baxter, to trim off the top few feet that brush up against the parlor ceiling. Baxter realizes that this snipped-off top would make a perfect little tree for "Miss Adelaide, Mr. Willowby's upstairs maid." But she, too, must clip off the top of her tree... which then ends up with Timm, the gardener. Timm's trimming goes on to Barnaby Bear, the tippy-top of Barnaby's tree ends up with Frisky Fox and family, and then Benjamin Rabbit finds the top few inches that Mrs. Fox snipped off. And so it goes, until soon the whole countryside learns that it's simply "grand to have a tree--Exactly like Mr. Willowby." (Amazon.com review) After reading this book, the children made and decorated their own Christmas tree art, working with size ordering.
REMINDER
*KING/ QUEEN OF THE WEEK Dec. 5th & 7th: Ethan
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
*DEC 19-JAN 2-NO SCHOOL WINTER BREAK
Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving vacation next week!
Sincerely,
Amber
