Thursday, 5/24/12
We love the zoo! We just couldn't wait to visit the zoo today. Well, it wasn't a real zoo, but we created our own. Each Pre-K class created three areas (habitats) for our animals. Our class created a wonderful jungle area for those animals that love to roam and climb, Mrs. Montie's class created a fantastic swamp and fresh water area for those animals that love to swim and get wet, and Mrs. Mullen's class created a fun arctic area with ice and snow. We each received our own ticket before entering our "zoo" and we had our ticket hole-punched as we passed thru the "gate". We had fun placing our zoo animal it its appropriate habitat. Once we were finished we took notice to the fact that the jungle/forest area had the most animals, while the Arctic area had the least. Great observation!
We had a ball during gym class today as Mrs. Wallace set up an obstacle course for us to follow similar to the one we will see at the Bike Rodeo next week, which is set for May 31st.
We listened to an interesting story called "A Zebra's World" and learned some neat zebra facts...see if your child can share some with you. We then cut, colored, and glued to create our own striped zebras.
We practiced our songs for our end of the year show - practice makes perfect :) We are happy to report that we did not take a nap today because we were busy having much fun at the "Fun Fair" this afternoon. Thank you so much to Mrs. MacIntosh and her 6th grade students for "buddying up" with us today.
Please check your child's folder for some important information regarding the last week of school, progress report conferences, and the upcoming bike rodeo.
We ended the day in prayer, asking God especially to bless all of the service men and women- past and present- who fight for our country. Enjoy the long holiday weekend. See you Tuesday :)
Wednesday, 5/23/12
Zippers everywhere! Everyone remembered to wear or bring a zippered item. We had pants , jackets, bags, pencil cases, pocketbooks and even shoes with zippers. We didn't realize how so many different things have zippers on them. Our butterfly pavilion even has a zipper on it!
We watched the adventures of Zeezo the letter Z on our Smartboard. He lives at the zoo and we saw a zoo animal for each letter of the alphabet greet him - and it ended with the zebra carrying him away. We practiced making upper and lower case Zz's in our letter books (wow, we now have completed every letter in our book!) We added the words zero, zinnia, zoo, zebra, zucchini, zipper and zip code to our word wall.
We enjoyed music class with Ms. Serratore and then got some exercise and fresh air outside with our other preschool friends. We looked at Bronwyn's, and Chase's tell and show items. During math time we reviewed "first, next, and last" by placing sequence cards in 1-2-3 order.
We ended the day listening to the delightful story of "Mrs. Toggle's Zipper" by Robin Pulver, about a teacher who was stuck in her winter coat. Tomorrow is "Zoo Day" - each child should bring in a stuffed zoo animal if they haven't done so already. Also, tomorrow is "Fun Day". Have a nice night.
Tuesday, 5/22/12
We have a lovely family of six zebras on our Z table. We also have a beautifully drawn picture of a zamboni - good one! Maybe a zero, zipper, or zombie will appear on there tomorrow.... To enhance our "Z" study, we are having "Zipper Day" tomorrow and "Zoo Day" on Thursday. Please see the letter in your child's folder if you haven't done so already.
We are learning some new songs for our end of the year show. We again visited Mrs. Mullen's class to practice our big group numbers. Hard to believe that it's just 2 short weeks away!
We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Zz's and drew our own zebras. In computer class we used the KidPix Program to "stamp" out the letters of our name. When finished we selected different types of music to make our letters dance. Next we were encouraged to find pictures that began with each letter of our name and placed them under the correct letter. Mrs. Geller was quite impressed with our computer skills!
We enjoyed some time outdoors and also looked at Amado's, London's, Savannah's, and Ryann's tell and show items. During math we focused on the ordinal terms "first, next, and last" and how they happen in 1-2-3 order. We used sequencing cards and put them in the appropriate order.
We ended the day practicing our songs and praying together - we especially remembered to keep our friends Azariah and Michael in our prayers, hoping they had a safe trip to Virginia.
REMINDERS:
- Zipper day tomorrow (wear or bring a zippered item)
-Zoo day Thursday (bring in a stuffed zoo animal)
- Thursday is also "Fun Day". Please send in $5 so you child can participate in the afternoon activities.
Monday, 5/21/12
Zip-a-dee-doo-da! It's Z week :) We have some fun "Z" activities happening this week. Please check your child's folder about our zoo and zipper activities. Early in the day we went to Mrs. Mullen's class and all of the Pre-K children enjoyed a video clip on the SMARTboard about zebras at the San Diego Zoo. Who knew that zebras are actually all black in color with white stripes? We also spent some time practicing a few songs for our upcoming show. We are getting better and better each time!
We are happy to report that all 5 butterflies are flitting about in our pavilion. Soon we will release them outside so they can be in their natural environment.
We listened for the /Z/ sound in many words and practiced making upper and lower case Zz's. We glued "zig-zag" strips into letter z formations. We had fun walking in a zig-zag line instead of a straight line - we were zig-zagging all the way down the hallway! We stretched our legs outside for a bit to get some fresh air. We played a game of alphabet bingo and Delaney was the first one to cover up all of her letters on her card :) We also used our waterpaints to paint a picture of our choice, but we were encouraged to make a Z somewhere on the page. Nicely done!
We are requesting a stuffed zoo animal to be sent in tomorrow, Wed, or Thursday. This can take the place of your child's tell and show item. Also, we will be having zipper day on Wednesday. Your child is encouraged to wear or bring in something that has a zipper. Again, this can take the place of tell and show. Please see the letter in your child's folder. Have a wonderful evening.
Wednesday, 5/16/12
We entered our classroom and were so excited to see that something special happened overnight. We peeked at our butterfly pavilion and saw that 3 out of our 5 caterpillars changed into beautiful butterflies. We just couldn't believe it! We each had the chance to examine them up close with a magnifying glass.
We made our way to Mrs. Mullen's room today to begin practicing a song for our "End of the year" celebration on June 5. Yes, hard to believe that the end of the year is almost here. We will be busy preparing for it over the next few weeks and, as usual, all parents and special guests will be in for a real treat.
We had fun singing and dancing in music class today. When we returned from music class it didn't take us long to notice that there were now 4 butterflies flying around in our pavilion. Just one more left. We reviewed the 4 stages once more: 1. egg, 2. caterpillar, 3. chrysallis, and 4. butterfly. How neat to have seen this transformation right in our classroom! We got the chance to enjoy this beautiful day when we played outside with our other preschool friends. We looked at Sephora's, Sarah's, and Bronwyn's tell and show items.
We reviewed the value of a penny, nickel and dime. Today we used all of these coins to make various amounts of "cents". The last group of us had the chance to buy an item at the "toy store" after paying for our desired item with the correct number of cents. Impressive!
We ended the day on a bit of a sad note. Our friends Azariah and Michael will be visiting their grandmother in Virginia for a while and therfore will not be returning after today. Although we know they will have fun in Virginia, we sure are going to miss them! We had a "goodbye" party for them this afternoon with some cupcakes, ice cream, and munchkins. Please write to us Michael and Azariah and tell us all about Virginia!
Have a wonderful long weekend. See you Monday :)
Tuesday, 5/15/12
We began this dark wet day with many happy bright smiling faces at circle time this morning as we enthusiastically sang some of our favorite songs. We sang and signed all of our letters from A-Y, only one more to go! We enjoyed playing an interactive letter/sound matching game on our Smartboard where we each had a turn to try and correctly match the letter to the picture that began with that letter. It was a little tricky because we also had to remember where things were so it tested our memory skills as well.
We went to computer class and also looked at Delaney's, London's, and Ryann's tell and show items. Some of us had the chance to visit the "toy store" and purchase some small items, but only after counting out the correct # of cents needed for our desired item. In math today we identified the dime as a coin with a value of 10 cents. We also figured out different ways to make 10 cents using nickels and pennies.
We also talked about the 4 Seasons and the wonderful changes that happen in each one. We listened to the story "What Makes the Seasons?", then voted for our favorite one. After tallying the results, we could clearly see that Summer was most popular. Afterward, we drew a picture in our journals of ourselves doing an activity during our favorite season.
Please remember that we are closed this Thursday, 5/17 and Fri, 5/18. Have a nice night.
Monday, 5/14/12
At circle time this morning we shared what we did with our our mommies yesterday - sounds like everyone had a beautiful day. Mr. Sun didn't want to stick around today, but that's okay because it's always bright and sunny in our classroom. We tested our letter recognition skills with a fun alphabet bingo game at our circle. We played until everyone had the chance to shout "BINGO" and win, however, the first friend who was able to identify and cover up all of the letters on her card was Ava. Nice job, Ava!
We created a beautiful Spring garden scene during our craft time. We used our scissors to cut out some grass and some stems. We glued them onto a piece of paper, drew and colored in some leaves, and then sponge painted the flowers at the top of each stem. Finally we added some creepy-crawly insects to our garden.
We enjoyed some time outside with our other preschool friends in Mrs. Mullen's and Mrs. Montie's classes. During Math we were introduced to a new coin - the dime. We noted the similarities and differences among the penny, nickel and dime. We each received our own cup full of coins and sorted them into piles. After doing this we were able to determine which coin we had the most and least of.
During God's Time, Chase crowned The Blessed Mother today as we recited the "Hail. Mary". We also said a special prayer for all of our families.
Just a reminder that we will focus on the letter "Zz" next week since we are off on Thurs and Fri this week.
Friday, 5/11/12
What a fun time we had at our St. Bernadette Walk-a-thon today! Our little feet got lots of exercise. First, we walked - then it was time for some fun and games outside. We had fun in the moonbounce, on the scotter seats, participting in a bean bag relay race, and rolling tennis balls into the hoops. The weather was perfect for all of our outdoor activities.
Next it was time for a pizza lunch, cold lemonade, and some refreshing lemon water ice. Delicious!
A huge thank you to Home and School for all of their hard work in planning this very special day. And thank you to all of the parents who donated their time and money to help support our wonderful school.
Have a great weekend. Wishing all moms a peaceful and joyful Mother's Day.
* Since we are closed next Thursday, 5/17 and Fri, 5/18, we will be holding off on the letter Z until the week of May 21st.
* On behalf of Mrs. Frank and myself, thank you again for your Teacher Appreciation /Mother's Day gifts - so very thoughtful and very much appreciated.
Thursday, 5/10/12
"We really love our mommies, our mommies, our mommies,
We really love our mommies, we love her so much!
She feeds me and dresses me, and hugs me and kisses me,
We really love our mommies, we love her so much!"
This little ditty sung to the tune of "The More We Get Together" sums up how we feel about our amazing mommies. Over the past week the children have prepared gifts of painted and jeweled memory boxes, and a -one-of-a-kind handmade card. On the cover was a well thought out portrait of our beautiful moms - we carefully selected eyes and hair to match the color of our mommies. We colored the shirt her favorite color and then carefully beaded a pretty necklace. Inside it includes a beautiful flower and a "mommy questionnaire" , with responses relayed from us. Isn't it heartwarming to see and hear their answers?
We could not have been more excited to have our mommies in our classroom today. From our opening prayer circle to our final song (Skidda-Merrink) - it was a wonderful time that we shared together. Listening to the story "Mommy in my Pocket" was a nice reminder that our mommies are always with us in our hearts. We felt very lucky and blessed that we really did have our moms with us today. Next we were off to the cafeteria, ummm, I mean the tea shop, to enjoy some delicious treats. Thank you so much to Mrs. Frank for the incredible job she did setting up. We really enjoyed speaking into the microphone and telling everyone what our mom is "the best" at. Such sweet responses they were! We also loved the time spent with our mommies making a lovely butterfuly craft.
Lastly we made our way back to the classroom for our final song and a special gift bag for our mommies to take. Thanks so much to all of the mommies for spending that special time with us today. You truly are the best!!!!
And a personal thank you to each one of you for the lovely roses and picture frame - how thoughtful! I love the picture of all of my beautiful students. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart 
Tomorrow is our walk-a-thon, so let's get those feet ready :) Sneakers, please. Have a great evening!
Wednesday, 5/9/12
Our Mother's Day Tea is set for tomorrow at 10:15am and we just can't wait! We have been quite busy preparing for this special day and we are so much looking forward to sharing this time with our wonderful mommies.
After putting the finishing touches on some special surprises for tomorrow, we recited the Hail Mary while Bronwyn put the crown on the Blessed Mother. We colored a beautiful picture of Mary holding baby Jesus and thought of one special intention we have. Their intentions were very sweet and are hanging in our classroom.
We enjoyed some outdoor time with Mrs. Montie's class. We also looked at Sarah's, Amado's, and Sephora's tell and show items. We took turns counting out coins and determining their value. We ran out of time for our "toy store" - my 3 day friends will have the opportunity to purchase something at the store either tomorrow or Monday. We also had fun singing a song about the alphabet with Ms. Serratore in music class.
We're so excited about tomorrow - see you then
Tuesday, 5/8/12
We were anxious to look at our caterpillars today and were excited to see that 4 out of our 5 caterpillars are now in their cocoons. They've been quite busy lately, that's for sure. Once the 5th one joins the group, we can attach them to our butterfly pavilion and wait for that magical metamorphosis.
Busy little bees we are preparing for this Thursday. We really put those fine motor skills to work as we created something special for our mommies. Can't say too much more, but we assure you that they will bring a smile to your face :)
In computer class we worked on the KidPix program to create lovely ladybugs, then played one of our favorite alphabet computer games called A to Zap. In math we reviewed the value of the penny and the nickel. We were able to show 2 different ways to make 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 cents.
Amado crowned Mary today as we are honoring Her each day during the month of May. Please remember that you can send in flowers for Mary throughout the month. We looked at London's, Ryann's, and Delaney's tell and show items. Tomorrow we look forward to Music class and finishing up our special surprises for our mommies. Have a wonderful night.
Monday, 5/7/12
We are very busy preparing for our Mother's Day Tea this Thursday. All mommies are in for a real treat. We are practicing songs and making crafts for this special day :)
We reviewed all of our letters today and participated in a fun alphabet game. We each picked out a miniature manipulative out of the mystery box, identified it, then listened to the beginning sound to see what letter it began with. These kids are surely ready for kindergarten! Nicely done.
We enjoyed the warm weather when we went outside and stretched our legs. We were very excited to buy an item in Mrs. Dignam's toy store today. We each received some coins and had to count out how much we needed to buy our desired item. We used nickels and pennies and many of us showed 2 different ways to make the same # of cents. Impressive!
We crowned Mary today as we recited the Hail, Mary - and we especially prayed for all mommies. We ended the day peeking at our caterpillars and we have some exciting news....all but one have made their way to the top of the cup. Now we await the cocoons. We also listened to the story "From Caterpillar to Butterfly".
Please check out some added links on the left hand side of the screen. There are some beautiful pictures from Easter, Grandparent's Day and when we examined our worms!
Friday, 5/4/12
We spent most of the morning preparing some special and unique gifts for our mommies. Next Thursday, 5/10 we are anxiously awaiting our Mother's Day Tea....and we have a feeling that all mommies will LOVE our surprises.
We reviewed our letters from A-Y and enjoyed playing an alphabet guessing game. We each picked out a letter and had to give clues as to what the letter was. We were all able to say the sound the letter makes and gave examples of words that started with our selected letter. We each had a few turns and did a great job.
We enjoyed the warm weather and played outside for a bit with our friends in Mrs. Mullen's class. We looked at Chase's, Savannah's, and Lauren's tell and show items.
We chose between waterpaints or markers to make colorful pictures - most of us drew things for the letter "Y".
Lauren crowned Mary as we gathered to honor Her while reciting the "Hail, Mary". We also remembered to keep the second graders in our prayers who will be receiving their First Holy Communion tomorrow.
Next week we will be preparing for our Mother's Day Tea on Thursday and the walk-a-thon on Friday. We will finish up our alphabet with the letter "Zz" the week of May 14th. Have a wonderful weekend :)
Thursday, 5/3/12
Yay! Our Y table had some nice additions to it today....a yo-yo, some yogurt and a picture of an unusual plant called a "Yucca" plant. Very nice!
After our morning prayer, Pledge, and a few songs, we had an interesting discussion about yaks. First we viewed some pictures of yaks on our a SMARTboard and then we learned some interesting yak facts. See if your child can share one or two with you. Afterward we cut, colored and glued to create our own shaggy Yellow Yaks.
We put those gross motor skills to work with Mrs. Wallace during gym class as we weaved through the obstable course and identified road signs. Please check folders for an important letter from Mrs. Wallace regarding the upcoming Bike Rodeo.
We worked in our journals today as we drew things on our page that are "yellow"- we drew and colored wonderful suns, taxis, bananas, french fries, and bumblebees - just to name a few. And our "Yellow" list has now grown to 24 listed items ...impressive!
We have been working on some wonderful songs and crafts for our Mother's Day Tea next week, but we must remain hush-hush regarding these surprises :) Caroline crowned our Blessed Mary statue today as we prayed the "Hail Mary" together.
We ended the day by taking a peek at our classroom caterpillars - they seem to be getting a bit more plump, but no cocoons yet. We will be checking them each day!
Wednesday, 5/2/12
We are eagerly awaiting some additions to our Y table. Our friend Yorkie only has 2 items joining him so far - maybe some yogurt, yarn or a yo-yo will appear tomorrow? I think we are up for the challenge :) We added the words yak, yam, yogurt, yarn, yo-yo, and yard stick to our word wall today. We also practiced printing upper and lower case Yy's in our letter books (Y was a little tricky!). We read together our Y poem and then found and circled all of the upper and lower case Yy's in the poem - and we found all 15 of them!
Next we talked about a sound we can make with our mouths that begins with Y....yodeling! All of the Pre-K children visited Mrs. Mullen's class for a mini-yodeling lesson. We watched a SMARTboard clip of a 13 yr girl named Taylor on the Oprah Winfrey show who started yodeling at the age of 7. We were impressed that she actually taught herself. After listening to Taylor yodel, we were ready to give it a go! "Aa-Aa-Oo-Oo-Yo-Da-Lay-Hee-Hoo"...I think we had the best yodelers in Delaware County!! So good that I think a few sheep and goat were spotted heading toward our school! See if your child can yodel for you :)
We enjoyed music class with Ms. Serratore as we sang and danced together. We continued practicing with coins and used pennies and nickels to compare our money with a friend's. We counted up our coins to see how much we had, how much our friend had, and then determined who had more and who had less.
We honored Mary by crowning her with beautiful flowers and reciting the "Hail, Mary", which we will do each day during the month of May. Any flowers you would like to send in during the month are welcome!
We ended the day looking at London's, Chase's, Bronwyn's, Sarah's and
Sephora's tell and show items. Please check your child's folder for a special invitation to our Mother's Day Tea next week. Also, please remember to send in a baby picture for our next class book. Thanks so much and have a nice night.
Tuesday, 5/1/12
Hooray for May! We said goodbye to April today as we turned over the first day on our May calendar. May newsletters were sent home today along with a letter about our next class book - please check folders :)
We were introduced to the letter Y with our walphabet.com clip of Yogi doing some yoga. We listened for all of the "Y" words in the clip - there was Yogi, Yolanda, yogurt, yoga, yak, yeti, yo-yo, yellow, and yolk. Our letter table so far has Yoda from Star Wars and a yellow marker. Speaking of yellow, our 3 day friends came up with some wonderful additions to our "Things that are yellow" list and we are now up to 20. Great going! We practiced printing upper and lower case Yy's and drew a picture of some yarn.
We went to computer class, then we got some fresh air outside as we stretched our legs. During Math we were introduced to a new coin...the nickel. We indentified the nickel as a coin with a value of 5 cents. We also used real pennies and nickels to help us understand that 1 nickel is equivalent to 5 pennies.
During God's Time we discussed that the month of May is dedicated to Jesus's mother, Mary. Our Mary statue is now on our Prayer Table and is ready for our Mary shrine dedication this month. Any child who would like to bring in flowers for our Shrine may do so throughout the month.
We finished the day looking at London's, Ryann's, Amado's and Delaney's tell and show items. We also learned some special songs for our Mother's Day Tea next week. We are so looking forward to this special time shared with our mommies - please let me know if you are unable to attend. Again, our Mother's Day Tea is on Thursday, May 10th, at 10:15 am. Thanks and have a wonderful night.
Monday, 4/30/12
We cannot believe that we turned over the last day on our April calendar this morning. Time is just flying by.
We began our introduction to "Y" week with the color yellow. During circle time we looked around to see who was wearing something yellow, then we each had a turn to find something in classroom that is yellow. We then brainstormed about things that we know that are usually yellow and created a list. So far we were able to come up with 15.....we will continue to think about this and add to it throughout the week. We wonder how many we will have by Friday?
We created "yellow collages" today by looking through magazines to find yellow items. We put those fine motor skills to work as we cut and glued. We enjoyed the sunshine when we played outside with our other preschool friends.
We reviewed the value of a penny and practiced counting out the correct # of pennies needed for a given item. We each received a certain # of cents and had to determine whether or not we had enough money to buy a designated item.
We also began working on one of our Mother's Day projects for next week. Just a reminder that next Thursday, May 10, we will be having our special "Mother's Day Tea". Invitations will be sent home this week. Have a nice night.
Thursday, 4/26/12
Today, in honor of "The Week of the Young Child" we were engaged in many activities that revolved around how special and unique we are. We sang some of our favorite songs and played one of our favorite games called "The Muffin Man" game. We used
our listening ears to figure out which one of our friends' voices was singing and had 3 chances to guess who it was. In the beginning of the year most of us needed more than 3 chances, but now most of us got it right on the first try. Nicely done!
We picked out a friend's name and then thought of a reason why that friend is so special. How sweet the responses were! I would love to share a few, but would like to keep it a surprise for when you receive your child's book! This activity prepared us for the next page in our book that we completed today. We drew a picture of our selected friend and ourselves playing together, and then shared why that friend is so special.
We had fun in gym with Mrs. Wallace where we played "Nemo tag" - where some of us were fish and some were sharks. We also practiced our eye-hand coordinatin with a fun game of volleyball - using balloons.
We reviewed our letters from A - X and practiced sounding them out. We cannot believe that we only have 2 more letters left! We visited Ms. Sheen in the library and sang a wonderful rendition of "Happy Birthday" to her, gave her a lovely card that we made for her, then she read to us.
We finished the day enjoying one of our favorite treats (to honor all of these truly special children during this special week)....water ice! Thank you to the Home and School Association for treating us! yummy :) Just a reminder that tomorrow is a half day, 11:55 dismissal. Next week we move onto the letter Y - Yay! Have a great night.
Wednesday, 4/25/12
Happy Grandparent's/Special Friends Day!
What a wonderful time we had this morning with our grandparents/special friends. We began our celebration with prayer, a poem, and some songs. Afterward we created with our grandparent/special person a lovely spring flower craft and then topped it all off by sharing some yummy snacks together. We did a fabulous job welcoming our guests and enjoyed the special time shared with them.
Thank you to all of the grandparents/special friends who helped to make this day a memorable one. Thank you to all of the parents who donated their time and treats to make this special day a success! And a HUGE thank you to Mrs. Buccat who coordinated things while Mrs. D'Alessandro is on vacation. Lots of pictures were taken and will be posted very soon.
Tuesday, 4/24/12
Today was a fast-moving busy day in Pre-K! After our morning prayer and pledge, we headed over to O'Brien Hall to practice for our Grandparent's Day celebration tomorrow. We practiced our entrance, and chanted and sang our little hearts out. Tomorrow will surely be a memorable day for us, our grandparents, and our "special person (s)". We are so much looking forward to it. Just a reminder that our Grandsparent's Day celebration begins at 10:00 am in O'Brien Hall.
In celebration of "The Week of the Young Child" we enjoyed a wonderful musician perform for/with us in the gym from "Makin' Music". She had us singing, dancing, movin' and groovin'. We especially enjoyed using the shaker eggs! This was much fun that preschool 3, 4, Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade enjoyed and participated in.
We completed the first page of our special book that each of us will have as a keepsake. Once all pages are completed they will be bound together into a student book - this book is an "all about me" book to celebrate how special and unique each child is.
We ended the day looking at London's, Ryann's, Amado's, and Delaney's tell and show items. See you tomorrow when we will be celebrating "Granparent's" and/or "Special Person(s)" Day. Have a wonderful night.
Monday, 4/23/12
"This is the way we help the earth, help the earth, help the earth, each and every day.
We recycle and pick up the trash, pick up the trash, pick up the trash.
We recycle and pick up the trash, to help our planet Earth"
We sung this tune today to honor Earth day. We talked about how special and beautiful God made our planet Earth and what we can do to help keep it that way.
We discussed how we can save energy by turning off the lights before we leave a room and turning off the television when we are not watching it. We also can remember to shut off the water while we are brushing our teeth. We can clean up trash and make sure it goes inside the trash can. We also talked about the importance of recycling. See if your child can tell you what recycling means.
We went to the gym to watch Mrs. Mullen receive a "special teacher" award from "Acme"....congratulations Mrs. Mullen! When we returned to class we colored and cut out a picture of our planet Earth, glued it onto a piece of construction paper, and then added our handprints to it......because we all have a responsibility to keep our Earth the best it can be and therefore "The Earth is in our hands!"
We are also celebrating "The Week of the Young Child" this week and working on some special pages for a book we will each bring home. In honor of this special week, we have planned for "Makin' Music" to visit our school tomorrow - which is a live interactive music and dance performance for the children. This will surely be a treat!
Each and every one of the children are precious gifts from God and I thank you so much for sharing them with me.
We joined our other preschool friends and practiced some of our songs for "Grandparent's Day" this Wednesday. We are sounding really great. Tomorrow we will practice at O'Brien Hall - we are so looking forward to this special day.
We ended the day listening to the story "Recycle" by Gail Gibbons which describes what happens to all that plastic, glass, paper, and aluminum after the recycling truck picks it up. It also reviewed the many ways we can help clean up our environment. Have a nice night :)
Friday, 4/20/12
We started our day with some wonderful xylophone music! We used the rhythm stick to bang out some lovely tunes. We compared Delaney's xylophone to our classroom xylophone and noted the similarities and differences. Afterward we created our own xylophone crafts. We put many different skills to work during this activity. First we cut out the base of the xylophone and the sticks and glued them onto a piece of construction paper. Next we received the "keys" and had to arrange them on the base in size order from smallest to largest - or largest to smallest. Some of us were able to do this on the very first try! After spelling out the word x-y-l-o-p-h-o-n-e and writing our name, we were finished - nicely done!
We reviewed the letters S-X while playing an alphabet game where some of us selected a letter (S, T, U, V, W, or X) and others selected a picture that begins with one of these letters. Next we had to find the friend who went with our letter/picture. We enjoyed this so much that we played a few times! We went outside and enjoyed this beautiful sunny day with our other preschool friends.
We reviewed the value of a penny and counted out the cents needed for certain items. We also used our waterpaints today - this time a bit differently. Our paper was given to us with masking tape on it in the shape of a letter X. After we painted up our papers with many different colors, we gently pulled off the tape and.......a white "X" was left in the middle of our picture - "X" marks the spot!
Next week we are looking forward to celebtrating Earth Day, Grandparent's Day, and "The Week of the Young Child"...busy week! We will continue with "Y" the week of 4/30. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, 4/19/12
At circle time today, we enjoyed a lesson on X-rays. We learned that an X-ray is a special kind of picture that shows the bones inside of our bodies. We talked about how doctors and dentists use X-rays to see how we are growing and to check parts inside our bodies that cannot be seen with your eyes. We passed around some real X-rays of a leg and mouth, and then we viewed some X-rays of various types of animals on our SMARTboard......we saw what the bones of a pig, a bat, a snake, a donkey,
a fish, and a frog look like by examining their X-rays!
We got a bit messy when our hands were painted white to make white handprints on black construction paper. After they dried, we glued on some bones (Q-tips) to make our own X-ray hands!
We got lots of exercise today - first in the gym with Mrs. Wallace, then outside on this beautiful Spring day. During our math time, we continued activities where we counted the # of pennies needed to make a purchase. Next week the children will have the opportunity to make a purchase at my toy store - figuring out how many cents they have and what they can buy with it.
Tomorrow we look forward to some xylophone fun. Next week we will be celebrating Grandparent's Day, The Week of the Young Child and Earth Week - so we will hold off on the letter Y until the week of 4/30. Just a reminder to send back your response forms for Grandparent's Day if you haven't done so already. Thanks so much and have a great night :)
Wednesday, 4/18/12
Our letter X table had one more addition today - a wonderful hand-drawn picture of a xylophone. We were reminded today that we can also bring in something that ends with the letter x.
After prayer, pledge, and songs we reviewed our letters from A-X and added the words xylophone and x-ray to our word wall. We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Xx's in our letter books. We also read together an /X/ poem, then found and circled all of the x's we could find.
We talked about EXIT signs and how they show the way out of a building. We named several places that have EXIT signs, such as stores, movie theatres, malls and schools. We learned that EXIT signs can help people find their way out of a building quickly and are usually located over doors. We were eXcited when we found out that we were going to search around St. Bernadette School for all EXIT signs. We split up into groups and began our search. As we went off on our "EXIT" hunt, each time a child spotted one, I would draw a tally mark on our paper. After carefully inspecting the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors, we counted up the tally marks. See if your child can tell you how many we found. One child pointed out that it's the same number of times the Blessed Mary appeared to St, Bernadette - and another smart cookie took notice to the fact that it was the same number that we turned over on our April calendar this morning!
We used real pennies today to count the # of pennies needed to make a purchase. We worked in teams to figure out how many pennies were needed to buy several different items. We practiced writing the "cents" sign on the SMARTboard.
We had fun with Mrs. Serratore in Music class as we continue to practice our "Days of the Week" song in English and Spanish (these will be a few of the songs we sing for Grandarent's Day next week). We also were movin' and groovin' to "The Chicken Dance" and "Freeze Dance".
Tomorrow we are looking forward to gym class and eXamining some X-rays! Have an eXcellent evening :)
Tuesday, 4/17/12
We were eXcited to see some items on our X table today. We have a xylophone, pictures of an X-ray fish, a hand-drawn map with an "X" where the treasure is (X marks the spot!), and another hand-drawn picture of an eXclamation point!!! Nice job!
At circle time we were introduced to the letter X through a video clip on our SMARTboard. Exxy the X was meeting up with her family members for a family picture...We met brother X, sister X, granny X, grandpa X, and many X cousins.
We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Xx's and drew our own xylophone pictures. In computer class, Mrs. Geller helped us brush up on our keyboard skills with an activity found on talkingfingers.com - we were able to find the suggested letter keys and follow the prompts. We looked at Ryann's, London's, and Delaney's tell and show items.
We were eXtra eXcited to go on a treasure hunt today. We split into two groups - one group went outside with Mrs. Frank, while the other group went on a treasure hunt with Mrs. Dignam - then we switched. We first looked at our large map to figure out where we had to go. Our adventure started in the classroom, then we followed the arrows on the map to see that we had to pass Mrs. Mullen's room, which meant we had to make a left. We then had to make a right after we passed the gym in order to go out the front doors. Once we were outside we referred to the map to see we had to pass the Wright Center, so we had to make another right. Next we could see that we were close to our treasure. The "X" on our map was just passed the Wright Center, next to The Blessed Mother and St. Bernadette. "X" marks the spot - there it was, our treasure was on the stone leading to the Mary statue. We opened it up to see what was inside. We first saw a mirror so we could see how special God made each one of us, then we saw beautiful crosses which of course symbolizes Jesus, with a lollipop treat attached to each one. The best treasure of all is having Jesus in our hearts! We sat around the statue and reviewed the story of St. Bernadette for the friends who weren't here yesterday. We were proud of our treasure hunting skills!
In Math we began a new unit and today we began working with pennies. We recogized the penny as a coin with a value of 1 cent. Please see the letter in your child's folder. Also in their folders is a letter regarding Grandparent's Day. Enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.
Monday, 4/16/12
In recognition of St. Bernadette's Feast day, we learned much about the Saint that our school is named for. We watched a SMARTboard clip of "The Life of St. Bernadette" and then saw a short piece from the 1943 movie when Bernadette first saw The Blessed Mother in the grotto of Massabiele in France. See if your child can share what they learned with you. We cut and colored to make a beautiful picture of Bernadette kneeling in front of The Blessed Mother.
We began discussing the letter X, and practiced printing upper case and lower case Xx's on the chalkboard. We also used our fine motor skills to make X's with our clay. Our X table is empty - so remember, anything that begins or ends with X will work :) We found and colored 10 X's that were hidden in a picture.
We enjoyed the beautiful summer-like day when we stretched our legs outside for a bit. We liked making X's with our bodies! Some of us finished our friendship flowers for our beautiful garden on display in the hallway. We finished up our day with a yummy popsicle treat - thanks Mrs. Montie for sharing these with us. Tomorrow we look forward to computer class and going on a treasure hunt and following the clues on our map...."X"marks the spot!!!
Friday, 4/13/12
We LOVE Watermelon! We learned some interesting watermelon facts today! Some of them we already knew, but one of them was a surprise to all us - even Mrs. Dignam and Mrs. Sulouff. Is watermelon considered a fruit or a vegetable? We all voted and tallied the results. Eight of us thought it was a fruit, and three of us thought it was a vegetable. And the winner is.......vegetable! Michael, Delaney and Luke got it right:)
At circle time we paired up with a buddy and received a seedless paper watermelon. We counted our cup full of seeds to see how many we had. We each took turns counting them and then agreed upon the #. Then we figured out who had the most and least amount of seeds. Nice teamwork and great counting!
For snack we munched on some delicious watermelon. Juicy and delicious! Afterward we turned a paper plate half into a slice of watermelon using our scissors and crayons, then picked a number between 5 and 15 to determine how many seeds we wanted our slice to have. Check out our folders to see our wonderful work.
We identified all of the /W/ pictures in a group of various pictures with differing initial sounds. We looked at Lauren's and Azariah's tell and show items. We went outside and enjoyed the sunshine on this beautiful Spring day.
We were very excited about eating worms today....don't worry, they were gummy worms. We actually broke up into groups of two to have a worm race. We received a plate full of 5 gummy worms covered up and hidden well with whipped cream. Our task was to remove all 5 worms and drop them into a cup without using our hands. I assure you, this was certainly a sight to see and I snapped some pictures of this great fun. We cheered each other on and laughed at each other's messy faces! Congrats to all of the worm winners!!!!
We ended the day making something worms love to dig in....dirt! Although it may look like real dirt, it's actually a yummy dessert treat. We crushed up some oreo cookies and sprinkled it on top of a cup full of pudding, then we added some gummy worms on top and voila!...dirt in a cup. Although we really wanted to eat this while we were making it, we covered it up and are bringing it home. Hopefully they will share this yummy treat at home with you.
Next week we will be exploring the letter X. Yes, the X table will prove to be a challenge! Anything that begins or ends with X can be brought in. Enjoy the lovely weather this weekend.
Thursday, 4/12/12
We had yet another wonderful addition to our W table...a walrus! At circle time we reviewed all of our letters and their sounds on our alphabet chart. We began our day listening to Maurice Sendak's entertaining story of "Where the Wild Things Are". Some of us already heard this one about a naughty little boy who was sent to bed without his supper and sailed to the land of the wild things - where he became their king. Afterward we cut, colored, and glued to create our own terrible "wild things". We picked the features we wanted to make each one unique. Don't be scared mom and dad when you see these scary creations!
We had much fun in gym class with Mrs. Wallace - (her name begins with the letter W!) We drew our own picture of a wild thing in our journals. Very creatively done! Some had sharp claws and teeth, some had horns, a few had dresses on and one even had 4 arms.
Some of us enjoyed some more worm exploration today as we counted them in our plates and compared them to see which was the longest and shortest. We finished up our math assessment and did a fabulous job. Please check folders for these!
We visited Ms. Sheen in the library and she read us a few stories. We also enjoyed a yummy surprise "w" treat from Mr. Montie (Mrs. Montie's husband). He made us some delicious homemade waffles - with butter and syrup to go with it. Thank you so much to Mr. and Mrs. Montie for sharing that treat with us.
Tomorrow we will be having some fun with watermelons - and more worms!!!!
Wednesday, 4/11/12
We were so happy to find out that yet another mystery reader was coming to our classroom today. We counted down from 10 and were surprised to see Mrs. Ellis (Ryann's mom) arrive in true mystery fashion wearing a mask! Mrs. Ellis read us the wonderful story "From Caterpillar to Butterfly" which described and showed us this magical metamorphosis. We really liked the part when the the chrysallis split open and the beautiful butterfly appeared. After we complete the alphabet, we will be exploring this theme even further. Thank you to Mrs. Ellis for sharing that special book with us today!
We had some wonderful additions to our letter table - another whale, another watch, and a washcloth! We added some /W/ words to our Word Wall (double w!)
...whistle, wheel, watermelon, windmill, watch, wagon, whale, and worm. We practiced printing upper and lower case Ww's in our letter books today. Speaking of worms,
we had some hands-on learning fun with real worms. Yes, we saw them up close and some of us even touched them. We learned some interesting worm facts - see if your child can share some of these with you. Afterward we paired up with a buddy to examine some in a paper plate. We used a magnifying glass to get a good look at them! These wiggly little worms were fun to watch and most of us were brave enough to let them crawl on our hand. We mostly just observed our worms today, tomorrow we will practice some math skills with them. Thank you to Mrs. Montie for sharing them with us!
Ms. Serratore came to our room today for music class, which was a nice change. We sound so good singing our "days of the week song" in English and in Spanish. We even took turns being judges today, giving our friends a score.
We completed part one of our math assessment today, tomorrow we will finish. We listened to a story called "A Bird and His Worm" about a bird who didn't want to fly and became friends with a worm. Winter approached but the bird did not want to fly south, so he and his worm friend had to find another way to get there. Afterward we had fun wiggling around like worms.
We looked at Bronwyn's, London's, Sephora's, and Sarah's tell and show items. Tomorrow we look forward to gym, more worm exploration, and having some fun with "Where the Wild Things Are". Have a nice night :)
Tuesday, 4/10/12
Well, hats off to you mom and dad and all of the Pre-K-4 children for creating such wonderful Easter hats. We enjoyed showing off our fancy hats at our parade this morning, and admiring each others hats as well. Bravo!
Upon returning to our classroom it was so nice to hear about everyone's Easter. The children were quite anxious to tell everyone what was in their Easter baskets. We were introduced to the letter W with our friend Walph on our SMARTboard. We listened for all of the W words and listed them when it was over. We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Ww's and drew our own wagons. Check out our folders for our Wonderful Work! We Welcomed a watch, a whale, a wallet, and pictures of wolves to our W table.
We went outside and felt the wind - another W word! We also looked at Amado's, Michael M's, and Ryann's tell and show items. During computer class we created beautiful springtime sunflowers using the KidPix tools program.
In Math we reviewed the cylinder, sphere, and cube shapes and created patterns. Tomorrow we will be wrapping up our math unit with part one of our end of unit assessment.
We're still in the Easter spirit as we went on our outdoor egg hunt after lunch. We each found 5 eggs to put inside our Easter bags. During afternoon snack we opened one up and enjoyed the yummy treats inside. Even though we are no longer looking at our Lent calendar, we were reminded that we should always be striving to do good deeds so everyone can see Jesus's light shining in our hearts.
April newsletters were sent home today (sorry for the delay!) Tomorrow we look forward to music class and more "W" activities. Have a wonderful evening.
Wednesday, 4/4/12
We began our day going on an egg hunt. We each found one egg that was hidden in the classroom and placed it in an egg holder at our table. We went to the circle and took some guesses as to what was inside our eggs - but we had to wait until snack time to find out. We were happy to see another mystery reader "hop" into our room this morning - this time it was Mrs. McNulty who read a very Easter-relevant story called "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown" which was a delightful story about the Peanuts gang and that cute little beagle Snoopy. Most of us agreed that our favorite part was at the end when Snoopy gave Lucy a big kiss on the cheek! Mrs. McNulty brought in a Snoopy stuffed animal to feel and pass around, and she even came with a basket full of treats for us. Thank you so much Mrs. McNulty!
We put the finishing touches on our Easter cards that we created just for you, mom and dad! We also completed our "chick" project which we made out of our footprints! That's right - our foot was painted yellow and after they dried we added a beak, an eye, legs, and grass and.....voila! A cute little Easter chick! Check folders for these special creations!
We were off to music next- where we sang our months of the year in Spanish and in time to the music. Ms. Serratore was quite impressed with us! We also practiced a fun version of Freeze dance. When we returned to the classroom we were very ready to dye our Easter eggs. For some reason our dye was not staying on our eggs very well. We even tried new tablets and new water, but for some reason it just didn't work very well. That's okay though because we had fun decorating them with stickers.
At snack time we opened up our eggs to find jellybeans and a piece of chocolate inside. We counted the jellybeans first and found the color jellybean that we had the most/least of. Mrs. Frank made delcious home-made m&m cookies for us to eat too. Yum!
Before we knew it, it was time to go home. These half days sure do go by fast. We ended the day listening to a story called "Peter Cottontail" and sang the tune that goes with it. Our good deed according to our Lent calendar is to use kind words.
Classes resume on Tuesday, 4/10, which is the day of our Easter parade - please remember to help your child make a hat for our parade. We will work on the letter W and April newsletters will be sent home on Tuesday. We hope you have a blessed and happy Easter with your beautiful children.
Tuesday, 4/3/12
What busy little bunnies we were today! We began our day sharing with our friends what we would like to find in our Easter baskets. During our discussion we heard a knock on our door and much to our surprise there was another mystery reader in our classroom. Today it was Mr. Behl (Delaney's dad) who read us a wonderful story titled "If You're Happy and You Know It". This is a familiar song to us, but we were surprised to see that this story had various animals in it doing what makes them feel happy. Afterward we talked about things that make us feel happy. Thank you to Mr. Behl for sharing that great story with us today!
At circle time we played a fun letter sound/recognition game. We each picked out a plastic egg from the basket. We each then had a turn to crack open our egg to see what object was inside, tell what letter our object began with, then find and circle that letter on our interactive SMARTboard. We reviewed all of our letters from A-V and signed them too. Nicely done!!!
We cut, colored, and glued to make our beautiful flowers for our friendship garden that is on display in the hallway. Our Spring garden looks so nice, come in and take a peek when you have the chance! In computer class with Mrs. Geller we enjoyed decorating Easter baskets on the KidPix program. We used the paintbucket feature to make our pictures very colorful.
Back in the classroom we have been working on some Easter crafts. One will be sent home today and few more tomorrow. We are egg-cited to show them to you :) We re-read the story "What is Easter" for our friends who weren't here yesterday, which is a wonderful reminder what Easter is all about - Jesus and His great love for us. We were able to enjoy this beautiful sunny day when we stretched our legs outside for a bit. We also looked at Michael M's and Ryann's tell and show items.
Tomorrow please remember to send in 2 hard boiled eggs with your child for some egg-dying fun. Also, half day tomorrow. Enjoy your night :)
Monday, 4/2/12
Today we said goodbye to March and hello to April. Since this week is a short week, we will not be introducing a new letter. We will be focusing on Easter and reviewing our letters from A-V this week. Today we talked about the meaning of Palms and that Palm Sunday (yesterday) started Holy Week. We looked at some real palm and practiced our cutting skills as we created our own palm craft. We waved them as did the people of Jersualem when Jesus arrived on the donkey as we sang:
"Here Comes Jesus, Here comes Jesus
Let's Praise Him, Let's Praise Him
Wave our branches and sing
Hosanna to the King
Let's Praise Jesus, Let's Praise Jesus"
We listened to the story of "What is Easter" which is a wonderful reminder of what Easter is all about. Eggs, bunnies, and baskets are much fun, but Jesus and His great love for us is the true meaning of Easter.
We had yet another mystery reader today. We chanted our number countdown and we were happy to see Chase's mom come into our classroom. She read us a book from our classroom library called "Dora's Easter Egg Hunt". We enjoyed the "lift the flaps" feature and knew all of the characters in the story. Thank you so much to Mrs. Egan for reading to us today!
We put our math skills to work when we worked on our patterning skills. This hands-on activity was a great way to reinforce the concept as we took turns completing the pattern using plastic eggs of various colors and sizes. Afterward we completed a similar cut, color and paste activity.
On Wednesday, 4/4/12 we will be dying eggs with the children. Please send your child to school with two hard-boiled eggs. We will be having an Easter Parade on Tuesday, 4/10/12 at 9:15 am. We are asking for your help in creating with your child an Easter hat. Be as creative as you and your child would like. Each child is to bring his/her hat to school with them on Tuesday. We will have a parade around the school at 9:15 am and all are invited to stay and watch as all of the Pre-K 4 children proudly display their fancy hats. Please see the letter in your child's folder.
Also, please remember that this Wednesday, 4/4/12 is a half-day, 11:45 am dismissal. I have updated the website with some recent pictures. If you click on the "Pre-K Fun", "Volcano Project", and "St. Patrick's Day Fun" links on the left side of the screen, you can view them. I did video our volcano eruption but am having some trouble uploading it :(
Have a great evening!
Thursday, 3/29/12
March is just about over and we can hardly believe it! We began the day singing our Springtime songs. At circle time we listened to story "Growing Vegetable Soup" which is a brightly illustrated story of a father and child sharing the simple joy of planting, watering, and watching seeds grow in the family garden. Then all of the wonderful vegetables are cooked up into the best soup ever. Afterward we discussed what our favorite vegetables are in preparation for our drawing page in our next class book. We smelled and touched real vegetables and made some wonderful vegetable prints with paint. See if your child can tell you which vegetables they printed on their paper.
Before we knew it, it was time for gym with Mrs. Wallace. What a treat we had today when Mrs. Wallace took us outside for an Easter egg hunt. First she assigned us to a certain color team, then we were encouraged to find eggs that matched the color of our team. So much fun, and Mrs. Wallace even let us keep one of our eggs. (check lunchboxes)
We were so excited about our volcano projects and couldn't wait to complete step 3 of our project - the eruption! First we looked at our friend Amado's pictures of an active volcano in Italy. He explained to us that his grandmother lives there (but not too close to the volcano, thank goodness!) and someone took these pictures of Mt. Etna when it was erupting. Thank you Amado for sharing these with us! We were so ready at this point to see ours erupt. First we put on safety glasses, as all young scientists do when performing an experiment. Next we each had a turn to add some baking soda, dish soap, and some red food coloring into the opening. Next we counted down from 10 and when we reached the number one we each poured a bit if vinegar into it and then.......voila! The ingredients created a chemical reaction and our volcanoes erupted! We took pictures of this fun and exciting experiment. Wonderful little scientists we are!
We ended the day reviewing our letters from A-V and checking our Lent calendar. Our good deed for the day is to hug a friend, which I am happy to say was completed several times throughout the day. Hopefully more hugs are coming your way this evening. Enjoy the long weekend with your beautiful children. Reminder: No school tomorrow. Half day next Wednesday, 4/4.
Wednesday, 3/28/12
We began our day making our way into Mrs. Mullen's class to watch a powerpoint presentation (very age -appropriate) about interesting volcano facts. We prentended to be the hot rocks in the volcano - we crouched down low and shook around a bit as we rocks were getting hotter and hotter. Finally we jumped up high as we "erupted" out of the volcano. The volcanos in our room are quite colorful as we painted them today. Step two completed. Tomorrow we can hardly wait to watch our hand-made volcano creations erupt.
We not only had one, but two mystery readers in our classroom today. First Sephora's mom came in and read us a story called, "On the Night You Were Born" which was a wonderful story about how special and unique we all are and that there is no one else on earth just like us. A short while later Azariah's mom arrived and read to us the delightful story of Princess Tiana. The beautiful message in this story was that we should always follow our dreams, even if it seems impossible. Never give up....which is something Mrs. Dignam always reminds us of when things seem difficult. Thank you so much to Mrs. Fleurimond and Mrs. Reavis for reading to us today.
We tallied the results of our "Vegetable Vote" and the carrot was victorious with 6 out of 15 votes. Coming in second was lettuce with 3 votes, and tied for third was the tomoto, peas and broccoli with 2 votes a piece. Tomorrow we will be drawing a picture of our favorite vegetable for our next class book titled "Our Favorite Vegetables".
We enjoyed music class with Ms. Serratore as we continued to learn some songs in Spanish. We looked at Chase's, Bronwyn's, Sephora's, and Sarah's tell and show items. We also worked hard in our letter books as we traced and printed upper and lower case Vv's. We identified several V words/pictures that we added to our word wall: vacuum, volcano, vest, vase, volleyball, valentine, violin, van, and violets. We picked two of these to color and glue into our books.
During Math we continued to use our measuring strips. We began by using a guess and test strategy...we all guessed as to how many rectangles long Mrs. Dignam foot is. There were some very interesting guesses, but then we measured and Savannah guessed right with the answer "6". Next we paired up with a buddy to measure his/her foot to see how many rectangles long it was. Most of us measured either 4 or 5. Nice job measuring!
When checking our Lent calendar we discussed that today's good deed is to share with someone. Tomorrow we look forward to gym class, some more fun with vegetables, and erupting our volcanoes. Have a nice evening with your precious little one!
*Reminder: No school Friday.
Tuesday, 3/27/12
Hooray! Our V table is not longer "vacant". Our friend Vinnie the Vulture is now joined by tow vehicles, a race car and a helicopter), some vegetables, a vest, a view master, a gold medal ribbon which signifies "victory", and a picture of our friend Ryann from her recent "vacation". Impressive!
We began our "V" discussion today by watching a SMARTboard clip of Vivi Violet. We listened for and listed the many V words we heard in the clip: Vivi, Violet, valley, vegetables, vitamins, volcano, violin, and vacuum.
At circle time we discussed what it means to "vote". We were introduced to our classroom "Vegetable Voting Booth", made from cardboard with side flaps for optimal voting privacy. Our choices were: carrot, broccoli, peas, tomato and lettuce. Our voting official, Mrs. Frank, assisted us with taping our name next to our choice. Tomorrow we will tally the results.
We used the KidPix program in computer class and used the "paintbucket" feature to decorate an Easter picture. Upon returning to our classroom we were ready to begin our volcano projects. First we had an interesting discussion about volcanoes - what they are, what they look like, and where they happen most frequently and looked at some pictures of a volcano erupting. Next it was time to get a little messy. We helped to pour flour, salt, oil and water into a large ziplock bag. We took turns "squishing" the bag until it was mixed well. We each received a portion of dough and used our fine motor skills to roll it out and flatten it like a pancake. Finally, we molded our flattened piece of dough to a plastic cup. Step one completed! Tomorrow we will be painting our volcanoes and eruption is set for Thursday. We will be sure to take pictures of this fun experiment!
We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Vv's. We drew pictures of violets on our papers and printed the word v-i-o-l-e-t. We looked at Ryann's, Amado's, and Delaney's tell and show items. We checked our Lent calendar to see that today's good deed is to help out at dinner time. During Math, we continued our unit on Measurement and used our rectangle measuring strips to measure classroom objects. We paired up with a partner and measured a paper clip, a paintbrush, a popsicle stick, and a crayon to see exactly how many "rectangles long" each one was.
Tomorrow will be yet another busy day as we will paint our volcanoes, have music class, tally our results from our vegetable vote, and add some /V/ words to our word wall. Have a great night!!!!
Monday, 3/26/12
This week the letter V holds some exciting things in store for us. We will be exploring the theme of vegetables with many fun activities across many subject areas. We will be working on our next class book about our favorite vegetables and we will also be learning about and making our own volcanos.
Today we welcomed the letter V as we looked at some beautiful pictures of a special flower that begins with the /V/ sound....violets! We discussed how "violet" is a color and a flower. We looked to see who was wearing the color violet today and found several objects in the classroom that are violet. Afterward we colored, cut, glued and sponge painted to create our own violet garden.
We enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine when we we went outdoors to play on this windy day. When checking our Lent calendar, we found out that our good deed for the day is to help someone do something. I am happy to report that we had many helpers in the classroom today, and I hope that continues at home tonight as well :)
During math we explored the concept of temperature and made comparisons between hot and cold. We talked about "Vegetables" and how some can be eaten hot or cold. We played a fun "Hot/Cold" game where we took turns being hiders and seekers. The hider hid one of our vegetable pictures and the seeker had to find it. The rest of us gave clues by saying "you're getting hotter" and "you're getting colder" to lead the seeker to the hidden vegetable. Afterward we looked at several scenes on our papers and circled the "H" if it showed something hot and "C" if it showed something cold.
We also used our clay today to form upper and lower case Vv's. Our V table looks "vacant" with nothing on there as of yet. We hope to see some V items on there tomorrow. We ended the day movin and groovin' to one of our favorite dances "The Hokey Pokey". Tomorrow we look forward to beginning our vegetable theme, computer class, and beginning our volcano project. Have a great evening
Thursday, 3/22/12
We started our day making our way into Mrs. Mullen's classroom to wish her a very happy birthday. Our class and Mrs. Montie's class surprised her with balloons and munchkins and sang a very nice rendition of "Happy Birthday". We hope you have a great birthday, Mrs. Mullen
We also were excited to see another mystery reader in our class today. We recited our 10 to 1 countdown and we were surprised to see Mr. Scherf (Bronwyn's dad) walk into the room. He read us a delightful story called "Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee". We all liked the part when Mr. Magee and his little dog Dee got stuck in the island tree. We also liked when the whales came and simultaneously splashed to get them out. Thank you so much Mr. Scherf for reading to us today. We look forward to our next mystery reader next week.
We reviewed our letters from A-U and sounded out each one. We used our alphabet chart to sort pictures according to their beginning sound. We listened to a funny story called "Monster and his Magic Umbrella" - see if your child can tell you why monster's umbrella was magic. Afterward we colored, cut and glued to make our own colorful umbrellas. We used our dot-a-dot stampers to decorate the top of our umbrellas. These lovely works of art will be on display on our Spring bulletin board in the hallway.
We enjoyed gym class where we learned the "YMCA" and "The Chicken Dance". During Math we recognized which of two different size containers holds more or less. We checked our Lent calendar to see that today's good deed for Lent is to make someone smile. We thought of many ways to do this so hopefully we will remember them.
We also celebrated London's birthday today. We sang our birthday song, said our birthday prayer for her, and enjoyed some yummy munchkin treats. Thank you to London's mom for sending them in. Have a wonderful birthday London :) We ended the day looking at some more of our USA projects. How neat to see where on the map some of our relatives live. We will be looking at a few each day. Please remember that there are no classes tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend!
Wednesday, 3/21/12
This morning we welcomed another mystery reader into our classroom and it was Mr. Buccat (Amado's dad) who read us the wonderful story of "The Tree Ring Circus". We love silly stories and this one had a tree full of circus animals in it. When Mr. Buccat finished the story we all shared what our favorite part was and we all pretty much agreed that we liked the part when the elephant joined the other animals in the tree and made the tree collapse causing all of the animals to tumble out of the tree. Thank you Mr. Buccat for visiting us and reading to us today.We wonder who the next mystery reader will be?
We added several "U" words to our word wall as we identified and sounded out each one. We practiced printing upper and lower case Uu's in our letter books and selected two /U/ pictures to color and glue in our books. We also read together a letter U umbrella poem, then found and circled all of the upper and lower case Uu's in the poem. We counted 11 of them!
Some of us completed our rainbow art projects for our Spring bulletin board in the hallway. The rest of us will make them tomorrow. We looked at Savannah's, Sarah's, Bronwyn's and Sephora's tell and show items.
We had fun in music class with Ms. Serratore - we are learning how to sing the days of the week in Spanish. We also practiced our hand-eye coordination skills as we teamed up with a partner and attempted to keep our balloons "up" for the letter u. We also got some exercise outside and enjoyed the fresh air.
Our good deed for the day is to help out with a chore at home. We ended the day brainstorming the many chores at home we can assist with. We also enjoyed a yummy treat to celebrate the new spring season....Rita's water ice. Yum!
Tomorrow we look forward to another mystery reader, gym, library, and some umbrella fun. Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Reminder: No classes this Friday, 3/23/12
Tuesday, 3/20/12
Happy Spring! We said goodbye to winter and hello to the wonderful spring season this morning. We learned some spring songs and saw some spring changes in our classroom. We were introduced to the letter U with our friend Umberto on the SMARTboard. We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Uu's and used our fine motor skills to draw umbrellas. Some of our umbrellas had patterns on them! Our U table is filling up...today we added the planet Uranus, three more unicorns, another umbrella, the state of Utah, a Barbie wearing a uniform, and a picture of a uniform.
We went to computer class with Mrs. Gellar and also enjoyed this beautiful weather when we played outside. We looked at Amado's, Ryann's, Delaney's, and Michael M.'s tell and show items. During God's Time we talked about what "Understanding" means for the letter U. Our good deed for the day according to our Lent calendar is to share a book with someone.
During math today we had fun identifying which of two objects was heavier or lighter. We passed several classroom objects of different weights among us. Afterward we circled the heavier object and put an "x" on the lighter one on our papers.
We ended the day discussing our USA projects for the letter U. Please see your child's folder for the details. There is a map of the United States attached to a short letter explaining the project. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions.
Tomorrow we will have a special treat to celebrate Spring. Also we have music, tell and show, and some fun with the directional word "up"
Just in case the children mention this to you, I had a bit of a mishap this morning. Somehow I managed to cut my finger with a pair of scissors. It was not a large cut, but it was somewhat deep. Good thing Nurse Heidi was here to take a look at it. I did have to go to an Emergency Care center, but all is well. The accident actually happened before the children arrived. They were so sweet and very concerned.
Monday, 3/19/12
It's U week and we are "up" to the challenge of finding u items for our letter table. We already have two umbrellas, an undershirt, and a unicorn. We enjoyed our UFO discussion at circle time. This brought a nice review of our planets and outer space. We used our fine motor skills to create our own UFO crafts, using deep plates, a clear lid, an alien figure, crayons, and markers. See if your child remembers what UFO stands for.
We looked at several picture cards and identified all of the ones that began with the letter /U/. We enjoyed this beautiful weather while we stretched our legs outside. Spring is surely in the air and we are ready for it!
During God's Time we talked about today being the feast of St. Joseph and that He was Jesus's father on earth. We talked about how much He loved God, Mary, and Jesus. We colored a picture of St. Joseph, then cut out the letters of His name. We traced and glued the letters in the right order to spell out J-o-s-e-p-h. We checked our Lent calendar and our good deed for the day is to hug a friend.
We listened to the story "Up, Down, and Around" which was a nice introduction to the wonder of plants, food, and gathering. We didn't realize how many vegetables grow "down" or under the ground.
Tomorrow we look forward to more U fun, computer class, tell and show, and more beautiful weather. Have a wonderful evening.
Friday, 3/16/12
Happy Friday! We were so excited to welcome our second Mystery Reader, Mrs. Cassidy (Caroline's mom) to our room today. Mrs. Cassidy read us an "opposite" story about a little girl and boy who do everything opposite each other. This was a great review of our opposite words - we knew many of them before Mrs. Cassidy read it and she was quite impressed! Thank you Mrs. Cassidy for reading to us today.
The last group of us enjoyed our Tea Party today. We reviewed and practiced good table manners as we sipped our tea and tasted some tea biscuits. We had two more T items added to our table - a toucan and a tomato. We reviewed all of the letters and their sounds on our alphabet chart.
We made shamrock people today also. We colored and cut out our shamrocks, then glued on some facial features, arms and legs. Instead of going outside, we headed down to the gym to stretch our legs. We split up into groups- Mrs. Sulouff played a fun game with us as we each practiced tossing some coins into the pot of gold. Mrs. Dignam played a gamed of "Tugboat Tag" with us for the letter T, as we each had a chance to be tugboat captains and tugboat passengers.
We enjoyed playing another game for the letter T - Tic Tac Toe! We paired up in teams at our tables and used upper and lower case Tt's instead of x's and o's. We looked at Lauren's tell and show item also. Our good deed for the day is to hug our family - that means brothers and sisters also. Hopefully lots of hugs are coming your way
Next week we move on to the letter U...Unbelievable that we are almost through the alphabet. Enjoy the weekend with your precious little ones, it's going to be a nice one :)
Thursday, 3/15/12
Top of the mornin' to ya!!! This is the way we greeted our teachers and friends today as we celebrated the feast of St. Patrick. At circle time this morning we listened to the story of "Jack and the Leprechaun"....about a mouse named Jack who is visiting his cousin Sean in Ireland for a St. Patrick's Day party. See if your child can tell you about some of Jack's adventures! We made our own little leprechaun crafts as we sang our leprechaun tune:
"I'm a Little Leprechaun, dressed in green
The tiniest man that you've ever seen
If you ever catch me, so it's told
I'll give you my big pot of gold"
We were excited about setting our leprechaun trap....but how could we lure him in there? We decorated the trap with something leprechauns love....Lucky Charms! We set it before we left the classroom and we kept checking it throughout the morning. Alas! When we returned from gym class, we found leprechaun dust all around the trap and the Lucky Charms were gone! He was a good little leprechaun because he did indeed leave us his gold coins - enough for all of us to share! He's too quick though because he got away again. We reviewed our letters from A-T and checked out T table to find three more new items....a telephone, a t-rex, and a toothbrush. Tremendous T Table!
In gym we played a fun leaping leprechaun game and practiced our eye hand coordination using tennis balls and birdies.
At lunch time we enjoyed some delicious shamrock shakes - many of us even had seconds! Yum. We finished up our "Trinity" shamrock crafts also, please check folders for these special shamrocks.
We got a little messy when we rolled up our sleeves and made our Irish Potatoes. We made sure to wash our hands first, then we got busy rolling and shaking. Some of us were even brave enough to try one! We each have our own bags to bring home to share with our families. We hope you enjoy them :)
Before nap we kicked up our heels as we learned some Irish dance steps. Hop two, three, kick two three and heels were some of the steps we practiced. We watched some children perform some Irish dancing on the Smartboard, then we all gave it a whirl! We were Irish step dancing all around our room to Irish music. As we were preparing for naptime, Ryann spied a leprechaun in our room - and Mrs. Dignam caught him and put him in our trap!!! Hooray, we did it :)
I made sure to have my camera ready today so I will surely post pics of some of the fun events that took place in our classroom. Our good deed for the day is to help out at dinner time tonight. We discussed several different things we could do to assist, so hopefully we won't forget!
Have a wonderful night.
Wednesday, 3/14/12
Today was another busy day in Pre-K. We talked about T-rex's for the letter T and we created our own T-rex's with ten terrible triangle teeth! After adding a bit of paint with our triangle shaped sponges we were finished. We looked at our T table and it is jam packed. Today we added some toothpaste and the number two. Michael H. brought in his real pet turtle for us to see. We passed him around in his little home and sang our turtle song for him. Thanks for sharing him with us, Michael!
We added several T words to our word wall, which include tiger, telephone, tambourine, tree, toothbrush, turtle, tricycle, and train.
We had our first mystery reader in our classroom today as we continue to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday this month. Sarah's mom read us the wonderful story of "The Ladybug Girl". We were such good listeners and shared what our favorite parts of the story was when it was finished. We really liked that silly dog named Bingo in the story. Thank you to Mrs. D :) We are looking forward to our next mystery reader on Friday.
Some of us had our "Tea Party" today - sipping tea and tasting tea biscuits. We first reviewed our table manners. We had music class with ms. Serratore and had fun singing and dancing. We worked hard in our letter books, tracing and printing upper and lower case Tt's. We also used the Smartboard to find and circle all of the upper and lower case Tt's. We looked at Chase's and Sarah's tell and show items also.
In Math we reviewed one half (breaking something into two equal parts). We also talked about what equal share means and used toothpicks with our partners to create an equal share.Our good deed for the day is to use many kind words - at school and at home.
We ended the day reviewing the life of St. Patrick and the symbols of St. Patrick's Day. We are so much looking forward to our St. Patrick's Day celebration tomorrow...don't forget to wear your green! We are planning on making Irish Potatoes, a leprechaun craft, drinking some shamrock shakes, doing some Irish dancing, and maybe even catching a leprechaun! See you tomorrow :)
Reminder: On 3/6 oak tag was sent home for a family project. All completed oak tag papers are due this Friday, 3/16/12. thanks so much!
Tuesday, 3/13/12
Our T table is looking Terrific! We have added a T-rex, Princess Tiana, a tub, a tiger, and a toilet. We watched a clip on our SMARTboard about T Tom and the table. We enjoyed watching and listening to all of the T words as Tom and the table
were competing to see who could hold more T items. We were cheering for Tom and he was indeed the winner. We took turns turning over pictures to see which ones began with T and which did not.
Some of us enjoyed participating in a "Tea Party" today. First we talked about Table manners, how to say please and thank you, chew with our mouths closed, not slurping, sitting up nice and straight, and placing the napkin on our laps before eating. We then enjoyed some tea and tea biscuits and what great table manners! The rest of us will have our tea party tomorrow and Thursday.
We got our pictures taken today and showed our beautiful teeth! We also had to hand the photographer something else for the letter T - a ticket! While we were waiting we talked about all the different things we use tickets for....we came up with the movies, a plane, a train, a show, a concert, and one smart cookie thought of a traffic ticket! Good thinking!
Next we were off to computer class with Mrs. Gellar where we filled up our shamrocks with all things green. When we returned to the classroom we practiced printing upper and lower case Tt's and drew a picture of a tiger. We went outside to enjoy this unseasonably warm day.
In Math we talked about cutting things in 1/2. We talked about when we cut something in half, it has 2 equal parts. We practiced this concept with several hands on activities, then completed a similar activity on our worksheet. We looked at Amado's, Delaney's, and Ryann's tell and show items. We enjoyed listening to all of the fun Ryann had in Aruba and we're glad to have her back!
We also talked about the life of St. Patrick and why He was so special. We talked about they symbols of St. Patrick's Day and we are looking forward to having our St. Patty's Day celebration in the classroom on Thursday. We will be making Irish Potatoes, making some Irish crafts, and doing some Irish dancing. We also should wear as much green as we can!
Have a great night. Tomorrow we look forward to tell and show, music class and much more T fun :)
Monday, 3/12/12
We began T week with some turtle fun today. We listened to a wonderful story about a baby turtle who finds that all of his siblings have already headed into the ocean on their way to the reef. Alone, he races to catch up. On his way to the reef, he makes new friends and sees amazing sights. Afterwards we cut, colored and glued to make cute little turtles of our own.
Our T table already has on it two trucks, a tea cup, a teletubby, and a teddy bear. We practiced printing the letter T on our SMARTboard and listened for the initial /t/ sound in many different words. We found and colored all of the "T" items on our papers as well.
During God's Time we talked about St. Patrick and the Trinity. We learned a little bit about his life and different ways St. Patricks's Day is celebrated. We also learned how St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain to people about the Holy Trinity, one God in three divine beings - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We checked our Lent calendar and our good deed for the day is to share with someone.
We enjoyed the sunshine today when we went outside to stretch our legs. We watched a Sesame Street clip of the cookie monster and the letter T. Next, we used markers to draw "T" items on our papers.....we drew trees, toothbrushes, tigers, trucks, and turtles (just to name a few) Check out our folders for our wonderful art work!
Before nap we enjoyed doing the letter T dance - Twisting and Turning. Terrific twisters and turners we are! Tomorrow we look forward to more T fun, tell and show, and computer class. Enjoy the remainder of this beautiful day!
Friday, 3/9/12
Even though the sun wasn't shining outside much today, it sure was sunny in our classroom!
How tall can a sunflower grow? How does a sunflower grow from such a tiny seed? Would you like to grow your own sunflower? We answered these questions after listening to the story "Seed to Sunflower". We found it fascinating that sunflowers can grow to be 10 feet tall! We also made our own pretty sunflowers. We used a sponge to paint the center of the flower, then we cut out the stem and the leaves, glued them onto construction paper, and last we added the yellow petals. We also printed out the word s-u-n-f-l-o-w-e-r.
At snack time many of us tasted sunflower seeds (roasted and salted). We also used a shovel to scoop some soil into our cups and planted real sunflower seeds. We will be making sure to keep them moist and in the sunlight. When they begin to grow, we will bring them home.
We had a special surprise today when Lily's mom and mom-mom (Lily is a preschool friend in Mrs. Mullen's class) visited us with a real live animal that begins with S. Before they came in, we took several guesses as to which "S" animal it could be.... we had quite a list, but Caroline finally guessed it.....a squirrel. Lily's mom-mom has a license to bring in abandoned wildlife in her home and she brought in for us a 2 week old baby squirrel named Rocco and explained to us how and why she takes care of it. Lily's mom and mom-mom answered many of our questions and we thought Rocco was so cute! His little eyes aren't even opened yet, but he sure moved around a lot! A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Mullen, and Lily's mom and mom-mom for sharing Rocco with us :)
We went outside to strech our legs, although it wasn't as warm as yesterday, it's always nice to get out and get some fresh air. We reviewed our letters from A-S and sorted pictures according to their initial sound on our alphabet chart. We also reviewed our 3-dimensional shapes - sphere, cube, and cylinder.
Mrs. Spillane read us the delightful story titled "The Very Busy Spider". We looked at Azariah's, Savannah's, Caroline's, and Lauren's tell and show items. We checked our Lent calendar to see that our good deed for the day is to remember our manners and say "please" and "thank-you". I am pleased to say that those magic words were being used quite often today,,,I hope this continues at home as well!
Next week we look forward to exploring the letter T and celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Have a wonderful weekend with your precious children.
Thursday, 3/8/12
My goodness, letter S is so silly! We were so excited to show off our silly socks today and yes, we couldn't help but be somewhat silly for most of the day. We made silly faces , sang silly songs, and even danced a silly dance.
We had to put some of that sillyness aside so we could get some work done. We reviewed our letters from A-S and signed them as well. We learned some interesting facts about snakes and enjoyed looking at pictures of many different kinds of snakes. We thought it was funny that snakes don't chew their food and they they swallow it whole in one big gulp. We also discussed how most snakes are harmless, but some carry venom and are poisonous. Afterward we had fun creating our own spotted snakes. Eeeeeeeek!..they were slithering all over the classroom! We Squeezed a few more items on our S table - soda, two different kinds of soap, another spoon, soup, and spiderman. Simply Super!
Next up the sillyness returned when we had our snack. We used lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes to make silly salad faces. I took pictures of some of these silly salads! We added a bit of dressing and then ate those silly salad faces right up! Yum :)
Even the weather cooperated with our "silly" theme today. We had to double check and make sure it still is winter. We had fun enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine, and playing one of our favorite games called "Don't Wake the Snake". When we returned to the classroom, we watched a clip on the SMARTboard about a silly snake....then we looked at our own snakes that we made and thought of a reason why our snake is silly. We drew these pictures in our journals and my oh my, we had jumping snakes, walking snakes, snakes playing the guitar, cheerleading snakes, spinning snakes, snakes writing letters and reading books, and we even had an ice-skating snake....so silly!
We listened to a story appropriately titled "Today I Feel Silly" with Ms. Sheen in the library. Chase picked a new name out of our box to bring the family book home and it was Michael H. Enjoy the family book, Michael!
We checked our Lent Calendar and our good deed for the day is to go to bed on time. We ended the day movin' and groovin' to Raffi's tune "Shake My Sillies Out"....but, no promises mom and dad :)
Tomorrow my every day friends will make beautiful sunflowers and plant some seeds. Enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!
Wednesday, 3/7/12
Sweet, salty, or sour? We used our sense of taste today to sample some sweet candy, salty chips and popcorn, and sour lemons. ( I wish I had my camera to take some pictures of their little faces after tasting that sour lemon!) After tasting them all, we all voted on our favorite. We graphed the results to see which kind of taste (sweet, salty, or sour) was the most popular and the least popular. We found that this class (including the teachers) definetly has a sweet tooth with our "sweet" column totaling a whopping 9 out of 13. The least favorite was, believe it or not, the "salty" foods, with only 1 lonely vote. Afterwards we enjoyed picking out what to eat for our morning snack - sweet or salty? Most of us wanted some of each :)
We spied some new items on our S table....a picture of Sarah from when she was younger, Slinky the dog from Toy Story, strawberries, and a picture of a sun. Sensational! We added our "S" words to our word wall and identified each one. We practiced printing upper and lower case Ss's in our letter books and picked two /S/pictures to color and glue in our books. We read together the poem "Star Light, Star Bright" that we learned yesterday and found and circled all of the upper and lower case Ss's on our papers.
During Math we reviewed the sphere, cylinder and cube shapes and took turns identfying each one. We used sphere, cylinder, and cube shaped beads to make many different patterns. We looked at Chase's, Bronwyn's, and Sarah's tell and show items. We checked our Lent calendar and today's good deed is to tell our families how much we love them.
Some of us began to plant some sunflower seeds in our cups filled with soil. The rest of us will finish on Friday and we will be making sure they get plenty of water and sunshine. Once they begin to grow, they will be sent home.
We were so excited to hear from our friend Ryann, who is on vacation in Aruba. We read about all of the fun she is having and cannot wait for her return to school on Tuesday. We miss her smiling face in our room. Thanks for writing us Ryann!
Tomorrow is gym day and don't forget about Silly Sock Day as well. We will be involved in several silly activities tomorrow. Have a wonderful night!
Tuesday, 3/6/12
Another new friend joined our classroom today...her name is London. We are so happy and excited to make new friends. London has been at St. Bernadette's since September in Mrs. Mullen's class - now she is moving into the full day program. Welcome, London!
Our S table is looking quite "Spectacular" with the addition of Snow White, a slipper, a slinky, two smurphs, and a pair of scissors.
We watched on our SMARTboard a clip of Sally and her Strawberry Soup...a very silly "S" story. We listened for all of the /S/ words, there were so many! We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Ss, then identified many S items.
We talked about the solar system today and what we see in "Space"...we looked at and named the planets. We talked about the stars and what a constellation is. Some of us didn't know that the sun is a star and thought that was interesting. We listened to the story "Me and My Place in Space". We learned the poem "Star Light, Star Bright". We colored, cut out and glued a large star in the sky on our papers, then thought carefully about what to wish for. We had some very interesting wishes, that's for sure!
We had fun outside getting some fresh air and exercise. In Math, we reviewed our basic shapes, then identified spheres and cylinders. We learned that a sphere looks like a ball and a cylinder looks like a can. Then we had fun looking around the classroom for these shapes.
Our good deed for the day is to hug someone special. I am happy to report that this good deed was done many times throughout the school day by all of the students. I have a feeling this will be done at home several times as well. We looked at Delaney's and Amado's tell and show items also.
Today, in honor of the letter /S/, a family project is being sent home. There is a letter that explains everything being sent home with it. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Also, this Thursday we are having silly sock day, along with other silly activities!
Monday, 3/5/12
"I'm a hungry spider, ready for my lunch.
I'll spin a web and catch something to munch!
I'll catch a beetle or a bumblebee.
But what would you catch if you were me?"
What a "Super" start to S week as we had some spider fun today. We enjoyed spinning our own class web at circle time using a ball of yarn. We each had a chance to spin the ball of yarn by passing it to a friend in the circle. Whoever was holding the ball of yarn told the class what he or she would "catch" in their web....we held on to the free section and passed the yarn with the other hand. When finished we made a giant web and wait until you hear what we caught!! It included a beetle, a bumblebee, a fly, a stinkbug, an ant, a giraffe, a monkey and a pig :) We used our thumbs and pointer fingers to practice the motion of the "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as we watched a short clip on our SMARTboard. We looked at several different species of spiders and learned some interesting spider facts. We already knew that they have 8 legs and like to make webs. Most of us didn't know that their thread is called "silk" (s word!) and that they use their silky web to trap flies and other insects. We also discussed how some spiders are poisonous. We cut, colored and glued to make our our own spooky spiders, making sure we counted out 8 legs.
We said hello to a new friend today...Savannah. She arrived just in time for S week! We are so excited to have a new friend in class.
We enjoyed the sunshine outside on this brisk day and stretched our legs.
We practiced sounding out the /S/ sound (just like snakes!) and we recognized the picture cards that begin with /s/. There were several pictures cards of "s" and "non-s" items and we each had the chance to find an s picture. We even were able to identify the letter the "non-s" items began with! We also listened to the delightful story of "Miss Spider's Tea Party".
We checked our Lent calendar during God's time and our good deed for the day is to pray for the poor children. We ended the day watching a music clip on our SMARTboard of the song "There's a Spider on the floor" - we used our craft spiders to act out the motions.
Our S table has some salt and socks on there....we hope to see more on there tomorrow. Have a "super" night!
Thursday, 3/1/12
Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess! Well, it's actually tomorrow but we didn't want our 3 day friends to miss out on the celebration). We all remembered to wear red today and brought in our favorite book(s) to share with a friend. We looked at many Dr. Seuss books and read together the titles of them. We even looked at a picture on our SMARTboard of Dr. Seuss himself. We also looked at a fun place called "Seussville" - that looks like a very fun and interesting place!
We reviewed the letter R and had some Robot fun today. We viewed a clip of "Dooby the Robot Dance", then joined in on the fun. We really know our robotic dance moves. We were talking, moving , and dancing like robots. Afterwards we used several different size rectangle shapes to create our own robots. We named our robots with an R name....we had Rosie, Rapunzel, Ricky and Ripper the robot, just to name a few.
We had fun in gym today practicing our coordnation skills with hoops. We were even Rolling them (another letter R word!) One more item hopped onto our letter table - a very large rabbit!
In Math, we reviewed our shapes - circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles. Next week we move onto 3 dimentional shapes. Our good deed for the day according to our Lent calendar is to share a book with someone - which we already did. We used the first 15 min of nap time to share our books with a friend. We paired up with a partner and took turns describing our stories. This was such a delight to see and hear.
We woke up from nap and had our red party. We enjoyed delicious red apples, red fishies, and red punch. A special thank you to Mrs. D'Alessandro for making delicious Dr. Seuss marshallow and chocolate hats and green ham and eggs treats. We LOVED them! Who knew everyone would actually like green eggs and ham?
Tomorrow we look forward to some Racoon fun and tell and show. I am sure the children will let you know that I have almost completely lost my voice - hopefully tomorrow it will return. Have a nice night.
Wednesday, 2/29/12
Well, in honor of the letter R we had a Rainy goodbye to February. We sang our rain songs today and even sang a nice rendition of Mr. Sun in the hopes that he would make an appearance, but he's stayed put right behind those clouds! I have a feeling we will see him tomorrow.
As we continued our study of the letter R, we added a roller skate, a picture of Lauren's brother Ryan and another Rapunzel doll on to our letter table. We are hoping to see maybe a ring, a robot, a rose and/or a rectangle before the week ends. At circle time we learned 2 new songs for R - "the rainbow song" and "row, row, row, your boat".
We added the words rainbow, racoon, robot, rake, rooster, ring, rhinoceros, and a rocket to our word wall. We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Rr's in our letter books and picked two of our word wall pictures to color and glue in our books. We also read together the printed version of the song "Row, row, row your boat", then found and circled all of the Rr's on the page. We practiced our counting skills as we found all 14 of them.
We had fun in music class with Ms. Serratore as we sang and danced our little hearts out. We looked at Chase's, Sarah's, and Bronwyn's tell and show items. We checked our Lent calendar to see that our good for the day is to help out at dinner time. Hopefully you will have some happy helpers tonight :)
In Math we reviewed the circle and square shapes, then discussed the triangle and rectangle shapes. We pointed out the difference between a square and a rectangle. These smart ones were quick to point out that rectangle begins with our letter R. We were able to identify many different triangle and rectangle shapes.
Tomorrow we are so looking forward to celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday with our "Red Day" and some fun activities. We should wear something red and we will be eating some yummy red snacks and drinking some red fruit punch. We will also have gym tomorrow so don't forget those sneakers.
Please check your child's folder for the March newsletter which was sent home today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Tuesday, 2/28/12
Wow, this half day just flew by! We counted 6 snowflakes on the floor today, which means we were missing 6 friends. We missed them, but had fun in our small group.
We were happy to see some new items "Roll" onto our R table.....a picture of our friend Ryann, a rocket, Rapunzel, and Delaney's tell and show items Raggety Ann and Andy. Many of the children weren't sure who they were, but they brought back some fond memories for me and Mrs. Frank :)
We watched a short SMARTboard clip of Rodney the racing R, then practiced printing upper and lower case Rr's on our papers. We drew pictures of rabbits and printed out the word r-a-b-b-i-t. Check our folders to see our great work.
We reviewed the circle and square shapes today and we each had the chance to search the classroom for either a circle or a square shape. After sorting them into their appropriate groups, we tallied the results to see which group had more and which group had less.
We went to computer class and used the Kid Pix program to create our own pictures using different drawing tools and objects. We also had the chance to play one of our favorite computer games called A to Zap. Mrs. Geller is pleased with how well we are progressing.
After center time we stretched our legs outside for bit and before we knew it, it was time to go home. Just a reminder that this Thursday we are encouraging all the children to wear red in honor of the letter R and Dr. Seuss's birthday. Don't forget to e-mail me asap to sign up for a date/time to be our mystery reader some time this month.
Tomorrow we look forward to tell and show, music, and more fun with the letter R. Have a "Relaxing" night.
Monday, 2/27/12
We are Really Ready for R week! Today welcomed a rhino, a rabbit, a racoon, and some rubber bands onto our letter table. The letter R will be a bit easier than Q, so we hope to see some more items on there tomorrow.
During Circle Time today we learned a Rainbow song and identified all of the colors of the rainbow. We listened to the story "What Makes a Rainbow?" and really liked the main character, the rabbit (another R word). Afterward we created our own beautiful rainbows. We sorted the colors, then glued them onto our papers to form a rainbow. We used cotton balls for clouds and even printed the word r-a-i-n-b-o-w. Our rainbows are hanging in our classroom and look beautiful.
We also listened for the R beginning sound and raised our hands when we heard a word that began with the letter R. We each had a turn to look at several large pictures and found the ones that began with R. We then found and circled all of the R objects on our papers. We were even able to determine which letters the non-R items began with.....nice work :)
We are starting a new unit in Math on shapes and measurement. Please see the letter in your child's folder. After reviewing all of our basic shapes, we played a game of color and shape bingo. We worked on our visual discrimination skills as we matched colors and shapes.
Our Lenten good deed for the day is to hug someone special. Most of us completed this deed at school, but this is a deed that can be done repeatedly at home :)
In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, we will be having a "Dr. Seuss Day" on Thursday. Please read the letter in your child's folder about it. Please remember that there is an early dismissal tomorrow at 11:55. Have a nice night!
Friday, 2/24/12
We finished up our Q week with some quarter activities today. At circle time we revisited "coins". We discussed the heads side, the tails side, and took notice to the differences among the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. We each picked a coin, identified it, then placed it in the appropriate column. Nice job sorting! Next we played a game called "Toss the Quarters on the Q".... we had a large uuper case Q shape on our rug and we took turns tossing our quarters to see where they landed. We reviewed the positional words "on", "outside" and "inside" as we looked to see where our quarter fell.
We used our quarters to make some really neat quarter rubbings with our crayons. We also reviewed our letters from A-Q and used our fine motor skills to cut, color and glue as we identified the "Q" pictures and glued them into place on our papers.
We couldn't go outdoors today so we headed to the gym to get some exercise. We had fun working on our eye-hand coordination as we tossed some balls into the buckets. We also practiced our hula hooping skills! We looked at Chase's, Azariah's, Caroline's, Nkenge's, and Lauren's tell and show items. Lauren brought in an edible tell and show for the letter Q. Her wonderful clues helped us to figure out that they were "quesadillas".....and enough for the whole class! Thank you to Lauren's mommy for sending in these delicious treats.
We discussed our Lent calendar and we all are going to make an extra effort to go to bed on time tonight. Many of us were continuing to do yesterday's good deed, which was so beautiful to see and hear. Moms and dads - don't forget to refer to the Lent calendar over the weekend In Math, we reviewed our numbers from 1-12. We picked a number between 5 and 12, then used our clay to make that number. Some of us even made the corresponding # of balls with our clay....nicely done! Caroline picked a new name out of our box to see who gets to bring the family book home next, and it was Chase! Enjoy the book with your family, Chase!
We ended the day "Quietly"....first by listening to the story 'The Very Quiet Cricket", then using our quiet feet and quiet voices as we left our classroom. Have a wonderful weekend with your families!
Thursday, 2/23/12
Q is for Queen and we sure felt like royalty today as we performed our royal wave to all we passed. At circle time today we discussed where the Queen lives and her role. One of these clever little ones pointed out that the Queen lives in the same place where the Pilgrims once lived. We used our SMARTboard to view some pictures of Queen Elizabeth. Not only did we practice our royal wave, but we also practiced our "bows" and "curtseys" - the proper way to greet royalty! We enjoyed making our own beautiful queens today using our scissors, crayons, glue, and sparkling jewels. Quite Impressive!
We reviewed our letters from A-Q and welcomed a question mark on our Q table. We also talked about the #12 and took turns counting 12 objects. We practiced printing the 12 as well and drew 12 objects on our papers.
During God's Time we checked our Lent Calendar to see what our good deed for the day is....using kind words. We discussed several kind words and made an extra effort to use them during the school day. Hopefully, this will continue at home as well :)
We had fun jumping in Gym with Mrs. Wallace and played a fun game called "Don't Wake the Snake". We also visited Ms. Sheen in the library where she read us a few stories.
A look ahead for next week - Tuesday is a half day, ending at 11:55am. We will have morning snack, but not lunch, so please just pack a snack or two and a beverage for your child. Tomorrow we have tell and show and will have some fun with Quarters. Thanks and enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.
Wednesday, 2/22/12
Happy 100th Day :) We cannot believe that we've been in school for 100 days. We had fun counting to 100 and making 10 stacks of 10 things to make 100. We listened to a delightful story about many different ways to celebrate the 100th day of school, then we put our fine motor skills to work to cut and stamp out the #100 for our "100 day hats". Of course we celebrated with a pizza party - yum!
We reviewed the letter Q and looked at many pictures that begin with Q. These words were added to our word wall. We practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Qq's in our letter books. We also read our Q poem together and found all of the Q's on the page.
We enjoyed computer class today with Mrs. Geller. We practiced making a grid using lines, then filling up the boxes with a certain # of items. Nicely done. We also had fun in Music class with Ms. Serratore - she said that we were extra good listeners today...hooray of us :)
We received our ashes today from Fr. Kelly and talked about the meaning of Lent during God's Time. Every child received a Lenten calendar in his/her folder...please take the time to read it and help your child review it each day during Lent. We will also be talking about it at school each day.
We looked at Sarah's, Sephora's, and Bronwyn's tell and show items. In Math, we counted out 11 items and practiced writing the #11, then we drew 11 objects on our papers. Another busy fun-filled day in Pre-K. Tomorrow we look forward to gym and more Q exploration.
Tuesday, 2/21/12
We said hello to the letter Q today and these little ones were quite "quick" to put some Q items on our Q table. We welcomed a quilt, several Q-tips, some quarters, a queen, and a wonderful drawing of "The Queen of Quincy and her quacking quacker-oo". Q is a tough one but we are doing quite well so far.
We enjoyed watching a Sesame Street clip on our SMARTboard all about the letter Q. We practiced printing upper and lower case Qq's on our papers today, then drew our own quilts and printed the word q-u-i-l-t. Speaking of quilts, we will be making our own "Pre-K-4-C Friendship Quilt" this week. We each received our own quilt square and drew beautiful pictures on them. These squares will be put together to make one large wonderful classroom quilt!
We had fun in the sun today outside while we stretched our legs. We looked at Ryann's, Delaney's, and Amado's tell and show items. During math, we reviewed the #'s 1-10 and played a game where we had to figure out which number(s) in the number line were missing. Afterward we practiced writing the missing numbers on our activity sheets. We all can identify our numbers from 1-10, but writing them is a bit more challenging! We worked hard and tried our best (as always) :)
Our computer class had to be re-scheduled for tomorrow, so we will have computers and music classes tomorrow. Also, tell and show. In addition, we are looking forward to celebrating our 100th day of school with a pizza party at lunch. Please just send in snacks and drinks, as usual....no lunch unless your child does not like pizza.
We ended the day recognizing that tomorrow is not only our 100th day celebration, but also a special day because it is the beginning of Lent. We talked about the meaning of Lent and I am encouraging all of the children to make an extra effort to do one good deed each day during the Lenten season.
Also, I was able to upload pictures from our Valentine Ball onto this site. Just click on the link on the left. Thanks and have a wonderful night.
Friday 2/17/12
We finished up "P" week with some Pig fun today. We listened to an old favorite
called "The Three Pigs". We cut and glued to make a cute pig craft and we sounded out the word , then practiced writing the word p-i-g.
We enjoyed this sunny day by getting some exercise outside. We also looked at Chase's and Lauren's tell and show items. Our celebrity reader was Mrs. Pedano, our Kindergarten teacher, for the letter P. She came into our classroom before naptime and read to us. We were on our best behavior knowing that Mrs. Pedano may be our teacher next year :)
After nap, we had fun re-enacting the story of "The Three Pigs" - we have some talented kids in here, that's for sure! In continuation of our observance of Black History Month, we watched a Sesame Street clip of Patti Labelle singing the alphabet.
As always, we ended the day in prayer thanking God especially for our wonderful Parents, our first teachers. Please remember that school is closed on Monday in honor of President's Day. On Wed, 2/22 we will be celebrating our 100th day of school with a pizza party. Enjoy the long weekend :)
Thursday, 2/16/12
Happy Pajama Day! We paraded around in our pajamas and looked spectacular. We were all so Pleased that everyone remembered. We welcomed yet another P item on our table.....a parachute.
At circle time we learned some intersting porcupine facts and listened to a wonderful story called "A Porcupine named Fluffy". We laughed a lot listening to this one. We watched a short clip on our SMARTboard of a real porcupine named Caroline (the same name as one of our friends in class....except our Caroline is much prettier!). Afterward we used crayons, forks and paint to create our own porcupines...we dipped our forks in black paint to make sharp quills all over its' body. We hope you like our prickly porcupines :)
We did a lot of jumping today in our 'jammies with Mrs. Wallace. We also talked about Pets and took a class poll to see how many of us have pets and what kind of pets they are. After tallying the results, we found that the most popular class pet is a dog, with a high total of 9. The next popular were fish, with a total of 2. And there was a tie for the least popular with only 1 - cat and turtle. We then had a discussion about what our dream pet would be if we could pick any animal in the whole world. As you can imagaine, we got some interesting responses. We then drew our dream pet in our journals.
We used our prayerful hands to pray peacefully as we each prayed for someone we love. We talked about how prayers have the power to heal and help people. During naptime time today we watched a movie and were comfy in our pajamas....it was a musical children's celebration and we knew almost all of the songs!
A look ahead for next week, we will be celebrating the 100th day of school on Wednesday. To celebrate this day, we will be having a pizza party for lunch - so just pack snacks /drinks next Wednesday. Please remember that there are no classes on Monday, 2/20 in honor of President's Day.
Tomorrow is tell and show and a special visit from a celebrity reader! Thanks and have a nice evening.
Wednesday, 2/15/12
To celebrate the letter P, we enjoyed a "Popcorn Party" today in Mrs. Mullen's classroom with all of our Pre-K friends. We munched on some popcorn as we viewed some SMARTboard clips about Penguins and Polar Bears. We watched a clip from "March of the Penguins", then enjoyed the animated penguin movie scene from "Mary Poppins" with those dancing penguin waiters. Thanks to Mrs. Mullen for having us :)
Before we knew it, it was time for Music with Ms. Serratore where we were singing, movin', and groovin'. We reviewed the letter P and welcomed another panda and a pretzel on our P table.....we have one more day to bring in some more P items. We worked hard in our letter books today printing Pp's and picking P pictures to color and glue in our books. We also recited and read together a "Letter P" poem, found and circled all of the P's, then drew a P picture.....Perfect work :)
We looked at Sarah's, Bronwyn's, and Sephora's tell and show items. We also had fun making some "Punch Popsicles"...we saw our punch in its' liquid form as we helped to pour in into our cups. We are looking forward to seeing them frozen tomorrow so we can enjoy our popsicle treats.
We finished up our math unit today on comparisons and patterns. We even completed an assessment, which will be sent home tomorrow. Please remember that tomorrow is our Pajama Day...so get those 'jammies ready Also, gym day tomorrow so please remember sneakers should be worn.
A special thanks for the very thoughtful Valentines day cards/candy. Have a great night!
Tuesday, 2/14/12
Happy Valentine's Day!
After completing our morning tasks, we began the day listening to "The Story of Valentine's Day", which explained in a beautiful way why we celebrate this day and who St. Valentine was.
We were busy little valentine bees today! We played an interactive SMARTboard game where we had to use our memory skills to match a pair of hearts. We also painted beautiful cards for some special valentines....our moms and dads. We hope you like them :) We had so many special treats to deliver! We each opened up our valentine bags that we decorated as our friends delivered our mail and treats. Thanks to everyone who sent in valentine cards and treats!!!
We went to computer class and created beautiful hearts with lots of colors. Upon returning to the classroom we reviewed the letter P and took a "P"eek at our P table. Wow....we now have Mr. Prickles from Toy Story, a penguin, a punching balloon, Poo the Panda (double P!), another pig, a pink carnation, and some peanut butter. Perfect!!!! We practiced printing upper and lower case Pp's on the chalkboard and on our papers.
In math we continued using our logical reasoning skills as we determined which object was the appropriate size. Nice work!
We looked at Ryann's, Delaney's, Amado's, and Michael M's tell and show items. We also celebrated Sephora's birthday today. Thanks to her mommy for sending in a delicious "cupcake cake". Happy Birthday Sephora :)
Tomorrow we look forward to music, and more fun with P as we will make "Punch Popsicles". Please remember that we are having Pajama Day this Thursday. Enjoy the rest of this lovely day with your sweethearts.
Monday, 2/13/12
We began P week with two of our daily routines...Prayer and Plege. At circle time this morning we had lots of "Penguin" fun.
"I waddle, waddle, waddle
On my funny little feet,
Across the icy snow I go
To find a fishy treat"
We listened to a story called "Penguins, Penguins Everywhere" and saw pictures of different types of penguins, what they eat, and who they have to watch out for. We also viewed a short "penguin" clip on our SMARTboard. We thought it was funny when they were sliding on their bellies! Afterward we cut and glued to create our own little penguin creations....we even spelled out the word on its' belly. We also enjoyed waddling our way around the classroom and down the hallway. We reviewed the letters A-P and practiced printing (2 more P words!) upper and lower case Pp's. We looked at several pictures and listened to the beginning sound to figure out what letter it began with. Our P table already has on it a pencil, a pig, a Phillies hat, a princess, and some play-dough. What will "Pop" on to our table tomorrow?
We stepped outside for a short time time on this brisk, sunny day to get some fresh air and stretch our legs. We celebrated Michael H.'s birthday today with some delicious treats. After saying our birthday prayer and song, Michael's mom surprised us with some cupcakes and ice cream. Yum! Michael also had treat bags for everyone, which are in your child's schoolbag. Believe it or not, we all received one more thing for Michael's birthday (and it's for the letter p!!!!).....Punching balloons. We had fun with these :) Thank you so much to Michael's parents for all of these wonderful birthday treats. Happy Birthday, Michael :)
During math we used our logical reasoning skills to solve problems. They were able to make judgements based on their previous experiences with classifying, sorting and comparing objects.
During's God's Time we are Praying for the People we Love this week, in honor of P and Valentine's Day. We began today talking about what prayer is and how we can use our own words to pray for those we care about.
Tomorrow we look forward to celebrating Valentine's Day with many fun activities. The children are encouraged to wear red/pink/purple and we will be having a small celebration in the classroom.
* On Thursday, 2/16 we will be having "Pajama Day" in honor of the letter P. All children are encouraged to wear their pajamas for our "Pajama Parade" this Thursday. Have a nice evening :)
Thursday, 2/9/12
Well, we certainly had a ball at our Valentine Ball today with our special person! Thanks to all of the dads, grandpops, and grandmoms who shared this special day with us. We sang our songs, handed out a special award to each special person (it was so much fun to hear what each dad was the "best" at by our own little announcers!). Then it was off to the cafeteria for some delicious treats. Thank you to all who donated some snacks for today's event and a HUGE thank you to Mrs. D'Alessandro for coordinating it all and helping out with set up and clean up :) It is so much appreciated! After that we were off to the gym for some fun activities set up by Mrs. Wallace and student council helpers - we really enjoyed participating in the gym activities with our special person. Thanks also to Mrs. Wallace for organizing it all!
Back in the classroom we had a short circle time, then continued our discussion on the Ocean. We drew pictures of many different types ocean creatures in our journals. At this point, I had to leave school early and MRs. Frank was taking over. (I have tickets to see "Wicked" in NY later this afternoon). Mrs. FRank was also planning to make a fun octopus craft with them!
A look ahead for next week - we will be having a small Valentines' Day celebration in the classroom on Tuesday, 2/14. Anything you would like to send in would be appreciated! We already started working on some wonderful Valentine's day projects! Have a wonderful night! - and please remember that preschool information night is taking place this evening at 7:00 pm
* 2 things I forgot to mention yesterday....
-A special thank you to Lauren's mom who sent in delicious Oreo cookies for the letter O, along with some milk. That was a yummy snack!
-We celebrated Sarah's birthday today also. We said our birthday prayer for her and sang. Thanks to Sarah's mom for the yummy munchkins :) Happy Birthday Sarah!!!!
Wednesday, 2/8/12
We are "O"verjoyed about our Valentine Ball tomorrow. We practiced our songs and finished up some special projects for our daddy's.
We continued our theme on oceans and watched "Life in the Ocean" on our SMARTboard. This short video showed us many pictures of ocean creatures and we knew what most of them were. We saw many different types of fish, sharks, dolphins, stingrays, octopus, jellyfish, starfish, just to name a few.
We practiced making upper and lower case Oo's in our letter books. We identified many O words that we added to our word wall; overalls, onion, orange, oar, owl, octopus, and ostrich....these are some good ideas for our letter table!!! We also found and circled all the O's in the O poem we read aloud together.
In music today we finished up our "Zoo Review" and had fun moving around like animals, then making our animal with brown paper bags. Ms. Serrtore said we are doing a great job in music class.
We made a special valentine for the sick/shut-ins of St. Bernadette Parish which will be delivered to them on Friday. We looked at Sephora's, Bronwyn's, and Sarah's tell and show items - nice job!
We did more work with patterns and even tried some musical patterns with claps, stamps, snaps, and claps. We even walked down the hallway using a pattern....see if your child can show you! We were able to complete the pattern on our worksheets by drawing what comes next. Excellent work :)
Just a reminder that our Valentine Ball begins at 9:15am and ends at 10:15 am. Please make sure that your child wears sneakers. We will begin in the classroom, then move into the cafeteria for some yummy treats, then off to the gym for some games with our daddy's. We are looking forward to a fun, special day tomorrow. Have a wonderful night.
Tuesday, 2/7/12
Today we welcomed an orangutan, some more oranges, an owl, an octopus, and oatmeal to our O table. We compared the three oranges and noted their similarities and differences. Will any more more O items show up on there tomorrow?
We began our Ocean discussion at circle time and made a list of ocean creatures. We thought of 14 wonderful sea creatures. One of the ones on our list begins with the letter O and has 8 legs. We tried to imagine what it would be like to have 8 legs and decided that having 2 suits us just fine :) We printed upper and lower case O's today and drew a picture of an octopus, then spelled out the word. Whew! That was a long one, but we did it!
We went to computer class and created a heart, then decorated it. Afterwards we had time to play one of our favorite computer games called A to Zap, which is a letter recognition game.
We worked on our songs and a special activity for our dads. Shhhh, don't tell...it's a surprise. We are so much looking forward to our Valentine Ball this thursday. We looked at Amado's, Ryann's, Michael's, and Delaney's tell and show items. Great clue-givers and guessers we have in here!
We continued to work on patterns. We practiced patterns with manipulatives that had more than one repetition and did great. Some of the patterns were tricky but we were able to complete most of them.
We ended the day listening to a story called "Over in the Ocean" and saw that many of the creatures we had on our class list were in the story. Tomorrow we look forward to music class and more Ocean fun. Have a great night!
Monday, 2/6/12
"He sleeps all day, he prowls all night,
He has very good eyesight.
His eyes are yellow, big, and round
And this is his favorite sound....
"Whooo, Whoooo, Whoooooo"
Today we learned some interesting owl facts to start off O week. We looked at various different species of owls, where they live, and what they like to eat. These silent hunters are interesting animals! We colored, cut, and glued to create our own owls using paper plates and various shapes.
We have one lonely item on our O table - an orange! We hope to see some more tomorrow. We practiced printing upper and lower case O's and connected the dots from A-O to make an octopus!
We enjoyed the sunshine and the fresh air when we went outside with our friends from Mrs. Montie's class before lunch. During math we worked on patterns and took turns using manipulatives to finish the pattern. We completed a pattern worksheet where we had to circle the next object that would complete the pattern. Nice job!
We also began to work on some Valentine's Day decorations for our classroom.
We finished the day listening to a delightful rhyming story called "The Owl and the Pussycat". Just a reminder that our Valentine Ball is this Thursday, 2/9 at 9:15 am. According to my notes from conference day, all dads are planning to attend. Please let me know if your child does not have a dad/special person coming.
Tomorrow we look forward to more O fun as we start to explore the Ocean. Have a nice night
Thursday, 2/2/12
What a busy day we had! We started the day in the gym paying a special tribute to Fr. Lucas and Fr. Kelly for all they do for the St. Bernadette school, parish, and community. Each grade presented them with special cards and gifts.
I forgot to mention in yesterday's update that we ended the day making predictions about Mr. Groundhog. We voted yes or no as to whether or not he was going to see his shadow. We tallied the results today and noted that 6 of us predicted "Yes", he would see his shadow and 7 of us predicted "No" that he would not. After comparing the columns to see which had more and less, we found out that Mr. Groundhog did indeed see his shadow so Azariah, Lauren, Sephora, Nkenge, Caroline and Michael H. guessed it right. Looks like it's six more weeks of winter!
Before we knew it, it was time for gym with Mrs. Wallace. We used our gross motor skills to knock pins down with bean bags and follow directions using hula hoops.
We talked about our Noses for the letter N and how God blessed us all with 5 senses to explore the world around us. We played a game called "The Nose Knows" as we were blindfolded and used our sense of smell to guess what was in the jar. Some were pleasant and some were unpleasant! We liked the smell of the cinnamon and the peanut butter, but not the onions or moth balls! We were split on the coffee beans. Afterward we drew in our journals things we can smell with our noses. Very impressive drawings :) And Nkenge brought in a baby picture of herself to add to our N Table..
We sang "Happy Birthday" and said our special birthday prayer to Michael M (whose birthday is on Monday). Thanks to Michael's mommy for sending in some delicious cookies and milk. That was a nice treat today. We also tiptoed over to Mrs. Montie's room to sing Happy Birthday to her as well. She told us that she is "26" today and shared some treats with us :)
We ended the day reviewing our letters from A-N. Tomorrow we look forward to "tell and show" exploring "Noah's Ark". Have a great night.
Wednesday, 2/1/12
Happy February! We double checked our calendar today and yes, it is indeed February although it feels like Spring outside. We think that the weather is a bit confused :) We just had to get out there and enjoy this unseasonably warm weather.
We started the day in the cafeteria as we worked on our service project for 'Catholic Schools Week". We put gloves on and made delicious sandwiches using bread, meat, and cheese for the residents of the homeless shelter. We placed our sandwiches in one of our decorative bags along with a piece of fruit.
We had 2 wonderful additions to our N table today - a necklace and a walking Nose! We all got a kick out of that one! We practiced printing upper and lower case Nn's in our letter books. We also recited a letter N poem together called "Night". We each received the poem, circled all of the Nn's (there were 9), cut it out, then glued it onto a piece of construction paper. We also drew a picture for the letter N - we drew necklaces, needles, nests, noodles, newspapers, and nuts.
During Math we compared 3 objects to see which one was the longest/shortest, and tallest/shortest. Three of us at a time stood next to one another and we enjoyed seeing who was the tallest and shortest.
We looked at Amado's, Sephora's, Sarah's, Bronwyn's and Chases's tell and show items. We also enjoyed some "Zoo Review" song/movement activities with Ms. Serratore in the music room.
Tomorrow we look forward to Groundhog day and wonder what Mr. Groundhog will predict. We will also be presenting Fr. Lucas and Fr. Kelly with our cards that we made for them. Also, gym day so please remember sneakers. Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Tuesday, 1/31/12
We cannot believe how quickly January went as we turned over the very last day of the month today. Our N table now has on it some nailpolish, a napkin, a "Nutri-grain" bar, nuts, noodles, a nutcracker, a popular fish named "Nemo", and a picture of an unusual ocean creature called a "Narwhal" - which looks like an ocean unicorn! Neat! Keep those N items comin'!
We were excited to have a new teacher for about 30 minutes for "Teacher-Switch Day". Mrs. Dignam went off to first grade while Mrs. Nestel from Preschool-3 came over to our classroom. One of our clever kids took notice to the fact that Mrs. Nestel's name begins with the letter N! We played a fun game where we were split into two teams. Next we selected a letter from A-N, indentified it, then thought of a word that begins with the letter. Then we tossed a beanbag into the bucket to earn points for our team. We did a great job and thank to Mrs. Nestel for teaching us today.
Next we were off to computer class where we decorated beautiful hearts for Valentine's Day. We hope to have these wonderful creations posted on our website very soon.
We added several /N/ words to our word wall and talked about each one. Afterward, we practiced printing upper and lower case Nn's, then found the pictures that begin with the /N/ sound, colored them, and cut them out. Finally, we glued them into the Nest. We are getting really good at following multi-step directions.
During math, we just began a new unit on size and patterns. Today we paired up with a partner and compared our strips of paper to see whose was longer and whose was shorter. Next we completed a similar acitivity on our papers where we used circles and "x's" to find bigger and smaller/longer and shorter objects.
We looked at Delaney's tell and show item today. We also finished our special bags for our service project tomorrow and used our thumbprints to decorate cards for Fr. Lucas and Fr. Kelly, which we will present to them on Thursday.
Tell and Show tomorrow and music class as well. Have a nice night :)
Monday, 1/30/12
As we counted our calendar days today, we can't believe that there is only one day left in January. Time is just flying by! As we introduced the letter N today we welcomed 2 items on our letter table....a nightlight and a pair of nail clippers. Yes, finding items for our N table may be difficult, but I think we are up for the challenge! Some of us filled up our upper case N with Newspaper pieces, the rest of us will complete this activity one day this wee.
As we celebrate "Catholic Schools Week", we began to decorate brown bags as one of our acts of service. Someone special will be receiving his/her lunch in it. On Wednesday, we will be joining the school community in making sandwiches for the residents of the homeless shelter at 63rd and Market Streets. We will be finishing up our bags tomorrow.
During God's Time we thanked God especially for our firefighters and police officers, who were visiting our school today and who work hard to keep us safe every day. We went to O'Brien Hall today and performed for them. We stood on stage and sang a police officer song and a firefighter fingerplay. We did great! We also stayed to watch the performances from the K-4 classes.
During math today, we talked about size and length. We enjoyed exploring beads and finding the ones that were the same size. We also looked at many pencils and found all of the ones that were the same length. We completed a similar type worksheet to reinforce the skill...check out our work in our folders :) We used our fine motor skills to make upper and lower case Nn's with our clay.
Tomorrow we have computer class, "tell and show", and a special visitor coming to our class. For "teacher-switch" day, Mrs. Nestel will be in our room for about 30 minutes - while Mrs. Dignam heads up to the 1st grade to teach a lesson. Have a wonderful night!
Thursday, 1/26/12
Marshmallows, make-up, another monkey, an m&m case, and a horse named Maximus joined our M table today. We had some mitten fun as we tested our memory skills at circle time with a mitten matching game. We also reviewed letters A-M, signed them, and practiced all of their sounds. We each cut, colored, glued and decorated a pair of mittens that will be displayed in the cafeteria windows as part of our "Preschool Gingerbread Village" display that will take place this Sunday from 12 noon to 2:00 pm to kick off "Catholic Schools Week". We hope that you are able to come.
We re-visited the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and created our own title of the story and drew a picture for it. These creative titles will be bound together for our next class book that will be ready to go home soon.
At gym today we practiced throwing bean bags overhand and then enjoyed some basketball practice....dribbling and throwing. We had fun and Mrs. Wallace always wears us out. At snack time we enjoyed some yummy M snacks - marshmallows and m&m's. We used our m&m;s to make the letter M, make patterns, and some of us even sorted them by color.
We were shown some marbles and were asked to guess what we were going to use them for. After many creative incorrect responses, we found out that we were going to paint with them. We had fun making our own Marble Painting creations. We picked 2 paint colors to drop onto our paper, placed our marbles in them, then
rolled them all around. What wonderful works of art! We heard all about the fun Caroline had with Bernie the Bear and Ryann picked out a new name to bring our family book home - Delaney! enjoy
Just a reminder that Early Childhood Information night is scheduled for Thursday evening, 2/9. Our Valentine Ball is taking place on the same date in the morning at 9:15 am. We hope to see you on Sunday for our Catholic Schools Week open house from 12 -2, There will be refreshments, a display in the cafeteria, and classroom activities.
Wednesday, 1/25/12
Our M table looks quite Magnificent! Today we added some milk, maple syrup, another monkey, a moose, a magnet, Minnie Mouse (double M!), a monster truck and some money. Of course we had to acknowledge both Michael's...and Michael McNulty is another double M :)
At circle time we talked about "Money" and had an interesting discussion about what it's used for, how we can get it, and where we can keep it. We looked at bills and coins and noted their sizes as well as their similarities and differences. We saw the difference between the "heads" side and the "tails" side. Next we each flipped our own coin to see if it landed on "heads" or "tails". We also looked at many pictures that begin with the /M/ sound and added these words to our word wall. We practiced printing upper and lower case Mm's in our letter books. We had fun gluing something that begins with the letter M inside our large upper case M's....macaroni!!!
We enjoyed singing and moving with Ms. Serratore in Music class. We also looked at Amado's, Bronwyn's, and Sephora's tell and show items. Great job with those clues!
We listened to the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" and will be making our own rendition of this story tomorrow for our next class book.
Just a reminder that everyone is encouraged to attend the open forum tonight at O'Brien Hall at 7:00pm. Also, this Sunday there is an "Open House" from 12-2 to start off "Catholic Schools Week"....the Pre-K 4 classes have been working hard on our gingerbread village display that will be set up in the cafeteria - we hope you can come to see it :) Gym tomorrow. Have a great evening!
1/23/12
M is for Monday and our letter table already has some Macaroni and Cheese, a monkey and a microphone on it. Marvelous! We can't wait to see what other M items will be added this week. In honor of "m" we celebrate both Michael's this week.
At circle time today we learned some interesting mouse facts... We knew that mice like to eat cheese, peanut butter and pretty much all "people food", but we thought that it was funny that they also eat glue, paper and cardboard. We talked about other animals that like to eat mice also - such as cats, some birds, fox, and snakes. We looked at different kinds of mice on our Smartboard...there were gray, white, and brown ones. We liked the picture of the mommy mouse with her babies - some of us didn't know that newborn mice are pink and have no hair. Afterward we cut, colored, and glued to make a mouse craft that we can play with. We spelled out the word m-o-u-s-e on the back of it. We also completed an activity where we found and colored all of the "M" objects, then cut and glued them next to the M picture.
Since it was wet and messy out today we stretched our legs inside by playing a fun game of "mousetrap". We each took turns being the "mice" and had to try to avoid being caught in our friends' traps. Quick little mice we are!!!
During God's Time today we talked about how Jesus's mother Mary's name begins with the letter M. We talked about how Mary is the Blessed Mother and listened to a beautiful story about Her.
Please keep in mind that there are no classes tomorrow due to Progress Report Conferences taking place. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your wonderful child :) Enjoy the rest of your day!
Friday, 1/20/12
We wrapped up L week with some ladybug and luau fun today. We viewed a short ladybug story and a catchy ladybug song on our Smartboard. At circle time we compared 2 ladybugs from our letter L table and pointed out their similarities and differences. (These little ones don't miss a trick!) Afterward we cut, colored, and glued to make our own lovely ladybug creations.
We reviewed our letters from A-L and sorted alphabet pictures. We also had a fun time playing alphabet bingo today. Not only does this game help with letter recognition, it also tests our listening skills. We played until everyone had the opportunity to cover their board and yell "Bingo".
During math we reviewed first and last. We liked taking turns being being first and last in line. We completed an activity where we circled the first person in line and put an "x" on the last person in line.
Instead of going outside on this blustery cold day, we stayed warm inside at our "luau" (well, actually it was the gym). We used our imaginations and played volleyball at the beach and threw coconuts (beanbags) in the buckets. We even did the "Limbo" at our Luau. What fun! We also looked at Azariah's tell and show item today.
We celebrated Lauren's half-birthday today. Happy 1/2 birthday Lauren!!! We enjoyed some delicious birthday cake. Thanks to Lauren's mommy for sending in the yummy treat.
Next week we look forward exploring the letter M and finishing up our math unit. Just a reminder that there are no classes on Tuesday due to progress report conferences. Have a wonderful weekend with your precious litte ones. Stay safe and warm because some snow is in the forecast!
Thuursday, 1/19/12
Little Lion, on the plain
Here is my tail, and here is my mane
When I get excited you will see
Just how loud my roar can be" (ROAR!!!)
We learned this song to the tune of "I'm a little teapot" - we especially liked roaring "Loudly" at the end. We talked about where lions live and what they like to eat. We created our own lions today using a paper plate, scissors, and crayons. Mrs. Montie was kind enough to bring in "lights" for all of us to hold while we sang "This Little Light of Mine"....thanks, Mrs. Montie! And Mrs. Mullen had a very real-looking Lobster that she let us look at and feel....thanks, Mrs. Mullen! We also watched a short sesame street letter L clip on our Smartboard.
We enjoyed some yummy L treats today - licorice and lemonade! We even made the letter L with our licorice. We exerted some energy and used our large muscles in gym class with Mrs. Wallace. We reviewed our letters from A-K and practiced their sounds. We also enjoyed drawing in our journals. Today we drew our favorite things to find in our "Lunchbox" for the letter L - cookies, fruit, yogurt, chicken, pizza, and donuts were some favorites.
During math today we talked about "first" and "last" and we each had a turn putting different animals in the first and last positions in the animal parade. Sephora told us all about her adventures with Bernie the Bear and our friend Caroline gets to bring him home this weekend. Have fun with Bernie, Caroline! Also, Sarah picked out Ryann's name to bring our family book home for the weekend.
Please check your child's folder for a special invitation to our upcoming Valentine Ball. We decorated them with stickers today for someone we "L-O-V-E" - our daddy's/pop-pops/uncles, etc. This is a special event for your child to share with a special male figure in their life. Don't worry moms, yours is in May :)
Please remember that there are no classes next Tuesday, 1/24 because progress report conferences will be taking place. Tell and Show tomorrow and we will also be Learning about Ladybugs! Have a nice night :)
Wednesday, 1/18/12
Wow!...our L table is "Loaded" with L items. Today a lid, another lion, lipstick, lip gloss, and a lemon were added. Love it!
During God's Time today we talked about how Jesus's "Light" shines in each of our hearts. We learned the song "This Little Light of Mine".
We were introduced to many L words today and added them to our word wall. We looked at many pictures that begin with the /L/ sound and tested our memory skills to see if we could remember the one that was removed from the group. We traced and printed upper and lower case Ll's in our letter books today and selected 2 letter L pictures to color and glue in our books. Afterward we enjoyed drawing pictures for the letter L on our papers - we drew lemons, lizards, lions, ladders, ladybugs, leaves, lollipops, and Luigi from Mario was a popular one too!
We had fun with ms. Serratore in music class, singing, dancing, movin', and groovin'!
We looked at Sarah's and Bronwyn's tell and show items as well. During math we used our classification skills to figure out which tools each community worker uses. We played a game where we matched the worker with his/her items that they use. Next we completed a similar activity on our worksheets. Check folders for our impressive work!
Tomorrow we have gym and look forward to some yummy L treats. Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Tuesday, 1/17/12
What a "Lovely" looking L table to start L week! On it includes a lizard, a ladybug, a lion, a lamb, Luigi (Mario's brother), a lemon, and a LaLaLoopsy doll (that's a triple L)! L is also for our friend Lauren.
At circle time today, after our morning prayer, pledge, and some songs, we had some lollipop learning fun for the letter L. Four different color lollipops were displayed and we each picked out our favorite (green, red, purple, or orange). We tallied the results and created our own lollipop graph. Green apple was the class favorite with the most and orange was the least favorite. Next we used our lollipops to make patterns.....we started with easy ones and then they became more difficult. We are getting really good at completing patterns.
We glued different color lollipops in our large upper case L's and then practiced printing both upper and lower case Ll's on our papers. We drew a picture of a lion and even printed the word /lion/. We used our clay to form the letter L as well.
During math we reviewed our shapes and then classified objects according to its' shape. First we were given objects from the classroom and described its' shape, then we completed a similar activity on paper. Following directions is a big part of these math activities and we are doing a great job!
We enjoyed looking at Michael M's, Delaney's, and Ryann's tell and show items. Since we couldn't go outside today, we used our large muscle skills inside. First we talked about the word "Leap" and some animals/insects that move this way. Next , we had fun "Leaping" around our classroom for the letter L. What amazing leapers we have!
Tomorrow we look forward to more L exploration and music class. Have a wonderful night!
Friday, 1/13/12
Freedom, freedom, let it ring, "Let it ring" said Dr. King
Let us live in harmony, Peace and love for you and me
Freedom, Freedom, let it ring, "Let it ring", said Dr. King
We learned this song to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At circle time we listened to the wonderful storybook "God's Dream", which is a beautifully illustrated book about how we can make God's dream come true simply by caring, sharing, loving, and forgiving. Martin Luther King's dream was quite similar and we talked about the importance of treating everyone fairly and kindly. Afterward we created our own "Freedom bells" using a styrofoam cup, a pipe cleaner, and some foil.
We reviewed our letters A-K and sorted pictures according to their beginning sound. We completed a letter review worksheet where we matched the letter to the picture that begins with that letter. Not only are we identifying our letters, but we are getting better at sounding them out as well, not to mention signing them.
During math we talked about "Same and Different" and used our Smartboard to find and circle the picture that was different. We completed a similar activity on our papers as well.
Since it was quite chilly, we stretched our legs and got some excercise in the gym today. We also looked at Azariah's tell and show item.
Next week we look forward to Ll week and continuing our math unit on position and classification. Please remember that we are closed on Monday, January 16th in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday. I thank you, as always, for sharing your beautiful children with me - they brighten my day every day. Enjoy the long weekend with your families
Thursday, 1/12/12
We were busy little beavers in Pre-K 4-C today. At circle time we reviewed letters A-K and played an alphabet manipulative game where we were encouraged to match the letter to the picture that begins with that letter.
At snack time today we enjoyed some "Kix" and "Kisses" - Kix cereal and Hershey kisses that is. Mmmmm, that was a yummy treat. Before digging in, we attempted to make the letter K with our Kix cereal pieces. We practiced our counting skills too.
Afterward, we used our gross motor skills in the gym with Mrs. Wallace. We had fun "popping bubbles" using balls and hoops.
During math today we talked about the positional words top, middle, bottom, inside, outside and on. We used toys to place items inside, outside, and on the hoop. We completed a math worksheet where we used different colors to find things inside, outside, and on.....I am so proud at how well these little ones are following directions.
I was so excited to share with the children a special "tell and show" that I have been working on......our classroom family album. Yes it is completed and is ready to go! I thank all students and parents for doing such a beautiful job on your pages. We picked the first name out of our name box and Sarah gets to bring the book home this weekend. Every child will get the opportunity to bring the book home to share with their families and has been instructed to take very good care of our book.
Bronwyn told us all about her fun adventures with Bernie the Bear and now Sephora will be bringing him home for the weekend. Bernie is one lucky bear to have all of these wonderful experiences with these preschoolers.
During God's time we reviewed kind words and acts. This led us into a mini lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how he wanted everyone to be treated the same and with kindness. We looked at pictures of Martin Luther King on our Smartboard and learned the first 4 words of his most famous speech...."I have a dream"....We will be learning more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tomorrow.
Please check your child's folder. Stapled to the front is your progress report conference time confirmation. Have a nice evening!
Wednesday, 1/11/12
Yay for K! Our K table now has some more keys and a karate belt on there. We hope to see a few more on there tomorrow. After our morning prayer and pledge to the flag, we learned some new songs today at circle time. We tested our memory skills when we had to figure out which K picture was missing from the group. We are getting better and better at this skill. We watched a short Sesame Street clip on our SMARTboard with Kermit the frog and the letter K.
We traced and printed the letter Kk in our letter books today, then picked out 2 K pictures to color and glue in our books. Next we enjoyed drawing objects that begin with K on our papers - we drew kings, kittens, ketchup, keys, and koala bears. We are becoming much more independent with our work :) We also used paintbrushes and our fingers to dip in water and made upper and lower case Kk's on the chalkboard.
We enjoyed the sunshine on this beautiful day and took notice to our classroom tree outside. It is now our winter tree and looks quite different from the last time we sat under it. All of the branches are now bare, no more colorful leaves, and no more acorns on the ground. We think the squirrels gathered up all of those acorns before hibernation season. We will be drawing our winter tree in our journals.
We reviewed top, middle, and bottom during math time and talked about the positional words inside and outside. We each participated in a fun, interactive game where we picked an item from the classroom and placed it either inside or outside of the hula hoop. Afterward we put our fine motor skills to work when we circled the things on our papers that were "inside" and put an "x" on the things that were outside. Incredible work!
We were movin' and groovin' in the music room with Ms. Serratore. We were dancing like many different kinds of animals when we performed "The New Zoo Review". We enjoyed looking at Sarah's, Bronwyn's and Sephora's tell and show items. We love listening to the clues and guessing what the item is. Tomorrow I have a special tell and show item that I will be sharing with the children!
We ended the day with God's time talking about acts of kindness - at home, at school, and everywhere we go. We talked about many things we can do and say to show kindness. I encouraged the children to go home tonight and try their best to show acts of kindness.
Tomorrow we look forward to gym, library, and some more letter K fun. I will be sending home conference confirmations tomorrow as well. Have a great night.
Tuesday, 1/10/12
Our K table is looking A-OK so far. Today a kangaroo, 2 different kinds of keys, some ketchup and a koala bear made their way onto our K table. We met our new friend Kerri the Kangaroo who is driving a key shaped car. Keep those K items comin'!
During circle time today we reviewed our letter chart and practiced making the /k/ sound. We looked at a group of pictures and found all of the ones that began with the letter K. We decorated our upper case K's with colorful kites. We also practiced printing upper and lower case K's - a little tricky, but we are getting it. We then drew our own kites on our papers and picked a shape to draw on the top of the string - some of us made heart kites, square kites, circle kites and the traditional diamond kite....and we even printed the word k-i-t-e!
At computer class today we had much fun playing some penguin learning games. First we watched a short video about penguins, then we played penguin math games where we had to sort penguins, put them in size order, and then put them in order from 1 - 10. We really put our math skills to work :)
During our math lesson today we used our brand new felt board! There was a large tree on the board and we each had a turn to place a felt animal either on the top, in the middle, or at the bottom of the tree. We had one crazy tree with lots of different animals at the top, middle and bottom. I absolutely love this felt board and thank you again for this wonderful gift! Afterward we colored our our own tree and liked drawing animals at the top, middle and bottomof our trees. We did a great job following directions. Please check your child's folder for their wonderful work.
We looked at Delaney's, Ryann's, and Michael M's tell and show items. During God's time we talked about how important it is to be kind to others, just like Jesus. We talked about kind words and unkind words.
I will be sending conference confirmations home on Thursday. Please send in your progress report conference form if you haven't done so already. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your day.
Monday, 1/9/12
"Old King Cole was a Merry Old Soul And a Merry Old Soul was he,
he called for his pipe and he called for his bowl,
and he called for his Fiddler's Three"
To start off K week, at circle time we recited and sang the Nursery Rhyme "Old King Cole". We watched the nursery rhyme "come alive" when we viewed a short video on our SMARTboard about Old King Cole. It was an entertaining segment with props, singing, and dancing.
We cut, colored, and glued to make King crowns today. We especially enjoyed decorating them with "jewels" (well, it was actually sequence). We talked about the letter K, the K sound, and looked at many different pictures that begin with K. Afterward we practiced tracing and printing the upper case and lower case Kk's on our papers. We also had to find and circle the K pictures. We did a great job :) Our K table right now has some Kit-Kats on there...that's a double K! We hope to see more on there tomorrow. After some fresh air and a stretch of the legs outside, we enjoyed using our fine motor skills playing with clay and were encouraged to make K's with it.
During math today we began talking about the positional words top, middle and bottom. We each were given 3 different color blocks and stacked them so a particular color would be at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. Then we repeated it differently. Next we completed an activity where we used our red crayon to circle all things at the top, our blue crayon to circle all things on the bottom, and our green crayon to make an "x" on all things in the middle. We had to use our listening ears to follow directions for this one and we did a great job!
During God's Time this week we are talking about acts of kindness for the letter k. We ended the day wearing our King crowns and talking about the duties of a King. Then we discussed what rules we would enforce if we were King for a day....we got lots of interesting responses on that one :)
Just a reminder to send in all progress report conference forms as soon as possible. I would like to send a schedule home this Thursday. Thanks and have a wonderful night!
Friday, 1/6/12
We finished up winter week with some more snowman fun today. At circle time we learned a few more winter songs and listed all of the wonderful things we can do in the winter time. Our list included: wearing coats, hats, gloves, and scarves, building a snowman, having snowball fights, going sledding, making snow angels and ice skating.
We counted out the letters of our first names to make a snowman. The # of snowballs we used to make our snowmen matched the # of letters in our names. As a result, some of our snowmen are taller than others but all look fantastic. We added features with our crayons and some snowflakes with chalk. These wonderful creations will be displayed in our classroom.
We enjoyed the sunshine on this beautiful winter day when we went outside for some exercise and fresh air. We practiced patterning with manipulatives and on the chalkboard, then we completed a winter pattern worksheet activity. We used our scissors to cut out pictures and glued them in the appropriate row to continue the pattern. Great work!
We looked at Nkenge's tell and show item. Good clues, Nkenge! We also went to Mrs. Montie's room to watch some of a Disney movie in the afternoon. That was a surprise treat :)
Next week we are looking forward to working on the letter K and starting our math unit on position and classification. As always, I thank you for sharing your child with me and with St. Bernadette School. They are such a delight to have in class. Have a beautiful weekend!
Thursday, 1/5/12
"Thank You God for Winter, for the snow that falls so deep
For this peaceful time of year, when natures is asleep"
We will be reciting our winter prayer throughout the season
We kept our winter theme going today with many hands-on activities. After prayer, pledge, calendar check, and some circle time songs we were really looking forward to making our edible snowman snacks todays. We used ritz crackers, cream cheese, raisins, mini pretzel sticks, and a piece of an apple peel to create wonderful and delicious snowmen. As usual, it was a bit messy, but fun to make and eat.
We went to the gym and broke up into 2 groups - the polar bears and penguins. The penguins went with Mrs. Frank and had fun ice-skating. Yes, we were ice skating.....we had paper plates under our feet and were gliding all around the gym floor. We skated, raced, and twirled as if there really was ice under our feet! The polar bears stayed with me and had fun playing a hockey game, taking turns being players and goalies. Then we switched activities. Fun, but tiring :)
We then put our fine motor skills to work to create snowladies and snowmen crafts that will be displayed on our bulletin board in the hallway. We used 2 small paper plates, hats, scarves, arms, buttons, and picked out eyes, noses and mouths . What sensational snow people we created!!!
We listened to a few stories in the library this afternoon and also used our waterpaints to make colorful pictures. We reviewed our numbers 1-10 and letters A -J. Please check your child;s folder for some important paperwork that was sent home today - progress report conference info and Valentine Ball info.
Our friend Chase told us all about the fun he had with Bernie right before Christmas and then he picked Bronwyn's name to bring Bernie home this weekend. We are looking forward to hearing about Bronwyn's adventures with Bernie.
Thanks and have a wonderful evening!
Wednesday, 1/4/12
Brrrrrr! This weather surely is cooperating with our "Winter" week! Just a reminder that all children should wear winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. to school on these cold winter days. We do like to get some fresh air, even for just a short time, so it's important for them to be bundled up.
We sang our winter songs today as we reviewed some winter words that will be added to our word wall. We participated in a fun hands-on activity at circle time where we each selected an article of clothing from a bag and had to decide whether it belonged in the winter pile or summer pile. We sorted boots, hats, bathings suits, shorts, sweaters, sandals, etc. Afterward we completed a winter/summer activity and sorted all of the itmes of clothing on our papers according to winter or summer attire. We each picked which one is our favorite (winter or summer) and tallied the results. Summer had "more" with 10 people choosing that as their favorite, while winter ad "less" with only 5 votes.
We enjoyed role-playing animals in music class with ms. Serratore. We also reviewed our letters from A-J and practiced each letter sound. We looked at Sarah's and Bronwyn's tell and show items. Fantastic clue-givers!!!
We ended the day listening to a story called "Hibernation Station" and talked about what hibernation means and some animals that hibernate. We will be discussing this topic throughout the month.
Have a great evening and stay warm on this frigid night!!!!
Hello and Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. How exciting to be starting a new year with a new friend in our class. Her name is Caroline and we were so happy to meet her and show her around our classroom.
We will be resuming with the letter K next week, and although we will be continuing to work with numbers from 1 - 20, we will be exploring specific math concepts from January - June. The January newsletter will be sent home in folders tomorrow. This week we are focusing on a "Winter" theme - which is perfect considering the weather we had this morning. We were excited to see those snowflakes come down from the sky. At circle time we talked about all things "winter" and the wonderful changes the winter season brings. We practiced our counting skills as we played a mitten # game where we had to figure out which # between 1-10 was turned over.
After snack we made our way up to computer class with Mrs. Geller. Today we enjoyed putting Mr. Snowman together and adding his accessories. Then we were able to choose a game to play....some of us chose a coloring page where we could choose from many different colors and writing tools and some chose a gift matching game. We are becoming very independant in the computer room!
We used our fine motor skills by cutting, gluing and coloring our "shape" snowman. We had to count how many of each shape was inside the snowman and then glue the correct number in the correct spot. I was amazed at how little assistance they needed with this activity. These preschoolers are making great progress!!
We listened to a funny winter story called "The Mitten" and will revisit it again later in the week. We liked looking at Ryann's and Delaney's tell and show items. They both brought something they just got from Santa! During prayer time we each took the time to be thankful for the many special gifts we received at Christmas.
We ended the day reviewing our letters from A-J and signed them as well. We look forward to participating in many winter themed activities the rest of the week.
Thursday, 12/22/11
What a wonderful surprise it was this morning to walk into the classroom and see such a creative, thoughtful, and beautifully decorated Christmas present from all of the parents and children. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing group of classroom moms and an incredible bunch of students. Seeing their little faces filled with so much anticipation and joy during this beautiful season has truly been a joy for me to see and just makes my heart smile. Thank you again for your wonderful gifts.
We are just now 3 days away as we counted on our calendar and we cannot believe that winter started today. It certainly doesn't feel like it outside, but that's okay by us. We are so looking forward to celebrating Jesus's birthday and awaiting the arrival of that big, jolly guy named Santa. Speaking of Santa, he visited our classroom today! We wished hard for him and were so excited to see him and his elf in our room. We each had the chance to sit on his lap and show him the drawings we made for him. He even had a candy cane treat of all of us. What a wonderful visit we had with him!
We were quite anxious to make our own gingerbread house creations. Yes, a bit messy, but oh so much fun! We used graham crackers, vanilla frosting, and many different kinds of candy pieces to decorate a festive house. We will be bringing these home today and know to check with mom or dad before digging in! We had to sample some of it while we were making them and we all agree.......Delicious!!!!
We had a nice visit with Ms. Sheen in the library as she read a few Christmas stories to us. We also enjoyed playing a Nativity matching game on our SmartBoard. (These kids have good memories and made more matches than I did!) We also had fun playing Christmas large muscle games with Mrs. Wallace in the gym. We ended the day with a yummy hot chocolate treat with marshmallows and listened to "Twas the Night Before Christmas".
Inside your child's schoolbag, there is a gift bag from me. And please check your child's folder for a special present for you wrapped in tissue paper. I thank you again for sharing your child with me. They are truly a delight to have in my class and a gift to my spirit. I wish all of you a very Merry and blessed holiday season and I look forward to sharing more wonderful learning experiences with your child in the new year. God Bless you all and enjoy the holidays with your precious child and families.
Wednesday, 12/21/11
We are certainly feeling the magic of Christmas. Just 4 short days away. We listened to a beautiful story today called "Jesus in the Stable" and it reminded us of the beautiful miracle of Jesus's birth. We identified all of the people and animals in the nativity scene.
We were busy cutting and gluing to make beautiful Christmas ornaments for you. We started them today and will put the finishing touches on them tomorrow. This is one ornament that will surely be a keeper!
We were so excited to open a letter that was delivered to our classroom today. Our friend Madeline who moved to Texas in October sent us a picture and a note. We were happy to hear that she has made some new friends and is at a new school. She said she misses us though as we do her. We all signed a card for her today and hopefully she will receive in time for Christmas. What a special surprise that was! Some friendly helpers have been in our classroom this week. Leah and Nicholas (my children) who are off from school have been busy little elves assisting in the room. Leah was working one on one with many of the children decorating a beautiful Christmas tree on our SmartBoard.
We sang some of our Christmas carols with Ms. Serratore and watched some of "The Polar Express" - that was a treat! Upon returning to the classroom, we talked about "same" and "different" and liked finding the Christmas picture that was different on our papers. We also had fun taking guesses as to what Bronwyn's and Sarah's tell and show items were. Great clues!!
We ended the day playing a fun Christmas game where we had to use our listening ears to figure out which one of our friends was laughing like Santa. These kids are the best "Ho-Ho-Ho-ers" around!
Tomorrow we are so much looking forward to some Gingerbread fun. Also, Santa may be in our neck of the woods tomorrow so we will be wishing hard for him to come. We will be celebrating in our classroom with many Christmas activities. We also have gym, so please remember sneakers should be worn. Have a beautiful night!
Tuesday, 12/20/11
We are counting down the days and the magic number is now 5. We are so looking forward to Christmas but we have many exciting things to do before that special day arrives.
We reviewed all of our letters (and signed them too!) and numbers today. Since we are really in the Christmas spirit, we sang several holiday tunes today. One of our favorites is "Rudolf". We used our SmartBoard to put Rudolf's facial features where they belong. Afterward we used our fine motor skills to cut, color, glue and decorate our own Rudolf creations. Wonderful work!
After playing outside, we enjoyed guessing what Delaney, Amado, Michael M, and Ryann brought in for tell and show. We have been practicing our color sight words and today we focused on yellow, blue, purple and red. We did a super job following directions to color a Christmas tree filled with ornaments. We were careful to see which color each ornament needed to be. Take a peek in your child's folder to see their brilliant work.
We finished the day giving our "Hairy Harry's" a hair cut. Boy, how they've grown! We have been keeping them in sunlight and watering them and....voila! Hair growing like crazy. We will be bringing them home today and plan to take care of them at home so we can continue to give them haircuts when needed. Tomorrow we look forward to music with Ms. Serratore and many more exciting Christmas activities. Please remember to send in one container of vanilla icing with your child by Thursday. Thanks and enjoy your night.
Monday, 12/19/11
Happy Monday! As we lit the 4th candle on our Advent wreath today, we took the time to acknowledge that Christmas is a day to remember God's great love for us. We continued our Christmas countdown and we are down to the #6.
We listened to a story today called "C is for Christmas" and enjoyed looking at and discussing all of the Christmas-time pictures - we talked about wreaths, holly, reindeer, icicles, sleigh rides, misteltoe, angels, and Santa Clause. Many of these words are words we have been reviewing on our Word Wall. Afterward we colored, cut and glued to make our own Santa creations with a fluffy beard. We even printed out letters to spell Santa's favorite words! Speaking of Santa, that jolly big guy just may be popping into our classroom this week. We will be on our best behavior and wishing hard for him to come.
We went outside for some exercise on this brisk sunny day. We also played a letter game where we had to identify the picture, what letter it begins with, and the sound the letter makes. We also used markers to draw Christmas related items on our papers....we drew Christmas trees, presents, stockings, snowmen, and candy canes.
Tomorrow we look forward to computer class, tell and show, and more Christmas fun. I am asking each child to bring in one container of vanilla icing for a special gingerbread house project that we will be making on Thursday. Thanks so much and have a great evening :)
Thursday, 12/15/11
Needless to say, our little performers were definetly a "hit" last night. Principal Lien was so impressed with our performance that we were invited to perform it again next Friday at the "Jingle Ball", so those of us that will be at school on that day should bring in our headbands. Thank you to everyone who helped out and supported this beautiful event.
Joining our J table today was some Jingle bells (very appropriate for the season!), some jam, Jessie from Toy Story, and the calendar month of January. Love it!
We worked hard in our letter books today printing, coloring and gluing. We also picked a J item to draw on our papers - we drew jellybeans, jars, Jessie from Toy Story, and jeans. We also reviewed our numbers and practiced counting and writing our numbers from 1 to 10.
We had a fun time in gym today playing some Christmas relay racing games. Speaking of Christmas, we started our countdown today and we cannot believe it - that special day is just 10 days away (and yes, that is our # of the week).
We drew some pictures in our journals about what we would like Santa to bring us this Christmas. These wonderful pictures will be photocopied and sent to Santa.
Ryann told us about all of the fun she had with Bernie the Bear and she picked Chase's name to bring him home this weekend. We can't wait to hear all about Bernie's adventures with Chase.
Tomorrow is a half day with dismissal at 12:00. Next week we look forward to a week full of learning with a Christmas theme. Have a wonderful night.
Wednesday, 12/14/11
Yay!! It's the day of the Christmas show and we are "J"umping for "J"oy about it. We practiced hard today over at O'Brien Hall and everyone coming tonight is in for a real treat. Please remember that all children should arrive at O'Brien Hall no later than 6:45 pm.
Our J table is jumping with J items...we have some juice, a jaguar, a jumprope, jelly, jello, and 2 jets joining the table today. We practiced tracing upper case and lower case Jj's and filled up our big letter J's with something yummy that begins with the letter J,,,,jellybeans! We talked about our favorite color jellybean.
We had some play time outside on this beautiful day and then reviewed our numbers 1 to 10. We practiced printing the number 10 and painted 10 stripes on our candy canes.
We ended the day reviewing The Christmas story and recognized that both Jesus's and Joseph's name begin with the letter J. Tomorrow is gym day and Santa's Secret Shop.
We are really looking forward to this evening! See you there
Monday, 12/12/11
We lit the third pink candle representing "joy" on our class Advent wreath today. We are anxiously awaiting for many special events that are quickly approaching....one of them being our Christmas show which is only 2 days away. We went over to O'Brien Hall today to practice with our other Pre-K friends. All headbands must be sent in on Wednesday morning if you haven't done so already. Thanks so much!
We talked about our new letter "J" and many things that begin with the letter J. We recognized that Jesus's name begins with the letter J. We used our fine motor skills to color, cut, and glue the pictures that begin with J sound. Our friend Lauren found "James" on our train table and put him on our letter table, but he stands alone! Hopefully more J items will be "J"oining him on Wednesday.
We went outside to stretch our legs and listened to the story "Jesus in the Manger". We then counted out 10 pieces of our Nativity set. We reviewed the numbers 1-10 and then used our clay to make 10 balls. Great counters we are!
We ended the day saying a special prayer for Mrs. Mullen and her family. Mrs. Mullen's father passed away this weekend so please keep them in your prayers as well.
Tomorrow there are no classes due to a Teacher In-Service day. We look forward to Wednesday when all of our friends are here and we will be preparing for our show in the evening. Just a reminder that our Christmas show will be taking place Wed. night at 7:00 pm in O'Brien Hall. All children should arrive no later than 6:45. Thanks and have a nice night :)
Friday, 12/9/11
We finished up "I" week with our focus on igloos and insects today. First thing this morning, we went over to O'Brien Hall to practice for our upcoming Christmas show. We are sounding amazing! We cannot believe how quickly it is approaching. Please send in all headbands - they were due on Wed, 12/7. Thanks :)
With all of our ice exploration this week, we were really looking forward to making our edible igloo snacks today. We used a half of an apple, some vanilla icing, and marshmallows....another messy treat but so yummy. We also were Introduced (another I word) to a new friend named Caroline who will be joining our class in January. We love making new friends and look forward to getting to know her.
After lunch and some exercise outside on this brisk sunny day, we had an Interesting discussion about Insects. We learned that insects have 3 body parts and 6 legs. We used our Smartboard to view several pictures of many different types of insects.... good ones and bad ones. Afterward we printed the letter I and the #9 on our papers and used our thumbprints to make 9 insects in the jar.
During God's time we talked about The Nativity and enjoyed identifying all of the characters in our class Nativity set on our prayer table. Next week we will be lighting the pink candle on our Advent wreath as that special day gets closer and closer.
We liked looking at Lauren's, Michael's, and Nkenge's tell and show items today. Please continue to practice at home for our play next week, which will be a truly special gift for all of you, I am sure. We also look forward to working on the letter J and the #10. Enjoy the weekend with your precious little ones.
Wednesday, 12/7/11
It was another busy day in Pre-K 4-C! We began our day getting down to business and practicing for our Christmas show. The next time we are all together, it will be the day of the show. We are doing our best at singing and reciting our lines and are really looking forward to our show. Please remember that the show will be taking place on Wednesday, 12/14 at O'Brien Hall at 7:00pm. Thank you for sending in the headbands today - very creatively done moms and dads! If you haven't sent them in, they must be received by Wednesday, 12/14h.
We went on a letter "I" hunt today and searched for I pictures around the classroom, then put them in our alphabet chart. We tested our memory skills to figure out which I picture was missing from the group. We practiced tracing and writing the letter I in our letter books today and picked two I pictures to color and glue inside them.
Ms. Serratore said that we sound very ready for our Christmas show. We practiced our Christmas tunes and received stickers for being such good singers.
At circle time we observed our ice cube tray from yesterday and took notice of the differences. After keeping our tray in the freezer overnight, our water changed to ice. We discussed how the cold temperature changed our liquid to a solid. We also enjoyed feeling the difference between water at room temperature and frozen water. We felt a latex glove filled with room temperature water and one frozen and noted the differences. Afterwards we used our ice cubes to make ice-paintings today. Yes, we painted with an ice cube with food coloring inside of it. Check your child's folder for these wonderful creations! We noticed that the longer we kept our ice cubes out, the more they melted and then we discussed why.
We drew pictures in our journals of our favorite ice cream flavors. We also looked at Sarah's, Sephora's, and Bronwyn's tell and show items. We ended the day listening to the story of the first Christmas and recognized that the reason we give presents at Christmas is because it's Jesus's birthday.
Our friend Ryann was picked to bring Bernie the Bear home. Have fun with Bernie, Ryann! Please remember no school tomorrow, and please continue to practice at home for the Christmas show. We are so looking forward to next Wednesday night. Have a wonderful night.
Tuesday, 12/6/11
"I scream, you scream
We all scream for Ice Cream"
We had much ice cream fun today! First we went over to O'Brien Hall this morning to practice for our Christmas show with our other Pre-K friends. We did a nice job and will be back there again tomorrow. We are so looking forward to presenting our show to all who attend. Keep practicing :)
At circle time today when we checked our calendar, we talked about today being St. Nicholas day and what it means. We used our Smartboard to see some pictures of St. Nicholas and heard a wonderful story about Him, how he loved children and how he became known as the first Santa Clause. Principal Lien informed us that if we put something in our hallway for him, He may pay a visit and leave us a gift. She told us to use our listening ears and when we hear the jingle bells, we'll know that he was here. We were in computer class when we heard those bells and we couldn't wait to see if he came. When we returned to our classroom, the red paper shoes that we placed in the hallway were filled with bags of candy. Magic is certainly in the air!
At computers today we enjoyed decorating a Christmas picture using KidPix and also recording our voices for a special project that will be on our website soon. This will be a special treat for sure!
Upon returning to our classroom it was time to look at our I table and I must say I am Impressed! We have 2 iguanas, an ice cream scooper, ice skates, an ID bracelet, an Indian doll, ice cream cone, and a homemade igloo! Incredible!
We talked about ice cream and what our favorite flavor is. We graphed the results and discovered that our classroom liked chocolate the best, although mint choc chip was a close second, and strawberry was the least favorite. We talked about the number 9 and used our fine motor and counting skills to put 9 scoops of ice cream on our cones (paper ones, that is). Next we got a little messy and made our own ice cream cone creations. Mmmm, they looked good enough to eat! But, we used glue, shaving cream, and paint to make these so no eating allowed. We even put sprinkles on them too. They are drying in our classroom and will be sent home tomorrow.
We looked at Ryann's, Amado's, and Delaney's, tell and show items today. Great job. Tomorrow we will see some more. We will also be having music tomorrow with Ms. Serratore.
After enjoying a yummy ice cream snack this afternoon for the letter I, we ended the day putting water in our ice cube tray and dropping different food colors in them. What will happen to the water in our tray after we keep it in the freezer overnight and why? We look forward to some ice exploration tomorrow.
Please remember that all head bands for the Christmas show are due tomorrow. Thanks and have a beautiful night.
Monday, 12/5/11
Today we were Introduced to the letter I and had some Instrument fun. We were banging and shaking and listened to the different sounds various types of instruments make. We used our listening skills to identify which instrument sound we heard. We each
had a "solo", then we all played our instruments together to make a band. The sound of maracas, drums, bells, tambourines, and cymbals filled our classroom. Next, we enjoyed making our own instrument "shakers" using paper plates, tissue paper, glue and small pieces of pasta.
After getting some fresh air outside on this beautiful day, we talked about the #9 and played a counting game. We drew 9 jellybeans in a jar on our papers and practiced printing the #9 as well.
During God's Time, we stood around our prayer table and "lit" the second candle on our Advent wreath. We listened to a beautiful story called "The Story of Christmas" and talked about the "Inn" for the letter I.
Tomorrow we look forward to practicing at O'Brien Hall for our Christmas show, computers and some Ice-cream fun. Also, tell and show day. We wonder if anyone will have some I items for our letter table? That's a little tricky, but hopefully we can think of a few. Remember, the children can also cut pictures out from magazines if they don't have an item. Have a nice night!
Friday, 12/2/11
Happy Friday! This week went by so quickly. We wrapped up our H week today talking about Homes. First our discussion was about the different kinds of homes people live in. Next we looked at many different kinds of animal pictures and the kinds of homes each one lives in. Afterwards we used our fine motor skills to match the animal to their proper home.
We enjoyed a delightful lift the flap Christmas story called "Merry Christmas, Emily". We put our math skills to work by counting out 8 Christmas balls for our trees. We also had some hands on learning fun making patterns with ornaments. Everyone was able to create their own pattern - very impressive! Next we used sequins, glitter and peel-off Christmas stickers to decorate our own Christmas trees. These beautiful trees are hanging up in the hallway. The rest of our friends will make their trees next week. We also finished our Advent wreaths, which are also on display in the hallway. Next week we will be lighting the 2nd candle on our class Advent wreath.
We looked at Azariah's, Michael's, and Nkenge's tell and show items today. We also had one more addition to our H table - a hammer!
Again, we finished the day practicing our lines for the Christmas show. Our show is taking place on Wednesday evening, 12/14 at O'Brien Hall at 7:00 pm. All children should arrive at 6:45pm.
Next week we move on to the letter I and the number 9. Have a a happy, safe, and fun weekend.
Thursday, 12/1/11
Happy Hat Day! We were so excited to show off all of our wonderful hats for our hat parade today. We paraded around the school and visited other classrooms so we could display our hats. Great job moms and dads for remembering :)
We said goodbye to November and hello to December today. Time is just flying by.
After our salute to the flag, songs, calendar check, and weather we talked about our special project that we were getting ready to make.....our own "Hairy Harry's". First we talked about what the word hairy means. Then we discovered that Hairy Harry is a plant. We brought some science into our discussion and made a list of things that seeds need to grow into plants (soil, water, and sunlight)....see if your child can name them! We each received our own styrofoam cup to decorate - we picked out eyes, noses, mouths and bows to make Harry's face. Next we filled up our cups with soil, sprinkled in some grass seed, and added a bit of water. We are going to take care of our "Hairy Harry's" (although he's not quite hairy yet!) by watering them and keeping them in the sunlight. We cannot wait to watch them grow hair and when it gets too long, we will use our scissors to give him a haircut.
We reviewed the numbers 1-8 and the letters A-H. We listened to a delightful story called "Old Hat, New Hat" and a few of the hats in the story looked like some of the ones we brought in today. We had a hippo and Harry Potter join our H table today! Hooray for our H table :)
We had a great time in gym class today with Mrs. Wallace as we played soccer through the forest. We were making many goals and were quite tired by the end of class.
Michael M. told us all about the fun he had last weekend with Bernie the Bear and picked Makenzie's name to bring him home next. Have fun with Bernie, Makenzie! I am happy to say that all of the family pages have been received and our Preschool Family Album will be complete soon and will be ready to be taken home so your child can share it with you.
We finished the day practicing our lines for the Christmas Show. Just a reminder, our Christmas show will be on Wednesday, 12/14 at 7:00 pm in O'Brien Hall. We cannot wait for what promises to be a beautiful night.
Wednesday, 11/30/11
Today we turned over the very last day on our November calendar! Wow, this month went by quickly.
At circle time today we talked about how to keep our Hearts Healthy for the letter H. We agreed that in order to keep our little hearts healthy we must remember to eat healthy snacks most of the time, exercise our bones and muscles, and remember to get plenty of sleep. We made a list of healthy heart foods and junk foods. We all agreed that we all enjoy junk food sometimes, as long as we don't eat too much of it.
We used our SmartBoard today to look at many beautiful pictures of Advent wreaths. We talked again about what the wreath symbolizes and the meaning of the candles. We are working on our own Advent wreaths that will be displayed in the hallway soon.
We had some delicious new treats added to our H table today - 2 Hershey kisses! There's still more room on there so we hope to see a few more things tomorrow. We looked at several H pictures today (hat, horse, hippo, heart, house, horn, hamburger, helicopter). We traced and printed H's in our letter books, then picked out two H pictures to color and glue in our books! We also drew pictures of our houses on our papers and printed the word h-o-u-s-e. Take a peek in your child's folder to see their wonderful work!
We visited Ms. Serratore in the Music room today and she said we are doing a wonderful job with our Christmas songs. I'm sure if you ask , your child can sing one of our Christmas tunes for you.
After stretching our legs outside, we enjoyed taking guesses as to what Bronwyn's and Sephora's tell and show items were. We also talked about what makes us feel "H"appy and drew pictures on our papers. Once all these pages are put together, our next class book (our Happiness book) will be completed and ready to take home so we can share it with you.
We ended the day with the use of our Smartboard again. We had fun watching Hula dancers dancing to Hawaiin music, then we just had to join in. H is for hips and we were shakin' them pretty fast! Fine hula dancers we are!! Tomorrow we will have our Hat parade - so don't forget to send in a hat. Also, gym day so please remember those sneakers. Please continue to practice your child's lines for the Christmas show with them. Practice makes perfect :) Thanks!
Tuesday 11/29/11
Our H table is now "H"eaping with H items. We welcomed a hat, many horses, a Hershey bar, Hello Kitty, Holly leaves (how appropriate for the season!), and a Hummer vehicle. Great thinking everyone. We traced and printed the letter Hh and stamped it out on our papers. We also filled up our large upper case H's with one of our favorite shapes that begins with H....hearts!
We had our "Safe Touch" lesson today and talked about how to stay safe always...how we should never keep secrets from our moms and dads, how we should never talk to strangers even if they seem nice, and the difference between safe and unsafe touches. We also talked about what to do in case anyone ever makes us feel bad or uncomfortable - say "No", run away, tell a trusted grown up. We talked about our private parts, which are the parts covered when we wear our bathing suits and how and why they need to be kept private.
We also talked about the #8 and how Santa had 8 reindeer that pulled his sleigh (before Rudolf, that is!) and we named them all (with a little bit of help). Next we drew 8 blueberries on our "pies"...mmmm, they looked good enough to eat!
We talked about Advent during God's Time and discussed the Advent wreath and what each candle symbolizes. We began working on our own wreaths which will be displayed in the hallway.
We celebrated Delaney's birthday today and loved the cupcakes she brought in. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Behl for those yummy treats. We also looked at Ryann's, Michael M's, and Delaney's tell and show items. Each week the clues are better and better!
We also went to the computer room today and starting working on a new program called "Kid Pix". We created our own Christmas trees and they were looking quite good! We can't wait to continue on this next week.
We ended the day practicing our lines for the Christmas show. We need to remember to practice at home too. We are sounding really good so far!
Busy, busy days we have! We look forward to having music and library tomorrow. Have a great night!
Monday, 11/28/11
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
We welcomed the letter "H" with a big Hello today. We thought about the sound a dog makes when it pants to help us make the "H" sound. We traced and printed upper and lower case Hh's and had fun selecting all of the H pictures out of a group of alphabet picture cards. We need some H items for our letter table - hopefully tomorrow we will see them :)
At circle time, after our morning routine of songs, weather, salute to the flag, and calendar check, we talked about horses. First we talked about many things that we already know about horses, then we learned some new and interesting horse facts. Next we listened to a funny story called "Are you a Horse?". Afterward, we cut, colored, and glued to make our own horses - and we even labeled the picture all by ourselves! Later on we enjoyed galloping around the classroom.
We enjoyed some exercise time outdoors and took notice to the fact that the weather is unseasonably warm!
After lunch we talked about the #8 and we each counted 8 items. We printed the #8 on our papers and then used our clay to form the #8....some of us even made 8 balls with our clay.
During God's time we talked about "H"eaven and the Advent season. We will be making our own Advent wreaths this week. Please remember to practice for the Christmas show at home, as we will be each day....it will be here before we know it. Have a great evening!
Tuesday, 11/22/11
What a wonderful feast we had today with all of our Pre-K friends. Our little pilgrims and Native Americans were so excited and looked so cute! We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, fruit salad, corn and blueberry muffins and even some cookies. It smelled and tasted delicious. Of course we remembered first to thank God for the bounty of food we were about to share. Yum! Thank you so much to all of the parents who sent in paper products and a special thank you to Jen D'Alessandro, our classroom mom, who coordinated everything!
We listened to the story "We are Thankful" and then drew pictures in our journals of the things we are most thankful for this Thanksgiving. I know I am thankful for each and every one of these precious children! We also finished up our turkey crafts - so don't forget to look inside your child's folder to see their special artwork.
We ended the day with one of our favorite dances, except we changed it a bit. Instead of doing "The Chicken Dance", we did "The Turkey Dance". We sang our closing song and said our Thanksgiving prayer. I hope everyone has a beautiful Thanksgiving holiday with your families and I look forward to seeing everyone next week for "H" week. God Bless!
Monday, 11/21/11
Our Thanksgiving countdown continues and after looking at our calendar we are down to just 3 days away, but just one day until our special Thanksgiving feast with all of our pre-k friends. This morning we went on a turkey hunt in our classroom. There were little turkeys hiding all over the room! After we each found one we brought it back to the circle and shared with the class one thing we are especially thankful for. Next we personalized it with our "I am thankful" song - friends, families, toys, school, food, brothers, and sisters were included in our "thankful" song today.
We talked about cornucopias and then we colored, cut and glued to make our own beautiful cornucopia creations. We put our chef hats on and made delicious treats for our Feast tomorrow. We mixed and stirred ingredients together to make our own corn and blueberry muffins. Once we were done mixing and helping to pour some out into the pan, into the oven they went. Thank you to Mrs. DiMemmo and Mrs. Piel for bringing them over to the Wright Center to bake. Before we knew it, they were done and smelled delicious. We cannot wait to share these with the rest of our friends at our feast tomorrow.
We listened to another interpretation of The First Thanksgiving with nice, colorful pictures of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. We took another look at "Let's have a dinner" on our Smartboard to show some of our friends who missed it last week. We love the song and were singing along with it so much that we asked to watch it a second time. Ask your child to sing the song for you, I am sure he/she will remember most of it!
We look forward to a fun day tomorrow celebrating our Thanksgiving feast and lots of fun Thanksgiving related activities.
Also, please remember conferences are taking place in the afternoon. I am looking forward to meeting with you. Have a nice night!
Friday, 11/18/11
Happy Friday! Today we looked at and discussed many "Thanksgiving" related pictures. We were able to identify the turkey, the Pilgrim, the Native American, the Mayflower, a cornucipia, a tee-pee, and Indian corn. First we looked at the Indian corn and pointed out how it looks different than regular corn on the cob. Next we passed it around the circle and felt it and it certainly felt different also. We all agreed that it had a hard texture. We all took notice to the fact that although it has the husks and the same shape as yellow corn on the cob, it looks and feels different. Afterward, we used our fingerprints to make a colorful Indian corn creation and recited the beautiful poem that goes with it. Take a peek in your child's folder!
We finished stringing some beaded necklaces that some of us will wear for our Feast on Tuesday. These little Pilgrims and Native Americans are excited for this upcoming event.
We looked at Azariah's, Michael's, Lauren's, and Makenzie's tell and show items today. Afterward we played a hands-on math game where we each picked a number and had to count out that same # of feathers and put them on our turkeys. Great counters! Next we received a paper with 4 turkeys missing their feathers. We drew the appropriate # of feathers on each one.
Time to say G-g-g-oodbye to the letter G more gorillas and a ghost joined our G table today. We reviewed the letters A-G and the #'s 1-7 and we finished the day playing a fun Guessing Game for the letter G. We had to use our listening skills to try to identify which one of our friends was singing. We enjoyed this game and are looking forward to playing it with the rest of the children.
On Monday we will be making corn muffins for our feast and will participate in more Thanksgiving learning activities. Our Feast will be taking place on Tuesday and so will conferences. Please let me know if you are unable to make your conference time.
Enjoy your weekend with your child - they are all such a blessing.
Thursday, 11/17/11
Just one week away until Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for! Today we viewed a short movie on our Smartboard about the first Thanksgiving. We talked about who we will be at our Thanksgiving Feast next week. Next we re-enacted "The Thanksgiving Story" and what wonderful actors and actresses we are! Some of us were role-playing the Pilgrims and their journey on The Mayflower (that ride was cold, crowded, and rough!) Once we arrived in America we began to gather materials to build our new homes - we are fantastic builders! We were hungry because we didn't have enough food to eat and our little faces didn't look so happy. But then came our friends! The rest of us were role-playing the Native American Indians who taught our Pilgrim friends how to hunt for turkeys, catch fish in the ocean, and plant seeds in the earth. The Native Americans showed their proud faces while teaching the Pilgrims how to live off of the land! The Pigrims looked at their wonderful Fall harvest and invited their Native American friends to join them for a feast to give thanks for all they had. These kids deserve an Oscar because it was a wonderful performance! Bravo!
We reviewed the letters A- G and enjoyed listening to a story called "Go Away Big Green Monster". We loved this story so much we asked for it to be read twice. Afterward we made our own Green Monster creations. Take a look in your child's folder, but....don't be scared!!!! We also reviewed the numbers 1-7 and used our clay to form the #7 - some of us even made 7 balls with our clay!
We used our gross motor skills when we visited Mrs. Wallace in the gym. We went on a turkey hunt and had a gobblin' good time. We enjoyed looking at a few more disguised turkeys - we are just missing one from our trot. These turkeys are so creative they will never get caught! Amado and Sarah shared with the class their adventures with Bernie the Bear. He is one lucky bear to have all of these wonderful experiences. Amado picked Michael McNulty's name to bring him home this weekend. Have fun with Bernie, Michael!
We ended the day in prayer thanking God for our friends and families. We also have been practicing a special Thanksgiving prayer that your child should be able to lead at your Thanksgiving table!
Please check your child's folder for important Christmas show information.
Tomorrow is "tell and show" and another day of fun-filled activities. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Wednesday, 11/16/11
Our G table keeps Growing and Growing with more G items. Today we looked at Gigantic Glasses (that's a double G), gum, a girl, a gorilla and some gifts. G-g-g-good going everyone!
At circle time today we listened to a story about Squanto, the first Native American to help the Pilgrims. We saw beautiful pictures of what the Pilgrim people and their villages looked like. We also imagined how difficult life must have been for the Pilgrims when they first arrived in America with no homes, food, or friends. Squanto welcomed the Pilgrims into their new land and taught them how to plant seeds, hunt, and fish. We talked a bit about the Native Americans and took notice to how they dressed differently from the Pilgrims. We talked about the Native American symbols and began painting noodles for our beaded necklaces that some of us will wear for our Feast.
We worked on the letter G today and looked at many pictures of things that begin with the letter G. We tested our memories to see if we could figure out which one was missing. We worked hard in our letter books today tracing and writing Gg's and coloring and gluing two G pictures in our books. I am so proud of how independent they are becoming with their work :)
We looked at Michael M's, Sephora's, Bronwyn's and Sarah's, tell and show items. Afterward we sang our little hearts out with Ms. Serratore in Music class. We are continuing to practice some of our special songs for our Christmas show, so don't be surprised if you hear them singing a Christmas tune or two.
We finished up our turkey projects today. We learned a cute little tune that goes with it; I'm sure your child can sing it for you if you ask! We counted out 7 feathers to glue onto our turkeys. Gobblin' good work, everyone!
Tomorrow we look forward to acting out "The First Thanksgiving" story, having gym, and looking at more disguised turkeys...we're just waiting for a few more. I don't think any of them will be getting caught because they look un-recognizable....amazing job!
Have a good night :)
Tuesday, 11/15/11
What a Great looking G table we have! Today we Greeted more girrafes, a gingerbread boy and girl, gold coins, a gate, some goats, a game, and Glinda the Good witch. Can't wait to see what will be there tomorrow.
We looked at some of the disguised turkeys today and had fun guessing what they were dressed like. We saw some dressed as ballerinas, cheerleaders, princesses, sports players, and a teacher! If you haven't sent in your child;s turkey project, please do so by the end of the week.
At circle time today we were introduced to the letter G. We talked about the color Green and played a Guessing Game. We took guesses as to what 2 colors mixed together make green. One friend made the correct guess of yellow and blue. Next we all enjoyed mixing yellow and blue paint to see with our own eyes how it changed to green. Afterward we filled up our upper case G's with Green Glitter and then practiced tracing and printing upper and lower case Gg's....we did a Great job!
We went to computer class today and played a fun game of sorting foods in baskets. Then we played an alphabet game. Our computer skills are getting better and better each week.
One of our favorite songs is the cookie jar song. Today we drew 7 cookies in our cookie jars after singing the song several times. We counted them when we were done to make sure we drew the correct amount. What smart cookies we are!!!
Of course we re-visited the story of the First Thanksgiving. We also picked who we are going to be when we have our Feast next week. Tomorrow we will be learning a bit more about the Native Americans and their way of life. Also, tell and show tomorrow and music class.
We ended the day discussing the most Glorious of the G words - God. We are remembering, especially during this Thanksgiving season, to thank God for all He gives to us.
11/14/11
We are looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday and we listened to a story today called "Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks". In it we were reminded of the many blessings in our lives that we are thankful for. Tomorrow we will be using some props to re-tell the story of the first Thanksgiving and we will also be picking what we will be dressed as for our Thanksgiving feast - some of us will be Pilgrims and some of us will be Native Americans.
We began discussing the letter "G" and how it makes 2 different sounds - the soft and the hard /g/ sound. We have a giraffe on our letter G table but he looks kind of lonely on there all by himself, so tomorrow hopefully some other G friends will join him!
At circle time today, after doing our usual routine of songs, prayer, calendar, salute to the flag, and weather we talked about Giraffes. First we discussed all of the things we already know about them - our list included that we can see them at the zoo and in the jungle, they have long necks and spots, and they like to eat leaves. Then we learned some new giraffe facts - such as they have blue tongues that are as long as our arms, they sleep standing up, and they have to watch out for lions. Afterward we made our own giraffes using rectangles for the body parts and circles for the spots. They looked girraff-tastic!
After going outside on this beautiful Autumn day, we enjoyed painting some plates today for a turkey project that we will be working on tomorrow. We just love singing our turkey songs, too!
Before naptime today we were invited to attend the tree ceremony outside the Bond Avenue doors. Trees were dedicated to our school by the Philadelphia Horticultural Society along with Upper Darby Township. Fr. Kelly led us in prayer and we hope to see these trees grow and change through the seasons for many years to come.
We ended the day talking about our new # of the week, the # 7. Tomorrow we look forward to tell and show, computer class, and more letter G, #7, and turkey fun. Busy, busy, busy! Have a wonderful night!
Friday, 11/11/11
What a great end to F week with our focus on Feelings and Faces today. We listened to a story called "Faces" and saw pictures of faces from all kinds of places and expressing different feelings. We took notice that although we all have the same features (2 eyes, 2 ears, hair, a nose and a mouth), God gave us all unique faces. And what beautiful ones they are! We had fun making "Funny Faces" today from different facial features. There were various pictures of eyes, noses, and mouths and we selected the ones we wanted to make a really funny face - we added some hair to finish them off. Take a peek in your child's folder to see their funny face creation!
We also played an alphabet flower matching game to test our memories and letter recognition skills. We also looked at 2 flowers and noted their similarities and differences. These kids don't miss a trick - they were able to spot them all!
We looked at Azariah's, Michael's, Lauren's and Makenzie's tell and show items. They all gave really good clues. Afterwards we used our waterpaints to paint the letter Ff and were encouraged to paint F pictures on our papers - there were footballs, feathers, fish, flowers, flags, fruit, and forks!
We ended the day with a yummy treat from Makenzie's mom in celebration of her birthday yesterday. They were delicious - thank you Makenzie! We couldn't let F week end without having a go at "Freeze Dance" - one of our Favorites!
We are are looking forward to G week next week and also have lots of turkey fun.
Have a wonderful weekend with your families :)
Thursday, 11/10/11
Today we had some frog fun for the Letter f. We learned some interesting frog facts: what the word amphibian means, what frogs eat and who they need to watch out for. Afterward we made a cute froggy craft. We liked hopping like frogs around the classroom. We learned a song called "Five Green and Speckled Frogs".
For snack today we had some more letter F fun when we made Funny Fruit Faces with various pieces of fruit....we could choose from bananas, apples, strawberries and grapes to make many different kinds of funny faces. Very creative! When we were done, we added some cool whip hair and enjoyed eating our "faces"!
We visited Mrs. Wallace in the gym and liked playing "Trees in the Forest" (another letter F word!) where we either had to plant trees or cut them down. We also practiced our throwing and catching skills!
We looked at Nkenge's tell and show item and listened to some stories up in the library with Ms. Sheen.
Amado gets to bring Bernie the Bear home - we can't wait to hear all about the fun they have together. Tomorrow is tell and show! Oh, and don't forget about the turkey and the family projects to be worked on at home with your child. Thanks and have a great night!
*Next week I will be sending home information about the time of our conference on 11/22.
Wednesday, 11/9/11
A fruit basket full of fruit and a fairy appeared on our "F" table today. Although it is becoming quite Full, there is still more room for some more items - so keep them coming!
During God's time today we reviewed the story of the very first Thanksgiving. Some key words we are learning about are: the Pilgrims, the Native Americans, the Mayflower, England, America, crops, and feast. We made turkeys from our handprints and thought of one or two special things that we are thankful to God for. These are on display outside of our classroom and look "turkey-riffic"!
At circle time we have started our salute to the Flag in honor of the letter F. We continued our discussion on Feelings and used "Feeling sticks" to display different emotions. We also talked about how we need to always think of our friends' feelings and try our best to be a good friend. We learned a song about our feelings as well.
We looked at many pictures that begin with the letter F and worked hard in our letter books, tracing and printing upper and lower case Ff's - we also picked two F pictures to color and glue in our books. We also had to be good Finders - first we looked for F's around the classroom, then we found and circled all of the upper and lower cse Ff's on our papers! What fabulous letter F finders!
After some fresh air and a stretch of the legs outside on this beautiful Fall day, we listened to a delightful story called "This is my Family". We thanked God for blessing us with such wonderful families and then we drew pictures of our families in our journals.
We enjoyed our time in our music class with Ms. Serratore. Do you believe that we are already learning some Christmas songs? Before we know it will be time for our Christmas show and we have already begun practicing. Ms. Serratore is really on top of things! We also looked at Chase's and Bronwyn's tell and show items - great job!
We finished the day using our gross motor skills to perform different actions six times. We were hopping, jumping, marching, and spinning!
Gym tomorrow so please remember sneakers should be on preschool feet. Have a great night :)
Tuesday, 11/8/11
Our F table is looking Fantastic! Today we added two stuffed animal frogs, a picture of a family, two more forks, a fish, a frisbee, small manipulative frogs, flip-flops (that's a double F!) and Fiona from Shrek. We wonder what we will find on there tomorrow....
At circle time today we talked about our feelings and all the different kinds of feelings we experience. We will be coninuing this tomorrow as well. We talked about our families and how special they are. In your child's folder there are two projects to be completed at home. (Don't worry, they are relatively simple!) We are creating a class Family Album and each child has a few pages to complete for the book - with some assistance of course. There is no rush to have these back, but if you are able to send them back before the Thanksgiving holiday, that would be great.
We printed and stamped out upper case and lower case Ff's today and glued feathers on our big letter F papers. When we visited Mrs. Geller in the computer room we used shapes to form the letter F and played some letter games. We are really learning how to use the headphones and mouse with ease.
We talked about the number six and played a fun role-playing game where the "shark" had to catch 6 "fish", Afterward we traced and printed the #6, then counted and glued 6 fish to put in our fish tanks. We also looked at Amado's, Delaney's, and Ryann's tell and show items. Great job!
We finished the day discussing the Thanksgiving story and the details of what happened on the very first Thanksgiving long ago. We are continuing to thank God for all of our special blessings and we added on to our "What we are thankful for" class list. The second project that I previously mentioned is called "The family turkey project",,, it is in your child's folder along with the instructions. We talked a lot about it today...see if your child can explain to you what needs to be done.
Thank you so much for your cooperation :) Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Monday 11/7/11
Today we began talking about the very first Thanksgiving and were reminded that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks to God for all the special blessings we have in our lives. We learned a Thanksgiving prayer and started a class list of things we are thankful for.
We were introduced to the letter F and looked at our F table which already has a fork and a flower on it. After talking about many other things that begin with F, we hope to see more items on our table tomorrow. We practiced printing upper case and lower case Ff's on our papers and found all of the F pictures. We did a Fabulous job!
We listened to a fun counting story called "Fish Eyes" and talked about all of the different things we would see if we were a fish in the ocean. Next we made our own bright and colorful fish with crayons, markers, and dot-a-dot stampers. What fancy fish they turned out to be!
We talked about the #6 and ended the day with a math game We gave each of our fishy's 6 bubbles.
Tomorrow we are lookimg forward to more fun with the letter F. Also, we have computer class and "tell and show". Enjoy the rest of this beautiful Fall day!
Friday, 11/4/11
Happy Friday! Today we whizzed through our morning routine of taking our items out and putting them where they belong. When we started our circle time today we had a very small circle. We counted 5 apples missing from our tree, but thankfully most of our friends made it in by the end of circle time. We re-visited our Fall-time theme today and talked about all of the beautiful Fall time changes and items. We listened to a delightful story called "The Big Leaf Pile". We used our fine motor skills to cut, glue, and paint beautiful Autumn trees.
We played outside on this brisk, windy day and got some fresh air and ran about. We enjoyed seeing our other Pre-K friends out there. Back inside our classroom we played a fun game of musical rug. When the music stopped we had to pick up the carpet square we were standing on and identify the color of the leaf underneath.
We looked at Azariah's, Lauren's, and Nkenge's tell and show items. We also reviewed our letters A-E and partnered up to play a letter sorting game. Afterward, we completed a letter review worksheet.
Please remember to check your child's folder for important information, handouts, and activities. Next week is "Ff" week, so don't forget to help your child select some items for our "F" table. We will also be discussing families and friends - 2 special gifts from God that we are so thankful for. Next week you will be receiving a "Family Pages" project that you can help your child complete and return to school so we can begin working on our next class book.
Have a beautiful weekend with your family and don't forget to turn those clocks back an hour for daylight savings time :)
Thursday, 11/3/11
We are getting really good at our morning routine of taking folders and lunch bags out of our school bags, putting our items where they belong, and placing our apples in our attendance tree. Doing these things used to take us about 15 minutes and now we are completing these tasks in about 5 minutes. Yay for us :)
Today we reviewed our letters A-E and started practicing with our letter chart - saying all of the letters of the alphabet and their sounds. We also reviewed the numbers 1 - 5 and participated in a hands-on math game using cookies. We each received a "cookie" (just a pretend one) and we each selected a number from the basket. Next we were asked to put the appropriate number of chips on our cookies. We did a wonderful job recognizing our numbers and placing the correct # of chips on our cookies. They are such smart little cookies!!!!
We visited Mrs. Wallace in the gym today and used our large muscle skills to have some treasure hunt fun! We also had some time to play outside and enjoyed this beautiful Fall day.
Our friend Delaney told us about all of the fun she had with Bernie the Bear last weekend and showed us her pages in the book. These kids are really spoiling Bernie and taking excellent care of him. Delaney picked Sarah's name to bring Bernie home this weekend! Have fun with Bernie, Sarah!
We played a game of alphabet bingo today and although everyone got the chance to fill up their card and shout "Bingo", Delaney was our first big winner. We did such a great job identifying our letters and finding them on our cards!
During God's Time we began talking about Thanksgiving and what being thankful means. We will be learning about thankful prayers this month.
Our classroom book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" is ready to go home to share with families. The children did a wonderful job and please encourage your child to read this book to you. Azariah will be bringing it home today and I just ask that you return it the next school day so the next child can bring it home. After all of the children bring it home, it will remain in our classroom library.
Please check your child's folder about important information regarding conferences taking place later this month on Tues. 11/22/11.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to another fun-filled day and don't forget about "tell and show". Next week we are looking forward to exploring the letter "Ff" and the #6. Thank you and have a wonderful night!
Wednesday, 11/2/11
Today we said goodbye to October and hello to November. At circle time this morning we prayed, sang songs, counted the days of the month, and talked about the weather.
Since this week is a review week we reviewed the letters A-E. We practiced the sound for each letter, signed them, and participated in a letter sorting game. We each received a picture of something that began with A, B, C, D, or E and put it under the appropriate letter on our floor graph.
After morning snack we used our fine motor skills to trace and print the letters A - E, then completed a review worksheet. Great job, everyone!
We listened to a funny story called "The Perfect Pumpkin", about two mice who visited the pumpkin patch in search for the perfect pumpkin. See if your child can tell you the events of the story and how it ended.
We went outside to get some fresh air and stretch our legs on this sunny Fall day. We stopped to look at our classroom tree and took notice to the changes that have taken place since we last sat around it. Most of the leaves are now gone and the ones that remain are no longer green. We even saw a few nests in the tree - we think that they are squirell's nests. After lunch time, we drew what our classroom tree looks like in the Fall in our journals.
We also used our clay today to form letters. We looked at Sarah's and Bronwyn's tell and show items. They both were prepared with wonderful clues!
Parents - please check your child's folder for some important information. There is a November newsletter and your child's artwork and instructions for the "Artworks Fundraiser". For those of you who haven't received your child's class pictures, they are in your child's folder as well.
Have a great night :)
Monday, 10/31/11
Happy Halloween! We had a busy fun-filled day with many Halloween games and activities. We began our day as usual with our morning prayer and circle, attendance, calendar, and weather. We sang our Halloween songs and talked about our costumes. We listened to a delightful story called "Say Boo" about a little ghost named Ben who just couldn't say the word "Boo". We used some chalk to make our own spooky ghosts and were "boo-ing" all over the classroom! Next, we made some yummy ghost treats to have for snack. Ask your child how we turned our cookies into ghosts, and then the best part, of course, was eating them.
We enjoyed our lunch from chic-fillet today! French fries and juice too - yum! Afterwards we made some spooky spider headbands. We also used our waterpaints today to make Halloween things on our papers.
In the afternoon we had a lot of fun outside for the Harvest Fest. We were playing games, eating snacks, getting tattoos, and some of us even got our faces painted. Thank you to the 8th graders who worked so hard to make this day special for everyone.
Today was an especially exciting special day because it is also Azariah's birthday. She gets to celebrate her birthday on Halloween - how wonderful! Thank you to Azariah's mommy for the delicious cupcakes and treat bags. We sang happy birthday to her and said our special birthday prayer.
Today we also welcomed a new little boy named Chase to our classroom. We are so excited to have a new friend!
There are no classes tomorrow so we will see you on Wednesday - "tell and show" day!
Have a happy and safe Halloween night :)
Friday, 10/28/11
Today was filled with many Halloween activities. We sang songs, prayed, and learned about different things we see at the pumpkin patch - such as pumpkins, other fruits and vegetables, farmers, workers, and scarecrows. We talked about why farmers put scarecrows near their crops and then we made our own cute little scarecrow
crafts. We also learned a "Mr. Scarecrow" song - see if your child can sing it for you!
We went outside and noticed that our classroom tree is changing and looks quite different than it did in early Septmember. Next week we will be drawing our classroom tree again in our journals.
We put our math skills to work by making patterns using some creepy Halloween creatures. We reviewed the numbers 1-5 and used Halloween stamps to complete a number activity. We also had fun painting pumpkins and finishing them off with glitter.
We ended the day looking at Lauren's "Tell and Show" item, saying our closing prayer, and singing our goodbye song. We are looking forward to the "Harvest Fest" on Monday and having more Halloween fun.
Have a wonderful weekend at home with your families....and stay warm because I understand we may even see some snow this weekend! (I'm not quite ready for that yet!!!) Please remember that we are closed on Tuesday, November 1st.
Thursday, 10/27/11
What a wonderful performance today put on by all the preschool children. Even though the weather didn't cooperate, we still had a fabulous show. Thanks to all the parents for all that you contributed and I am so proud of all of the children for singing their little hearts out up there - they sounded amazing. A special thank you to our homeroom mom Mrs. D'Alessandro for all of her hard work :)
We had lots of scary fun today. After our show we went to the gym and had a short gym time with Mrs. Wallace. That was a great way to exert some energy after those yummy sweets at O'Brien Hall.
We cut and glued to make scary witch faces today! We had fun scaring all of the grown ups that came into our classroom with them. We also played a fun game of pass of the pumpkin and Ryann was our lucky winner. The children will be bringing their own little pumpkins home either today or tomorrow.
We completed our art fundraiser activity today and information will be sent home next week explaining the details of it.
We ended the day with a Halloween story and going over some Halloween night safety tips. As always, we prayed and thanked God for all of our blessings - especially for helping us to perform so wonderfully today.
Nkenge picked a new name to bring Bernie the Bear home for the weekend and Delaney was chosen. Can't wait to hear about all the fun Delaney has with him,
Tomorrow we are looking forward to painting pumpkins and some scarecrow fun.
Thanks again for everything and for sharing your beautiful children with me.
Reminder: We are closed on Tuesday, November 1st.
Tuesday, 10/25/11
We had a "spook-tacular" day today. These little ghosts and goblins are so ready for our Halloween celebration. We practiced with our other preschool friends at O'Brien Hall and did a great job. We are praying for good weather, but in the event that it is raining, please drop your child off at 9:00 am as usual and we will bring them over to O'Brien Hall.
We enjoyed many Halloween activities today. We put those math skills to work thru some hands on activities. First we sorted creepy creatures by color and then by shape. Next we used the same creatures for a patterning activity.
We made unique pumpkin faces today also - we picked out facial features from a selection of eyes, noses, mouths, ears, hats, bows and teeth. We called them a our Pre-K pumpkin personalities! We will be using these pumpkins as decorations for our Halloween show at O'Brien Hall.
We worked in our journals today and drew pictures for Halloween on our pages. We drew pumpkins, witches, ghosts, bats, spiders. I am so proud of their drawing skills :) We also looked at Amado's, Delaney's, Ryann's, and Sarah's tell and show items.
Ryann was our birthday girl today - we sang for her and said a special prayer for her. Thank you to Ryann's mommy for the delicious cupcakes. Yum :)
Please remember that there are no classes tomorrow. There is a note in your child's folder regarding the Haloween celebration. We are looking forward to some more Halloween fun and some spooky surprises on Thursday!
Monday, 10/24/11
What a "batty" day we had today. We talked about all things "Halloween" .....ghosts, goblins, monsters, pumpkins, witches, haunted houses, and bats! We learned some interesting bat facts and cut, colored, and glued to make a scary bat craft. We will be focusing on Halloween activities this week, and the following week will be a review week. We will continue with the letter "Ff" and the #6 the week of November 7th.
We cannot believe that Halloween is just one week away and that our Parade and show is just 3 days away. We practiced at O'Brien Hall today with our other Preschool friends and cannot wait to perform our songs for you. We will be practicing again tomorrow....practice makes perfect :) Please remember that children are to wear their costumes to school that day and immediately following the presentation, parents can help their child remove his/her costume,
We listened to a funny Halloween story called "Jack-o-lantern's Scary Halloween" and then we put our math skills to work by playing a jack-o-lantern matching game. Afterwards, we used our pencils to connect the matching pumpkins on our papers.
We are looking forward to a frightfully fun week ahead! Tomorrow is tell and show.
Have a beautiful night.
Thursday, 10/20/11
Happy Thursday! We had yet another busy day in Pre-K! We are getting better and better at unpacking our items in the morning and putting things where they belong. We had lots of elephant fun today. At circle time we talked about what we alreadyknow about elephants - they are large, they have trunks, some live at the zoo, they have tusks. Then we learned some interesting elephant facts: they never stop growing (even as adults), the position of their ears tells us how they feel, and that they are in danger of becoming extinct! (just like the dinosaurs) We listened to a delightful story about Elmer, a patchwork elephant. We then used our fine motor skills to make our own cute little elephants with Enormous Eyes!
We couldn't wait to check on our egg experiment. These little scientists were very observant today. After examining both hard-boiled eggs (one that sat in water and the other that sat in vinegar overnight)....we could easily see and feel the differences. We took many guesses as to what might happen, but none of us guessed that the shell would disappear from one of them! The acid from the vinegar actually disintegrated the shell! The egg in the water stayed exactly the same.
We continued practicing fire safety tips today during gym with Mrs. Wallace. She had an obstacle course set up for us and we practiced how to crawl close to the ground, jump thru "burning" hoops, and how to stop, drop, and roll.
We also reviewed the letter E and we've been signing all of the letters we learned so far too. Please ask your child how to sign A - E. We practiced counting 1 - 5 items and completed a review worksheet. The children are becoming more and more independent with their work which is fantastic! We also had a nice visit with Ms. Sheen in the library today - we had our listening ears on while she read to us.
We are enjoying practicing for our Halloween celebration next week. We are looking forward to performing for you.
Our friend Lauren shared with us today all of the fun she had with Bernie the Bear last weekend and she picked a name for this upcoming weekend. Nkenge gets to bring Bernie home next :)
Don't forget, Tell and Show tomorrow!
Enjoy your evening with your precious little ones
Wednesday, 10/19/11
What an Especially Exciting day today. I had a beautiful surprise this morning when Mrs. Montie, Mrs. Mullen, Mrs. DiMemmo, Mrs. Piel and all of the Pre-K children came into the classroom with special treats and singing happy birthday. What a wonderful way to start off the day and a HUGE thank you to Mrs. Montie and Mrs. Mullen for the special birthday surprise :)
At circle time we participated in some egg-citing activities! We talked about the different animals that hatch from eggs and then we Examined real eggs. We looked at the inside of a raw egg and saw the yolk, the egg white and the outer shell. Yes, it was a gooey mess. Then we looked at another egg, and although it looked the same on the outside, it looked quite different inside. This egg was hard boiled and we noted the differences. Next we began our egg experiment. We placed one hard boiled egg in a cup of water and another hard boiled egg in a cup of vinegar. (Many of us didn't like the smell of that vinegar!) Will the same thing happen to both of these eggs after sitting overnight in their liquids? We took some guesses and we are looking forward to looking at these same two eggs tomorrow to see if any changes take place! We also looked at many pictures that begin with E and used our visual skills to see if we could figure out which one was removed! These little ones have good memories!
We were busy working in our letter books today, tracing and writing the letter E. We also enjoyed picking an E item to draw on our papers. There were elephants, eggs, elves and eyes - very creative! Take a peek at your child's artwork in his/her folder. (some of the children even spelled out what they drew!....very impressive)
We went to music class with Ms. Serratore and learned a lively color song. We also are learning a Halloween song as well. Tomorrow is gym day, so sneakers please :)
We practiced counting from 1-5 and writing the #5. We also put 5 spots on an egg.
We listened to a story about "ears" and all the different kinds of sounds we hear every day. We took the time to thank God for our sense of hearing and for helping us to use our listening ears every day.
We ended the day using our gross motor skills with a fun dance called "Moving Every Day" - we were marching, skipping, galloping, jumping, skating, and strolling all around the room.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to some Elephant fun! Have a great evening.
Tuesday, 10/18/11
Today we had another special visitor, firefighter McKenzie in our classroom, since October is fire safety month. He talked to us about the importance of having working smoke detectors in our homes, and we heard what it sounds like when it goes off. We talked about how to get out of our homes safely. Firefighter McKenzie made the discussion interesting and age-appropriate to keep our interest :) He demonstrated for us how he puts on all of his gear and why he has to wear all of that heavy equipment. He even put on his oxygen mask and sounded like Darth Vador. He especially reminded us that we should never be afraid of a firefighter, even with those big helmets and masks on, because they are here to help us. For being such good listeners, we each received our own special firefighter hats and bags to take home.
We even had a fire drill today - it was our first one and we made it out in record time. We evacuated quickly yet safely and quietly in under 2 minutes. Hooray :)
What an Especially Exciting day so far for our second day focusing on the letter E. Our E table is looking quite Excellent with the addition of an egg, an eggplant, more elephants, another earring, ears and eyes (from Mr. Potato Head), and 2 Eeyore's from Winnie the Pooh!
We had some egg fun today with a hands-on egg activity where we had to sort eggs by size and color, then graphed the results. Tomorrow we are looking forward to performing our egg experiment. We glued eggs inside our upper case E's today and practiced tracing and writing upper and lower case Ee's on our papers.
We also talked about the #5 and learned a cute firefighter fingerplay. We used our handprints to make 5 little firefighters and put the 5 firefighter hats in the correct order. We cut and glued to make a hose for them as well.
We went to the computer room today and played some language games. We are really learning how to manipulate the mouse and use the headphones! Back in our classroom we looked at Amado's, Michael M's, and Ryann's tell and show items. Tomorrow we will see some more.
We prayed the Hail Mary in honor of this month being the month of the Rosary and we especially remembered to keep Firefighter McKenzie and all of the brave firefighters in our prayers today. Tomorrow we have music with Ms. Serratore and we will be practicing for our Halloween celebration.
Enjoy the rest of your day/evening!
Monday, 10/17/11
We had a very special treat this morning....Sr. Lisa of the Holy Child Association enlightened us with wonderful stories from Jesus's life and described some of the miraculous deeds He performed. Sr. Lisa also talked to us about Haiti, a troubled area of the world, where she visits to help the children in need. Sr. Lisa's lively, age-appropriate discussion was truly special. She explained how Jesus is in all of our hearts and how through us, his children, He helps us to do good deeds. Sr. Lisa ended by pulling out her guitar with a very lively version of the song, "Jesus Loves Me"...it was definetly a hit!
We were introduced to the letter E and our E table already has an earring, an envelope, an elephant, an elf and Elmo on there!
We talked about eggs, and how we like them prepared. We observed that the egg shape is an oval. We also remembered that dinosaurs came from eggs from our dinosaur theme last week. We saw pictures and recited the rhyme of "Humpty Dumpty" - since after all, he is an egg! See if your child can recite the rhyme for you. We put our fine motor skills to work by cutting, and gluing Humpty Dumpty on his wall. First, we had to use brick pieces to make the wall, and had to figure out which size brick would fit into each spot. Then we put the oval shape on the wall, added pants, arms, legs, eyes, nose and a mouth. Wonderful creations!
We also were introduced to the number 5 today and participated in a fun hand-on chocolate chip cookie activity. Afterwards, we drew them on paper!
This day was extra special for me because it is my birthday and the children sang happy birthday to me and Mrs. Sulouff even brought in some cupcakes. What a great treat and these kids made my day (but I must admit, they always make the day special :) I surely have many blessings to be thankful for as I celebrate this day
Tomorrow we are looking forward to our visit from our firefighter friend and learning more about E things. Also, computer class tomorrow as well.
Have a great evening!
Friday, 10/14/11
What a great end to "D" week with our focus on dogs today. We looked at many different types of dogs and talked about our own experiences with dogs. We listened to a story about dogs and really liked the part when the dog was all dressed up for Halloween. We cut and glued and pieced many shapes together to form a dog - our doggies looked Dazzling and we even named them.
We reviewed our D items and dinosaurs and sent all of the D table items home. We practiced our letter identification and listening skills by playing a fun game of dino bingo today and Michael was the big winner :) Good job, Michael! We also looked at Azariah's, Lauren's, Michael's, and Nkenge's Tell and Show items.
We saw Mr. Sun pop out of the clouds for a bit when we were outside today. We were thankful that the rain held off and that we were able to get some fresh air and stretch our legs.
We reviewed the numbers 1-4 and the letters A-D as well. We said goodbye to the letter D and look forward to learning about different "E" things next week, like eggs and elephants. Also, since this month is fire safety month, on Tuesday a firefighter will be visiting our classroom.
I am so proud of all of the children....they are truly a pleasure and a blessing. Have a fabulous weekend
Thursday, 10/13/11
My Darling Dinosaurs were quite busy today! We continued learning about dinosaurs and what the word "extinct" means. Since we've been discussing several types of dinosaurs, today we picked our favorite one. We each picked the one we liked the best and put our name under that particular dinosaur. This was a fun hands-on math activity and the Stegasaurus won. The T-Rex and the Brontosaurs were close seconds. Next we got the chance to be paleontologists and went on a dinosaur fossil hunt. There were bones all over the classroom! (not real dino bones of course, but uncooked pasta of different shapes and sizes) After collecting all the "bones" we could find, we then filled up our own dinosaur skeletons with bones. What a great fine motor skill activity this turned out to be....cutting, gluing, and fitting "bones" into the proper spaces on the skeleton.
During gym class today with Mrs. Wallace we went through an obstacle course. Mrs. Wallace was teaching us about fire safety, since this month is Fire Safety month. We talked about what to do in the event of a fire and what number to call for an emergency : 9-1-1. Next week Mrs. Wallace will be continuing the fire safety theme and will teach the children how to stop, drop, and roll.
We sorted A, B, C, and D pictures and put them into the appropriate pocket on our alphabet chart. We also went on a letter "Dd" hunt in the classroom and then as a reinforcement activity we circled all of the upper case and lower case D's on our papers. Some of us were mixing up the lower case d's and b's, but that's ok...that's a little bit tricky! We also played with our clay today and attempted to make D's and 4 balls since 4 is our number of the week. They did great!
And what a Dynamite letter D table we have. Today we had the addition of some more dinosaurs and a dragon. Fantastic
For snack this afternoon we enjoyed some Delicious Donuts! We are looking forward to more "D" fun tomorrow. Tell and Show tomorrow also! Thanks
Wednesday, 10/12/11
Today we continued our dinosaur theme and learned some more interesting facts. We talked about fossils, paleontologists, and that the word dinosaur means "terrible lizard". We are becoming familiar with many different types of dinosaurs and their characteristics. We saw the size of a real T-Rex footprint today and we each guessed how many of our kid feet could fit into the T-Rex footprint. Our guesses ranged from 2 to 15. After completing the activity, we discovered that it took 10 of our feet to fill up the footprint.... and that was Michael McNulty's guess - great guessing there Michael! We also listened to a silly story called "If the dinosaurs came back"
We looked at many "D"' pictures and tested our memories to see if we could figure out which D picture was missing. We worked hard in our letter books today tracing and printing the letter D. We also picked one "D" item to draw on our papers - there were great drawings of ducks, doors, our friend Delaney, donuts, Dora, and dogs! Our D table now has 2 more dinosaurs on it, we're waiting to see if anyone will bring in a donut. Speaking of donuts, I will be providing a donut snack in the afternoon for the children tomorrow.
We also talked about our Daddy's for the letter D and drew pictures of our dads in our journals. When asked what we like to do with our daddies, we said, "Go to the park, go to the beach, go to the store, watch tv, go to cheerleading, and go to Dutch Wonderland!" Our dads are so special.
We looked at Bronwyn's, Sarah's, and Sephora's "tell and show" items today. These kids are blowing me away with their clues...they must be practicing at home, so thanks mom and dad! We always like guessing. We visited Ms. Serratore in the music room today and continued working on colors. Tomorrow we have gym with Mrs. Wallace so please remember to wear sneakers! We will also be looking for some dinosaur bones tomorrow and making some neat crafts.
We missed our friend Amado and said our "wish you well" prayer for him.
There is a letter in your child's folder about the Halloween parade and show on Thursday, 10/27...please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. Mrs. D'Alessandro (our homeroom mom) will be contacting everyone soon.
Have a wonderful night!
Tuesday, 10/11/11
Dinosaurs lived long ago, long ago, long ago,
Dinosaurs lived long ago, that's prehistoric!
We began our dinosaur theme today and looked at many different types of dinosaurs. We learned that some dinosaurs were meat eaters and some were plant eaters and lived on the earth millions of years ago. They were big, small, slow, and fast. We saw pictures of dinosaur fossils too. At free play time we had the opportunity to find dino eggs in our sand box and create a dinosaur adventure area.
We had some Dandy additions to our D table today - our friend Delaney, a duck, dogs, dental floss, dimes, a daddy, dinosaurs, a dress, Donald Duck, a doll and another Dora doll! Great job everyone :)
We talked about the diamond shape and traced it. We glued diamonds inside our upper case D's and printed both upper case and lower case Dd's on our writing papers. We then used our dot-a-dot stampers to stamp out the letter D.
We visited Mrs. Geller in the computer room today and really enjoyed our first computer class. We learned about the parts of the computer and how to use them. We used the smart board to "pop" a balloon and pick a seat. We put our headphones on and played an alphabet game for the letter D. We are really looking forward to going back again next Tuesday.
We also talked about the #4 and how most of us are 4 years old. We counted out 4 spots and used our fine motor skills to color, and glue them on the brontosaurus. We also looked at Michael M.'s and Ryann's tell and show items today. We will see some more tomorrow.
We visited the book fair today and each child selected one book that they would like to put on their "wish list". This paper was put into your child's folder today. There is no obligation to purchase. But if you are interested, you have the information. This is a fundraiser for the school library. Tonight from 6:30 - 8:00 all are welcome to come to the Book Fair at school in the cafeteria.
We also started practicing for our Halloween show on 10/27. There will be a letter sent home this week with more specific information regarding our parade and show.
Thanks and have a great night.
Monday, 10/10/11
What a ducky day we had! We talked about ducks and learned a new song called "6 Little Ducks". At circle time we played a fun math duck game where we had to sort our ducks by color and then put them on our graph in the appropriate spot. We then determined which color had the most and the least. We also liked wadddling like ducks around the classroom.
We also completed an activity where we had to find all of the D pictures hidden in the classroom. Some began with D and some didn't. Some of us were even able to tell which letter the non D pictures began with!
Our D table already has a dog, a doll, and Dora on there ...looking forward to seeing what else will be there tomorrow.
We listened to the story "The Ugly Duckling" - which made us realize how important it is to be nice to our friends and that God made all of us special and we should always be kind to everyone and celebrate differences.
We finished the day continuing our duck theme with a fun game of duck, duck, goose! The next few days we will be working on a dinosaur theme and will be involved with many hands-on learning dino activities.
Also, tomorrow we will be going to our first Technology class in the computer room. In addition, we will be visiting the Book Fair. You should have received book fair info in your child's folder. If not, please let me know. You are all invited to come to the book fair this Tuesday evening from 6:30 - 8:00.
Tomorrow I will be sending a letter home with information regarding our Halloween Parade on 10/27/11. Have a great evening!
Friday, 10/7/11
Time to say C-U later to the letter C! Today we reviewed A, B, and C and participated in a fun sorting game where we had to sort pictures into A, B and C piles. We also re-visited the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". We cut, glued and colored to make a creepy-crawly caterpillar and enjoyed crawling like caterpillars around our classroom.
When we were outside today we enjoyed looking at all of the pretty fall time leaves. We collected a bunch of them and had fun throwing them in the air. We started to count them, but there were so many we lost count. We did remember during prayer time to thank God for such a beautiful autumn day.
We used our clay today to make balls and snakes. Then we formed those snakes into the letter C. We also tried making the #3 and counted out 3 balls of clay.
We looked at Lauren's, Makenzie's, and Nkenge's tell and show items today. They all gave great clues and we enjoyed guessing what each one was. We also listened to the story "Caps for Sale" and laughed at how silly the monkeys in the story were.
Next week we are going to have a Dynamite D week, so keep those letter items coming for the D table. Have a beautiful weekend!
Thursday, 10/6/11
What another busy day in Pre-K 4! We were so excited about our Pre-K circus today. We began by watching and listening to "Let's go to the circus" on the computer. Next, we decided which circus acts we were going to do. We made a list and tallied the results....which turned into a fun math activity! What a great group of acts we had. We enjoyed role-playing tight-rope walkers, acrobats, animal trainers, circus animals, jugglers, ventriloquists, and ringmasters. We had props and were moving to music.
At snack time we made yummy circus animal trains with graham crackers, frosting, and animal crackers. We counted out 3 animals to line up on our "trains". Another messy but enjoyable treat.
Before we knew it, it was time for gym with Mrs. Wallace. She's always so happy to see us and we played a fun game of "Squirrels in the Tree"....a spatial orientation activity. We also were practicing our hand-eye coordination skills by throwing and catching beanie horses.
We were using our fine motor skills and colored and cut out a cake for the letter c. Of course, we reviewed C things and the numbers 1, 2, and 3 as well. We listened to a delightful story called "Clara the Cow joins the Circus" and made a fun clown craft.
Whew! Busy day - and we are looking forward to another fun-filled day tomorrow. Our friend Azariah gets to bring Bernie the Bear home today!
Have a good night
Wednesday, 10/5/11
First, I would like to make a correction to yesterday's update. Gym day was not today, but is tomorrow. Silly me! Sorry about that.
Today we captured that "big-top" feeling during circle time by creating our very own three-ring circus! We had 3 plastic hoops on the floor and 3 children were invited to stand in the rings and perform an act. One group sang the alphabet song, another group counted from 1-10 and another group recited our fall-time prayer. Each group was introduced by me, the ringmaster. What a circus circle of fun! We also enjoyed acting like clowns and acting out our clown song. We even were acting like ventriloquists - we attempted to say our names without moving our mouths....I think we laughed more than anything else, but we realized that a ventriloquist's job is not easy!
We talked about and looked at many C pictures today and worked hard in our letter books,...tracing, writing, coloring and gluing. We also drew a picture of any c item that we wanted to draw. Cats, cookies, clowns, cameras, and carrots were some favorites! And wow, there were many additions to our C table today....candles, a caterpillar and a card. In the morning we even had some live crickets on there!!! Don't worry, they were in a sealed container and we had fun looking at them. Thank you to Mrs. Mullen for letting us borrow them!
We listened to the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and drew some pictures in our journals today. We also had our music class with Ms. Serratore today and experienced some hands-on learning with mixing colors - of course she made it musically fun. We also looked at Bronwyn's, and Sarah's "Tell and Show" items today. On Friday, we will look at the rest.
We finished the day on a bit of a sad note because we had to say goodbye to our friend Madeline whose last day is today. Madeline and her family are re-locating to Texas - which we know will be an exciting adventure for them, but we will surely miss Madeline's smiling face! Thank you Mrs. Gerland for the yummy cupcakes. We made a special book for Madeline so she will have something to always remember her friends at St. Bernadette's and we said a special prayer for Madeline and her family for a safe and happy trip to Texas.
Tomorrow we have our circus parade! The children will be picking a circus performer to be in our parade. We will also be making some delicious circus snacks!
We will also be picking a new friend to take Bernie the Bear home tomorrow.
Enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall day Go Phillies!
Tuesday, 10/4/11
Let's go to the circus
Let's go to the circus
Let's go to the circus,
and have lots and lots of fun!
Today we talked about the many different people and animals we see at the circus. We looked at pictures of animal trainers, jugglers, clowns, tight-rope walkers, acrobats, elephants, tigers, horses, the ventriloquist, and the ringmaster and what each one does. We are planning on having a circus parade on Thursday so each child is going to think about who/what they want to be. We put our listening skills to work by playing a fun game of "The Ringmaster Says".
Before we knew it, it was time to get our pictures taken! We practiced our best smiles in the classroom first. We also talked about how the photographer was going to use a Camera (for the letter C). They all smiled beautifully.
Our C table is becoming quited Crowded! Today we added another cat, a carrot, a cowgirl, a car, a cotton ball, a cookie cutter (double c), 3 cups, and a clock! Love it.
We looked at Amado's, Delaney's, and Michael M.'s "tell and show" items today. Tomorrow we will see a few more! These kids are doing so great with their clues.
We practiced writing the letter C and the #3 and played a fun cookie game during math time. We picked a number between 1 and 10 and counted out that same number of chips to put in the cookie.
We began talking about the Rosary during God's Time and will be learning the Hail Mary this month.
We finished the day using our large muscle skills by acting like circus animals and jumping through the hoop! More circus fun is in store for us tomorrow. Also, tomorrow is gym day, so sneakers should be worn. Have a wonderful night!
Monday, 10/3/11
Hello October! It's starting to look and feel like Fall time. The children are getting better and better at our classroom routines and are taking notice to the subtle differences that take place each week as we prepare for our new theme, letter, and number.
This morning we joined our other Pre-K friends in Mrs. Mullen's classroom for a visit with our parish priest, Fr. Lucas. He read us a story about a special man, St. Francis of Assisi and how he had a special relationship with animals. We brought our stuffed animal friends and Fr. Lucas blessed each one with Holy Water. Even Bernie the Bear received a special blessing!
The letter C was introduced today and we received 3 items for our letter table so far, two cats and a camera. We are looking forward to seeing more C items on there tomorrow. We talked about the Circus and the special people/things we see there. We had fun practicing our juggling and balancing skills today, too! We discovered that it definetly is not as easy as it looks.
Since we are focusing on the letter C and the circus theme, we made a cotton candy craft today. It was a bit messy, just like real cotton candy, but fun to make. We also printed the letter C and #3 today with pencils and crayons. We cut and glued 3 balloons for the clown. We will surely be involved in many fun circus learning activities this week!
Reminder: Tomorrow is picture day. Have a great night
Friday, 9/30/11
Today we had Mrs. Sulouff and her students, Sabrina and Luke, join us in the morning. It's wonderful making new friends! We enjoyed singing our favorite songs, and doing our circle time activities with them. We read a butterfly book and saw pictures of the different stages of development - from caterpillar to butterfly. We learned a butterfly song too and put our fine motor skills to work by coloring, cutting, and painting a beautiful butterfly.
We thanked God for Fall time and all of the blessings we have. We thanked him especially for such a terrific fall time day with lots of sunshine. We went outside and had some bubble fun. Everyone was blowing and catching bubbles.....these kids are the best bubble blowers around!
We listened to "The Three Bears" story. Then, after lunch, we had an unexpected wonderful suprise....a visit from the real Bernie the Bear! Yes, he came to our classroom and we even got our picture taken with him.
We used waterpaints today and made lovely pictures. We also reviewed B things and the #2 and we're looking forward to working on the letter C and #3 next week. We are also excited about having some circus fun next week
Reminder: Pictures are being taken on 10/4
Have a wonderful weekend with your child. They are all so precious.
Thursday, 9/29/11
What a "bear-y" fun day we had! We concluded our bear hunt today and caught many different animals.....and yes, finally caught a bear too (Bernie the Bear, that is!) Thanks for sending in all of the wonderful stuffed animals. If it's okay, we are going to keep them here for next week. We went searching for Bernie the Bear today....and we couldn't find him for quite a while. We checked the classroom, the cafeteria, the gym - and finally found him in the library. Madeline is the lucky friend who gets to bring Bernie home this weekend :)
Some additions to our B table today included a banana, a bear, Betty Boop (that's a double B!) and a baby. These kids are the Best!
During God's Time we said our special Fall time prayer: "Thank you dear God for Fall time, with all the colors bright. The reds and browns and yellows, make such a pretty sight". We colored and glued to make beautiful fall time trees today.
We read a book about bears and learned about the life of a bear. We also talked about brown bears, black bears, polar bears, and koala bears. We then enjoyed making a yummy polar bear snack with rice cakes, cool whip, raisins, oreo cookies, and bananas. They were a bit messy but so delicious!
We, as always, enjoyed our gym time with Mrs. Wallace today. And everyone remembered to wear sneakers - great job!
We made a fun bear craft today and liked counting out 2 buttons for his shirt. We also revisited the story "Brown Bear Brown Bear, what do you See?" and made the pictures for our classroom book. What masterpieces! They did such a great job. This will be the first of many classroom books that we will make this year. Each child will get the chance to bring these books home to share with their families.
We visited Ms. Sheen in the library and found Bernie the Bear there!!! We picked a good time to go outside and get some fresh air -we missed the rain by just a few minutes.
We finished up our day moving our muscles to "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" - we were going through the grass, the river, the mud, the forest, the snowstorm and the cave (where the bear was)! The best part was the end when we had to hurry back through everything before the bear could catch us.
Tomorrow we will be having some bubble and butterfly fun. Have a nice evening!
Wednesday, 9/21/11
Our letter A table is looking A-mazing! Today we added an angel, an aardvark, and a picture of Ryann's sister Ashley. Great job so far everyone! We still have a bit more room on our A table if you and your child can think of any more :)
This morning at circle time we sang some fun "A" songs. There was the one about Mr. Alligator who was snapping the monkeys out of the tree and the poem "Way up high in the apple tree". We had some more apple fun with red, green, and yellow apples. We tasted the difference among them and had a difficult time picking a favorite. We liked them all but most of us liked the yellow the best. Yummy.
We worked hard in our A-B-C copybooks today printing the letter A and picking out some A pictures to color and glue in our books. These books will stay at school and they will be working in them weekly. They did a great job today!
We visited Ms. Serratore for our music class today and had fun with rhythms. We also went outside to get some fresh air and expend some energy. We looked at Michael M's "tell and show" items today - we all liked his aliens and astronaut! Good thinking bringing in a "tell and show" item that begins with our letter of the week. Tomorrow it's the girls turn! Madeline and Sarah were caught being good today; they were playing so nicely together and helping each other clean up, their leaves went into our kindness tree
We listened to part of the story "There's an Alligator Under My Bed" - which is about a little boy who has to figure out a way to get rid of the alligator that is under his bed. After listening to the first half of the story, we made some predictions as to what will happen next. Tomorrow we will find out if any or our predictions were correct when we hear the rest of the story. We plan to draw some pictures from this story in our journals tomorrow.
We are SO looking forward to making our own applesauce tomorrow. We will also be visiting Ms. Sheen in the library and will be going to gym class with Mrs. Wallace.....please remember that sneakers should be on preschool feet. We are excited to be celebrating Amado's birthday tomorrow also!!
Please remember to send in a small recent photo of your child if you haven't done so already. Also, please remember that for morning drop-off, all vehicles in the parking lot must be facing the gym/church. This is an urgent message from Principal Lien. Thank you.
Tuesday, 9/20/11
We had some more "A" fun today. Thank you thank you for the letter A items that came in. So far our letter A table displays acorns, an airplane, an ant, and our friends Azariah and Amado. Can you think of any other things/items that begin with the letter A? If so, please send them in.
At circle time this morning we talked about things that begin with A and liked looking at the items on our letter table. We were talking about airplanes and we agreed that if we could take an airplane some place special, we would like to go to Disneyworld! We built the letter A using blocks, molded the letter A and the #1 with our play-dough and printed upper case and lower case A's on our papers. We even partnered up and made the letter A with our bodies! At lunch time we found many A's on our lunch items and beverages. There were so many!
We put our math skills to work by playing a fun apple counting and sorting game. Some were yellow, some were red, and some were green. We made a floor graph to see how many apples were under each color and which color had the most and the least. Tomorrow we plan on tasting the different types of apples to see which one is our favorite so we can graph the results.
Since we couldn't go outside today we used our gross motor skills by marching, skipping, hopping, and galloping to the song "Moving Every Day". Tomorrow we are looking forward to some more A and apple fun and we have our music class with Ms. Serratore. Also, don't forget about "tell and show"
Monday, 9/19/11
We began "A" week today...Yay for "A"! During circle time, we sang the song "The Ants Go Marching" , talked about ants and learned some interesting ant facts - how they live in groups and work as a team together to find food and protect each other, and how they are very strong and can carry things on their backs that are heavier than them! Afterwards we cut and glued to make an ant craft.
We used our fingers to make the letter "A" in the air and on the rug and we talked about words that start with the "A" sound. We even spotted "A"s all around the classroom! Two of our friends' names begin with the letter "A": Azariah and Amado. Azariah did a great job making her letter person for our "A" table today. While we were outside we collected some acorns for our letter "A" table. We need to fill that table up so please keep the "A" items coming Madeline was our special leader for the day today.
We also began talking about our # of the week, the #1. We enjoyed talking about the parts of our body that we have "1" of.....our list included head, face, mouth, nose, and bellybutton! We printed the #1 with our pencils and glued 1 scoop of "ice cream" (we used a cotton ball) on a piece or pie.
We will be spending some time the next few days learning about apples and plan to have lots of apple fun. We are even planning on making our own applesauce.
Principal Lien would like me to remind all of the parents to please make sure that your vehicle is facing the church when parking in the parking lot in the morning. Thanks!
Friday, 9/16/11
Yay!! We made it through the first week of Pre-K. It was so much fun meeting new friends and teachers, touring the school, singing songs, and getting familiar with the classroom routine. We ended the week with many hands-on activities. This morning we put our fine motor skills to work by coloring , cutting, and gluing together a beautiful flower. At circle time we prayed, shared stories, and sang songs together. Makenzie was our special leader of the day and Azariah was our weather watcher. She observed that today was much chillier and windier than yesterday!
Our friend Lauren was not here today and we missed her.
We had fun making our "All About Me" booklets and we liked talking about what our favorite foods are. We were even reading the pages of the booklets all by ourselves. Please read this little book at home with your child, or better yet, see if they can read it to you! We played outside with some of our other Pre-K friends before lunch. After lunch we played with play-dough and used dot-a-dot stampers to make our names. Then we used peel-off stickers to decorate it. We had a ball playing some musical instruments today and listening to the different sounds they made. We finished up with our goodbye prayer and song.
I certainly hope that all of the children enjoyed their first week of Pre-k as much as I have. I'm so looking forward to seeing them all next week. We will be focusing on the letter "A", the #1, the color red and the circle shape.
Have a wonderful weekend with your child and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Thursday, 9/15/11
Today was very busy in Pre-K but another fun day! We finished up our self portraits....what masterpieces! They did such a great job. At circle time this morning we prayed, sang and shared stories. Bronwyn was our special "Leader of the day" and Sephora was our weather watcher. We played a fun game called "That's Me"; The children were asked to listen for words that described something about them. When they heard something that described them, they shouted "That's Me!". After everyone had the chance to shout "That's Me" at least once, the game was concluded by telling the children that everyone is special in lots of different ways. We gave ourselves a round of applause for all of the ways they are special. Afterwards, we had lots of fun pressing our thumbs in stamp pads (washable!) and making thumbprints on our papers. After all, each and every one of them is "thumbody" special!
Before we knew it, it was time for gym. We visited the gym and met our gym teacher Mrs. Wallace. She was so happy to meet us! Mrs. Wallace did yoga, played a parachute game, and practiced using hula hoops with us. We are going to love going to gym class every Thursday - please remember to make sure that your child wears sneakers to school each Thursday.
After lunch we enjoyed looking at more share bags. Today Delaney, Madeline, Makenzie and Ryan shared their bags with us. What a fabulous job the entire class did with their bags! We also visited Ms. Sheen in the library. She showed us around the library and we enjoyed listening to her read us some stories. We also had some m&m treats today. Before eating them we all had a good time making a happy face with them on our plates. We put our math skills to work by counting them and sorting them as well. But, the best part was eating them
We ended the day with some movin' and groovin' to "The Chicken Dance" and had fun flapping our wings and shaking our tails. Unfortunately, we ran out of time and did not draw our "tree" in our journals today; we will definetly get to that next week. Please remember (if you haven't already done so) to send in $4 for your child's journal.
Next week we will be beginning our daily lessons and will participate in more concept-driven activities. As stated in the September newsletter, we will be focusing on the letter "A" and the #1. All children are encouraged to bring an item from home that begins with the letter "A" for our letter table.
Wednesday, 9/28/11
"We're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt, a bear hunt, we're going on a bear hunt, a bear hunt today". We started our bear hunt today, but didn't catch any bears yet. Today we caught a monkey, a goat, a dog, and a bird. Tomorrow we will continue our hunt....I wonder what we'll catch? If you haven't sent in a stuffed animal yet, you can do so tomorrow.
Our B table is Bursting with B items....today we added a picture of Madeline's baby brother Benjamen (that's 3 B's!), Buzz Lightyear, and Ballet slippers. Great thinking! We are still wondering if anyone has a banana or a boat? Bernie the bear will be going home with someone tomorrow. We are looking forward to seeing who brings him home and what they will be drawing/writing in the bear journal.
Today we talked about many B words and learned how to sign the letter B. We worked hard printing the letter B in our A-B-C books and coloring some B pictures.
We also reviewed the #'s 1 and 2 and played a fun game where we we started out with one bone, but then had to find a friend who had the matching bone to make a pair. We discussed how when things are in pairs, it makes two. Then we brainstormed many different kinds of things that come in pairs! We also were stringing 2 beads on our strings.
We will be learning a lot about bears tomorrow and making a yummy bear treat as well.
Just a reminder that tomorrow is gym day, so please remember that sneakers should be worn. Have a wonderful night!
Tuesday, 9/27/11
Hooray for "B"! Our B table today already is looking "B"rilliant! So far we have some butter, a baseball and baseball bat (don't worry, they are the soft ones!), Barbies, bracelets, a bone, balls, a book about bats, and a Sponge Bob book. Bernie the bear is also sitting on our B table and gets to go home with someone on Thursday for the weekend. Who will be the lucky person? Our friend Bronwyn made a letter person today for the table.
We learned some new B songs today - one about a bumblebee, a bear, and a baby. These kids just love to sing :) We printed upper and lower case Bb's with chalk and pencils and also formed them with clay. We colored a big letter B and liked decorating it with buttons.
During God's Time we spoke about the many Blessings we have in our lives - and this week we are especially thanking God for the new Fall season and the beautiful changes it brings.
We also had some fun with the #2 and talked about all of the parts of our bodies that we have two of. Our list included, eyes, ears, legs, lips, arms, armpits, thighs, knees, and cheeks. We printed the #2 (that was a bit tricky!) and had fun putting our 2 handprints on our papers.
We listened to the story Brown Brown Bear What Do You See? and liked reading along. We will be making our own classroom book of this same story this week!
I sent a letter in your child's folder about "Tell and Show". For this week I am asking all of the children to bring in a stuffed animal for our Bear Hunt (something other than a bear, if possible). I have plenty extra if you don't have one. Tomorrow we will begin our bear hunt and we're looking forward to it :)
Also, be sure to check your child's folder for picture day information.
Friday, 9/23/11
Our "A" table was overloaded with even more A items - today we added artwork and animal crackers! The children love sharing their letter items with the class and we're so looking forward to seeing what will show up on our "B" table next week.
We listened to the story "Apple Pie Tree" today and saw how an apple tree changes through the seasons. We also played an apple tree counting game where we picked a number and put that same number of apples in the tree. Such great counters they are! We also played a fun game of "pass the apple". We then got ready to make our own little apple pies. First we flattened out our dough, then we spread some butter on top. Then we added some chopped apples with a spoon. Next we sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on top. Last, with the help of Mrs. DiMemmo, our apple pies were put into the oven to bake. The children tasted some and it was a hit! The children brought their pies home to share....hope you give it a try
We also reviewed the #1, letter A, words that begin with A, and learned how to make the letter A in sign language. We reviewed the story "There's an Alligator Under My Bed" and made an alligator out of a large letter A cut-out.
We celebrated Nkenge's birthday today by singing to her and saying a special prayer for her. Thank you to Nkenge's mom for the delicious cupcakes - the children loved all of the icing.
We ended the day with some movin' and groovin' and played a game of "Freeze Dance". We said our goodbye prayer, sang our goodbye song, and talked a little about what's in store for next week.
I am so proud of each and every one of them and they are all getting used to our daily routine. May God bless them all and thank you again for sharing them with me.
Remember that we do not have school on Monday, 9/26. Have a happy and safe weekend!
Thursday, 9/22/11
Mmmmm....our classroom smelled like fall-time with our freshly sliced apples baking. We had a great time pouring, mixing, and stirring ingredients to make our home-made applesauce.
Thank you for helping to make our letter "A" table Absolutely Awesome! (I think I need to get a larger table!) Our additions today included anchovies, an apron, Angelina the Ballerina storybook, an alligator, "A" states (Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, and Alaska), an ant, and apples! Fabulous Can't wait to see what our letter "B" table looks like next week!
This morning we learned some interesting apple facts and talked about the parts of the apple - the skin, stem, flesh, seeds, and core. We saw the star in the center and dipped our apples in paint to make apple prints. We also looked at many of the girls' "tell and show" items and they were great clue-givers. We finished the story "There's an Alligator Under My Bed" and drew pictures from the story in our journals.
We also visited Ms. Sheen in the library today and got some exercise in the gym with Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Wallace said that our class is doing so very well. All of the children had sneakers on - yay! Thanks for remembering.
Amado was the birthday boy today! We sang to him, and said a special birthday prayer for him. Thank you to Mrs. Buccat for the delicious cupcakes. They were yummy! Speaking of yummy, at the end of the day we finally got the chance to taste our applesauce. So good! We even brought some home for our families to taste.
Tomorrow we will have some more "A" fun and we're looking forward to making some personal size apple pies!
*Reminder*: There are no classes on Monday, 9/26. Also, Principal Lien would like to remind all parents that when dropping off and picking up your child, all vehicles must be facing the gym/church and should be parked as far up into the lot as possible to ensure the safety of all of the children. Thank you so much for your cooperation.
Wednesday, 9/14/11We had a wonderful day in Pre-K today. We began our day singing and dancing as we worked on our gross motor skills. Amado was our "Leader of the Day" and Ryann was our weather watcher. At circle time we prayed, sang songs, shared stories, checked the calendar, dressed the weather boy, and learned the poem "I'm Glad I'm Me". We discussed that we are all beautiful children of God. Even though there are many things that we all have in common, we also talked about how God made each of us special and different from one another. We had fun passing around a mirror and looking at all of our unique faces. We also examined our handprints with a magnifying glass and discovered that even though at first glance they all looked the same, close-up we could see how no two handprints were alike!We drew pictures of our faces and had fun gluing pictures of things that we liked on our paper. This was an exciting "getting-to-know-you" activity and the children discovered that many of them have similar interests. We also continued our tour of the school and visited Ms. Serratore in the music room. We will be visiting her every Wednesday for music class. We had our first lesson today and learned two new songs. Tomorrow we will have our first gym class with Mrs. Wallace in the gym. Sarah and Lauren shared their share bags with us today and we are looking forward to seeing some more tomorrow. We also took a picture of our special tree outside and will be drawing it in our journals tomorrow. We are learning the classroom rules and routines and getting to know all of our classmates. I am so proud of all of the children and look forward to an exciting new day tomorrow. Tuesday, 9/13/11
Well, it's been quite busy in our classroom the last few days! The children are doing beautifully in Pre-K. We've been starting off the day with coloring and/or drawing. Since we are focusing this week on the "I Am Special" theme, today the children made self-portaits which will be on display in the hallway outside of the classroom. Next, we had a fun circle time, where we all met on the rug, said our gathering prayer, sang our "hello" song and few others, checked the calendar, and discussed the weather. Azariah was our weather watcher for today and Sarah was our special leader of the day.
After some playing, painting, and building, the children listened to the story "I Can Do That!" and they were very eager to share with the class what he/she is good at. The list included: bike riding, cartwheels, handstands, helping mommy, swimming, dancing, and hugging. What talented children they are! We then recited together our "I Am Special" poem. We discussed the importance of sharing and the children enjoyed cutting out, gluing, and decorating the ball on the activity paper that was sent home.
We also took a trip outside for some fresh air. We've been having fun playing "Simon Says" outside and identifying our body parts. We also took the time to notice and talk about our outdoor classroom tree. We will be observing this tree throughout the school year and take notice of its' changes throughout the seasons. We will be drawing a picture of our special tree in our journals and will draw the same tree during each season.
We took the time to visit Mrs. Repino in the front office, Ms. Sheen in the library, and Mrs. Einhorn in the nurse's office. We plan to continue our tour of the school tomorrow.
We also made our handprints today. Tomorrow we will use a magnifying glass to look closely at our handprints and compare them to those of our friends. What will we observe?
Amado, Michael, and Bronwyn showed us their share bags today and did a fabulous job! We are looking forward to seeing some more tomorrow. Before the day ended, we gathered on the rug once more and did the "Hokey Pokey", sang our goodye song and said our goodbye prayer. The children are adjusting to the routine wonderfully!
Thank you for sending in all of the supplies and for all of your support and cooperation. I am still missing some photos, so if you havent' sent one in, please do so at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Dignam
9/1/11
Welcome to Pre-Kindergarten! I am delighted to be your child's teacher for this coming school year. I have been teaching preschool for 18 years now. The last 10 of which was with my own preschool program. I am so looking forward to a fun filled year of learning, playing, and growing with your child.
An Information Night will be held on Wednesday, September 7th at 7:00 p.m. in O'Brien Hall. Following the presentation, you are welcome and encouraged to visit our classroom.
The first official day of preschool is Tuesday, September 13th. Our school day begins at 9:00 a.m. and dismissal begins at 2:45 p.m. The preschoolers and parents are invited to attend a "preview" day on Thursday, September 8th. Please bring a small picture of your child at this time.
This year, through various hands-on activities, your child will discover the joy of learning creatively, develop language and math skills, make new friends, and appreciate the wonders of God's love. I am really looking forward to a wonderful school year, and to meeting every parent and child.
Love,
Mrs. Dignam