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":  Thanks to Mia K. (AM) who was our "Star of the Week"!

Reading:  We read the book Yo Yo Man 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 lacing cards, liquid glue, yarn, peg boards, snapping blocks, dry erase markers, glue sticks, block manipulatives, markers, puzzles, stickers, and crayons sticks to strengthen our hand muscles and pincher fingers so we can hold our writing utensils correctly.

We continue to work on coloring and writing.  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 "10" this week.  We found the number on our walls and saw how it can be represented with numerals, on a tens frame, and with letters.  We used our fingers to show "10" and we wrote the number in the air.  We counted out ten block manipulatives and built a tower of "10".  We counted that tower using one-to-one correspondence.  We counted out ten pictures of nails and glued them to our hammer paper.  We also traced the number "10" on our page.  Finally, we "Counted our Blessings" and named ten things we were grateful for in our lives.  

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).

Alphabet:  We learned about the Letter Y this week.  We read the book Yo Yo Man.  We found the letter Y on the walls and learned the strange sound it makes.  We guessed the items in our "Y Tub" that begin with that letter.  We wrote the letter in the air.  We used our arms to make a "Y".  Finally, we used liquid glue to stick pieces of Yellow Yarn on our "Y" page.  

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, A, M, N, V, W, and X .

We are still 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 summer, the students should practice their LAST names, both identifying the letters and writing the whole name.  

Religion:  We are still 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, St. Valentine, and St. Patrick 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 identify all the New Life that Spring brings!  We are watching our tiny caterpillars in our classroom and observing how they are moving around and eating a lot.  A few of them crawled to the top of the enclosure and began to make their chrysalis.  Now we wait until they emerge from their chrysalis!

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", "Skinnamarink Song", and "The Lent Song".  We are now practicing our "Easter Song" and will perform it during "Muffins with Mom" in May.

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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.)

Muffins with Mom -- Wednesday, May 13 (DATE CHANGED):  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 HAS BEEN CANCELED.

Last Day of Nursery School -- Wednesday, May 20

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

Vacation Bible School -- July 13 - 17 (I teach the Preschool class):  Pre-registration is required.

Contact Information:

Mrs. Lisa Marcopoli

lmarcopoli@stlawrenceparish.com

586-731-0135 x251

Teacher Aide:

"Ms. Martha" Pickett