Welcome to ECP - 3B
2019-2020

Mrs. Cuocolo 




Diocesan Wide Theme: Believe and see the glory of God
Franciscan Value for February: Forgiveness


Important Dates

Tuesday, 2/25 -  bring in a picture of something that starts with D for our collage, Class picture day - WEAR GYM UNIFORM WITH SWEATSHIRT
Wednesday, 2/26 -  Ash Wednesday, bring in a dinosaur or a doll for D show and share, bring a picture of yourself
Friday, 2/28 -  bring in a stuffed dog ( or a bear or cat if you don't have a dog)  for 'if you give a dog a doughnut"
Monday, 3/2 -  wear striped shirts for Dr. Seuss' bday, bring in your favorite Dr. Seuss book to read with a 6th grade buddy
Thursday, 3/12 - Home and School Meeting at 7:00pm
Friday, 3/13 -  11:35 dismissal
Monday, 3/16 - Progress reports distributed
Friday, 3/20 - Pretzels for those who ordered, St. Patrick's Tag Day
Saturday, 3/21 - Home and School Family Fun Night
Friday, 3/27 -  Bug Safari (visit from Ashland Nature Center)
Friday, 5/29 -  Last day of school for preschool only - picnic at 11:00 am and dismissal around 11:45 - THERE IS NO EAGLE'S CLUB FOR PRESCHOOL

 

Daily Updates

Monday, February 24
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and the beautiful taste of spring! We are ready for our last week of February.

This week we will continue with the letter D. We will talk about doctors, dinosaurs, dentists and Dr. Seuss. My friends have new toothbrushes in their bookbags for dental health month.

Today we read the story "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss. We talked about the many feelinsg we feel in a day and that is okay to feel all of these different things but we have to know how to express these feelings in a safe way. My friends had to tell me a color that they feel some days and why or when. They then used water colors to paint their many different colors on a person and glued them to a paper of their color of choice.

My friends also worked on a Dr. Seuss pattern. They are getting really good at continuing patterns. This is a good skill to practice at home as well. My friends also had the opportunity to work in small groups to play Dinosaur Bingo. They enjoyed this activity.

For Math this morning, I read a book called "One More Dino On The Floor". My friends were given dinosaur props and each time a dinosaur joined the dance floor, we added one more dino to our group. They told me that our number was getting bigger so we were adding. DINO mite math, friends!!

We missed Paxton and Brandon today and hope we are all back together on Wednesday.

~ My friends all need a picture of something that starts with D for our D collage tomorrow.

~ Tomorrow is class picture day. My friends should all wear gym uniforms (please wear a sweatshirt if you have one). My M,W,F friends may meet us in the Library at 8:10 for our class picture. They will leave immediately after the picture is taken. Thank you!

~ If you are ordering a class picture, please send the money and envelope tomorrow morning.


Have a great Monday night!



Friday, February 21
Hooray for Friday! It was a sunny and bright day in our room and our energy matched the weather!!

This morning was all about dinosaurs. I read a book with facts about dinosaurs. My friends all shared with me some of the things that they know about dinosaurs and some things that they learned. They worked to paint dinosaurs on paper plates. They also used water colors and a silouette of a dinosaur to create pretty pictures. They had to tell me one thing they know about dinosaurs to include on this paper. Again, these are all pre reading skills - them sharing their knowledge of the subject for which we created a craft.

We enjoyed about our visit from Iron Hill about dinosaurs.


We played on the little playground for about 20 minutes but then came inside to the warmth of our classroom. We enjyed dinosaur painting and dancing to "We are the Dinosaurs."

As I mentioned yeserday, the dreaded stomach bug is tearing through St. John's. The nurse also informed us that strep throat is running rampant and it is getting harder to contain it because it stays alive and may not show symptoms for 32 days. Please pay attention to the signs if your child says they don't feel well or is showing symptoms. Things spread so quickly in our classroom so we must all be diligant in keeping the health and safety of everyone in mind. Just a friendly reminder that children must be SYMPTOM FREE AND FEVER FREE for 24 HOURS WITHOUT MEDICATION ( I can tell when Motrin is wearing off...). Thank you! I know we are all ready for spring and winter sicknesses to be left behind - though my strange childrne always get stomach bugs in May and strep in March.....I pray that we avoid it this year!

Please pay attention to the dates above. Please note that our last day of school is Friday, May 29 and there is NO EAGLE'S CLUB for preschool that day. There will be a picnice at 11:00am (parents are invited to attend) and dismissal will immediately follow. 

My friends all need a picture of themself for Wednesday if you need to pring a picture this weekend.

Enjoy the weekend and get outside and enjoy the warm weather that's coming! 

Thank you for choosing SJB!!!







Thursday, February 19
Today was another busy day of learning and fun. Our days are just flying by in here and we can't believe that February is almost over!

This morning, I read a book about dinosaurs. My friends had some good prior knowledge about dinosaurs that they shared with us. We learned how some dinosaurs used body parts to protect themselves and that their teeth can tell us if they were plant or meat eaters.  We will share some facts about dinosaurs tomorrow and we will learn many more facts in our visit from Iron Hill. If you have not made payment on Smart Tuition yet, pelase do so. My friends created dinosaurs out of tissue paper. My friends also used the feet of dinosaurs to paint dinosaur tracks in a letter D. They loved this and thought it was so much fun!

We also talked about God's creations. We created our own picture of "God made Day" for the letter D. My friends had to name and cut the shapes needed in order to put this together. They turned out so cute!

 For Science, we did a D for drop experiment. MY friends each reached in to a bag and pulled an item out. They had to tell me if the item was heavy or light. They then predicted if it would drop fast or slow. They dropped their items from a stool. After  a few turns, some friends made the connection that the heavier items (metal block, marble, button, magnet) fell faster than the lighter items (feather, tissue, paper towel). At the end, we had 6 items that fell fast and 5 that fell slow. They realized that 6 is a bigger number so more items fell fast. We then tried dropping a block and feather at the same time and they were amazed to see how much faster a metal block fell to the ground. I love my little scientists!


We will have a class picture taken on Tuesday. My friends who are not here on Tuesday are invited to come for the picture and then may go home. When I find out the time, I will let you know so you can choose to join us in the library at that time if you would like. This is optional as I know work schedules do not always allow. My friends must all wear their gym uniforms (please wear sweatshirts that day). Order forms are going home today and again, it is optional to order. All friends will be in the picture even if you are not ordering.

We marched to 'We are the Dinosaurs" again today. If you have not done so already, look this cute song up on You Tube. It's by Laurie Berkner - she is one of my favorites!


There is a nasty stomach bug ripping through SJB so please be vigilant. If your child says that their stomach hurts or is acting "off", please listen to them. Remember children must be VOMIT FREE (or symptom free, fever free without medicine) for 24 hours before they can return to school. Thank you for doing your part in keeping all of us healthy. Come on, Spring!!

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!!


Wednesday, February 18
We had a dynamite morning with our dads! Thank you to all of the dads for taking time out of their busy mornings to come spend time with us. The children were so excited for this special day and I was so proud of how well behaved they were and how easy they made saying goodbye! I hope the dads enjoy their custom ties.

We had a visit from a dental hyngentist talking to us of the importance of taking care of our teeth, She sent some goodies home for each child!

We played a fun memory game and a dice game and watched a few minutes of Dino Dan today as  a special treat.

We enjoyed 50 minutes outside in the sunshine today. These kids love being outside and I can't wait to start making it a part of our morning routine again.

~My friends may wear shirts with dots, dinosaurs or Disney characters tomorrow.

~ Please go on to Smart Tuition and pay for the Iron Hill in house program that will take place on Friday. Thanks to those who have done so already!



Tuesday, February 17
I hope that everyone enjoyed the long weekend and the gorgeous weather yesterday!

Today we met our new letter, Dd. We said that Derek starts with D and we looked at pictures of a doll, dinosaur, dog, duck, dice and a door. This week we will talk about Dads, dinosaurs, doctors and dentists. We will continue with letter D next week also.

Today I read the story "The Day the Crayons Quit" and we enjoyed this cute, funny story! My friends each then had to share what their favorite color is and name something that is that color. They had to cut and glue a square of their favorite color to glue on to a big crayon. 

We also read a book called "From Egg to Duck" that talks abotu the process of an egg hatching and a duck being born. My friends had to create D for ducks for their end of the year ABC book. My friends also cut blue diamonds to sharpen those scissor skills!

~ My friends are so excited for Dad's Day tomorrrow. Please read the note above regarding the day. Also, please remind our friends of the importance of having their GOOD LISTENING EARS on despite the excitement of the day. It will be a fun morning for all!

~ We have Gym tomorrow so please remember to pull girls hair back to make play easier and safer.

~ Scholastic Book Orders are due by tomorrow. The online code is QFX2R. Thank you for supporting a love of reading!!\


~ Please go on to Smart Tuition and pay for the Iron Hill in house program that will take place on Friday. Thanks to those who have done so already!

Have a dynamite week!!


Friday, February 14
Happy Valentine's Day from our little lovebugs! Enjoy the long weekend and we will see our friends on Monday!








Pretzels are in bookbags because we had our special morning snack.


Please see the notes above regarding Dad's Day.




Wednesday, February 12
Hooray for mid week sunshine!! My friends all came in happy to see "Mr. Golden Sun".

This morning we worked on our special questions for Dad's Day next Wednesday. I love their responses to these activities!! My friends also worked to cut a violet rectangle - they have come such a long way with their scissor skills and we will continue to practice this as the year progresses. 

We read a book called "Growing Vegetable Soup" today and talked about all of the pretty colors that we saw in the veggies. We talked about how veggies help us grow big and strong. Most of my friends enjoyed the veggie tasting of carrots, cucumbers and celery. I encouraged everyone to try.We voted on our favorite vegetable and cucumbers had 8 votes, celery had 4 and carrots had 2. The children realized that 8 was the biggest number so cucumber was our favorite - for today!

My friends created hearts for Valentine's Day with their families. They had to tell me something that makes their family special. The love these little people have for their families is just so amazing!! My friends also created heart shadows using their fingerprints and the colors pink, purple and red. So much love in our room this week!

We did a whole group table activity where children had to look at a colored heart that I was showing them and find the matching crayon and color the correct heart. They did a great job of following along. As the year progresses. we will be doing more and more whole group activities to prepare for the four year old room in the fall. This will be a BIG transition for my friends - and for you!! But everyone will do just great!!

Please see the note above about Valentine's Day. My friends may wear heart shirts or red, pink or purple on Friday. They must wear sneakers.

We miss Eleanor today who was home with a cold. 

My friends all need a picture of Daddy and them on Friday.

There are pretzels for those who ordered on Friday.

We will have a special morning snack for Valentine's Day so no need to pack a snack on Friday.

If yuo volunteered to send in party items for Friday, please remember to do so.

I will not be in school tomorrow. Gianna is home on day 2 of a high fever of 102. My husbandw as home yesterday and today so tomorrow is my turn so I can be back for the fun on Friday. Mrs. K will be in with Mrs. Monarski. I will not be updating my page tomorrow.

Have a great Wednesday evening!


Tuesday, February 11
We are busy little ducks working our way through this dreary, wet weather!

This morning, my friends worked on creating a V for vase for their end of the year ABC books. The books that we compile at the end of the year are one of my favorite things that we do. My friends also worked on scissor skills and cutting straight lines (their scissor skills are improving daily).  We also cut a heart and did marble painting which they love to do. My friends also worked to put the letters of their name in the correct sequential order to create Valentine's love bugs! 

In math this morning, I read a book called "Valentine's Countdown". My friends realized that on each page, our number got smaller and smaller - we were subtracting. I worked with small groups to help them identify the numbers 1 through 6. They had to stamp each box for the number to show the one to one correspondence. They then cut each mailbox out and had to place in correct numerical order. Most of my friends could do this independently. They are mathematicians!

We ate lunch in the classroom because it was so wet outside. I love that we have the freedom to do that on yucky days!

During indoor recess, we became Scientists and created a ramp. We talked about things that can roll. My friends said that balls or round things can roll. Each friend reached in and pulled a surprise item from a bag - balls of different materials, a cork, a block, a teddy bear, a marble. They then had to predict whether they thought their item would roll - if it was round or flat. We sorted our objects into those that rolled and those that did not. We had 7 that did and 3 that did not. They knew that 7 was a bigger number so more items rolled than did not. This was a fun creative Science lesson!





We did our Scholastic News during indoor recess also. We learned about the arctic and animals that live in the arctic. My friends did a great job following the directions on the back to find the camouflaged animals. They were very interested in this article.

We had a dance party to get some wiggles out!


My friends all need family pictures for tomorrow. 

Valentine's cards can be sent in starting tomorrow.

If you volunteered to send in vegetables for tomorrow, please remember to do so.

We missed Paxton today and hope that all of our friends are back together tomorrow!

Stay dry and stay healthy - lots of germs floating around again out there!! Gianna and my husband were both home sick today - I was happy to get to work!!



Monday, February 10
I hope that everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed the beautiful weather yesterday! We were so happy that ALL of our friends were here and healthy today - we haven't had that in quite some time. So we will do our best to get many things done this week!

Today we met our new letter of the week Vv. We saw pictures of a vase, a Valentine and a vine. We will be focusing on Valentine's this week! 

Today my friends worked to create a colorful heart by cutting and gluing. They also made cute little love penguins by cutting and gluing. I also painted hands for a Valentine's card for home. We did a whole group activity where the children had to identify the numbers 1 and 2 and color them red or pink. They are doing a great job following directions during these whole group activities as we prepare for the four year old room in the fall.

If you volunteered to send in vegtables for our tasting on Wednesday, pelase remember to do so ! Thank you!!

My friends need pictues of their family on Wednesday and of their daddy and them on Friday.

My friends are off next Monday for President's Day.



Friday, February 7
We had a bit of excitement this morning around 9:45 am. Mr. Hart came in to our classroom and told us that we needed to leave immediately and get to the big building. Sadly enough, my mind did not go to the weather. My mind went to other awful places, so I was relieved to hear there was a tornado warning. My friends were so good because they lined up as soon as I told them to. I told them we were going on an adventure.  One friend was in the bathroom so Mrs. Monarski went to get him out. We went over to the big building and sat against the wall in the inside hallway near the library. I was so proud of my friends because we were there for 40 minutes and they sat so still and quietly. We set a good example for the second grade who was sitting across from us. I explained to the children that Mr. hart knew that it was going to rain ALOT in those 40 minutes and that sometimes the roof in our building leaks so he did not want us to get wet so that is why we got out. They bought it - no questions asked! I was very proud of them for doing such a good job!
That added some excitement to our day but we came back and carried on as normal. We did eat lunch in the classroom today just in case any more bad weather kicked up! Please know that my number one job is to keep your children safe at school and I will ALWAYS do just that!

Hooray for Friday! My friends brought the music to brighten this dreary day! We don't let rian dampen our happy spirits! You could tell it was Friday and my friends were tired because they obviously got dressed in the dark because their clothes did not match!

This morning, my friends enjoyed sharing their musical instruments and Mrs. Oldiges and Mrs. Tobin invited them to bring their instruments to the library for a parade! The library certainly was not quiet this morning..... We then took our musical parade in to the Music Room to see the Music Man himself, Mr. D. He played the piano while we played our instruments and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." What a special treat this was!!


I read the story 'if you Give a Moose a Muffin" today while my friends enjoyed chocolate chip and blueberry muffins and milk for snack (so they may have an extra morning snack in their lunchbox). My friends then created muffins by cutting and gluing. They also had to tell me something that happened in the story. These retelling activities are great steps for reading readiness. 

My friends stamped an M with Mickey Mouse and did their M pushpins this morning - both are great fine motor skills. They also used water colors to paint a mitten (even though the weather is telling us it is spring out there).

For Math today, I pulled small groups and the children graphed M and Ms. Each child was given a bag of m and ms. They had to sort the candy by color and then had to complete the bar graph for the number of m and ms they had in that color. It was a tasty (and very tricky for some) math lesson!!

We did a whlole group activity and the chidlrne got to use clipboards which they thought were so cool. We sat on the rug and completed the worksheet on words that starts with M. They did such a great job following directions and loved the clipboards so we will be doing that again. It's the little things!

My friends moved around today with our alphabet march and our 5 melting snowmen poem. We also read "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" again and used our monkey props to show the number was getting smaller. We played our musical instruments and danced to an animal parade.

Three of my friends got stickers today for being good listeners and following directions when the rest of the class was not doing so. Ask your child if they were one of them - - they are so honest at this age!!

We missed Jack and Paxton today! Hoping all of our friends are back on Monday!

Please read all of the notes above. This weekend is a good time to complete those Valentine's cards.

My friends need a family picture and a picture with Daddy for next week, so work on printing them this weekend!

Payment link is up on Smart Tuition for our IN HOUSE program on Friday, February 21. Iron Hill Musuem will visit to talk to us about dinosaurs for D week.

have a marvelous weekend and enjoy those memories made!!


Thursday, February 6
My little friends sure do bring the sunshine on these dreary, rainy days!

This morning my friends used M for marbles to paint - they love doing this simple activity! They also had to cut and sort M and m - most friends did this completely independently. I am also working on an "All About Me" sheet with the chidlren that will come home in their progress reports in a few weeks. My friends created a melting snowman craft with a cute little poem. We also learned a poem about 5 little snowmen and the sun that melts them away.

In Science today, we had fun with magnets. Each child had to predict whethere items were or were not magnetic and use their magnet wands to discover if their prediction was correct or not. The children then had the chance to explore the classroom with their magnet wands to discover what else is magnetic.





We did our Religion pamphlet today on "We love God more and more". We talked about ways to show our love for God - by making good choices and by using kind words. Let's be those kind kids and show our love for God and let that light inside of us shine brighter and brighter!!

For Math today, we read the story "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." My friends had monkey props that they used to show that each time a monkey fell off the bed, we had one less monkey. Several of my friends could tell me that this was subtracting because our number was getting smaller. I told them this was a kinderarten word - they are smart monkeys!!

My friends did a great job with their M show and share items!

 We missed jack who is still home with his broken collarbone and CJ who is home with the croup . We hope all of our friends are well soon and back in school.

~ Tomorrow is Mismatch Day for M week. Friends may wear clothes that do not match or socks that don't match.

~ My friends should bring a musicla instrument tomorrow. I predict an indoor recess so we will do a muscial parade!

~ Tomorrow is muffins and milk for a morning snack. If you volunteered to send the items in, please remember to do so.

Tomorrow we do the FRIDAY DANCE!!

have a marvelous night despite the miserable weather!



Wednesday, February 5
What a fun morning we had with our moms today! Thank you to all of you for being here, as I know rearranging work schedules and commitments is not easy. These are the sweet memories you will look back on , so thank you!

~My friends all need something that starts with M for show and share tomorrow.

~ Friday is M for mismatched day (wear sneakers) and my friends need a musical instrument for a parade (these plans often sound fun in my mind....)

~Friday we will have muffins and milk for morning snack so please remember to send the items in if you volunteered to do so. Please make sure muffins are peanut free so all friends can enjoy!

~ We missed Isabella, Jack, Leah and Aine today and wish them all well and hope to see them soon!

~ Please see the note above regarding Valentine's Day.

~ Have a marvelous night and thank you to all of the magnificent moms!!



Tuesday, February 4
It was a wet Tuesday but we are bright and sunny in our room!

We missed Paxton and Jack. Jack is home with a broken collarbone so let's send Jack some healing wishes!!

This morning, my friends created their M is for mouse for our end of the year ABC book. They also thought it was funny because they painted a letter M using magenta paint and a marshmallow. 

I read a book called "Mouse Paint" today and it was about the primary colors and how when we mix them together, we get the secondary colors. My friends then each had the chance to finger paint and mix red and yellow to make orange, red and blue to make purple and blue and yellow to make green. This was science mixed in with reading!! They also each created mice using the primary and secondary colors. They had to cut shapes to create their mice. 

Please see the information above regarding Valentine's Day. Please let me know if you have any questions.

~ Remember Mom's Morning is Wednesday.
    ~ Please park out front and sign in at the Main Office around 8:15.
     ~ Please wait outside of our building for us to COME TO YOU. DO NOT RING THE DOORBELL as this will distract the other classes.
      ~ We will meet you outside around 8:20/8:25 and we will go to Gym. Please wear your sneakers.
      ~ After Gym, we will have snack - please pack a snack for you and your child. We will then do our morning calendar and share a story and a craft together.
      ~ Our morning will end between 10:15-10:30.
      ~ If your scheudle allows, you may take your child with you as mid morning goodbyes tend to be difficult. If not able to do so, the tears will dry, I promise!!

I look forward to seeing all of our moms tomorrow morning!!




Monday, February 3
Happy February! May the new month bring you good health and happiness...and it brings us one step closer to spring! I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend.

Today we met our new letter, Mm. We said M is for Maddy, Music Monday and Moms. We looked at pictures of a moon, milk, a mouse, a monkey and a mop. This week we will talk about Moms and mittens!

My friends worked to create a picture for Mom on Wednesday. They had to cut and glue and are getting so good at this fine motor skill. We also created m for mirrors. The chidlren had to look at the mirror and tell me one thing that makes them special. They also cut a magenta rectangle. You will see many random shapes coming home during the second half of the year. This is just extra practice with the skill of cutting. They are getting so good at this!!

I read the story 'The Mitten" today. The children hearing this story about all of the animals that made a home in a boy's lost mitten. We created mittens with tissue paper and the chidlren had to tell me something that they would find in their lost mitten. We also learned a cute song about the mitten. Thankfully today was a warm day and we did not need our actual mittens!

We celebrated Aine's half birthday today with popsicles. Happy 3 1/2 birthday, Aine!

~ My friends need something that makes them happy for show and share tomorrow.

~ If you did not send a Mommy and me picture yet, please do so tomorrow.

~ Remember Mom's Morning is Wednesday.
    ~ Please park out front and sign in at the Main Office around 8:15.
     ~ Please wait outside of our building for us to COME TO YOU. DO NOT RING THE DOORBELL as this will distract the other classes.
      ~ We will meet you outside around 8:20/8:25 and we will go to Gym. Please wear your sneakers.
      ~ After Gym, we will have snack - please pack a snack for you and your child. We will then do our morning calendar and share a story and a craft together.
      ~ Our morning will end between 10:15-10:30.
      ~ If your scheudle allows, you may take your child with you as mid morning goodbyes tend to be difficult. If not able to do so, the tears will dry, I promise!!

Have a Marvelous Monday night!



Friday, January 31
We made it to the end of this long month of January!! Hooray to all for surviving!! And we ended the month with school spirit!! We love SJB and are so grateful to spend our days here!!

Today was all about G for groundhogs in here! We read a book called "Wake up, Mr. Groundhog" and I explained what groundhogs day is (though this was obviously lost on them). My friends created shadows for their groundhogs and created cute groundhog puppets. We also completed a math sheet where the children had to count and find the corresponding number. My friends were busy little groundhogs. let's hope he doesn't see his shadow so we have an early spring!!

My friends enjoyed G for games with their 6th grade buddies today!! We love forming these friendships with the "big kids" - though one of those big kids will always be my baby!!





Our goldfish for snack were very tasty! We voted and created a graph and vanilla cupcakes were our favorite today with 8 votes.

We observed our gummy bears and were amazed that the ones in hot water and vinegar melted away. The bears in baking soda and salt water grew to be bigger in size. 

~ If you did not send in a picture of Mommy and child today - please do so on Monday!!

~ Remember that Mom's Morning is next Wednesday. All of my friends need one guest!!

Here's to a great weekend of happy family time and making memories!

As we end Catholic Schools Week, here's a little  saying that I saw that I think is fitting:

My promise to you....I promise you every day your child will learn something.
Some days they will bring it home in their hands.
Some days they will bring it home in their heads.
Some days they will bring it home in their hearts.




Thursday, January 30
Today is our busy, specials filled day with some work and play sprinkled in! My friends all looked G for great in their green!!

This morning we completed our God made the world and God made me craft. The children had to cut green circles for the land and strips of blue for the sea and complete it with the pictures of them! They also did an AMAZING job with a Math activity I did with them. They had to count the number of objects (most of my friends did this indepdendently and did a great job with the one to one correspondence(. After they counted, they had to circle the correct number. Most friends could identify the correct number. For those who could not, I simply showed them a picture of the number and they had to find the match. This is a 4 year old skill and they did a fantastic job!!

We worked on our Religion pamphlet on "Our Good Sheperd Cares for His Sheep". We talked about the fact that Jesus is our sheperd and that we are Hi s sheep. We follow him and he protects us. one of my friends asked "what if we don't follow Him?". I explained that Jesus will always come looking for us to make sure that we are with Him and safe. The children then glued the cotton balls and the words "Jesus is My Sheperd" on a sheep to remind them of this important message.

We started a science experiment with G for gummy bears today and will make our observations tomorrow. My friends placed gummy bears in cups filled with cold water, hot water, water with salt, water with baking soda and vinegar. Tomorrow we will observe using our sense of sight to see how the gummy bears look after being in the different liquids.


We have done a cute reading of "Good night, Gorilla" this week and my friends get to be the different animals. We love making reading interactive!!

~ There will be goldfish and juice for morning snack so no need to pack a snack tomorrow if your child will eat this. 

~ My friends enjoyed pizza for lunch. They also each got water, Doritos and a rice krispy treat so the treats were sent home for dessert after dinner. 

~ Tomorrow my friends can wear SJB spirit wear or black, yellow or gold with their gym pants.

~ My friends all need a picture of Mommy and Me tomorrow (mommy and child).

~ We are hoping to play G for games with our 6th grade buddies tomorrow, so please send in one EASY ( and portable) game that should take about 15-20 minutes to play.

~ please read all of the above dates well.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!



Wednesday, January 29
Thank you to all who contributed to our day of giving!All of your generous donations will go directly back to your children here at SJB!!

This morning was another busy morning. In fact, it was so busy that we did not get to do our goldfish tasting so we will do that on Friday for morning snack ( no need to pack a snack if your child eats goldfish). 

This morning we read 'The Grouchy Ladybug" and talked about things that make us grouchy - being hungry, tired or not getting our way:) My friends then had to cut and paint to create their own grouchy ladybugs. They also did their Gg pushpins. 

My friends enjoyed the morning with Jungle John. I was so proud of them because no one was scared or screamed or sat in my lap. Jungle John brought an alligator, geckos, lizards and several yucky snakes! My friend had the chance to touch the snake and MOST opted to do so!!

There is free pizza for lunch tomorrow, provided by Home and School. Please pack your child a drink and snack for lunch . I do not know where the pizza is from - so I am not sure baout allergies or likes/dislikes ( my kids are picky about pizza). If your child will not eat pizza, please pack a lunch. Everyone needs a morning snack.

We will wear G for green for G week and multiples day tomrorow.

My friends all need a picture of GREAT them for religion tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 28
Today is the Electronic Day of Giving. There is a live link above to help with the processs. Thank you for your support of Catholic education here at St. John the Beloved!

This morning we read a book about giraffes and we created our G is for giraffe for our end of the year ABC book. My friends also filled in lettr G with stickers to be "gumballs". We listened to a story abotu the color green and created our green collage. Our morning work/play timne was limited due to Library and Mass. 

My friends were all such good guests in God's house. I was so proud of them and was so happpy to celebrate Mass with the school. I explained that going to church together is one thing that makes St. John's so special.

We also did a really cool experiment using G for gallon bags and water and sharpened pencils. The kids loved the magic of it!


Tomorrow is crazy sock and crazy hat day - to be worn with the uniform.

Scholasic Book Orders are due online tomorrow. The classroom code is QFX2R. Thank you for instilling a love of reading in your child!!

Jungle John will be visiting the preschool tomorrow in the Gym. Like many of my friends, i am terribly afraid of snakes and I do believe he brings a rather large snake with him. NO ONE WILL BE FORCED to go near or to touch anything. Please prep your child tonight and reassure them that they are safe and that they do not need to go near any of the animals. I am sure that my lap will be full tomorrow at the program!!

If you volunteered to send in items for our G tasting tomorrow, please remember to do so.

Remember to always check the dates above so you know what is happening in the classroom!

Again, thank you for making the choice to send your child to SJB!!



Monday, January 27
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend. Thank you all for coming in on Friday. I enjoyed meeting with each of you and discussing your child's progress. As I said at the beginning of the year, we are a team and we are working together to ensure that your child has a successful school year filled with love and learning. Thank you for your part and for trusting me to do my part!

This week will be a choppy week with many fun activities to celebrate Catholic Schools Week, but of course we will squeeze in our learning and fun.

Our letter of the week this week is the letter Gg. We said Grace starts with the letter G as well as girl, gate, gift, goat and goose. We will talk about giraffes, the color green and groundhogs this week. It will be a Great week!

This morning my friends worked on a shape matching game. Our mornings will be filled with G for games for G week. They also worked on cutting and gluing to fill a letter G. We worked on items needed for our February bulletin board - I traced their hands and they used water colors to paint a heart for our board called "We learn to love in EC3B". We also worked to create a G is for gumball craft.

My friends all looked ready to dance when they came in this morning. We had a lot of fun at our dance party with the preschool in the gym today. We had g for glow necklaces and danced for almost an hour. We got our g for groove on! What a fun way to start Catholic Schools Week. 


We sang our song for Grace and Paxton today. Grace will be in Disney all week! Mrs. Monarski will also be out this week helping her daughter with the new baby. Miss Marilyn was with us today and Mrs. K. will be with us for the remainder of the week.

My friends need a picture of something green for our green collage tomorrow. 

We will attend Mass tomorrow for Catholic Schools Week. We will be sitting with 6th graders , but please remind your child tonight to sit quietly and reverently in church tomorrow. 

Thanks to all who send in wipes, paper towels and Clorox wipes. We will glady accept all donations to keeping us healthy and germ free!!

Look at all of the dates above so you know what is coming in the next few weeks.

If you volunteered to send in items for our G tasting (goldfish and grape juice), please remember to do so on Wednesday.

As we celebrate Catholic Schools Week, please know that I appreciate YOU and the sacrifices you are making to send your child to St. John's! This is a choice you made and I am so grateful that you did. Thank you for allowing me the gift of teaching your child! We are blessed to be a part of the SJB community!

Looking forward to another Great week together!!



Thursday, January 23
You should be so proud of your children and how hard they work on Thursdays! We get so much done on days when we have two specials. It is amazing!

This morning, my friends painted letter Q with qtips for a fine motor skill, they practiced cutting big, blue circles to work on our scissor skills, they filled a letter Q to look like a quilt, they created a fruit loop quilt (another good fine motor skill - and it smelled so yummy) and they worked on creating a q for quilt for themselves. I worked with chidlren to complete a penguin shape match - some of my friends could even name a hexagon! It was a whirlwind of a morning!!

After recess, we worked on our Religino pamphlet on Singing prayers to God. My friends love our cute little song thanking God for the fishies and for us!

We did a little subtracting with the little poem 'Five little ducks went out to play." My friends saw that each time our number got smaller and that we were subtracting. I love little Math lessons. I wish middle school Math with Aidan was as much fun....

Some of my friends are coming home with the extra shoes from their cubbies today. Some friends found a mudpile to play in at recess (even after being asked to stay away from it). PLease send he extra pair of shoes back to school on Monday. Thank you!

Sheets and towels will be sent home next Friday since this was a short week.

Scholastic Book Orders are due ONLINE only by Wednesday. Our classroom code is QFX2R. Thank you for supporting and instilling a love of reading.

Please pay close attention to the dates above - next week is Catholic Schools Week so we have a few different things happening.

Please remember that there is NO SCHOOL FOR PRESCHOOL only on Friday. Please be on time for your conference so that I can stick to my schedule and not infringe on anyone else's time. Thank you! I look forward to speaking with each of you about your child's progress!

*** For conferences, please park out front (recess will take place during some conferences). No need to sign in at the Main Office. Please come directly to our building. if my door is closed, that means that I am in a conferece, so please wait outside of our classroom for me to be ready/

As the school year is half over, we are running short on some classroom supplies. If anyone is willing to send in Clorox Wipes, paper towels and baby wipes, we would greatly appreciate it. We are all set with tissues and hand sanitizer for now. There is no rush on these items if you would like to add to your weekend shopping list. As always, thank you for your generosity! Thanks to those who have already sent supplies in!

Remember that on Monday, we have a dance party to kickstart Catholic Schools Week. My friends can wear their best dance clothes!

There is Chic Fil A for those who ordered on Monday. HOT LUNCH IS NOT AVAILABLE!

We are looking for a dentist or dental hygenist who is willing to speak to both three year old classes for dental health month in February. If you know of anyone interested, please let me know! It could be a simnple 20 minute program with a book and an explanation of why a dentist is important and what they do for us. Thank you!

We did the Thursday dance today - it sounded so silly!! Hope my friends enjoy the second long weekend in a row!




Wednesday, January 22
My silly friends forgot to get dressed again today and came to school in their pajamas! It is amazing how exciting it is to wear pjs to school - it brings a whole new level of energy to the classroom, but it is fun to see them so cute and cozy in their pajamas!

During Q week, we are working on moving quietly through the halls as we prepare to transition to the four year old room next year.

This morning, my friends learned a new song for Religion about God making the sun, the sea, the fishies and me. We created a cute little craft with the words to this song and the pictures of themselves that they brought in. Ask them to sing for you and to show you the motions to this song. My friends also had their hands painted to create a "friendship quilt" for our hallway. We are all individual pieces but when we put it all together, we make a beautiful team and a quilt We also worked to do our letter Q pushpins.

We enjoyed a Q is for quicksand snack after recess today. My friends had to listen and follow the "recipe" as I instructed them. They had to make sure that they had the right ingredients. This was a fun and tasty listening activity!

Please pay close attention to the dates above - next week is Catholic Schools Week so we have a few different things happening.

Please remember that there is NO SCHOOL FOR PRESCHOOL only on Friday. Please be on time for your conference so that I can stick to my schedule and not infringe on anyone else's time. Thank you!

As the school year is half over, we are running short on some classroom supplies. If anyone is willing to send in Clorox Wipes, paper towels and baby wipes, we would greatly appreciate it. We are all set with tissues and hand sanitizer for now. There is no rush on these items if you would like to add to your weekend shopping list. As always, thank you for your generosity!




Tuesday, January 21
I hope that everyone enjoyed the long weekend and made the most of that extra day!

On Friday, we enjoyed books and Bingo with our buddies!



This week will be a SHORT, fast and of course, busy week for us! I will not send sheets/towels home on Thursday. They will be sent home next Friday.

This week, our letter of the week is tricky letter Q. We will be talking about queens and ducks this week. 

This morning, we read a book all about Q and how q and u are buddies and always are together at the start of a word. My friends created a Q for queen for their end of the year ABC book. I also worked with each student to cut hearts and share something that they love about SJB in preparation for Catholic Schools Week next week. We love SJB and we thank you for sending your child here! My friends used yellow tissue paper to cover a duck for q is for quack. We are also working to get ready fro Mom's Morning in two weeks! 

I read a book called 'Little Quack's Big Adventure" for Math today. The momma duck starts with 5 ducks and each time a duck swims away, she realizes her number is one less. My friends saw that the number of ducks at the front of the room was getting smaller because we were subtractibng. Thankfully, Momma duck kept searching and searching and she found her ducks one at a time making her number bigger. My friends realized that this was addition as our number grew. They are smart little duckies in here!

If you volunteered to send in items for Quicksand snack tomorrow, please remembe to do so!

My friends who ordered will have pretzels for morning snack tomorrow.

We will have pajama day tomorrow since we will not be here on Friday! My friends are SO excited for pj day tomorrow! They must wear sneakers for Gym.

My friends all need a picture of themselves for Religion tomorrow!

As the school year is half over, we are running short on some classroom supplies. If anyone is willing to send in Clorox Wipes, paper towels and baby wipes, we would greatly appreciate it. We are all set with tissues and hand sanitizer for now. There is no rush on these items if you would likie to add to your weekend shopping list. As always, thank you for your generosity!






Thursday, January 16
Thursdays are our busy, nonstop days!! Actually, every day in here is busy and nonstop!!


This morning we read the story "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" and we got to make each of the animal sounds in the story. We looked at the animals' size and decided if it would be a loud noise or a quiet noise. My friends then painted an image of a polar bear. We also did a little poem called 'polar bear'.

Today I read a story about Martin Luther King Jr. I explained that Dr. King thought everyone should be treated fairly and it should not matter what they look like. I told the children that today only the boys could have lunch and only the girls could have recess. They did not think this was fair. I also said only chidlren with blonde hair could have ice cream and chidlren with brown hair could use the slides. I explained that Dr. King wanted for everyone to be treated the same regardless of what they looked like. He used his kind words to tell people that it was not fair to treat people differently and he had laws changed so that everyone was treated the same. My friends then used watercolors to paint around a peace sign made out of painter's tape. I then removed the tape to show them the peace sign. They each had to tell me what they will do to be peacemakers. Remind them at home that we are peacemakers and we used our kind words and gentle hands.

My friends also did a cutting, gluing activity that required them to sort big B and little b.

We have been doing a math activity with bears this week. We start with one bear and I tell a story and we add another bear and we do this five times. My friends can see that the number os bears is getting bigger so we are adding to the group. We then do the same by taking bears away and our number gets smaller.

We did stay outside for a few minutes of recess but the blustery winds were blowing. We came inside to do our Religion pamphlet on Praying. We talked about times we pray and why we pray. I explained that we can pay anytime and anywhere. God is always listening.

We also did a fun science experiment after recess. I had a balloon and an empty water bottle. I filled the water bottle with vinegar and poured baking soda in the balloon. I turned the ballooon on top of the bottle and lifted it up and as the baking soda went in to the bottle, it inflated the balloon. Science is so much fun and amazing!


~ My friends need a baby doll or ball for Show and Share tomorrow.

~ My friends all need to bring two favorite books for our 6th grade buddies to read to us tomorrow. We will playing Bingo and reading books with our buddies for B week.

~ If you volunteered to send in brownies or milk tomorrow, please rememer to do so.

~ Chic Fil A orders for January 27 are due tomorrow. No late orders will be accepted. Payment for this is made on Smart Tuition.

~ Tomorrow is an 11:30 dismissal. There is Eagle's Club. All friends need a morning snack and my Eagle's Club friends need a lunch. 

~ There is NO SCHOOL on Monday. Enjoy the long weekend and STAY WARM!

~ Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!

I may not update tomorrow as I do not have any specials and immediately after school we have a faculty meeting, so please enjoy the long weekend and make extra memories as a family!



Wednesday, January 15
What a busy Wednesday!

I loved seeing all of my friends in their B for baseball caps! It is fun to see their personalities come through in these small signs of who they are when they aren't at school. And it was nice that the weather was warm enough for us to trade winter hats for baseball caps!

This morning, my friends worked to make bird feeders using brown pipe cleaners and Cheerios. They did such a great job on this fine motor activity. My friends made one feeder to bring home and one that we took outside and hung on a tree for the birds here at school. Find a spot near a window at home to hang the feeder they worked so hard on.

We were so excited to have a room full of bears today. I read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. The colors and repetition in this book make it a class favorite. The childrne then had to pick a surprise color and cut a square of that color and tell me something they could think of that was that color. They also created brown bears out of paper bags. After recess, we took our bears outside and we read "we're going on a bear hunt". This is such a great book!


My friends also did beautiful butterflies (I am thinking warm spring thoughts in here). We also did a whole group activity using blue crayons to find all of the words that start with B. We will doing more of these whole group activities as we work to transition to the four year old room. This is a great test of listening skills and the ability to follow directions.

We enjoyed our bagel tasting for morning snack so some friends mau have extra snacks in their lunchboxes.

My friends should wear Blue tomorrow for B week.

Friday is our brownie day if you volunteered to send in milk or brownies, please remember to do so!

Aine was home sick today so we wish her well and hope to see her tomorrow!

Have a great evening!!


Tuesday, january 14
Quick post today as I am leaving at lunch to go home to a sick Aidan...this weather has his asthma flaring up!

We worked on a B is for bird for our end of the year ABC book, we did a number and coutning assessment and we marble painted black and blue. My friends also created a blue collage.

We mixed up b for bubbles in science and we went outside and blew bubbles! Bubbles are the best!




There is a change for tomorrow - we will wear B for baseball caps tomorrow.

My friends all need a bear tomorrow for bear day!

if you volunteered to send in bagels or cheerios for our bird feeders, pelase do that tomorrow.

Monday, January 13
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and got outside to soak up that fresh air. We headed south for some salt air and Thrashers fries and enjoyed the taste of spring - even though we know it was just a tease.

This morning we were introduced to our new letter of the week - letter Bb  for Brandon, birthday, box, bike, bird, ball and book. This week we will be talking about bears and birds and what they each do in the winter.

I read a book called 'Birds in our backyard" this morning and we talked about some things we know about birds. Most birds migrate south for the winter because they want to be in warmer places - doesn't that sound like a lovely plan? I explained that it is hard for birds and other animals to find food in the winter because the ground is bare and plants and tress are not growing and snow often covers the ground. We went outside (thankfully we didn't need to b for bundle up) to drop our bird food around campus. We are making that light in our hearts shine brightly by taking care of God's creations! My friends were so excited when we heard birds and saw a few birds circling around. I told the children they were saying thank you and were eyeing up their lunch!


My friends had to cut a triangle and a square today to "build" a birdhouse. They then added a blue bird and some birdfood. They also had to cut a bird and fill him in with blue tissue paper and feathers. We are doing a lot of cutting in here and they are getting so good at this!

Today we celebrated Brandon's birthdya with cupcakes at lunch. Happy 4th birthday, Brandon, and thanks for the yummy treats!

My friends all need a picture of something blue for our blue collage tomorrow.

Our bagel tasting is on Wednesday. Please remember to send in if you volunteered to do so.

Friday is an 11:30 dismissal. There is no lunch on half days. Only my Eagle's Club friends need a packed lunch. 

Please pay attention to all of the dates above so you know what is happening in our room and in the school.

Please make arrangements at work for Mom's morning and Dad's Day! Also remember that next Friday, January 24, only my preschool friends are off for conferences.

Have a nice night and a great and healthy week!



Friday, January 10
Hooray for Friday! We all survived the first week back - waking up, packing lunches and getting to school on time and ready. Good job, everyone! Smooth sailing form here on out!

This morning, my friends were amazed to see our walking water experiment. It was so fun to see that the water walked from one cup to the next and that colors mied to make new colors. We made green, orange and purple!

Today I read a book called "What a Wonderful World" and we talked about all of God's wonderful creations. My friends painted an Earth using the colors green and blue. We said blue is for water and green is for the land. We then glued on the words "what a wonderful world" and placed the picture on that they brought in. This weekend the weather is supposed to be warm. It will be a great time to get out and enjoy God's wonderful creations! We enjoyed a video with the song by Louis Armstrong during morning snack.

We listened to a story about weather this morning and again talked about the changing weather and the weather in the seasons. My friends created a weather wheel. You can hang the weather wheel at home and the children can change the wheel for the weather for the day. 

My friends also worked to do their W pushpins and to paint a snowman to hang form our ceilings.


We enjoyed our visit from Ashland Nature Center. We learned that some animals hibernate, some migrate and some grow thicker fur for the winter. We had the chance to pet the fur of a fox, and a real live toad and turtle! if you have not made your payment on Smart Tuition, please remember to do so.





After recess, we took a W for winter Walk and I read the book called "I went walking". IN the book, the child sees a cow, pig, horse, duck, dog and cat on its walk. We did not see these animals but we talked about all of the things from God's wonderful world that we saw.

My friends all need a bag of bird food for Monday. This can be actual bird food or cheerios or small pieces of bread. We will go outside and feed the birds to start B week.

Have w wonderful weekend! Enjoy the fresh air and make happy family memories!!


Thursday, January 9
Terrific Thursday! My friends work so hard on Thursdays to get all of our work done before Spanish and Art. I love the energy they bring each day!

This morning I read a book called "The Wonderful Me I want to be". It was about how we are meant to show kindness and love and be the wonderful people that God created us to be. The children then cut out a heart and glued on the picture they brought in, along with the words "Wonderful me, created by God". They also worked on creating a winter scene with watercolors and created a snowman for the scene. They also "built" snowmen by stacking the letters of their names in the correct sequential order. They also used the wheels of a car to paint a letter W - they thought this was funny! 

This afternoon we started our W science experiment for Walking Water. Each friend helped me pour w for water and drop in food coloring. We saw what happens when a liquid spills and makes a puddle! We will observe as the water "walks" up the paper towels and in to the empty cups. This is one of my faorite experiments we do!


I am working on "assessments" for our conferences in two weeks. Today I worked on color recognition. Please keep in mind that as I assess, there are 15 other people doing 15 other things in the classroom. These assessments should be taken with a grain of salt - they will all know their numbers and letters by kindergarten as they will focus heavily on them next year. This year is about exposure and not mastery!

My friends should all bring in a picture of something from God's wonderful world for tomorrow. It can be a family picture, a picture of an animal or flowers or something from nature.

Ashland Nature Center will visit tomrorow to discuss Animals in Winter. There should  be a link on Smart Tuition to make the $5 payment.

Please read the dates above carefully - pay attention to Mom's morning and Dad's Day!A letter was sent home today with information for these important dates.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance and we celebrate that we made it through this first week back!!



Wednesday, January 8
What a wild weather day on a Wednesday - Mother Nature must know it is W week! My friends were so excited to see the falling snow during Gym in the classroom and I was all set to bundle up to go run around in it but it had stopped by the time Gym was over. Fingers crossed, we get the chance again this winter.

My friends were so WACKY today - some were mismatched, some were in pajamas still, some had bedhead. Our tables were in  a wacky new way and we did our calendar time backwards today. I can't do too many wacky things or it throws many of my friends for a loop, but we had fun and I love to see the creativity. We enjoyed the book "wacky Wednesday" today to start our day.


This morning we talked about w for weather and about activities that we do in each season based on the weather. I read a book called "The Four Seasons". My friends then had to cut a circle and we created a four seasons wheel with signs of each season - a sun, flowers, falling leaves and snowflakes. They can see that the seasons are a circle and they just keep repeating each year. Continue to talk about the seasons and the weather in each season. I am already looking forward to spring and the warmer weather. My friends also used chalk to create a snowman today. They enjoyed using the chalk as it was a new texture tool for them. 

My friends need a picture of wonderful them tomorrow.

Please check the dates above so you know what is happening in the next few weeks. 

Happy Wednesday!




Tuesday, January 7
Day 2 is the real test and everyone passed. Good job getting everyone up and dressed and to school!! 

This morning my friends worked to cut and glue ( both fine motor skills) to create a W for watermelon. They then had to count the watermelon seeds as they stamped them on their craft. I also worked on a letter assessment of the 10 letters of the week we have had thus far this year. Remember we will expose them to the letters this year but they are not expected to master them until next year. You can continue to expose them at home as well to help with recognition. The letters we have done so far are: A, S, N, J, T, F, L, P, H, and C.

We continued to talk about letter W today. I asked the children what they know about winter - it is cold, we wear mittens, it snows, we build snowmen were some of our answers. All of my friends think it will snow this winter. I read a book called "Winter" and we looked at and discussed the winter scenes that we saw in our book. My friends then created a winter scene with a tree and white paint as snow. They had to each tell me something they like to do in the winter also. My friends also created a W for whale for their end of the year ABC book. They also enjoyed painting a W with watercolors!

After lunch I read a book called "White as Snow" and my friends then shared their white items. Again they are getting so comfortable and confident with their show and share items.

Tomorrow is Wacky Wednesday. My friends must wear sneakers for Gym but can dress silly - as long as they are comfortable. They can wear pajamas, inside out clothes, mismatched clothes, silly hair, etc.

Please pay attention to all of the dates above!

have a wonderful evening!


Monday, January 6
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a very merrry Christmas and enjoyed all of the magic of the season. It was so nice to have the long break and to regroup and spend time with my own family, but I did miss my friends and was so happy to see them all this morning. I was so proud of my friends for not missing a beat this morning. I think everyone will be ready for bedtime tonight - I am hoping my own two will be as last night and this morning were not pretty. We all need to get back into the routine! I wish you all good health and happiness in 2020!

This morning we welcomed a new friend, Eliana, to our classroom. She will be with us on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Eliana jumped right in like she had been here all year and my friends were so kind and welcoming which made my heart so happy. I told them they are all like teachers now and have to help show Eliana the ways of the classroom. We are ecited for this second half of the year.

Mrs. Monarski will not be in this week as her second grandson was born yesterday so she will be spending time with her daughter and son in law in Maryland. Mom and baby Oliver are doing great. Mrs. K will be with us this week.

As some of you heard, we did lose power first thing this morning ( I was picturing parents getting that phone call to pick up after a two week break...). The power was out for about two hours but my friends did not miss a beat. Not like the older kids who were convinved and then sorely disppointed when we did not let out early. We were safe in our classroom and were able to use the bathroom in small groups so that was not an issue. We said that the power did not realize that we were back in school yet. They were so excited when the lights came back on and  we carried on with our day.


This morning we were introduced to our new letter W for wisemen and winter. We read a book today called "When I get Bigger" and my friends each then created a  "bigger"version of themselves and had to tell me something that they will do when they are bigger that they cannot do now. I also reminded them to not rush it and to enjoy being little. We also painted their hands to create the three wisemen following the star to find Baby Jesus in the stable. I told the children that Christmas is not over. The wisemen traveled on a long journey and it took 12 days for them to reach baby Jesus with their treasures for the newborn king. We read a book about the Wisemen and we did our Religion pamphlet and traced the path to lead the wisemen to Jesus. I told them the gift we bring to Jesus daily is the gift of Love. Remember to continue to follow that Christmas star.

We went outside for 35 minutes after lunch to enjoy another nice day. Remember we do go outside daily so pack mittens and hats. I was so impressed that MOST of my friends could put their coats on and zip all by themselves! Thank you for practicing over the break! They are really growing up!!

There is candy in your child's backpack from our Spanish Club and Miss Koval in honor of Three Kings Day. It is Mexican candy. 

Remember we will be eating in the classroom this week as the gym is being fixed. There is NO HOT LUNCH available so please pack a lunch each day.

My friends all need something white for W show and share tomorrow.

Please read all of the dates above carefully - Please note Mom's Morning and Dad's Day. All of my friends need just one guest for each.

Here's to a great 2020 for us all!





Friday, December 20
What a busy and fun Friday we had. We created a sleigh for Santa using the letters of our name, we did our S pushpins, created a Christmas pattern, did our Scholastic News on holiday helpers and even managed to do a science experiment with S for skittles. We did it all while in the comfy of our pajamas! We enjoyed 'Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas" with popcorn and stuffed animals. For morning snack, we had muffins and adorable reindeer pudding cups from CJ. It was a festive Friday!

 Reminders:
~ Eagle's Club closes at 5pm today.

~ School reopens on Monday, January 6.

~ There will be NO HOTLUNCH  the week of January 6 as the gym/cafeteria is being fixed.

~ We will talk about the letter W for winter/wisemen when we return.

~ We will have an in house program on Friday, January 10 on Animals in Winter from Ashland. There will be a $5 that will be up on Smart Tuition. Be on the lookout!

~ Look at all of the dates above so you know what is coming in the first few weeks back.

Wishing you all the Merriest Christmas and a New year filled with good health and happiness. Thank you for the many thoughtful and generous gifts, but mostly for the gift of teaching your child. Enjoy the chaos and magic of Christmas with these special little people. Enjoy the time off and try to relax and soak it all in - I know I plan on doing that with my own family. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday, january 6!






Thursday, December 19

Thank you to all for coming yesterday morning. I was really proud of the children as they worked hard on their props and the songs. That was a lot for some of my friends and they all did a great job. I hope it brought a little smile to your face.

This morning we read a story called "The Gingerbread Boy Loose in the School." We then created our own gingerbread boys and even had a gingerbread cookie to taste. We were on the lookout for gingerbread loose in our building today. My friends also created an S for stable out of stickers and retold the story of the birth of Baby Jesus. We also worked on finding pictures that start with the letter S. We also did our Religion pamphlet on the Sheperds following the star to find baby Jesus in the stable.

My friends were so excited for their Silly Socks today!

My friends should all wear Christmas pajamas tomorrow and bring an S for stuffed animal.

Eagle's Club closes at 5pm tomorrow.

If you volunteered to send in an item for our Christmas snack, please remember to do so.

I am sending home the pizza money. This was my gift to the class as a Christmas treat.

All friends must be walked to the room tomorrow morning as each parent will have a bag of Christmas goodies to carry out. We have worked hard on the many items in here - I apologize for the glitter - and they have many cute things to display on your tree and around your home. Enjoy!!

be on the lookout for a sign up genius for conferences soon. My freinds will not have school on Friday, January 24. Please make arrangements now. Also, I added the dates for Mom's Morning and Dad's Day to the dates above. Please make arrangements at work now so that you can join us. If mom or dad are unable to come, grandmom, Godmother, grandfather, Godfather, aunt or uncle can join. Every friend must have a guest.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance! It will be an extra special one!



Tuesday, December 17

The children have been busy working hard on these final touches for Christmas. I am so sad that I missed two days during this very busy and exciting week, but I needed to rest. I did see the doctor today and am on an antibiotic and prednizone for my cough so I am hoping to start to feel more like myself - there is NO TIME for this nonsense!! I wish I could say that I got a lot done at home these last 2 days....a lot of laying around and TV watching which is not in my DNA, esepcially the week before Christmas. Somehow it will all get done!

Please join us tomorrow morning at 8 am for a few Christmas songs that we have worked on. You do not need to sign in at the office. I ask that you drop your child off at the normal time and then go out to the parking lot or run to DD to give us a few minutes to get ourselves ready. At 8 am, Mrs. Monarski will let you in to the building. When you come to our room, please gather around the perimeter of the room and leave the carpet open as this is our "stage". Keep in mind that this can be an intimidating morning to have 30 plus eyes on the children so some may choose to not sing. After we are done, please say a quick goodbye so we can start our day. Friends can wear Christmas colors/shirts but must wear sneakers. Please remember to bring 2 canned goods as a gift to Baby Jesus. We will donate them to our Parish Outreach Program.

We will have Pizza from Pat's for lunch tomorrow. If your child does not like pizza, please pack them a lunch.

If you volunteered to send in items for our Christmas lunch tomorrow, please remember to do so.

My volunteers for the Christmas lunch should check in at the Main Office at 10:45 and then come to our classroom. 

My friends must all be walked down to our classroom on Friday morning as they will each have a big bag filled with their Christmas goodies for you to take with you. 

I look forward to seeing all of my friends tomorrow morning! I have missed those sweet faces~






Sunday, December 15
I will not be in school on Monday as whatever I have has gotten the best of me and I will be visiting the doctor tomorrow. Mrs. K will be in with Mrs. Monarski and our day will continue on as planned. There is never a good time for a mom and preschool teacher to be down for the count but the week before Christmas has to be the worst. I don't decide to stay home sick often so please forgive me for doing so during this busy time. The children are in good hands with Mrs. Monarski and Mrs. K. I am doing everything in my power to be back in on Tuesday.

My friends will be learning about the letter S this week and we will be talking about the Star, our Savior Jesus and of course, Santa. This will be a fun and busy week!

My friends should bring something that makes an S  for sound for Show and Share on Tuesday. They can also wear S for sunglasses.

I will be checking email so please let me know of any changes in dismissal so I can let Mrs. Monarski know.



Thursday, December 12
Thursdays are our busy, action packed days in EC3B! My friends looked great in their jerseys and jammie tops. 

This morning we read a story called 'Rockabye Baby Jesus" about the night that Jesus was born in the stable surrounded by animals with no crib to lay in. My friends then created a J is for Jesus with the image of Baby Jesus in his manger of hay. We also created a J for jingle bell and worked on our Christmas candles. My friends also did a whole group activity on following directions to lead the shephards to baby Jesus in the manger. 

We wish Juliana well who is still home with a cough and cold. We missed CJ today who was out for a doctor's appointment.The children may tell you that my voice sounded "weird" today!!I, too, am suffering from a chest cold, but here were 4 other teachers out today and no subs available,  so we send healthy thoughts to all!


Reminder - There is NO EAGLE'S CLUB on Friday. All of my friends need to be picked up at 11:30 in the back parking lot. For those of you doing this for the first time, please wait on the blacktop. I will lead the class out and will dismiss them one at a time as we reach the blacktop. This day tends to be very chaotic as EVERYONE in the school is being dismissed so please be patient and just follow the crowd if you are unsure of what to do. Once you have your child and you go to your car, YOU MAY NOT LEAVE the parking lot until the teacher on duty dismisses you. You must wait in your car for the line to move ahead of you. Again, just be a follower that day!!

My friends need to bring in something that brings them J for joy for Show and Share tomorrow. This can be a picture of family or friends.

My friends should all bring a Christmas story (one that can be read in 10 minutes or less) for their 6th grade buddy to read to them tomorrow.

All friends need a morning snack and drink. There is NO LUNCH on half days!

My friends should send their Santa Secret Shop labels and sheet in tomorrow so I know how many will be shopping on Monday. Please complete the labels with the to and from filled in to speed up the process on Monday. Children may bring up to $25 on Monday in an envelope marked with your child's name. Please only send the labels tomorrow. Money should be sent in on Monday.

There is NO HOT LUNCH on Monday. There is Chic Fil A for those who ordered. If you did not order Chic Fil A, you must pack your child a lunch.

My friends may wear S for Santa hats on Monday.

Have a holly, jolly night!





Wednesday, December 11

What a busy day here in our classroom/workshop. 

My friends enjoyed a special gym class this morning and had a morning of reindeer games. Thank you to the dads who volunteered and took time to make this a fun morning for our friends.

Today we read a book called "The Legend of the Candy Cane". It taught us that the candy cane is a symbol of Jesus and when turned around looks like a J for Jesus or like a shepherd's staff. My friends then created a candy cane ornament for their Christmas trees. All of our Christmas goodies will be sent home next Friday, December 20. 

We also worked on cutting hearts with our favorite gifts from Jesus. This is a special time of year to stop and thank God for the many blessings and gifts he has given to us by giving us the gift of Baby Jesus. My friends also worked to create an angel as the angels appeared to share the J for joyful news of the birth of Baby Jesus. We also created a special Christmas ornament with their handprints and we created candles to remind us to let that light shine at Christmas and the whole year through! Wow - we were busy angels in here!

We did go outside for 25 minutes after lunch. We ran around on the blacktop and were so happy to see the sun! 

Aftr recess, we completed our Religion pamphlet on "Baby Jesus is Born". My friends do such a good job of retelling the Christmas story and they love seeing pictues of Baby Jesus. Ask them to tell you the story of Baby Jesus being born - ask about the star, and what the innkeepers said, and what Mary rode to Bethlehem. I love being able to share the story of Christmas - this is such a gift!

We wish Aine and Juliana well as they were both home sick today. I am sanitizing and using Lysol and Clorox Wipes like crazy around here! We want everyone to be healthy for the big day two weeks from now!!

My friends may wear jerseys or jammie tops tomorrow - with their school sweatpants.

Please read all of the notes above as they change daily and we have SO MUCH happening in our classroom and in school.

Reminder - There is NO EAGLE'S CLUB on Friday. All of my friends need to be picked up at 11:30 in the back parking lot. For those of you doing this for the first time, please wait on the blacktop. I will lead the class out and will dismiss them one at a time as we reach the blacktop. This day tends to be very chaotic as EVERYONE in the school is being dismissed so please be patient and just follow the crowd if you are unsure of what to do. Once you have your child and you go to your car, YOU MAY NOT LEAVE the parking lot until the teacher on duty dismisses you. You must wait in your car for the line to move ahead of you. Again, just be a follower that day!!

Have a night filled with great Joy!!!

Tuesday, December 10
Another busy day of holiday prep in our classroom. My friends just keep working and playing (which is work at 3 and 4) along! These days are fast and flying by!!


We read a book called "The Legend of the Christmas Tree" this morning. This story tells the legend of the Christnas tree. The three cornrs of the tree represent God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The lights remind us to be the light of the world . This was a very special book and we enjoyed it.  My friends then painted a tree and had to share with me their favorite part of Christmas. This is a great way to help them formulate their thoughts and work on oral expression skills. It is a prewriting skill at the age of 3!

My friends also worked on a J for jellyfish for our end of the year ABC book. They also used a j for jar to paint Christmas colors. We also played a number bingo game in partnrs. This was fun because the childrne had to count, match numbers and work with a partner by taking turns. We always end games by shaking hands and saying "good game".

In Library this morning, we were treated to a train around the tree! My friends were mesmorized by the lights on the tree and the train in the library.

During indoor recess, the children helped me label the gifts that we wrapped yesterday. Again, these acts of kindness are helping that light to shine brighter in their hearts as we prepare for the coming of Jesus during this second week of Advent. After recess, we lit our two candles and listened to the 10th story in our Advent book.

This morning we worked on our Christmas songs. Nothing sweeter than little voices singing. We hope you can join us next Wednesday at 8am for 5 -10 minutes of our performance!

This afternoon we were treated to a magician at our Spirit Rally. The children really enjoyed this end of trimester fun and celebration!


Please see the note above regarding Santa Secret Shop and the tags that were sent home in folders today. Please email me with any questions. 

Remember to send back just the signed envelope from progress reports. The papers inside are yours to keep. 

My friends all need a picture of their favorite gift from Jesus for tomorrow. It can be from a magazine but try to make it a meaningful gift such as family, friends, cousins, a home, an animal, the beach. let's try not to focus on the toys...

Have a wonderful evening filled with JOY!


Monday, December 9
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and made some magical Christmas memories together. I love hearing about all of the fun and festive things my friends are doing. Enjoy it all!! 

This morning we met our new letter Jj for Baby Jesus, joy, and jingle bells. We said that Juliana and Jack both start with the letter J and we looked at pictures of a jar, a jet, jelly, jacket and juice. 

I read a story called "Joy to the World" today and we talked about all of the J for joy that baby Jesus brought to the world on that first Christmas. My friends cut out hearts and created a scene with Jesus and a bright star with the words "Joy to the World". My friends also created angels that brought the joyful news of the birth of Baby Jesus. My friends also created a twinkle, twinkle Christmas star ornament with tissue paper and glitter. This is such a fun time of year!

It was raining at recess so we worked on wrapping presents for the Adopt a Family. The children enjoyed being my helpers and their little lights were shining even brighter after doing this good deed! I was amazed by your generosity. THANK YOU!!

We lit the second candle on our Advent wreath today and prayed a prayer asking God to help us be like Jesus as we prepare for Advent.

Today we celebrated Eleanor's 4th birthday with cinnamon rolls for morning snack so my friends may have extra snacks in their lunchboxes. Happy birthday, Eleanor, and thanks for the yummy treats!

There is NO HOT LUNCH tomorrow so everyone must have a packed lunch.

Our spirit rally to celebrate the end of the 1st trimester is tomorrow. Our class color is Navy Blue so my friends should wear navy blue shirts with their school sweat pants.

Please read all of the dates and important information above.

Progress reports are in folders today. You may keep allof the papers that are inside.  Please sign and return the envelopes.

if you did not send in a clean, empty toilet paper roll, please do so by Wednesday. please be sure that your child's name is on the inside bottom.

Today is the last day to order Chic Fil A on Smart tuition. There will be no hot lunch next Monday 12/16 and chic fil a for those who ordered/

have a jolly night!






Friday, December 6
Happy Friday! And what a fun and exciting Friday it was. The energy that comes from wearing pajamas - and Christmas pajamas at that - is amazing! What a cozy way to spend a Friday!



This morning we talked about St. Nicholas and the joy that he spread to others by leaving special treats and acts of kindness behind. We are called to be like St. Nicholas and to look for ways to make others smile and spread happiness and joy - not just at Christmas but all year. My friends then made a St. Nicholas puppet as a reminder to follow in his footsteps.

We enjoyed looking at the N for newborn pictures of all of our friends. We were newborn just like the newborn baby Jesus. My friends then cut hearts out (my their cutting skills are improving daily) and glued the words on "God made me just right" and then taped on their newborn pictures. These are hanging in our room for all to see.

My friends enjoyed sharing their Noah's Ark animals. They were able to hold their animals while I read a story about Noah's Ark. We learned that Noah trusted in God and followed God's directions and gathered two of every animal to avoid the flooding rains. When the storm was over, God sent a dove and a rainbow as a sign of clam and peace. My friends then created adorable Noah;s Ark crafts that can hang on their doors - after I send them home!

While we were at lunch/recess, Saint Nicholas visited our room and left us each treats in our slippers. he also left 3 new games for our classroom. How generous of St.

Thank you to all who so generously donated to our Adopt a Family program. We are so blessed and so generous here at SJB. Way to let that light shine by bringing joy to others who might not otherwise have it at this time of year.

While we were at lunch/recess, Saint Nicholas came and left us each a treat in our slippers. he also left 3 new games for our classroom. How generous of St. Nicholas!

My friends all need a clean, empty toilet paper roll for Monday. Please be sure that their name is on the bottom inside.


Please read all of the dates and information above so you know all of the fun that we have going on.

Have a wonderul weekend filled with wonder and magic at this most exciting time of the year!!


Thursday, December 5
It was another busy Thursday in EC3B. Between Spanish and Art, we were on the go all day long!

This morning, I read a beautiful Christmas book called "Listen to the Silent Night" about that first Christmas in the stable in Bethlehem. The chidlren are really enjoying all of the stories and images of Baby Jesus and this season is one reason I have always loved teaching in a Catholic School. I can't imagine not being able to celebrate Christmas and the good news of the birth of Baby Jesus. It is a gift that we can talk about the light that is Baby Jesus. We then created an N is for night picture with the words "God Made Night". My friends also worked on finishing number projects and assessments from yesterday. They also worked on sorting big N and little n - they did this task independently and did an awesome job of this! They are really growing and learning every day!

We ate lunch in the classroom today because the cafteria was without heat. After lunch, we did bundle up and play outside for 20 minutes in the playground. When we came in, we became scientists and did a dancing noodles experiment using vinegar, cooked noodles and baking soda. We watched as the reaction caused the noodles at the bottom of our jar to "dance" their way to the top. 




This afternoon, we read our fifth story from our Advent book - each page is bringing us closer to that star that leads us to Jesus. We lit the first candle of hope and listened to "Silent Night". This is such a calming activity after our morning of playand work and is a great way to transition to rest time each day.


~ Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day. My friends can wear pajamas(Christmas if you have them) and sneakers to school. Please send an extra shoe or slipper with a name marked on the bottom. We will leave these in the hallway for St. Nick to leave a treat. 

~ Adopt a family donations are due tomorrow. Please send them in UNWRAPPED.... I will be a busy elf wrapping this weekend. Thank you for your generosity.

~ My friends need an N for newborn picture for tomorrow! Please be sure that their name is on the back!!

~ We will do our Noah's Ark Show and Share tomorrow as we will be reading the story and doing the craft tomorrow. ALL FRIENDS SHOULD BRING A FAVOITE ANIMAL FROM NOAH'S ARK.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!!



Wednesday, December 4
Hooray! Today we had all of our friends back in school with us for the first time in a few weeks. We were so happy to see everyone!

Today was all about N for numbers. I loved seeing my friends in their number shirts. This morning I read a story called "Bear Counts" and we talked about the numbers 1- 5. My friends then did a matching paper - they had to count how many dots were on the bus and match it with the correct number. We also glued an N to a paper and I showed the children numbers that they colored. I would show a card with a number on it and they had to find that number and glue it to their sheet. We also worked on a number assessment where my friends had to count for me and then identify the numbers 1 through 10 in random order. This is tricky but a good skill to practice at home. There are so many counting games on all of their devices so many of my friends were able to recognize the numbers. 

After recess, we tasted our N for Nilla wafers and the Nestle strawberry milk. My friends enjoyed this N treat! We also worked on a cutting sheet to practice those scissor skills. We then read the fourth story of our Advent book and lit the candle on our wreath. We know that Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for the birthday of Baby Jesus on Christmas Day.

~ Please read the dates above and the information above nightly as I am always adding to. This is a busy and exciting time of year and we want all friends to join in the fun.

My friends all need a favorite animal from Noah's Ark tomorrow for Show and Share.

Have a great night!! I love all of the Christmas shows that I hear about each morning! This is such a great time of year. Soak it all in!!




Tuesday, December 3
What a chilly Tuesday but inside of our classroom it is warm and busy like Santa's workshop! We are some busy elves!I love this exciting time of year - and it is so fun and such a guft that I get to see it through the eyes of three and four year olds again, so thank you for sharing that gift with me. 

Today we read a book called 'The Best Nest" and we talked about what animals live in a nest and what those animals need in a nest. My friends then created an N is for nest sheet for their end of the year ABC book. I worked with each child on finding their N for name. I placed four names n the table and they had to identify their name. They then had to match letters to the letters in their name and place them in the correct sequential order. They are so proud when they can match the letters and name the letters in their name - and so am I! Continue to practice at home. They also worked on using water colors to create a N for nighttime Nativity scene. We also did our Religion lesson on preparing for Christmas and ways to get our hearts ready during this season of Advent. Remind them to let that light shine brightly for all during this time of year!

We read our third story in our Advent book and lit the first candle for hope. We also listened to 'O Come O Come Emmanuel" as we did this.

I brought in a singing character today and will do so every day from now until Christmas. The kids love these fun little decorations. Ask them about it - today the bear sang about Christmas cookies. My parents have "gifted" us with all of these "treasures" so I bring them in to share with the little ones!

We were not allowed to have outdoor recess today due to the wind but shhhh we took 5 minutes to run around ( the kids don't feel it like we do). We then came in and played a fun game of animal bowling. 


We now only go to Gym on Wednesdays. We will have Library on Tuesdays during the second trimester.

If you volunteered to send in Nilla wafers or milk, please do so on Wednesday. Thank you 

My friends all need a clean, empty toilet paper roll by Monday. Please write their name on the bottom inside.

CJ and Paxton are still home with coughs so we wish them well and hope to see our friends soon!

My friends should wear a shirt with an N for number on it tomorrow.

Remember names on shirts and hair pulled back tomorrow for Gym.

Please remember to read all of the dates and information above - there is a lot going on right now!

Have a wonderful night. Enjoy a special Christmas book tonight!



Monday, December 2
I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed the break from school. We are back and ready fro a VERY BUSY month of December. These next 3 weeks will surely fly by but let's try to soak in all of the fun and excitement!!

This morning we met our new letter Nn. We looked at pictures of a nose, net, nest, needle and a necklace. We will talk about the Nativity and Newborn Jesus this week.

My friends painted stars and used glitter to make them sparkle. These will hang from our ceiling to light the way just as the star that shined brightly about the stable on that first Christmas. We are called to be a light, especially at this time of the year. We will let that light shine to let everyone know that Jesus is on our hearts, today and always.

I read a book called "Away in Manger" today. We talked about that first Christmas night. My friends then created a manger scene with popsicle sticks. We also painted hands to create a manger for Baby Jesus and we cut hearts to give Baby Jesus a place to stay. These will hang on our Religion bulletin board letting everyone know that our hearts are open and ready for Jesus.

Each day during Advent we will read a short story to prepare our hearts and we will "light" our candle on our wreath. Today we talked about the four candles and the wreath that is a circle that goes round and round just like God's love for us has no beginning or end.


We are working on Christmas songs so you may hear us singing them in the next few weeks. We hope that you can join us on Wednesday, December 18 at 8:00 am for 5-10 minutes of songs from our little angels.

We spent 20 minutes outside running around after lunch. Please be sure that children are dressed appropriately and have hats and gloves. We will do our best to go out each day!

Please read the information above. There is a note about Saint Nicholas Day on Friday.

We wish Eleanor, Paxton and CJ all well as they are all home with coughs and colds. We hope everyone is healthy soon and that the rest of my friends stay healthy during this busy time of year!

If you volunteered to send in Nilla wafers or milk, please do so on Wednesday. Thank you 

My friends all need a clean, empty toilet paper roll by Monday. Please write their name on the bottom inside.

Scholastic Book orders are due today. Our online code is QFX2R. These inexpensive books make great Christmas presents. I will put them in bags in case they are a surprise.

If you get a chance, go see Frozen Jr at the Delaware Children's Theater. We went yesterday and I was blown away. I know so many of my friends are really into Frozen now with the release of Frozen 2. I have been going to shows here for 8  years with my kids and this is the best one yet! It has been selling out so if you want to go, you should order tickets now. 

Have a Nice night. Stay safe if the weather turns yucky on us!

Monday, November 25

HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM THE LITTLE TURKEYS OF EC3B

Thank you to all who contributed to our feast today! The children had a nice time and enjoyed the yummy foods!

We wish Derek, Leah and Sophia well as they were all home sick today. We hope all of our friends are healthy for the big day on Thursday. 

We spent a lot of time outside on this beautiful day today.

My friends will be bringing home many Thanksgiving crafts. There is a laminated turkey that is meant to be a placemat they can use on Thanksgiving Day.

Family Christmas trees are due tomorrow if you are participating. 

There is a half day tomorrow. Children need a morning snack and drink. Eagle's Club friends need a lunch.

We will attend Thanksgiving Mass tomorrow. please remind your child to be reverent and to sit still and silently in Church. We will sit with 6th grade buddies.

Scholastic Book Orders are due online by Monday, Dec 2. These inexpensive books make great Christmas gifts!

From our classroom to your home, we wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings. ENjoy the time with family and all of the blessings that we have. THANK YOU for sharing your greatest gifts with us each day. We are so grateful for each and every one of them.

Buckle up and get ready because when we get back, we will be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!





Friday, November 22

That Friday feeling! Love the friendships that are forming in here. It will be so fun to watch then grow over the years!

This morning we worked on our Thanksgiving songs and poems - so cute! I am sure you will hear little glimpses of them over the weekend. 

Today we worked on Advent calendars that will come home on Monday. Please read the information section above so you know what you need to know about the Advent wreath.

My friends created turkeys with their names by sequencing the feathers in the correct order. They are doing a great job recognizing their names and the letters in their names. We are such smart turkeys! My friends also did their Tt pushpins which is a great fine motor skill. They also painted and decorated T for teddy bears and filled a cross with T for tissue paper to show our thanks for Jesus. 

We acted out a little poem called 'Five Silly Turkeys" today and my friends realized that our number was getting smaller so we were subtracting. These little turkeys are mathematicians!

My friends enjoyed their pretzels and Chic Fil A today. It was a feast on a Friday!

My friends all looked great in their team shirts and we enjoyed having our teddy bears with us today!

We took advantage of the warmth and spent 15 minutes on the big playground this morning before the rain rolled in. At recess,we did our Scholastic News on giving thanks and we played a fun memory game as a class. 


~ Sheets and towels are being sent home today only for my NON EAGLE'S CLUB friends. They do not need to come back to school on Monday as next week are half days. Eagle's Club will send them home on Tuesday. Thank you!
 
Monday is our feast. You do not need to pack a snack! If you volunteered to send in items for our feast, please remember to do so. All items must be peanut free so that all friends can enjoy safely

My friends can wear fall colors for our feast.

My friends should all bring a favorite T for toy fro Show and Share.

There is no lunch on half days. Eagle's Club friends will eat lunch at Eagle's Club. There is NO HOT LUNCH available to order.

On half days, my car rider friends should be picked up at 11:30 . Dismissal will be just as it is on regular days. I will walk them to you on the blacktop.

Remember to work on those Christmas trees - it is a fun family craft for the weekend!

Have a Terrific weekend! Enjoy making happy memories and spend time being thankful for the many blessings in our lives. This is such a special time of year filled with fun and family. 


Thursday, November 21
As you know by now, Thursdays are our very busy days with Spanish and Art and trying to get as much done as possible during our limited class time. Somehow we always manage to get it all done. 

This morning, my friends worked to complete their Advent wreaths. These will be sent home next week as Advent begins on Sunday, December 1. Each Sunday during Advent, the children should "light" a candle (flames are taped to the back of the wreath) and talk about what they will do that week to show the light in their heart and to light the way for the birth of Baby Jesus. You beging by lighting a purple candle, followed by a purple candle on Dec 8, the pink candle on Dec 15 and the last purple candle on Dec 22. 

My friends also created T for turkeys using Q-tips to make the feathers. They created Indian corn by scrunching T for tissue paper. They had to cut their own corn which was not easy but they did an awesome job at this! They also worked to cut pieces of green and brown paper to fill a letter T to look like a tree and did an amazing job with this fine motor skill. 

We enjoyed sharing our T for towels today and sat on our towels during carpet time and many friends used their special towels at rest. It is these little things that mean so much to them and make them so proud to share. Their confidence is growing every day in here!

I read a book called 'Triangles Everywhere" today and the children had to name the triangles that they found in the book. We talked about the fact that triangles have 3 sides and 3 corners. My friends all then went to their tables and cut a T for teal triangle.

My friends should all wear a Team Shirt tomorrow for the School Tag Day!

My friends should all bring a T for teddy bear for T weke tomorrow.

My friends all need a picture of something that starts with a T for our collage tomorrow.

There are pretzels for morning snack for those who ordered and Chic Fil A for lunch. THERE IS NO HOT LUNCH AVAILABLE TOMORROW, so if you did not order Chic Fil A, you need to pack a lunch for your child. Remember ketchup if they want for their nuggets.

The nurse sent an email to the teachers telling us there are a lot of sicknesses in school, especially the dreaded stomach bug. We are being extra dilligent in scrubbing and sanitizing and hand washing and using sanitizer but if your child is complaining of a stomach ache and showing signs of not feeling well (not eating, lethargic, etc), please take this seriously and keep them home if possible. This is so contagious and their little bodies can't fight things off yet so please don't risk it. I plan on doing a deep cleaning over Thanksgiving next week.

Remember to read the dates and information above as there is SO MUCH going on in the next few weeks. It will be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!





Wednesday, November 20
Today was a windy and wonderful Wednesday. We were busy from start to finish! And all of my friends except 1 slept today because we were so busy and tired from our work/play.

This morning we spent time maknig our headdresses for our feast on Monday. The children had to fray the edges of their feathers and they all did such a great job with this! We also painted our Advent wreaths green so we can be ready for the start of this most Holy season that is rapidly approaching.

Today I read a book called "A Thankful Heart" and we again talked about the many blessings that we have in our lives. My friends then had to tell me something for which they are thankful. I explained that while toys are nice and fun to have, this is not what Thanksgiving is about. 

We tasted our teddy grahams today and then voted in our favorite by creating a chart with our names. Cinnamon was the winner with 9 votes. Math is fun when we can taste it!

My friends should all bring a favorite T for towel for Show and Share tomorrow.

We are really a chorus of coughs and runny noses in here. Please work with our child on covering their coughs with their elbows and on using tissues to blow their nose. If a cough if persistent, please allow your child a day to rest. I know it is not easy, but this is a long day when you are feeling 100% so it is even longer if you are not. We all must do our part to keep everyone healthy - especially during this busy time of year. Thank you!


My friends are doing  agreat job of putting coats on independently. Kepe practicing at home. It is such a huge help!

Please read all of the dates above so you don't miss any of the fun!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!





Tuesday, November 19
What a beautiful fall Tuesday this was! We spent an hour on the playground after lunch today to soak it all in!

This morning, we read 'My T book" and named all of the T pictures that we saw in the book. My friends did a Terrific job at this! My friends then worked to create a T is for Turkey for their end of the year ABC book. We also worked on a cute Thanksgiving project that had me painting their hands again. 

We did T for table work today and my friends were like the big kids. We named the four shapes in a row and had to idenify the shape that was different. The children then had to follow my direction and use the correct color crayon to color the different shape. I was so impressed with what an awesome job they did on this. 

We are working on some Thanksgiving songs - I am sure you will hear some version of them at home over the next few days!

If you did not sign up for an item on our Adopt a Family sign up genius, please consider doing so. Thank you for your generosity and for thinking of those in need.

My friends should all wear a T shirt tomorrow - a team, shirt with a truck, Tinkerbell, a teal or turquoise shirt.

~ If you volunteered to send in teddy grahams for our tasting, pelase do so on Wednesday.

Thank you for continuing to practice putting coats on independently. This is a huge help!

Please read all of the dates above as there are many important dates in our classroom and in the school. Please read the information section above as it contains a lot of important information for some upcoming events.

Remember to spend time talking about all we have to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving. 

Have a Terrific night!




Monday, November 18
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and spent time making happy family memories! We have just a few days left (if you are like me, you are counting down for a break from the awful job of packing lunches!) and then we will get a much needed extended weekend for family time.

This morning we met our new letter of the week, letter Tt. We looked at pictures of a tiger, a TV, a tooth, a turtle and a table. This week and next will be all about turkeys and Thanksgiving and time with our families.

Today we worked on making shakers and stringing ncklaces for our feast next week. These are good fine motor skills for the children and they love having a hand in the making of our props.

I read the book "Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks" and we created turkeys out of paper plates and T for tissue paper. They are bright and colorful! We also did a turkey pattern with brown and yellow turkeys. My friends did a great job of creating their own patterns and following them. We also worked on a special Thanksgiving craft that involved cutting and gluing to complete a turkey. These will come home next week. 

We wish CJ and Luke well as they are both not feeling 100% and took a day to rest and get better!

If you did not sign up for an item on our Adopt a Family sign up genius, please consider doing so. Thank you for your generosity and for thinking of those in need.


~ If you volunteered to send in teddy grahams for our tasting, pelase do so on Wednesday.

Thank you for continuing to practice putting coats on independently. This is a huge help!

Please read all of the dates above as there are many important dates in our classroom and in the school. Please read the information section above as it contains a lot of important information for some upcoming events.

Remember to spend time talking about all we have to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving. 


Friday, November 15
What a Friday! We were such busy turkeys today and are so ready for the weekend. I don't know about you, but with Thanksgiving so late this year, I feel like I am just chugging along trying to get there. My own two kids are ready for a break and an extended weekend to sleep in and recharge. We can do it!

This morning my friends worked on a Thanksgiving pattern. Most friends were able to do on their own. Patterns are a good skill to practice at home to make it easier for the children. We also worked on a Thanksgiving craft that involved their hand being painted FIVE times today! That was  alot of trips to the bathroom sink! 

In Science, we ended L week with a Lava Lamp experiment in our L for lab. We filled cups with baby oil and water and then each friend added food coloring. We were amazed that the food coloring all settled at the bottom of the cup and did not mix in with the oil. The oil sat at the top. Each friend then added Alka Seltzer powder and they were amazed at the bubbles that formed and floated to the top. This was the first time I did the experiment and I thought it was a super cool one! Three friends told me they loved it - Science is so simple but so fun!



We enjoyed an hour long afternoon recess on the big and little playgrounds on this gorgeous fall Friday afternoon!

My friends all need a clean, dry, little (8oz) water bottle with their initials on top. Please send this  on Monday if you did not do so today as we need it for a Thanksgiving prop.

Thank you for continuing to practice putting coats on independently. This is a huge help!

Please read all of the dates above as there are many important dates in our classroom and in the school. Please read the information section above as it contains a lot of important information for some upcoming events.

Remember to spend time talking about all we have to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving. 

The weekend is a good time to practice cutting and gluing skills!

*** We are collecting food for a Thanksgiving Outreach project. My friends are asked to bring in corn muffin or muffin mix. Donations are due by Monday. Thank you for your support of those who are less fortunate. We appreciate your generosity!

Enjoy the weekend with your family and savor the calm before the hustle and bustle of the holiday craze sets in. My daughter turns 9 this weekend which is so hard to believe so we will spend the weekend celebrating with friends and family! Enjoy your memory making!



Thursday, November 14
It was great to see so many of my friends last night at the Book Fair. Thank you for coming out and supporting this fundraiser. Thank you also for the many generous contributions of books for our classroom library. We are very excited for new books to read.

Thursdays are our days that are filled with specials so it does not leave much time for work in our classroom, but we do always manage to squeeze some in. Today we worked on cutting by using our scissors to cut a circle. I am so impressed with the improvement in cutting that I have seen since the start of the year. Keep practicing at home - it is working! We also created little candles to remind everyone to let that L for light shine in them. We listened to the song "This Little Light of Mine" and I reminded the children that each time we show love and kindness, that light will shine brighter letting others know that Jesus is in their hearts. We need to be that light in the darkness!

We worked at tables as a whole group on a prewriting skill by following the lines from left to write so children can start to understand that when writing, we move from left to right. They also had to follow along and listen for the color that was needed for each step. They did well working at their tables - they will do this a lot in the four year old room so we start practicing this year.

I have been using name cards to help with transition times this week. I have been showing the children a card with their name and when they see their name, they should line up or go back to the table or whatever the direction is. Most of my friends are able to recognize their name - or at least the first letter. Some of my friends are even beginning to recognize their friends' names by the first letter on the card. Way to go, friends!

My friends all need a clean, dry, little (8oz) water bottle with their initials on top. Please send this to school either tomorrow or on Monday as we need it for a Thanksgiving prop.

Thank you for continuing to practice putting coats on independently. This is a huge help!

Please read all of the dates above as there are many important dates in our classroom and in the school.

Remember to spend time talking about all we have to be thankful for during this month of Thanksgiving. 

*** We are collecting food for a Thanksgiving Outreach project. My friends are asked to bring in corn muffin or muffin mix. Donations are due by Monday. Thank you for your support of those who are less fortunate. We appreciate your generosity!

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!!!






Wednesday, November 13
It was another day filled with fun and working here in EC3B. Many of my friends are so excited for the Book Fair tonight. I hope to see you all there. 

This morning, we read the book "Give Thanks to the Lord" and we talked about all of the many things that we have to be thankful for in our lives. The children then shared their pictures with me and cut a heart and had to tell me a sentence about what they are thankful for and why. My friends also created L for lollipos with the letters of their names in the correct sequential order. We also created fall trees with our toilet paper rolls. We painted them brown and and used the Fruit Loops as L for leaves to decorate the trees. My friends also cut Indian Corn and glued husks on and used L for Legos to paint on the corn. It was a busy morning.

This morning in Gym, many friends claimed they were "too tired" to play so 10 of my friends decided to sit for most of the Gym period. I was very sad to hear and see this when I picked them up. I explained that we are so lucky to go to Gym and that Mrs. Schock plans such fun games for us to play. I also said that at 3 and 4, they shouldn't be too tired to play - especially at 8:30 am! It's funny because many of those same tired friends did not appear to be very tired at rest time! I told the chidlrne that I really hope that next week, they engage in Gym. This might be a god conversation to have tonight....

We did go outside after lunch and played on the playground for about 20 minutes. Please be sure that your child has a hat and mittens (not gloves please as it is SO HARD to get their fingers in the right spot and 10 fingers times 15 kids...you get the point). I am proud of many of my friends for trying to independently put their coats and accessories on. Of course, we always help but I like to see them try it first. Continue to practice at home.

if your child would like to order Chic Fil A for lunch on Friday, 11/22, the link on Smart Tuition will close tomorrow and orders will no longer be accepted. There will be no hot lunch seved in the cafeteria that day so if you do not order Chic Fil A, you will need to pack a lunch for your child. Payment can only be made on Smart Tuition and I will then get a printout of who has ordered. 

If you pack your child an orange for snack or lunch, please peel it for them so that it is ready to eat. I know it sounds silly but our snack and lunch time are so busy so it really helps when snacks are ready to go. Thank you!

We are a chorus of coughs in here and I anticipate that we will be for months to come, so please remind your child to cover their coughs/sneezes with their elbows to reduce the spread of germs. We are spraiying and scrubbing and doing our best to keep everyone healthy in here. My own son is home sick today so I know the juggling it takes to keep a child home sick from school, but sometimes they just need that day to rest. If your child is not feeling 100% or has a persistent cough, please do your best to keep them home to give their body the time it needs to recover. Thanks for doing you part in keeping all of my friends healthy!

Happy shopping at the Book Fair!



Tuesday, November 12
This was yet another busy day despite the dreary weather! No matter the weather, our friends come in and are ready to go. Wish I could say the same for my middle schooler who was literally dozing off at my desk at 7:15 am!

This morning, we read "The Grouchy Ladybug" and the chidlren then created an L for ladybug for their end of the year ABC book. We also worked on a leaf Math counting activity with one to one correspondence. My friends also practiced cutting an L for lavendar triangle. 

We were so excited to see the first snowflakes falling as we got ready fro lunch. Many of my friends were excited to "play in it" and build snowmen. I explained they would have to wait a while longer for that. We did take a few minutes to run around and enjoy the excitement of it! It is one of the best things about this age - the wonder of it all!


We had indoor recess after a few minutes of fresh air. My friends were excited to play with new Legos that we got for our classroom. While they played, some friends also worked on painting a Thanksgiving craft. After recess, we did a whole group activity that involved finding numbers and following directions in regards to colors. They did really well with this activity.

My friends all need a picture of something they are thankful for tomrorow - it can be from a magazine or a picture of a family member or pet. hey need to be able to tell me what they are thankful for.

Tomorrow is Gym - hair pulled back and names on shirts.

Please read all of the dates above as we have a busy few weeks ahead!

Please continue to practice putting coats on indepedently. Also, remember mittens, not gloves for cold days. We will go outside daily so please be sure that your child is dressed appropriately.

Tomorrow is the Book Fair at Barnes and Noble. The Book Fair is all day and there are many fun activities planned throughout the evening. This is a HUGE fundraiser for our school library and  it is a fun event for the children.  If you dine at Chic Fil A after 5:00 pm and mention SJB, a portion of the sale there will also go to school. Hope to see you all there!




Monday, November 11
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and is savoring this calm before the storm of the holidays sets in. We are going to be busy turkeys over these next two weeks, so please make sure that your child is well rested for our busy days!

This morning, we went on a leaf hunt. I read the book "We are going on a leaf hunt" as we walked. Who knew that we had a tall mountain, a dark forest, a deep lake and a loud waterfall all in our back parking lot?!?! The chidlren really enjoyed this fun - and it was a perfect fall morning for it!

This morning I read the book "I Like Me" and we went around the room and each child shared somehting that makes them special. We then created hearts with our pictures and the words " I like me" and the children each created a person to look like them and had to give me a statement telling me what they like about themselves. We are all gifts from God and we need to treasure the gift that we are.

This afternoon, we shared our Show and Share items. We had so many interesting and different things. Please remember that if your child brings in a stuffed animal for show and share, this will be their animal for rest time also. We do not have cubbie space for two animals.

Tomorrow is Gym - hair pulled back and names on shirts.

Please read all of the dates above as we have a busy few weeks ahead!

Please continue to practice putting coats on indepedently. Also, remember mittens, not gloves for cold days. We will go outside daily so please be sure that your child is dressed appropriately.

have a lovely night!




Friday, November 8
We had a great Friday! We were as busy as the bustling leaves outside! This morning my friends did their l pushpins, painted beautiful leaves to hang from our ceilings, created a fall picture titled "Leaves Fall Down" and we read the book called "The Leaf Man. " My friends each then had the chance to share their leaves and we compared the different sizes, shapes and colors of the leaves. My friends each then created a leaf man just like in the story - they are so cute!

I loved seeing my friends in their shirts that they L for love! They are so proud of all of these things that make them special and unique. 

My friends all need a picture of just them for Monday and they should bring in something that they L for love for Show and Share.

Please look at all of the above dates carefully so you do not miss out on classroom fun!

The weekend is a good time to practice cutting, gluing and putting coats on independently! 

As the weather gets colder, I ask that you please send mittens, not gloves, to school. Mittens are much easier for us to put on their hands. Buy lots of mittens because like socks, they will disappear!

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you again for choosing SJB for your child! Stay warm on this cold, fall weekend!


Thursday, November 7
Thursdays are SOO busy and go by in the blink of an eye! We have Art and Spanish and we squeeze as much work in to our morning as we can.

This morning, we read the story " A leaf Blew in" and continued to talk about our letter, L. My friends practiced cutting a lavender triangle. I am so impressed with the improvement in their cutting skills. I can tell you have been working at home. Keep it up! My friends also created a leaf by painting with shaving cream and fall paint colors. They loved this and they turned out beautiful! My friends also created a leaf wreath. 

This morning we did our Religion lesson on "I have a family." We talked about all of the wonderful things our families do together and how we love spending time with our families. Our families are our greatest gift from God and they love us no matter what. We ended with a prayer thanking God for blessing us with our families. We talked about family game nights or movie nights so maybe try to sneak one in this weekend if your schedule allows!

After our lunch and recess, we did a Math lesson with leaves. We started with 5 leaves and each time we read a line from our poem, a leaf disappeared. The children realized that our number was getting smaller. 

On Friday, November 22, we will have Chic Fil A offered for lunch. There will be NO HOT LUNCH offered that day. If you would like to purchase Chic Fil A, go to your Smart Tuition account to make your selection and payment. The payment is due by Friday, November 8. If you do not order chic fil a, you will need to pack a lunch that day..

Please read all of the dates above so you know what is happening in the school and our classroom.

Remember to practice using gluesticks and scissors! 

Practice putting coats on independently. I have several friends who can do so already and are so proud! Thank you!

** Friends may only bring ONE stuffed animal to school each day. If your child is bringing a stuffed animal for Show and Share, then this will be the animal they use at rest time. please do not send two animals to school. There is not enough room in bookbags or cubbies! Thank you!

I sent home a flier about our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, November 13. This is always one of my favorite nights . Hope you can join us !


My friends all need 5 leaves for a project tomorrow.

My friends should wear a shirt they L for love tomorrow.

I am leaving early tomorrow (right before lunch). Ms Debbie from Eagle's Club will spend the remainder of the day with the chidlren and Mrs. Monarski. I may not be able to update my page so if I do not, have a wonderful weekend and stay cozy and warm! My friends all need something that they L for love for Show and Share on Monday and a picture of just them!

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance




Wednesday, November 6
This morning, we started our new letter, Ll. We said that Luke and Leah both start with L and we looked at pictures of a lion, a lemon, a letter, a log and a leaf. We will spend the next few days talking about leaves and things that we love.

This morning we read a book called "Autumn's First Leaf" . In the book, we talked about all of the changes that happen in autumn/fall and the many colors that we see on the leaves. be on the lookout for the changing leaves as you drive or play outside. Duing work time, chidlren independently created leaves using dot dot markers (this is a fine motor skill). The children also worked to fill a leaf with tissue paper to create stained glass leaves for our windows in the classroom. My friends worked to cut hearts and fill the hearts with the words " i love my family" and the family picture. I traced the chidlren's arms and hands on brown paper and we turned them into trees. The children then painted leaves on the trees and had to tell me a sentence of something they like to do in the fall. It was a busy morning!!

On Friday, November 22, we will have Chic Fil A offered for lunch. There will be NO HOT LUNCH offered that day. If you would like to purchase Chic Fil A, go to your Smart Tuition account to make your selection and payment. The payment is due by Friday, November 8. If you do not order chic fil a, you will need to pack a lunch that day..

Please read all of the dates above so you know what is happening in the school and our classroom.

Remmeber to practice using gluesticks and scissors! 

Practice putting coats on independently. I have several friends who can do so already and are so proud! Thank you!
** Friends may only bring ONE stuffed animal to school each day. If your child is bringing a stuffed animal for Show and Share, then this will be the animal they use at rest time. please do nto send two animals to school. There is not enough room in bookbags or cubbies! Thank you!

I sent home a flier about our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, November 13. This is always one of my favorite nights . Hope you can join us !

Have a Lovely evening!






Tuesday, November 5
What a busy and terrific Tuesday. We were busy learning all day long - we didn't even have play time today because there was so much to do!

We finished our letter C today by reading a book called "I Like Colors". We talked about all of the different things we saw of each color. We then became scientists and did our "Colors in Sunlight" experiment. The children were such good listeners and loved that they all had a part in this cool partner activity. Everyone got to pour milk, drop food coloring in and add the mysterious liquid that mixed all of our colors together. Science is so fun and we loved all of the C for colors we made!






We then worked at tables in groups of 5 to create scarecrows. Mrs. Monarski and I each sat with a group and gave directions for them to follow and they did an awesome job - just like big kids. They also painted letters Cc with a carrot today which they thought was funny! We listened to a story called "Penguins like Colors" and did a whole group activity where the children had to identify the color in the picture and then color the rainbow in order. They did awesome!

After recess this afternoon, each child was given 5 counting bears for Math. We listened to the story 'Bear Counts" and the chidlren followed along as bear added a number to his group each time until he had five and we did, too. Hands on Math is so simple and fun to do. The chidlren realized that our number got bigger because we were adding on to it.

What a busy and fun day. Tomorrow we will start L for leaves.

Tomorrow is Gym - names on shirts and hair pulled back!

If you volunteered to send in for our L tasting tomorrow, please do so.

Friends need a family picture tomorrow.
** Please remember to practice cutting and using gluesticks at home. many of my friends do not know how to properly use a gluestick. These are great quiet activities for them to do while you are making dinner.

* Please practice putting coats on independently. It is so helpful when some of our friends can do this!

* The Sign Up Genius for Thanksgiving had the wrong date. The date is Monday, November 25. I apologize for my Monday brain!

** Please note that Show and Share has been moved to next Monday as we are continuing with the letter C tomorrow. We will start L on Wednesday.

*If you did not send in a clean, empty toilet paper roll today, please do so tomorrow. PLease write your child's name on the bottom of the inside of the roll.

** Friends may only bring ONE stuffed animal to school each day. If your child is bringing a stuffed animal for Show and Share, then this will be the animal they use at rest time. please do nto send two animals to school. There is not enough room in bookbags or cubbies! Thank you!

I sent home a flier about our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, November 13. This is always one of my favorite nights . Hope you can join us !

Please check all of the dates above so you know what is happening in our classroom and in the school. These next few weeks/months will be very busy!



Monday, November 4
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and time together and enjoyed the extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. I know I like driving to school with the sun up but I do not like the darkness that sets in at 5pm now! 

My friends all came in ready to go this morning. I love this age because they are always ready! Our days are so fun and so fast.

This morning, we continued with the letter c and we read "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie." The Mouse even left us cookies to eat while we enjoyed the book. My friends did a great job sequencing the events of the story for me. The children then created a mouse puppet and had to cut their own cookie. They each had to tell me something that happened in the story for a mouse craft that also involved cutting. We also practiced cutting straight lines to the farm animals that told us to STOP. We do a lot of cutting in here so often times our crafts may not look "perfect" but my theory is that it is their work that they are able to do at 3 or 4 years old. My son had one preschool teacher that wanted everything to look like her sample but I never felt like it was Aidan's true work. I like to let the children do their own crafts because they are so proud - and it makes each craft unique!

After recess, we played 'Who took the cookie from the cookie jar/" My friends enjoyed this rhyme and activity.

** Please remember to practice cutting and using gluesticks at home. many of my friends do not know how to properly use a gluestick. These are great quiet activities for them to do while you are making dinner.

* Please practice putting coats on independently. It is so helpful when some of our friends can do this!

* The Sign Up Genius for Thanksgiving had the wrong date. The date is Monday, November 25. I apologize for my Monday brain!

** Please note that Show and Share has been moved to next Monday as we are continuing with the letter C tomorrow. We will start L on Wednesday.

*If you did not send in a clean, empty toilet paper roll today, please do so tomorrow. PLease write your child's name on the bottom of the inside of the roll.

** Friends may only bring ONE stuffed animal to school each day. If your child is bringing a stuffed animal for Show and Share, then this will be the animal they use at rest time. please do nto send two animals to school. There is not enough room in bookbags or cubbies! Thank you!

I sent home a flier about our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, November 13. This is always one of my favorite nights . Hope you can join us !

Please check all of the dates above so you know what is happening in our classroom and in the school. These next few weeks/months will be very busy!

Have a wonderful week!

Friday, November 1
We did it! We survived Halloween and the day after! I hope that everyone enjoyed last night. We said an extra prayer of thanks to God for allowing the rain to stop so that we could enjoy a fun night of trick or treating! And today we welcomed in November and talked about how this is a month of being thanksful and spending time with family. We will enjoy the "calm" of November before the excitement of December sets in!

This morning we read 'if you Give a cat a Cupcake" and my friends were able to hold their stuffed animal. We acted the story out and then resequenced the events of the story. The children enjoyed this book so if you do nto have it at home, it would be a good one to add to your library. My friends then created a cat out of a paper plate and tissue paper. They also painted a cupcake using glue, shaving cream and food coloring . They used glitter to sprinkle the cupcake and then had to tell me a sentence from the story. At lunch, we had mini cupcakes as a special dessert to celebrate the story!

Today is the feast day of All Saints. I told the children that Saints were special people that loved God so much and who always listened to God and spread His love through kindness. We did our Religion magazine on Saint Francis and my friends colored some animals that were the friends of St. Francis. I traced each friend's foot and had them tell me a way they will follow in the footsteps of the Saints. This weekend, they are going to try to be "Saint like." Remind them of this!

We learned a cute little hand poem called "Creeping" this morning. 

Remember a clean, empty toilet paper roll with your child's name on the bottom inside.

We will continue with letter C on Monday and Tuesday next week. 

Winter uniform starts on Monday. No more shorts until the spraing uniform.

The weekend is a good time to practice cutting and putting on coats independently.

I sent home a flier about our Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Wednesday, November 13. This si always one of my favorite nights . Hope you can join us !

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this family time  and some down time after a busy week of excitement!

Thursday, October 31

What a day!The excitement in our building was at an all time high. I was proud of my friends for how well they did as we paraded through the Gym and the big building. This could be pretty overwhelming but my friends did an awesome job. Thank you to so many parents and grandparents for coming to our parade!

After the parade, we returned to our room to enjoy our Halloween snack. Thank you to all who contributed and to the moms whol helped. Thank you also for understanding that we can only allow limited guests to our parties. When we pack too many people in the room, it becomes chaotic, overwhelming and some friends become anxious. 

We enjoyed a pumpkin volcano this afternoon. The kids LOVED this Halloween fun and each child had a part by adding to our reaction!

We were able to get outside and run around after lunch because the rain had stopped. I gave a LONG talk to the children about avoiding the puddles and I told them that we woud not be changing shoes or pants if they purposefully stepped or jumped in puddles and that wet shoes do not make for a fun afternoon......

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance.

My friends should wear a C for favorite character shirt tomorrow.

My friends should bring a stugged cat ( or dog) for 'If You Give a Cat a Cupcake". if you volunteered to send in cupcakes (because we need more sugar), please remember to do so and that they must be PEANUT and TREE NUT FREE.

Scholastic ONline Book Order is due tomorrow. Code is QFX2R.

I hope that everyone has fun tonight and that the rain stays away for at least a little bit of fun!

Happy and safe Halloween!


Wednesday, October 30
Oh you can feel the excitement in our building! The next two days are going to be big around here!

This morning we read a book called 'God made me just right" and we talked about the fact that God created each of us to be special and to be a child of God. My friends all created C for crowns that say 'I am a child of God". We also cut out hearts and glued on the words 'I am a child of God" along with their pictures. We said chidlren of God look for ways to help others and to spread God's love around the world.

This morning we also read a book called "Ten Orance Pumpkins" and did a little Math work with it. The children did a great job and are realizing that numbers can get bigger or smaller depending on if we add to the group or take away from the group. We are some smart pumpkins!

My friends were so excited to carve our pumpkin this morning. Each child had a chance to scoop out the inside of the pumpkin and to feel the seeds and pulp if they wanted to. 

It stopped raining around 12:10, so we did sneak outside for somefresh air and to run around a few minutes to get some of this endless energy out!

Please read the notes above regarding Halloween. Pay attention to the fact that our location has been moved to the Gym due to the yucky and disappointing forecast. 

I am excited to see all of my friends tomorrow morning for the BIG day!


Tuesday, October 29
Today was another busy day during this extra exciting Halloween week! IN my opinion, Halloween and Valentine's Day are two of the hardest days of teaching.....

Today we read  a story called "Little Cloud" by Eric Carle. In the story, the cloud was able to change its shape. My friends then painted clouds of different shapes. They also created a cloud with raindrops using the letters of their name. They are doing a good job placing the lettrs of their name in the correct sequential order. Practice name recognition at home as this is a skill they need for this year. We also worked on a color sorting game and did a color pattern activity with a partner.

My friends enjoyed sharing their favorite C for characters today. They are so proud of the items that they bring in. 

Tomorrow we will C for carve a pumpkin!

~ Please read the notes above about Halloween. Please email me with any questions.

~ My friends all need a picture of themselves for Religion tomorrow.

~ Tomorrow is Gym - names on shirts and hair pulled back for girls.


~ As the weather is getting cooler, please practice putting coats on independently. This is such a huge help when some friends can do this on their own. 

~ Everyone needs a clean, empty toilet paper roll for Monday. Please write your child's name on the inside bottom of the roll. Thank you!

~ Please read all of the dates above so that your child is prepared for all of the fun and activities!

Have a great night with your little pumpkins!




Monday October 28
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and the crazy weather yesterday - it was like 2 days in 1. 

We were so happy to have Paxton back today. We celebrated his 4th birthday with munchkins at lunch. We wished Sophia and Isabella well as they were not here today.

My friends all looked so nice in their capes and crowns. It is funny how one little accessory can change the energy level in the room. We took a 15 minute morning recess to burn off some energy and enjoy this gorgeous fall day!

We made our Harvest Chex Mix this morning. My friends all did a good job as "chef" and followed my directions so well as they added ingredients. I told them this could be an after shcool treat. Thanks to all who sent in the needed items!

We are still talking about the letter C this week. This morning we read "Chica Chica 1,2,2" and my friends each cut a circle (their cutting skills are really improving!) and then created Chica Chica 1,2,3 tree with number stickers. We also talked about more about God's creations and how He created day and night and all of the things we can do in the different times of day. My friends then painted a sun and moon and filled their night sky with stars. They had to tell me something they like to do during the day and something they like to do at night.

After recess, we did a cute little interactive story about ghosts that didn't listen to their mommy. The lesson was that Mommys always know the right thing for us to do and we should always listen.They enjoyed this little story.

~ My friends need a favorite C for character for C week tomorrow - Mickey Mouse, Paw Patrol, etc.

~ If anyone is willing to make Orange Play Doh for November, please let me know and I will send the recipe home. Thank you!

~ As the weather is getting cooler, please practice putting coats on independently. This is such a hige help when some friends can do this on their own. 

~ Everyone needs a clean, empty toilet paper roll for Monday. Please write your child's name on the inside bottom of the roll. Thank you!

Have a nice night and get ready for the excitement of the week. Extra prayers for us to survive Thursday and Friday are appreciated!

 

Friday, October 25
Hooray for Friday! We love to celebrate the end of another fun week of learning and playing together.

This morning we read a big book called 'Colors of God's Creations" and we talked about all of the beautiful colors that we saw on the pages. In this book, God created flowers, animals and day and night and then he realized that he needed someone to take care of and appreciate all of His creation so he created people abd we are His best creation. My friends then shared their pictures of God's creations and we created a beautiful collage of colors. My friends then cut a blue circle for water and filled with with green strips for land and glued on the words "God created the world". My friends then filled their world with stickers of animals and flowers and the sun and stars..

We did a whole class activity with patterns today. My friends had either a blue or purple bear and we used our bears to create a color pattern. They did awesome with this. They then worked on a pattern sheet with Halloween patterns.

After recess, we took a walk looking for signs of God's creations. We saw grass, leaves, trees, bugs flying, a bird, pumpkins and mums. It was a beautiful fall afternoon!


My friends should wear a cape or crown on Monday for C week continued!

Sending good weel wishes to Paxton and Sophia who were both home sick today. I hope we are all back together again next week.

Please read all of the dates above carefully so that you don't miss anything!

Have a wonderful weekend and thank you again for choosing St. John's as the start of your child's educational experience. We are blessed to have them here!

Happy memory making and family time!



Thursday, October 24
It was another busy day here in EC3B. My friends all looked so awesome in their pink this morning.

We did squeeze some work in to our day that is filled with Art and Spanish. We created a C for church, we cut a pink C for circle and we created a C for cross by using water colors. We also completed our Religion lesson on on Church friends. My friends did such a great job of following my directions and of matching the shapes to cplete the picture of the church. I told the children they could take this with them the next time they go to church so they can identify some of the items in the magazine.

We did a science experiment with C for celery today. My friends each put two drops of food coloring into our liquid water and then we talked about the leafy greens of the celery. We then predicted what might happen to our leaves if we put the stalks in the colored water. Many of my friends made such good guesses. We talked about the veins on the celery and that their job is to carry nutrients. Each friend then put a piece of celery into the colored water. They ar eon our science table for us to observe over the next few days.



Today was our day to BOO a class. My friends had such fun being so quiet as we did this. We love spreading joy!

Wishing Paxton good healthy wishes as he recovers at home!

Tomorrow is pretzels for morning snack. Remember a drink.

My friends need a picture of God's creation for tomorrow - a flower, animal, people, etc,

I am laving early for a meeting with Early Childhood Teachers. Ms Marilyn from Eagle's will be here with Mrs. Monarskl.

Tomorow we do the Friday dance!





Wednesday, October 23
Wonderful Wednesday! I am so proud of my friends for coming in so eager and ready for our day. Our days sure are busy and they seem to be flying by. Time flies when you are having fun...

Thank you to all who contributed to our c tasting today. I encouraged all of my friends to try the c veggies and most did - Ranch dip makes everything better. We then voted on our favorite and cucumbers were the favorite with 6 votes. I told the chidlren that veggies will make them grow big and strong....maybe that will help you all at dinner tonight!!

We visited the C for church this morning with our Director of Religious Ed, Mrs. Ballintyn. She talked to us about always being welcomed in to God's home and she took us on a brief tour. She showed us the baptismal font where we were welcomed into the Chirch family. My friends were so quiet and reverent in church.




We did not have much time to work today but we did get to work on a color assessment and we colored a circle with our favorite color for a class poster. I read a story about sky colors and my friends each shared their favorite color to add to our color collage. Some of my friends also created a C for church and the rets of my friends will finish this tomorrow.

Our friend, Paxton, spent the night in AI for croup. he is doing better now but will be taking a few days to rest. We sang him our song today and send him lots of well wishes! Mrs. Monarski was also not in today because of an appointment so our friend, Mrs. K, a former para in the 4 year old room, spent the day with us.

We had some excitement this morning during snack time. There was a knock on the door and we heard a loud "Boo!"When we opened the door, there was no one in the hallway but there was a new Halloween book and a bag of treats for each of my friends. We were so excited that someone was spreading such kindness and joy. The children loved this "mystery". Tomorrow is our turn to Boo a class so my friends will be excited for that tomorrow.

I will be leaving early tomorrow for an Early Childhood meeting in town with the Diocese. Ms. Marilyn from Eagle's Club will be coming in to help Mrs. Monarski for the afternoon. At dismissal, please step up when you see your child since Mrs. Monarski is not as familiar with who does the picking up.

Tomorrow is the school TAG day - wear pink for breast cancer. This was moved from Friday because of school pictures. Pretzels will be on Friday as planned.

have a great night!


Tuesday, October 22
Terrific Tuesday! We got so much done on this rainy Tuesday and I was so proud because most of my friends waked down that hall by themselves this morning! Way to go, friends! And everyone was back and healthy for the first time in a week.

This morning we read a book called "have you seen my cat/" and we talked about all of the things my friends know about C for cats. My friends then created a C for cat for their end of the year ABC book. My friends also worked to create a candy corn craft by following the pattern - they did this independently. They also stamped Cc with candy corn as a fine motor skill. 

During indoor recess, we read a book about "Corduroy's Colors" and we then shared our favorite colors with our Show and Share items. What a great job my friends are doing with show and share. I love seeing their comfort level increase as the year progresses. We also had a dance party during indoor recess to get our bodies moving.

Ask my friends about the Big Green Monster that we created today on the felt board - they each added to the pieces and loved doing this.

My friends should bring a picture of something that is their favorite color for our collage tomorrow. They should also wear something that is their favorite color.

Tomnorrow is Gym so remember names on shirts and hair pulled back.

My friends love drawing with sidewalk chalk if anyone would like to send some in, we would appreciate it.

If you volunteered to send in veggies, plates or dip for our C tasting, please remember to do that tomorrow.

October checklists will be going home today. Please remember this has been a huge transition for many of my friends and the expectations of school are much different than the expectations of a daycare. We are now 35 days in to our year so my friends should all be settled in and showing signs of growth and managing our routine and the structure of school. Please sign and return one copy and keep one for your own records. if you have any questions, please send me an email. Thank you!

Look at all of the dates above so you do not miss out on any of the fun!

Some pictures from our play and work time today:






Have a nice night and stay dry!


Monday, October 21
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and got outside on Saturday to enjoy the gorgeous day! Yesterday was a great day to stay home and cuddle up with a movie - or sit at your son's JV football game and pray (harder than you normally do a a football game) that no one gets hurt in the miserable weather! And here we are at the start of a new week.

This morning we met our new letter of the week - Cc. We noticed that big C and little c look alike. We looked at pictues of a cow, a cat, a camel, a cookie and a cake with a cnadle. We will be talking about C for the next two weeks and will talk about costumes, candy, Church and colors. This morning we shared what our costumes will be for Halloween.

We read a book about a shy scare crow today and my friends created cute and friendly scarecrows. 

We also read 'the Mixed Up Chameleon" and my friends painted their own mixed up chameleons. My friends had to tell me what animal they would be and why.

My friends also worked on a sequencing game by looking at pictures and deciding what would be next in the sequence. They also did a pet matching game using logical thinking skills.

We took a morning recess on the big playground and then spent an hour after recess on the blacktop and little playground. It was such a perfect fall weather day!

Paxton was home today with a runny nose! We hope he feels better soon. We sang him our song wishing him well.


The TAG day for Friday was moved to Thursday because of picture retake day on Friday. The theme is pink for breast Cancer Awareness.

Tomorrow is Show and Share. Bring something that is yuor favorite C for color.

We have gym tomrorow - names on shirts and hair pulled back for girls.

If you volunteered to send in veggies, plates or dip for our C tasting, please remember to do that on Wednesday.

October checklists will be going home tomorrow or Wednesday. Please remember this has been a huge transition for many of my friends and the expectations of school are much different than the expectations of a daycare. We are now 34 days in to our year so my friends should all be settled in and showing signs of growth and managing our routine and the structure of school. Please sign and return one copy and keep one for your own records. if you have any questions, please send me an email. Thank you!

Look at all of the dates above so you do not miss out on any of the fun!

Have a nice Monday night - what a beautiful fall day it is!




Friday, October 18
Hooray for Friday! Sometimes the shorter weeks feel longer than a regular week, but we made it through another fun day of learning and play.

My silly friends forgot to get dressed today and came to school in their pajamas! They were so cozy on this cool fall morning. And many were ready for rest time bcause they were so cozy...


This morning, we read the story "If You Give a Pig A Pancake". My friends did a great job of retelling the story to me by using the pictures as clues. We then made pancakes for our morning snack. My mom came in to help with the fun - the kids thought it was so funny that I have a mom! Each friend had the chance to pour and shake (we cheated and did the easy just add water Bisquick) and they watched as we cooked them on the griddle. My friends then really enjoyed the pancakes and syrup ( they may have an extra snack because we had pancakes). Some of my friends had 4 pancakes - they were little. What a tasty way to end P week.


My friends then each made a P for Pig Puppet and had to retell me one thing from the story. These turned out so cute and will be hanging in the hallway.

I partnered the children up today and they played 'Pop the Pig" - this is game that teaches color skills and counting skills. They had so much fun and this would be a great Christmas gift for them!

This morning we had a practice fire drill. Thankfully, we got a head's up so I could prepare the children for what was going to happen. As soon as my friends heard the sound, they quickly and SILENTLY (not quietly) lined up. They know that if they are playing, they stop and line up. We are lucky to be located near an exit in our building so we file outside quickly. The children followed my directons and walked to our safe spot. They did this like they had done it a million times before. No one cired or screamed or ran and I was so proud of them. When we came back in, we looked at the many fire alarms that are located in our hallway. I explained to the children that Mrs. Monarski and I will ALWAYS keep them safe and to remain calm and to listen to our directions. You can remind them of this at home, too, so they know that they are safe here at school. In the coming weeks, we will practice a lock down drill and a quick evacuation drill but the children will never know the reasons for this - just that we will keep them safe. if you have any questions, please let me know.

We enjoyed 50 minutes of afternoon recess on this sunny not so windy fall afternoon! 

We missed Aine and Luke today and sang our song and hope to see them on Monday. 

Next week we will talk about letter C and costumes, candy, cats, Catholic and Church.

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the down time as a family and thank you for trusting me with the job of teaching and caring for your child!





Thursday, October 17
What a busy and productive blustery day we had in EC3B! On Thursdays, we have Art and Spanish but we still manage to get A LOT of learning and work done. My friends all come in ready for our day and this helps us to be ready to make the most of our time together.

This morning, I read a book called "Seed, Pumpkin, Pie". The book xplained the process of how a pumpkn grows. The book told us that pumpkins can be all different colors, shapes and sizes. It also explained many uses for pumpkins - for sweet desserts, to decorate our tables, to use as a scarecrow head, to feed animals at the zoo or farm and to make jack o lanterns! My friends each then created a jack o lantern - they got to design this by choosing the shapes they wanted for eyes, ears and a mouth so they all look different. My friends also worked on making a P for pupmkin puzzle by placing the letters of their names in the correct sequential order. Most of my friends are doing a great job of telling us the letters of their name. My friends also stamped Pp with a pumpkin stamp (a fine motor skill) and painted a P for popsicle with pink and purple paint. 

We did a Science experiment with Reese's Pieces this morning. My friends had to work with a P for partner to form a P for pumpkin on a P for plate using the P for pieces candy. They did such an awesome job of working together and I was so P for proud of them. We talked about the colors we saw - brown, yellow and orange. I told the children that the candy had a hard sugary coating on it and that it dissolves when it touches the warmth of our mouths or even our hands. Each partner then poured warm water and the children were amazed to see the colors coming off of the cnady and swirling and mixing together. Science is so much fun!





We spent time on the playground after lunch but did not go on the field because it was wet and windy. We came inside and did our Religion lesson on taking care of ourselves. We talked about the fact that our bodies are gifts from God and that we need to care for these special gifts. SOme of the ways we do this are by brushing our teeth, washing our hands, eating healthy foods to help us grow big and strong and by saying our prayers. My friends colored a heart for each of these they have done today. There are extra hearts to color at home eahc time they take care of this gift from God. We ended by saying a prayer thanking God for the special gift of US! Remind your child just how special they are and what a gift they are.

We also used our pumpkins to compare. We talked about the size, colors and shapes of our pumpkins and if our pumpkins were smooth or bumpy. We then used a balance scale to see which pumpkins weighed more. My friends observed that the heavier pumpkins made the pan "sink". They loved this simple experiment and were so engaged!

Juliana was out sick again today. We wish her well and hope to see her tomorrow!

My friends love sidewalk chalk at recess but we are going through it very quickly. If anyone would like to send some in, my friends will put it to great creative use!

Don't forget pajamas tomorrow! We will make pancakes for morning snack.

We do the Friday dance tomorrow!!!

Wednesday, October 16
What a Wednesday! We managed to get a lot done on this dreary mid week day. No matter the weather, my friends are always ready to work hard and play hard.

This morning, I read the Dr. Seuss book "What pet should I get?" My friends then each got to decide if they would want a pet fish, dog, cat or turtle. They were able to paint and create this pet and then tell me a sentence about why this would be their choice. They will be on our hallway bulletin board because they are so cute. My friends also created pumpkins out of me painting their hands for our Religion Bulletin Board titled "Hand picked by God".

We were also able to take our pet parade before the rain started. We marched outside and to the statue of St. Francis who loves animals to show him our pets. We then silently paraded through the "big building".




We read a book about the color purple and my friends then shared their purple pictures for our collage. We then returned to our tables to cut out purple squares. My friends are doing a great job with their cutting - continue to practice at home. Remember to make sure that they are holding the scissors properly.

During indoor recess, we did our Scholastic News on p for pumpkins. We watched a video on how pumpkins can be all different shapes, sizes and even colors. My friends then did a great job of following my directions for coloring the jack o lantern on the back.

My friends all need a small pumpkin tomorrow - it can be real or fake. We are going to weigh them on a balance scale and compare them using words like bigger, smaller, heavier, lighter.

Please look at the dates above as there are a lot of fun classroom activities in the next few weeks and we want to be sure that all of my friends have what they need in order to join in the fun.

We had three friends home today. We wish Eleanor, Juliana and Sophie well and hope that they return to school feeling better soon! Thank you for giving your child the time they need to rest in order to feel better. Our day is long and if they are not feeling 100%, it makes for an even longer day. It also isn't fair to the other children in the class if you send your child to school when they are sick. We do our best to reduce the spread of germs. I know it isn't always easy to rearrange work committments ( I do a lot of juggling myself when my kids are sick so I know it's not easy), but please do not send your child to school when they are sick. Thank you for doing your part in keeping our clasroom as healthy as possible.

Stay dry tonight! It's a good night to cozy up with a movie - enjoy that while you can before your nights are consumed by sports and studying for tests!!




Tuesday, October 15

I hope that everyone enjoyed the long weekend and spent time outside in the beautiful fall weather! And today is already Tuesday!

My friends looked AMAZING today dressed as pirates and princesses. We modified a little for Gym class. Please remember that even on days when my friends dress down or up, they should be in sneakers. This makes our day much easier and safer.

This morning we read the story "The Pirate who said Please." In the story Jim the pirate learned that he had to say pelase and thank you in order to have friends to play with or to get somehting that he asked for. My friends know that my motto is "Manners work Magic". Pleae be mindful at home and praise the children when you hear them using their pirate manners! My friends had Prate Booty for morning snack - so they may have an extra snack in their lunchbox. We also painted adorable pirates that will hang in our room for a bit.

Today we talked about P for penguins. My friends thought it was funny that penguins are birds that do not fly. We talked about the fact that penguins hatch from eggs and that they spend most of their time in the cold water. We pretended to walk stiffly like a penguin.My friends then made a P is for penguin for our end of the year ABC book. My friends also worked on a Math activity - a one to cone correspondence with pumpkins and pumpkin stamps. They also had to find all pumpkins with the letter P and mark them. My friends also had fun painting a letter P with pink and purple paint on a pom pom. What a busy morning we had!

We have been talking a lot about the season, fall, or autumn, that we are now in. My friends can tell me many things about this season. We read another book about it today and talked about all of the signs of autumn that we saw in the pictures. Our Science table now has ghourds, pinecones and a pumpkin for the childrne to observe with their eyes and their hands. be on the lookout for signs of fall while you are driving or playing outside.

We took an hour long afternoon recess to enjoy this gorgeous fall day. While we were outside, we played  a pumpkin game with colored pumpkins and following directions.

Please remember to send extra clothes for the cubbies back in. Each child needs one change of clothes, undergarments and shoes. Thank you.

Tomorrow is Gym day so remember names on shirts and hair pulled back.

My friends need a stuffed pet tomorrow for our pet parade - that will likely be an indoor parade given the predicted rain.

Please bring a picture of something purple for our purple collage.

Scholastic Book order will be placed tomorrow. Our online code is QFX2R.

Friday, October 11

What a picture perfect morning at the pumpkin patch! We could not have asked for a better day. Thank you to all of the moms and dads who took time off of work to spend the morning with us! It was a great first field trip for my friends. I hope they all took a nice nap for you.



Enjoy the LONG wekend! We will see everyone on Tuesday. Remember to dress like a pirate or princess!


Thursday, October 10
What an exciting day as we gear up for our big trip tomorrow! Please review the note that was sent home on Monday for all important information that you will need for our trip. Please dress accordingly for the weather. A few extra notes:

1. Please pack a COMPLETELY DISPOSABLE SNACK for your child to carry in tomorrow. We will eat a small snack prior to boarding the bus so please pack things that can be thrown away as we will not be carrying anything out when we come to meet you for the bus.

2. Remember to pack a water bottle for your child as they do get thirsty on the trip. You will bring the water bottle with you!

3. Pack wipes and antibacterial sanitizer as the only bathrooms to use are porta potties.

4. Your child should wear their GYM UNIFORM. You may want to bring a coat as it might be chilly first thing in the morning.

5. In the past, there have been many bess at the patch so you might want to throw Benadryly in your bag just in case.

6. If you have not made your payment on Smart Tuition, please do so tonight.

This morning we read a story about Christopher Columbus. We acted out the story and thought about how tired, hungry and sick the sailors must have been to be on the ships for so long. We got really excited when we spotted "Land" and discovered America! We then created a craft with the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. My friends really enjoyed our Columbus talk and activity.

My friends also worked on cutting a p for pink square today. I can tell that some of my friends are practicing at home so thank you! Continue to practice this skill. Allow your child time to cut - hand them scraps or magazines and encourage them to cut away! Just remind them that we never cut our hair, our clothes or our skin.

This morning we did a simple experiment where we made P for popcorn dance using baking soda and vinegar. My friends each had a turn to add a poprcorn kernel in and watch the "Magic" happen. 





My friends all looked so nice in their pink, purple, princess, pirates, Phillies and Paw Patrol shirts. We had a lot of pigtails too!

We did our Five Little Pumpkins poem today and 5 more friends had the chance to come up and be the pumpkins on the gate. We have talked about not getting upset when it isn't your turn because everyone will get a turn and we just need to be patient, which is not easy when you are 3. My friends have really been doing a great job with this! We are growing every day!

We read a story about Pink all around us and created our pink collage after recess. Even with Art and Spanish, we sure do manage to get a lot done on Thursdays!

Remember that I am sending home extra clothes to be switched out for warmer clothes. Please send these back on Tuesday. Your child needs only ONE shirt, pants, undergarments, socks and shoes in a bag marked with their name. 

Please read all of the dates above so you know what to expect next week for our second week of P. 

I hope that everyone gets a good night of sleep to be ready for a morning of fun tomorrow!



Wednesday, October 9
What a whirlwind of a day! We were busy from start to finish and by 12:40, it showed! My friends were exhausted today - might be a combination of the weather and midweek. I know we are all ready for the 3 day weekend that is quickly approaching!

This morning for snack, we tasted vanilla and chocolate pudding. Some of my friends may have extra snacks left because they ate this for their morning snack. We then created a picture graph by voting for our favorite flavor. Vanilla pudding had 11 votes and chocolate had 4. My friends realized that 11 is a bigger number so more of our friends liked vanilla than chocolate. We love when Math is so tasty!

We are talking a lot about P for patterns this week. This morning my friends were given either a yellow or blue bear and we created a class pattern by holding up our bears. The children then worked with Mrs. Monarski to create color patterns out of squares of colors that they chose. They also did their P pushpins for a fine motor skill and painted a P for pumpkin to hang from the ceiling of our classroom. 

In Religion today, we did our article on God created P for people. We looked at the cover and talked about all of the things that God created - flowers, trees, animals, plants, etc - and how good he thought each was. And then he created people and was happy with how very good this creation was. We learned a little poem about God creating us and said a little prayer thanking God for all of his creations. Tonight talk about why people are such a special creation.

My friends learned a little hand poem called the "5 Little Pumpkins" today and had the chance to act it out with pumpkins. They will probably be repeating this a lot over the next few days. 

After recess, we created our P is for pet collage and shared pictures of all of our pets. If my friends brought in a picture from a magazine, they could tell us what they would name the pet if it was theirs. 

We also did our Vision Screening today and the children did a great job. They might talk to you about "following the birdie". You will be contacted if there were any issues that need furthr attention.

My friends all need a picture of something pink for our pink collage tomorrow.

My friends can wear something pink, purple, princess shirt, pirate shirt, polka dots, Phillies, Paw Patrol - any P shirts tomorrow.

See the notes above about Halloween. Please let me know if you have any questions.

An important letter about our Field Trip on Friday was sent home on Monday. If you have any questions, please let me know. If you DO NOT PLAN on taking your child with you upon on our return to school on Friday, please let me know and I will not send their sheets and blankets home on Friday.

I also plan on sending home extra clothes today and Thursday so that you can switch them out for more weather appropriate clothing. Please return the clothes to school on Tuesday in a bag marked with your child's name. Each child needs one shirt, one pair of pants, one extra set of undergarments, a pair of socks and a pair of shoes. They do not need a Gym uniform as their extra clothes.


** Many of my boys are needing several reminders to not put their hands and feet on their friends. We talk a lot about keeping our hands to ourselves and using our words with our friends. I have told the children that if someone puts their hands/feet on them, they move away and say "no thank you". They do not push or kick back. I know that three/four year old boys like to play physically but school is not the place for it. please continue to remind them of the importance of keping body parts to themselves and that hands are for hugs and high fives only. Thank you!

Have a fantastic night and keep praying for nice, dry weather on Friday.



Tuesday, October 8
Today was a busy and terrific Tuesday! Mrs. Schock was so happy with how well my friends listened in Gym class. She said they are doing a great job on jumping jacks and ball skills, so continue to practice at home.

This morning we met our new letter P - in Paxton, pumpkin, pencil, pig, pizza, pear, pink and purple. We will be talking about letter P and pumpkins this week and next. There are a lot of important classroom dates listed above so please make sure to read the dates nightly.

I read the book "Pete the Cat and his four groovy buttons" today. The book has Math incorporated
in as Pete loses a button every few pages and we realized that the bigger number of buttons was getting smaller each time he lost a button. We then listened to the book on CD and my friends sang a long to the catchy tune. We love Pete because he doesn't let things bother him - a good life lesson for us all! He just keeps on singing! My friends then each made a Pete the Cat and counted out their 4 buttons. My friends also used a marble to paint a pumpkin and they thought this was os much fun! We also created Prayer Pockets today. These are sweet little projects and a good last thing to do before bedtime. My friends were proud of their prayer pockets.

We also did tablework today as a whole group. My friends had to follow along and listen to my directions on what color crayon to use to trace the lines from a firefighter to the fire. This is a prewriting skill to learn to work from left to right. We first trace with our fingers and talk about whether the line is straight, bumpy etc. The children did a great job with this listening activity today! We will continue to do this more and more as the year progresses and we prepare for the transition to the four year old room.

Tomorrow is another Gym day - hair pulled back and names on shirts.

An important letter about our Field Trip on Friday was sent home yesterday. If you have any questions, please let me know. If you DO NOT PLAN on taking your child with you upon on our return to school on Friday, please let me know and I will not send their sheets and blankets home on Friday.

I also plan on sending home extra clothes tomorrow and Thursday so that you can switch them out for more weather appropriate clothing. Please return the clothes to school on Monday in a bag marked with your child's name. Each child needs one shirt, one pair of pants, one extra set of undergarments, a pair of socks and a pair of shoes. They do no need a Gym uniform as their extra clothes.

My friends need a pet picture tomorrow for our pet collage. This can be a real pet or a picture of an animal that can be a pet from a magazine.

I will be sending out the sign up genius for Halloween. Be on the lookout. Remember if you sign up to help for this party, you may not sign up for another party this year. Thank you for your generosity!

Have a nice night! Stay warm - it feels so damp and chilly today! I miss the warm, summer sun!


Monday, October 7
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and made happy family memories! We are back and ready for another week of learning and fun!

We continued with letter F today and will move on to P tomorrow. 

We celebrated Sophie's 4th birthday today with delicious cupcakes after lunch. Thank you for the delicious treat and happy birthday!

Sophia was out sick today. We wish her well and hope to see her tomorrow. We don't like when our friends are not here.

This morning we were visited by Firefighter Taggart. He explained to us that he is a dad and a friendly, happy guy who likes to help and that we should nt be afraid of firefighters. He spoke with the children about what an emergency is ( a house fire, someone hirt badly - not arguing with your brother or sister) and that when there is an emergency, we call 911 (review this number with your child). He also explained that if there is ever a fire, we get out and stay out. Firefighters will go back in to look for pets. He assigned "Homework" to the children - find a safe spot to meet as a family if there is ever a fire - away from the house, a certain tree, a mailbox next dorr, etc. He also explained what to do if clothes catch on fire - stop, drop, cover face and roll. The most important thing he told us is if we ever can't get out of a fire, we need to stay low to the ground but wave our arms and yell "Help me. I am over here." He had the childrne praactice this many times. He eplained that firefighters need to be able to see and hear us and we should not be afraid if we see them coming. He dressed in his full uniform and explained what each piece of clothing does to protect him. He also shared some loud noises with us - his air tank blowing, his siren on his uniform, and his walkie talkie so that we would know to not be afraid of these sounds. He told us he likes ot help people and that is why he is a firefighter. Thank you to Firefighter Taggart and all of our brave firefighters. Please review all of this with your child tonight while it is fresh!

Today my friends created pictures saying 'it is fall". We talked about the fact that leaves change colors in the fall and that they start to fall from the trees to the ground. We learned a little poem about falling leaves. My friends also created an F for firetruck. We also worked on our Schilastic News on Fire Safety. My friends did a great job of following along and matching on the back of the sheet. We watched a short video and played a quick game on fire safety on the Smartboard, too. 

We created our farm collage today and have many fun farm pictures - cows, horses, sheep, rooster, pumpkins, a farmer and a field to name a few!

Tomorrow is Gym - hiar pulled back for girls and names on shirts.

There is a lot on information above on the next two weeks which will be letter P. There are a lot of fun activities for this letter so please be sure to read above and make sure your child is prepared so they can enjoy the fun and learning.

A sheet with information on our field trip on Friday is going home today. Please read carefully and let me know if you have any questions. Start praying for a nice, dry fall day!

Have a fabuous evening!


Friday, October 4
What a whirlwind of a Friday! Today was one of those days where I barely had time to catch my breath and yet we did not get one thing done in terms of work! We did not even have the right time (after recess when 5 friends were crying from exhaustion did not seem to be the right time) to do our farm collage so our pictures are in our cubbies and we will do that on Monday. We are rolling F week in to Monday because a firefighter is coming to visit us on Monday. Please prep the kids as some kids were very frightened by this on Wednesday.

My friends were so well behaved in church this morning. We were in church for an hour and 40 minutes as it was a special Mass honoring Sister Joann who is retiring after 30 years of service to SJB. Most of my friends were able to sit still and quietly and I am so proud of them. Our 6th grade buddies were a big help. I felt like I ran a marathon when Mass was over just trying to keep everyone settled but I am proud of them for sitting like they did.

We did start a science experiment with F for flowers that we will make observations of on Monday. My friends each helped drop food coloring in to cups of water and then each friend placed on white carnation in the water. We predicted if we thought our flowers would stay white or would turn to the color water that they are in. To be continued on Monday....

Have a FANTASTIC fall weekend! Enjoy the family time!!


Thursday, October 3
Fall is here! We had our first rainy day of the school year - we had so many sunny days in September according to our weather graph. Thankfully it was not raining for our walk to the cafeteria and at recess, we could run around for 20 minutes before heavier rain started to fall. 

Thursdays don't leave us much time for work and play in our classroom but we manage to squeeze as much in as possible. This morning my friends worked on a firetruck patterm, filled the letter F with feathers and played a farm matching game. We also worked on cutting skills with scissors! Please continue to practice this skill at home.

After our outside play at recess, we came in and had a dance party to some F songs on the Smartboard. We sang the Farmer in the Dell and played along to the Freeze Dance - this was so much fun. We also danced along to one of my favorite songs by the Laurie Berkner Band called the Fish song. It was so Fun to dance to the f songs.

Our classroom was turned into a Science lab this afternoon and we did a sink or F for float experiment. Each of my scientists had two turns to predict if an item would sink or float. Some of our items were a metal spoon, a papr clip, a wooden block, a big marble, a button, a foam block and a bead. The scientists were then able to test their prediction by carefully placing the object in the bucket of water. We observed that the heavier items sunk to the bottom and the lighter objects were able to F for float. Science is F for fun!



Please remember to talk to your child about sitting quietly and still in God's house tomorrow. We will have 6th grade buddies sitting with us so hopefully with more big bodies, it will be easier to control the wiggles. An extra prayer for us tonight would be appreciated!

Please remember a farm picture for our farm collage tomorrow.

looking ahead to next Friday, if possible after our field trip, please plan no taking your child with you for the remainder of the day. The school discourages that for older children, but for the little ones, it is so much easier and avoids tears at godbye at noon when everyone is super tired from a fun morning at the pumpkin patch. I understand if your schedule does not allow you to do so and I am here until 3:00 regardless but it makes the day much nicer for everyone if you can all leave together.

School will offer a free vision screening next week. There is no special prep for this and it takes about 15 seconds per child - it is amazing this goggle type tool they use to snap an image of their eye. Some of my friends did not return permission slips so I put another copy in your folder today. If you did not get a copy today, you have already submitted it. You can opt not to do the test but please email me if that is your plan so I know.

Tomorrow is one of our favorite F words - FRIDAY! We do the Friday dance!



Wednesday, October 2

It sure felt like summer out there on this Wednesday! I told the children this might be our last summerlike day of the year and tomorrow will feel like our season of fall.

My friends all looked awesome in their F clothes today. I promise I won't switch too many things once they are on the calendar but had to switch that so we are all in uniform for chuch on Friday.

This morning I read the big book "Old Macdonald" and my friends acted out the animal sounds. We sounded a bit like a farm in here! I also played a farm matching game with the children in pairs and they loved this game. In the morning before our daily officially starts, I do a lot of game playing to teach taking turns and playing by the rules. Today was our first attempt and they did an awesome job and had fun while doing it!

We did our Religion lesson on our f for families today. We talked about ways that our family cares for us and we said a little prayer thanking God for our families. My friends also completed the inside activity where we had to draw lines matching objects. Most of my friends were able to follow right along.  My friends then each cut a heart and glued on the words "Thank you, God, for my family" and then placed their family pictures on the hearts. We do a lot of cutting in here so continue to just let them practice at home. Tonight talk about ways that your family cares for each other and take a minute to say a prayer of thanks for your family.

I read a book about the Fire Engine Man today and talked about the ways firefighters keep us safe. My friends then created firefighters out of their painted handprints. My friends also did their F pushpins today.

We had fish (goldfish) for morning snack for our F tasting so my friends might have an extra snack left in their lunchboxes. We graphed our votes for our favorite flavors and Vanilla Cupcake one with 8 votes. My friends could look and see that there were more fish in this box than any others. We then talked about the fact that 8 is  a bigger number than 5(pretzels) and 2 (cheddar). This was a tasty Math lesson.

After recess, we had a visit with firefighters from Mill Creek. They talked to us about ways that they keep us safe and they talked about all of the ways they keep themselves safe. They put their uniform on to show us what they would look like if there ever was a fire so that we would not be scared. Some of my friends did get teary eyed and were a little frightened. Please reassure them tonight that firefighters are our friends and we should not be scared. They taught us that if there is ever a fire, we need to lay low to the ground to breath the good air and to yll " I am in here" so they know to look for us. We all had the chance to walk through the fire truck - some chose not to and that is okay. Thank you to Mill Creek for taking time out of their busy day to talk to us about safety.


Have a fantastic night!
Tuesday, October 1
Happy October! And congrats on surviving the first month of school. Now we are in the groove. I am so proud of all of my friends and how easily they transitioned to our new school year. 

This morning after Gym, we stopped to visit the staue of St. Francis for F week. I told the children that St. Francis was the saint of animals and loved all animals. We will celebrate his feast day on Friday and will attend the Mass. Please keep talking about how important it is to be quiet and reverent in church...and say some extra prayers that we all survive!

My friends enjoyed F show and share today. Our friend, Aine, brought in her pet FROG for us to see! This was perfect because our story today was about a frog. The frog was rhyming in the story and some of my friends picked up on this rhyming pattern. My friends then created an F for frog out of the letter F for their end of the year ABC book. They also created the farm animal cow. I worked with children on creating a fish patern out of yellow and orange fish. Most of my friends have grasped this Math skill of an AB pattern and could do this with little guidance!

After recess today, I read "The Farmer in the Dell" and my friends had a chance to act this out. This was a fun activity!


If you voluntered to send in Goldfish for our F tasting tomorrow, please remember to do so. Thank you!

Tomorrow is wear somethiing with F - Frozen, fish, flowers, firetruck, etc. I moved this from Friday since we are attending shcool Mass on Friday.

My friends all need a family picture tomorrow. 

We have Gym again tomorrow - names on shirts and hair pulled back.

Have a fabuous night!

Monday, September 30
I hope that everyone enjoyed the beautiful weekend and spent lots of time playing outside and making fun family memories!

Congratulations to CJ who became a big brother this weekend. His little brother, Elliott, was born on Saturday morning. We were all so excited to hear the news this morning. Congrats to the Sulecki family!

It is hard to believe that today is the last day in September and that our first month of school is complete! What a fast month it was and now we are mostly settled in and ready for our year of learning, playing and growing!

This morning we met our new letter of the week, letter Ff. We looked at pictures of fingers, feet, fish, fox, fork and fan. We talked about ways that we use our feet. This week while we walk in the hallway, we are trying to be as quiet as a sneaky fox!

Farm starts with the letter f and we will be talking a lot about farms this week. Today we listed all of the animals that we could think of that live on a farm. My friends came up with a great list! I then read a story called 'Farmer Brown goes round and round" and my friends all made the animal sounds of the farm animals. My friends then worked to create a sheep and a horse out of their painted handprint for our farm display! We also worked on counting fingers and finding numbers 1 through 5 . 

I have had to talk to my group of boys several times about how we play at school and am asking you to keep reminding them at home. We cannot put our hands or our feet on our friends. We also cannot play guns at school. Like boys do, they have been turning everything into guns and pretending to shoot things. This type of play is not allowed at school and we do remind them of that many times throughout the day. This is all normal, age appropriate behavior but not allowed at school for obvious reasons. Please continue to remind them at home and we will do the same at school and it will click! Thank you. Again, we are all working together as a team to make this a successful year for the children. 

We have gym tomorrow - please remember names on shirts and girls need their hair pulled back.

My friends need something that starts with F for show and share tomorrow. 

Please read the dates above so you know what is going on schoolwide and in the classroom.

Have a great night! Tomorrow we welcome October. My oldest turns 12 tomorrow so it's a big day in our house!


Friday, September 27
Hooray for Friday! We love doing the Friday dance and celebrating the end of another fun week together and the start of a weekend filled with family time. 

This morning we created our House collage by sharing pictures of our houses. My friends all had to tell us one thing about their house. Many of my friends were excited to share that they sleep in a big boy/girl bed or tell us the color of their room.

I read from a big book of nursery rhymes today and we talked about Humpty Dumpty. We talkd about the fact that Humpty was an egg and that eggs are very fragile. I said eggs cannot balance because they do not have a flat bottom so if we put an egg on the wall, it would fall. The children recited the nursery rhyme with me. We then did a little Science. I handed the chidlren an egg (hard boiled of course) and we used our H for hands to feel the egg. The children told me it was cold, smooth, round and hard. I had bags filled with different objects - tissue, sponges, legos, blocks, marbles, crayons, cotton balls - and a "Humpty" in each bag. We talked about the objects and whether they were soft or hard. Each child then had a chance to drop a bag with "Humpty" and the other items to see if Humpty would crack. We first dropped the bag on the carpet and observed if there were any cracks. We then dropped the egg on the tile floor and made our observations. The children noticed that oftentimes the Humpty did not crack when dropped on the rug but did on the tile floor. We then felt each surface and noticed that the rug was softer and had more of a cushion than the tile floor. We also realized that just like the poem, we could not put our Humpties together again!



The chidlren then created a Humpty craft by cutting an egg and decorating to look like Humpty on the wall. They turned out so cute! 

I also painted our H for hands and we created helping hands. The children had to tell me something they can do with their helping hands - it seems as though a lot of my friends will be cleaning this weekend! My friends also stamped an H with hearts as a fine motor skill.

After recess on this gorgeous Friday, we went on an H for hunt. My friend each had to find an index card with an H and a picture in the field. We then shared our pictures and noted that they each started with our letter of the week - letter H!

We missed our friends, Maddie, Paxton and Derek today and sang our song wishing them well. 


Our theme next week with be letter F and firefighters. We will have a visit from a firetruck on Wednesday. It will be another fun week!

KidStuff books and money are due on Monday. Please follow the directions on the sheet and envelope that were sent home.

Field trip permission slips and money are due by Monday. The link for chaperones is above. Please copy and paste to complete the transaction.

Enjoy this last weekend of September and the first weekend of fall. 



Thursday, September 26
Another busy and fast day here in EC3B! It is hard to believe that Septmber is almost over. 

Thursdays are our day that we don't get a lot of classroom time because of Art and Spanish, but we did manage to squeeze in some learning and play. This morning my friends made an H is for Holy Spirit craft with their hands painted as the dove of peace. We noticed that when we make the sign of the cross, we say Holy Spirit. We did our Religion lesson on Jesus as a Good Sheperd. We talked about the fact that Jesus is always with us - not sitting next to us at our tables or on the carpet but in our H for hearts. We show others that Jesus is in us when are kind and loving to our friends. We are on the lookout for our friends acting lke Jesus. I read the Bible story about Jesus and his sheep and told the children that we are the sheep and that Jesus wants to keep us safe and close. We completed the page on helpers and my friends did an AWESOME job of following directions for this activity. Remind your child to let others know that Jesus is in their hearts by showing that kindness.

In Science, we talked about ways we use our H for hands - to feel things, to hug, to eat, to play with slime, to wash. I then read the big book "Hands Can" and we acted out some of the things our hands can do. We waved goodbye and hello and said we are saying something without using any words. Our hands are amazing and our sense of feeling is amazing. My friends then had to close their eyes and stick their hand in a bag to feel an object. They then described what they felt - hard, soft, smooth, squishy, pointy, big, small - were some of the words they used. After everyone felt each bag and described what was inside, we took turns guessing what was inside. i told the chilren that scientists make smart guesses and sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong but that we never get upset over a wrong, smart guess. Again this was a simple, free experiment and the children loved it.




We celebrated Sophia's 4th birthday today with brownies at lunch. happy 4th birthday, Sophia, and thanks for the delicious treats!

CJ, Derek, and Grace were all absent today so we sang our song wishing them well. We hope to see them all tomorrow, but know our friends need rest when they aren't feeling 100%. We only had 8 friends in school today!

Tomorrow is our first pretzel day for those who ordered. If your child ordered pretzels, there is no need to pack a morning snack but remember to pack a drink please.

Tomorrow is a school wide TAG day. If you did not pay on Smart Tuition, your child should wear their regular uniform. The theme tomorrow is "Blast from the Past"....this is a tricky one, especially for the littles. My own two are wearing tie dyed t shirts because that is easy. Send your child in regular playclothes if you do not have anything and you paid for TAG day. All of my friends must be in sneakers!

My friends need a picture of your house or a house from a magazine - it can be an animal's house.

Please remember to return field trip permission slips and to make payment on Smart Tuition. I have attached the link for chaperone payment up above. Please make payments by Monday, Sepetmber 30. Remember that ALL friends must have a chaperone accompany them on the field trip. If you copy and paste the link, it will take you to the correct place to make a payment for a chaperone.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance!





Wednesday, September 25

Wonderful Wednesday! My friends all looked so awesome in their h for hats. They each shared their hats and were so proud! A few friends did not have hats today so they cna bring tomorrow if they would like.

Today we worked on creating an H for horse for our end of the year ABC book. My friends also did an H pushpin activity - a great fine motor skill. I read the book "A House for a Hermit Crab". I then brought out my special visitor. My daughter, Gianna, let me bring in her pet hermit crab, Hermie, for H week and our hermit crab activity. My friends were so excited to see Hermie. I told the children he carries his H for house with him wherever he goes. We were all very quiet and still while Hermie was out because we did not want to scare him. My friends then created a hermit crab out of their H for hands and colorful tissue paper. So much fun! My friends also worked to cut H for hearts (keep practicing cutting at home!) and the attaching their picture with the words "Jesus Loves Me." 

Today we tasted H for Honey Teddy Grahams and and a sweet treat H for Hershey kiss! We enjoyed this for morning snack so some friends may have an extra snack left in their lunchbox. Thanks to all who sent in!

Remember to check the dates above so you know when pictures are needed for school. Pictures help us to tell stories and helps us get to know the children better!

CJ was home sick today so we sang him our song wishing him well and hope that he feels better soon. There are so many coughs in our room right now. Please practice coughing and sneezing into your elbows. Also practice blowing noses! Remember that your child must be fever free and symptom free WITHOUT MEDICINE for 24 hours!! It is not fair to them or the 14 othre children to bring their germs to school. I know it is not always easy to have a child home sick (there will be days I miss school because I am home with a sick kid...my daughtr missed 12 days last year between the flu, two bouts of strep and a stomach bug - I am hoping for  a healtheir year for us!). Thank you for respecting this rule so that we can keep our classroom as healthy as can be!

have a wonderful beautiful Wednesday afternoon!


Tuesday, Sepetmber 24
What a beautiful fall day today! If only we could bottle this gorgeous weather up and make it last forvever!

Today was one of those days where we just didn't have much time to get things done and I had to say "it is what it is". Our time in Church with the Bishop and Gym class and snack made for a choppy morning. But the beauty of being 3 is that we just go with it!

We did work on an apple matching game today where the children had to match shapes. The children also created an H is for house craft. We also did our first Scholastic News issue today. This issue was on what we do at school. My friends were happy to see that everything the children in the magazine did, we do at school. We watched a short video about school on the Smartboard and counted the blocks on the back page. We will do Scholastic News magazines two times a month and they usually correlate with our theme . The children enjoy this 'special treat" and love the videos, songs and games that are on the SmartBoard.

This morning we sang and moved along to 'If you're happy and you know it" and we shared what makes us H for happy, Again, they did an awesome job and I love our Show and Share time!

My friends were excited to go to "God's House" this morning and thank you to those who prepped your children. We had a long talk this morning about how we behave in church as well. My friends did a nice job of sitting as quietly and still as they could. The Superintendent of Schools - Dr. Lou wa sthere and he was impressed by our preschool! The Bishop took time at the end to come over and say goodbye to the children. 


Toay we celebrated Grace's 4th birthday with delicious and pretty cookies at lunch! Thanks for the yummy treats and happy birthday, Grace!


If you volunteered to send in Honey teddy Grahams or Hershey Kisses for our tasting tomnorrow, please remember to do so.

Gym day tomorrow - hair pulled up and NAMES ON SHIRTS please! 

Bring a picture of just you for Religion!

Wear a HAT for H week tomorrow!

*** I will be leaving school at 11am tomorrow to take my daughter to an appointment. I will not be returning to school. Ms. Marilyn from Eagle's Club will be coming in to help Mrs. Monarski. Mrs. Monarski will be walking the children out at dismissal. Please step forward when you see your child - tell grandparents - as Mrs. Monarski will not know faces at the end of the day. Thank you!

Because I will not be here at rest tomorrow, I may not update my teacher page, so please understand if you check in tomorrow and there is not an update. I will do my best to get a short one composed before I leave but I make no promises. The morning will determine if this is possible or not!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Monday, September 23
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and made the most of the summerlike weather! Today certainly didn't feel like the first day of fall but we talked about the changes in the decorations in the classroom. There are now leaves and pumpkins in places in our room marking the change from summer to fall. We will have many fall fun activities planned in the next few weeks!

Today was Independence Day for our building. The parents of the 4s and kindergarten now have to say their goodbyes at the door to our building. As I said at our orientation, we do not celebrate Independence Day but many of my friends are walking the whole hallway by themselves or at least half of the hallway. Encourage your child to do so if they are ready - not if you are ready or not ready!! To celebrate this day, all of preschool enjoyed an ice cream cup at lunch in the cafeteria. Some of my friends did not eat their packed dessert/special treat because they had ice cream.

This morning we talked about our new letter Hh. We looked at pictures of a horse, a hat, hands, a heart and a house. We practiced forming the letters with our imaginary crayons - the kids love doing this!

This morning we read "The very Hungry Caterpillar". We counted all of the things he ate as we read - again, incorporating that Math piece into all that we do. The children then created a hungry caterpillar out of the letters in their names (placing them in the correct sequential order). They also painted a hungry caterpillar. 

My friends enjoyed Music this morning with songs about apples and fall activities. We also enjoyed  a morning recess on the big playground - remember playing is learning and often times in playing, there is problem solving taking place!

We have Gym tomorrow. Remember names on shirts and girls should have their hair pulled back.

Tomorrow we will visit the Church at 10 am for a visit with the Bishop. This should be interesting. Please talk to your child about sitting still and quietly in 'God's House". We will be there for about 20 minutes and will be with preschool through3 rd grade. Say a prayer for us tonight!

Bring in something that makes you H for happy for Show and Share tomorrow.

Remember to check the dates above for all of the fun happening so your child has everything that they need.

have a wonderful evening!



Friday, September 20
Hooray for Friday! We love to do the Friday dance and to celebrate the end of another great week together! My friends all looked great in their red. 

Thank you to all who came out last night for Back to School Night. I know I covered a lot of information - and hope I wasn't too all over the place! If you have any questions, please feel free to send an email. My apologies for the tears (that was quite embarassing and has never happened before). My last day of student teaching was the day of Columbine ( I am dating myself) and I knew then that we lived in a scary world and that teaching was no longer my top job but keeping children safe while they are in my care is my most important job. I promised to do just that! Just saddens me that we even need to discuss that. Thank you again for choosing St. John's and welcome to the "family."

This morning we worked on making red necklaces with beads (a great fine motor skill). The children did such an awesome job and loved stringing the beads on to the string. They were so patient and diligent in this task. And they are so proud of their necklaces! We also worked on looking at three pictures and pointing to the two that are the same so we could find the one that was different. They did a great job on this skill. I read "Ten Apples up on Top" and we spent a lot of time counting apples in the book. Again, we incorporate Math into so much of what we do throughout the day. My friends worked on creating an apple pattern today by alternating green and red apples. They really picked up on patterns quickly! I also painted their fingers to make apples on an apple tree. We also worked together as a class on a prewriting activity of drawing a line from the left side of the page to the right. We will work as a whole group often to help with listening to and following directions. What a busy morning!

My friends tasted red and green apples at snack and also apple cider. Some were hesitant to try the cider but found out it tasted like juice. We then voted on our favorite apple and green was the winner with 8 votes. We compared and saw that 8 green apples was more than 7 red. We will do a lot of graph work and comparing numbers throughout the year. Thanks to those who sent in our gooies for tasting!

This morning we did another poem where we had to work really hard to reach an apple way up in the tree - there was a lot of movement in this poem and they did an awesome job. 

Our first Scholastic Book Order is due by Monday. All orders must be done online. Our class code is QFX2R. Thanks for promoting a love of reading!!

Pay attention to the dates next week as a picture of each child and a house is needed.

The school will have monthly TAG days with themes throughout the year. The first one is next Friday and the theme is favorite decade - my own kids are wearing tie dyed shirts because that is easy! Payment for TAG days should be made on Smart Tuition. The cost is $12 for the year and will be sent to charities chosen by the members of Student Council. If you do not pay for TAG days, your child should wear their regular uniform on that day.

Thank you for all of the great stickers that you have sent in. They are much appreciated. 

I am going to try to send another signup genius and hope that it goes through this time!

Happy, beautiful weekend! Enjoy the time together as a family. Make lots of family memories!



Thursday, September 19
Happy Thursday! What a beautiful fall day it was today. Unfortunately for me on Thursdays, I don't get much time with the children as they have Art and Spanish but how lucky they are to have all of the specials here at SJB!

We did manage to squeeze in some work today. The chidlren created fall trees using apples as paint brushes - they thought this was super fun and the colors turned out so nice and bright! The children also worked on patterning. We said a pattern means we are taking turns. Thjey did a great job of cutting, gluing and finding the next picture to complete the pattern. We will do a lot of patern work for Math this year. My friends also used dot dot markers (they loved this) to fill in an apple. This is a great fine motor skill.

This morning we did another apple poem. Each child picked an apple from my bucket. They had to wave their apple when I said the color of it during our poem. They did such a great job and they love these interactive poems and songs!

The highlight of our day was making an apple volcano! My friends all became scientists. We talked again about our five senses. They each had a turn to use their hands to feel an apple. I then cut a hole in the top of the center of our apple and we used our eyes to observe the inside of the apple. Each child then poured baking soda into the center hole. I then added blue food coloring. We talked about what liquids are and each child used their sense of smell to smell our liquid vinegar. I then slowly poured the vinegar into the apple and we were amazed to see the "volcano". Bubbles formed and we could hear fizzing. I explained that a reaction occured when the vinegar and baking soda mixed together. You could try this simple experiment at home. Science is so much fun and can be so simple!




Tomorrow is wear red for apple week.

if you volunteered to send in apples or cider tomorrow, please remember to do so. You could also bring it tonight if that is easier for you. Thank you!

I will see you at back to School Night at 6:30 in our classroom. The session should last about 45 minutes. I will cover all of the details that you need to know for our upcoming year together. Please remember this is not a time for an individual conference. Tonight is for parents only.

The school will have monthly TAG days with themes throughout the year. The first one is next Friday and the theme is favorite decade - my own kids are wearing tie dyed shirts because that is easy! Payment for TAG days should be made on Smart Tuition. The cost is $12 for the year and will be sent to charities chosen by the members of Student Council. If you do not pay for TAG days, your child should wear their regular uniform on that day.

Tomorrow we do the Friday Dance!!!

Wednesday, September 18
What a Wednesday! We were so very busy today, as we will be every day here in EC3B. Our days fly by and our year will, too! 

Today we were happy to have Jack back after being home sick for two days. There are so many germs going around already. I will discuss returning to school after being sick tomorrow at back to School Night. 

This morning I read a book called "Red as a Firetruck". We then looked around the room to find all of the red things in our classroom. Red is a very popular color in here. My friends then each shared their red picture and we created our collage of red. My friends were so proud of their homework!

We continued our talk on the letter A and apples today. I read a story called "Autmn is for Apples" and we talked about how trees grow and change in each season. My friends then each stamped an A with A and a. Stamping is a good fine motor skill - and they love to stamp! They also each painted an apple to hang from our ceiling and they created an A is for Angel craft. We also worked some on patterning - another math skill we will focus on this year.

Today we worked together to make applesauce. My friends each helped put apples and sugar into the crockpot. I then added cinnamon and water and we let it sit for hours. Our room smelled so warm, cozy and TASTY! We enjoyed our applesauce after rest time. 

The school will have monthly TAG days with themes throughout the year. The first one is next Friday and the theme is favorite decade - my own kids are wearing tie dyed shirts because that is easy! Payment for TAG days should be made on Smart Tuition. The cost is $12 for the year and will be sent to charities chosen by the members of Student Council. If you do not pay for TAG days, your child should wear their regular uniform on that day.

I am in need of a gallon of apple cider for Friday for our apple tasting. If you are willing to send in, please email me. Thank you. I will get to that Sign Up Genius - when I get a free minute...haha! 


Remember that Back to Schol Night is Thursday at 6:30 in our classroom. This is for parents only. It should last about 45 minutes to an hour. I need to leave by 7:45 to get my son from football if that gives you a point of reference for the time frame. I look forward to seeing you then!



Tuesday, September 17
Terrific Tuesday! What a gorgeous day and a day filled with fun and learning! My friends began their day with their red show and share and they did an amazing job with this. Good job, friends!

I read a story about Johnny Appleseed and we acted out the parts. We talked about how Johnny loved apples so much that he wanted to share with others his love for apples. My friends then created a stained glass apple using pieces of tissue paper. They did a great job and were so proud. We also did a little science experiment by painting apples with baking soda water and then adding vinegar mixed with food coloring to see the reaction that occurs. They loved the fizzing and the bubbling that happened and the colors look so pretty. They will be on display in our room. 

We acted out "Way up High in the Apple tree" today with cutout apples. We started with 5 apples and each time we shook the tree, we lost an apple and our number got smaller. I told the children this is subtracting. We will do a lot of math by acting out little songs and poems this year. 

My friends enjoyed gym class outside this morning so we did not take a morning recess. During our afternoon recess, I brought out cut out apples in different colors and we did apple aerobics. The children had to listen for their color and then follow my directions. They had so much fun with this simple acivity.



Tomorrow we will make a collage of red pictures. Help your child find a picture of something red from a magazine or printed off the computer. They will add this to our class collage. If your child is able to cut independently, please allow them to do so. This is their "homework".

Gym day tomorrow - names on shirts and hair in ponytails. Thank you!

I am in need of a gallon of apple cider for our apple tasting on Friday if anyone would like to supply this for us. Thank you! I am trying to figure out why some people received the sign up genius and some did not.

Have a wonderful Tuesday evening! It's a beautiful night to get outside and play!!


Monday, Sepetember 16
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and the GORGEOUS weather! Weekends are the best time to make family memories - especially when the weather is just right for outside activties.

This morning we were introduced to our new letter Aa. We looked at pictures of an alligator, acorn, ape, ant , the alphabet and an apple. We pretended to take a bite of an apple and made the /a/ sound. We will be exposed to the letter A in a variety of ways this week. Remember your child is not expected to master all of the letters - they will get them again next year and again in klndergarten. This is just a stepping stone.

I read a book called " I am An Apple" today. This book shows the process of the growth of an apple tree and how the process repeats and repeats. I told the children this is called a cycle. My friends then created an apple out of their handprints to remember this first fall of preschool. My friends also worked on creating an A for alligator that we will keep until the end of the year when we will put together an ABC book of all of their alphabet projects - one of my favorite things we do! I also worked on cutting with some of my friends. This is a VERY IMPORTANT three year old skill that we will work on a lot this year but practice is key. Please allow your child to cut with scissors at home. Give them scrap paper and have them cut to strengthen this skill. We talk about scissor safety but remind them of the rules. Cutting is a big kid responsibility and they must earn that responsibility!

Our classroom will become a Science lab and my friends will become Scientists each week and today was that first day!I talked about what it means to be a scientist and how my friends will use their 5 sense to observe in Science. The children know that the number one rule for scientist is to always use their best listening ears so they can hear my directions. They did a great job today. First we had the chance to feel an apple. They told me it felt, "good, cold, smooth, hard and round" - all great describing words. I then used an apple slicer to cut the apple. Each child could then see the seeds and feel the seed - they were amazed at how tiny the seeds were. Each table had 4 cups on it. The cups were labeled water, vinegar, air and oil. The children then used their sense of smell to smell the vinegar - someone said it smells like mommy cleaning:) I filled the appropriate cups and we talked about liquids - how they change shape when poured from container to container, we can drink most liquids and most importantly that they will spill and form a puddle if we drop them. The children then each had a turn to place an apple slice in to a cup. We will observe on Wed and Fri to see the changes that take place in each cup. Our cups are on the Science table now for observation. We love being scientists in here!









I received several emails saying that many of you did not receive the sign up genius. Thank you for letting me know. I am going to look into that this week - it could be operator error on my part!

Remember that Back to Schol Night is Thursday at 6:30 in our classroom. This is for parents only. It should last about 45 minutes to an hour. 

Tomorrow is red show and share. PLease make sure your child knows what their item is and that it fits in their bookbag.

We have Gym tomorrow - please be sure names are on shirts and that girls have their hair pulled back.

My friends will need a picture of themself and a picture of their house (or a house from a magazine if you don't want to send one of your house) for next week. Just a head's up so you can send your prints to Wahlgreens if need be. i will post exact dates tomorrow.

Have a nice night!



Friday, September 13
Hooray for Friday! We did the Friday dance today - the childrne love doing this each week. What a fast Friday it was and we made it to the end of our first full week of school. It only gets easier from here on out!

I loved seeing their favorite shirts today - and it's nice for them to show some of their personality by dressing out of uniform.

This morning the children had a lot of fun in Library. The listened to the story 'Ten Apples Up on Top" and each practiced balancing 10 apples on their heads. I even got to join in the fun! This was a great kickoff to our apples theme next week.

Today I read "Celebrating me" to the children. In the story, the children were celebrating how much they have grown and changed and we talked about how much we will grow and change this year! This is such a big year for them and for you as a parent - and me as a teacher. It is a blessing to watch them develop throughout the year. They come in as babies and leave as little people and we will celebrate that! I painted their hands, again, and we created a handprint for you to remember them as a 3 or 4 year old. They also worked with Mrs. Monarski in creating a person and they got to pick the pants and shirts that they wanted so that it was just their person. 

For Math today, we graphed if we are a boy or a girl by decorating a boy or girl and gluing them to a chart. We then compared the numbers and decided that 9 is bigger than 6 so we have more girls than boys in our class. We do a lot of graphing and comparing numbers for Math. Math is so much fun and is sucha  big kid skill!

We took a 10 minute recess on the big playground this morning and couldn't believe how much cooler it was than yesterday.

We take at least 7 group bathroom breaks a day and my friends are doing awesome! We have remained accident free, knock on wood. The children are doing a great job telling us when they need to use the bathroom. Way to go!

My friends are starting to lay quietly at rest time because they want that sticker. Remember to check shirts for stickers before putting them in the washer and drier, says a mom with experience on that topic! Thanks to my friends who have brought in stickers to share with their sleeping friends!

I emailed a sign up genius for apple tasting last week. Please let me know if you did not receive this. I still need all slots filled. 

Next week we will takl about the letter A, apples and the color red.

Have a wonderful weekend making memories with your family. We somehow have a sports free Saturday, which rarely happens, so we will be at Hershey Park holding on to the last bit of summer!

I look forward to seeing all of my friends smiling faces on Monday!

Thursday, September 12
What a busy Thursday! Between pictures, Art and Spanish today, we had about 45 minutes in the classroom. We had play time and we read a book called " God made me just right" to continue with our all about me theme. I traced the children's hands and we used an ink pad to make fingerprints. We counted their fingers and I told the children that everyone has different fingerprints and we looked at their fingerprints to see how different they are. We also did our Religion magazine and talked about how Jesus loves ALL of his children!

My friends did a nice job with class pictures today. They had to wait very patiently for their turn. The photographer did her best to get them to smile but keep in mind there was a lot going on and for some friends this proved overwhelming. I hope no one is expecting the "perfect picture" but keep in mind these pictures captured your child as they are today - at 3. My favorite school picture is my daughter's 3 year old picture - not a smile to be found but it captured her three year old personality! My friends all looked so handsome and beautiful. Thank you for sending everyone in sneakers. Safety before fashion!


My friends can wear their favorite shirt tomorrow for All About Me week. They can wear whatever shorts/pants they want - they do not need to be in uniform shorts. Again, they must be in sneakers.

A Scholastic Book Order was sent home in your child's folder today along with a letter explaining how this works. Please help your child develop a love of reading by building their library at very low costs.

Tomorrow we do the Friday dance already!! First full week of school is done - we are rolling now!



Wednesday, September 11
We made it to midweek! Only two more wakeups and two more days of lunches to pack!! 

My friends all did such an amazing job with their first Show and Share today. They proudly stood and told us their name and what they brought and what letter their name and item start with. They enjoy sharing these special items from home and we enjoy getting to know more about them. We will do a weekly show and share for theme. It is helpful to practice at home so they know what to say each week. Thanks for doing that this week as they were all ready and prepared!

This morning we had Gym in the gym and the children did a great job of following directions! We did not take a morning recess because we had time in Gym to get our energy out.

This morning we continued talking about what makes us special. I read a book called "Designed by God so I must be special". We pointed to each of our body parts and talked about what they help us do. I asked for things that my friends see, hear, touch, taste and smell - such great lists they came up with! My friends then designed a person to look like them for our Religion Bulletin board called "Jesus loves the little children". I told the class that we are all children and Jesus loves all of us because we are His little children.  I also painted hands again to create our EC3B Friendship Tree that will hang in the hall all year reminding my friends that we are all a part of this EC3B family!

My friends also painted flags today to show how proud we are to be living in America. We talked about the colors we saw on our flag and the fact that e say the pledge to our flag every day. On this September 11, enjoy a few extra minutes of family time and hug your babies a little tighter tonight.

Our class pictures are on Thursday at 8 am. Children should wear Sunday best WITH SNEAKERS - no one sees their feet and 3 year olds are not looking to make a fashion statement with their footwear - we are trying to stay safe considering many of my friends are tripping over air in here! My M, W, F friends can come meet us in the Library at 8 am (accomponied by a chaperone) in order to have your picture taken. We do not do a class photo at this time so if you do not plan on ordering pictures, you do not need to come. Please let me know if you plan on bringing your child for pictures on Thursday if this is not a regular school day for them. You must sign in at the Main office and walk down to meet us at the Library. You will have to wait in the hallway while we have our pictues taken.

We took 7 group bathroom breaks today and remain accident free, knock on wood. My friends are doing a great job of telling us when they need to use the bathroom. 

At rest time today,I told the children I would give stickers to my friends who rested and laid quietly. It is AMAZING how the promise of a sticker will motivate. So many of my friends settled right in and fell asleep. I will do this every day if this helps to settle us in. We welcome all contributions of stickers for this cause. Children love to pick out rest time stickers for their friends so take them shopping with you to make it even more fun for them!

Have a nice evening with your families and thank you for choosing SJB as their "home away from home" for the next 8 months.


Tuesday, September 10
Today was a busy day for my friends, as all of our days will be. Today we took a walk through the "big building" to meet our school nurse, Ms. Perrine. SJB is lucky to have a full time school nurse and an awesome one at that. Ms. Perrine told the children she will help with scrapes and tummy aches and coughs and that her room is a safe place. She assured the children that they will never get a needle from her - this was a big concern. Some of my friends have already had to visit after recess time, but hopefully we will not make too many trips to see Ms. Perrine this year!

The children had 30 minutes on the big playground for Gym this morning so we did not take a morning recess. After our visit with the nurse, we took a walk outside to enjoy this beautiful day.

This week we are talking about ourselves and learning to get to know one another. I read a book called "Hooray for you" and we talked about all of the things that make us special. I told the children to look in the mirror tonight and say 'hooray for me!" The children then answered questions for me to help me learn a bit about them. They worked with Mrs. Monarski in identifying the first letter of their name. They had to find a match for their letter and glue it on to a sheet. My friends also used a coconut to paint and thought this was silly. We read "Chica Chica Boom Boom" yesterday and talked about the coconut tree. Today I brought a real coconut for them to see. We placed the coconut in a box with red, yellow and blue paint and the children rolled the box back and forth and used the coconut to paint their paper. We will use many different items to paint this year!

We have Gym again tomorrow so please be sure that names are on shirts and that girls have their hair pulled back.

Please remember that we have our first Show and Share tomorrow. Children should bring something that starts with the first letter of their name and they should be able to tell us what it is. The item must it in their bookbags. We will do weekly show and shares and the children become so comfortable doing this as the year progresses. It is so fun to watch the transformation.

Our class pictures are on Thursday at 8 am. Children should wear Sunday best WITH SNEAKERS - no one sees their feet and 3 year olds are not looking to make a fashion statement with their footwear - we are trying to stay safe considering many of my friends are tripping over air in here! My M, W, F friends can come meet us in the Library at 8 am (accomponied by a chaperone) in order to have your picture taken. We do not do a class photo at this time so if you do not plan on ordering pictures, you do not need to come. Please let me know if you plan on bringing your child for pictures on Thursday if this is not a regular school day for them. 

Have a nice evening. There is a Home and School Meeting at 6:30 if you want to come out and get involved!




Monday, September 9
I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend and took advantage of the gorgeous weather. I know many of my friends came in tired so I am guessing that everyone had a busy and fun weekend filled with lots of memory making! I was so proud that after two days at home, we did not have any tears as the chidlren entered the classroom. Let's keep it up!

Today we enjoyed our first Music class with Mrs. Wagner. She will expose the children to many different instruments and games and has lots of movement panned for the children. They enjoyed Music and did a great job of following the many directions.


We enjoyed 15 minutes outside on the big playground for morning recess and the we began our work/play time.  This morning I read "Chica Chica Boom Boom" to the chidlren and we talked about the letters that we saw. The children helped tell the story by saying the words chica chica boom boom when it was time. They then created their own coconut trees with their handprints and the letters in their names. Many of my friends were able to tell the letters in their names and we were so impressed! We will spend a lot of time this year working on identifying the letters in their names and placing those letters in the correct sequential order. My friends also shared their family pictures with me and named their family members and told me something their family likes to do and I will put these together to make a class book. We also finished our Pete the cat handprints from Friday - they turned out so cute and will be on display in our hallway.

Several of our friends have a pretty nasty cough already - it is so early in the year for these germs.  Please practice coughing and sneezing into their elbows to help reduce the spread of germs. Eleanor is home with a cold and we wish her well - we sang her a cute little song this morning that we will sing whenever someone is absent. Please remember that your child must be symptom free and fever free for 24 hours, without medication, before they can return to school. We will discuss this at Back to School Night next week.

Some of my friends are playing with the long strings on their gym shorts and trying to wrap them around their necks. This is obviously very dangerous. If your child has a long strong inside their gym shorts and you do not need it to adjust the size, please cut it off for us so it does not become a danger or a toy.

If you did not send a family picture today, please do so tomorrow.

Please remember that we have our first Show and Share on Wednesday. Children should bring something that starts with the first letter of their name and they should be able to tell us what it is. We will do weekly show and shares and the children become so comfortable doing this as the year progresses. It is so fun to watch the transformation.

Our class pictures are on Thursday at 8 am. Children should wear Sunday best WITH SNEAKERS - no one sees their feet and 3 year olds are not looking to make a fashion statement with their footwear - we are trying to stay safe considering many of my friends are tripping over air in here! My M, W, F friends can come meet us in the Library at 8 am (accomponied by a chaperone) in order to have your picture taken. We do not do a class photo at this time so if you do not plan on ordering pictures, you do not need to come. Please let me know if you plan on bringing your child for pictures on Thursday if this is not a regular school day for them. 

We have Gym tomorrow so please make sure that girls have their hair pulled back and that your child has their name on their gym shirt.

Have a marvelous Monday! This is a full week of school - we can do it! 



Friday, September 6
Hooray for Friday! Today we did the Friday dance to celebrate the end of our week together! Congrats to everyone for making it through the hardest week of them all. It was a great week and I know it will be a great year! Look at these cute faces - how could it not be a great year?


This morning we were able to go visit the Library and meet Mrs. Oldiges and Mrs. Tobin. We are so lucky that we get to end our week with Library. We will hear great stories and do fun activities. The children were very excited when I picked them up! We are such big kids to get time in the library!

We listened to "Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes" this morning and danced along to the song Pete sings. We know that there is never a reason to worry at school - school is a fun and safe place! The children created Pete the Cat headbands. They will wear these home on Monday because of the rain today. I also painted their hands again and these will become cute Pete the Cat pictures after they are dried and we can finish decorating them on Monday. I also took a picture of each friend in their school shoes and asked them to describe their shoes to me. I will put the pictures together to make our own class book abou rocking in our school shoes!

Today we took a morning recess on the big playground. We also took a walk after lunch and then spent 20 more minutes on the big playground before the rain started. The children love recess time and they need that time to release energy and to play in a way that is much more free than when they are in the classroom. Remember that play is learning!

We took 8 group bathroom breaks today. The children are also doing a great job of telling me if they need to use the bathroom.

Remember to ask your child if they had a job today. They are loving the responsibilty of having a job as a classroom helper.

My friends all need a family picture for Monday. This picture will not be sent home. It will be come part of a class book.

Next week our themes will be Chica Chica Boom Boom and All About Me.

You may have received the message about the safety lockdown that took place earlier today. The teachers were notified privately that we were not to leave the building until given the all clear. We remained in our classroom and continued to work and play - never a cause for concern. We have procedures in place for many different situations that arise and I promise you that your children wil always be safe in my care. This is my most important role as their teacher to keep them safe and I will do that, just as I know my own childrens' teachers will do for them. 

Have a wonderful weekend wih your families! Enjoy the time togehr and make happy memories!


Thursday, September 5
Today was a tear free day! And many of my friends walked down the hall and into the classroom independently! I am just so proud of them all - and all of you!

I realized today that Thursdays are going to be our busy days that don't allow much time for play or work in the classroom because we are busy at Spanish and Art. We will be learning, working and having fun in other classrooms. We are lucky to attend specials even in preschool!

This morning we did do our first Religion lesson. We talked about how we are all special and that God made us special. I told the children that Mrs. Monarski and I will be getting to know them this year and we will learn who likes what and we will learn what makes each of them special. We did our Religion paper and shared who likes soccer and music and the various other choices we had. The children did a nice job following a long and following directions - not asy to do on day 3! We ended with a special prayer thanking God for our new school and new friends. I can't wait to get to know the children this year! 

I read the book "Pete the cat rocking in his school shoes" today and the children danced a long to the catchy song. We will be doing crafts for this tomorrow as we just did not have time today!

We enjoyed Spanish in the "big building" with Miss Kovall today. The chidlren will be exposed to the numbers and colors and various songs in Spanish. We also had Art with Mrs. Newcomb today. The children will listen to a story and do a craft that relates to that story each week. 

We enjoyed our recess today and are looking forward to fall days when it is not quite so hot and sunny (though I love the heat). We began rest time around 12:35 and many friends fell right to sleep. Some friends are having a hard time settling their bodies at rest time. This is an important time of day for the chidlren as their little bodies need that down time. Please remind them to try their best to lay still and quietly so that they can rest - and so can their friends around them.

We took 8 group bathroom breaks today and were accident free again! What an awesome job they are doing in telling us when they need to use the bathroom. I even had two friends tell me while out on the playground - not easy to want to stop playing to use the bathroom. Let's kep up the great work!

Thank you to all who read my page and removed long straps from lunchboxes and remembered to pack drinks in the lunchboxes. 

I will be sending out a signup genius most weeks asking for help for the following week to assist in a tasting we will do for our letter of the week. Thank you for your help and generosity in making our letters come to life. I try to expose the children in a variety of ways to our theme and thank you for your part in this. The first signup genius should be coming out today or tomorrow. If yuo sign up to send in apples, we do not need them until Friday, September 20, Please do not send in prior to this date.

Remember that my friends will need a family picture on Monday. Please print one if you have not one so yet.

Ask your child if they had a job today. We take turns daily with jobs and the childrne love having jobs and that responsibility.

Tomorrow is Friday and we do the Friday dance in EC3B!!



Wednesday September 4
We all survived Day 2. Sometimes that is when the reality sets in and the tears flow, but once again, I was so impressed by and so proud of the children. There were minimal tears and my friends came in ready for a new day - for some this was their first day and they settled right in! Bravo to the chidlren and to the parents for making this such a smooth transition.

This morning we reviewed our morning circle time and routine. Some of the children were even singing along to the songs we sing to start our day. They enjoy the jobs that we have and each day someone new has a job so we will all get plenty of turns to have the jobs throughout the year. I like to remind them that we are all handy helpers and we will all work together to make this a great year.

We had Gym class this morning which was a lot of fun - and a little confusing as to why we were in the cafeteria but not eating. Mrs. Schock spent the class this morning playing different games getting to know the children and to learn their names. We will haveGym class two times a week during this first trimester.

During our Center time today, I read "The Kissing Hand" again and we talked about Chester's feelings and how many of us were nervous yesterday but were less nervous today. The children then worked to create a Chester raccoon with Mrs. Monarski. I called the children over an did something so silly - I painted their hands! They thought this was funny and that it tickled. I told them I will do this many times throughout the year. We made a little picture to remind them of the kissing hand secret.

At lunch time, I did my best to encourage the children to eat but several of my friends were not interested in eating. Please remember to pack something that they like and will eat. I cannot force them to eat but always do my best to make sure that they do have enough in them for our long day.

My friends were all VERY TIRED today - many were asking if it was rest time before we even went to lunch. We were on our mats by 12:30 and most of my friends fell right to sleep. Please remember that early and consistent bed times help make our day a smooth one.

We only took 7 group bathroom breaks today and were accident free again today. Hooray for that! let's keep it up. 

Today we celebrated Luke's 4th birthday and we all enjoyed powdered doughnuts! Happy birthday, Luke, and thanks for the yummy treats.

Some of my friends have long straps on their lunchboxes and are tripping over them or trying to put them around their necks. If your child has a long strap and it can be removed, please do so for safety reasons. Thank you!

Please remember to send your pink or blue folder to school daily! 

Remember to check all of the dates above for upcoming events!

In the event of rain on Friday, please do not send your child to school with an umbrella. The preschool does not allow umbrellas for safety reasons. Please send them in a coat with a hood on rainy days. 

Thanks for a great first two days of school! Looking forward to a great day 3!

Tuesday September 3
Hooray! You all survived the first morning dropoff!! Thank you for respecting my rule of saying goodbye at the door. It made for a much smoother transition for them - and for you, I promise. I was so proud and so impressed by the children as they all came in and got right to it. We had minimal tears from just two children and they lasted for 5 minutes. Let's do it again tomorrow!

This morning we started our day by reading "My first day of preschool". We talked about the simliarities between the children in the pictures and us - we all had backpacks and lunchboxes and cubbies and we are meeting and making new friends. We then settled into our morning carpet time and the children were excited to sing our morning song and try out the new jobs that they will have. After a few days, we will all be settled in to the new morning routine.

We enjoyed our morning snack. Thank you for marking the snacks with an S or a sticker to make it easy for us to identify. We had snack around 9 am and some of my friends were hungry. Again, they will adjust to the new schedule in just a few days. After our morning snack, we took a few minutes to go outside on the playground. We reviewed the rules of the playground and the children enjoyed running around on this sunny day!

We read the story "The Kissing Hand" today. Sone of my friends told me that they have this story at home. We talked about how Chester was nervous to leave his Mommy, just like many of us were. But his mommy came to get him, just like our moms and dads always do. Chester's mom taught him the secret of kissing his left hand so that the love could travel to his heart and so he could place his hand to his cheek all day to feel his mom's love. I told the kids I would share this secret with you, so tomorrow you might want to do your own kissing hand. We made little kissing hand crafts today as a reminder. The children also made headbands to celebrate their first day of preschool. What a big and exciting day this is for them and for you!

The children were so excited for lunch in the cafeteria! They looked so cute sitting at the table eating their lunches. I took a picture but cannot post it until we have the all clear from the office that everyone is allowed to be photographed. Please make sure that there is a drink in your child's lunchbox for lunch as we cannot always remember to grab water bottlles from cubbies. Please also remember to keep snacks for Eagle's Club seperate from lunchboxes. These should be in the front pocket of your child's bookbag. Only 3 of my friends did not fall alseep at rest time but did lay quietly. Everyone should be ready for bed tonight - myself included!

We enjoyed about 40 minutes outside after recess but it was HOT!! The children were ready for rest by 12:45. Most of my friends laid right down and settled in. A few friends needed reminders to lay quietly on their mats. Their little bodies need that down time - it is a long day! Some friends were sad to not have stuffed animals so please remember to put one in tonight if you have not done so.

We took 8 group bathroom breaks today! The children did an aweome job. A few friends told me when they needed to go and we got them there right away. We were accident free today! let's keep it up!

We have Gym tomorrow. Please remember to have your child's name on their shirt and for girls to have their hair pulled back.

Please check the dates above for important events in the classroom.

Looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow and to meeting 4 friends who were not here today!

It is going to be a great year in EC3B!

** You all should have received an email about ordering pretzels from Home and School. My advice is to order the pretzels even if you think your child will not eat it. They do receive the pretzels once a month and children are disappointed if everyone around them has a pretzel and they do not. The process to order is explained in the email and all payments are done via Smart Tuition. 

***We have Gym on Tuesday and Wednesday during the first trimester. Please be sure that girls have their hair pulled back and that everyone has their name on their shirt (use masking tape if you do not want to write on the shirt).

August 2019
It was so nice to meet you at orientation! I know I covered a lot of information in a short amount of time. Please feel free to email me with any questions. I will cover much more at our back to school night on Thursday, September 19. Remember this is a meeting for parents only.

~ Please remember to bring a white empty icing container on the first day of school if you did not do so for orienation. This will be your child's crayon can for the year.
~ Please remember to send in two pictures of just your child if you did not do so already. One picture will mark your child's cubbie and one will mark your child's seat at the table.
~ Please read and review the potty training policy and sign and return on Thursday or Friday.
~ I look forward to a great first day on Tuesday or Wednesday! Remember that if your child is only registered for M, W, F, their first day will be on Wednesday. Only children who are full time or registered T, W, Th will start on Tuesday.
~ I know I said that we do not have an Independence Day in our program, but I do ask that you leave your child at the classroom door. Please say your goodbyes at the door and allow them to come into the classroom on their own. Mrs. Monarski will greet them at their cubbies and will help them unload all of their supplies. Saying goodbye at the door allows for a smoother transition in to the classroom.
~ Remember to bring your smiles (and brave faces, parents) to school for the first day. It WILL be a great year!

Specials Schedule
Monday -  Music 8:25-9:10
Tuesday - Gym 8:30-9:10
Wednesday - Gym 8:30-9:00
Thursday - Spanish 9:20-9:50
                 Art 9:55-10:40
Friday - Library - 8:40 - 9:10

August 2019

I hope that you are all enjoying your summer and have made a lot of fun memories at the beach, playground, pool, library and spending time with family and friends. I look forward to meeting some of you at the social on Tuesday, August 20 at 6:30 in the back parking lot of the school. When we meet for our orientation on either Tuesday, August 27 or Wednesday, August 28, please bring the following items:

 

1. Student information sheets
2. Change of clothes and shoes - in a ziploc bag marked with your name and in a bag - does not need to be a gym uniform - seasonably appropriate clothes 
3. Blanket or towel and fitted crib sheet labeled with your name for rest time 
4. Box of tissues - 1
5. Clorox wipes - 1
6. Baby wipes - 1
7. 2 pictures of just YOU for your cubby and seat (can be the same picture)
8. A clean, empty white frosting container for your crayons ( I provide the crayons and will put your name on the container)
9. 6 gluesticks (you do not need your name on them - this will be a class supply)
10. A small canvas tote (can be purchased at AC Moore) or a reusable bag from the DIsney Store. Please make sure your name is on the bag. This bag will carry your sheet/towel back and forth from school on the weekend to be washed. 
11. A happy smile ready to make friends and have fun while learning!

***The preschool teachers are asking that ALL STudents wear velcro sneakers. 

*** Remember that ANY VOLUNTEER must have a background check and volunteer covenant on file to volunteer at school and attend field trips. Please make sure that all paperwork is in to avoid confusion. You can check wih Mrs. Malatesta to see if you have all papers on file. If you are in need of a background check, please email mmalatesta@sjbdel.org and she will respond with the steps needed in order to complete this process. I will have copies of the volunteer covenant at Orientation. 


If you have any questions or concerns, please email me at kcuocolo@sjbdel.org


Enjoy the last few weeks of summer,
Mrs. Cuocolo