A Window into Our Classroom: December 2025
December was a busy, cold, and fun month filled with holiday cheer, giving, and winter exploration. Throughout the month, the children explored the season of winter through stories, sensory experiences, and art, while also learning about one another’s family traditions and celebrations at home.
As we reflect on our first semester together, we are so proud of the children, their growth and development, and the sweet school community we have all built side by side!
Memorable Highlights
FIRE STATION FIELD TRIP
One of the highlights of the month was our full class field trip to Fire Station 21 to participate in their annual Toy Donation Drive. In preparation for the visit, we spent time talking with the children about what to expect, how to stay together as a group, important role firefighters play in our community. We also talked about why we were bringing toys and how they would be shared with families who may not be able to provide gifts, helping the children begin to understand that giving can be a way to care for others in our community.
On the walk to the station, the children followed our safety rules and stayed close together as a group. At the fire station, the firefighters warmly welcomed us and showed the children the gear they wear to stay safe. Some children were curious, while others shared worries about loud noises or equipment that looked big or scary. The firefighters answered their questions and reassured them that there would be no loud sounds and that their gear helps them do their job of keeping people safe. This helped the children feel more comfortable and understand that firefighters are helpers in our community.
Each child proudly handed their toy donation to “Captain Santa”, making the idea of giving concrete and meaningful. When we returned to the classroom, the learning continued through play. Many of the children gravitated toward the dramatic play area, where they recreated the experience together. Wearing firefighter hats, Eisley and Sloane took on leadership roles, asking, “What is your emergency?” and carefully listening to their peers. Arthur, Kiran, Miko, and Sylvie soon joined in, and through their collaborative play the group shared new understanding about calling 9-1-1 and how helpers respond in an emergency. Teachers observed children negotiating roles, taking turns, using new vocabulary, and supporting one another as they worked through imagined scenarios.
We are grateful to Cat, Eisley’s mom, for coordinating our visit, and to our parent volunteers Kate, Jeremy, Anasstasia, Cat, Tyler, Evan, Patrick, Rosa, and Melissa for joining us and supporting the children throughout the trip. This field trip was a meaningful example of how community experiences can nurture empathy, strengthen relationships, and help children understand their role in caring for others.
We asked the children what they liked about the field trip, they said:
“Holding onto the rings”-Freya
“I liked the field trip”-Eisley
“Giving presents to the firefighters”-Sloane
“Giving presents”-Porter
“A dog”-Lucy
WINTER WONDERLAND & THE WHOLE CHILD LEARNING
As the holiday season ramped up in our community, we strived to embrace the winter wonder and bring it into the classroom. We decorated our mudroom with holiday lights and asked each child to share their favorite thing about winter for our gallery wall. We continued to bring winter themes into our classroom projects and children created a variety of ornaments using cool-colored paints and snow-like glitter, to hang in our mudroom and eventually take home. Our miniature Christmas tree, adorned by the children, and our menorah became a part of our everyday environment. All of the work we put into creating a “winter wonderland” at school contributed to the children’s sense of belonging and connection. It fostered their sense of connection by giving them a universal link to each other and our community.
We created experiences for the children that addressed their whole development-
Visual Tracking & Gross Motor: Rolling Snow balllsl (styrofoam balls) during different kinds of ramps
STEM & Building: Exploring magnets with maganatiles and jingle bells
Dramatic Play: We supported conversations about family traditions, winter weather, and holiday joy. Many children started bringing their traditions into their play, acting as Santa Clause or delivering presents to their friends and teachers.
Symbolic & representational thinking: We set up a small world play scenario of penguins, magantiles, mirrors, pine needles, and glow lights. When children use small figures to act out scenarios, they’re practicing symbolic thinking. A penguin can stand in for real animals, ideas, or even the child themselves. This kind of representational play is a key foundation for later abstract thinking, storytelling, and literacy.
Speech and Language Development: We integrated mirrors into our play to fit in with the winter theme of ice and reflection but also because it’s a very important tool for speech development! When children see their own mouths move, they gain visual feedback for how sounds are made. They notice lips opening and closing, tongues moving, and changes in facial shape. This visual information supports early articulation and sound production, especially for children who are still developing clarity in speech.
Sensory exploration and regulation: We created a train winter wonderland with wooden tracks and cornstarch “snow”. Cornstarch is a soft, calming sensory experience (that is surprisingly easy to clean!). Its texture encourages scooping, pouring, packing, and smoothing. Sensory play like this supports body awareness and promotes engaged and focused play.
Community: We embraced the spirit of giving as we participated in our annual field trip to the fire station where each child donated a toy. Then we introduced the idea of picking out and “buying” something for a loved one in our classroom’s winter market.
All of this promoted an environment of joy and childlike wonder with deep and intentional learning!
HOLIDAY MARKET
Our First Annual First Friends Winter Market was such a joyful and very meaningful learning experience for the children.
Before opening the market, we gathered together to set an intention: the children would be
choosing gifts for their families rather than for themselves. This offered an important opportunity to explore empath and generosity. These are complex concepts that develop over time and look different at each age.
Each child received a wallet with the same amount of pretend “money” and visited the market in small groups. In conversation with the “vendors” (Teachers Jocelyn and Ana), children shared who they were shopping for and reflected on what that person might enjoy (“Does Mommy like tea?”). Through this dialogue, children practiced expressive language, decision-making, and social interaction.
Items were clearly priced, and children engaged in early mathematical thinking as they counted money, matched quantities to numerals, and problem-solved when determining whether they needed change. Some of our older children thoughtfully planned their spending to ensure they could purchase gifts for multiple family members, while younger children were beginning to understand the concept of exchanging money for goods.
After shopping, Teacher Jocelyn created a wrapping station where each child spent one-on-one time sharing which gift was for whom and choosing their preferred wrapping. This quiet moment of reflection supported autonomy, intentionality, and pride in their work (and resulted in what we estimate to be over 50 beautifully wrapped gifts!).
The children were deeply proud to bring home meaningful, “real” gifts for their families. This experience would not have been possible without your generous donations, and we hope you feel the care, thought, and learning that went into each gift as you open them together.
Cooking ProjectS This Month
Date Protein Balls
This month we made a simple, nutritious, and delicious snack: Date Protein Balls. These are wonderful snacks to make weekly and enjoy all week in lunch boxes or snacks on the go.
1 cup soft dates, pitted (Soak them in water for 10 minutes and drain well, if not soft and squishy already)
1/3 cup ground flax seed
1/3 cup ground hemp seed
1/3 cup rolled oats
6 tablespoons organic nut butter of choice (we used sunflower butter)
Directions:
In the bowl of a large food processor fitted with an s-blade, process the dates until a sticky ball is formed. Add in the flax, oats, nut butter, flax seeds, hemp seeds, and process again until finely ground and crumbly. The mixture should stick together easily when pressed between your fingers. If the mixture doesn’t stick together, try adding one tablespoon of water and process again.
Use your hands to roll the dough into bite-sized balls, about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Arrange them in a single layer on a plate or baking sheet, cover tightly, and store in the fridge or freezer until ready to serve.
Freya, Sequoia, Dylan and Winter said “I love these!”
Books We Loved
Pete the Cat - Cool Shoes (Sky’s mom read)
A Dress with Pockets by Lily Murray
Good Night Good Night Construction Site
Want to play trucks?
Cars galore
Little blue truck
Stop, train, stop!
Songs we Sang
Jingle Bells
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel
Tooty-Ta
Come On Under My Umbrella
Kindness song
Jump Into the Circle
Birthdays We Celebrated
Winter-3 years old
Social & Emotional Learning
This month at First Friends, our social-emotional learning centered around the spirit of the season: kindness, empathy, generosity, and connection. Building on themes introduced in November, the children continued to deepen their understanding of what it means to care for others and be part of a larger community.
Throughout December, we read books about kindness and had ongoing conversations about what being kind looks and feels like. These discussions extended beyond circle time and into our daily routines. During play, transitions, and even at lunch, we intentionally highlighted moments of kindness like sharing space, helping a friend, using gentle words, and noticing how our actions impact others.
The idea of caring for others, which began with our November food drive, carried naturally into December as we participated in a toy drive. The children learned that some children and families may not have access to toys during the holidays and were eager to help. We took a walking field trip to our local fire station, where each child proudly delivered a new toy as a donation. Afterward, the children created drawings and messages for the firefighters, and we captured their words of gratitude, supporting empathy, appreciation, and community awareness.
We also explored cultural awareness and inclusion by learning about both Hanukkah and Christmas. Families joined us for a joyful sing-along where we shared songs from each tradition and even witnessed the lighting of a menorah. These experiences offered meaningful exposure to different ways families celebrate and reinforced respect for diverse traditions.
One of the most impactful experiences this month was our classroom “holiday market.” Using pretend money and real items, the children shopped for gifts for members of their immediate family for whom they wish to buy (and even grandparents too!) and assisted in beautifully wrapping their gift(s). This activity encouraged perspective-taking, patience, and the understanding that giving to others can bring joy. It was especially meaningful to observe children work through the realization that the gifts were not for themselves, but for someone they love.
Social-emotional learning also unfolded organically through play. In our dramatic play area, the sushi bento box became a favorite. With gentle teacher guidance, children engaged in restaurant play, practiced reading body language and social cues, and participated in a shared, communal meal. They asked to “taste” one another’s sushi, miso soup, and sashimi, practicing turn-taking, inclusion, and respectful communication. One of the most special moments was seeing new friends join this play who don’t typically engage in group scenarios.
In all, December was a month rooted in connection. Through kindness, empathy, cultural awareness, sharing, and community involvement, the children experienced social-emotional learning in ways that were meaningful, joyful, and developmentally rich, carrying forward lessons that will continue well beyond the holiday season.
Overheard at First Friends
A collection of our favorite quotes of the month-
“This is my snowflakes”-Sloane
“I love you, pinecone” - Arthur
“I’m practicing writing my name”-Kiran
“Where is Santa?” (In the fake snow buried) - Mikolai
“It’s snowing on my tree!” - Dylan
“I’m making ice cream” - Sequoia
“I’m making ice cream” - Winter
“I ate chocolate today and I have a calendar” - Eisley
“Most of them are cute!” - Porter about Christmas ornaments
“Do you want to share snowballs?”-Eisley to Dutch
“This looks like snow!”-Freya
“I’m making a cake for Santa”-Freya
“Snow” Lucia
“I’m hiding the penguins”-Miko
“Great idea teacher Jenny!”-Sky
“I see it, it’s beautiful!” - Kiki to Arthur about his painting
“I like grown-up tofu” - Sloane about Ana’s lunch
“Can you write my name on it Porter?” - Tommy to Porter
“I made fake money!” - Sloane
“Santa was here!!!” - Freya
“I know my dada loves blue” - Sloane
“I like the beat of this song” - Arthur
“I’m the ocean” - Jude
“My mama is going to pick me up”-Sylvie (every day!)
“This is what the money looks like mom!” - Sam
“The sky is really blue!” - Mikolai
“Grown ups always come back”-Kiran
“I wanna stay here forever but I have to go home” - Jude
We are deeply grateful for your generous gifts and for the trust you place in us to care for your children. We hope that you all have a beautiful holiday break the next two weeks. Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year! Looking forward to seeing you all in 2026!
Warmly,
Your First Friends Teachers
