Our KDI for the week is building relationships- Children build relationships with other children and adults. We strive to continually build relationships between our students. Each day, every student's name and symbol is said. Some students still don't know who's name is who! We will continue to encourage them to be conscious of others in their class! That is one reason I wanted you to ask your child what their fellow student wanted for Christmas. Encourage them to pay attention to others, notice others needs. It does not come naturally for many. We are naturally selfish and self centered. This week we'll give to others, and we will receive from others. We practiced this week saying thank you when someone gives us a gift. Would you believe there were only two students who said it with out having to be prompted "What do you say?" Two out of thirty!! WE HAVE to do better! Practice noticing others needs and feelings and talk about it with your littles!
Table Activities- This week our table activities include making Christmas cards, building with gumdrops and toothpicks, cutting/ripping wrapping paper and ribbons, wrapping presents, Christmas cookie cutter painting, magnetic Christmas trees, coloring ornaments and making birdfeeders of pinecones, lard and bird seed.
Small Group- This week we will make a cardboard Christmas tree and add Gg is for giving gifts to our journal.
Books of the Week- "Come and See" by Mary Manz Simon and "A Night of Great Joy" by Mary Engelbreit.
Bible Story- The Shepherd See Jesus- At the same time Mary was having the baby Jesus, some shepherds in the fields outside Jerusalem were having an amazing experience. As they were out watching their sheep, an angel appeared to them and shared the news that the Messiah had been born!! They were terrified! Then a huge group of angels joined the angel and began to sing "Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those on whom His favor rests!
It was as if a curtain was pulled back and the shepherds got a glimpse of heaven! How amazing and terrifying! God was with them! Born on earth, in a stable, lying in a manger! Once the angels had gone back into heaven, the shepherds went into Bethlehem and found the baby the angels had told them about!
When they had seen him, they told everyone they saw! They returned glorifying and praising God for all they had seen, which was just as they had been told!
We don't know who those shepherds were, probably men and young teens, who saw the angels that night. The Bible never talks about them again, but we talk about them every Christmas over 2000 years later- the favorite lines to recite, "And they were terrified!" "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests!" Jesus came for those whose names we don't know and have never heard about except for this one incident. He knows their names and knows every hair on their heads! How amazing that the angels appeared to shepherds, simple shepherds in a field! Not the Roman emperor, not the Jewish religious leaders, not the rich or highly intelligent, but shepherds. How wonderful that children, small children, get to share with you about that night like no other night! Simple, like the shepherds, loved and important to their King Jesus too!
