Paetow, Mrs. P. J. (Pre-K3)

Welcome to St. Michael's Preschool!

 We Are All God's Children, Chosen and Loved!

Happy New Year!....It's "Snow Wonderful" in Preschool!

I would like to begin by wishing all of my preschool families a happy and healthy 2012.  May you be blessed with many opportunities to explore God's beautiful gifts of winter, crisp clean air...those days when the  sun shines and it feels so wonderful and yes... snow...the nice fluffy snowman building type that is perfect for family play! I am excited to welcome ouryoungest students back to St. Michael.  The hustle and bustle of the holidays is a memory and the children areready to return to their routines. Our month of January isvery busy as we explore the wonderful world of winter!

January/February Calendar Dates

• Monday, January 9...school reopens
  
• Monday, January 16...No school...Martin Luther King birthday
  
• Friday, January 20....No Preschool...Open House for New Families
  
• Sunday, January 29...Catholic Schools Week Mass @ 9:00am followed by Open House 10:00 am - 12noon
• Wednesday, February 1...PreK-3 M/W/F pajama day
  
• Thursday, February 2...PreK-3 T/Th pajama day
• Thursday, February 9...PreK-3 T/Th VIP Day
• Friday, Februray 10...PreK-3 M/W/F VIP Day
  

 

 JANUARY WEEKLY THEMES (Winter Wonderland)

• January 9...Snow
• January 16...Animals in Hibernation
  
• January 23...Ice, Igloos and Penguins
• January 30...Catholic Schools Week
  

 

 St. Michael's littlest peacemakers!

The month of January is always special in Catholic schools.  We celebrate all the wonderful reasons we love attending a Catholic school. I love having the opportunity to share my faith with the children and they in kind share their love for Jesus with me! The theme of our school this school year is Peace. In keeping with that theme the preschool students talk about what peace means to them and brainstorm ways that they could exhibit peace.  I refer to my students as "God's littlest peacemakers". As you will see at Open House the PreK-3 students really understand God's message of loving eachother.

Religion
The preschool children are learning that God is the creator of all things. The Loyola Press religion series entitled God Made Me is used by the PreK-3 students to help them understand that God created them and made them good, happy, active and special. God Made the World will be the series used by the PreK-4 students to learn that God made living things, including people, holy things, the eath and other wonderful surprises. Our daily prayer reflects our belief that God is loving, caring and watching over us.

Art
The preschool children use many media and materials to express what they see, interpret, and think about our world.  We introduce these mediums one at a time to allow for direction of proper use. Your classroom weekly newsletter will highlight class specific projects. Some of the planned art projects for the month of January are:

• Trinity Snowman...relating the 3 snowballs to the Holy Trinity
• Sparlikng Snowflakes
• God's littlest peacemaker body tracing/ paintings
• Penguins
• Polar Bears
  

 

Social Studies 

The focus of the month of January is on the season of winter. We dress our weather bear daily in appropriate clothing for the weather. The preschool children sort through the "laundry" in the dress up area for the clothing that is  necessary for the colder temperatures.

We will explore our globe and locate other cold weather locations.

Styrofoam pieces will be available for igloo structures.

We will build caves and hibernate as our animal friends do

The PreK-3 children retell stories in sequence...first. next, last and yesterday, today and tomorrow 

Martin Luther King, the peacemaker. will be a focal point the week of January 16.

Science
The science area in the classroom is ever changing...for our "snowstorm" the sensory table is filled with cotton balls, pom poms, shredded white paper and ping pong balls.  The students love digging and measuring in the snow.  Weather permitting real snow will be brought in to the room as well.  During the week of January 23 the children will explore the properties of ice. We will add food coloring to water, put them in the freezer and see what happens. The children will the use their frozen ice cube markers to draw pictures.

Math
Our calendar work provides numerous opportunities for exploration of number concepts.  The children count the number days in a month and the number of days we have attended school thus far.   We will graph information on a weekly basis using the following questions.

• Would you rather build a snowman or go sledding
  
• Haveyou ever ice skated?
  
• How many "snowballs" (styrofoam balls) tall are you?                 
  

The preschool children begin patterning on their first day of school.  As the school year progresses  the patterning level of difficulty increases.The children will use an ABBABB pattern for both their calendar work and individual seat work. as we start the year.The pattern for the month of January is snowman, snowflake, snowflake eg. The preschoolers individual patterning work will involve a similiar pattern using penguins and snowflakes. Using styrofoam "snowballs"  the children will be able to count, sort and order them by size.

 Reading Readiness
Each week the students focus on a letter of the week.  The children compile a list of words that begin with the letter....we list those words and hang them up for the week...the children look in the classroom mailbox for items that begin with the letter of the week.  The children work on an activity relating to that letter...some students use stickers to outline the shape of the letter, some trace the letter, others write the letter independently. An art activity is completed to compliment the letter awareness...ie for letter of the week S the students will use snowman stickers for a project.

The letters of the week for the month of January are

• 1/9    Letter S...Snow...snowflakes
• 1/16   Letter Z...zzzz says the sleeping bear...zig zag lines
  
• 1/23   Letter I...Ice...ice cube painting
  
• 1/30   No letter of the week
  

 

The children will begin to explore the signs and symbols around the room to equate the words with their pictures. Winter words have been added to the writing/ language center.  They will begin to recognize the individual letters and written form of their names. As children create projects, the teachers will take dictation and write the children's responses  on their projects.  The childen are beginning to create their own books using drawings and letters.  Each class will "author" books related to different themes throughout the year. During the month of January the children will draw a picture of themselves and their snowman. The students will then dictate their adventures to me. These books will be bound for sharing with our preschool families. It is really fun to sit and listen to our preschool children "read" their class books!

Large Motor/Music
The focus of our January music and movement will be related to snow and ice. We will create a "snowstorm" in the gym using our parachute and bag of cotton balls.  The students will "ice skate" in the gym as well. How? you ask...simply stepping on sheets of paper and "skating" around. The freeze dance is always a hit at this time of year and well as dancing like snowflakes as the children move to different types of music.

We might even have a "snowball" toss...rolled up white socks are the best indoor snowballs that do not hurt on contact.