Thursday, February 9th
One more day until the Big 
Ball. We were busy putting the finishing touches on our activities for tomorrow. I don't want to ruin the surprise but I am sure the daddies will feel very special after spending this fun time with there precious little one. Isabella P. was our special person.
We continued working on our ocean mural and we even made individual smaller scale oceans. The children enjoyed drawing fish and choosing fish stickers to decorate their ocean.
We started creating beautiful stained glass Valentine cards for our parents today. It was a great craft for exercising our fine motor muscles. The children needed to pick up tissue paper squares and glue them to a pre-cut heart. They used fine bristled paint brushes to glue the squares to the heart. There was much thinking going on as they had to determine how many squares to use and where to place them. Matthew added a new dimension to the design and put little balls on it. Many of our "little designers" liked his style and copied it. I love to see how the children take an idea presented to them and make it their own. Way to go, Matthew!!
We used our clay to make the letter o and we even labeled our ocean with letters made of clay. Children shaped each of the letters and I place them on our bulletin board.
Our girls did a great job with Show and Tell. We enjoyed seeing oreo cookies, several oranges, an owl, and an Olivia book. Before going home we feasted on some vanilla oreo cookies. It was another great day in pre-school.
Wednesday, February 8th
We started our day day with a dance and a prayer as we chose partners to move to the music. Speaking of music we conducted our own orchestra today as we looked at pictures of a violin, a cello, a clarinet and a tuba. Tomorrow we hope to get to listen to the sound of the instuments using a smart board. We also used our sticks to tap out the beats to words and names. With Ms. serrator we made animal puppets and danced to the animal zoo.
We continue to work on our surprises for our Valentine Ball. We were cutting and coloring today as we got ready for the Big day.
We made owls today as we cut and pasted our shapes to make an outstanding owl.
We continued making our mural of the ocean and we also started making our own ocean to bring home. Using the smart board ,we viewed a 3 minute clip of ocean life. life. After reading Commotion in the Ocean, it was fun seeing all the ocean life that the children could identify.
We started writing our book, Ollie Owl Discovers Opposites, as the children acted out opposites with oour fine feathered friend, Ollie.
Tuesday, February 7th
The boys were O V E R the top with their Show and Tells today. We had an orange, an Optimus prime transformer, an owl, 2 octopuses, an owl story book, and colorful gushy okies. Any boy who forgot may bring in something for Thursday.
We practiced writing the letter O today after playing a fun alphabet
game that allowed us to show off our knowledge of the sounds of letters A through O. We cut, pasted and glued today to create octopuses. We will be hanging them in our blue ocean.
Speaking of oceans, we sponged painted a beautiful ocean today on one of our bulletin boards. Tomorrow we will glue sand and add some colorful fish and sea life to our display. We also added some ocean words to our display including: fish, water, sand, salt and swim.
As a follow up to our nose activity from last week where we identified certain odors and voted YES(I like it) or NO( I do not like it), the children looked at a graph. The graph showed how many children liked each scent and how many did not like each scent. For each of the four scents, we compared the numbers and talked about which was larger and which was smaller. We also drew conclusions from these numbers. We then put our conclusion in a sentence. This activity was done in small groups. I was very impressed with the children's ability to compare numbers and draw conclusions. It was definitely a higher level thinking skill and the children were up for the challenge. Way to go, preK!!!
Shh-Shh Don't tell the dads but we are working on lots of things for
Friday. Please check your child's folder, I sent home several things today.
Have a super evening with your wonderful family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, February 6th
O week started as we opened our mouths in song to sing, Good Morning, Good Morning to You. It is a great way to start each day. We talked about O words and the sound of O in words like ostrich, owl, oven, ox, and orange. We also talked about words like open, ocean, and overalls.
We started working on our Valentine Ball celebration and we have several surprises in store. The children are sharing their thoughts about their dads. It is very sweet. We are preparing two songs and making decorations.
We traced the letter O and colored, cut and traced an Owl today.
We continued our countdown to 100 days of school. We are almost there with 92 days completed. It is hard to believe our school year is more than half way over.
Have a great night!
Friday, February 3rd
What a busy Friday we enjoyed as we closed our Catholic Schools' Week celebration. Gianna was our special person. Using an egg timer to race around our circle our classroom friends each had an opportunity to say a kind word to Gianna. It is a great way to practice our friendship building skills.
We had fun in computer class with Mrs. Gellar as we learned more keyboarding skills. We also listened to a story about Noah and his family. We talked about what a flood is and we talked about the importance of being safe when there is heavy rain. We made an arc and filled it with animal crackers.
We made Noodle snowflakes as we followed a pattern to create a beautiful snowflake. We used our fine motor skills as we chose different sized noodles to match, sort and create our design.
We played outside in the afternoon enjoying the beautiful sunshine and brisk cool air. The Preschool Newspaper will be sent home on Tuesday. If you have not sent in your article, please do so by Monday. Thanks!!!
Thursday, February 2nd
Today, continuing with our celebration of Catholic School Week we attended a prayer service for our priests, Father Lucas and Father Kelly. The boys and girls felt very grown-up sitting in the gym with all of the "big kids" in the school. The children made cards and gave presents of candy and cookies to the priests.
We also made predictions today as we talked about the ground hog. In our journals, we predicted whether or not the ground hog saw his shadow. Some of the children were hoping he did as they love winter and want 6 more weeks of it. They want lots of snow to go sledding and they also want to build snow people. Some of my friends are hoping for an early spring. They predicted that the groundhog would not see his shadow. They are ready to go to the beach and play outside without a coat.
We will see what the official word is from Punxsutwney.
We also made our own burrows and groundhogs that the children are bringing home today.
We continue talking about the sense of smell. Today we read a story about animals' sense of smell and how most animals sense of smell is better than humans. Please ask your child about the animals we read about today.
ope to see you at McDonald's tonight. I will be thdere at 5:45.
Wednesday,February 1st
We started our Wednesday making sandwiches for the residents of the life center. The children put on latex gloves and made some delicious turkey and cheese sandwiches. After we put them in plastic bags, the children added a dessert to the beautifully decorated brown lunch bags we prepared yesterday. I was so proud of them. They particiapted in a great service project coordinated by Mrs. McGeever. It is a great example of how we are never to young to help others in need.
Working on our fine motor skills, we made bird's nests. The children each took a lunch bag and carefully rolled down the sides. At first, some of the children thought it was to difficult but with perserverence, everyone was able to create a beautiful nest. We added some grass and we left our nests on our tables. We opened a window and made a wish that a bird would fly in and leave an egg behind. We went to music class with Mrs. serratore and when we returned all of our nests had a colorful egg inside. Each egg has pictures of our N items that we colored this morning. What a treat!!
We also read a story about noses , We Need our Nose. We used our sense of smell to vote on whether we liked certain odors including: moth balls, cinnamon, coffee and vanilla. After smelling each scent, each child voted yes or no on his/her sheet. It was interesting to see their responses. We will chart our results tomorrow.
We talked about the new month and all of the fun things in store for February.
Gym is tomorrow as is Girls' Show and Tell.
Parents, please send back the Valentine Ball RSVP as it is very important that I make sure each child has someone present for him/her.
Have a great evening.
Tuesday, January 31st
Today was another nice day in preschool 4. We started our day with each of us making Yes and No signs for a classroom game. We will add these words to our new word wall. We read the story Nests, Nests, Nests as we prepared to build a net for our feathered friends.
To celebrate Catholic Schools Week we had Teacher Switch Day. Mrs. Pedano, our kindergarten teacher, came into our class and taught a lesson. The children enjoyed Mrs. Pedano very much.
We enjoyed the unusually warm last day of January by going outside this morning and again this afternoon. We decorated bags for sandwiches that we will make tomorrow for the residents of the homeless shelter at 63rd and Market Streets. We completed our January calendars. Our boys brought in many interesting items for Show and Tell including; 2 notebooks, 2 ninjas, a net, a neat car and a nerf football. Great job, boys!!!!
Monday, January 30th
We started our Catholic Schools Week celebation with a special thank you to our policemen, firefighters and community leaders. The children performed two rhymes, I am a Police Officer and Five Firefighters. They did a wonderful job. You can be very proud of them.
We talked about the sound of N and we named some N words. We looked at the newspaper and talked about different parts pof the paper. in your child's folder you will find a paper to ill out about our preschool news. We also played a name guessing game. The children listened to clues and had to guess the classroom friend being described.
We listened to a story at library time with ms. Sheen.
We had lots of fun as we enjoyed the sunshine running and playing outside.
Friday, January 27th
On Friday we munched on muffins, marched around the alphabet and moved ourselves into a monstrous mitten. We had fun in computer class coloring in a penguin and playing a penguin race game.
We enjoyed our hibernation party.
Thursday, January 26th
Today we made fuzzy mittens as we prepared for our Catholic Schools' Week display. We have been creating a Gingerbread Snow Village for several weeks. We decorated our gingerbread house with our painted candy wrappers and personalized hearts. Yesterday we began building our rectangular snow person. We carefully crafted his face using shapes. We went outside to collect sticks for his hands and we added some finishing touches on our snow person with some clever ideas suggested by our pre-schoolers. Lindsay wanted us to add a flower to the hat. Isabella wanted us to add some feet. Andrew wanted us to add ears and we are still working on its clothing.
We started our day with Mrs. Wallace in gym class. We had great fun with the parachute as we jumped in and around it. We had fun with a variation of Five Little Monkeys as we performed 18 Little Monkeys.
We practiced for our show on Monday reciting 2 finger plays to honor our community helpers.
We enjoyed painting with marbles and marshmallows. The children particularly enjoyed painting with marbles. Hopefully, you will be joining us on Sunday between 12 and 2 and your child can teach you how to do it.
We also enjoyed many M Show and Tells including: 3 Minnie Mouse, 1 Mickey Mouse, a medal for cheerleading, marshmallows, and a matchbox car. We talked about how the Minnies were like and how they were different. Your children are very observant.
Wednesday, January 25th
Parents, I hope to see you tonight at the open Forum in O'Brien Hall at 7:00 P.M.
Also, please note the change in date for the Early Childhood Information Night. It is now scheduled for Thursday, February 8th.
Jayda was our special person.
We monkeyed around in preschool 4 today as we read about the antics of Curious George and made some magnificent monkeys. We played around with alliteration as we named our monkeys M names. We had Maria Monkey, Mia Monkey, Mark Monkey, Mallon Monkey, Mickey Monkey and many more.
We practiced writing our Mm and put our m books in numerical order.
We said our M words in a microphone. Our boys showed their Show and Tells and we had fun with a motorcycle and another microphone. The boys who forgot are welcome to bring their Show and Tell tomorrow. We had music class with Ms. Serratore and performed motions to the music.
At Activity Time the children were able to choose between the sandbox, painting, building, coloring, drawing and/or playing in the kitchen area.
During God's time we talked about our mother, Mary. We discussed how we can talk to her through our prayers.
We finished our invitations to our dads for the Valentine Ball. Please look for them in your child's folder and return the RSVP as soon as possible.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Kieran Crossan was our special person today. Our merry Monday, started with some marshmellow counting fun! We each counted out 12 marshmellows and glued them to our letter M. We started monkeying around with a letter M craft that when finished will look like a furry, climbing monkey.
We celebrated Zaria's birthday and each of our classroom friends said something kind to Zaria that we printed on our birthday buddy cut-out. Your children are developing marvelous social skills as each child is able to say a specific compliment to his/her friend.
During friendship builders, we used our buddy sticks and some of our friends played a memory game while other played a number match game. We had library and the children listened to a story about a gorilla ending up in a classroom and the teacher ending up in the zoo. The children enjoyed the story very much. We practiced alternating our feet on the steps as we walked down the steps from the library.
Thursday and Friday, January 19th and 20th
We have certainly been on the move the past two days. On Thursday we were in London. We talked about what we would pack in our luggage for such an exciting trip! We looked at our classroom globe to find London, England. We saw the Atlantic Ocean and we talked about how some of us play in the ocean when we go to the beach. Each child packed five things he/she thought that he would need the most. Please check out your child's folder to see his most prized possessions. Nicolas was special person on Thursday.
We also had fun with Mrs. Wallace on Thursday. We went outside to play and enjoyed the cold weather.
On Friday, we practiced writing the letter Ll and colored, cut and pasted some lovely Ll pictures. Andrew was our special person. We also read a story about a llama who missed his parents while he was at school. We created a llama out of the letter Ll.
We also flew to the West Coast to enjoy a luau. We enjoyed a coconut toss, a limbo dance and an ocean wave toss. What fun!
Wednesday, January 18th
Zaria was our special person today.
We practiced writing the letter Ll today and we drew something that started with the L sound. Your children are quite the artists. I saw pictures of Luke, Lindsay, quite a few lions, some logs, a lizard and a leg. The children enjoy our morning circle when we use our dry erase boards to practice our letter formation. I hope they have been singing our new favorite song, Where Do You Start Your Letter. We played a beginning sound game that had the children moving and shaking as we identified the beginning sounds of words beginning with letters A through L.
In music class, Miss Serraore had us singing and moving to the music as we praced and danced the moves of our favorite animal friends.
We read a story about lions as we practiced our listening skills.
We estimated the number of lolipops in a box and Olivia's guess was the closest. Great job, Olivia!
Tomorrow we head across the ocean to London with some interesting items in our luggage. We also have gym tomorrow, please have your child wear sneakers. It is also girls' show and tell.
Tuesday, January 17th
Jackson was our special person today.
We started Ll week with some lip smackin' lemonade. It was a tasty way to start the day. We also learned a lion rhyme,
I'm a Little Lion
On the plain.
Here is my tail and
Here is my mane.
When I get excited
You will see
Just how loud
My roar can be!
We had fun pretending to be lions as each child was able to act like a lion and prace, dance, hop, roar or run around our circle. We made a lion craft practicing out cutting skills and our coloring. We learned vocabulary words associted with the lion including: Africa, cub, pride, lioness, mane and plain.
We reviwed beginning sounds of letters B, D, H, J and K. Using clay we continue to exercise the fine motor muscles in our hands. We also made the number 10 out of clay today.
During God's time we read another story about Martin Luther King Jr., "Celebrating the Dream". We talked about ways each of us brings peace to the world.
We looked an many lovely L items today including: two lego guys, a ladder truck, lollipops(the sweetest show and tell), buzz Lightyear and a lizard. If your son did not brings his, he is welcomed to bring one on Thursday.
Thursday and Friday, January 12th and 13th
On Thursday Isabella P. was our special person and on Friday Lindsay was our special person. On Thursday we made kites. Our kites were shaped like migrating birds. Weather did not permit us to fly them, but we will hopefully get a chance next week before they go home. We talked about birds that migrate and the reasons that they do. Please ask your child about this. We also continued talking about opposites and during our "friendship builder" time the children chose a buddy to play an opposite game. They did a super job.
On Friday we read the story, " God's Dream" and talked about the works of Martin Luther King. We made Freedom Bells and discussed the work that Martin Luther King, Jr. started to bring about peace and an end to segregation. We iced cupcakes. We iced half with chocolate icing and half with vanilla. It was a delicious treat.
Hopefully, my new computer will arrive shortly and my updates will be more timely.
Wednesday, January 11
Luke was our special person today. We practiced writing our upper and lower case Ks today. We also played a letter/sound game as we matched upper and lower case letters Aa through Kk.
We sang our welcome song to our new circle time friend, Kippy.
We ordered numbers as we practiced our fine motor skills. We continue working on social skills with our friendship builders program and our buddy sticks.
I am again having computer problems, parents, so my updates may be late and a bit shorter than usual.
Tuesday, January 19th
Kaitlyn was our special person today. Parents please make sure you look in your child's folder for the time of our conference on Tuesday, January 24th.
Kippy visited us again and was overjoyed to hear all of the K words we could name. She was one jumping kangaroo. We also practiced our kind words.
We read a story, Animals in Winter, and we continued our discussion about hibernating animals. We talked about why animals hibernate and what they do to prepare for hibernation. We also talked about what happens to their bodies when they hibernate.
I introduced the word migrate to the children. We talked about bluebirds, bats and butterflies that migrate south for the winter. Tomorrow we will make a kite in the shape of a bird and hopefully one day this week we can take them outside to send them south for the winter.
For boys' Show and Tell we enjoyed hearing about a Power Ranger named Kevin, a key, 2 koalas, Kieran, a knife and a book about Knights and Kings. Thursday will be girls' Show and Tell. Boys who forgot are welcome to show a special k item on that day.
January 9th
We started K week kicking up our heels with our new friend, Kippy the Kangaroo. We had fun naming K words and we practiced writing the letter K. For every K word we could name Kippy hopped her way into our hearts. We also talked about kangaroos, how they carry their young(pouches) where they are from- Austrailia and how B-I-G a kangaroo's feet are.
Tomorrow we have Kippy in, out, up, down and all around as we begin a week long theme on positional words.
We continued our discussion of winter and drew a blizzard scene using different colored pieces of chalk. We talked about the different types of writing/drawing utencils that we use at school.
We named Kind words that Jesus wants us to use everyday when interacting with our classroom friends and our families. We tried to incorporate these words in our conversation during the day. We also talked about unkind words and how they are the opposite of kind words. We named words that are opposites like: wet and dry, hot and cold, old and young, tall and short, opened and closed.
We painted, glued and cut as we worked on strenthening our fine motor skills. As always we continue to work on time orientation as we identify the day, date, month and season. We also talk daily about weather words and the importance of drssing for the weather.
Friday, January 6th
As we celebrate the feast of the Magi, we have much to be thankful for at St. Bernadette School. Our school is such a gift to each of us and the spirit of your children is such a gift to me and all of us at St. Bernadette's School.
Today the children started the day with our usual routine of putting their things away, putting up their stars, tracing their names and saying their prayers and reciting the pledge. We talked aout the day and I explained to them the activites we would engage in together.
Each day we work on patterning and today the children combined their cutting, pasting and patterning skills together to complete a task. We also clapped out sound patterning. They did an amazing job!!
After listening to our new favorite tune, Where Do You Start Your Letters, we made snow people using the letters in our names. Each child counted the numbers of letters in his/her name and counted out that number of snowballs. Then he/she wrote one letter of his/her name on a snowball. Each child then put the letters of his/her name in order to spell out his/her name. The children then took another snowball to make a face and using chalk created blizzard conditions on their papers. That, of course, was the best part! Please ask your child to sing the song to you, it is a fun song and they are enjoying it.
We had fun creating our computer generated snow people with Mrs. Gellar in computer class. The children love going up to the third floor for class and it is a great way for us to work on alternating feet on the steps.
We finished up our Christmas Show and Tell with many fun items including: a LaLa Loopsey, Eagle football pads, a princess computer, a brownie, a wooden doll and a watch.
Have a fun filled weekend with your child. I am very thankful for them and to you for all of your support.
Thursday, January 5th
Olivia Highland was our special person today.
We reviewed beginning sounds using our alphabet chart. We also reviewed one to one correspondence with numbers one through ten. We practiced counting 1 through 50 and worked on our calendar skills and time orientation.
We enjoyed going to the gym today and we played hockey . We had fun taking turns being goalie as we tried to block shots made by our classroom friends. We named things that we like to do in winter. One of the things is to drink hot chocolate. We will do this in school tomorrow. We also talked about freezing temperatures. We put our water bottles outside to see what happens to them when the temperature drops at night.
We will check them first thing tomorrow!!
Wednesday, January 4th
Matthew Hyland was our special person today.
We continued our discussion about winter today. We examined two similar scenes, one winter and one from summer. We looked for similarities and differences in the pictures and used our words to describe them. We drew pictures of ourselves in a winter scene.
We also practiced sequencing numbers 1 through 10. We were introduced to the number words one through ten and played a match game.
Using clay, we worked on our exercising and strengthening our fine motor muscles. The children shaped letters, numbers, and snow people. We read the story Flip and Flop and discussed ways to deal with hurt feelings.
We had fun doing a freeze dance with Ms. Serratore in music class. Your children are quite the dancers.
Tomorrow I will be leaving the building at 8:15 and returning by 9:15 to attend a viewing of Ms. Sheen(the librarian) mother. Mrs. D. will be in the classroom from 9 until 9:15.
January 3, 2012
Happy New Year!! I hope everyone enjoyed a joy-filled and happy Christmas. I apologize for the lack of communication on my website the week before Christmas . I have been having problems with my computer at school and I was in need of a new hard drive. Hopefully, things will be OK with this one.
The bit of snow and the bitter temperatures lent themselves nicely to a discussion about winter. We dressed our frog for the weather discussing the importance of hats, gloves and warm coats. Parents, whenever possible I like to take the children outside(even for 5 minutes) please make sure they have appropriate clothing from top to bottom.
Today, we made New Year's resolutions. We discussed what a resolution is and the children were quick to come up with ways they want to grow. You can look for their ideas in their folders. We also practiced writing letters Aa through Jj as we are using this as a review week.
The children enjoyed sharing their holiday activities with their classroom friends and a highlight for many of the children was seeing one of the many Christmas movies in theaters. For Show and Tell this week, the boys may bring a favorite Christmas gift on Wednesday and the girls may bring one on Thursday.
We also started our discussion on Hibernation. We will continue our discussion, read books and do some games and activities surrounding this theme. We will end with a hibernating party later in the month.
Our monthly calendar will come home tomorrow. Please note conferences are scheduled all day on Tuesday, January 24th. They will be scheduled on a first come basis, so if you need a particular time, please return the form early. I will send them home on Thursday, January 5th. please note the children have off this day.