Weekly Updates

Friday, February 20, 2026

We had another busy and fun-filled week in Pre-K3, even though it was only four days! We continue with the February themes of Love and Kindness, and we learned about President’s Day and Ash Wednesday.  We also marked the 100th Day of Pre-k together!!!!

We had a blast with our new letter Mm this week as well!  We paint dotted our M, did our “Molly is a Mermaid'' trace page, and did our M hunt page.  We learned our M words on our M chart and did our Starfall M activity.  Our M website songs were fun this week too, and we all couldn’t wait to see what Blippi had in the M box (monster truck)!  We read books with M in the title: Moo Hoo, Little Mouse Finds a Friend, and  Most Marshmallows. We watched “Captain Seasalt And The ABC Pirates- A Magical Adventure On M Island '', and “Olive And The Rhyme Rescue Crew Letter M”. We did the BEST activity to go with M week!  We made “M is for Music” shakers out of coffee cans!  First, we did a little science experiment trying to figure out which items would make a “good” sound in the can.  We decided that cottonballs, pom poms, and tissue paper were NOT good choices, but Pinto beans, rice, beads, pasta, sand, and popsicle sticks were GREAT choices!  We filled our cans with whatever we chose, tested the sound out, and decorated construction paper to glue onto our can. Voila-instant musical instruments!  We will keep them at school to make music with for the rest of the year, then the children will bring them home (you can thank me later =) . Most importantly, M week means that we are exactly halfway through our Alphabet journey!  Pretty cool, huh??

We also learned a little about Presidents this week when we discussed President’s Day.  We talked about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and what the President does.  We colored a “Happy President’s Day” paper, and watched the read aloud stories of President’s Day For Kids and This Little President.

We celebrated the 100th Day of Pre-K!  Do you believe it?  It feels like we all just met in September and now are one big, happy Pre-K team!!  We made a 100 Day Headband, used our handprints on a 100th Day poem, got to use markers on a “100 Days Smarter” Crown paper, did a Jack Hartman “Workout to 100” Counting song (and other 100 Day songs/movement activities), did the Starfall “100 Day of School” activity, listened to the read aloud story of Happy 100th Day, and read Fluffy’s 100th Day Of School. We all agreed that we are indeed 100 DAYS SMARTER!!

  Throughout the week we continued to do activities for number 4, shape heart, and color purple.  We continue to work on writing our names and are attempting to write them without looking at our name tags.  Our Religion lesson, “We Love God More And More” dealt with Love and Kindness towards others. Our Flag song this week was “God Bless America”.  We went to Music, Library, Gym, and Spanish classes. We got outside when we were able!

We were also BIG kids again as we attended Ash Wednesday mass. Before we went to mass on Wednesday, we learned that Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, what the ashes are, how they are not hot, etc. We went to mass (like the big kids that we’ve grown into) and received ashes on our foreheads.  We keep it pretty simple for these little guys, because, let’s face it, the story of Jesus dying on the cross is sad and scary even for us older folks!  We made a picture of what we looked like with our ashes on after we looked at ourselves in the mirror.  We will talk more during Lent about this time of waiting for Easter. Your children are filled with wonder and awe about Religion and church.  Please help keep this going by attending Mass as a family on weekends, praying before meals and bedtime, and answering their THOUSANDS of questions about mass and God. This is the time to instill their foundation of faith (before they don't want to hang out with you at all anymore...which will happen soon enough =)

Friday was a special deay for us as well.  Our Prayer Partners came to our room and we each decorated a “Blessing Bag”.  We did our BEST artwork on a small, white bag.  Then we went to the cafeteria and filled our bags with lotion, chap stick, tissues, crackers, and a granola bar.  This was our February Stewardship project, and the bags will go to Catholic Social Services.  Another reminder of kindness, love, and helping those less fortunate than us!

REMINDERS:

• Please wash and return rest mats on Monday.

• Please remember to update Pickup Patrol DAILY as needed.  It needs to reflect your child’s dismissal plans for each day, i.e. Cares, Enrichment, car rider, etc. I usually know where your child is going, but if there was ever a substitute for me, she may not know where to send your child. 

• Remember to check folders nightly.

• Please have your child in school by 8:00.  Children arriving after then are held in the foyer and marked late, resulting in them missing prayers, pledges, and announcements. 

• Please ensure that your child goes to the bathroom at home before coming to school. Too many friends are not making it to our bathroom time. This is especially important now that we go to the gym for Prayers and Announcements at arrival time.  The toilets/sinks down there are much bigger and harder to reach.

• Remember that if you need to pick up your child early, it needs to be at 11:45, before we get into children’s lunchtime, staff lunchtime, bathroom time, and nap time.  Please understand that this is for the safety of your child and so we are not walking the halls at random times while our big friends are learning…not to mention the dreaded taboo of waking sleeping three-year-olds during happy nappy.  Thanks for understanding =)

• If you could kindly let me know if someone in your house is away (or for any reason you feel may have your child a little “off”), it would be a big help so we can give extra hugs and reassurance!

• Please continue to monitor your child’s health/symptoms. We are in the flu and allergy season! We are really working on coughing and sneezing into our “GERM CATCHERS” (elbows). For the health of us all, please keep your child home when they exhibit symptoms or are not feeling well. They don’t yet understand how to cough/sneeze into elbows, blow noses, etc.

• Please send your child with a coat now that the weather is cold, and practice putting coats on (The Flip) and taking them off, fixing their sleeves, and zippering.

• We are really working on independence with activities of daily living (shoes, toileting, opening lunch items, cleaning up, packing/unpacking, etc.).  Please encourage this at home. Please practice especially opening and closing the Bento boxes! My mottoes are: “If you don’t try, you will never learn” and “I will help you with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING...as long as you TRY first”!!!  Hint...they can do WAY more than they let on =)

• Just a reminder to send lunch choices that your child likes and can eat independently and relatively “easily”.  Please send napkins daily and utensils as needed.

• Please save Popcorn for a home snack.  Popcorn is not recommended for children under four and can be a choking hazard.  Please cut grapes in half for the same reason.

• Have a great weekend!