Pre-K 1 Happy Campers

Our themes during the month of January will be:
The Five Senses
Hibernation
Arctic Animals
Lunar New Year
Winter/Snow and Ice
Groundhog Day

Looking Back...(week of 1/23/23)
Pre-K students had a wintry week at school!  We read all about this chilly time of the year and discussed our favorite winter activities.  We observed the signs of the season around our school and then created our own class book all about winter fun.  We completed sparkly snowflakes, cozy mittens, and warm winter clothing crafts in the art center.  We also enjoyed reading the literature of Jan Brett and making observations about her detailed illustrations.  We worked together to create a Venn diagram showing the characters in two of her stories.  We worked on a snowman sequence activity and completed a magazine about snow after viewing a video about how water freezes.  Later, we "visited" the Buffalo Zoo for a chance to see some of the Arctic animals in action.  Our religion lesson helped us to learn more about God's gift of water and how it takes different forms due to temperature.  Finally, we spent time reading about Lunar New Year and working on a dragon puppet project.

Our picture perfect letter of the week was Pp and we enjoyed reading a poem about a panda named Pete.  We read books that helped us to identify the sound of Pp and we added Pp pictures to our classroom letter book and words to our word wall.  We added pumpkins to our notebooks and practiced tracing and writing Pp on paper after working on a pencil project.  In math, we continued to work on counting sets of items and representing numbers on a ten frame.  We acted out a poem about the number three and we practiced writing the numeral 3.  We also enjoyed playing a snowman counting game and working on a snowman number matching activity.

Looking Ahead...(week of 1/30/23)
The week ahead will be one of the most exciting parts of our school year.  We are looking forward to sharing all of our projects and learning experiences with parents and families.  Everyone is encouraged to join us for the Family Mass at 9:00 AM in the church and our school Open House from 10AM-1PM.  We will also have additional Open Houses on Monday and Tuesday before enjoying Pajama Day and our Winter Concert on Wednesday.  We will continue to learn more about snow and ice next week by completing a science experiment that will help us to find out what will cause ice to melt.  We will paint with colored ice that we made at school during the past week.  Another focus during the week will be Groundhog Day and the way shadows are made.  We will view a video about shadows and work on a groundhog puppet after learning a song about this interesting prognosticator.  We will make our own predictions about what will happen next Thursday and use our guesses to create a graph.

Our quirky letter of the week will be Qq and we will read a story that will help us to identify its sound.  We will practice tracing and writing Qq on paper after creating a letter Q quilt project in the art center.  Later, we will find Qq pictures on our alphabet chart and practice singing our phonics song.  In math, we will continue to count after reading a counting story and we will play a game that will help us to put numbers in order.  We will build numbers on a ten frame and practice writing the numeral 4 after acting out a poem about four.  We will also read about a favorite character and use the story for a counting exercise and craft.

Online Resources
*You can see a video about our school here!

*Fine motor activities are very important and will help the children to strengthen the muscles in their hands.  We do many of these activities in school and some of them can be done at home as well.  If you are seeking activities that can be done outside of school, you may like to refer to this list of fun and practical fine motor activities.

*Our class prays daily, including the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary."  
Before lunch, we pray:
Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts,
which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, 
through Christ, our Lord.  Amen. 

After lunch, we pray:
We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits,
O Lord, who livest and reignest world without end.  Amen 

Before snack, we pray
Thank You for the food we eat; thank You for the friends we meet.  
Thank You for our work and play; thank You for this happy day.  Amen.

Additional Home Activities
You may be looking for ideas for activities that you can do with your child at home over the weekend.  Please remember to read together every day.  Here are some other activities you can do at home together at any time:

Puzzles
Building
Free Art
Drawing
Water play
Play dough
Watercolor painting
Cooking and baking