Dear Families,
This is such a short month for us but a busy one! We are taking this time to concentrate on what we are thankful for, kindness and giving. We are reviewing our letters, numbers, shapes and our social emotional curriculum. We'll continue to work on syllables, rhyming and patterns. The children are doing very well on most of these items but are having a difficult time with patterns. If you could work with them at home on this I'm sure we'll see great improvement. We are participating in the Catholic Charities Thanksgiving Food Drive and ask that each family help by providing 2 cans of corn or peas. Thank you in advance for your donation. On Friday, Nov. 20th we will have our annual deep-pit turkey dinner. It will be a drive through. The dinner will include deep pit turkey, potatoes, salad, roll and cranberry sauce. Tickets are $15.00 and you will be able to pick up your dinners from 2:30 - 6:00 pm. Thank you for supporting OLM School! Our class participated in Operation Christmas Child this year by filling two shoe boxes with the suggested items. I didn't ask for your help because you always go above and beyond for our class. We couldn't do it without you! I turned our boxes in to Mrs. Wennberg on Friday and pray they will make a difference in a child's life. Important dates... Nov. 18th - November Birthday Celebrations Nov. 19th - School Picture Retakes Nov. 20th - Drive-thru take-out Turkey Dinner Nov. 20th - The preschool will close promptly at 12:30 Nov. 23rd - Nov. 27th - Thanksgiving Vacation Nov. 29th - First Sunday of Advent Nov. 30th - School Resumes God bless you all and remember...There is always, always, always something to be thankful for and make sure to notice the collateral beauty. <3 Miss C.
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Hi Families,
How did you like the rain? I loved it and hope it helped put out the fires! It seems like we went from summer to winter over night and I am definitely a summertime girl!!! This week will be a week for review. We'll be going over our numbers, letters, letter sounds, counting, syllables and rhyming. I just finished assessing the children on their letter recognition again and will start concentrating on those letters that most of the children missed. In Handwriting Without Tears the focus will be curved lines. As always we will be giving thanks to God and asking ourselves what we are thankful for. We'll also talk about Thanksgiving food...yum yum! We'll do a project on color mixing reminding us of the leaves changing colors, a tissue paper cross saying Thankful for Jesus an a placemat for Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all of you and for having the privledge of being your child's preschool teacher! ***Important Dates*** 11/11: School closes promptly at 12:30 as we celebrate Veterans. 11/18: November Birthday Celebrations 11/20: Preschool closes promptly at 12:30 for Thanksgiving Vacation 11/23 - 11/27: Thnaksgiving Vacation 11/29: First Sunday of Advent 11/30: School Resumes God bless you all, Miss C. Dear Families,
I can't believe it's already November!!! We're going to have a short, busy and faith filled month. Of course our main theme will be all about giving thanks, as I've said for years..."There is always, always, always something to be thankful for!" We'll concentrate on the letters Xx, Y,y Z,z. In science and math we'll continue to work on patterns, how many is 5 and longer and shorter. We'll also continue on with syllables and rhyming. A quick look at the week ahead sees us working on fine and gross motor skills, literacy skills and math and science skills. Just a sample for music and movement we'll be singing Five Little Turkeys and doing The Turkey Trot. In literacy we will discuss and chart what we're thankful for and math and science we'll examine corn through magnifying glasses and do Thanksgiving feast counting. I would like to thank you all for making our Halloween special snack such a success and the children were thrilled to pass out goodies to their friends! The following is calendar of special days this month. November 11th - Veteran's Day School will be closed November 18th - Birthday Celebration November 20th - School will close promptly at 12:30 for Thanksgiving Vacation November 23rd - 27th - Thanksgiving Vacation November 30th - School resumes We are so blessed to have you in our OLM family, Miss C. Dear Families,
Well here we are already at the end of October! Times flies when you're having fun and this will definitely be a fun week! We'll concentrate on Halloween and All Saints Day. The letters learned this week will be Uu, Vv, Ww. I had every intention of carving a pumpkin for the kiddos last week but since I hurt my wrist I thought I'd better put it off until this week. I think it'll still be hard to do basically one handed so no one can judge me on my artistic talent, which I have none of, by the way, my wrist is really just a good excuse! While I carve our pumpkin I'll talk about The 5 Senses and the parts of the pumpkin. Each child will have a plate in front of them and I will scoop out the goodies inside and they can then squish it, play with it and try to separate and count the seeds. It's wonderful how much learning comes out of making a Jack O' Lantern! I have quite a few fun Halloween books, so, I'll see if the kids can pick up on the rhyming. They love to rhyme! Every single day during lunch one of them will say a friends name and then say something that rhymes with it. If it doesn't rhyme, the other children will all say no!!! If it does rhyme, they all say yes!!! After that another takes a turn and before lunch is over everyone has been in on the fun! Literally...every day! In our Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum we'll concentrate on Caring and Helping. We talk about being kind every day, so I know the children will come up with a million ways you can be caring and helpful! Please remember that school pictures are this week and we need the packets in asap. If you choose not to buy pictures we would like to have them take their picture anyway so they can be in our class picture. A note about our special Halloween snack days on the 29th and 30th, preschool children are NOT allowed to wear costumes to school. The upper grades get to wear their costumes but some children get frightened seeing anyone in costume so therefore we don't wear costumes to preschool. I know the children are looking forward to passing out goodies to their friends Trick or Treat bags so that should make up for the no costume rule (I hope!) May the Lord bless each and every one of you each and every day, Miss C. Hello Dear Families,
October is flying by and we still have a lot of things to accomplish. I want to start off by thanking you all for your generosity by bringing in snack, donating to find a cure for breast cancer, all the cleaning supplies and most of all being your child's first teachers and making the home/school connection. God bless you for helping us get through this most challenging year! This week in Big Day for Pre-K we'll be learning all about recycling. The theme is "Going Green." The letters we'll concentrate on this week are P-T. We'll be learning about the Saints and making a Rosary with popcorn and pompoms. In math The 5 Little Pumpkins will help us with our one to one counting which is difficult for the children. They can count well but get in a big hurry when they are counting objects. Practice at home would benefit them greatly. In our Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum the children will learn about accidents and how to react when one happens. For fun this week we'll be making a real Jack O' Lantern. Slimy, messy and the kids are going to get their hands dirty...it'll be great! They will also start work on their Trick or Treat Bags. I will be sending home Progress Reports and the score sheets from the ASQ's you sent in on Monday. If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me at sharon.colcleasure@olmlancers.com. Thank you again for being the wonderful, loving, giving parents you are. You are truly appreciated! Many blessings, Miss C. Dear Families,
I hope you all enjoyed the three day weekend! I feel like I was able to get a lot accomplished around my house and boy it needed it! Well the Fall weather is here which means cooler mornings. We go outside (air quality permitting) at 8:15 and it's been pretty chilly! I recommend sending a sweater, light jacket or sweatshirt to school with your child and please label everything with your child's name as there are many duplicates. It's also pretty wet on the playground in the mornings so please check your child's extra clothes and make sure they have cooler weather clothes instead of a pair of shorts...thank you. This week in Big Day for Pre-K we are going back to cover theme #3 week #2...People We Meet. We'll continue learning about the Rosary and include the Rosary prayers in our morning prayers...The Lord's Prayer, The Hail Mary Prayer and the Glory Be Prayer. I had ordered a Rosary for each child in the classroom and they finally came in. I am going to ask Mrs. Mary how I could go about getting them blessed before the children take them home. The letters K-O will be introduced as well as The Nursery Rhyme Jack Be Nimble where the children will make candlesticks to jump over. Great for large motor skills! In math the focus will be...longer/shorter and in our Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum we'll talk about same or different feelings. Important dates... 10-19 - Progress Reports go home. 10/27 - 10/29 - School pictures...envelopes will be sent out 10/29 - 10/30 - Halloween special treat I have a Halloween sign up sheet posted on the table if you would like to contribute to our special snack on either of these two days. Again, the children will be making Trick Or Treat Bags so if your child would like to bring a store bought item to help fill up the bags it would be greatly appreciated! Many blessing to you all, Miss C. 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.
I do apologize for being late again. We had a very serious family emergency and that's why I wasn't at school on Friday and why I didn't blog. Dear Families; I want to start off by asking you to hug your wonderful children and tell everyone that you love, that you love them. My Mom always said you have to live your life without regrets and I think that's very good advice. Also I have a line from a movie on the mirror of the Lincoln Room (you'll get to know all about it in time) that says, "Make sure to notice the collateral beauty." I read it every day and try to do just that. This week we're starting our Big Day For Pre-K curriculum! Hooray! Our theme is "My Family." The Big Idea is "I am an important part of my family," the knowledge focus is children learn about family members, family roles, and unique qualities of families. Our social-emotional focus is kindness. I will give you all the information to log onto Big-Day For Pre-K in a separate note. Today I introduced the theme and we brainstormed questions like who is in a family, what do families like to do together and where do families live? We started to make a book about families and read a story called Bear's Busy Family which also included the Five Senses. A great bonus! Mother Mary's Birthday is tomorrow, Tuesday, so we'll be saying The Hail Mary Prayer and talking about Jesus' Mother. In Handwriting Without Tears we'll concentrate on straight lines and work on shapes. I'll introduce syllables with a great song on our Alphafriend CD and work on Self Talk in our Second Step curriculum. It will be a busy, faith filled and fun week, I guarantee it! A great big THANK YOU for all of the supplies that keep coming in, we are so grateful! I am working on assessing your children and scoring the ASQ's and can't wait to go over the results with you. Please remember that we are a team, you and I, so if there is ever a question or concern don't hesitate to bring it to my attention so we can work to make things better. God bless each and every one of you, Miss C. Hello Everyone! Sorry I'm a day late with my blog...crazy weekend! For a Monday and not being able to go outside, all the kiddos had a great day today! We will continue our boot camp for this week and start on our Big Day For Pre-K curriculum next week. Today Mrs. Mary came in and read the class a social story called, "How To Be A Super Friend!" Everyday we talk about Jesus and how much He loves us and I read a short story from the Preschool Bible. You're children's questions and comments are wonderful! Mat Man is a new character in our classroom. He teaches us big curves, little curves, long and short straight lines that help us with our writing skills and body parts at the same time. We'll continue on our journey to use scissors with the next phase which is snipping and the children will be learning how to use their glue bottles and make a beautiful design with the snips they've cut and their glue bottles. (Yikes!) In our Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum we're learning to focus our attention. Everyone learned about their attentascopes in case they find themselves being distracted by their friends. I'll let the kids explain it to you! Finally something I've been so looking forward to, the children will start to sign in with their first names every day. Depending on where they are with fine motor and the letters in their names, they can trace their names or write them themselves. Every day we review the listening rules, count on the calendar, choose an Astronaut and Friend of the day and talk about not being space invaders. The kiddos are learning all the rules so well they are constantly reminding their friends if one is broken. At first I felt like a broken record gently reminding the kids to distance themselves from each other and now they do it for me! What a relief, I didn't want to sound like a nag! A couple of small things...please sign your child in and out using a pen and not a pencil. It's a state law. If you forgot your pen, I've got your back! Also, if you get the chance, please bring two pencil boxes to school for your child. Their big boxes are a mess and need desperate organizing as some of the girls have put it! Lastly, and I hate to say this but you all have been so massively generous that our refrigerator is bursting at the seams! Everything edible that you bring in has to be refrigerated andI just don't have room for the wonderful Costco sized snacks. Please don't think I'm not grateful, we have gone plenty of times with very little snack. It would also help if you could bring your child's snack on their snack day so it can go in and out on the same day. Also I'm running low on disinfectant wipes already! I know they're hard to find but if you do happen to see some at a store I would appreciate you picking some up for the classroom. I will reimburse you! Thank you again to all my wonderful families and God bless you all, Miss C. Hi Families!
The kids had another great week at school! I hope they come home and tell you all about it! It's been HOT but fortunately our class goes out in the morning so everyone gets a chance to run and play when we're out back and to listen to stories and dance when we're out front. I love it now but will complain when it gets cold outside! I'm a warm weather girl, you'll see me in my sweatshirt if it gets below 80 degrees! Everyone is learning the rules and expectations of the playground and the classroom. I hear them reminding each other when someone doesn't follow the rules! Last week I said we were going to work on introducing the Bible (which I did) and begin work on our scissor skills. We decided to continue with boot camp last week and will get more into the Bible and scissor skills this week. Most of your children are very artsy! They love to paint and draw! When we go out back they can take their water color paints out and paint to their hearts content. I always like to have a science project when we go out back like picking flowers and learning what they need to grow, riding our bikes over bubble wrap and discussing why the bubbles pop, tomorrow we'll do leaf rubbings. The children's boxes are quite a mess! I put everything in sandwich bags but they're hard for the kids to open. Can you please bring two pencil boxes for your child to help keep it organized? They can be found at the Dollar Store for .99 cents. Thank you! Also please remember to bring a pen when you sign your child in, please use a pen and not a pencil. This week I will begin assessing the children starting with the alphabet. I'm looking forward to sharing what I've learned with you during our Parent/Teacher Zoom meeting in October. I'm always here for you as well as the children, so If you have anything you would like to discuss please call the preschool or e-mail me. God bless you all, Miss C. Hi Families!
Here is my first blog post of the new school year, this crazy, unpredictable but so happy to be here new year! As I have stated before, I struggle with the computer so please be patient with me! The kiddos had a great first few days of school! We call the first 3 weeks boot camp because we will be spending this time learning the rules, routines and transitions of the classroom and playground. Plus this year the children have to learn not to share, to not invade anyone's space bubble and to wait patiently while everyone washes their hands multiple times during the day. It sounds impossible with four year olds, like herding cats but they are doing a great job! This past week, through social stories, the children have learned "Nice hands, nice, feet and nice mouth." They are learning from our Second Step Social/Emotional curriculum "Eyes are watching, ears are listening, voices quiet, bodies calm, this is how we listen at group time." This week our story was about welcoming others. We're working on learning "The Guardian Angel Prayer" and a meal prayer. The astronaut of the day gets to be the line leader, leads us in prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance. This week in Boot Camp we'll concentrate on rules, circle time and classroom management. I will read the social story "How to go to Mass" and talk about going to church rules. Most importantly I will introduce the Bible. During the children's fine motor activities I will observe which hand they use and their grip. I will open one center at a time with only one child per center. We will start building scissor skills and gluing skills. Hooray! We're going to start "Friend of the day!" I'll let the kids tell you all about that! Last but certainly not least in our Second Step we'll focus on listening. Whew! It sounds like a lot but we're learning through music, dancing, communicating and play and let's not forget about singing! Thank you all so much for the tissue, wipes, paper towels and everything else you have helped us with! We couldn't do this without your love and support. Remember, you can contact me by either calling the school at 209-722-6657 or emailing me at sharon.colcleasure@olmlancers.com. May the Lord always have His light shining on you all, Miss C. Hello Families!
I pray you are all healthy and happy! I have cabin fever so bad! I love going out into my back yard and taking my dogs for walks but I miss people and hugs and your children and my friends!!! I am going to go look at some kittens today and I'm SO excited! I love my doggies but they are too big to hold and my arms are empty. So, if I'm lucky I'll be able to bring her home on Wednesday after her first shots! I don't even have her yet but I've named her Kaami. That is the first letter in our children's names! Cute, huh? I'll keep you posted! I see that you've been working with your children on See Saw and they're doing great! Can you please give me some feedback on what you like and what you don't? Is it enough work...not enough? Too easy...too hard? I want you all to know that I'm working very hard to give your children the best education I can through distance learning. Praying for the day we can all come together again! Love, Miss C. |