December 2021: Let’s Celebrate!

As we learned about each others’ various family celebration traditions as well as how people celebrate around the world, it was fun to see how similar the elements of celebrations are across this diverse world. We experienced celebration through decorations, lights and candles, gift giving, music, song and dance, as well as fun foods.

We asked families to come in and share what their traditions are and how they like to celebrate. One family even shared a pinata with us! It was an enjoyable way to see the diversity that we all have within our families and also the similarities that we have. Each family is unique and special! With our Mindful Focus on families this month, we each drew a portrait of our own families.

Decorations Exploration

Decorating is a fun way to get us all excited about our celebrations!

Decorating is a fun way to get us all excited about our celebrations. In anticipation of our Winter Celebration this month, each child made a snowflake to hang up. Once these were hanging, we started really wishing for some snow (as it hadn’t snowed yet). When it snowed a few days later, the children felt as if our snowflake decorations magically brought us the real thing!

The children loved to see all of Miss Jenny’s Christmas decorations throughout the month. The decorations sparked the children’s interest and gave Miss Jenny many opportunities to share stories about her own family and childhood.

We also celebrated Miss Demi’s birthday with some very fun, very messy (the two often go hand in hand don’t they?!) decorations. The children worked hard to cut tiny pieces of paper to make enough confetti to surprise Miss Demi with and the best part was that after we threw it, many little hands quickly picked it all up so we could throw it again and again!

Exploring Candles, Lights and Parades

Lights make everything so festive, don’t they?!

We looked at pictures of the ways different cultures use lights to celebrate around the world and there were so many beautiful ideas; strings of lights, lanterns, fireworks, candles, and bonfires. Seeing pictures and mindfully thinking of peoples all over our earth lighting candles made us really feel connected to humanity. We lit our own candles and sang the beautiful song, Light a Candle for Peace.

A light projector was set up in the classroom all month for the children to explore the fun optical games they could play with light. They especially loved to take turns going in front of the light and letting their friends decorate them with colorful shapes and drawings. It was endlessly entertaining to see all that color on yourself and then come out of the light and see it disappear. What delight!

We felt a special kind of light and magic enter our hearts as the children made their own lanterns and had a light parade together while they sang, This Little Light of Mine. One of my personal favorite traditions that is so full of wonder here at SimpleLife!

Exploring Music, Song and Dance

Something all cultures use to celebrate…

We explored how people bring music into their various celebrations by making our own musical instruments with some festive Jingle Bells, and we all knew a song that went right along with them! We learn a lot of songs throughout the year at SimpleLife and so we made sure to fill this month with plenty of singing. Hope your children are bringing and singing these songs to you at home!

Dancing is also always a welcome part of moving our bodies in joy here at school. The children made simple streamers and with a little bit of ribbon, a wood stick, and tape. It was refreshing to see how something so simple could bring so many smiles, so much excitement and so many giggles as the children danced with their new creations. It’s the simple things in life, right?!

Winter Celebration:

Gift giving, live music, and homemade traditional treats!

Our Winter Celebration was the cherry on top of all the celebration we’ve been doing this month. The children had worked hard to make a gift to give to their families. Making their salt dough nature ornaments were not nearly as challenging as wrapping them! Wrapping a gift all by themselves was a perfect fine motor sensory activity that was difficult but the children were highly motivated to succeed!

Homemade traditional gingerbread men cookies brought joy for all five senses as we came in from playing in the cold snow to the warm sweet spiced smell of our baked goodies. The children worked very hard on independently frosting their cookies which took a lot of patience when all we really wanted to do was eat them!

Our grand finale to all our December celebrating came with a special guest musician, Miss Jenny’s guitar playing brother. There really is nothing like live music! The children started out by sitting and listening to the music but soon couldn’t help but get up and joyously move their happy bodies. Everyone joined in and danced and danced and didn’t want to stop when it was time for our guest to go!

Happy Holidays Everyone!