What We Did This Week

Welcome to December!

December 17th 2024

Today our Stars learned about Yule! Yule is celebrated on the winter solstice (the darkest day of the year, on Dec. 21). The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year; Yule celebrates the re-emergence of the sun and the days beginning to grow longer again. During yule, homes are decorated with plants, such as evergreen wreaths, mistletoe, holly, and ivy. Today, our friends made wreaths to reinforce their lesson. Our Spanish vocabulary word of the day was hombre de nieve- snowman. During circle time today, our younger Stars learned about what letter their name begins with.

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. Our younger friends learned that the sun and heat causes ice to melt, creating water. To show this change, we painted our own melted snowmen.

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.