What We Did This Week

December 17th, 2024

Today our friends learned about Hanukkah, which comes from the Hebrew word meaning ‘to dedicate.’ Hanukkah is often referred to as the Festival of Lights. It is an eight day celebration. On each day, a branch of the nine-branch Hanukkah menorah is lit with the shamash ("helper" candle), which sits on the middle branches. One tradition during Hanukkah is to give children chocolate coins. Some of the traditional foods are cheese pancakes, jam filled doughnuts, and potato pancakes. Today, we made a dreidel craft! The children enjoyed learning about different ways that people celebrate around the world. Their Spanish vocabulary word of the day was nieve- snow.

December 18th, 2024

Today our Stars learned what happens if you pierce a bag of water with a sharpened pencil! One might guess that the water would all leak out. In fact, if you do it right, the polymers of the bag's plastic will reseal around the pencil! Plastics are a polymer, which just means they are made of many of the same molecules stuck together in a long chain. When you pierce the bag with the pencils, it breaks the chain, but the end molecules of the polymer chain are sticky, and make a seal around the pencil that won't let water out. We also memorized another Spanish vocabulary word, botones - buttons.

December 19th, 2024

Today, during circle time, we talked about the day we celebrate Christmas: December 25th. The most common traditions that are celebrated during Christmas time are exchanging Christmas cards, and exchanging gifts with loved ones. Throughout the Christmas season homes are decorated with colorful lights and people also decorate Christmas trees. After circle time our friends also made Christmas trees! Today, our friends completed new work! Our stars created a snowman on the floor with shapes (squares, circles, and triangles)! Our friends matched the shapes and had so much fun! The Spanish vocabulary word of the day was invierno-winter.