Welcome to St. Lawrence MWF AM and PM Nursery School!

“We are a Catholic School family dedicated to nurturing and celebrating a love for Jesus Christ and educating the whole child with academic excellence.” 

Weekly News:

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"Stars of the Week":  Daniel C. (AM) was our "Star of the Week"!

Reading:  We read the book Sneezy the Snowman, The Snowy Day, and Grandma's Tiny House this week.  We begin each story time with songs about the parts of the book (Front cover, back cover, title, and spine!") and how to read and write ("Top to bottom, left to right, left to write!").  We predict what will happen next in each book.  We also are learning what the Author and Illustrator do for each book.

Writing:  We used modeling clay, paint, paint brushes, glue sticks, crayons, tweezers, lacing cards, stickers, block manipulatives, circle counters, dot markers, and pom poms this week to strengthen our hand muscles and pincher fingers so we can hold our writing utensils correctly.

We learned that when we color, we should hold the crayon with a grip that seems like an alligator chomping down on the crayon or a crab's claw.  It needs to be a three-point grip.  We need to keep the students from using a fist grip.  We talked about how we only color on the paper and that we have to use "little strokes for little folks" and not scribble with big lines.  We need to use different colors on all our pages, because God made the world with lots of different colors in it.  Finally, we need to color in the lines and color in all the white space.  

Math:   We introduced the Number"4" on Friday.  We read the funny book Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  (Watch a great YouTube video with your student!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py8h1Q3UIbY )  We used one-to-one correspondence to count out different things in our room.  We wrote the number is the air using our poem:  "Down and across, and down once more.  That's the way to make a four!"  We used block manipulatives to count out four and make a tower of four.  We wrote "4" on our paper.  During our Small Group Learning and Play Centers, we made our Number "4" Push Pin Art; we used ten-frames and little circles to count out numbers from 0 - 4; we used tweezers to pick up pom poms and place them on the Number "4" and then we used dot markers to make the "4"; and we counted four dog bones and glued them to our doggie page. 

We count the days on our calendar and our classmates in our lines every day.  We compare the lines using the words "bigger/smaller", "more/less", etc.  We also create patterns when lining up (boy/girl, A/B pattern).  We finished our report card assessments:  sorting by shape, size, and color this week.  We also assessed creating A/B Patterns and one-to-one correspondence.

Alphabet:  We began our week learning about the Letter "S".  We read the book Sneezy the Snowman and made a melted snowman using shaving cream and liquid glue.  We also read the book The Snowy Day.  We found the Letter "S" on our walls and learned the sound "S" makes.  We used our pointer fingers to make "S" in the air.  We guessed the items in our "S Tub" that start with the Letter "S".  We used Smiley face Stickers and Star Stickers to place on our "S" page.  We used our hand muscles to Squeeze, roll out, and form Snakes out of modeling clay.  We painted our masterpieces and glued googly eyes and Snake tongues to them too!  We played with fake Snow, placed dot Stickers on Snowflakes, and made a Snowman name craft during Small Group Learning and Free Play Centers. 

We do not learn our letters in alphabetical order.  In our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, we begin with letters with straight lines, then we move on to those with curved lines, and finally we learn about the ones with diagonal lines.  We will continue to work on the letters we've already introduced:  L, F, E, H, T, I, U, C, O, Q, and G.

We are learning to identify our names that our parents and God gave us.  We are recognizing that everyone's name starts with a different letter and each name has many different letters in it.  In the beginning of each class, we identify our name tags and place them on our "Purple Wall".  

Religion:  We are practicing to make the sign of the cross correctly.  We recite three prayers (beginning of the day, before snack, and end of the day).  Following our prayer, we ask St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa), St. Lawrence, and St. Nicholas to pray for us and to help us be good friends who are kind to others and who love Jesus.  We bless ourselves with Holy Water as we leave the classroom at the end of class each day.  We are focusing on asking God to help us make good green/thumbs up choices, follow directions, and make us good friends as we bless ourselves.

Science:  We sing our "Weather Watcher" song and our "Seasons" song during Calendar Time.  We learned that the weather helps us to identify which of the four seasons we are in:  "Winter".

Social Studies:  We recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day and will continue to stress how we have to thank God for allowing us to live in this great United States of America.  

Social and Emotional:  Since this may be the very first time many of us have been away from our families and caregivers, separation anxiety is still a daily struggle and is very typical.  We are trying to ease our little cutie pies' fears and allow them to feel those feelings without making them embarrassed or shaming them.  Our goal is make every student feel safe, loved, and heard.  We are also working on our listening skills and trying to follow directions throughout the class time.  We need to respect our new friends by keeping our hands and feet to ourselves as well.

Music and Songs:  We sing songs about the parts of our books and how to read and write as well as all our calendar songs ("Days of the Week", "Months of the Year", "Weather Watcher", and "Seasons") and nursery rhymes daily.  We are practicing our January Song:  "The Snowman Song".  All the words to our songs and prayers are located on one of the tabs on this website.  We finished our monthly songs "If You're Happy and You Know It", "Five Little Pumpkins", "Five Fat Turkeys", and "The Advent Song".

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Our daily schedule is displayed in our classroom so the children can make the connection when it is dismissal/"home time."

Mark Your Calendars:

(All 2025 - 2026 School Year Dates are TENTATIVE.)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day -- Monday, January 19:  NO SCHOOL.

STL Open House for Current and Prospective Students -- Thursday, January 22 from 5 - 7 p.m.:  Take the opportunity to visit the Preschool classrooms to meet next year's teachers and see your child's Nursery School room!

Catholic Schools Week -- Monday, January 26 - Friday, January 30:  An email was sent from the School Office about special dress down days.

Valentine's Day Parties -- Friday, February 6:  Students should only exchange Valentine's Day CARDS.  Please do not bring in any other gifts, treats, candy, etc. this time.

Mid-Winter Break -- Wednesday, February 11 - Tuesday, February 17:  Classes resume on Wednesday, February 18.

Doughnuts with Dad -- Friday, March 13:  All fathers (or other persons who will take Dad's place at the celebration) must have taken the Protecting God's Children workshop and have a completion certificate on file in the Attendance Office.  They also must have passed a current Criminal Background Check.

Muffins with Mom -- Beginning of May TBD:  All mothers (or other persons who will take Mom's place at the celebration) must have taken the Protecting God's Children workshop and have a completion certificate on file in the Attendance Office.  They also must have passed a current Criminal Background Check.

Grandparents Day -- Mid-May TBD

Contact Information:

Mrs. Lisa Marcopoli

lmarcopoli@stlawrenceparish.com

586-731-0135 x251

Teacher Aide:

"Ms. Martha" Pickett