This Week in the Maple Room

Children’s Holiday celebration

December is usually a frenetic time for many adults as they prepare for the holidays. Young children are very aware of the excitement in the air. As guides, we would like to ignore the exuberance that surfaces in the classroom, but we found that it is more constructive to channel the children’s excitement into purposeful activities.

This year we will take the children on a whirlwind tour of holiday customs around the world. The children will make a menorah for Hanukkah, create St. Lucia wreaths, and place their shoes in a line for St. Nicholas day.

The children will also create gifts for their parents and wrap them all by themselves. They will collectively glue a piñata in preparation for the Los Posada and Christmas party. We place little treasures into the piñata and the children each take a turn to break it open.

The party will take place on the last day before winter break. On that day the children can bring a small present for their classroom. This custom has evolved at CGM. Rather than exchanging gifts with each other, (including teachers) the children give a small gift that can be used by the entire classroom community. The children enjoy opening their presents and eventually seeing them used in the classroom. It becomes their contribution to their classroom community. This year the piñata party will be on Dec.19^th.

Warm Hands * Warm Hearts

For the next few weeks, we will continue our emphasis on thankfulness and giving to others.  We will be collecting new mittens and gloves to donate to a local charity.  This is a great opportunity for you and your child to talk about helping others and the joy of giving.

Look for our special clothesline to hang the mittens/gloves on in our reception area.  Thank you so much for all your support, CGM has awesome children and parents.

During this season of giving, we request that in lieu of holiday gifts for the teachers, anyone interested in purchasing a gift, may focus on gifts for the classroom community !

 Look for a wish list to be posted soon!

Important dates :

Dec. 6^th—St. Nicholas Day

Dec. 13^th.—St Lucia Day.

Dec.17^th—Hanukkah.

Dec. 19^th –Christmas Party.

As always, all children are welcome to join in, on these days, even if it is not your attending day !