Santa has immiators: they're Dads'.

Wow.  I'm in my last week, three days left, frame of mind as a preschool teacher before the Christmas break and I feel like I accomplished everything except world peace with my preschoolers.  Candy canes and all!

Last time, I was fretting about our dear friend C, who did not want to be Santa and dismissed any plea from either a three year old or 26 year old.  In addition, I had reindeers who didn't want to be reindeers and experiencing stage fright for the very first time..badly. Well the performance day arrived and C was the most amazing 3 year old Santa, stage fright reindeer became the most outgoing and loudest reindeer I've ever witnessed, and more so - they all sang :)

Whoo-hoo!

My 3 year olds weren't the only ones to let me down either.  The remaining classes did fantastic, the crowd turnout was perfect, and the views of watching new families mingle with one another was very satisfying.  We only had a small hiccup with locating a Santa for two of the classes because originals bailed.  But luckily, a couple Dads' saved the day.  What became really entertaining was trying to either tell their child 1) not to say anything to their buddies that that's really their Dad sitting up there. 2) convincing them that that really IS Santa and not their Dad. or 3) that Santa has helpers..and those helpers are their Dads'.  Take your pick on which one you would most enjoy explaining to a four year old about (it was my four year old classes that were struggling to find a commited Santa!).

Despite the amount of drawbacks I could list into what I hate about planning Christmas concerts on my own (four in total), I really can't.  The list is so minimal after witnessing the kids do their performances YOU taught them and see my families being there for all the same, simple reason.  I mean, we had almost every father of each child attend, even if it meant he had to go back to work afterwards.  Satisfactory? Hardly.  More like inspiring!  It inspires me ..to keep doing what I'm doing..start thinking of ideas for next year..and most importantly, to always enjoy the appreciation of all that hard work!

By the way, instead of getting 18 different gift cards from Starbucks from my 3AM students, their parents all pitched in for a group gift instead. 

"Ms. Jenn! We bought you coffee!"

They know how to keep my heart warm.

It's December at Preschool..

So, you know what that means.  It's only the BEST time of the year to be teaching preschoolers! 

I swear, out of all the holidays, this is the most care-free, fun, enjoyable lesson planning I actually enjoy putting together and implementing.  How about you?

This week my 4 year olds are learning about different holidays that happen in December other than Christmas.  Today, they learned about Kwanzaa and all of its holiday traditions.  The purpose of Kwanzaa is to celebrate the African American culture and it becomes the festival of the first harvest.  Along with food, traditional clothing, and gift giving, there is also lighting of seven candles, one for each night of the seven day holiday.  Four are red, one black, and 3 green.  Red is to represent blood that was lost for freedom (in preschooler terms we called it "passion", black to represent the colour of the people, and green for the lands of Africa.  When I explained this, our only Black boy T piped up when I had mentioned the Black candle's significance.

T: Yeah, like me. I'm black.
MsJ: Exactly.
T: Yeah, I'm from Africa.
MsJ: Yes, your heritage is African.  Do you celebrate Kwanzaa?
T: Na.
MsJ: Do you know anyone that does?
T: Na.
MsJ: Oh okay..
T: But I'm Black.
MsJ: Yes..you are.
T: Just saying.  I'm black.

..Seriously? 


Another tale:
This year we decided that with our youngest three year old class to do T'Was the Night Before Christmas play.  Really, it's just a bunch of growing up toddlers dressed up as reindeer, Santa, "Mama" and "Papa" and so forth, walking out and sitting down with me to continue listening to the story infront of a gazillion Nikons and Canon EOS'.  Throw in some "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Jingle Bells" afterwards and there you have our concert.  My expectations are really low as all I know the families are going to care about is how cute their child looks the moment they walk onto that stage.  Stage meaning one of our block centre's shelf emptied and flipped upside down :)

Anyways, the only problem we appear to be having is our "Santa" actor, C.  This kid literally has the best personality when it comes to acting and being dramatic.  I mean, come on.  When this kid wants to tell you something, regardless of how inappropriate his interruption and timing could be, he always starts with "I have to tell you something.  ______________________".  Better yet, you ask C what his favourite movie is, he'll tell you "anything with the Three Stooges in it."  C even expressed his dissapointment with me IN ME because I didn't have a Halloween costume decided as of October 1st and told me to "get cracking".  Despite it all, C refuses to be Santa.  He threw a temper tantrum the other day at preschool because he couldn't tell us why exactly he doesn't want it be St. Nick and we just didn't seem satisfied with his repeated statement "I don't want to".  Even some of his friends, including the "Bro" twins (I'll tell you about them in a later post..adorable to say the least) were pleading for him to be Santa for the play as he's "the most important pwart".  However, mention to the "Bro" twins about one of them being Santa instead and C being their reindeer role, and you will get a solid "NO.  Imma weindeer and staying as a weindeer!" (I promise that's not a typo). 

The costume is ready to go, beard and all, and we're only days away from the show.  Well, really only one class day away from it.  Sigh.  Hopefully, C will arrive tomorrow and tell me the magic words both myself and his mother are begging to hear: "I'm gonna be Santa, Ms. Jenn!".