Week at a Glance

LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

We can hardly believe the last day of Preschool will be here soon! To celebrate our last day together, we will be entertained by our storyteller friend, Mary Jane Haley. She will perform her version of Mother Nature. For ALL Preschoolers, this will be a half-day,

7:45am – 10:50am. We will walk the children over to the church basement for the performance that will begin at 9:45am. All parents and younger siblings are welcome, but not required to join us. ALL Preschoolers will dismiss from the church basement at 10:50am.

We are looking forward to a wonderful day!

Mrs. O’Hara, Mrs. O’Keefe & Mrs. Urchell

Happy Summer!!!!

Week of May 20

Today we celebrated diversity day. The children went to the main building to learn about various places around the world and how they celebrate their culture. We will attend a special diversity assembly this afternoon. This week we will spend time reviewing upper and lower case letters and beginning sounds. We would like all of our big bears to start off kindergarten recognizing upper and lower case letters and beginning sounds. Feel free to practice over the summer.

Here are the easier sounds: what letter does ball begin with? dog? jar? kitten? lamp? monkey? pig? rainbow? sun? turtle? van? zebra?

vowels are more challenging: what letter does apple begin with? elephant? igloo? octopus? umbrella?

some are more difficult: what letter does cat begin with? fan? goat? house? nose? queen? watch? xylophone? yellow?

If your child knows all these and can identify letters, he or she will be ready to read. If not, no worries. The beginning of kindergarten will be full of review.

Friday, May 24^th: Spirit Day, 11:40am dismissal for preschool. 11:50 for main building. / No Aftercare. We will have lunch this day. Please send one snack and lunch. Important: Please apply sunscreen to your child for spirit day!! 1/2 day children are welcome to stay until 11:40 that day so as not to miss out on the fun!!

Monday, May 27^th: NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, June 5th: Last Day of Preschool, 9:45am storyteller, Mother Nature (church basement), dismissal 10:50am. A note will come home tomorrow.

Google site week of May 13th

Language Arts:

This week we will be focusing on illustrating a story. Students will learn that each story has a person or animal for a main character and also a setting (where the story takes place), and a what (what can the person or animal do).

Little Bears: We will all pick the same who, what, and where card. We will discuss the fact that even if everyone has a dog, one dog may be described as little and black, another may be described as big and white. We will draw details to add to our illustrations.

Big Bears: Learn to illustrate a story and follow up with a beginning sounds worksheet.

Religion:

Our Preschool May Crowning will be held at 10:15 this Thursday, May 16 by the Mary statue by our building. We will sing songs and listen to scripture. All adults and siblings that are not yet in school, are welcome to attend.

Math:

Lesson 8.3 Exploring Picture Graphs. We will continue using vocabulary words for graphing like column, row and graph.

We will read “Giraffe Graphs” by Melissa Stewart.

Little Bears: Each students will get an index card. They have to decide what they like best...apples or oranges. Each child will draw either an apple or orange on the card and then we will graph to see the results. Which fruit is most popular? How do you know?

Big Bears: Students will read a graph and determine how many bees and how many insects there are at the top of the page. Students will color the corresponding amount of bees and insects.

Clifford/Scholastic: Continue talking about parts of a sunflower. What does your sunflower need in order to grow? Look at pictures on a sheet. Cut out the pictures that help a plant grow and glue them next to the flower. We have also been busy watching our butterflies emerge from their chrysalids. This has been very exciting!! We have started planting in our classroom as well. The children chose marigold, zinnia, or cosmo seeds and planted them on Friday. We will be watching for sprouts to pop up soon.

Important Dates:

Thursday, May 16th: Preschool May Crowning, 10:15am, (at the Mary statue by our building): This will be a 20 minute service. All adults are welcome. (Little siblings, grandparents are welcome as well). However, we understand this is an extremely busy time of year and we totally understand if you are unable to attend.

Thursday, May 16^th: 1:30pm Dismissal

Looking ahead....

Friday, May 24^th: Spirit Day, 11:50am dismissal/ No Aftercare

Monday, May 27^th: NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, June 5th: Last Day of Preschool, 9:45am storyteller, Mother Nature (church basement), dismissal 10:50am, details to follow.

Google Sites Week of May 6

Math: Lesson 8.2: More about graphing. Watch the youtube video: Learn all about picture graphs by Iken edu. Make a graph using legos.

Little Bears: Make a graph showing yellow and blue legos. There are 6 yellow legos and 3 blue legos. Can you graph it?

Big Bears: Summer graphs. Complete a worksheet to graph the number of baseballs, sunglasses and other summer items.

Religion: God Made Mother’s. God has blessed us with Mother’s, Grandmothers, Aunts and special women in our lives. We will talk about and thank God for our Moms.

Little Bears: Talk about our special moms. Circle pictures of moms caring for their children. Decorate a Mother’s Day Award for our Moms.

Big Bears: Bible Story #13: Jesus Returns to Heaven. Listen to the story of Jesus returning to heaven after Easter Sunday. Recognize this as the ascension.

Scholastic with Clifford: All about sunflowers and growing plants. Recognize the parts of a plant: stem, flower, leaves. What do plants need to grow? Soil, water and sun. Color the parts of a plant.

Scholastic with Clifford always introduces us to new vocabulary. For example, last week we learned that newborn bunnies are called kits and that a group of newborn bunnies is a litter. We also learned that bunnies are herbivores. See if your child remembers that an herbivore is an animal that eats plants. This of course led to a discussion of the fact that carnivores eat meat.

Important Dates:

Wednesday, May 8th: Mother’s Day Tea and Fashion Show: 10:00 am church basement, for Moms of Big Bears only.

Thursday, May 16th: Preschool May Crowning, 10:15am, (at the Mary statue by our building): This will be a 20 minute service. All adults are welcome. We understand this is an extremely busy time of year and we totally understand if you are unable to attend.

Thursday, May 16^th: 1:30pm Dismissal

Friday, May 24^th: Spirit Day, 11:50am dismissal/ No Aftercare

Monday, May 27^th: NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, June 5th: Last Day of Preschool, 9:45am storyteller, Mother Nature (church basement), dismissal 10:50am, details to follow.

Google Sites Week of April 29

Language Arts:

We finished the alphabet! This week we will focus on reviewing the letters and their sounds.

Little Bears: Play “I Have a Letter” game...using cards, students will say (ex.) I have a J, who has a Q? This will require students to identify two letters at a time!

Big Bears: Mystery bag game...there will be items in a bag. The students will pull an object out and tell us the beginning sound of that object then write the letter on the board. Students will follow up with a review worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Lesson # 20 “God Made Fish”

In this lesson we will learn about fish and other sea creatures. We will listen to the story of Jesus helping his friends catch an enormous quantity of fish! We will also draw our own fish.

Big Bears: Bible story 12 The Best Day Ever: The Story of Easter!

Read and illustrate the story of Easter.

Math:

Lesson 8.1 Exploring Concrete Graphs

We will read the story Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy and watch a short video called Creating Bar Graphs by Icon Math. Then we will use a floor graph to demonstrate how to make bar graphs using different items in the classroom.

Little Bears: Graph farm animals from bottom to top by counting how many of each on the Farm mat.

Big Bears: Graph by color bar graph: graph colors using a bar graph as a group and then complete a worksheet for follow-up.

Social Science/Clifford Activity:

Hop Hop Hooray “What do rabbits do?” follow-up

Read the story aloud again as a follow-up. Discuss how rabbits are herbivores, eating only plants. Complete the worksheet “Feed the Rabbit”.

Important Notes:

Wednesday, May 8th: Mother’s Day Tea and Fashion Show: 10:00am church basement, for Moms of Big Bears only

Thursday, May 16th: Preschool May Crowning, 10:15am, (at the Mary statue by our building)

Thursday, May 16^th: 1:30pm Dismissal

Friday, May 24^th: Spirit Day, 11:50am dismissal/ No Aftercare

Monday, May 27^th: NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, June 5th: Last Day of Preschool, 9:45am storyteller, Mother Nature (church basement), dismissal 10:50am, details to follow

Google Site week of April 8th

So sorry for the delay to this post. Unfortunately I am home sick with strep throat but started a zpack Monday night and will be back to school tomorrow. If your child is showing signs of sore throat and fever, know that it is definitely going around and please have them checked. :(

Also, as you know, Thursday will be Mrs. Roberts' last day with us. We are so happy for her to move on to a fabulous new career but she will be sorely missed.

Here is what's happening this week:

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Zz. We will watch a letter z sesame street podcast. We will look at picture cards and hold objects that begin with the /z/ sound. We will read the story “Zach the Lazy Zebra.”

Big Bears: Letter Z project...make a zoo out of the letter z. Follow up z worksheet.

Little Bears: Letter Z project...make a zoo out of the letter z.

Math:

7.4 Equal Sets

Use concrete objects to add equal sets. Use concrete objects to separate a set into two equal parts.

Read “Ten Apples Up on Top” by Dr. Seuss. This story is about balancing apples. After the story, divide your students up into groups. Ask…”how many in each group?” How can I make these groups equal?”

Big Bears: Using stickers, divide the paper into two sides and use the same amount of stickers on each side. Are they equal? How can you make them equal?

Little Bears: Divide the paper in two sides, using less stickers than the big bears. If you put 3 stickers on the left, how many should you put on the right to make it equal?

Religion

Little Bears: Easter. Pg. 129 Look at the pictures of the sun coming up. Just as the sun comes up each day, we will always live. Jesus promised that we will live forever.

Pg. 130 We celebrate Easter with eggs. What comes out of an egg? New life comes out of an egg, just as Jesus came out of the tomb.

Pg. 131-132 Fold the sides forward to cover the egg and when you open it you see a new life… a baby chick.

Big Bears: Bible Story #11 Hosanna! The Story of Palm Sunday

Scholastic/ Social Studies

Hop Hop Hooray “What do rabbits do?” We will explore how rabbits nibble, dig deep holes, snuggle and wiggle their noses. We will watch a video and play games.

Sadly, Thursday will be Mrs. Roberts' last day with us. We are so happy for her to move on to a fabulous new career but she will be sorely missed.

Important dates

Friday 4/12: Easter break begins

Thursday, 4/25: School resumes from Easter break

Mother’s Day Tea for the Big Bears and their moms is May 8th at 10:00. This is a one hour special event for our moms and we really hope you are able to attend.

Google Site Week of April 1

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Yy. We will listen to the story “ The Yak Who Yelled Yuck “ and look at things that begin with Yy. Both Little Bears and Big Bears will glue scraps of yarn on to a yellow letter Y for a craft.

In addition to the craft, Big Bears will do a letter Yy worksheet.

***If you have a yo-yo at home and would like to bring it in during the week, please do so.

Math: Lesson 6.3 Exploring Subtraction

Listen to the story Monster Musical Chairs. Demonstrate with manipulatives that when we start with a group of items and we take some away, we are ‘subtracting” or “taking away”. Recognize that we will have “fewer” items after we subtract.

Little Bears: Play subtraction smash with playdoh. Make 6 balls of playdoh. Smash 2 down with a playdoh hammer then take them away. How many are left?

Big Bears: Use stickers on a paper and cross some out to make subtraction sentences.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 19: God Made Birds. Sing the song “Bluebird, Bluebird, Fly through my Window” and teach the children to go in and out of the windows while holding hands in a circle. Discuss the fact that God made the birds that fly.

Big Bears: Listen to a story about Palm Sunday. Recognize that people who loved Jesus and believed that he was the King and Savior waved palms and lay them at his feet when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Make a palm leaf out of green construction paper.

Science and Social Studies with Clifford/Scholastic:

Review information about wind. Recognize that as scientists we learn to predict and observe to find answers. See if your child can tell you what it means to predict and observe. “Can wind move it?” Experiment: Blow through a straw to see if wind can or can not move certain objects such as paper, a leaf, a rock, a tissue box, etc. If the weather is nice, we hope to take some colorful scarves outside to see if they will blow in the breeze.

Google Site for March 25th

Language Arts:

The Letter of the Week is Xx. We will read the story A Xylophone for X-Ray Fish and look at words and objects that begin and end with the letter Xx. We will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Xx and view a Sesame Street podcast that is all about the letter Xx.

Little Bears: Create an X-ray craft.

Big Bears: Create an X-ray craft and complete an Xx worksheet.

Math: Lesson 7.2 “Explore Addition”

We will use concrete objects to combine sets. We will also practice using the terms “add”, “more”, “in all”, “total”, and “equal”. Lastly we will read the story Little Quack’s New Friend.

Big Bears: Use dominoes and unifix cubes to create addition sentences.

Little Bears: Use legos to create addition sentences.

Religion:

Little Bears: Lesson #18 “God Made Animals”

In this lesson we will learn about the many animals God created and how to care for them. Ask your child about the animal box they created! Finally, ask your child about the story “Tommy’s Just-Right Pet”.

Big Bears: Create a watercolor cross in preparing for Easter.

Social Studies/Science: “Up, Up, Up”!

In this week’s issue we are learning about the weather, specifically, wind. We found out that wind is moving air that pushes things upward. Through pictures, we will determine if it’s windy based on how the air moves. We will pretend to be a feather moving in the wind. The game featured this week allows us to dress a monster properly for the weather. In the video we learn how forceful the wind can be.

Important dates/information:

Thursday, 3/28: 1:30pm dismissal: Preschool will begin dismissing at 1:20pm. Full-day students please bring 1 snack and a lunch.

Monday, 4/15: Easter break begins

Thursday, 4/25: School resumes from Easter break

Google Site Week of March 18

Finally some Spring Weather!! I hope you all enjoyed your St. Paddy's day weekend. We were fortunate enough to take a trip to the park one afternoon last week and are hoping for a few more this week. Please have your child dress appropriately as it can be chilly walking to the park but we do love to get outside. Here is a look at the week ahead:

Language Arts: We are focusing on the letter Ww this week. We will look at picture cards and objects that begin with the /w/ sound. We will watch a Sesame Street podcast all about the letter Ww.

Big Bears: Worm project and writing letter Ww practice sheet.

Little Bears: Worm project.

Math: lesson 7.1 Compare sets of concrete objects using the terms less than and more than. Read the story “Five Little Ducks.” Ask the students if they notice anything about the ducks. The mom started off with 5 but the number keeps changing. Does she have less ducks or more ducks as the story goes on? How do you know?

Little Bears: With teacher guidance, roll a die and see what number you get. Build a block set of the number you rolled. Roll a second time and build a block set using that number. Which number is bigger? Which is smaller? How can you tell by looking at the blocks?

Big Bears: Pull two dominos and count how many dots are on each. Which number is bigger? Smaller? How do you know? Students can also use blocks to have a visual reference in comparing numbers in dominos.

Religion: Chapter 17 “God Made Trees”. The children will know God made trees, and appreciate the many uses of trees. Look at page 71. How are children enjoying the trees? Ex. Picking apples from a tree, playing in a tree house.

Page 72- Find objects hidden in trees.

Page 73-Add leaves to the trees with crayons or markers. Praise God for all the beauty in trees.

Social Studies/Science/Clifford

Continue reading about “Are You My Mother?” Baby animals do not always look exactly like the parents. How do they look different?

Little Bears: Animal worksheet- Look at the number on the parent animal and circle that amount of babies.

Big Bears: “A Chick Grows Up.” Cut out the pictures at the bottom of the page and paste them in the correct order.

Google Site Week of March 11

We have been enjoying the “Preschool Pizza Parlor” in our dramatic play area for the last couple of weeks. The kids have enjoyed wearing aprons, serving their friends pizza and pasta and acting as cooks, waiters and waitress. They are practicing their writing skills while writing down the ingredients requested on pizza orders. It has been great fun! Another highlight of last week was learning the letter V and making a simple volcano in our sensory bin by mixing baking soda and vinegar. Here’s a look at the week ahead:

Language Arts: We will review letters. Match upper and lower-case letters and practice naming words that begin with each letter.

Math: Lesson 6.4: Exploring time. We will listen to the story “Boom Chicka Rock” by John Archambault. We will talk about sequence of events; first, next, last.

Little Bears: Complete a sequence page: How to grow vegetables.

Big Bears: Complete a sequence page: How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Religion:

Focus on Lent. Both Little Bears and Big Bears: Explain that the word “Lent” comes from an old English word meaning Spring time. Teach children that we follow Jesus when we show love to others. Talk about the ways that people show love. Name some good things we can do to prepare for Easter. Sing the song “God is so good”.

Little Bears: will complete pages 125-127. Also talk about St. Patrick as being the patron Saint of Ireland.

Big Bears: Color a face with ashes on the forehead to symbolize Ash Wednesday.

Science and Social Studies with Clifford: Are You My Mother? Talk about the fact that baby animals do not always look like their parents. Learn the names of various baby animals. Watch a short video about animal babies. Match mother animals to the pictures of their babies.

As always, if there is any day that you would like to volunteer for lunch duty, please send me an email.

Thanks and let’s have a great week!

Google site Week of March 4th

Language Arts:

The Letter of the Week is Vv. We will read the story Vera Viper’s Valentine and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Vv. We will search for Vv’s in our classmates names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Vv.

Little Bears: We will make a vine craft using the letter V.

Big Bears: We will make a vine craft and complete a worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 6.3: Explore Weight

We will compare objects to see which are heavier and which are lighter. We will measure classroom items on a balancing scale to identify heavier and lighter objects. We will also watch a short video called Patrick and Friends: Heavy and Light.

Little Bears: We play a game using weighing objects with a scale to determine the weight: more or less. Next we will complete a worksheet on these concepts.

Big Bears: We will complete a worksheet determining which object weighs more or less.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 16: God Made Flowers

In this lesson we will learn that God created flowers. We use flowers to decorate the church and they enhance church celebrations. We reflect on the beauty and fragrances of flowers. We learn that the lily is associated with Easter and the pointsetta with Christmas. Pg.68 -circle the flower that is different. Pg.69 -create a basket of flowers to give to someone you love.

Big Bears: Bible Story 10: Jesus and the Little Boy. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies Scholastic with Clifford: Animal Smiles

As a follow-up from our leaflet last week, we will complete a worksheet entitled Crocodile Smiles. It will review numbers 1-6. We will also watch the video “How to Have a Healthy Smile” and talk about proper teeth brushing.

Next Friday, March 8 is St. Baldrick's Day. Preschool will dismiss at 11:40. Main building will dismiss at 11:50. There is no aftercare that day. See link below:

https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/6053/2019

Schoolnotes Week of February 25

Language Arts:

The Letter of the Week is Uu. We will pass around objects that begin with the letter U and read the story Umbrellabird’s Umbrella. Little Bears and Big Bears will make a unicorn craft. Big Bears will also complete a worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 6.2. We will continue our unit on measuring. We will put objects in order from smallest to largest. We will watch a short youtube video called small, medium, large/ sizes for kids by ESL.

We will compare objects and discuss the sizes as being smaller of larger.

Little Bears will glue three squares: small, medium and large.

Big Bears will circle the biggest item and x the smallest item on a worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 15: God Made Weather. We will describe the way the trees look on page 63 and discuss the various weather shown. We will discuss that God made different types of weather; sun to help things grow, clouds for protection from sun rays, rain for plants, lakes, rivers, etc. On Pg. 64 we will match weather to appropriate clothing. On Pg. 65 we will make a weather wheel.

Big Bears: Bible Story 9: Jesus and the Little Girl. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies Scholastic with Clifford: Animal Smiles. February is dental health month. We will talk about different animals and describe their teeth. We will talk about ways that we care for our teeth. We will play an online game and color the back of our scholastic booklets by using the number key to color the toothbrushes.

School Notes for the week of February 17th

We had such fun celebrating Valentine’s last week. The kids were very creative with their valentine artwork and they were so excited to share their valentines with their friends. Their happy little hearts brought so much joy to our celebration. We can’t believe how far they have come this year. We have been spending quite a bit of time talking about friendship, kindness and including everyone in our play in our classroom. Our big scholastic word for the week was “compliment”. Perhaps your child now knows what it means to pay someone a compliment. Thank you for any positive reinforcement that you do on your end regarding the topic of being a good friend at home.

Your child may mention that we have adopted an endangered species for our classroom. Our class picked the Tasmanian Devil. We now have a stuffed Tasmanian Devil to join the Polar Bear that we adopted last year. We hope to come up with a creative name for him this week. We have learned a few things about Tasmanian Devils. They come from Tasmania, Australia. They are nocturnal. And they are marsupials. We discussed the fact that they are endangered because of deforestation. We also talked about the term habitat as being an animals home. It’s always so exciting to see a child’s vocabulary grow.

This week we will have a shorter week with our curriculum plans due to the holiday on Monday and a fun filled day on Wednesday traveling to Governors State University to see the The Cat in the Hat!

Language Arts:

This week we will be reviewing letters Aa - Tt.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss:

This week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss birthday! We will read several versions of all his awesome books and learn more about Dr. Seuss the author. We will also create a craft of Thing One and Thing Two. Finally, we will enjoy our field trip The Cat in the Hat!

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities:

“Hooray for Friends!” We will review our leaflet online and complete a worksheet entitled Connect the Friends.

Important dates/information:

Monday, 2/18: NO SCHOOL, President’s Day

Wednesday, 2/20: The Cat in the Hat field trip (REMINDER: This is a regular class day for our full-day students 7:45am- 2:50pm. Half-day students will dismiss at approximately 12:15pm). Please pack one dry snack labeled with your child's name.

Thursday, 2/28: 1:30pm dismissal

Friday, 3/8: St. Baldrick’s Day, 11:50am dismissal, NO AFTERCARE

School Notes for the week of February 11th

*See Valentine Letter below

Language Arts:

This week we will be reviewing letter Tt. We will look at pictures and objects that begin with the letter t and the /t/ sound.

We will read “When Tilly Turtle Came to Tea”

Little Bears: We will make a tiger out of the letter t.

Big Bears: We will make the tiger craft along with practice sheet to write capital T and lowercase t.

Math:

Lesson 6.1 Exploring Measurement

Students will make direct comparisons of objects based on length and use measurement vocabulary ex. Bigger, taller, longer, smaller, and shorter

Read “Longer or Shorter” by Gloria Chen and watch Sid the Science Kid measurement video.

Little Bears: Longer shorter worksheet...figure out which pictures are shorter and color them yellow and which are longer ...color them blue.

Big Bears: Students will look at a book, lunchbox, crayon, pencil, string and eraser and predict how many cubes long it is. Then we will measure it with the cubes to see how many cubes it actually is!

Religion

On Valentine’s Day we express love! Jesus told us the most important commandment is love.

Little Bears: Distribute page 139. Have children tell how many people in the pictures need love. Ask what they could do to show love for those people. On page 140, have children circle the five hearts hidden… explain that hearts represent love. On page 141, have students make a Valentine for someone special.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament 8, The Greatest Gift, the Story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities:

“Hooray for Friends!” Look and discuss what good friends do...share a book, say thank you, help each other and have fun! Look at videos and games to help us understand what good friends do.

Happy Valentine’s Day

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 14. This will be a regular class scheduled day. Please send valentine cards with your child for their classmates. There are 20 students in our class. Due to food allergies and in keeping with the St. Barnabas Wellness policy, please do NOT send any candy or food products.

Along with passing Valentine’s, we will enjoy some fun Valentine Centers and songs. Our celebration will take place in the morning so that all of our Preschoolers can participate.

Schoolnotes Week of February 4

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Ss. We will read the story Seal’s Silly Sandwich and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ss. We will search for S’s in our classmates names. S is for stained glass. We will paint wax paper to make a stained glass craft to hang in our windows. Big Bears will make a stained glass craft and complete an Ss worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.4: We will learn about 3D figures such as cube, sphere, cone and cylinder. We will pass around and feel the 3D objects. We will listen to the story Cubes, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres by Tana Hoban. Please send your child to school with some 3D shapes from home in a paper bag with his/her name on it any day this week.

Little Bears: Roll a die with a 3D shape on it. Color the corresponding shape.

Big Bears: Cut and paste 3D shapes and glue them on the paper. Also, Thursday is the 100th day of school. Please send your child to school with a ziplock bag containing 100 small items such as cheerios, legos, etc.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 14: God Made Color. Listen to the story Ethan’s Green Day on Teacher Edition page 105. Talk about our favorite color. Look at page 59 and talk about the differences in the two pictures. Discuss the different colors of the liturgical calendar. On page 60, fill in the colors of the rainbow. Complete pages 61 and 62 using the beautiful colors God gave us.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament : Come to Me. Jesus and the Little Children.

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities: Talk about melting ice. See how long it takes for an ice cube to melt. Put pictures in order to show the sequence of ice melting.

Schoolnotes Week of January 28

*We are looking for a lunch helper for this Tuesday at 11am. so that we may celebrate Ms. Julia Reagan, 1/2 day aide in Mrs. Urchell's room. She has landed a full time job closer to home so we will be saying goodbye to her this week. She will be greatly missed. If anyone is available, please send an email. Thanks so much!!

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Rr. We will read the story Rosie Rabbit’s Radish and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Rr. Next, we will search for Rr’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Rr.

Little Bears: We will create a rocket craft.

Big Bears: We will create a rocket that will include putting numbers in order counting down from 10. We will also complete a letter Rr worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.3 Rectangle

In this lesson we will review shapes with an emphasis on rectangles.

We will watch “Rectangle song” by Have Fun Teaching and identify rectangles as having two short sides and 2 long sides.

Little Bears: We will create a skyline using different size rectangles.

Big Bears: We will create a Rectangle Robot using different size rectangles.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 13: God Made Light

In this lesson the children will be grateful to God for the gift of light. They will identify Jesus as light and know that Jesus had the power to heal. They will listen to the story of the healing of the blind man. We will learn that candles are used in church as God’s light.

Big Bears: New Testament bible story “The Man Who Couldn’t See”

Social Science/Scholastic Activity: “Slip Sliding on Ice”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn about what happens when water freezes. We will learn the meaning of vocabulary words like sliding, ice, frozen and slippery. We will play a game to differentiate between frozen and melting items. Finally, we will connect the dots to form a snowflake using numbers 1-10.

Important dates/reminders…

• Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins

Liturgy at 10:00a.m., Open House at 11:00a.m.

• Wednesday, January 30th. “The Cat in the Hat”permission form and fee are due
• Thursday, January 31st: 1:30p.m. dismissal

IMPORTANT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK DRESS AND EVENTS EACH DAY

Monday, 1/28: Celebrating Service: Students dress in pajamas (school-appropriate; no slippers/backless shoes or short shorts). Wheel of Wisdom assembly. Supporting our commitment to protect God’s creatures, class-rooms will vote on an endangered animal to adopt.

Tuesday, 1/29: Celebrating Students: Students wear the rainbow with a color assigned to each grade!

Preschool: red,

Kindergarten: pink, 1st: purple, 2nd: green, 3rd: red, 4th: yellow, 5th: black, 6th: orange, 7th: pink, 8th: blue. Bingo over PA move 10.

Wednesday, 1/30: Celebrating our Community: Students dress in Chicago or Beverly-themed clothing (school-appropriate).

All-School Mass. Community-related service activities for each grade.

Thursday, 1/31: Celebrating Vocations: Students dress as Super Heroes (school-appropriate, no masks please).

K-2 vocation-related activity& 3-8 vocational/career speaker panel.

Friday, 2/1: Celebrating Faculty & Staff: Students dress in school/college/spirit wear. Fun food for lunch. St. Rita band assembly.

Week of January 22

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Qq. We will look at pictures and feel things that begin with the /q/ sound.

Little Bears: We will have a q cut out and students will paint with q-tips.

Big Bears: Big bears will do the q-tip project along with tracing capital and lowercase q.

If you are ever on youtube, our students love the “sesame street letter of the day song.” you would type “sesame street letter q.” We sing it everyday for review and it’s a hit!

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 12 “God Made Air”

We are going to sit in a circle and breathe in and out. We will listen to our breaths. Explain how God gave us breath and life. His gift to us is the air we breathe.

Look at page 51. Discuss the pictures and look and what air and wind can do.

Page 53

Trace all the pictures on the page that require God’s air.

Big Bears: New Testament 5

Scholastic:

Slip and Sliding on the ice.

Discuss how ice is just frozen water. What can you do with ice?

Watch an interactive video and play scholastic games.

Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins. Liturgy at 10:00am. Open House at 11:00am.

Thursday, January 31st: 1:30pm. dismissal

School Notes Week of January 14

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Pp. We will read the story “The Pig’s Picnic” and look at things that begin with p. Both little bears and big bears will paint pasta and glue the pasta on to the letter P. In addition to that, Big Bears will also complete a p worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.2: Review the shape triangle and practice writing numbers 0-3. Listen to the story “Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes”. Pass around a “feely sock” which contains the shapes circle, square and triangle. See if the children can reach in and feel for the triangle.

Little Bears: Make a 3D triangle using popsicle sticks.

Big Bears: Color, cut and sort triangle shapes and glue them to the worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 11: God Made the Land. Talk about the different features of the land: mountains, rivers, hills and prairies. Discuss ways we can thank God for the gift of the earth, such as picking up garbage, planting flowers, etc. Discuss page 47 and talk about the ways the children are playing with the earth. Trace the path on pg. 48. Make a mobile of the earth on pg. 49.

Big Bears: NT: 4 Jesus and The Man Who Couldn’t Walk. Listen to the story and illustrate the picture.

Scholastic: Talk about the arctic. Name some arctic animals. Review the term “habitat” and define it as a place where animals live. Complete snowflake shapes worksheet.

Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins. Liturgy at 10:00am. Open House at 11:00am.

Thursday, January 31st: 1:30pm. dismissal

School Notes for week of January 7th

Thank you all so much for your extremely generous Christmas gifts. We are truly grateful and so very blessed to have each and every one of you, and your children, in our lives.

Here's what's happening this week:

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Oo. We will read the story Olive the Octopus’ Day of Juggling and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Oo. We will learn that the letter /o/ has a short and long sound. Next, we will search for Oo’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Oo.

Little Bears: We will create a letter O octopus craft.

Big Bears: We will create a letter O octopus craft as well as complete a letter Oo worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.1 Circle and Square

In this lesson we will identify circles and squares and their attributes. We will discuss how these shapes have sides and corners or are round and curved. We will also listen to the story Circles and Squares Everywhere! by Max Grover.

Little Bears: We will create a snowman out of circles and squares.

Big Bears: We will also create a snowman out of circles and squares.The Big Bears snowman will involve more cutting and more detail.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 10: God Made Food

In this lesson the children will be grateful for the food God gives us. We will talk about food and the experience of sharing meals. We will learn why we need food and why it’s important to eat good food. We will read the story Feed the Baby. On pg. 41 we will discuss what food comes from each plant and animal pictured. On pg. 42 we will learn that people celebrate special occasions by sharing meals similar to when God’s people go to church to share a meal.

Big Bears: New Testament “Follow Me” The Story of Jesus’ Twelve Helpers

Social Science/Scholastic Activity: “Home in the Cold”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn about what it’s like for polar bears to live in the Arctic. We will discover that a habitat is a place where animals live. Our video will teach us what other animals live in the Arctic. Finally, we will test our knowledge by playing a game to see if we remember which animals live in the Arctic.

****We are looking for a lunch duty volunteer for this Thursday, January 10 to allow time for us to celebrate the birthday of our very own, amazing Mrs. Roberts!! If you are available, please send me an email.

Important dates/reminders…

Tuesday, January 8th: School Resumes for Students

• Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins

Liturgy at 10:00a.m., Open House at 11:00a.m.

• Thursday, January 31st: 1:30p.m. dismissal.

Week of December 17

This week we will focus on pageant rehearsal, polar express activities, and religion lessons pertaining to the story of The First Christmas. Please note the following important information:

Pageant Costumes went home last week. Please check to see if it needs ironing or spot cleaning prior to Tuesday's pageant. After the pageant, if you could please be so kind as to wash the costume on a gentle cycle and hang dry it, we would so greatly appreciate it. Please return costumes and accessories in a bag with your child’s name on it, by Friday, December 21st. Thanks so much!

Tuesday, 12/18 Preschool Pageant: Preschool children come to school dressed in pageant costume. The pageant will be performed for the students in the main building at 10:00am. **All preschool students will dismiss at 10:50am that day**

At 6:45pm on the evening of 12/18, please bring your child to the church dressed in his or her costume. The evening performance will begin promptly at 7:00pm.

Wednesday, 12/19 Polar Express Day: Children wear their pajamas to school and watch The Polar Express Movie and participate in polar express activities.

Friday, 12/21: Early dismissal for all students in both buildings. 9:50am for preschool children and 10:00 for main building. There is no aftercare.

Tuesday, January 8^h: We return from Christmas break

When deciding where to sit for the Preschool Pageant Mrs. Urchell’s class is on the left side of the altar when you are facing the altar. Mrs. O’Keefe and Mrs. O’Hara’s class, (with the exception of King Herod -Luke Waldron) are to the right.

The first half of the year flew by! Thank you for sharing the gift of your child(ren) with us. It has been a rewarding time. We hope you all enjoy some quality time with your families and we wish you all a very joyful Christmas!!

Week of December 10th

Language Arts: Students will learn about the letter Nn. We will look at pictures and things that begin with the /n/ sound. We will watch the sesame street youtube video with Ricky Gervais and Elmo all about the letter Nn. The kids love this video and think it so funny. Little Bears: We are going to work on a lowercase n project (n for night night). Big Bears will do the project and a letter n worksheet to follow up on our sounds and our writing.

Math: This week we will continue to talk about patterns. If you would like to have your child wear a shirt, pants, or any other item of clothing to show off a pattern, we would love to see it! Patterns are more than just seeing though! Music has patterns, animals have patterns! We will discuss patterns we see and hear and we will read the book “Lots of Zebra Stripes” Little Bears will make an AB pattern with bingo dabbers. Big Bears will make an AB and AAB pattern.

Scholastic: Gingerbread Time! Learn how to make a Gingerbread Cookie! What are the steps? What kitchen tools do you need? We will also listen to the story The Gingerbread Girl and play an online game.

Religion: We are busy practicing for the Christmas Pageant which will be held on Tuesday, December 18 at 7pm in the church. You should have received information regarding your child's role and costume needs if any. Please email me if you have any questions.

Little Bears: Special Lesson 2 “Advent” We are preparing for the birth of baby Jesus. Little Bears: Discuss worksheet 117: Mary and Joseph waited months to have baby Jesus. What do you think they did to get ready for him? What are we doing now to get ready for Christmas? How can we show Jesus we love him? Page 118-Color the pieces that have a star. What is it? Discuss how we give people gifts to show we love them. Big Bears: New Testament 1: Jesus is born.

Week of December 3

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Mm. We will listen to stories and look at objects that begin with the letter Mm. Both Big Bears and Little Bears will roll a marble in paint to make “Marble Art M’. Big Bears will also complete a letter identification Mm worksheet and color all of the upper case and lower case Ms.

Math: Lesson 4.1: Copy a pattern. We will explore movement patterns such as sit, stand, clap, repeat; shake, shake, tap your knees, etc. We will listen to the story Pattern Fish by Trudi Harris and watch a short youtube video on patterns: We see patterns everywhere by complabteacher. Use cubes to copy a pattern that the teacher has made. Make necklaces with beads and yarns using patterns.

Religion: Due to last week’s snow day, we did not complete our Religion lesson. This week we will do the lesson that we had originally planned for last week. Little Bears will complete Chapter 9: God Made Water. In this lesson the children will appreciate the gift of water. They will associate water with life and know that water is used in the church. We will read the story The Five Raindrops. On page 38 we will discuss the various way we use water and connect each item to the form of water to which it corresponds. On pg. 39, the children will complete the picture by coloring the water blue. Both Little Bears and Big Bears will practice for the pageant.

Scholastic: Science and Social Studies with Clifford:Talk about animals that hibernate. Discuss where different animals hibernate. Make a nest for a hedgehog to hibernate in by using craft supplies.

School Notes for week of November 26th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ll. We will read the story The Lamb Who Loved to Laugh and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ll. We will search for Ll’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ll.

Little Bears: We will create a letter L ladybug craft.

Big Bears: We will create a letter L ladybug craft as well as complete a letter Ll worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 3.4 Ordinal Numbers. We will learn about ordinal words, first, second, third, fourth and fifth. Name the children in line and tell which position they are in; first, second or third. Place objects in order left to right and tell if they are first, second, third. We will also listen to the story 10 Little Rubber Ducks, by Eric Carle.

Little Bears: Color pumpkins in order, first, second and third.

Big Bears: Cut and paste words to indicate the position of pumpkins in a row.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 9: God Made Water. In this lesson the children will appreciate the gift of water. They will associate water with life and know that water is used in the church. We will read the story The Five Raindrops. On pg. 38 we will discuss the various way we use water and connect each item to the form of water to which it corresponds. On pg. 39 the children will complete the picture by coloring the water blue.

Big Bears: We will practice our lines and songs for the Pageant.

Social Science/Clifford Activity: “Go to Sleep, Hedgehog”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn what it means for an animal to take a deep winter sleep, or to hibernate. We will play a game finding places where animals hibernate. In the video we will learn that animals hibernate in a nest, mud, a den or an underground burrow.

Important Dates/Notes:

Tuesday, Dec. 18th: Preschool Pageant

10:00a.m. performance for school (dismissal @ 10:50a.m. for ALL Preschoolers)

7:00p.m. performance for families (arrive at church @ 6:45p.m. for evening performance)

Friday, Dec. 21st: dismissal @ 10:00a.m., NO AFTERCARE/ Christmas break begins!

Tuesday, Jan. 8th: classes resume

School Notes week of November 19

Religion: This week we will name and illustrate the things we are thankful for. We will thank God for all of the gifts he has given us.

Clifford Scholastic: We will watch a short video about Thanksgiving family traditions. We will discuss the term "tradition". We will complete a scholastic page showing food items and discuss the terms more and less.

Save the Date:

Our Preschool Christmas Pageant will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at 7pm in the church. Friends and family members are all invited. That day will be a half day for all preschool children. Preschool children will be dismissed at 10:50 that day. Big Bear students will have a speaking part (one or two lines only). Little Bear students will join in the singing and will be assigned non-speaking roles.

School Notes for week of November 12th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is letter Kk. We will look at picture cards and objects that begin with the /k/ sound. Discuss what a king is and does. Explain that king begins with /k/.

Big Bears: make a king out of the letter k and follow up with a /k/ beginning sound worksheet.

Little Bears: we will make a king out of the letter k.

Math: Hands on activities

“More About Position”

Objective: Place concrete objects in a specific locations and use position words to describe the location of objects. Ex. on, up, next to, inside of, outside of, in front of…

Big Bears: Big Bears will receive three blocks (red, yellow, and blue). Students will follow directions… “place the red cube on top of the yellow and blue cube.” Teachers will take pictures.

Little Bears: Little Bears will follow directions...stand next to the chair, go behind the chair, stand in front of the chair...teachers will take pics and post for parents to see.

Social Science/Clifford

Continue to talk about Turkeys! Review all the things turkeys can do...fan their tails, take dust baths, and peck for bugs in the dirt. Play turkey games!

We will talk about Veterans Day and recognize that men and women who served our country are honored on this day. We will read stories about veterans day as well.

Religion:

“God Made Music”

The students will know that song and music can praise God. We will pass out instruments and enjoy making music for our Lord.

Little Bears: Look at page 33. Discuss how the children are making music to praise God. How can we make music to praise God? Can we clap our hands? Use our voices?

Look at page 34 Look at David. He has a harp. A harp plays music. Listen to harp music on youtube. Draw strings on a harp.

Page 35 cut out the banner. Decorate it and wave it as we sing prayerful songs.

Big Bears: Listen to and illustrate the story of Jonah and the Whale Bible story #9.

Save the Date:

Our Preschool Christmas Pageant will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at 7pm in the church. Friends and family members are all invited. That day will be a half day for all preschool children. Preschool children will be dismissed at 10:50 that day. Big Bear students will have a speaking part (one or two lines only). Little Bear students will join in the singing and will be assigned non-speaking roles.

Week of November 5

Thanks again to all of the help with the Halloween Party. We had a great day! This week we will begin talking about the holiday of Thanksgiving and focusing on feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. Please continue to read to your child every day. Children who are read to are much more successful readers themselves.

Language Arts

Listen to a story about things that begin with letter Jj. Pass around objects that begin with the /j/ sound. Both Little Bears and Big Bears will make jello paint by mixing jello with water. We will paint the letter J with jello paint. We will do a science experiment called “jello explosion”. We will pour vinegar on blue jello and yellow jello, set them in the sensory bin, and watch them explode and see what happens.

Math

We will introduce position words: above, below, over, under, top, bottom, next to, beside. We will listen the story Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins in which Rosie the hen goes over, under and around things in order to avoid being caught by a fox. Watch the youtube video “Where’s the Monkey” by KidsTV123, and “Where Is It” by Maple Leaf Learning. We have also been practicing touch and count every day. Little Bears are working on touch and count 5 objects or more. Big bears 10 objects or more.

Little Bears: Cut and paste activities. Ie: put the scarecrow “on top of” the hill.

Big Bears: Cut and paste pictures. Ie: put the pumpkin “over” the door.

Religion

Little Bears: Ch. 7 God Made the Bible. We will learn that The Bible is God’s love letter to us and that The Bible is treated with respect and love. We will recognize that when God’s family meets in church to pray, someone reads stories from The Bible. Discuss workbook page 27 and The Bible Story “Jesus and the Little Children”. Discuss workbook page 28 and David and Goliath. Create a love letter from God and a prayer book using pages 31-33.

Big Bears: Old Testament 8: David and Goliath. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies:

Watch a short scholastic video about turkeys. Discover that turkeys are able to fan their tails, take dust baths, and peck for bugs in the dirt. Follow a turkey’s tracks to make a path from start to finish.

School Notes for week of October 28th

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Ii. We will learn that there are 2 sounds for the letter /i/. We will read the story Iguana on Ice and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ii. We will search for Ii’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ii.

Little Bears: put pictures of things that begin with the /i/ sound in the pocket chart.

Big Bears: Circle all the i’s you see on the i worksheet and practice writing capital and lowercase Ii.

Math: Lesson 3.1 Left and Right

Read: Left Hand RIght Hand by Janet Allison

Using our floor graph we will graph left hand and right hand paper cutouts. Each child will receive either a left or right hand and will match it to the proper column.

Little Bears: After folding a paper in half, we will paint a right hand on the right side of the paper and paint a left hand on the left side of the paper.

Big Bears: Using our left/right hand cut-outs we will match left/right objects on our worksheets.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 5: God Made My Church

The children will identify the Church as God’s family and learn that they belong to the Church. They will learn that Mary is Jesus’ mother. Pg.19 Look at the picture and discuss what a priest is. Does anyone know the name of priests at St. Barnabas? We will observe a picture of Mary, Jesus’ mother and discuss why she is important and relates to our mothers. Pg. 20 Color in the hearts that show children being loving like Jesus.

Big Bears: Old Testament # 7 Safe at Last! The Story of Moses and the Red Sea After reading the bible story illustrate a picture of Moses and his followers parting the sea.

On Wednesday, we will celebrate Halloween. Children may come in costume. We will have a party in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30 and then walk over to the church basement to listen to a Halloween storyteller. If any parents or little siblings would like to join us in the church basement, feel free!

Week of October 22nd

A big thank you to Mr. LaGiglia, father of Danny, for coming in and talking to us about fire safety. The kids really enjoyed it. Also thank you to Mrs. LaGiglia and all of the parents who helped with our day of service. The preschool kids made decorative turkeys to be delivered to the residents of Belhaven home.

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Hh. We will read stories and pass around objects that begin with the /h/ sound.

Little Bears: We will make a horse out of the letter Hh!

On Wednesday, be sure to wear a crazy hat because hat begins with H.

Big Bears: We will make a horse out of the letter Hh and we will have a letter “H” worksheet where we identify the picture that begins with “H.”

Math: Lesson 2.4 Identify and match numbers, and count objects up to ten.

Read “Moonbeam Bear’s Numbers” by Rolf Fanger and Ulrike Mohgen.

Little Bears: Play “Sticker Number Math”. Students will receive dot stickers with numbers written on them. Students will come up to the poster and place the correct sticker with the number that matches.

Follow up counting worksheet.

Big Bears: Big Bears will have manipulatives that they will have to count. We will practice our one-to one-correspondence. Ex. “Please hand me 8 bears.”

Follow up math counting/writing the number worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: page 23-look at the picture. What is this (a church), how do you know? Explain how a church is God’s house. We make church’s beautiful, because God lives there.

Page 24 Connect dots to finish the picture of things that belong in a church. Have you ever seen these before? Page 26. Cut out a church and glue it together.

Big Bears: New Testament 7 “Moses and the Burning Bush.” Explain what happens when Moses encounters this bush. Draw a picture.

Social Science/Clifford:

All about Pumpkins. Do you think a pumpkin can sink or float? Why? What is inside a pumpkin? Not all pumpkins look alike. What other colors have you seen besides an orange pumpkin? Discuss what Hollow means...vocabulary word of the week.

Special Announcements:

• This Wednesday wear a crazy hat. Hat begins with h.

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller. We will have a celebration in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30. We will then go to the church basement to have a special performance by a Halloween Storyteller at 9:45. Children may wear costumes. Weather permitting, we will go outside to watch grades K-4 walk by in the parade. With the colder weather upon us, we are requesting that you send in a warmer change of clothes with your child in case of a potty accident, or a spill. Many of the children have shorts to change into and that will not be suitable in this weather. Also, please know that we will go outside to play every day provided it is 32° or above. Please send your child with hats and mittens in the cold weather. Also, with the cooler weather we no longer see a need for the children to bring water bottles. There's a water fountain here and they are welcome to get drinks as needed. In addition to this information, please know that if you have not yet sent in money for fun food, it is due tomorrow.

Week of October 15

Language Arts: Letter Gg. We will read stories and pass around objects that begin with the letter Gg. Watch The Letter Gg song by Miss Molly on youtube.

Little Bears: Make a G is for giraffe craft.

Big Bears: Make a giraffe craft and also do a Gg worksheet.

Math: Lesson 2.3: Counting Objects. Practice counting up to 5 objects using manipulatives. Touch and count each object in the set of objects. Some children may even be able to count 10 or more objects!

Little Bears: Children will be given a bin of manipulatives. The teacher will write a number from 0-5 on the board. The children will count out that many objects. Teachers will take pictures.

Big Bears: Complete a worksheet that requires counting out cubes from 1-5. Children who have mastered this may count higher using a gumball machine game.

Religion:

Little Bears: Halloween and the Feast of All Saints. Recognize that Halloween is connected to a church holiday; the eve before All Saints Day. Recognize that Saints are people who followed Jesus and acted like him. Listen to the story of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Color a pumpkin to represent Halloween. Make a crown to remind us to be like the Saints.

Big Bears: New Testament 6: Listen to and illustrate the story of Moses and the Burning Bush.

Social Studies with Clifford: October is fire safety month. We will have a visit from a firefighter!! Mr. LaGiglia, Danny’s dad, will come speak to us on Thursday about fire safety. We will also talk about some of the equipment that firefighters use and complete a coloring sheet.

Reminders and Notes:

Friday, October 19th: All School Service Day. Preschool dismissal: ½ day-10:50a.m., full-day- 11:40a.m.

**full-day students please bring 1 snack and a lunch.

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller. We will have a celebration in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30. We will then go to the church basement to have a special performance by a Halloween Storyteller at 9:45.

Week of October 8th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ff. We will read the story Fifi Ferret’s Flute and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ff. We will search for Ff’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ff.

Little Bears: Little Bears will create a French Fry craft

Big Bears: Big Bears will glue felt onto a large letter F

Math:

Lesson 2.2 More, Fewer, Same

This week we will continue to learn about number concepts and introduce “more” and “less”. We will read the story “More and Less” by Judy Nayer and watch a short youtube video about more and less.

Little Bears: complete a worksheet by circling the object that have more

Big Bears: complete a worksheet by graphing numbers and then circle which graph has more

Social Science/Clifford Activity: “Let’s Have A Fire Drill”

This issue focuses on Fire Safety. We will learn the difference between a fire and a fire drill. Then we will learn the steps to practicing a fire drill. We will take a look at a fireman’s gear and recognize through our video the 4 steps to being fire safe.

Important Reminders

Friday, October 19th: All School Service Day. Preschool dismissal: ½ day-10:50a.m., full-day- 11:40a.m.

**full-day students please bring 1 snack and a lunch

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller, details to follow

Week of October 1st

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ee. We will listen to the story “Elmer”, by David McKee. It is a story about a patchwork elephant. We will look at pictures and objects that begin with the /e/ sound.

Little Bears: Little Bears will have fun decorating Elmer the elephant.

Big Bears: Big Bears will look at pictures and tell me if it begins with the /e/ sound. If it does, they will write the letter e, under the picture.

Religion:

Little Bears: Identify that the church is God’s family. We will discuss how we have families at home, and how we also belong to a bigger family, “the church.” Look at page 19, and discuss where the people are and what you think they are doing. Page 20, students will color the heart next to each child who is loving like Jesus. On page 21 cut and glue the pictures of Mary and the other church members in the matching spaces.

Big Bears: New Testament #5 “Two coats for Joseph” discuss how Joseph received a beautiful coat and his brothers got upset. What can we do when we get jealous of someone else’s things? Can we forgive like Joseph?

Math:

Lesson 2.1 Use concrete objects to demonstrate one to one correspondence.

Little Bears: Little Bears will use bingo dabbbers to dab on a “gumball machine” paper. Students will identify numbers 1-5 and dot one gumball for number 1, two gumball dots for number 2, and so on.

Big Bears: Big Bears will look at the numbers on the apple baskets. The numbers are out of order. Students will have to identify the number, dab their finger in paint and put the correct amount of apples near the baskets.

Important Reminders

The field trip is Tuesday, October 2nd. Please bring a bag lunch with disposable water or juice. We will be leaving our building at 8:30 and arrive back at school at 12:30. Half day kids will be dismissed at 12:30.

Please dress appropriately for the weather.

Parent teacher conferences are Wednesday, October 3rd, and Thursday, October 4th. On Thursday, students will be dismissed at 11:40. Parent teacher conferences will be held in the library. Each conference is 10 minutes, so please come on time. Thank you!!

Week of September 24

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Dd. We will listen to the story “If You Give a Dog a Doughnut” by Laura Joyce Neumeroff, and look at objects that begin with the /d/ sound. We will sing a song about things that begin with letter d. We will look at our name cards to see if there is a Dd in our name.

Little Bears will make a yummy looking doughnut craft.

Big Bears will identify letter Dd on a worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 4: God made my helpers. Talk to children about the fact that they are helped by others every day. Name some of the people that help them each day, such as parents,teachers, doctors, nurses, siblings, crossing guards, etc. During free play, pretend to be a doctor or nurse and help take care of patients. Identify people on page 15 and 16 who are helpers. Make a trophy card on page 17 and 18 for someone who has been a helper to you.

Big Bears: New Testament 4: Listen to the story of Noah’s Ark. Illustrate a picture of Noah’s Ark for the Bible that will come home at the end of the year.

Math: Lesson 1.4 Sort by size. Watch a short youtube video, “sort by size by kids academy”. Listen to the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and identify the small, medium and large bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds. Play a game in which we sort small, medium and large things.

Little Bears: Sort manipulatives and objects by size.

Big Bears: Cut, sort and paste pictures of small, medium and large bowls of porridge, chairs and beds.

Social Studies and Science: More about apples. We will examine apples and discover that they come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. We will weigh apples on a scale. We will even make and taste applesauce. Yum!! If you do not want your child to taste applesauce, please let us know.

Week of September 17th

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Cc. We will read the story Copycats and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Cc. We will search for Cc’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Cc.

Little Bears: We will watch a short video of the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and explain that caterpillar begins with c. We will create a caterpillar craft.

Big Bears: Complete a letter Cc worksheet. Practice forming the letter Cc and identifying the letter Cc.

Religion:

Little Bears: Lesson #3: “God Made My Friends”. The children will learn and discuss what a friend is, be grateful for their friends, learn that Jesus is a friend and discuss how to be a good friend to others. We will look at pg.11 as a group and point out ways the children are being good friends. We will listen to the story “The Two Yellow Friends” and find how Dizzy and Buttercup helped each other.

Big Bears: Listen to and illustrate the Bible Story New Testament #3. Disobedience: Adam and Eve make a bad choice.

Math: Lesson 1.3 Sort by Shape. We will sing the shape song and hold up a shape when we hear it’s name. We will then watch a short youtube video about shapes.

Little Bears: Sort precut circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and glue them on the appropriate spot.

Big Bears: Color, cut and sort circle, square, triangle and rectangle shapes.

Social Science/Clifford Activity:”Mmm, Mmm Apples!” This issue focuses on farming and harvest. We will read about picking apples from an orchard. In the video we will learn new vocabulary words like pip, blossom, ripe, and fruitlet. We will also discuss how apples are red, yellow or green and color them accordingly. We will sing an apple song and finally, we will play a fun game in which we will sort apples by color, size and number of seeds.

Some reminders/ important dates…

· If you are available to do lunch duty from 11:00 until 11:30 any day(s) during the school year, please send us an email. Half-day parents and their children are also welcome to do lunch duty. We would greatly appreciate any volunteers.

· School pictures are on Monday, September 17^th

· 1:30p.m. Dismissal, Thursday, September 27th

Week of September 10th

Language Arts: Students will learn all about letter Bb. As a whole group, we will identify the capital B and the lowercase b. We will pass around objects that begin with the /b/ sound. We will identify picture cards that begin with the /b/ sound. We will read the letter Bb book.

Little Bears: We will sing “The Wheels on the Bus” and explain that bus begins with b. We will make a bus art project.

Big Bears: We will look at pictures of objects...some begin with the /b/ sound, and some do not. We will circle all the pictures that begin with b.

On Tuesday, In honor of 9-11, the entire school will be placing flags along the perimeter of the school. Children are encouraged to wear red, white and blue. Preschool will place their flags right outside our building. The children will listen to a heartfelt and touching story, via YouTube entitled, “September 12th: “We Knew Everything Would Be All Right”. The authors and illustrators are a 1st grade class from Masterson Elementary School in Missouri. This story tells that although horrific events occurred on September 11th, we are reminded that the world continued the next day. This is a difficult subject to explain to young children. This story sends the message of hope and reassurance.

Religion:

Little Bears: We will discuss how God Made each of our families. We will begin to understand how family members help one another, know that Jesus, Mary and Joseph are the Holy Family, and desire to show love and concern for their family members.

Students will look at the family on the paper and identify who they think each person is and what each person does to help the family. What do you do to help your family? Answers will be written on a poster.

Students will be able to draw their family members.

Look at “A Kitten’s Tale” and discuss what each family member is doing.

We are sending home a brown bag for our little bears. Please feel free to have your child decorate the bag and bring a family photo to share by Monday.

Big Bears: Bible Story “The Story of Creation” discussing the Garden of Eden and how beautiful it was. Discuss Adam and Eve (the first man and woman God created. Talk about how everyone from the people to the animals were so happy because God loved them.

Math: Lesson 1.2 Sort by Color

Students will listen to the story “A Color of His Own” by Leo Lionni about a chameleon who keeps changing his colors. Students will identify the colors on the page.

Little Bears: We will play a game with Uno cards. Students will take turns matching uno card colors. This is a hands on activity.

Big Bears: Students will receive a paper with the words green, red, yellow and blue. Each word will be colored ex. The word blue will be written in blue. Students will match the colored squares to the correct color on the paper.

Social Science/Clifford Activity:

Continue discussing what we do at school. Ex. We put our things in our cubbies, we eat snack…

Discuss how we get to school. Look at the worksheet. Students will color how they get to school. We will tally up our answers!

Week of September 3

Monday is Labor Day. There is no school.

Language Arts: Introduce the Letter Aa and words that begin with a. Name things that begin with A. Reread the story “The Teacher with the Alligator Purse”.

Little Bears: Make a capital A alligator.

Big Bears: Complete a worksheet: color the apple and find all of the capital A’s.

Math:

Alike and different: Discover likenesses and differences. Identify how objects are alike and how they are different. Have children come up and discuss how they are alike/different based on their clothing, their hair color, color of eyes, etc. Listen to the story “Stephanie’s Ponytail” about a girl who wants to be different.

Little Bears: Work in small groups to separate some toys from the kitchen area according to likeness and differences such as, things we can eat and things we can not eat. Look at cards from a deck and tell how they are alike, and how they are different.

Big Bears: In a row of pictures, color the objects that are alike. Try to color them the same to make them look alike.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 1: God Made Me. Recognize that God made people. Introduce The Bible and respect it as a Sacred Book. Play track 6 song: Come Together and teach the children the motions. Discuss the fact that we want to shine like a star for God. Print our names on stars. Put stars in the picture of the night sky.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament 1: God’s Colorful World. Listen to the story of creation and learn that God created everything.

*Please note that Religion work for Big bears will not come home on a weekly basis. The work is collected each week and saved at school to be sent home as a complete Bible at the end of the year.

Social Studies and Science: Hello School! Your child will bring home a paper leaflet from Scholastic titled “My Big World with Clifford” each week.

You can go online to www.letsfindout.scholastic.com to do the online activities at home with your child. There are videos to watch and online games to play. This week’s lesson focuses on ways to greet new friends such as saying hello, waving, smiling, shaking hands or giving a high five. We will also talk about and identify things we might find in our classroom.

Some reminders/ important dates…

· There is No school on Monday, September 3rd in honor of Labor Day

· Back to School Night, Thursday, September 6^th, 7p.m.

· Please send (2) small snacks for full-day children, (1) small snack for ½ day children each day. Remember to be mindful of our no nuts allowed policy. Please write your child’s name on each snack with permanent marker.

· Send (1) small individual picture of your child for their cubby

· Send in any forms from the Orientation Day

· Send a folder in your child’s backpack each day

· Scholastic book orders are due September 12th^th

· If your daughter wears a dress to school, please have her wear shorts underneath.

· Full-day students please bring a lunch each day. The Hot Lunch program is not available to Preschool students.

· If you are available to do lunch duty from 11:00am until 11:30 any day(s) during the school year, please send us an email. We would greatly appreciate any volunteers.

· Parents of full day students please send your bedding on Tuesday as we will be using it during rest time.

Week of August 27th

Welcome to our Preschool Class. We are looking forward to a great year!! A first school experience can be overwhelming for not just the children but the parents as well. Please know that we are here for you to help you navigate your way through your first school experience!

This week in Preschool, we will be adjusting to new routines and procedures, learning classroom rules, learning where everything in the classroom goes, getting to know our new friends and teachers, and exploring our classroom. Also this week we will introduce an “All About Me” theme to become better acquainted with our new friends.

On Tuesday, look for a brown bag to come home with instructions on what to put inside. Please return it on Thursday. We will decorate the first letter in our names. We will read many new books this week including “The Teacher with the Alligator Purse” and “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar”. We will sing the name song: “names names are not the same, tell us what’s your name”. We will even have the chance to do some watercolor painting.

Beginning next week during our instructional lessons we will be grouping the children by age. We will refer to the children that entered Preschool as a 3 year-old as “The Little Bears”. The children that began Preschool as a 4 year-old will be referred to as “The Big Bears”.

If you have not done so already, please send:

· One small individual picture of your child for their cubby

· Any forms from orientation day or information Sunday

· A folder for your child’s backpack each day

Please note the following:

• Due to allergies, please do not send nut products to Preschool.
• Scholastic book orders will be sent home this week. If you wish to order books from Scholastic you may do so online. Please use the classroom code, MCJJW and we will get points to purchase books for our classroom. Online orders are due September 12^th.
• Milk will be available to students within the next few weeks but the Hot Lunch program is not available to Preschool students.
• Please join our Facebook page, St Barnabas Preschool Page, to see what we are up to in Preschool. It’s a fun way to stay connected.

SPECIALS SCHEDULE

Monday: Media

Tuesday: Art

Wednesday: Music

Thursday: Spanish

Friday: Gym

Following are the names of the children in our class:

Adeline Anisko, Clare Berry, Skylar Cadichon, Nicole Cerrentano, Emmett Conley, Eleanor Dreznes, Gavin Groth, Lily Gruszeczki, Lucy Hohenadel, Danny LaGiglia, Lucas Ledesma, Emily Lyon, Kylie Pando, Viktor Pennix, Colin Prendergast, Will Rao, Marquis Spencer, Mila Sutalo, Luke Waldron

Please know that we welcome your feedback and are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Mrs. Karen O’Hara

Mrs. Lauren Roberts

Google Site Week of March 18

Finally some Spring Weather!! I hope you all enjoyed your St. Paddy's day weekend. We were fortunate enough to take a trip to the park one afternoon last week and are hoping for a few more this week. Please have your child dress appropriately as it can be chilly walking to the park but we do love to get outside. Here is a look at the week ahead:

Language Arts: We are focusing on the letter Ww this week. We will look at picture cards and objects that begin with the /w/ sound. We will watch a Sesame Street podcast all about the letter Ww.

Big Bears: Worm project and writing letter Ww practice sheet.

Little Bears: Worm project.

Math: lesson 7.1 Compare sets of concrete objects using the terms less than and more than. Read the story “Five Little Ducks.” Ask the students if they notice anything about the ducks. The mom started off with 5 but the number keeps changing. Does she have less ducks or more ducks as the story goes on? How do you know?

Little Bears: With teacher guidance, roll a die and see what number you get. Build a block set of the number you rolled. Roll a second time and build a block set using that number. Which number is bigger? Which is smaller? How can you tell by looking at the blocks?

Big Bears: Pull two dominos and count how many dots are on each. Which number is bigger? Smaller? How do you know? Students can also use blocks to have a visual reference in comparing numbers in dominos.

Religion: Chapter 17 “God Made Trees”. The children will know God made trees, and appreciate the many uses of trees. Look at page 71. How are children enjoying the trees? Ex. Picking apples from a tree, playing in a tree house.

Page 72- Find objects hidden in trees.

Page 73-Add leaves to the trees with crayons or markers. Praise God for all the beauty in trees.

Social Studies/Science/Clifford

Continue reading about “Are You My Mother?” Baby animals do not always look exactly like the parents. How do they look different?

Little Bears: Animal worksheet- Look at the number on the parent animal and circle that amount of babies.

Big Bears: “A Chick Grows Up.” Cut out the pictures at the bottom of the page and paste them in the correct order.

Google Site Week of March 11

We have been enjoying the “Preschool Pizza Parlor” in our dramatic play area for the last couple of weeks. The kids have enjoyed wearing aprons, serving their friends pizza and pasta and acting as cooks, waiters and waitress. They are practicing their writing skills while writing down the ingredients requested on pizza orders. It has been great fun! Another highlight of last week was learning the letter V and making a simple volcano in our sensory bin by mixing baking soda and vinegar. Here’s a look at the week ahead:

Language Arts: We will review letters. Match upper and lower-case letters and practice naming words that begin with each letter.

Math: Lesson 6.4: Exploring time. We will listen to the story “Boom Chicka Rock” by John Archambault. We will talk about sequence of events; first, next, last.

Little Bears: Complete a sequence page: How to grow vegetables.

Big Bears: Complete a sequence page: How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Religion:

Focus on Lent. Both Little Bears and Big Bears: Explain that the word “Lent” comes from an old English word meaning Spring time. Teach children that we follow Jesus when we show love to others. Talk about the ways that people show love. Name some good things we can do to prepare for Easter. Sing the song “God is so good”.

Little Bears: will complete pages 125-127. Also talk about St. Patrick as being the patron Saint of Ireland.

Big Bears: Color a face with ashes on the forehead to symbolize Ash Wednesday.

Science and Social Studies with Clifford: Are You My Mother? Talk about the fact that baby animals do not always look like their parents. Learn the names of various baby animals. Watch a short video about animal babies. Match mother animals to the pictures of their babies.

As always, if there is any day that you would like to volunteer for lunch duty, please send me an email.

Thanks and let’s have a great week!

Google site Week of March 4th

Language Arts:

The Letter of the Week is Vv. We will read the story Vera Viper’s Valentine and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Vv. We will search for Vv’s in our classmates names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Vv.

Little Bears: We will make a vine craft using the letter V.

Big Bears: We will make a vine craft and complete a worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 6.3: Explore Weight

We will compare objects to see which are heavier and which are lighter. We will measure classroom items on a balancing scale to identify heavier and lighter objects. We will also watch a short video called Patrick and Friends: Heavy and Light.

Little Bears: We play a game using weighing objects with a scale to determine the weight: more or less. Next we will complete a worksheet on these concepts.

Big Bears: We will complete a worksheet determining which object weighs more or less.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 16: God Made Flowers

In this lesson we will learn that God created flowers. We use flowers to decorate the church and they enhance church celebrations. We reflect on the beauty and fragrances of flowers. We learn that the lily is associated with Easter and the pointsetta with Christmas. Pg.68 -circle the flower that is different. Pg.69 -create a basket of flowers to give to someone you love.

Big Bears: Bible Story 10: Jesus and the Little Boy. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies Scholastic with Clifford: Animal Smiles

As a follow-up from our leaflet last week, we will complete a worksheet entitled Crocodile Smiles. It will review numbers 1-6. We will also watch the video “How to Have a Healthy Smile” and talk about proper teeth brushing.

Next Friday, March 8 is St. Baldrick's Day. Preschool will dismiss at 11:40. Main building will dismiss at 11:50. There is no aftercare that day. See link below:

https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/6053/2019

Schoolnotes Week of February 25

Language Arts:

The Letter of the Week is Uu. We will pass around objects that begin with the letter U and read the story Umbrellabird’s Umbrella. Little Bears and Big Bears will make a unicorn craft. Big Bears will also complete a worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 6.2. We will continue our unit on measuring. We will put objects in order from smallest to largest. We will watch a short youtube video called small, medium, large/ sizes for kids by ESL.

We will compare objects and discuss the sizes as being smaller of larger.

Little Bears will glue three squares: small, medium and large.

Big Bears will circle the biggest item and x the smallest item on a worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 15: God Made Weather. We will describe the way the trees look on page 63 and discuss the various weather shown. We will discuss that God made different types of weather; sun to help things grow, clouds for protection from sun rays, rain for plants, lakes, rivers, etc. On Pg. 64 we will match weather to appropriate clothing. On Pg. 65 we will make a weather wheel.

Big Bears: Bible Story 9: Jesus and the Little Girl. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies Scholastic with Clifford: Animal Smiles. February is dental health month. We will talk about different animals and describe their teeth. We will talk about ways that we care for our teeth. We will play an online game and color the back of our scholastic booklets by using the number key to color the toothbrushes.

School Notes for the week of February 17th

We had such fun celebrating Valentine’s last week. The kids were very creative with their valentine artwork and they were so excited to share their valentines with their friends. Their happy little hearts brought so much joy to our celebration. We can’t believe how far they have come this year. We have been spending quite a bit of time talking about friendship, kindness and including everyone in our play in our classroom. Our big scholastic word for the week was “compliment”. Perhaps your child now knows what it means to pay someone a compliment. Thank you for any positive reinforcement that you do on your end regarding the topic of being a good friend at home.

Your child may mention that we have adopted an endangered species for our classroom. Our class picked the Tasmanian Devil. We now have a stuffed Tasmanian Devil to join the Polar Bear that we adopted last year. We hope to come up with a creative name for him this week. We have learned a few things about Tasmanian Devils. They come from Tasmania, Australia. They are nocturnal. And they are marsupials. We discussed the fact that they are endangered because of deforestation. We also talked about the term habitat as being an animals home. It’s always so exciting to see a child’s vocabulary grow.

This week we will have a shorter week with our curriculum plans due to the holiday on Monday and a fun filled day on Wednesday traveling to Governors State University to see the The Cat in the Hat!

Language Arts:

This week we will be reviewing letters Aa - Tt.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss:

This week we will be celebrating Dr. Seuss birthday! We will read several versions of all his awesome books and learn more about Dr. Seuss the author. We will also create a craft of Thing One and Thing Two. Finally, we will enjoy our field trip The Cat in the Hat!

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities:

“Hooray for Friends!” We will review our leaflet online and complete a worksheet entitled Connect the Friends.

Important dates/information:

Monday, 2/18: NO SCHOOL, President’s Day

Wednesday, 2/20: The Cat in the Hat field trip (REMINDER: This is a regular class day for our full-day students 7:45am- 2:50pm. Half-day students will dismiss at approximately 12:15pm). Please pack one dry snack labeled with your child's name.

Thursday, 2/28: 1:30pm dismissal

Friday, 3/8: St. Baldrick’s Day, 11:50am dismissal, NO AFTERCARE

School Notes for the week of February 11th

*See Valentine Letter below

Language Arts:

This week we will be reviewing letter Tt. We will look at pictures and objects that begin with the letter t and the /t/ sound.

We will read “When Tilly Turtle Came to Tea”

Little Bears: We will make a tiger out of the letter t.

Big Bears: We will make the tiger craft along with practice sheet to write capital T and lowercase t.

Math:

Lesson 6.1 Exploring Measurement

Students will make direct comparisons of objects based on length and use measurement vocabulary ex. Bigger, taller, longer, smaller, and shorter

Read “Longer or Shorter” by Gloria Chen and watch Sid the Science Kid measurement video.

Little Bears: Longer shorter worksheet...figure out which pictures are shorter and color them yellow and which are longer ...color them blue.

Big Bears: Students will look at a book, lunchbox, crayon, pencil, string and eraser and predict how many cubes long it is. Then we will measure it with the cubes to see how many cubes it actually is!

Religion

On Valentine’s Day we express love! Jesus told us the most important commandment is love.

Little Bears: Distribute page 139. Have children tell how many people in the pictures need love. Ask what they could do to show love for those people. On page 140, have children circle the five hearts hidden… explain that hearts represent love. On page 141, have students make a Valentine for someone special.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament 8, The Greatest Gift, the Story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities:

“Hooray for Friends!” Look and discuss what good friends do...share a book, say thank you, help each other and have fun! Look at videos and games to help us understand what good friends do.

Happy Valentine’s Day

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 14. This will be a regular class scheduled day. Please send valentine cards with your child for their classmates. There are 20 students in our class. Due to food allergies and in keeping with the St. Barnabas Wellness policy, please do NOT send any candy or food products.

Along with passing Valentine’s, we will enjoy some fun Valentine Centers and songs. Our celebration will take place in the morning so that all of our Preschoolers can participate.

Schoolnotes Week of February 4

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Ss. We will read the story Seal’s Silly Sandwich and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ss. We will search for S’s in our classmates names. S is for stained glass. We will paint wax paper to make a stained glass craft to hang in our windows. Big Bears will make a stained glass craft and complete an Ss worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.4: We will learn about 3D figures such as cube, sphere, cone and cylinder. We will pass around and feel the 3D objects. We will listen to the story Cubes, Cones, Cylinders and Spheres by Tana Hoban. Please send your child to school with some 3D shapes from home in a paper bag with his/her name on it any day this week.

Little Bears: Roll a die with a 3D shape on it. Color the corresponding shape.

Big Bears: Cut and paste 3D shapes and glue them on the paper. Also, Thursday is the 100th day of school. Please send your child to school with a ziplock bag containing 100 small items such as cheerios, legos, etc.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 14: God Made Color. Listen to the story Ethan’s Green Day on Teacher Edition page 105. Talk about our favorite color. Look at page 59 and talk about the differences in the two pictures. Discuss the different colors of the liturgical calendar. On page 60, fill in the colors of the rainbow. Complete pages 61 and 62 using the beautiful colors God gave us.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament : Come to Me. Jesus and the Little Children.

Social Studies and Science/Clifford Activities: Talk about melting ice. See how long it takes for an ice cube to melt. Put pictures in order to show the sequence of ice melting.

Schoolnotes Week of January 28

*We are looking for a lunch helper for this Tuesday at 11am. so that we may celebrate Ms. Julia Reagan, 1/2 day aide in Mrs. Urchell's room. She has landed a full time job closer to home so we will be saying goodbye to her this week. She will be greatly missed. If anyone is available, please send an email. Thanks so much!!

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Rr. We will read the story Rosie Rabbit’s Radish and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Rr. Next, we will search for Rr’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Rr.

Little Bears: We will create a rocket craft.

Big Bears: We will create a rocket that will include putting numbers in order counting down from 10. We will also complete a letter Rr worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.3 Rectangle

In this lesson we will review shapes with an emphasis on rectangles.

We will watch “Rectangle song” by Have Fun Teaching and identify rectangles as having two short sides and 2 long sides.

Little Bears: We will create a skyline using different size rectangles.

Big Bears: We will create a Rectangle Robot using different size rectangles.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 13: God Made Light

In this lesson the children will be grateful to God for the gift of light. They will identify Jesus as light and know that Jesus had the power to heal. They will listen to the story of the healing of the blind man. We will learn that candles are used in church as God’s light.

Big Bears: New Testament bible story “The Man Who Couldn’t See”

Social Science/Scholastic Activity: “Slip Sliding on Ice”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn about what happens when water freezes. We will learn the meaning of vocabulary words like sliding, ice, frozen and slippery. We will play a game to differentiate between frozen and melting items. Finally, we will connect the dots to form a snowflake using numbers 1-10.

Important dates/reminders…

• Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins

Liturgy at 10:00a.m., Open House at 11:00a.m.

• Wednesday, January 30th. “The Cat in the Hat”permission form and fee are due
• Thursday, January 31st: 1:30p.m. dismissal

IMPORTANT CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK DRESS AND EVENTS EACH DAY

Monday, 1/28: Celebrating Service: Students dress in pajamas (school-appropriate; no slippers/backless shoes or short shorts). Wheel of Wisdom assembly. Supporting our commitment to protect God’s creatures, class-rooms will vote on an endangered animal to adopt.

Tuesday, 1/29: Celebrating Students: Students wear the rainbow with a color assigned to each grade!

Preschool: red,

Kindergarten: pink, 1st: purple, 2nd: green, 3rd: red, 4th: yellow, 5th: black, 6th: orange, 7th: pink, 8th: blue. Bingo over PA move 10.

Wednesday, 1/30: Celebrating our Community: Students dress in Chicago or Beverly-themed clothing (school-appropriate).

All-School Mass. Community-related service activities for each grade.

Thursday, 1/31: Celebrating Vocations: Students dress as Super Heroes (school-appropriate, no masks please).

K-2 vocation-related activity& 3-8 vocational/career speaker panel.

Friday, 2/1: Celebrating Faculty & Staff: Students dress in school/college/spirit wear. Fun food for lunch. St. Rita band assembly.

Week of January 22

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Qq. We will look at pictures and feel things that begin with the /q/ sound.

Little Bears: We will have a q cut out and students will paint with q-tips.

Big Bears: Big bears will do the q-tip project along with tracing capital and lowercase q.

If you are ever on youtube, our students love the “sesame street letter of the day song.” you would type “sesame street letter q.” We sing it everyday for review and it’s a hit!

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 12 “God Made Air”

We are going to sit in a circle and breathe in and out. We will listen to our breaths. Explain how God gave us breath and life. His gift to us is the air we breathe.

Look at page 51. Discuss the pictures and look and what air and wind can do.

Page 53

Trace all the pictures on the page that require God’s air.

Big Bears: New Testament 5

Scholastic:

Slip and Sliding on the ice.

Discuss how ice is just frozen water. What can you do with ice?

Watch an interactive video and play scholastic games.

Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins. Liturgy at 10:00am. Open House at 11:00am.

Thursday, January 31st: 1:30pm. dismissal

School Notes Week of January 14

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Pp. We will read the story “The Pig’s Picnic” and look at things that begin with p. Both little bears and big bears will paint pasta and glue the pasta on to the letter P. In addition to that, Big Bears will also complete a p worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.2: Review the shape triangle and practice writing numbers 0-3. Listen to the story “Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes”. Pass around a “feely sock” which contains the shapes circle, square and triangle. See if the children can reach in and feel for the triangle.

Little Bears: Make a 3D triangle using popsicle sticks.

Big Bears: Color, cut and sort triangle shapes and glue them to the worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 11: God Made the Land. Talk about the different features of the land: mountains, rivers, hills and prairies. Discuss ways we can thank God for the gift of the earth, such as picking up garbage, planting flowers, etc. Discuss page 47 and talk about the ways the children are playing with the earth. Trace the path on pg. 48. Make a mobile of the earth on pg. 49.

Big Bears: NT: 4 Jesus and The Man Who Couldn’t Walk. Listen to the story and illustrate the picture.

Scholastic: Talk about the arctic. Name some arctic animals. Review the term “habitat” and define it as a place where animals live. Complete snowflake shapes worksheet.

Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins. Liturgy at 10:00am. Open House at 11:00am.

Thursday, January 31st: 1:30pm. dismissal

School Notes for week of January 7th

Thank you all so much for your extremely generous Christmas gifts. We are truly grateful and so very blessed to have each and every one of you, and your children, in our lives.

Here's what's happening this week:

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Oo. We will read the story Olive the Octopus’ Day of Juggling and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Oo. We will learn that the letter /o/ has a short and long sound. Next, we will search for Oo’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Oo.

Little Bears: We will create a letter O octopus craft.

Big Bears: We will create a letter O octopus craft as well as complete a letter Oo worksheet.

Math: Lesson 5.1 Circle and Square

In this lesson we will identify circles and squares and their attributes. We will discuss how these shapes have sides and corners or are round and curved. We will also listen to the story Circles and Squares Everywhere! by Max Grover.

Little Bears: We will create a snowman out of circles and squares.

Big Bears: We will also create a snowman out of circles and squares.The Big Bears snowman will involve more cutting and more detail.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 10: God Made Food

In this lesson the children will be grateful for the food God gives us. We will talk about food and the experience of sharing meals. We will learn why we need food and why it’s important to eat good food. We will read the story Feed the Baby. On pg. 41 we will discuss what food comes from each plant and animal pictured. On pg. 42 we will learn that people celebrate special occasions by sharing meals similar to when God’s people go to church to share a meal.

Big Bears: New Testament “Follow Me” The Story of Jesus’ Twelve Helpers

Social Science/Scholastic Activity: “Home in the Cold”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn about what it’s like for polar bears to live in the Arctic. We will discover that a habitat is a place where animals live. Our video will teach us what other animals live in the Arctic. Finally, we will test our knowledge by playing a game to see if we remember which animals live in the Arctic.

****We are looking for a lunch duty volunteer for this Thursday, January 10 to allow time for us to celebrate the birthday of our very own, amazing Mrs. Roberts!! If you are available, please send me an email.

Important dates/reminders…

Tuesday, January 8th: School Resumes for Students

• Monday, January 21st: NO SCHOOL- Martin Luther King Jr. holiday

Sunday, January 27th: Catholic Schools Week begins

Liturgy at 10:00a.m., Open House at 11:00a.m.

• Thursday, January 31st: 1:30p.m. dismissal.

Week of December 17

This week we will focus on pageant rehearsal, polar express activities, and religion lessons pertaining to the story of The First Christmas. Please note the following important information:

Pageant Costumes went home last week. Please check to see if it needs ironing or spot cleaning prior to Tuesday's pageant. After the pageant, if you could please be so kind as to wash the costume on a gentle cycle and hang dry it, we would so greatly appreciate it. Please return costumes and accessories in a bag with your child’s name on it, by Friday, December 21st. Thanks so much!

Tuesday, 12/18 Preschool Pageant: Preschool children come to school dressed in pageant costume. The pageant will be performed for the students in the main building at 10:00am. **All preschool students will dismiss at 10:50am that day**

At 6:45pm on the evening of 12/18, please bring your child to the church dressed in his or her costume. The evening performance will begin promptly at 7:00pm.

Wednesday, 12/19 Polar Express Day: Children wear their pajamas to school and watch The Polar Express Movie and participate in polar express activities.

Friday, 12/21: Early dismissal for all students in both buildings. 9:50am for preschool children and 10:00 for main building. There is no aftercare.

Tuesday, January 8^h: We return from Christmas break

When deciding where to sit for the Preschool Pageant Mrs. Urchell’s class is on the left side of the altar when you are facing the altar. Mrs. O’Keefe and Mrs. O’Hara’s class, (with the exception of King Herod -Luke Waldron) are to the right.

The first half of the year flew by! Thank you for sharing the gift of your child(ren) with us. It has been a rewarding time. We hope you all enjoy some quality time with your families and we wish you all a very joyful Christmas!!

Week of December 10th

Language Arts: Students will learn about the letter Nn. We will look at pictures and things that begin with the /n/ sound. We will watch the sesame street youtube video with Ricky Gervais and Elmo all about the letter Nn. The kids love this video and think it so funny. Little Bears: We are going to work on a lowercase n project (n for night night). Big Bears will do the project and a letter n worksheet to follow up on our sounds and our writing.

Math: This week we will continue to talk about patterns. If you would like to have your child wear a shirt, pants, or any other item of clothing to show off a pattern, we would love to see it! Patterns are more than just seeing though! Music has patterns, animals have patterns! We will discuss patterns we see and hear and we will read the book “Lots of Zebra Stripes” Little Bears will make an AB pattern with bingo dabbers. Big Bears will make an AB and AAB pattern.

Scholastic: Gingerbread Time! Learn how to make a Gingerbread Cookie! What are the steps? What kitchen tools do you need? We will also listen to the story The Gingerbread Girl and play an online game.

Religion: We are busy practicing for the Christmas Pageant which will be held on Tuesday, December 18 at 7pm in the church. You should have received information regarding your child's role and costume needs if any. Please email me if you have any questions.

Little Bears: Special Lesson 2 “Advent” We are preparing for the birth of baby Jesus. Little Bears: Discuss worksheet 117: Mary and Joseph waited months to have baby Jesus. What do you think they did to get ready for him? What are we doing now to get ready for Christmas? How can we show Jesus we love him? Page 118-Color the pieces that have a star. What is it? Discuss how we give people gifts to show we love them. Big Bears: New Testament 1: Jesus is born.

Week of December 3

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Mm. We will listen to stories and look at objects that begin with the letter Mm. Both Big Bears and Little Bears will roll a marble in paint to make “Marble Art M’. Big Bears will also complete a letter identification Mm worksheet and color all of the upper case and lower case Ms.

Math: Lesson 4.1: Copy a pattern. We will explore movement patterns such as sit, stand, clap, repeat; shake, shake, tap your knees, etc. We will listen to the story Pattern Fish by Trudi Harris and watch a short youtube video on patterns: We see patterns everywhere by complabteacher. Use cubes to copy a pattern that the teacher has made. Make necklaces with beads and yarns using patterns.

Religion: Due to last week’s snow day, we did not complete our Religion lesson. This week we will do the lesson that we had originally planned for last week. Little Bears will complete Chapter 9: God Made Water. In this lesson the children will appreciate the gift of water. They will associate water with life and know that water is used in the church. We will read the story The Five Raindrops. On page 38 we will discuss the various way we use water and connect each item to the form of water to which it corresponds. On pg. 39, the children will complete the picture by coloring the water blue. Both Little Bears and Big Bears will practice for the pageant.

Scholastic: Science and Social Studies with Clifford:Talk about animals that hibernate. Discuss where different animals hibernate. Make a nest for a hedgehog to hibernate in by using craft supplies.

School Notes for week of November 26th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ll. We will read the story The Lamb Who Loved to Laugh and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ll. We will search for Ll’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ll.

Little Bears: We will create a letter L ladybug craft.

Big Bears: We will create a letter L ladybug craft as well as complete a letter Ll worksheet.

Math:

Lesson 3.4 Ordinal Numbers. We will learn about ordinal words, first, second, third, fourth and fifth. Name the children in line and tell which position they are in; first, second or third. Place objects in order left to right and tell if they are first, second, third. We will also listen to the story 10 Little Rubber Ducks, by Eric Carle.

Little Bears: Color pumpkins in order, first, second and third.

Big Bears: Cut and paste words to indicate the position of pumpkins in a row.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 9: God Made Water. In this lesson the children will appreciate the gift of water. They will associate water with life and know that water is used in the church. We will read the story The Five Raindrops. On pg. 38 we will discuss the various way we use water and connect each item to the form of water to which it corresponds. On pg. 39 the children will complete the picture by coloring the water blue.

Big Bears: We will practice our lines and songs for the Pageant.

Social Science/Clifford Activity: “Go to Sleep, Hedgehog”

In this week’s lesson, we will learn what it means for an animal to take a deep winter sleep, or to hibernate. We will play a game finding places where animals hibernate. In the video we will learn that animals hibernate in a nest, mud, a den or an underground burrow.

Important Dates/Notes:

Tuesday, Dec. 18th: Preschool Pageant

10:00a.m. performance for school (dismissal @ 10:50a.m. for ALL Preschoolers)

7:00p.m. performance for families (arrive at church @ 6:45p.m. for evening performance)

Friday, Dec. 21st: dismissal @ 10:00a.m., NO AFTERCARE/ Christmas break begins!

Tuesday, Jan. 8th: classes resume

School Notes week of November 19

Religion: This week we will name and illustrate the things we are thankful for. We will thank God for all of the gifts he has given us.

Clifford Scholastic: We will watch a short video about Thanksgiving family traditions. We will discuss the term "tradition". We will complete a scholastic page showing food items and discuss the terms more and less.

Save the Date:

Our Preschool Christmas Pageant will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at 7pm in the church. Friends and family members are all invited. That day will be a half day for all preschool children. Preschool children will be dismissed at 10:50 that day. Big Bear students will have a speaking part (one or two lines only). Little Bear students will join in the singing and will be assigned non-speaking roles.

School Notes for week of November 12th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is letter Kk. We will look at picture cards and objects that begin with the /k/ sound. Discuss what a king is and does. Explain that king begins with /k/.

Big Bears: make a king out of the letter k and follow up with a /k/ beginning sound worksheet.

Little Bears: we will make a king out of the letter k.

Math: Hands on activities

“More About Position”

Objective: Place concrete objects in a specific locations and use position words to describe the location of objects. Ex. on, up, next to, inside of, outside of, in front of…

Big Bears: Big Bears will receive three blocks (red, yellow, and blue). Students will follow directions… “place the red cube on top of the yellow and blue cube.” Teachers will take pictures.

Little Bears: Little Bears will follow directions...stand next to the chair, go behind the chair, stand in front of the chair...teachers will take pics and post for parents to see.

Social Science/Clifford

Continue to talk about Turkeys! Review all the things turkeys can do...fan their tails, take dust baths, and peck for bugs in the dirt. Play turkey games!

We will talk about Veterans Day and recognize that men and women who served our country are honored on this day. We will read stories about veterans day as well.

Religion:

“God Made Music”

The students will know that song and music can praise God. We will pass out instruments and enjoy making music for our Lord.

Little Bears: Look at page 33. Discuss how the children are making music to praise God. How can we make music to praise God? Can we clap our hands? Use our voices?

Look at page 34 Look at David. He has a harp. A harp plays music. Listen to harp music on youtube. Draw strings on a harp.

Page 35 cut out the banner. Decorate it and wave it as we sing prayerful songs.

Big Bears: Listen to and illustrate the story of Jonah and the Whale Bible story #9.

Save the Date:

Our Preschool Christmas Pageant will be held on Tuesday, December 18th at 7pm in the church. Friends and family members are all invited. That day will be a half day for all preschool children. Preschool children will be dismissed at 10:50 that day. Big Bear students will have a speaking part (one or two lines only). Little Bear students will join in the singing and will be assigned non-speaking roles.

Week of November 5

Thanks again to all of the help with the Halloween Party. We had a great day! This week we will begin talking about the holiday of Thanksgiving and focusing on feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. Please continue to read to your child every day. Children who are read to are much more successful readers themselves.

Language Arts

Listen to a story about things that begin with letter Jj. Pass around objects that begin with the /j/ sound. Both Little Bears and Big Bears will make jello paint by mixing jello with water. We will paint the letter J with jello paint. We will do a science experiment called “jello explosion”. We will pour vinegar on blue jello and yellow jello, set them in the sensory bin, and watch them explode and see what happens.

Math

We will introduce position words: above, below, over, under, top, bottom, next to, beside. We will listen the story Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins in which Rosie the hen goes over, under and around things in order to avoid being caught by a fox. Watch the youtube video “Where’s the Monkey” by KidsTV123, and “Where Is It” by Maple Leaf Learning. We have also been practicing touch and count every day. Little Bears are working on touch and count 5 objects or more. Big bears 10 objects or more.

Little Bears: Cut and paste activities. Ie: put the scarecrow “on top of” the hill.

Big Bears: Cut and paste pictures. Ie: put the pumpkin “over” the door.

Religion

Little Bears: Ch. 7 God Made the Bible. We will learn that The Bible is God’s love letter to us and that The Bible is treated with respect and love. We will recognize that when God’s family meets in church to pray, someone reads stories from The Bible. Discuss workbook page 27 and The Bible Story “Jesus and the Little Children”. Discuss workbook page 28 and David and Goliath. Create a love letter from God and a prayer book using pages 31-33.

Big Bears: Old Testament 8: David and Goliath. Children will listen to and illustrate the Bible Story.

Science/Social Studies:

Watch a short scholastic video about turkeys. Discover that turkeys are able to fan their tails, take dust baths, and peck for bugs in the dirt. Follow a turkey’s tracks to make a path from start to finish.

School Notes for week of October 28th

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Ii. We will learn that there are 2 sounds for the letter /i/. We will read the story Iguana on Ice and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ii. We will search for Ii’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ii.

Little Bears: put pictures of things that begin with the /i/ sound in the pocket chart.

Big Bears: Circle all the i’s you see on the i worksheet and practice writing capital and lowercase Ii.

Math: Lesson 3.1 Left and Right

Read: Left Hand RIght Hand by Janet Allison

Using our floor graph we will graph left hand and right hand paper cutouts. Each child will receive either a left or right hand and will match it to the proper column.

Little Bears: After folding a paper in half, we will paint a right hand on the right side of the paper and paint a left hand on the left side of the paper.

Big Bears: Using our left/right hand cut-outs we will match left/right objects on our worksheets.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 5: God Made My Church

The children will identify the Church as God’s family and learn that they belong to the Church. They will learn that Mary is Jesus’ mother. Pg.19 Look at the picture and discuss what a priest is. Does anyone know the name of priests at St. Barnabas? We will observe a picture of Mary, Jesus’ mother and discuss why she is important and relates to our mothers. Pg. 20 Color in the hearts that show children being loving like Jesus.

Big Bears: Old Testament # 7 Safe at Last! The Story of Moses and the Red Sea After reading the bible story illustrate a picture of Moses and his followers parting the sea.

On Wednesday, we will celebrate Halloween. Children may come in costume. We will have a party in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30 and then walk over to the church basement to listen to a Halloween storyteller. If any parents or little siblings would like to join us in the church basement, feel free!

Week of October 22nd

A big thank you to Mr. LaGiglia, father of Danny, for coming in and talking to us about fire safety. The kids really enjoyed it. Also thank you to Mrs. LaGiglia and all of the parents who helped with our day of service. The preschool kids made decorative turkeys to be delivered to the residents of Belhaven home.

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Hh. We will read stories and pass around objects that begin with the /h/ sound.

Little Bears: We will make a horse out of the letter Hh!

On Wednesday, be sure to wear a crazy hat because hat begins with H.

Big Bears: We will make a horse out of the letter Hh and we will have a letter “H” worksheet where we identify the picture that begins with “H.”

Math: Lesson 2.4 Identify and match numbers, and count objects up to ten.

Read “Moonbeam Bear’s Numbers” by Rolf Fanger and Ulrike Mohgen.

Little Bears: Play “Sticker Number Math”. Students will receive dot stickers with numbers written on them. Students will come up to the poster and place the correct sticker with the number that matches.

Follow up counting worksheet.

Big Bears: Big Bears will have manipulatives that they will have to count. We will practice our one-to one-correspondence. Ex. “Please hand me 8 bears.”

Follow up math counting/writing the number worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: page 23-look at the picture. What is this (a church), how do you know? Explain how a church is God’s house. We make church’s beautiful, because God lives there.

Page 24 Connect dots to finish the picture of things that belong in a church. Have you ever seen these before? Page 26. Cut out a church and glue it together.

Big Bears: New Testament 7 “Moses and the Burning Bush.” Explain what happens when Moses encounters this bush. Draw a picture.

Social Science/Clifford:

All about Pumpkins. Do you think a pumpkin can sink or float? Why? What is inside a pumpkin? Not all pumpkins look alike. What other colors have you seen besides an orange pumpkin? Discuss what Hollow means...vocabulary word of the week.

Special Announcements:

• This Wednesday wear a crazy hat. Hat begins with h.

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller. We will have a celebration in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30. We will then go to the church basement to have a special performance by a Halloween Storyteller at 9:45. Children may wear costumes. Weather permitting, we will go outside to watch grades K-4 walk by in the parade. With the colder weather upon us, we are requesting that you send in a warmer change of clothes with your child in case of a potty accident, or a spill. Many of the children have shorts to change into and that will not be suitable in this weather. Also, please know that we will go outside to play every day provided it is 32° or above. Please send your child with hats and mittens in the cold weather. Also, with the cooler weather we no longer see a need for the children to bring water bottles. There's a water fountain here and they are welcome to get drinks as needed. In addition to this information, please know that if you have not yet sent in money for fun food, it is due tomorrow.

Week of October 15

Language Arts: Letter Gg. We will read stories and pass around objects that begin with the letter Gg. Watch The Letter Gg song by Miss Molly on youtube.

Little Bears: Make a G is for giraffe craft.

Big Bears: Make a giraffe craft and also do a Gg worksheet.

Math: Lesson 2.3: Counting Objects. Practice counting up to 5 objects using manipulatives. Touch and count each object in the set of objects. Some children may even be able to count 10 or more objects!

Little Bears: Children will be given a bin of manipulatives. The teacher will write a number from 0-5 on the board. The children will count out that many objects. Teachers will take pictures.

Big Bears: Complete a worksheet that requires counting out cubes from 1-5. Children who have mastered this may count higher using a gumball machine game.

Religion:

Little Bears: Halloween and the Feast of All Saints. Recognize that Halloween is connected to a church holiday; the eve before All Saints Day. Recognize that Saints are people who followed Jesus and acted like him. Listen to the story of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Color a pumpkin to represent Halloween. Make a crown to remind us to be like the Saints.

Big Bears: New Testament 6: Listen to and illustrate the story of Moses and the Burning Bush.

Social Studies with Clifford: October is fire safety month. We will have a visit from a firefighter!! Mr. LaGiglia, Danny’s dad, will come speak to us on Thursday about fire safety. We will also talk about some of the equipment that firefighters use and complete a coloring sheet.

Reminders and Notes:

Friday, October 19th: All School Service Day. Preschool dismissal: ½ day-10:50a.m., full-day- 11:40a.m.

**full-day students please bring 1 snack and a lunch.

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller. We will have a celebration in the classroom from 8:30 until 9:30. We will then go to the church basement to have a special performance by a Halloween Storyteller at 9:45.

Week of October 8th

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ff. We will read the story Fifi Ferret’s Flute and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Ff. We will search for Ff’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Ff.

Little Bears: Little Bears will create a French Fry craft

Big Bears: Big Bears will glue felt onto a large letter F

Math:

Lesson 2.2 More, Fewer, Same

This week we will continue to learn about number concepts and introduce “more” and “less”. We will read the story “More and Less” by Judy Nayer and watch a short youtube video about more and less.

Little Bears: complete a worksheet by circling the object that have more

Big Bears: complete a worksheet by graphing numbers and then circle which graph has more

Social Science/Clifford Activity: “Let’s Have A Fire Drill”

This issue focuses on Fire Safety. We will learn the difference between a fire and a fire drill. Then we will learn the steps to practicing a fire drill. We will take a look at a fireman’s gear and recognize through our video the 4 steps to being fire safe.

Important Reminders

Friday, October 19th: All School Service Day. Preschool dismissal: ½ day-10:50a.m., full-day- 11:40a.m.

**full-day students please bring 1 snack and a lunch

Wednesday, October 31st: Halloween party/ storyteller, details to follow

Week of October 1st

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Ee. We will listen to the story “Elmer”, by David McKee. It is a story about a patchwork elephant. We will look at pictures and objects that begin with the /e/ sound.

Little Bears: Little Bears will have fun decorating Elmer the elephant.

Big Bears: Big Bears will look at pictures and tell me if it begins with the /e/ sound. If it does, they will write the letter e, under the picture.

Religion:

Little Bears: Identify that the church is God’s family. We will discuss how we have families at home, and how we also belong to a bigger family, “the church.” Look at page 19, and discuss where the people are and what you think they are doing. Page 20, students will color the heart next to each child who is loving like Jesus. On page 21 cut and glue the pictures of Mary and the other church members in the matching spaces.

Big Bears: New Testament #5 “Two coats for Joseph” discuss how Joseph received a beautiful coat and his brothers got upset. What can we do when we get jealous of someone else’s things? Can we forgive like Joseph?

Math:

Lesson 2.1 Use concrete objects to demonstrate one to one correspondence.

Little Bears: Little Bears will use bingo dabbbers to dab on a “gumball machine” paper. Students will identify numbers 1-5 and dot one gumball for number 1, two gumball dots for number 2, and so on.

Big Bears: Big Bears will look at the numbers on the apple baskets. The numbers are out of order. Students will have to identify the number, dab their finger in paint and put the correct amount of apples near the baskets.

Important Reminders

The field trip is Tuesday, October 2nd. Please bring a bag lunch with disposable water or juice. We will be leaving our building at 8:30 and arrive back at school at 12:30. Half day kids will be dismissed at 12:30.

Please dress appropriately for the weather.

Parent teacher conferences are Wednesday, October 3rd, and Thursday, October 4th. On Thursday, students will be dismissed at 11:40. Parent teacher conferences will be held in the library. Each conference is 10 minutes, so please come on time. Thank you!!

Week of September 24

Language Arts:

The letter of the week is Dd. We will listen to the story “If You Give a Dog a Doughnut” by Laura Joyce Neumeroff, and look at objects that begin with the /d/ sound. We will sing a song about things that begin with letter d. We will look at our name cards to see if there is a Dd in our name.

Little Bears will make a yummy looking doughnut craft.

Big Bears will identify letter Dd on a worksheet.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 4: God made my helpers. Talk to children about the fact that they are helped by others every day. Name some of the people that help them each day, such as parents,teachers, doctors, nurses, siblings, crossing guards, etc. During free play, pretend to be a doctor or nurse and help take care of patients. Identify people on page 15 and 16 who are helpers. Make a trophy card on page 17 and 18 for someone who has been a helper to you.

Big Bears: New Testament 4: Listen to the story of Noah’s Ark. Illustrate a picture of Noah’s Ark for the Bible that will come home at the end of the year.

Math: Lesson 1.4 Sort by size. Watch a short youtube video, “sort by size by kids academy”. Listen to the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” and identify the small, medium and large bowls of porridge, chairs, and beds. Play a game in which we sort small, medium and large things.

Little Bears: Sort manipulatives and objects by size.

Big Bears: Cut, sort and paste pictures of small, medium and large bowls of porridge, chairs and beds.

Social Studies and Science: More about apples. We will examine apples and discover that they come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. We will weigh apples on a scale. We will even make and taste applesauce. Yum!! If you do not want your child to taste applesauce, please let us know.

Week of September 17th

Language Arts: The letter of the week is Cc. We will read the story Copycats and look at words and objects that begin with the letter Cc. We will search for Cc’s in our classmates first and last names. Finally, we will watch a short video teaching us how to form the letter Cc.

Little Bears: We will watch a short video of the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and explain that caterpillar begins with c. We will create a caterpillar craft.

Big Bears: Complete a letter Cc worksheet. Practice forming the letter Cc and identifying the letter Cc.

Religion:

Little Bears: Lesson #3: “God Made My Friends”. The children will learn and discuss what a friend is, be grateful for their friends, learn that Jesus is a friend and discuss how to be a good friend to others. We will look at pg.11 as a group and point out ways the children are being good friends. We will listen to the story “The Two Yellow Friends” and find how Dizzy and Buttercup helped each other.

Big Bears: Listen to and illustrate the Bible Story New Testament #3. Disobedience: Adam and Eve make a bad choice.

Math: Lesson 1.3 Sort by Shape. We will sing the shape song and hold up a shape when we hear it’s name. We will then watch a short youtube video about shapes.

Little Bears: Sort precut circles, squares, triangles and rectangles and glue them on the appropriate spot.

Big Bears: Color, cut and sort circle, square, triangle and rectangle shapes.

Social Science/Clifford Activity:”Mmm, Mmm Apples!” This issue focuses on farming and harvest. We will read about picking apples from an orchard. In the video we will learn new vocabulary words like pip, blossom, ripe, and fruitlet. We will also discuss how apples are red, yellow or green and color them accordingly. We will sing an apple song and finally, we will play a fun game in which we will sort apples by color, size and number of seeds.

Some reminders/ important dates…

· If you are available to do lunch duty from 11:00 until 11:30 any day(s) during the school year, please send us an email. Half-day parents and their children are also welcome to do lunch duty. We would greatly appreciate any volunteers.

· School pictures are on Monday, September 17^th

· 1:30p.m. Dismissal, Thursday, September 27th

Week of September 10th

Language Arts: Students will learn all about letter Bb. As a whole group, we will identify the capital B and the lowercase b. We will pass around objects that begin with the /b/ sound. We will identify picture cards that begin with the /b/ sound. We will read the letter Bb book.

Little Bears: We will sing “The Wheels on the Bus” and explain that bus begins with b. We will make a bus art project.

Big Bears: We will look at pictures of objects...some begin with the /b/ sound, and some do not. We will circle all the pictures that begin with b.

On Tuesday, In honor of 9-11, the entire school will be placing flags along the perimeter of the school. Children are encouraged to wear red, white and blue. Preschool will place their flags right outside our building. The children will listen to a heartfelt and touching story, via YouTube entitled, “September 12th: “We Knew Everything Would Be All Right”. The authors and illustrators are a 1st grade class from Masterson Elementary School in Missouri. This story tells that although horrific events occurred on September 11th, we are reminded that the world continued the next day. This is a difficult subject to explain to young children. This story sends the message of hope and reassurance.

Religion:

Little Bears: We will discuss how God Made each of our families. We will begin to understand how family members help one another, know that Jesus, Mary and Joseph are the Holy Family, and desire to show love and concern for their family members.

Students will look at the family on the paper and identify who they think each person is and what each person does to help the family. What do you do to help your family? Answers will be written on a poster.

Students will be able to draw their family members.

Look at “A Kitten’s Tale” and discuss what each family member is doing.

We are sending home a brown bag for our little bears. Please feel free to have your child decorate the bag and bring a family photo to share by Monday.

Big Bears: Bible Story “The Story of Creation” discussing the Garden of Eden and how beautiful it was. Discuss Adam and Eve (the first man and woman God created. Talk about how everyone from the people to the animals were so happy because God loved them.

Math: Lesson 1.2 Sort by Color

Students will listen to the story “A Color of His Own” by Leo Lionni about a chameleon who keeps changing his colors. Students will identify the colors on the page.

Little Bears: We will play a game with Uno cards. Students will take turns matching uno card colors. This is a hands on activity.

Big Bears: Students will receive a paper with the words green, red, yellow and blue. Each word will be colored ex. The word blue will be written in blue. Students will match the colored squares to the correct color on the paper.

Social Science/Clifford Activity:

Continue discussing what we do at school. Ex. We put our things in our cubbies, we eat snack…

Discuss how we get to school. Look at the worksheet. Students will color how they get to school. We will tally up our answers!

Week of September 3

Monday is Labor Day. There is no school.

Language Arts: Introduce the Letter Aa and words that begin with a. Name things that begin with A. Reread the story “The Teacher with the Alligator Purse”.

Little Bears: Make a capital A alligator.

Big Bears: Complete a worksheet: color the apple and find all of the capital A’s.

Math:

Alike and different: Discover likenesses and differences. Identify how objects are alike and how they are different. Have children come up and discuss how they are alike/different based on their clothing, their hair color, color of eyes, etc. Listen to the story “Stephanie’s Ponytail” about a girl who wants to be different.

Little Bears: Work in small groups to separate some toys from the kitchen area according to likeness and differences such as, things we can eat and things we can not eat. Look at cards from a deck and tell how they are alike, and how they are different.

Big Bears: In a row of pictures, color the objects that are alike. Try to color them the same to make them look alike.

Religion:

Little Bears: Chapter 1: God Made Me. Recognize that God made people. Introduce The Bible and respect it as a Sacred Book. Play track 6 song: Come Together and teach the children the motions. Discuss the fact that we want to shine like a star for God. Print our names on stars. Put stars in the picture of the night sky.

Big Bears: Bible Story New Testament 1: God’s Colorful World. Listen to the story of creation and learn that God created everything.

*Please note that Religion work for Big bears will not come home on a weekly basis. The work is collected each week and saved at school to be sent home as a complete Bible at the end of the year.

Social Studies and Science: Hello School! Your child will bring home a paper leaflet from Scholastic titled “My Big World with Clifford” each week.

You can go online to www.letsfindout.scholastic.com to do the online activities at home with your child. There are videos to watch and online games to play. This week’s lesson focuses on ways to greet new friends such as saying hello, waving, smiling, shaking hands or giving a high five. We will also talk about and identify things we might find in our classroom.

Some reminders/ important dates…

· There is No school on Monday, September 3rd in honor of Labor Day

· Back to School Night, Thursday, September 6^th, 7p.m.

· Please send (2) small snacks for full-day children, (1) small snack for ½ day children each day. Remember to be mindful of our no nuts allowed policy. Please write your child’s name on each snack with permanent marker.

· Send (1) small individual picture of your child for their cubby

· Send in any forms from the Orientation Day

· Send a folder in your child’s backpack each day

· Scholastic book orders are due September 12th^th

· If your daughter wears a dress to school, please have her wear shorts underneath.

· Full-day students please bring a lunch each day. The Hot Lunch program is not available to Preschool students.

· If you are available to do lunch duty from 11:00am until 11:30 any day(s) during the school year, please send us an email. We would greatly appreciate any volunteers.

· Parents of full day students please send your bedding on Tuesday as we will be using it during rest time.

Week of August 27th

Welcome to our Preschool Class. We are looking forward to a great year!! A first school experience can be overwhelming for not just the children but the parents as well. Please know that we are here for you to help you navigate your way through your first school experience!

This week in Preschool, we will be adjusting to new routines and procedures, learning classroom rules, learning where everything in the classroom goes, getting to know our new friends and teachers, and explo