We had so much fun celebrating Read Across America Week in preschool! Each day, the students enjoyed activities inspired by some of our favorite books. We kicked off the week with Cat in the Hat Day, where students wore their favorite hats to school. On Tuesday, inspired by If I Ran the Zoo, the children brought their stuffed animals to join us for the day. Fox in Socks Day on Wednesday brought lots of laughter as we admired everyone’s fun and silly socks. On Thursday, we celebrated The Lorax with mustaches provided by the school, which the students absolutely loved! We wrapped up the week with Pajama Day, inspired by The Sleep Book, making for a cozy and fun end to our celebration.

It was a wonderful week full of books, creativity, and excitement about reading!

Each child was able to create their own picture on a quilt square. Their creativity blew me away. We put everyone's name in a bowl, and Mrs. Whitney drew Boies' name, and he gets to take the quilt home today!

Q IS FOR QUICHE

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg? Our Pre-K classes are going to find out thanks to Cherrie Curtis, CEA - 4H and Youth and Development Leader, and Cora Wieneck TX 4-H Poultry Ambassador. They brought us eggs, an incubator, and read a book to us about the life cycle of a chicken. We now wait 21 days.....

We made snow in our sensory bin!

Thank you to Molly Kendrick for teaching a yoga class to our Pre-K kiddos! The children learned different breathing techniques, discovered their dominant hand and leg, and participated in fun stretches and balancing poses. It was a wonderful, engaging experience for everyone!

The children were given white crayons and had to write the word love on a heart. As they water colored the message appeared.

The students had fun building their name snowman! I gave them snowballs with letters of their name in random order. They had to put them in order correctly and glue them to their paper. Knowledge of letters and words is an important component of literacy. The idea that written words are composed of letters that represent sounds is called the alphabetic principle. Children's understanding of the alphabetic principle is a predictor of future reading success.

This time of year it is easy to get caught up in the rush of the Christmas holiday and lose focus on what is the true meaning of Christmas. I am so blessed to be able to teach our students about Jesus’ birth and talk openly about God at St. James. The children have memorized songs, lines, and moving parts which requires a tremendous amount of focus and commitment. It isn’t easy to perform in front of a large audience especially when it is full of your loved ones. I am very proud of their determination and hard work.

To conclude our Bread Study, we took a trip to Gusano’s to answer our focus question, “Who works with bread?” The students not only had the chance to visit a restaurant, but they also rolled out pizza dough and made their own pizzas—sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and all! The best part was getting to enjoy the delicious pizzas they created. A big thank you to Gusano's for their wonderful hospitality and for hosting St. James Day School Pre-K! Our students had an amazing experience!