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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"Mystery Readers":  Thank you to our in-person and virtual readers this week!  Mrs. Alycia LoPiccolo,  Mrs. DiDonato, Mrs. Kate Cetlinski, April and Penny Combs, Mrs. Emanuela Dajanaj, and Mr. Jay Kline read in the AM Class.  Mrs. Sadik, and Mrs. Krcaj, Mrs. Nina Atto, Mrs. Heather Nisan, Mrs. Anna Delise, Papa Shkulaku, Mrs. Rand Sclafani, and Mrs. Aleksandra Djelosevic visited our PM Class this week.

Reading:  We read the book There's a Monster at the End of This Book Starring Lovable Furry Old Grover, The Story of St. Patrick's Day, What Makes a Rainbow, Kindness is a Kite String, and If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don't!  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 lacing cards, push pins, dot markers, shaving cream, squeegees, stickers, little people, cootie bugs, snapping blocks, magnets, magna tiles, and motor links 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 "8" last week week.  We used different felt board pieces to identify the numbers zero through eight and count out animals to represent those numbers.  We found the Number "8" on the wall and showed how it can be represented with a numeral, dots on a tens frame, and a written word.  We learned the poem "A circle at the top and a circle at the bottom!" and used that to help write the number in the air and on our #8 paper.  We used our pincher fingers to count out eight block manipulatives and make a tower of eight.  We spent time "Counting our Blessings" and said eight different things that we were grateful for in our lives.  We counted out seven birds and glued them to our bird feeder paper.

We learned about the SHAPE "Oval" this week.  We found the shape in our classroom and wrote the shape in the air.  We used our little pincher fingers to make "Push Pin Art" using a small push pin.  We also used dot markers to create the shape of oval.  We painted oval eggs with special paint sticks and with shaving cream, blue paint, yellow paint, and a squeegee.

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:  This week, we introduced the Letter "M".  We read the book There's a Monster at the End of This Book Starring Lovable Furry Old Grover.  We found the letter on the walls and learned the sound it makes.  We guessed the items in our "M Tub" that start with that letter.  We used our pincher fingers to peel off and place Mickey Mouse stickers to our "M page".   During Small Group Learning and Free Play Centers, we used Magnets, Motor links, and Magna tiles.

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, G, S, J, D, P, B, R, K, and A .

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".  We are doing much better writing our names!  This week, we wrote the letters of our name on red and white strips of paper and glued them together to make The Cat in the Hat's top hat.

Religion:  Our formal Religion lesson last week was about St. Patrick.  We learned that there is more to St. Patrick's Day than leprechauns and wearing green.  We found out the Patrick lived in Ireland a long time ago.  He became  priest who helped build 300 churches, taught about the Holy Trinity using the shamrock, and he supposedly drove all the snakes out of Ireland.  We used tin cans and sticks to walk around the halls and scared away all the "snakes" at St. Lawrence!

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, St. Nicholas, and St. Valentine 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:  "Spring".  We are really excited to see all the New Life that Spring brings!

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.  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", "The Advent Song", "The Snowman Song", and "The Lent 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.)

Hearing and Vision Screenings -- March 27:  The Macomb County Health Department will conduct their free screenings for our Nursery School and Preschool students.  Please return your forms ASAP.

Wednesday, March 25 -- Professional Development Day for the Teachers:  NO SCHOOL.

March Reading Month Log is due Monday, March 30.

Easter Break -- Thursday, April 2 - Sunday, April 12:  Classes resume on Monday, April 13.

STL Gala Half Day of School -- Friday, April 17:  The MWF PM Nursery School Class will meet from 9:15 - 11:40 a.m. that day.  The AM Class WILL NOT MEET.

Muffins with Mom -- Wednesday, May 6:  All mothers (or other persons who will take Mom's place at the celebration) must have taken the Protecting God's Children workshop or refresher course 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

Last Day of Nursery School -- Wednesday, May 20

End-of-the-Year Nursery School Play Date -- First Week of June TBD

Contact Information:

Mrs. Lisa Marcopoli

lmarcopoli@stlawrenceparish.com

586-731-0135 x251

Teacher Aide:

"Ms. Martha" Pickett