September
Our weekly themes during the month of September will be:
Welcome to School!
All About Me
Apples
Bears

Looking Back (Week of 9/20/21)
Our apple week was a success in Pre-K!  We had fun working on apple artwork, including apple suncatchers, mosaic apples, and apple seed fingerprints.  We read about apples using fictional and informational texts.  We identified some of the characters in the fictional stories and noticed the differences in the illustrations.  We also worked on identifying the front and back cover of each book we read.  Later in the week, we read about Johnny Appleseed and created our own cooking pot hats.  We looked at real apples and identified similarities and differences.  We made hypotheses about whether an apple would sink or float in water and then put them to the test.  At the end of the week, we enjoyed tasting three types of apples and voting for our favorites.  Mrs. Durkin stopped by to vote for red apples and we created a graph to show the results.  

We began our letter study with the appealing letter Aa!  We looked for Aa words on our alphabet chart and then practiced tracing and writing the letter Aa on paper and in our alphabet books.  We are working hard at using "pinching fingers" when coloring and writing.  In math, we learned an apple tree counting song and practiced removing one apple at a time from the tree.  We noticed the number of apples getting lower each time we did that.  We voted for our favorite ways to eat apples and created a graph.  This activity helped us to compare quantities and count using one-to-one correspondence.
   
Looking Ahead (Week of 9/27/21)
Our week ahead will be busy as we explore the letter Bb and bears.  We will read about bears and use our books to identify color words.  We will work on a brown bear puppet project in the art center before using watercolors to create name artwork.  We will also have fun painting with balloons and playing with bubbles outside.  On Friday, we invite everyone to bring a bear to school for Show and Tell.  We will celebrate Bb with a Bear and Bagel Breakfast on Friday morning.  We will send home a permission form this week, so please let me know if your child should not eat any of the items on the list.  Thank you!

This week, we will work on tracing and writing curving lines on paper.  We will look at the shape of letter Bb and practice writing it after listening for the sound that Bb makes at the beginning of words.  We will sort words based on beginning sound and then find Bb words on our alphabet chart.  We will learn a poem about Bb and practice our letter sound song during circle time.  We invite everyone to wear blue on Friday.  In math, we will continue to extend our September pattern before walking around our school to find different shapes.

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