13: Christmas Friends

The magic of Christmas never ends, 

And its greatest of gifts are families and friends.

For many children around the world, the anticipation of Christmas begins when their trees are put up in preparation for the season. After which, they eagerly wait for Christmas Eve, hoping that dear ol' Santa Claus will stop by their home and grant them their holiday wishes. 

This week, we focused on our yearlong unit under Who We Are in anticipation of the coming Christmas season. As the children inquired about friendship and what it means, we also discovered how the spirit of Christmas brings us closer to our loved ones.

What's in a name?

In the Early Years, one of the most essential skills that the children learn is how to navigate around a social environment. Before developing an awareness for others though, children begin the first few years of their life developing their self-awareness first. Studies show that around the age of 2, children already begin to develop a sense of self or identity. In school, this self-identity or who they are is closely tied to their names. 

The children began the week by decorating their names creatively in their notebooks. While the activity was simple, it brought out a lot of who they are through their choices. Most of them were very particular with the materials they wanted to use and how they want to use them. Some followed the directions to a tee, some made their own rules and thought outside the box. 

Can you guess who said what? 😀

I want yellow!

I will make it a rainbow.

I want to mix the colors.

I want to draw outside my name.

I don't like squares.

Social awareness begins at first with a child's primary caregiver. As the child develops independence and gains exposure to social environments, they begin to share who they are through the lens of cultivating friendships with others.

After decorating their names creatively, I reminded the children of an activity we had at the beginning of the year where they only had one set of crayons to color their names with. In this activity, the children learned how to share. I told them that we will do it again, but with only one set of paint this time, plus a new challenge. Instead of painting their names, their goal is to make the names of their friends beautiful and to turn it into an artwork that they think their friends will like. We created 11 stations for every name, and the children visited all the stations to add their own color and creative input on the artwork. 

I wish I had the chance to take photos of the children dancing while painting, but here are the results of their teamwork. 

Aren't they beautiful?

(If you saw this activity during Open Day, kindly share some photos in case you have any. 😀)

It was amazing to see how thoughtful the children are of their friends through this activity. They could already recognize each name without us telling them whose it is. More than that, they know a thing or two about the person who owns the name -- what they like, what they don't like, and what usually makes them happy -- and this time, they thought not only of themselves, but others, too.

Christmas is in the air!

 The children continued their exploration of names by creating an ornament for our school Christmas tree with our names on it. We used air dry clay to practice our fine motor skills, which the children stamped and painted. 

The children were so proud of their work, especially since they had to wait a few days for it to be completed. They excitedly placed their ornaments on the Christmas tree, specifically picking a spot where they would like it to hang.

Their names now sit beautifully in our school Christmas tree, all set for our tree lighting event on Monday. 

To make way for our upcoming unit under Sharing the Planet, we decided to prepare our classroom for Christmas too, using materials that we can recycle. But first, we need to sharpen our imagination. We read another version of one of my favorite book series by Antoinette Portis called Not A Box. 

It's about a rabbit who has a simple box that's NOT actually a box. It's a ship, a race car, a hot air balloon, and even a robot! We collected "not-boxes" around the school (thank you, PTA!) and used our imagination to create new things with them. We turned them into drums, pillows, teddy bears, hats, and even into shoes. They were not simple boxes after all!

We discovered that we can put the not-boxes together and turn them into something bigger and maybe even better if we work together. What's gonna work? TEAM WORK, indeed!

I asked the children:

If you were to re-imagine your not-a-box into a Christmas tree, what would it look like?

So we planned. 

And we shared our ideas with our friends. 

(Notice how their Christmas trees have either a person or an animal with it. It goes to show that the image of Christmas for them is indeed spent with those whom they love and care for.)

We all agreed that we would like a Christmas tree with different shades of green with rainbow ornaments. The children unleashed their imagination and brought their not-a-box Christmas tree to life. Like Santa and the elves, the kindergarteners began the process of creating something beautiful from raw materials, and invested time and a lot of love in the process.

(Thank you to Jiyoung for our new smocks! 😀)

We also decided to create a fireplace beside our tree to make our Christmas corner feel a little bit cozy. What do you think of our little Christmas nook? 🎄

 There's a shift in the air in the Kinder 2 classroom this week. Perhaps it's the Christmas spirit slowly creeping in, but truly, I think it's because of the deeper bonds of friendships we are forming with each other. Christmas, after all, is just one season. Friendships remain for life.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam