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CLASSROOMS - Preschool Kindergarten 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Computer Art Band/Music Choir P.E.
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3 Year Old Class
Thank you for bringing in the All About Me pages. The children have started to share the pages in the class. We are learning about each other and practicing speaking in front of the group at the same time. We also built some self-confidence by reading the story, From Head to Toe. The children would move like the animals in the story and repeat the phrase from the book, "I can do it!" We use this phrase to encourage children during those challenging times of learning new skills.
We have also begun introducing letters to the children. To teach letters, we start by teaching to the whole group the first letter of everyone's name. In a few weeks, as you talk about or point out letters to your child you may hear them say that's my friend's letter! We also focus on teaching the letters in their name. Teaching letters in this way provides a meaningful context for the children to learn them. You can help out at home by working on the letters in your child's name.
Next week, we will focus on feelings. We will read a book that names different feelings, and discuss appropriate ways to handle those feelings. This includes using words to express ourselves and also taking deep breathes to calm our bodies. We have been practicing being a S.T.A.R. in class. When we S. T. A. R., we start by reaching our arms out wide and then Smile, Take a deep breath And Relax. These social and emotional skills are a important skills to learn for success in kindergarten.
Highlights for the week of 9/24/2018
We have also begun introducing letters to the children. To teach letters, we start by teaching to the whole group the first letter of everyone's name. In a few weeks, as you talk about or point out letters to your child you may hear them say that's my friend's letter! We also focus on teaching the letters in their name. Teaching letters in this way provides a meaningful context for the children to learn them. You can help out at home by working on the letters in your child's name.
Next week, we will focus on feelings. We will read a book that names different feelings, and discuss appropriate ways to handle those feelings. This includes using words to express ourselves and also taking deep breathes to calm our bodies. We have been practicing being a S.T.A.R. in class. When we S. T. A. R., we start by reaching our arms out wide and then Smile, Take a deep breath And Relax. These social and emotional skills are a important skills to learn for success in kindergarten.
Highlights for the week of 9/24/2018
- Virtue Focus: Responsibility - taking care of our things.
- Books: The Way I Feel; Llama, Llama Misses Mama
- Song: If You're Happy and You Know It; Wheels on the Bus; Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes;
- Jumping Beans - Alphabet Identification Game -
- Nursery Rhyme: Jack and Jill - Review rhyme -- What are the words that rhyme?
- Stamp and Ink Pad: Children will use stamp pads.
- Exploring Lines: Straight, Slanted, and Curvy - Children will practice making their body into the shapes of these lines.
- Roll and Number, Find a Number: Children will roll dice and find the corresponding number on the number mat.
- Build Your Name: Children will match magnetic letters to their name cards.
- I Feel Happy When...Children will draw a picture of themselves being happy.
- Zoo Phonics Letter and Signal Introduction.
4 Year Old Am
It was so nice having Mrs. B. back with us last week. It sounds like she had a wonderful adventure. New last week was the open snack concept. The students did very well with it. We did have a couple of students who forgot to make time for their snack, but we will continue with those reminders. It is nice to have that extra 20-30 minutes each day for the students to spend learning through their playtime together. It also gives us additional time to spend in small groups having time for additional time to work on specific skills. We also made several trips to the sanctuary and practiced entering and exiting for mass. The group is doing so well, I am looking forward to having them meet with their 3rd grade buddy next week. We have been working on introducing the Zoophonics letter characters. The students are really catching on quickly.
The virtue we will be looking at this week is "Responsibility" which ties in perfectly with the introduction of classroom chores. Each student will have a job for the week to help make our classroom run smoothly. Each Monday the jobs will be reassigned. The students usually love to have a job and are quite willing to pitch in and help.
Our focus this week as we continue with our beginning of the year study is: When do things happen at school? We will be taking a closer look at our schedule and how we can use it to predict what will come next in our day. We will continue to add more of the Zoophonics letter characters and should complete the introduction of all of the characters this week.
The week at a glance:
Books: "Charlie Anderson", "Love is a Family" , and "Papi, How Many Stars are in the Sky?" and "Peeny Butter Fudge"
Games: Popcorn, Letter Cruncher
Songs: Crossing the Midline, Who Let the Letters Out?
Art: Crazy Hair Portraits, Salt Painting Names and Punch Art Names
Virtue: Responsibility
Focus Question: When do things happen at school?
Reminder: You will need to send a snack (nut free) and a bottle of cool water with your child daily.
The virtue we will be looking at this week is "Responsibility" which ties in perfectly with the introduction of classroom chores. Each student will have a job for the week to help make our classroom run smoothly. Each Monday the jobs will be reassigned. The students usually love to have a job and are quite willing to pitch in and help.
Our focus this week as we continue with our beginning of the year study is: When do things happen at school? We will be taking a closer look at our schedule and how we can use it to predict what will come next in our day. We will continue to add more of the Zoophonics letter characters and should complete the introduction of all of the characters this week.
The week at a glance:
Books: "Charlie Anderson", "Love is a Family" , and "Papi, How Many Stars are in the Sky?" and "Peeny Butter Fudge"
Games: Popcorn, Letter Cruncher
Songs: Crossing the Midline, Who Let the Letters Out?
Art: Crazy Hair Portraits, Salt Painting Names and Punch Art Names
Virtue: Responsibility
Focus Question: When do things happen at school?
Reminder: You will need to send a snack (nut free) and a bottle of cool water with your child daily.
Kindergarten Prep PM class
Thank you for completing the All About Me page. Each of the children presented their page to the group. It was great to get know more about each other. All the pages are put in the All About Me book that will be in our library for the rest of year where the children will continue to enjoy this book.
Our focus this week was on our classroom rules. We talked about the classroom rules of Walking Feet; Safe Hands; Inside Voices with Kind Words. We talked specifically what each rule means for our classroom behaviors. We then signed our name to the rules poster to commit to following those rules. We refer back to this commit as needed throughout the year.
The children loved our special guests this week. When the reading buddies came, some of students were reunited with their Mass buddy from 4 year old preschool. I love that each child gets some individual attention from an older student and gets to hear a story. Our other visitor this week was Fr. Dave. He read a fun story about sharing ice cream that the children were singing along with.
We will further discuss our classroom rules next week when we talk about our schedule. We will look at the different parts of our day and how we should be applying the rules during those parts of the day. We will also be reviewing the names of other adult leaders in our school: Mr. VanHammen and Fr. Dave.
We will continue to learn and review our Zoo Phonics Signals. Each letter has a motion and sound that accompanies it. Ask your child to demonstrate it for you. We will also be exploring the letters of the alphabet and discussing the difference between capital letters and lowercase letters. We will be working with all children to write their name with the first letter as a capital and the rest of the letters as lowercase. We will use the story Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom to further differentiate between capital letters and lowercase letters. Finally, we will also introduce journals this week. As children are drawing and writing in their journals, we will encourage them to use invented spelling. This is when they apply letter sound knowledge to write words. For example, to write the word truck, the child would write truk.
Highlights for the week of 9/24/2018
Our focus this week was on our classroom rules. We talked about the classroom rules of Walking Feet; Safe Hands; Inside Voices with Kind Words. We talked specifically what each rule means for our classroom behaviors. We then signed our name to the rules poster to commit to following those rules. We refer back to this commit as needed throughout the year.
The children loved our special guests this week. When the reading buddies came, some of students were reunited with their Mass buddy from 4 year old preschool. I love that each child gets some individual attention from an older student and gets to hear a story. Our other visitor this week was Fr. Dave. He read a fun story about sharing ice cream that the children were singing along with.
We will further discuss our classroom rules next week when we talk about our schedule. We will look at the different parts of our day and how we should be applying the rules during those parts of the day. We will also be reviewing the names of other adult leaders in our school: Mr. VanHammen and Fr. Dave.
We will continue to learn and review our Zoo Phonics Signals. Each letter has a motion and sound that accompanies it. Ask your child to demonstrate it for you. We will also be exploring the letters of the alphabet and discussing the difference between capital letters and lowercase letters. We will be working with all children to write their name with the first letter as a capital and the rest of the letters as lowercase. We will use the story Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom to further differentiate between capital letters and lowercase letters. Finally, we will also introduce journals this week. As children are drawing and writing in their journals, we will encourage them to use invented spelling. This is when they apply letter sound knowledge to write words. For example, to write the word truck, the child would write truk.
Highlights for the week of 9/24/2018
- Books: Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late; Have You Filled a Bucket Today?; Dinosaur Starts School; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
- Nursery Rhyme: Jack be Nimble - Replace beginning sound of Jack with other consonants; Identify the capital letters in the print
- Journal Writing: Introduction to using journals; Free choice topic
- Measurements: Teacher will measure a string the length of the child; Child will identify something shorter and something taller.
- Letters Song: 8 Little Letters Went Out to Play - Children will identify the letter by the sound
- Night Sky Name: Children will write name following name card; Children will focus on 1st letter as a capital and other letters as lowercase. Children will then poke holes in name with a toothpick.
- Finger Paint
- Number Cruncher: Children will identify a number and feed it to the number cruncher.
- How to Fill a Bucket: Children will write a response to the story, How to Fill a Bucket
- Masking Tape and Paint - Children will use masking tape to create a design on paper and then paint over it. Tape will be removed when dry.
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter People: Children will design an outline of their letter to create a letter person. Letters will be collected for a class book.
- Kindle - Children will use the Kindle for a read aloud story.
- Music Class
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Letter ID Game: Children will identify letters and place on coconut tree. Extension Activity: Children will sort letters as uppercase or lowercase.
Science Club
Science Club is an optional activity for students who are enrolled in either the AM-4 or Kindergarten Prep classes. The club meets on the second Thursday of the month from 9:30-11 am at Hemlock Crossing, September through May. Meetings are lead by Hemlock Crossing naturalists and the membership cost is $7.00 per meeting.
Parents are an important part of the program--you will be actively involved in exploring the topic of the month with your child as well as providing transportation to and from the meetings. Some exceptions can be made for working parents, provided you are able to find a member parent who is willing to transport your child and fill in as your designated adult explorer. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Mrs. Carey at ccarey@stmarysl.org
Snow days: if St. Mary's does not have school on a meeting date, the meeting for that day will be canceled. We will not try to reschedule--just too many schedules to try to accomodate. You will not be billed for that month's meeting.
2018-2019 Meeting Topics
Thursday, September 13--Little Explorers and Parent Presentation
October 11th--Critters of the Season—Bats, Spiders, Snakes and Skeletons
November 8th--Nature’s Engineers—Animal Homes
December 13th--Winter Adaptations
January 10th --Snow Fun/ Snowshoeing
(This meeting to be held at Pigeon Creek Park)
February 14th--Marvelous Mammals—Fur and Tracks
March 14th--Wiggly Worms
April 11th--Wonderful Wetlands
May 9th--V.I.P.’s—Very Important Pollinators—Bees, Butterflies
(Picnic Lunch to Follow)
*All meetings (except January Meeting) are held at the Education Center at Hemlock Crossing Park. Meetings start promptly at 9:30 and end at 11 am.
Parents are an important part of the program--you will be actively involved in exploring the topic of the month with your child as well as providing transportation to and from the meetings. Some exceptions can be made for working parents, provided you are able to find a member parent who is willing to transport your child and fill in as your designated adult explorer. If you are interested or would like more information, please contact Mrs. Carey at ccarey@stmarysl.org
Snow days: if St. Mary's does not have school on a meeting date, the meeting for that day will be canceled. We will not try to reschedule--just too many schedules to try to accomodate. You will not be billed for that month's meeting.
2018-2019 Meeting Topics
Thursday, September 13--Little Explorers and Parent Presentation
October 11th--Critters of the Season—Bats, Spiders, Snakes and Skeletons
November 8th--Nature’s Engineers—Animal Homes
December 13th--Winter Adaptations
January 10th --Snow Fun/ Snowshoeing
(This meeting to be held at Pigeon Creek Park)
February 14th--Marvelous Mammals—Fur and Tracks
March 14th--Wiggly Worms
April 11th--Wonderful Wetlands
May 9th--V.I.P.’s—Very Important Pollinators—Bees, Butterflies
(Picnic Lunch to Follow)
*All meetings (except January Meeting) are held at the Education Center at Hemlock Crossing Park. Meetings start promptly at 9:30 and end at 11 am.
Inspired by Saint Mary and rooted in our Catholic faith, St. Mary's School fosters spiritual development, academic excellence, responsibility to self, and service to others in order that the Gospel
of Christ may be known in the world.
of Christ may be known in the world.
