Week of Oct ober 12-16,2009

October 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

I hope you all enjoyed having last Monday off. On Tuesday, we had kindergarten in our classroom to hear the book, Jacinta’s Story in remembrance of the last apparition at Fatima, October 13. 1917. We also watched the DVD The Day the Sun Danced about the miracle of the sun that took place that day. Later in the week, we made bookmarks with a prayer attributed to St. Teresa of Avila since her feastday was Oct. 15. Friday, Oct. 16, we talked about St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Mrs. Rudolph subbed for me Tuesday afternoon as I had to leave early to take my son Michael to get a cast on his ankle. He broke it in the Oct. 9 football game. This week music class was on Thursday rather than our usual day of Tuesday. Wednesday, since Mrs. Richards was still out sick, the kindergarten class joined us for most of the morning. It was a rainy day, the 10/11th graders were taking the PSAT test in the cafeteria all morning so we had our snack and some playtime out front. The morning was busy, but went well.

Our letter for the week was E for Ellie Elephant. We are continuing to review all of the sounds/signals. Hope you are practicing them at home with your children.

In Math, we worked with pattern blocks, sorted teddy bear counters by color, and graphed them noting more, less.

The children painted maple leafs on Friday which look very pretty. Now that they are dry, we can hang them up on our window.

Our garden has quite a few sprouts. Looks promising! We’ve had to deal with rainy weather, but did enjoy the beautiful fall-like weather at the end of the week.

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter

Week of October 5-9, 2009

October 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

This week began with honoring St. Faustina with the Living Rosary. On Wednesday, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, I told the children the story of the Battle of Lepanto and we made rosaries from Trix cereal (hope they haven’t eaten the cereal off!). I showed them pictures of each of the mysteries of the rosary. We have read the Bible stories of the Creation, Garden of Eden, and Cain and Abel.

We have been learning the names of the continents and this week children worked together to assemble a big foam puzzle of the world map. They really had fun with that.

I have been working on initial consonant sounds with them. Our letter of the week was d (for DeeDee Deer).

In math, we did making an AB color pattern with the linking cubes. We also used the pattern blocks to cover designs and went over the names of the shapes: octagon, rhombus, parallelogram, square, triangle, and trapezoid.

It was fire safety week; we went over some safety rules and each of the children practiced “stop, drop, and roll.” I read them a book called “Germs Make Me Sick” and we reviewed handwashing practices. The children wash hands before and after eating, when coming in from outside and also use hand sanitizer. We have had minimal absences.

There was extra activity going on this week with bake sale, picture taking, and pep rally. That combined with the change in temperature and rain seemed to have the children a bit keyed up. Not all of the children went to the pep rally on Friday; I had several children sleeping.

As far as bringing work home, I try to make sure that each child does the activities for the week. For the children, the finished product isn’t always what is important to them; it is the process of doing the work. We have varying degrees of fine motor control in the class: some are adept with coloring and cutting, others not. We will continue to work on those skills.

Three weeks until our All Saints Day party! Be thinking of those costumes.

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter

Week of September 28-October 2,2009

October 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

Hello Parents!

Sorry no newsletter last week; with all of the Homecoming festivities, it was a super busy week. Last week we started several different types of seeds in our classroom and its been fun to watch them sprout. Some of the children helped me weed our garden patch on Tuesday, and Wednesday Mrs. Kelley came to help the children plant some seeds in our PreK garden patch.

This week we talked about the Archangels on Tuesday and colored pictures of them. Thursday was feast of St. Therese. I read the stories about her from the Catholic Treasure Box books and gave each of the children a set of sacrifice beads so they can count their little acts of love for God each day as St. Therese did as a child. I hope they will continue to use them; they may wear them pinned to their uniforms since the girls have no pockets.

Our letter sound this week was Catina Cat “c”. We had maple leaf cookies and talked about Canada and their flag which has a maple leaf on it.

Today was our field trip to the Arboretum. The weather was perfect. I do wish that we could have had a bit longer to be there. The children enjoyed seeing all the pumpkins, the pumpkin house, and running through the hay maze. We had a picnic lunch then attended our class “The Pumpkin Circle” which traced the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to pumpkin to seed. It was well presented and each child brought home a pumpkin seed planted in a small peat pot. A big thank you to Mrs. Sipe, Mrs. Liao, Mrs. Rain, Mrs. Raab for joining us on the field trip! Pictures from our trip will be posted soon.

When we returned to school, we watched a short movie about guardian angels. Some colored a prayer card, others took one home. No naps today so some of the children might be extra tired.

Congratulations to one of our students who got an award for Student of the Month: Antonella Gentry!

We will be having a Saint Day Party on October 30th so you might be talking with your child now about what saint they would like to dress as for the day.

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter

Week of Sept 14-18,2009

September 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

This week was letter “a” (short sound) with our Zoophonics animal friend Allie Alligator. We made a paper plate Allie Alligator, and pom-pom animals. We read several books around the short a sound: Apricot ABC, A is for Angry, Johnny Appleseed, and A is for Anaconda. To incorporate the sound of the week into our snack time, we had apricots and animal crackers.

We learned the terms globe, map and continents. We highlighted Africa and looked at animals that live there. We colored an outline map of Africa and put stickers of some animals on it.

We did a few more lessons in our Saxon math books. This week one-to-one correspondence was introduced as well as linking cubes.

We added a betta fish to our classroom so the children can take turns feeding the fish. Our gardening was cancelled due to all the rain. This week we will start some seeds in preparation for our trip to the arboretum on Oct. 2.

We talked about the Trinity and did some pages from our workbooks on the sign of the cross and the Trinity.

We made Mat Man and the children drew pictures of a man . We worked with the wooden pieces from our handwriting program and reviewed direction words (front, back, top, middle, bottom, diagonal, horizontal, and vertical.)

We had very limited outside play time, so did group movements and songs to help use up some energy. We had a fun and busy week.

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter

Sept 8-11

September 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

PreK News

Its been a busy and fun time for our second week at school. Briefly, here are some of the things that we covered:

Religion:

We’ve been talking about God being the Creator of all things, are learning to make the sign of the cross before and after our prayers, and started reading stories from Catholic Treasure Box books. On Tuesday we celebrated the Nativity of Blessed Mother.

Math:

We’ve been continuing our calendar work, and made a picture graph showing the number of girls/boys in our class.

Language:

Talking, listening to stories, songs and fingerplays are used to help develop language skills. We’ve done “Hokey Pokey,” and “Farmer in the Dell.” On Friday we had show and tell. We have introduced all of the signals for the alphabet! The children are doing so well with that. Next week we will begin having a “letter of the week” which, of course, will be “a.” Wednesdays will most likely be the day when we will have a special snack to go along with our letter for the week.

Handwriting without Tears:

You may have heard some songs that we have learned from this program: “Pick Up a Crayon” or “Tap, Tap”. We use very small flip crayons which each have two colors, and one needs to “flip” it around to change to the other color. We have learned the names of our fingers and how to hold our crayon: thumb, pointer, and tall man. The children have really enjoyed “Tap, Tap”: they use the “big lines” wooden pieces, and tap to the rhythm. Listening closely is required as they have to stop when it says stop.

Science:

We have seashells to examine; dinosaurs are always of great interest; and next week we will have a parent, Monica Kelley, help us clean up our garden plot and plant some new things. (There is a garden plot in the middle of the playground behind the school; each class from PK-5^th grade has a plot.)

Centers/Art:

The children continue to love playing in the kitchen, socializing and doing imaginative play. Using the construction toys (Lincoln Logs, and another building set) are quite a challenge for them, but some are remembering how to construct items using the pictures in the guidebook. Playdough is always popular, and many made pictures with our dot markers this week.

Behavior/Discipline:

Two of the most important virtues for our little folks to acquire are order and obedience. I attempt to help them learn this through our practices of lining up, being orderly in the classroom, and following instructions. Lying still for rest time is difficult for some, but everyone does lie down for a rest even if they don’t sleep. To encourage their cooperation with quiet time, the children may earn a star for being quiet or sleeping. Once they have 5 stars on their chart, they may choose a little prize.

See you at the picnic Saturday evening,

Mrs. Karen Bianco

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter

August 31-September 4

September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment or Ask a Question | Print This Homework Post

We had a wonderful first week of school! I have enjoyed getting to know each of the children, and seeing them adjust to classroom routines. Budding friendships ,cooperative play, and several acts of kindness were seen. Most days few actually slept at naptime, but most were able to lie quietly and rest while listening to music.

Tuesday the children had their first music class with Miss Linda in which they had a lot of fun, moving to the music.

During our circle time, we did our calendar and weather daily, sang songs, and practiced the signals for animal friends from a-t. They are quickly catching on to that. We also had fun working with the wooden pieces from our Handwriting Without Tears program, and singing some songs from that (“Tap, tap”, “Hello Song”). Another important item was learning the names of our fingers and how to correctly hold our flip crayon. To help us in that we sing “Pick up a crayon”. We also began our math work. Each child has a booklet for daily work. We started our calendar September 1 in that. Pattern blocks and teddy bear counters were introduced.

We will be noting the Nativity of the Blessed Mother on Tuesday, have music and starting to work in our garden plot next week.

Blankets were sent home to be laundered; please remember to send them back on Tuesday. The children have their morning snack, and also some are hungry for a snack after our rest period, so if your child’s lunch box is coming home empty, you may wish to send an additional snack for the afternoon.

Please feel free to e-mail or call me if you have any questions about your child’s progress the first week, or about specifics on our classroom routines.

Enjoy the Labor Day weekend,

Karen Bianco

Posted by Karen Bianco | Filed Under Pre-Kindergarten: Newsletter