October 5th, 2020

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Dear Families,

October will be a fun and busy month for us. Ready...Set...Go!

We'll be working on the Rosary and the Rosary prayers this month.  The children have already learned The Lord's Prayer and The Hail Mary Prayer and they'll soon learn The Glory Be Prayer.  Ask them to say them with you and if you start them off you'll be amazed at how well they do! <3  October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we have a special "Pink Jar" that the children can put money into.  We usually have the children bring in a baggie of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and have them put one coin in the jar a day.  It's a great learning tool but unfortunately due to covid I will have the Pink Jar on the sign in table for the children's donations.  I will talk to them about how breast cancer is a very bad sickness and how every penny we donate will help someone feel better.  This is strictly optional, I know how you all give so much already.  I have a LOT of breast cancer in my family and this is my choice of charities to give to.

In our Big Day for Pre-K we'll be learning all about "Things That Move."  Transportation is a big part of our community so we'll be doing quite a bit of traveling this week!  The BIG Idea is that transportation is for doing jobs and getting around in our community.  The Social/Emotional Focus is responsibility.  We'll also bring our "Things That Move" into our Math lesson when we make patterns using our bodies, for example, clapping out a rhythm or standing up and sitting down in a pattern.  For our Second Step we'll focus on Identifying Anger.  Once we can figure out what has us upset it's so much easier to calm ourselves down.  We're still using the Stop-Naming our feelings, wrapping ourselves in a gentle hug and taking 3 deep breaths.  The Nursery Rhyme we'll be learning is Hey Diddle, Diddle and the children will be making cute puppets to help them with retelling the rhyme.  The letters F-J is what we'll be working on so if you could work with the children on the letters A-J at home it would make that home/school connection.  Thank you!

Important Dates:

10/12  School will be closed for a Staff In-Service day
10/21  Progress Reports will go home (unfortunately there will be no Parent/Teacher Conference.)
10/27-10/29 School Pictures...Envelopes will be sent out.
10/29-10/30 Halloween Special Treat...The children will be making Trick or Treat Bags and are welcome to bring a store bought treat to help fill up their friends bags.

Many blessings to you all,
Miss C.

Hi Everyone!  I hope you're having a great weekend!

Tomorrow we start on a brand new theme in our Big Day for Pre-K curriculum...Our Community!  This is such a fun theme as it covers so many people in our lives that we don't even realize are important to everything we do in a regular day!  From the grocery store clerks and stockers to people that work at the gas stations, fast food workers, firemen and women and police officers to name only a few!  In week 1 the BIG IDEA is that we visit many places in our community.  Our Knowledge Focus is the children learn about the role of the community in their lives and the importance of good citizenship.  Our Social-Emotional Focus is responsibility.  Please get on Big Day for Pre-k and learn more about what will be going on in the classroom. 

The same goes for See Saw.  I have posted a few activities that go hand in hand with our community.  The library, the Post Office and St. Francis of Assisi is what the children will be learning about this week as well as reviewing the letters Aa - Ee and focusing on Ee.  Everyone has improved greatly in writing their names, please have them practice at home.  I'm almost done with my assessments and will make copies for you so it will make our Zoom Parent/Teacher Conference in October go easier.  How I wish I could sit face to face with you and talk about our favorite subject, your child!!!  We'll start working on the number 1 and practice, practice, practice 1-1 counting.  The children do really well until they start counting faster then their fingers move and run into difficulties.  If you can work on this at home it would help them so much!

We'll continue working on rhyming which the children are pretty good at.  During lunch they are always saying how about this and that for rhyming and the kiddos will either respond yes or no!  I love seeing and hearing them continue the learning even in their own time! For our Second Step Curriculum it will be Unit 2:  More Feelings that we'll be working on.

Thank you for all the donations you continually make, I appreciate you!  Please remember that my door is always open to you and your children are very important to me.  If there is ever anything I can do to help your family or your child, I'll gladly do it!

God Bless you all every day of your lives,

Miss C.

Hello Families,

I hope you all had a great weekend!  The air quality is better and I'm so thankful for that!

We are in our 4th week of My Family in our Big Day for Pre-K curriculum.  This week the theme is All Kinds of Families!  When I think of my family I think it's just regular and I think a little more and realize that my parents practically raised 2 of their grandchildren, my children have a step father and I have step daughters!  It seems regular to me!  I have always had a very close family and it's never been "regular" or whatever you want to call it.  It's my family!  I am so blessed to have the family I do.  My co-workers I call my sisters and your children I call my kids!  Actually, now that I'm older they are more like my grandkids!  I love each and every one of them like I have been doing for 21 years.  They are my top priority while in my care and I'm so very lucky to be able to be a part of their lives.

The BIG IDEA is that every family is unique.  The knowledge focus is that children learn about family members, family roles, and unique qualities of families.  We'll continue on with the social/emotional focus of kindness.  We'll continue to work on the letters in our names, teach diagonal lines and begin sorting.  We'll do some apple tasting and talk about healthy foods and teach the 5 senses.  We'll continue with Hickory Dickory Doc and syllables (your kiddos are great at syllables!) and in our Second Step curriculum we'll discuss empathy and identifying feelings.

One Friday of every month we will bring lunches to donate to St. Vincent de Paul.  This is a great way for the the children to understand that there are those less fortunate than us and gives them a way they can help them.  I will send home a decorated bag with your child and if you could please pack a lunch where nothing has to be refrigerated, we will add a prayer and send it on to St Vincent de Paul's
so they can be passed out, it will be greatly appreciated!  The children will learn all about St. Vincent de Paul and know how giving a person he was and we'll try to follow in his footsteps.

I pray you all walk in the light of Jesus,

​Miss C.

Dear Families,

I would like to start out with saying that the majority of the children in our class have a runny nose.  It is clear and I take their temperatures multiple times a day.  It may be due to the bad air quality and please know that we check the air quality often and do not go outside if it's bad!  I would like to remind you to please keep your child at home if they're feeling sick.  If they have a fever, are throwing up or have diarrhea  they must stay home for 24 hours after they are well.  PLEASE don't give your child fever medicine and send them to school.  Thank you for understanding.

We are in week 3 of our Big Day for Pre-K curriculum and it's all about Family Fun!  I hope you can go online to get a better idea of what I'm teaching in class.  The BIG Idea is that we share special times with our family.  In keeping with our social/emotional focus on kindness, the children will be making a kindness medal and giving it to a family member who has done something kind and they, in turn, will give it to another family member who has been kind...so forth and so on.

In our Second Step curriculum we'll be learning all about asking for what you need/want.  It's okay to let others know if you need or want something. Speak up and use your words politely.

We'll continue with identifying the letters in and writing our names.  Please encourage your children to do this at home as well.  The Holy Family as well as reading The Children's Bible every day will be our religion focus this week.  Curved lines, counting, rhyming and syllables are things we'll be working on as well and we'll be having fun with the nursery rhyme, Hickory Dickory Doc.   Don't worry, there will be plenty of singing, dancing, silliness and play going on too!

Your children are amazing and so resilient!  By watching them in the classroom you would never know it was anything but normal!

You are all always in my prayers,

Miss C.

Dear Families,

The third time is the charm, isn't that what they say?  This is my third time trying to blog and I hope it works!  The first time it just didn't show up, the second time my kitty Frankie was all over my keyboard and he made everything disappear so here we go again!  I have to go to bed in 30 minutes so I can't get too wordy!  I hope you all had a great long weekend and were able to stay cool!  My 3 boys came to see me this weekend and it was beyond great for all of us because they are working from home and missing social interaction!  My husband is in Maryland and without them I would have been alone and I don't do alone very well!  Your children fill a huge gap in my life!

Down to business!  We're on theme 2 week 2 in our Big Day For Pre-K curriculum.  I hope you've signed in to see what we're doing in class and reading the same books we're reading!  The theme is Family and this week we are talking about taking care of each other.  The BIG idea is we love our family and our family loves us!  The knowledge focus is that children learn about family members, family roles, and unique qualities of families.  The social/emotional focus is kindness.

We'll be working on the letters in our names, Mother Mary, Mother Teresa, straight lines with shapes, measuring, and everyday foods vs sometimes foods.  In our Second Step curriculum we'll be working on following directions.  I hope you will talk to your children about sitting properly in their chairs, whether it be their red chairs (space ships) or their chairs at centers, it's important that they sit properly because I fear they will tip over backwards and hit their heads.  They need a little extra guidance in this.  Thank you!

In our Second Step social/emotional curriculum we'll be working on following directions and I have a lot of great songs to reinforce this.  The numbers for the floors have finally come in and I put them down 6 feet apart.  I think the children are surprised at how far apart they are supposed to be but they're catching on quick.  (how sad!)

Please have the children say the Hail Mary Prayer at home as well as the Flag Salute in order to acclimate themselves with the words.

May the Lord bless you always,

​Miss C.

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