Dear Pre- k Families,

This week, we begin theme. Our first theme is 'My Family'; we will explore Who is in my family?.   We will continue with this theme for the next 4 weeks, focusing on different aspects of the family.  If you would like to send in a picture of your family, we would love to have your child talk about it.  Thank you for sending in the all about me page for our class book.  We will have each child come up and talk about themselves to the class.  We will continue learning about lines for pre-writing and learning about shapes.  We will also begin to learn about clapping syllables in our names.  In our social emotional curriculum, we will be learning about self talk.  

We will be celebrating Mother Mary's birthday on Sept 6th and will be learning about how special she is to us. 

Thank you to those who sent in Clorox wipes last week.  We really appreciate your support.  I have been posting pictures and video on Seesaw from the classroom.  I hope you have been enjoying them.  We walked down to Mrs. Blackburn's office and made her some chalk drawings.  She was really happy to see us, and we had fun.  I am also teaching an online class to students at home.  I post daily assignments for them on Seesaw and have included our class.  Please do not feel pressure to get them completed.  It is only something to do if you are interested.  They do support the things that I am teaching in the class.   I sent home a list of suggestions to help support your child's fine motor skills.  It is very important for them to strengthen their fingers to help them with writing.  

We will continue with friend of the day.  We are focusing on cheering each child's name and then writing the letters in their name.  This is a great way to learn proper letter formation.  

If you were interested in purchasing books from Mrs. Mary's Scholastic book order, they are due by September 4th.  Please share it with others that may wish to purchase books.  Scholastic provides our program with free books for every order.  It went out to each family from Mrs. Mary of August 14th.  We thank you in advance for your support.

Also due on the 4th is the ASQ questionnaire.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me at pick up/drop off or email me at [email protected] 

The Preschool  will be closed on Monday September 7th to observe the Labor Day holiday.  We will resume classes on Tuesday September 8th.

Thank you,
Mrs. Veronica

Dear Pre-k Families,

We had to make some adjustments to our schedule to accommodate for the smoke outside.  We have had to stay inside and will probably continue to be inside this week as well.  We will continue to pray for firefighters and families that have become displaced.  Please check Seesaw, as I have posted some pictures and video of the children when they have been the leader during the morning message and as they are doing friend of the day.  The morning message gives the kids a chance to write their name on the white board and share with the class something they like.  We have begun friend of the day.  Each day a new student has a chance to cheer their name in front of the class and then the class works together to learn how to write that student's name.  We make a book of all the friend's work.  I also have begun initial one to one assessment with the children to see where our baseline is.  I have sent home a piece of colored paper for your student to make a page about themselves for our class book.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Please remember that I will be laminating each page so please do not add things that will not go through the laminator.

This week, we will continue to learn the rules of the classroom.  We will also continue to work on pre-writing skills in our fine motor journals and learn about scissor safety and how to use our glue bottle.  We will also be learning how to make a self portrait and how to be super fiends.  In our social emotional curriculum, we will be learning about focusing our attention.  We will be adding to our morning routine with question of the week and signing in with our name each day.  We have been working on our fine motor skills by strengthening our 3 writing fingers.  You can support them with this by having them play with play dough, Legos, or having them pick up cheerios one at a time.  

If an effort to keep everything clean, we are going through our Clorox wipes faster than we thought.  If you have any extra containers of disinfecting wipes, we would appreciate them.  

Thank you,
​Mrs. Veronica

Dear Pre-K Families,

We are moving right along.  We had a good week last week as we continued to learn rules, routines, and get acclimated to our new school year.  We have been working on our fine motor journals and other pre-writing skills as well as how to properly hold our crayon.  Last week I set up our class Seesaw.  I am also teaching an online class so I assign activities for them daily.  I have included our class if your child would like to participate.  This is not mandatory, but may be fun and will compliment what we are doing in class.  Please do not feel any pressure to complete activities.  

This week, we continue with pre-writing skills and reinforcing how to hold a crayon.  We will also begin building scissor skills by ripping paper.  Ripping paper is the first step in learning to use scissors.  It is a great way to build fine motor strength.  We will continue to work on learning to recognize our name and the letters in it as we begin to cheer each student's name during our 'friend of the day' activity.  I am also very excited to introduce the Bible this week.  We will also begin learning about rhyming as we explore Humpty Dumpty.  In our social emotional curriculum, we will learn about listening skills.

This week we are looking at excessive heat.  It may permit us from getting in our outside playground time in as it may be too hot to take the children out.

Mrs. Mary sent out an email last week inviting you to participate in the Scholastic book order.  This is a wonderful opportunity to add new books to your child's library.  Each order will also benefit our preschool.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at [email protected]

Thank you,
Mrs. Veronica

Hello Pre-K Families,

I'm so excited to start our first full week of preschool!  We had a great "mini" week.  We used our first 3 days to get used to our rules and routines.  We use "nice hands, nice feet, and nice mouth."  These 3 basic rules cover appropriate behavior while at school.  You can also use them at home to reinforce what we are learning at school. We have been getting used to the new rules at preschool, such as having a little extra space between us and our friends and the importance of washing our hands.   We have been learning to be 'super sitters,' and we have been learning to use our classroom boxes.  Each child has a personal box in their cubbie.  This box contains things that they can use during the day that only they touch.  We started with magnets, paper and crayons and a few manipulatives.  I will be introducing more things as we learn to use them.  This week we will add play dough, and markers.  They also learned to use their individual  sensory 'sand box' and 'astronaut box.'  

This week, we will continue to learn rules and routines and also begin using our Second Step social emotional curriculum.  We will begin working in large group at the tables as we learn how to use and properly hold our crayons.

Over the weekend, I was able to set up our Seesaw class.  I emailed a classroom code.  Please scan the QR code to get signed in.  I assigned the first 5 assignments that are about teaching them how to use Seesaw.  The focus of these first 5 assignments is using the camera and microphone and just getting familiar with how things work.  Seesaw will be a great tool for us so that I can take pictures of your child and share them with you through Seesaw.  I am hoping to use this as a 'window' for our classroom since parents are not allowed inside this year.  I have also posted some pictures on our classroom door so you can see what it looks like inside, 

Please email me at [email protected]  if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Mrs. Veronica

Dear Pre-K Families,

Welcome to Our Lady of Mercy Preschool.  Thank you for choosing to bring your child to our program.  I am very excited and feel very blessed to have the opportunity to teach and get to know your child during this upcoming year.  Please visit my blog at olmlancers.com  Go to For Current Families, click on Classroom and OLM blogs.  There you will find Pre-K with Mrs. Veronica.  This blog will be the place to get information that pertains to our class.  Please check in weekly.   

I would like to welcome new families to my class and welcome back the many families that previously had older siblings in my class.  

I know things are going to be a little different this year, but I am committed to making your child's experience the best that I can!  I have been planning a lot of fun and exciting activities.
  
I am looking forward to your child's return to  school.  I will do my best to ring the bell promptly at 8:00am to begin morning prayer.  Please have your child arrive prior to that so they will have time to get signed in and wash their hands.  Please remember that our class will enter through the back of preschool from the playground side.  Please be patient.  I will be taking family pictures as you arrive, and there is a process to check in.  Please remember to send in a water thermos.  There will be a snack calendar on the sign in table.

This will be my thirteenth year in this pre-k classroom, and we have found it to be best for parents to share a hug and a kiss with your child, say goodbye and leave.  When your child sees confidence in your eyes, they too will feel confident.  If they are a little sad, usually by the time you get to your car they are already having fun.  You are always welcome to call the preschool phone to check in. 

The first week of school we will be busy learning the rules and routines of the classrooms.  During the school year, we will focus on teaching curriculum, establishing routines and focusing on developmentally appropriate learning activities which are designed to nurture the total child.  We believe that it is very important to have an open door policy with our students' families.  If you should have any questions or concerns regarding your child, please feel free to contact me between the hours of 7:30 to 3:30 at (209) 722-6657 or email me at [email protected] 
 
I am truly looking forward to this 2020-2021 school year.  Together with you as your child's primary teacher, I hope to help plant the seeds to help facilitate your child to grow in their faith and learning experience.

Thank you,
​Mrs. Veronica