Good afternoon!
In religion this week, our class was learning about countries! We learned that there are hundreds of countries in the world where people live. People who live in different countries may speak different languages, dress differently, and eat different foods, but we are all children of God. God made and loves every person in the world, so He wants us to love each other too and treat each other like members of His family. We used our globe to locate some countries around the world including Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Ireland, Vietnam, and more. We also learned a little bit about the flags that represent different countries. We recognized the American flag as a symbol for our country and noticed the different colors and designs of the flags of some other countries. In language this week, we were learning about travel and transportation. We learned that to travel means to change our location (the place we are in now). We learned that transportation refers to the way we change our location. We talked about examples of different types of transportation: cars, planes, boats, trains, walking, bicycles, helicopters, etc. Next week, we will continue the topic of transportation. Building off of what we learned about countries in religion, we learned more about our own country and state that we live in. We spent time exploring and discussing the US map, seeing that our country is made up of of 50 "pieces" called states. We learned that the state we live in is called Pennsylvania, and we practiced locating it on the map. We also learned that our school is located in the city of Columbia in Pennsylvania. We discussed various states and countries that the children have traveled to and located each on the map/globe. In math this week, we continued to practice with odd/even numbers. We remembered that odd/even numbers follow a pattern: 1-odd, 2-even, 3-odd, 4-even, etc. We also remembered that we can tell if an amount is odd or even by pairing up items; if every item has a partner, then the amount is even, but if one item is left out, then the amount is odd. This week, we were also working on some map/direction skills. We learned that mathematicians use grids, which are kind of like maps, to tell the locations of objects. "Quadrants" refer to the sections of a grid. We used 4-quadrant grids and direction words to practice telling the locations of objects and to put objects in the correct locations ("the green frog is the in top-left quadrant", "the red frog is in the bottom-right quadrant", etc.). On Friday this week, Hank the Health Hero visited us to teach us about feelings. He talked about ways to identify and cope with how our bodies and minds may be feeling. See the class website for pictures: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/photos.html Letters this week were Rr and Ss. Mr. R has rainbow ribbons, and Ms. S has super socks! We also learned the sight words run and see. Our numbers this week were 7 and 8. This week's Cool Kids were Kinsley, Owen, (Bridget), Ara, and James. Next week's Cool Kids will be Hadley (Monday), Aydrian (Tuesday), McKenna (Wednesday), and Brooklyn (Thursday). Reminders/Announcements: Thursday, March 19th is a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, March 20th. This is an emergency makeup day. Spring progress reports will be coming home by the end of March. Although we do not have a formal parent conference day in the spring, you are welcome to schedule a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss anything regarding your child's progress. Easter break is scheduled for Thursday, April 9th - Monday, April 13th. Thank you, and stay healthy! Mrs. S
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Happy March!
In religion this week, our class learned that God made flowers. We learned that there are many different types of flowers in the world: roses, lilies, daisies, daffodils, dandelions, sunflowers, pansies, etc. just to name a few. We talked about how all the different types and colors of flowers help make the world more beautiful. We learned that flowers are often placed in churches to show our love and to honor Jesus and Mary. We also talked about what flowers/plants needs in order to grow and be alive (soil, water, sunlight, and air) and parts of flowers/plants (seeds, stem, leaves, petals, etc.). We thanked God for the gift of flowers in the world. In language/science this week, we were learning about the human body! We discussed parts of our bodies that we can see on the outside like skin, shoulders, knees, arms, legs, heads, feet, hands, etc. We then learned about some important parts inside our bodies like our brains, hearts, lungs, bones, stomachs, and muscles. Each child made a book to help learn more about these important parts of our bodies. We learned that our brain acts like a computer sending messages throughout our whole body helping us think and move. Our heart sends blood throughout our whole body with each pump. Our blood travels through tubes called veins. Our lungs take in air when we breathe and help send oxygen throughout our body. Our stomachs are where food goes when we swallow it. Our stomachs help to break up our food to give us energy. Our bones make up our skeleton and help hold our bodies together. Without bones, we would be very floppy! We also talked about x-rays as a tool for helping to make sure our bones are healthy. And we have muscles in every part of our body that help push, pull, and move our body in any way we need to. Our bodies are amazing! The children each completed Kid Writing on the topic of one reason their bodies are amazing. In math this week, we were reviewing ordering numbers and patterns. We also began learning about odd and even numbers. We learned that amounts where every item can be paired with a partner are even, but if one item is left out, the amount is odd. Using a number line, we also saw that odd and even numbers follow a pattern: 1-odd, 2-even, 3-odd, 4-even, etc. We will continue to work on this concept next week. This week, we have also been celebrating Read Across America/Dr. Seuss's birthday by enjoying some of his classic stories including The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Dr. Seuss's ABCs, and Green Eggs and Ham. We were noticing how Dr. Seuss often uses rhyming and alliteration to make his stories interesting. Each of the children used rhyming words to create poems entitled I Will Read. These are hanging in our classroom. Our letters this week were Pp and Qq. Ms. P has pointy patches, and Mr. Q has questions. This class is doing so well with all of our letters and letter sounds! They are on their way to being great readers and writers. Our numbers this week were 5 and 6. We have been focusing more on how to write our numbers, as well as continuing adding and subtracting. Cool Kids this week were Hadley, Brooklyn, McKenna, Claire, and Stella. Next week's Cool Kids are Kinsley (Monday), Owen (Tuesday), Bridget (Wednesday), Ara (Thursday), and James (Friday). Reminders/Announcements: Parents, we are in need of tissues for our classroom. If you are able to donate any, it would be greatly appreciated! Thursday, March 19th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, March 20th. This will be a makeup day if we have any snow days before then. Spring progress reports will be coming home by the end of March. Although we do not have a formal parent conference day in the spring, you are welcome to schedule a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss anything regarding your child's progress. Easter break will be Thursday, April 9th - Monday, April 13th. Enjoy the weekend! Mrs. S In religion this week, our class was learning about Lent. We celebrated Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, this past Wednesday. Fr. Swamy visited the preschool classrooms to distribute ashes to the students and teachers. The children learned that the cross on our heads is a symbol for Jesus that reminds us of His great love and that we should try to be more like Him. We learned that Lent is a special time of preparing for Easter (similar to Advent before Christmas). Lent is 40 days long, and it is a time to grow closer to Jesus through praying and performing good deeds. We began coloring Lenten calendars which we will use each day to mark our progress through Lent as we approach Easter. We remembered that Easter is a celebration of Jesus coming alive again after dying on the cross and being buried in the tomb. Throughout Lent, our class will continue to learn more about Jesus' life and death, the stations of the cross, and ways that we can walk with Jesus during this time of preparation.
Our theme for language and math/science this week was creativity! We learned that there are many ways to be creative, from drawing and painting to singing and dancing. We talked about different mediums for creating visual art. We observed illustrations in various books made using watercolors, oil paints, and pencil drawings. We talked about planning and being intentional when creating art projects. We spent time brainstorming ideas for pictures and details to include. The children each chose from watercolors, tempera paints, or markers/crayons/pencils to create pictures. Many of the children opted to use watercolor paints. Their creations are hanging in our hallway! We also learned about creating/building 3-dimensional art, i.e. sculptures. We learned that sculptures can be made using many kinds of materials: paper, cardboard, wood, stone, clay, ice, etc. We used pre-cut cardboard shapes to build/create geometric sculptures. The children then decorated their sculptures by painting them. These are also on display in our hallway! We also learned that we can make art using our voices and bodies. Poems, songs, and stories are all beautiful things that we can create with our words. We can express ourselves by dancing and singing along to music. We talked about movements our bodies make while dancing such as hopping, twirling, skipping, leaping, tapping, clapping, stomping, spinning, etc. We practiced moving/dancing to different types of music. In math this week, we were also reviewing quantification strategies, i.e. ways of telling how many. We remembered that we can use counting, eyeballing for small amounts, estimating for bigger amounts, and reading written numerals. We continued to practice identifying numbers 0-20, and we practiced writing numbers 1-10. Letters this week were Nn and Oo. Mr. N has a noisy nose, and Mr. O has opposites. We also learned the sight words no and on. Numbers this week were 3 and 4. The children are continuing to gain confidence in their adding skills and are even beginning to master subtraction with these numbers! Cool Kids this week were McKenna, Ara, Kinsley, Aydrian, and James. During our "show and tell" time lately, the children have been sharing with the class by reading their Bob Books aloud and reading/describing their recent Kid Writing. They are gaining confidence reading and speaking in front of an audience! They have been doing a great job! Next week's Cool Kids are Hadley (Monday), Brooklyn (Tuesday), McKenna (Wednesday), Claire (Thursday), and Stella (Friday). The March schedule should have come home in your child's folder. It is also on the class website: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/cool-kid-schedule.html Reminders/Announcements: Nap bags are coming home this weekend for cleaning/exchanging items. Please remember to return them on Monday morning! Thursday, March 19th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, March 20th. This will be a makeup day if we have any snow days before then. Spring progress reports will be coming home at the end of March. Although we do not have a formal parent conference day in the spring, you are welcome to schedule a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss anything regarding your child's progress. Easter break will be Thursday, April 9th - Monday, April 13th. Have a great weekend! Mrs. S Good afternoon PreK C families!
In religion this week, we learned that God made colors. We talked about how different the world would be if everything was just gray/black/white. We used our rainbow peepholes (pictured) to observe all the colors of the rainbow. We talked about our favorite colors, and we thanked God for creating such a beautiful and colorful world. In language and math/science this week, our theme was "building". We learned the vocabulary word construct. We talked about construction workers and construction sites as well as machines and materials for building. We used blocks to form the letters in the word construct, and each child also made the first letter of his/her name out of blocks. The children continue to work on their creative building skills during our Labyrinth play time each week (see pictures from these activities on the class website: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/photos.html ). We also talked about "building" friendships. We discussed ways to be a good friend and talked about what good friends do (play together, share, listen to each other, etc.) and what good friends say (will you play with me?, I'm sorry, I forgive you, I love you, I don't like it when you ___, etc.). With our discussion of friendship, we read the book We are all Alike, We are all Different. This is a special book because it was written and illustrated by children! We talked about the ways that we are the same and different from our friends. The children then completed self portraits which you can see hanging in our hallway. We also learned about "building" sentences. We learned that a sentence is a group of words that tells us something. We learned that a sentence starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a period (or question mark or exclamation point). We practiced using word cards to build sentences. Letters this week were Ll and Mm. Ms. L has the longest laugh, and Mr. M has a munching mouth. Numbers this week were 0, 1, and 2. We continued to practice adding with these numbers and began to work on some subtraction as well! Cool Kids this week were Owen, Bridget, Claire, and Stella. The kids are very excited because EVERYone in our class is now 5 years old! Next week's Cool Kids are McKenna (Monday), Ara (Tuesday), Kinsley (Wednesday), Aydrian (Thursday), and James (Friday). The March schedule will be coming home next week. It is also posted on the class website: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/cool-kid-schedule.html Reminders/Announcements: Thursday, March 19th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, March 20th. This will be a makeup day if we have any snow days before then. Spring progress reports will be coming home at the end of March. Although we do not have a formal parent conference day in the spring, you are welcome to schedule a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss anything regarding your child's progress. Enjoy the long weekend! Mrs. S Good afternoon!
In religion this week, our class learned about St. Valentine and Valentine's Day! We listened to this story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ausU-aWEQTQ which taught us about St. Valentine and his feast day. We learned that Valentine's Day is a special day for showing love to others, and we talked about ways we can be loving. We learned that Jesus loves us more than anyone can, and He wants us to share that love with others. In language and math/science this week, we learned about tools. We talked about and practiced using toy versions of some common tools like hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, screws, nails, etc. We learned that tools and machines can help us get jobs done, fix things, and make our lives easier. We talked about tools and machines in our classrooms and homes that help us. We also focused on tools for measurement, especially rulers. We practiced using/reading rulers to help us know how long items are. We also touched on kitchen tools like measuring cups and spoons and discussed their uses when cooking and following recipes. Our Valentine's Party on Wednesday was a success! The children had so much fun decorating and eating cookies, playing with play dough, passing out their cards and treats, creating various Valentines crafts, and playing Valentines themed games. Thank you again to all who contributed items to make this a fun day for our students. Check the class website for pictures: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/photos.html Letters this week were Jj and Kk. Ms. J has a jingling jacket, and Ms. K has a kaboom kick. We also learned the sight word jump. Numbers this week were 19 and 20. We learned that 19 means 10 and 9, and 20 means 10 and 10! This week's Cool Kids were Hadley, Ara, and Brooklyn. Next week, we will have Owen (Tuesday), Bridget (Wednesday), Claire (Thursday), and Stella (Friday). We are looking forward to celebrating Bridget's and Stella's birthdays! Reminders/Announcements: There is no school on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. See you back on Tuesday! Thursday, March 19th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, March 20th. This will be a makeup day if we have any snow days before then. Spring progress reports will be coming home at the end of March. Although we do not have a formal parent conference day in the spring, you are welcome to schedule a time to meet with me if you would like to discuss anything regarding your child's progress. Enjoy the long weekend! Mrs. S Good afternoon, In religion this week, our class learned that the very first thing God created when He began making the world was light. "God said, 'Let there be light', and there was light." (Genesis 1:3) We talked about God's gift of light...how the sun gives us both light and warmth, how hard it would be for us to live if it was dark and cold all the time, etc. We also read the story in the Bible of Jesus healing a blind man. Jesus was like light for the blind man and helped him to see. We learned that Jesus is called "the light of the world" because His love shines on us, and He helps us know how to live. We also talked about the presence of candles in churches to represent Jesus' love for us. In language and math/science this week, we were relearning shapes! We reviewed our 5 basic shapes (circle, oval, triangle, square, and rectangle) and talked about their attributes (how many sides, length of sides, etc.). We also learned more about some more complex shapes including quadrilaterals, hexagons, and octagons. We learned that a shape's name often tells us how many sides the shape has: tri- means 3, so triangles have 3 sides and 3 corners/angles, quad- means 4, so quadrilaterals are shapes with 4 sides, etc. We did lots of art projects featuring shapes including circle paintings made by stamping cups, shapes paintings made by stamping differently shaped blocks, shape rubbings made by placing cardstock shapes under a piece of paper and then rubbing with a crayon to see the shape appear, and shape houses. Many of these projects are on display in our hallway, so be sure to check them out! This week, we also learned about positional vocabulary that helps us to know where things are. This type of vocabulary includes words like above, below, under, over, on top, beside, right, left, behind, etc. We practiced following and giving directions using these words/phrases. Our letters this week were Hh and Ii. Mr. H has happy hair, and Mr. I has impossible inches! Our sight words this week were has and in. Our numbers this week were 17 and 18. We have been focusing on quantifying teens as "10 and 7" or "10 and 8", etc. Cool Kids this week were Bridget, Claire, James, Aydrian, and Kinsley. Happy birthday to Aydrian and Kinsley, our newest 5 year olds! Next week's Cool Kids will be Hadley (Monday), Ara (Tuesday), and Brooklyn (Thursday). Reminders/Announcements: Donuts with Dad is taking place on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:15am at the main building. Our Valentine's Day party is coming up on Wednesday, February 12th. Students can bring in Valentines for the children of both classes to pass out during the party. Thursday, February 13th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. The 14th will be a make up day if we have any snow days before then. Thank you! Mrs. S Happy Friday!
The children in this class are amazing me every day with how far each of them has come and how much they know and are able to do! They are all coming along so well with their letters and letter sounds, numbers and adding skills, and even their reading and writing! It's awesome to see! This is truly an amazing class! On Monday of this week, our class attended mass celebrated by Bishop Gainer at Holy Trinity. I was very proud of how reverent and respectful our class was in church. Mr. Breen the superintendent was sitting in front of us, and he turned around at the end of mass to compliment the children on how well they behaved and how nice it was to have them there. It was beautiful to be able to participate in mass as a whole school! In religion this week, our class was learning that God made air. We read from the Bible (Genesis 2:7) about God creating the first person, Adam, and breathing life into him. We thought about our own breathing and talked about how our bodies need air in order to live. We also talked about many other ways air/wind is useful... air is in bike or car tires, air allows sailboats, kites, and airplanes to work, etc. We learned that just as we cannot see air, but we know it is there, we know that God is with us even though we can't see Him. In language this week, we reviewed fairytales. We remembered that a fairytale is a story that usually contains magic or make-believe characters or events. Fairytales also often begin with "once upon a time" and end with "they lived happily ever after". We read The Frog Prince, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Shoemaker and the Elves, The Princess and the Pea, and more. We continued to practice reading comprehension skills by answering who, what, when, where, and why questions about what we read. We also reviewed characters and setting and remembered that the characters are who the story is about, and the setting is where the story takes place. We practiced identifying the main character in stories as well. In math this week, we were practicing lots of adding. The children are really coming along with this skill! Many of them are able to solve addition problems independently which is fantastic! When we practice adding, we use a variety of methods to help visualize and/or concretely show the amounts we are working with. For totals under 10, fingers are always helpful (e.g. 3 fingers on one hand, 2 fingers on the other hand, put your hands together, how many total?). We also use connecting cubes a lot to help us with these problems (e.g. Ara has 4 cubes, and Bridget has 3 cubes, connect them all together and what is the total?). We also draw pictures to help visualize amounts (e.g. we have a group of 5 cookies and a group of 2 cookies, how many all together?). We always write number sentences to show what we are talking about (e.g. 5 + 2 = 7). This week, we also reviewed estimating and concepts of more/less. Our letters this week were Ff and Gg. Ms. F has funny feet, and Mr. G has gooey gum in his hair. Our numbers this week were 15 and 16. Cool Kids this week were Hadley, Aydrian, McKenna, Brooklyn, and Stella. Next week's Cool Kids will be Bridget (Monday), Claire (Tuesday), James (Wednesday), Aydrian (Thursday- birthday!), and Kinsley (Friday - birthday!). Reminders/Announcements: Donuts with Dad is taking place on Tuesday, February 11th at 7:15am at the main building. The PreK B and C classes are planning a Valentine's Day party on Wednesday, February 12th. Students can bring in Valentines for the children of both classes to pass out during the party. Thursday, February 13th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. The 14th will be a make up day if we have any snow days before then. Thank you! Mrs. S Good afternoon! Please remember to read the reminders/announcements section of this newsletter for important info and dates coming up!
In religion this week, our class learned that God made trees. We are learning that God gives us everything we need in our world. Trees give us food, shade, wood for building toys, furniture, homes, etc., and even paper. Trees also provide homes and food for many animals. Trees help keep our earth healthy and beautiful. We also talked about the Bible verse from Luke's gospel in which Jesus says, "a good tree bears good fruit". We learned that we can be like good trees by always trying our best to live like Jesus. Our "good fruits" are the good things that we say and do. In language this week, we were learning about traditional stories. We reread some favorites including The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, Little Red, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and Little Red Hen. We learned the vocabulary terms characters and setting. We learned that characters are who the story is about and setting is where the story takes place. We practiced answering who, what, when, where, and why questions about each story that we read. We also learned what it means to give a summary (to retell a story using your own words), and the children practiced retelling familiar stories. We also used some graphic organizers like a Venn diagram and a story pyramid to help us recall and organize information from stories we read. We are learning to be attentive readers and to remember and process what we have read! In math this week, we were learning more about progressions and ordering. We continued to practice measuring/ordering objects biggest to smallest or shortest to tallest, etc. We also learned about other kinds of progressions including soft-medium-loud, least-medium-most, etc. We used a book of "super words" which illustrated terms like "small-smaller-smallest", "high-higher-highest", "close-closer-closest", etc. to help us understand these concepts. Letters this week were Dd and Ee. We reviewed their sounds and letter people: Mr. Dd does a dazzling dance, and Ms. Ee has exercise energy! We also learned the sight words do and dad. Numbers this week were 13 and 14. We learned about these numbers and their relationship to the number 10... 13 means 10 and 3, 14 means 10 and 4. Cool Kids this week were Owen, Bridget, Ara, and James. Next week's Cool Kids are Hadley (Monday), Aydrian (Tuesday), McKenna (Wednesday), Brooklyn (Thursday), and Stella (Friday). The February schedule should have come home in your child's folder. It is also on the class website: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/cool-kid-schedule.html Reminders/Announcements: Catholic Schools Week is next week! All OLA students/families are invited to the opening mass on Saturday the 25th at 4:30 (St. Peter's) or 5:00 (Holy Trinity). Bishop Gainer will be visiting our school and celebrating mass on Monday, January 27th. Weather permitting, preschool will be walking up to attend mass at Holy Trinity at 9:00 (if there is any precipitation or if the temps are too cold, preschool will not attend). All are welcome to attend the mass. Family Literacy Night is taking place on Wednesday, January 29th from 6:00-7:30. All students/families PreK - 4th grade are invited! See ParentSquare for details and to RSVP! Preschool will have an early dismissal at 11:30 on Friday, January 31st so that our teachers can attend a teacher appreciation luncheon. The PreK B and C classes are planning a Valentine's Day party on Wednesday, February 12th. Students can bring in Valentines for the children of both classes to pass out during the party. Thursday, February 13th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. The 14th will be a make up day if we have any snow days before then. Thank you! Mrs. S Good afternoon!
In religion this week, the PreK C class learned that God made birds. We discussed and saw pictures of some different types of birds including cardinals, bluejays, ostriches, penguins, eagles, woodpeckers, and more. We learned that God takes care of what He has created...He made the birds able to fly so that they can find food and get away from predators, and He makes sure they have food to eat and places to live. We learned that if God cares about and looks after the little birds, He will surely take care of us too because we are even more special to Him (Matthew 6:26). In language this week, we were learning about nursery rhymes and rhyming words. We heard traditional rhymes/poems like Humpty Dumpty, Miss Mary Mack, Three Little Kittens, Little Bo Peep, and more. We focused on listening for and identifying the rhyming words in these poems, as well as answering questions to check comprehension. We continued to practice generating rhymes for a given word, matching rhyming word cards, and reading/recognizing rhymes in word families (e.g. -at family: cat, rat, sat, etc. or -en family: hen, pen, when, etc.). We also reviewed alliteration (when several words in a row or close together begin with the same letter). In math this week, we were working on some early fraction concepts. We talked about Humpty Dumpty breaking into pieces when he fell off the wall. We used play dough as our "Humpty" and experimented with cutting it into into different numbers of pieces. We saw that the more pieces we made, the smaller our pieces became, and the fewer pieces we made, the bigger the pieces were. We used language like whole, half, equal, and touched on thirds, fourths, etc. We also continued to practice counting and grouping strategies this week, as well as learning the word pair which means 2. Our letters this week were B and C. We reviewed their sounds and revisited Mr. B who has beautiful buttons and Mr. C who has a colossal cap. We also learned the sight words be and can. Our numbers this week were 11 and 12. We are working on becoming more fluent and confident with identifying double digit numbers 11-20! Cool Kids this week were McKenna, Brooklyn, Stella, Claire, and Kinsley. Next week's Cool Kids are Owen (Tuesday), Bridget (Wednesday), Ara (Thursday), and James (Friday). The February schedule will be coming home sometime next week. It is also on the class website: https://olaprekc.weebly.com/cool-kid-schedule.html Reminders/Announcements: Please remember there is no school on Monday, January 20th. Catholic Schools Week is coming up beginning on Saturday, January 25th. All OLA students/families are invited to the opening mass on Saturday the 25th at 4:30 (St. Peter's) or 5:00 (Holy Trinity). Bishop Gainer will be visiting our school and celebrating mass on Monday, January 27th. Weather permitting, preschool will be walking up to attend mass at Holy Trinity at 9:00 (if there is any precipitation or if the temps are too cold, preschool will not attend). All are welcome to attend the mass. Family Literacy Night is taking place on Wednesday, January 29th from 6:00-7:30. All students/families PreK - 4th grade are invited! See ParentSquare for details and to RSVP! Preschool will have an early dismissal at 11:30 on Friday, January 31st so that our teachers can attend a teacher appreciation luncheon. The PreK B and C classes are planning a Valentine's Day party on Wednesday, February 12th. Students can bring in Valentines for the children of both classes to pass out during the party. Thursday, February 13th will be a Mission Dress Down day. There will be no school on Friday, February 14th and Monday, February 17th. The 14th will be a make up day if we have any snow days before then. Enjoy the long weekend! Mrs. S Good afternoon!
In religion this week, our class was learning about churches. We learned that the church building is God's house, and we go there to pray, sing, worship, and learn about Jesus. We learned that it makes Jesus very happy when we visit Him at church. We talked about objects usually found in churches...statues of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, crosses, candles, the altar, the tabernacle, and more. On Friday last week, we went into St. Peter's church (we have been doing this periodically throughout the year). When in church, we practice reverent behavior (quiet, walking feet, sitting/kneeling, genuflecting, and walking up with folded arms for communion time) so that we are ready and know what to do when we go to mass with the whole school. We also spend time in prayer and observing/discussing the objects we see in the church and their meaning. In language this week, we were learning about problem solving. We learned the vocabulary words options, persistence, and cooperation. We talked about lots of scenarios we might face (your ball gets thrown into a pond, your friend takes something that belongs to you, a friend is making noise and distracting you during carpet time, etc.), and we brainstormed solution strategies for each. We learned that when we have a problem, it's important to stop and think about what our options/choices are and then to try and choose the best one. We learned that when we are facing a problem with a friend, the best option is often to use words and tell the friend what is upsetting you. Using words like, "please stop, I don't like when you ____" or "please stop, I want to learn" can be very helpful. We also learned that working together and cooperating can often help us solve our problems. If something is difficult to do, asking a friend for help and using team work to get it done can be helpful. We also learned that persistence means keep trying. We don't give up when something is tricky. We keep practicing and trying until it gets easier and easier to do! In math this week, we were continuing to practice counting, grouping amounts, comparing groups, and adding groups. We focused on being careful counters when telling how many...going slowly, matching our finger to our voice, and double checking to make sure we are right. We reviewed concepts of estimating and eyeballing to tell amounts as well as counting. We also practiced matching numerals to amounts and continued to join different amounts together and count the total. We have been practicing writing lots of number sentences (1 + 2 = 3, etc.) to show and match our groupings. On Thursday and Friday of last week, we worked with the digraph ch and learned what these two letters sound like in words like church, chicken, chimney, etc. This week, we worked with the digraph sh and talked about the sound of these letters in words like shoe, short, she, etc. We also went back to the beginning of the alphabet to revisit letter Aa. We reviewed A's sound like in apple and we learned the sight word and. We also revisited Ms. Aa who sneezes a'choo! Last Thursday and Friday, we focused on number 8. This week, our numbers were 9 and 10. We have been practicing lots of addition with numbers 0 - 10. Cool Kids this week were Bridget, Ara, James, Aydrian, and Hadley. Next week's Cool Kids are McKenna (Monday), Brooklyn (Tuesday), Stella (Wednesday), Claire (Thursday), and Kinsley (Friday). Reminders/Announcements: Our next Mission Dress Down day will be on Thursday, January 16th. PreK C students may wear their blue shirts and bring in $2 for the missions on Thursday the 16th or Friday the 17th. Please do encourage your child to participate! The money we bring in goes to children in need, and our school-wide participation has been low recently. There will be no school on Monday, January 20th. (This will be a snow makeup day if we have any snow days before then). Catholic Schools Week is coming up beginning on Saturday, January 25th. All OLA students/families are invited to the opening mass on Saturday the 25th at 4:30 (St. Peter's) or 5:00 (Holy Trinity). Bishop Gainer will be visiting our school and celebrating mass on Monday, January 27th. Weather permitting, preschool will be walking up to attend mass at Holy Trinity at 9:00 (if there is any precipitation or if the temps are too cold, preschool will not attend). Parents are welcome to attend the mass. Family Literacy Night is taking place on Wednesday, January 29th from 6:00-7:30. All students/families PreK - 4th grade are invited! See ParentSquare for details and to RSVP! Preschool will have an early dismissal at 11:30 on Friday, January 31st so that our teachers can attend a teacher appreciation luncheon. The PreK B and C classes are planning a Valentine's Day party on Wednesday, February 12th. Please see the sign up genius for items we will need: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0D4DAEA92FABFA7-valentines Thanks! Have a great weekend! Mrs. S |
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