In the light of the moon

Who would have guessed that five tiny painted lady caterpillars could bring so much joy to a classroom. A few weeks ago we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar in class. We used magnet pieces to retell the story.

                            

I love how the kiddos are using the text to help them retell the events in order. Oh how they love reading a familiar text.

Because we loved the story so much, James decided we should make a movie... which turned into our Mother's Day Play. Have you marked your calendars for Wednesday May 4th? We will present our little play in St. Augustine Hall beginning at 2:00. We will also serve light caterpillar themed refreshments. 

Our 7th Grade buddies helped us with costumes.

We are also getting really good at math. Our number sense has grown so much this year. In addition to being able to count, the students have a great foundation for numbers that are greater or less than. They can name the number that comes next in a series, usually without having to start at one to count. Two digit numbers can be read as tens and ones. They understand the concept of addition and are just beginning to explore subtraction. As a school we are researching a variety of Math textbooks for next year. After looking through the Kindergarten samples from a variety of publishers I am confident our little ones will do great things in Math next year. They have all worked so hard this year as we have laid the foundation for their school career. We are so proud of our little geniuses. 

    

Click the link to watch the video 

https://vimeo.com/164191169

And the reading! Spring is full of new life. Chicks hatching, tulips blooming, buds on trees. Preschool is no different. All our pieces we have slowly been accumulating over the course of the year are finally coming together. It is such a delight to listen to our kiddos read to friends, sound words out to spell and simply enjoy books. 

Of course we always have time to play...

Out Like a Lamb

We have been hard at work in Preschool this month. It is amazing how quickly the month flies by when we are working. The children have established great routines and the predictability of the school day has allowed them much independence.

We started the month celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss. We had guest readers from Cardinal Ritter High School. Never is a story read aloud in our class without a student partner sitting close by. They love to be up close to the book. Our guest reader was no exception.
                                                          

While our guest was reading I was taking pictures with my phone. A few friends discovered what I was doing. Amazing that they new how to change the camera on my phone to take selfies.

                                                   

Which led to Mrs. Faulk bringing in her selfie stick. They actually chose to leave their play stations to take pictures. Funny kids.

                                                   


We added a new twist to one of our favorite games 'Don't Break the Ice'. Numbers and letters are now written on the ice cubes. The children can only tap a cube if they know the letter, sound, or number.

We also brought back on of our favorites, writing words hidden under the table.

We added a new twist to this activity too. Each morning we write a sight word on our door and during play time the children look for the secret sight words hidden in the room. While not formally assessed in Preschool, you will see recorded the amount of sight words (from those we have introduced) your child is able to read consistently. We have a total of 20 sight words right now and most students are able to read at least half.

                                                                

Our seventh grade buddies stopped by one morning to plan an Easter Egg Hunt for the kiddos. We also colored eggs together. I am not sure who had more fun, the bigs or the littles.


   


   
                    

 

                                       

Hopefully your little one shared the Easter story with you. They loved the story so much, that some of them even painted the story during play time.

                                                            

We have had many visitors to our class bird feeder. We have a boy and girl cardinal, two squirrels we have named Picky and Nutty, two ducks, and now a goose. We love to look out the window at our visitors.

                                               

Mighty Mathematicians

For such a short month, February is chock full of great topics of study. We try to touch on Dental Health, Presidents, & Black History during the month of February. We often use literature to cover many of these topics. I love books and am always so happy to share a new find with the class. I usually pick a story relating to our weekly topic for our 'Bed Time Story'. We always set aside time to read books after lunch and before Brain Break. It is fairly unusual for me to get to read just one book. This class loves to share books from home. I LOVE this. Being passionate about literature, even if it is a Peppa Pig story, is a great foundation for future literacy. Below are a few current class favorites... our own little version of 'what are you reading?'

          

       

                                                   

Last week we took our post test for Math Shelf, the Math program we have been piloting as part of a case study. While we do not have data yet, all our students have shown growth since beginning the program in September. Our understanding of the ten frame is amazing. Not only are students adding within ten, they are now beginning to subtract. Our sweet video shows a few students practicing using their math vocabulary to talk through subtraction problems. There are lots of voices in the background (please ignore my over bearing voice prompting the kiddos) of happy children at work. Our class isn't always quiet, but I love hearing the sounds of children working. 

Catholic Schools Week Fun

We celebrated national Catholic Schools Week the first week in February. There were many fun dress up days and lots of celebration. Although Mrs. Faulk was in Florida with family much of the week, we both wanted to thank everyone, especially our amazing room parents for the specials treats during the week. We are certainly blessed to have the support of our families.

Monday was decades day. We began the day in church praying the rosary. We had everything from the 50s to the 80s.

                                     

Twin Day. Every class needs two Cinderellas

                                                     

Future Careers: A Gymnast, Ballerina, and Veterinarian

                                           



Another exciting day during Catholic Schools Week was the day our Ninja Turtles arrived. Many of the toys in our class used to belong to my girls Sarah and Hannah. It has been a fabulous way for me to clean the house out and save money. Unfortunately most of our little toys are Polly Pockets, Barbies, Disney Princesses, My Little Ponies. You name it, if it is pink and sparkly ~ Grandma bought it! The boys this year love love love Ninja Turtles. They have even created their own version of the turtles using some of our building toys. On a whim I decided to order two sets of Ninja Turtles for the class. The children were thrilled when the Amazon box arrived and they were able to unpack the new toys.

                                    

Our 7th Grade buddies came to visit that Friday to help us prepare for Fat Tuesday. We had purple, green, and yellow feathers and glitter everywhere.  Their masks were precious, and they all had a great time at the parade Tuesday.





                                         

The parade was loud, but the children loved it.

                     

We have started a few new procedures in our room. Every day after show and tell, the girls line up at the door to go down the hallway to use the Kindergarten bathroom. They walk with partners (and Mrs. Faulk) to the bathroom to wash their hands and go to the bathroom before rest. We are hoping to make their transition to Kindergarten, where they will not have access to a bathroom in their classroom, a little bit easier. The girls love it. Meanwhile the boys continue to use our class bathroom and then they help me with chair stacking while I vacuum our rug before rest.

We are also getting many student chosen books from home. Some students even dress like their books. How adorable is this?!

And in our free time, we love to get out our favorite pointers and read our sight words.  The words we are currently working on are is, for, the, and that.

Meet The Sight Words Part 1

Meet The Sight Words Video Part 2

Marshmallows, Penguins, and Bears Oh My!

This week instead of Library, our class was able to work with Mrs. Cassell in the Science Lab. They had a great time building shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows.  It is always so amazing watching the children move from creations in the imagination to a physical representation. I am not sure they know just how amazing a skill this is. And we are lucky enough to be witness to their brilliance. This is such an amazing time of year. The children are beginning to put together all the things they have learned and turn them into something new.  

                

Every other week our Seventh Grade buddies come to our rooms to help us with activities. On our last visit we worked together to create life size penguins. The big kids don't have much opportunity to craft. I am not sure who had more fun. We are so thankful when our buddies visit. There is no way we would have been able to trace 17 little bodies quickly enough to keep everyone happily crafting.

We also practiced our measuring skills with bears (and an assortment of stuffed animals). This was a fun way to use our math vocabulary to describe items as longer than/shorter than. It also allowed students meaningful practice in counting above 30. 

It might take a while to measure that long tail...

 Some groups got so creative, they started measuring each other. I love it when they take an activity and extend their learning to make it their own.