December is a busy month for everyone, including our toddlers. Throughout the month, we celebrated Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s in the classroom.
During the Hanukkah celebration, children saw the lighting of the Menorah, heard the story of Hanukkah, received a dreidel, and played the dreidel game while singing the dreidel song.
Christmas was celebrated by displaying a nativity scene and reading books about Christmas. Our toddlers also made a beautiful keepsake gift for their parents. On the last day of school before winter break, children had a lot of fun exchanging gifts with their Pollyanna.
What We Are Learning
Besides the holiday events, our toddlers were busy with their normal work in the class. Our toddlers are in the intent sensitive period for order and it is important for them to touch everything they encounter, so they can absorb a complete image of the world around them. The more they explore and touch, the more they understand the world. This begins at this very early age.
Children continue to develop their pincer grasp, which will be gradually more and more refined. They can use both hands working together, put small objects in a small space, and really control each movement of the fingers separately and continue eye-hand coordination. We help them develop coordinated movements of their hands by offering activities with a wide variety of challenging ways of grasping items.
