It’s hard to believe it is that time of year again! The kids and I had a wonderful month with the Kindness Elves and giving to others. 
 
Ted and Fred sure were busy up at the North Pole this month but were kind enough to join us each day in December. They started by bringing the kids a rainbow of little elf sized potions that portrayed a positive character trait (Kindness, Joy, Love, Patience, Peace, Gentleness, Compassion). We discussed, learned, and shared experiences of how these traits are put into action, and used the shaking of these potions to remember how we all have these wonderful traits within us.
 
The elves also shared ideas of ways in which we could give to others and spread the holiday cheer. We had a lot of fun hanging candy canes on doors around the block, making bird seeded pinecones for the birds and squirrels, making Christmas cards for neighbours, and baking, decorating and delivering gingerbread men to the neighbours we know. We learned first-hand that when you give to others, it makes both you and others happy. We did not expect anything in return but were gifted with chocolate bars and cookies. What a delightful surprise!
 
Our Kindness Elves were a lesson to us all in self-reflection, kindness and giving. 
 
I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season and all the best in the new year.
 
See you all back in January!

We started off our week with some Hanukkah celebration. We learned about the menorah, the Dreidel game, some yummy foods eaten during Hanukkah, and the spirit of giving. The kids hunted and counted out candles and arranged them in the way menorah candles would be. They made a popsicle menorah with a yarn wrapped Shammash. They compared the general star shape to that of the Star of David and made a Star of David painting. And we cannot forget playing the Dreidel game…they were pretty excited when the chocolate coins came out!
 
The Kindness Elves, not to be confused with the Elf on the Shelf, have returned for the Christmas season. The simple idea behind these elves is to spread happiness and encourage children to do small acts of kindness in their everyday lives.

Hello!
We are the Kindness Elves who have come to stay,
To do good deeds and have fun with play.
We’ve heard lovely things about what you do,
Well, we can’t wait to see that it’s true!
So, let’s share our care with everyone.
We can start today, for being kind is fun!

The Kindness Elves, Ted and Fred, started out the Christmas season with us by telling us about the Kindness Rainbow. Each day for seven days Ted and Fred bring the kids one coloured potion from the Kindness Rainbow. Each colour represents a kind character virtue and invites us to discuss feelings, how we can show these virtues and practice mindfulness and reflection. The first three potions were labelled Kindness (RED), Joy (ORANGE) and Love (YELLOW).
 
The kids did a RED collage because our letter was R and our Kindness potion, from the Kindness elves, was red. KINDNESS has been a word we have discussed many times and the kid shad many ideas about how to be kind. JOY was actually quite exciting! They just couldn’t wait until this day to see what the potion would be, which fit perfectly for JOY. There was a lot of excited jumping around. For LOVE, the kids cut out hearts and drew/wrote ways in which we can show love to others. There were some really thoughtful ideas such as holding hands, helping (they thought of many ways to help), giving (again, many ways to give), sharing, walking together, petting pets, etc. 
 
The Christmas tree came out this week, so naturally the kids were happy to help set it up. Setting up the tree is a big job because the tree is made up of detachable branches. Setting up the tree turned into a team effort including sorting branches by colour and letter so they could be put into the right slot on the trunk.
 
Our letters this week were B and R. The kids made B with buttons. For the letter R, they matched and wrote it, along with a drawing of something that starts with R. 
 
Word work was about words that end in "ed". There are a few words of importance this week that end with "ed" (red, Fred, Ted), so what better place to go next with our word work!