Kindergarten Capers

Week of 8/23/10

The children had a great week learning the blue color song,  about Creation, practicing our Listening and Following Directions Skills, Nursery Rhymes,especially Little Boy Blue,  and meeting new Buddies.

In Reading we continue to work on writing the letters of the alphabet, identifying letters that are missing, completing activities by listening and following directions, and working without talking. This week we will complete our focus on fairy tales and fables and identify environmental print before moving into our first theme “All About Me”. 

In Religion we have been working on our Creation Books and the students created “god’s Sky Lights” mobiles.  This week we will continue with Creation activities related to the theme as we now look into how we can take care of God’s world.  We are also working on praying with reverence and practicing Mass procedures.  This Wednesday we will attend our first Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in our Chapel.

Sorting objects by one attribute and identifying objects that were alike and different were the concepts taught in Math this week.  Sorting by more than one attribute and identifying groups that have more, less or that are equal will be covered this week.  

Thank you for all who attended  our Curriculum Night.  If you were unable to attend, the information folder was sent home in your child’s backpack on Friday.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or talk to me after school. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - these are a MUST every day.  It is important that the children stay hydrated in this extreme heat.

STAR OF THE WEEK - If you did not sign up for a week for your child on Thursday, I will be emailing you this week with the available weeks.

VOLUNTEERS - I also have signup sheets for volunteers in the classroom and at home.  If you would like to signup, please let me know.  All volunteers must take the Called to Protect class.  There is a 3 hour initial class and then yearly followup classes that can be done on line.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

  Kindergarten Capers

week of 8/16/10

Everyone survived their first official week of Kindergarten.

This week our focus was on practice, practice,and more practice,of our rules and procedures. By Friday the children were asked to unpack on their own.  We did remind them of what to take out of their backpacks, but it was up to them to get their snack, water bottle, lunchbox, and backpack to their designated area. All were successful with a few minor redirections.  Now we are focusing on packing up at the end of the day.  This always seem to be a hard concept to grasp.  Even though they were shown how to put things into their backpack, most items are left out. With time, this will also be mastered.

On Monday the children met their Religion Buddies.  Every Monday we meet to complete activities related to our theme or the Gospel for the week.  We also began our theme on Creation.  With this each child creates an art activity to represent the days.  Once the book is finished, we will read it together and it will be sent home. We are also practicing the Sign of the Cross and prayers with reverence.  On Friday we attended our first all school Mass and the class did an outstanding job of remembering our Mass procedures.  Please have your child participate in the Mass when you attend as a family.  We are practicing genuflecting by kneeling straight up, holding hands during the Our Father, giving the Sign of Peace, and receiving a blessing by standing in front of the Eucharistic Minister or Priest for the entire blessing.

The children were introduced to our reading workbooks.  The first half of the workbook is a review of each letter in order.  The children practice writing the letters and identifying the letter we are working with in an activity.  There is also a daily listening and following directions activity.  The stories are familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

In Language Arts our focus was on the color red and the oval.  The children learned the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme, they listened to a story where he was put back together again, they created their Humpty Dumpty on the wall using partners for tracing the oval pattern, they used their cutting and gluing skills along with listening and following directions skills.

Our first week of Math activities was an overview of the year. This week we begin our first chapter on comparing and sorting objects.

On Friday we completed our first experiment with our fifth grade Science Buddies.  Our “egg”speriment was to see if you could cook an egg outside.  The groups decided on a type of holder for their eggs and then they were placed outside for 3 hours.  The result was that every egg cooked to some degree.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS, WATTER BOTTLES, AND LUNCH DRINK - please pack one every day.

SHOW & TELL - your child has Show & Tell one day every week.  The  one item should fit into their backpack.

VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION - please return these forms in your child’s Friday Folder.  All folders should be turned in by Tuesday.

HOMEWORK - their is an assignment for every day of the week.  The homework is not returned until Friday.  Please keep all papers in the folder.

CURRICULUM NIGHT - Thursday, Aug. 26th, 6:30 - 8:30.  There are 2 sessions for parents who have to attend more than 1 room.  Sign up sheets for class parties, volunteers in classroom and field trips, Star Students, and cleaning tables will be available that night.

LATE ARRIVALS - If you arrive after 8:00 a.m., your child does need to go to the office for a pass to class.

Have a safe and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop  

      Kindergarten Capers

It was a pleasure meeting everyone this week. We had a great start to our school year and I am looking forward to a fun and exciting year of learning and growing in God’s love.

We do begin our year with themes the children are familiar with.  During the first few weeks we  continuously practice the many school rules and procedures that all Kindergartners need to know.  It always makes me giggle when you hear the many sighs and “we have to do it again” when we repeat things over and over whether it be walking to line, walking to the carpet, unpacking and packing up, voice levels, raising your hand to speak, or sitting on the quiet carpet.  But mastering these skills helps the year to involve more fun activities and a lot of learning occurring.

Next week we begin the review of nursery rhymes, shapes and colors.  The children will receive their first homework assignment on Monday with the week’s directions.  This is one of my favorite assignments which involves parent assistance.  Each child will create the cutout person in their likeness.  You can use whatever materials you like to accomplish this. 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

HATS & SUNGLASSES - It is still very hot outside and we will have recess twice a day.  Please send a hat or sunglasses with your child.

WATER BOTTLES - a must in Arizona.  Please send in a water bottle every day.  This way your child can stay hydrated throughout the day.  If their water bottles empty, we will always refill them.

LUNCH - please let your child know when they are hot lunch.  We do need to identify the children each day.  They also have the option to purchase white milk, chocolate milk, or juice at lunch for $.40. If your child is not purchasing milk, please send a drink in their lunch box.  We usually do not take the water bottles to lunch.

END OF DAY - if your child is parent pickup, please have them say good-bye to me before you leave.  This way I know they have been picked up and they have not wondered off, or ended up in the MAP & carpool line.

ROOM PARENT - I am looking for another room parent for our class.  Dawn Breen is a seasoned room parent who is looking for assistance in the many things room parents are in charge of.  If you are interested, please let me know.

I feel very blessed to be teaching your little blessings this year.  If you ever have any questions, please feel free to see me before or after school, or email me.

Have a very blessed week. 

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

In a few weeks we will begin the new Kindergarten year.  I am very excited about having your child in our class.

The following is the list of supplies for Kindergarten:

3 - rolls of Paper Towels(any brand)

1 - Watercolor Paint, Crayola, 16 ct.

6 - boxes of Crayons, Crayola 24 ct. 

3 - Clorox wipes

1 - 3-Ring Binder, 1" White, View

1 - Scissors, Blunt 5" (Fiskars are the best)

1 - Glue, Elmers, 4 oz White

2 - Markers, Crayola 10 ct. Broad Washable

3 - Colored Pencils, 24 ct.

2 - Zipper Seal Bags, High Quality, Quart, 25 ct.

2 - Zipper Seal Bags, High Quality, Gallon, 20 ct.

2 - Tissues, Puffs, 216ct (what ever count available)

4 - Plastic Pocket Folder, Assorted colors

1 - #2 Pencils, Ticonderoga,12 ct.

12 - Glue Stick, .26 oz, Permanent

If you did not purchase these supplies online, they may be purchased at Target or Walmart at a lower cost.  I would also like to include a small pencil box(usually about $1-$2) to hold your child’s personal crayons, a glue stick,  and their scissors.  

I am looking forward to an exciting and fun year.  Our year will begin with:  reviewing colors and shapes through Nursery Rhymes 

learning classroom and school procedures and rules

Religion theme - Creation

Social Studies - All About Me

         Reading - review of letter recognition, writing letters,

Math - sorting and classifying objects

 

I am looking forward to seeing everyone on August 9th, at Meet the Teacher.

Before school begins, please email me with your child’s favorite color.

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend and week.

Mrs. Carol Prezkop

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 5/10/10

It is hard to believe that the year is quickly coming to an end.  We still have lots to do and we are busy right up until our last day.

In Reading we are plugging along with our workbook.  I am currently enjoying listening to children read.  I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they realize that reading is becoming a lot easier.

We are currently completing the Growing in Love portion of our Religion curriculum.  This reviews objectives taught during the year through various activities and the stories that you are completing for homework. 

In Math we have been working with subtraction.  This week it will be the combination of addition and subtraction.  All children will be asked to count one last time.  We currently have 98 % of the class counting to 200 or higher.  The goal is to have 100% at this goal. 

We are slowly moving through the countries for our “around the world”.  We may have to pass on a few countries if the children continue to take a long time to complete the activities.  Please encourage your child to stay focused, which I know is getting difficult to do, and work hard on the fun activities in store for them.  

This week we will be practicing for our class mass on Friday, May 21st.  All children have a part in our mass and all parents are encouraged to attend.  It is a very special time for every child and hopefully many of you will be able to attend our school mass.

In addition to the mass we will also begin learning our songs for our “Welcome Home Party” on Thursday, May 27th.    This is a fun night for the entire family. You should have received your invitation in your child’s Friday Folder.  Please return the  RSVP form at your earliest convenience.

On Monday you will receive a t-shirt form to be completed.  It is our tradition to have a Kindergarten t-shirt that all children sign.  We will begin signing them on Monday, May 24th.  This way we are not scrambling on Friday to get them done.

Thursday, May 20th is our Father’s Day Breakfast.  If dad is not available, someone else may share this morning with your child.  This will be held in the MPR from 7:30 - 8:30 a.m.

Wednesday, May 19th, is denim dollar day.

Have a very blessed week. 

Carol Prezkop 

 

Kindergarten Capers

week of 5/3/10

This was a craft week in Kindergarten.  The children tissued paper their pinata animals, they painted their Mother’s Day frames, and created one of a kind bracelets and Mother’s Day cards. 

On Wednesday we attended Adoration and then returned for Benediction toward the end of the day.  It was a great experience and the first time that Kindergarten had the privilege of being the class at the close of Adoration.

In Reading they children filled in the blanks to complete the sentences.  In Journals the sentences are developing nicely and we began our Travel Journal entries with our trip to Mexico.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with our own fiesta and crafts.  We ended the week with our Mother’s Day breakfast.

The signup for the Around the Wold snacks is posted on the board outside the room.  The signup is for treats to be brought in when we are learning about the various countries.  The order is Brazil, Egypt, Kenya, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Australia, and Canada.  It is a lot of ground to cover over the next three weeks.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Tuesday, May 11th - $3 Free Shoe and Untucked Shirt Day - proceeds to Friends of the Orphans.  Any class that brings in $90 will have a free dress day on the 13th.

Thursday, May 20th - Father’s Day breakfast - 7:30-8:30 a.m.

Friday, May 21st - our class Mass - parts will be assigned by Tuesday of this week.

Thursday, May 27th - Welcome Home Party - everyone welcomed 6:00-7:30 p.m.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

To all the moms,

Happy Mother’s Day 

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 4/26/10

The weeks are flying by and we are now entering our last month of school.  I don’t know where the year has gone.

This past week the class took their first standardized test, the Gates- MacGinitie Reading Test.  These tests assessed  literacy concepts, oral language concepts, letters and letter-sound correspondences and listening comprehension.  It also involved focused listening skills because the directions could only be given once.

In Reading the children are using their sight word knowledge to fill in the blanks to complete sentences and to read in small groups.  It is so much fun to listen to the children read.  In journals the children are encouraged to write more than one sentence and to read what they have written before saying they are done.  In addition to are regular journals, we will be completing travel journals for our imaginary trip around the world.

We have set off to our first destination on our trip.  We are visiting Mexico where we will celebrate Cinco de Mayo before jetting off to Brazil and the Amazon rainforest.  This year the class assessment for this multicultural unit will be the writing of an alphabet book.  The book will be share at our Welcome Home Party on Thursday, May 27th.

In Math we have completed  our addition section and will begin subtraction.  We will continue with the 2 minute math, increasing the levels as the sections are mastered.  We will also continue with addition in centers using our bean counters to practice the combinations in the fact families.

On Wednesday your child should bring home their pinata they have created.  These take on a life of their own.  They are not simple pinatas, but unique animal creations. l

am looking forward to the final product.  We are still looking for cheese for the nachos and tostadas.  This will be for our Cinco de Mayo part on Wednesday and the end of Mexico.  There will be a signup sheet for anyone interested in bringing in a nut free treat for the countries we will be visiting.  The countries are Brazil, Kenya, Egypt, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Australia (already taken), Canada, and the United States is our Party.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

MONDAY. May 3rd - NO SCHOOL

Friday, May 7th - Mother’s Day breakfast.  All children and their moms come to the room at 7:30.

Other save the dates:  Thursday, May 20th - Father’s Day breakfast

                                     Thursday, May 27th - Welcome Home Party - this will be a family   

                                     invitation

Friday - May 21st - our class Mass.  Every child has a part in this Mass.

Friends of the Orphans - we are very far behind on donations.  Please have your child do a special chore to earn money to donate.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 4/12/10

This week we celebrated Easter with the story of Jesus rising from the dead and creating our windsocks that stated “Jesus is Alive”.  One story included the gospel from this weekend and I hope that your child recognized the story of the apostles becoming fishers of men.  We also had a fun Easter egg hunt.

In Journals the children continue to improve in their writing and their creativity on the completion of squiggles.  They are using their reading skills to complete sentences with the missing words and their knowledge of the red words when reading in small groups.  Please continue to practice the red words with your child.  The more words they know, the easier reading becomes, and it will be very beneficial for first grade.  

We completed our unit on measurement in Math.  The results on the chapter test and the cumulative review were the best results we have had all year.  It showed great focus and listening by all.  This week we will begin addition.  Along with our workbook we will be looking at fact patterns and begin the 2 minute math fact computation.

In Science the children learned about the life cycles of the ladybug and the butterfly.  The ladybug life cycle activity was sent home on Friday and the butterfly life cycle mobiles will be hanging in our room.  This week we will have a writing activity related to butterflies.

Once we complete our butterfly unit, the remainder of the year will be focused on our multicultural Social Studies unit, as we take our imaginary trip “Around the World”.

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WEDNESDAY - April 21st - denim dollar day- wear a green shirt and jeans  for $2.00            

Family Dinner Night - Panda Express and then stop by at Baskin Robbins. Stop by between 6:00-6:30 and I’ll scoop  your favorite ice cream for you.

WEDNESDAY - April 21st - Progress Reports

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

  Kindergarten Capers

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter and restful break.

In Religion we will be talking about the Easter season, how Jesus appeared to his friends, and how Jesus is present in our Christian community and with them.

This week we begin our unit on insects and butterflies. The children will learn about the life cycles of the butterfly and ladybug through fun activities and art projects.  This will be followed by our imaginary trip around the world.  This is our major social studies unit that will be taking place during the last 6 weeks of school. 

In Math we will be finishing our unit on Measurement.  This is followed by addition and subtraction.  The children will learn about the patterns in addition and subtraction and practice their math facts through the “Mad Minute”.

We will continue with creating stories, writing, and reading.  The connection between the red words and reading is being made and many children are becoming quite the reader.  Keep up the practice of these words.  The more your child knows, the easier first grade will be for them.

Important information:

EGGS - if you haven’t sent in your 6 filled plastic eggs, they are due tomorrow.  We will be having an egg hunt first thing in the morning.

SAVE THE DATES:

         May 20th - 7:30-8:30 - Father’s Day Breakfast

         May 27th - 6:00-7:30 p.m. - Welcome Home Party

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 3/22/10

This week the Kindergartners had a great time at the Desert Botanical Garden.  They learned about the magic in plants and the highlight was the visit to the butterfly exhibit.  Many children were hoping that a butterfly would land on them.  A few did have that experience and Mrs. Johnson had not one but three land on her.  The children also had the opportunity to watch a butterfly emerge from it’s chrysalis on Friday. Thanks to Emily for this great opportunity.

Our field day was rained out on Tuesday,  but the children had a great time outside on Thursday afternoon.  I never knew how competitive some of them are.  It was a great day and even if you were not on purple before field day, everyone ended the day on purple.  They were great at taking turns, being enthusiastic about the games and having fun.  So my thank you was a purple day.

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to attend a Childsplay production of “Tomato Plant Girl”. The children enjoyed the play and readily identified the characters who were nice and kind and the one that was the bully.

Assessments for red words and writing numbers was also done this week.  The results were outstanding.  I hope you had a chance to look at your child’s results on red word recognition, which was in their Friday Folder.  We still have two months left to continue to work on word recognition. We are currently assessing through 1st grade words.  If your child knows these words, then the 2nd grade list will be sent home on Monday.  The number writing results will be sent home also.  Many children have written well beyond 30.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

ST. JOE’S - collection of items is underway.  Kindergarten has treasure box toys, bouncy balls.

FILLED EGGS - 6 filled plastic eggs are due by Thursday.  Our egg hunt is on Monday,April 12th.

Have a very blessed Holy Week.

Carol Prezkop  

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 3/15/10

This week  in Religion the children learned about St. Patrick, we discussed what trees and people need too grow, and we were visited by Fr. Hoorman to discuss Noah’s Ark.   Fr. Hoorman was very impressed with what the children knew about Noah’s Ark and their questions that they asked him.

In Reading the children learned about the plot in a story, they identified characters, and they filled in the missing words to complete sentences.  In Journals one of the entries was about what they would do with a pot of gold.  Many children wrote that they would give to the poor and I even had one that would give to Habitat for Humanity.

We worked with non standard measurement in Math.  The class measured the length of objects with cubes and they estimated and then measured the length of objects to see how close their estimation was. This week the class will be introduced to finding the area of objects and then they will compare the weights of objects to determine which is heavier or lighter.

For science the children completed a number of activities with pennies.  They cleaned pennies in different solutions, they created  aluminum foil boats to see how many pennies it took to sink the boat, and they practiced depth perception with dropping pennies into a cup having one eye closed, both eyes closed, and both eyes opened.

This week the majority of the class was assessed on their knowledge of red words.  The remaining children will be completed by Wednesday due to the field trip and field day.  You will receive the results once they are completed.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

MONDAY, March 22nd - Botanical Garden field trip.  Children wear jeans or jean shorts with their polo shirts.  Please have your child bring a hat and water bottle. Please apply sunscreen to exposed skin. We will return to school for lunch.

TUESDAY, March 23rd - field day.  Please have your child wear their PE uniform.  They can wear a club shirt or their polo shirt.  Again, please have your child bring a hat and water bottle.  Please apply sunscreen to exposed skin. 

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

week of 3/8/10

This was a short but very busy week. Friday marked the end of the third quarter and we are now entering the fourth and final quarter of the year.

This week we began our new Reading book with the theme of realism vs. fantasy.  The children identified words and pictures that began with the letter “L”,  they identified things that were fantasy, and completed sentences with the high frequency word, is.  Journal writing is plugging along with our focus on writing complete sentences as if they were talking to their friends.  Next week we will begin small group story writing during our Center time as the children prepare for first grade.  We will also be assessing the red words and you will be notified at the end of the week, where your child is at this time.

In Religion we talked about forgiveness and the meaning of to forgive.  The children’s intentions are now focusing on people instead of pets, unless their pets are ill.  It touched my heart that so many of them included my mom in their intentions.  Next week we will talking about how we change and grow and how things in God’s world change and grow.

We began our next unit in Math on measurement.  The first few lessons were on identifying things by taller, longer, and shorter.  We begin this week with non standard forms of measurement and estimating how long objects are.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

FIELD TRIP - this is now on Monday, March 22nd.  The children will be wearing their polo shirts with jeans. A hat is recommended because we will be outside for two hours.

FIELD DAY - March 23rd.  The children are to wear their PE uniforms.  Again we will be outside for about three hours and a hat and sunscreen is recommended.

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop  

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 2/8/10

Thank you parents for taking part in your child’s Student-Led Conferences this week.  The children did an outstanding job in presenting their work, reading their entries, and reading a story to you.  I will revisit their  3rd quarter goals with them in two weeks to see how they think their progress toward meeting their goals is coming.

A big thank you to Marian Henderson and Candice Castro for planning a fun Valentine’s Day Party for the class.  Also a big thank you to the parents who were able to come and help.  This made the rotation of centers very easy and all centers were covered with adult supervision.  Thank you.  Thank you.

In Math we practiced time on the hour with our paper analog clocks.  This week we continue to identify time on the hour and matching it to the digital time, time on the half hour, and then on to money.  

This week we have Ash Wednesday, Lent, Arizona’s birthday which was on Valentine’s Day, Presidents, Mardi Gras, and Chinese New Year.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SWEAT SHIRTS - please have your child’s name on the label.  We have 2 sweatshirts in our room that are unclaimed.

HOMEWORK - please have your child write his or her first and last name on all papers.  I am still receiving papers without names.  Papers without names or unfinished are completed on Monday in class. It is important that Homework is completed accurately and directions followed.  

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 2/1/10

In celebration of Catholic Schools Week, we had fun with game day, lunch outside,and crazy sock day.  The cans across campus to help St. Vincent de Paul was a great success.  Thank you for your generosity in overflowing are large box. Our Special Person’s Day was also a success with our guests adopting the children without special guests for our time together.

In Religion we created a number of prayer intention chains that are hung in our room.  We have intentions with our Religion Buddies, both 6th grade Reading Buddies, and our special guests.  Our prayer intentions are a part of our faith and we proudly display them in our classroom.  The children also listened to this weeks Gospel story of Jesus calling people to follow him.

The children continue to fill in the missing word to complete sentences, identify pictures that begin with a particular sound, and  are now reading the sentences they complete. The later being a great way to have all children read on a given day.  In Journals the children continue to work on writing complete sentences.  The requirement is one sentence but more than one sentence is encouraged.

In Math we worked with the concepts of time of day and seasons.  We continue to count past 100, by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.  The children were also assessed on writing numbers up to 30.  They are given five minutes to  write as far as they can.  This week we will go on to time on the hour and half hour and then money in conjunction with Presidents Day.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

BOX-TOPS - our class now earns money for box tops collected.  Last month we earned $17.00.

DENIM DOLLAR DAY - will be on Wednesday, Feb. 10th instead of Feb. 17th which is Ash Wednesday and a Mass day.

YEARBOOKS - are now on sale.  You may purchase them online, the link is on the SJB homepage on the left side, or by check, made out to SJB.  The cost is $33.00 and the entire yearbook is in color.

CONFERENCES - these are on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and are student-led.  Dismissal is as 12:00 noon on both days.

VALENTINE’S DAY PARTY - Thursday, Feb. 11th, 10:00 a.m.-12:p.m.

If you would like to donate juice boxes, plates, or a fruit platter or fruit kabobs, please let me know.

Have a wonderful and blessed week.  

Carol Prezkop  

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 1/31/10

The weeks are zooming by and we have already come to the end of January.

This week we continued to talk about Noah’s Ark in Religion through various stories.  The children have completed an emergent reader book on Noah’s Ark, which will be ready to take home this week.  We reviewed our Mass procedures and we continue to practice praying with reverence and not with disrespect.  This week we finish our theme and continue with the gospel themes of Jesus is the good news, Jesus faces rejection ,and how children can deal with their own problems.

In Reading we continue to work with the onset and rime of words and the individual phonemes of words,  completing sentences with the correct word, identifying pictures that begin with a particular sound, reading sentences, and meeting in small reading groups.  In Journals children are encouraged to write more than one sentence related to the topic.  This week we will be creating a small paragraph, step by step, on their favorite zoo animal.

The children reviewed and identified the days of the weeks, they used a calendar to answer questions and obtain information,and they identified activities that occur during various times of day, in Math this week.  We also continue to count by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 110.  

Our trip to the Phoenix Zoo was  a lot of fun and would be possible without the great chaperones we had with us.  Thank you very much for your time.

The month of February is very busy.  This week is Catholic Schools Week, we have Dental Health, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Arizona’s birthday, Presidents Day, and Heart Month.  We also have Student-led Conferences on February 8th and 9th.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS - Please, please, have your child pack a snack on Friday.  

CONFERENCES - The schedule will be in your child’s Special Folder on Monday.  Please return this ASAP.  Conferences will be scheduled as they are received.  All conferences are mandatory.

PROGRESS REPORTS - these will be sent home on Wednesday, Feb. 3rd.  Please have your Conference form back by Wednesday, so that I may send home your child’s Progress Report in their Special Folder.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK:

MONDAY - please send in canned foods with your child.

TUESDAY - jersey day with PE shorts.  We will be outside from 11:30-1:00 for fun and games.

WEDNESDAY - crazy sock day

THURSDAY - red, white, and blue day.  Children may wear anything that is red, white, and blue.  The school shoes must be worn.  We will be making a human chain to pass the food to the St. Vincent de Paul Pantry.

FRIDAY - Special Person’s Day

Have a very blessed week.   Thank you for being a part of our Catholic School.

Carol Prezkop

     Kindergarten Capers

Week of 1/18/10

This week the children learned about Martin Luther King, Jr, we began our Noah’s Ark  and Zoo themes, and we celebrated the 100th day of school.

In Religion the children learned about Jesus’ first miracle, and we began talking about Noah’s Ark.  The children have created their pairs of animals for our classroom ark, which are quite cute.  We continue to work on praying with reverence and Mass procedures.  It is great to see more and more children participating in the Mass responses and songs.

We continue to work on the onset and rime of words and the segmenting of phonemes as part of our daily phonemic awareness in reading.   The children are reading sentences and filling in the missing words, identifying pictures that begin with a specific letter, and reading emergent readers.  In Journals more and more children are trying to write more than one sentence.  They sound out their words phonetically, use spacing between words, use their word list and word wall, and the end punctuation is beginning to appear on a regular basis.  In order to strengthen journal writing, ask your child some words and have them tell you what sounds they hear.  Also, have them tell you what they are going to write on Monday about their weekend.

In Math we finished our fourth unit and are now beginning our fifth unit on calendars, time, and money.  We celebrated the 100th day by sharing the items each child counted out, we counted to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s, the children wrote numbers to 100, they wrote the missing numbers to 100,  and they came up with 100 words.  They also made 100 glasses and headbands.  The glasses all have 100 dots of glitter on them.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS - Please send one every day.  Friday appears to be the forgotten day.  I have run out of extra snacks.  Please, please, have your child pack his or her snack on Friday also.

Sweatshirts & Jackets - please remember to have your child’s name on the tag.  Also, a reminder that no hoods are allowed.

ZOO - Wed., Jan. 27th - the children need to bring their lunch.  We will be eating at the Zoo.

Have a great and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop    

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 1/11/10

The class is slowly getting back into the swing of things.  This past week our theme was Penguins.  We created a list of things they know and we reviewed what they learned.  On Tuesday we will compare the penguin facts that they learned to the original list to see how many of the known facts are true.

In Religion we talked about the baptism of Jesus.  The children made doves with our Religion Buddies to symbolize the Holy Spirit, your child should have brought home an emergent story about the baptism of Jesus, they completed a maze and we discussed the Gospel message in our Promise handout.  This week we will discuss Jesus’ first miracle and begin my favorite unit, Noah’s Ark. 

This past week, in Math, the children modeled the numbers 11 & 12, they identified two sets and the total number, they ordered numbers, and identified ordinal numbers to the tenth position.  This week we will use more and fewer to compare sets of objects, we will make and identify equal groups, and celebrate a complete day doing activities for the 100th day.  On Thursday, January 21st, we will be celebrating our 100th day of school.  Each child is to bring in 100 items (they must fit in a baggie) for our Math class.  

In Reading the children identified pictures that began with the /c/ sound, blended the onset and rime of words and segmented words into individual phonemes.  They completed sentences with the missing word and read a take home story.  These simple stories are used for comprehension questions, review of high frequency and red words, and fluency.

I am in the process of meeting with each child and having them tell me their goal or goals(up to 3) for the third quarter.  I also have my goal or goals for them for this quarter. We have talked about what goals are and examples of a goal that can be reached.  Once they are completed, you will receive a copy of your child’s goals.

This week we will be talking about Martin Luther King Jr., Noah’s Ark and Zoo and endangered animals.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS & WATER BOTTLES - please have your child pack one every day.

JACKETS - please have your child’s name on the tag.  We have two items in our room that no one has claimed.  A  navy school sweatshirt with the name Hamilton on the label, and a snap front jacket.  Please let me know if these belong to your child.

WED., Jan 20th - Denim Dollar Day.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 1/7/10

Happy New Year!  Welcome back to the second half of our year.  The first half of the year has zoomed by and we are now entering our third quarter. 

This week the children had a bit of difficulty adjusting to being back in school and having to complete their work in the allotted time.  Any unfinished work (Center activities) will be in your child’s Homework Folder on Monday.   The children had the 30 minutes for each Center and an additional hour to complete these. I know they will be back on track next week.

As we enter the third quarter, Reading groups will be occurring on a daily basis.  We have worked on word families, high frequency and sight words during the first two quarters in order to prepare the children for a higher success rate in reading. With their sight word knowledge, reading becomes fun and exciting.  We will continue to identify pictures that begin with different letter sounds, fill in the blank with the missing words, and work on various comprehension strategies.

In Math we are working on identifying teen numbers in different arrangements, identifying teen numbers and writing them, and skip counting not only by the even numbers but also the odd numbers.   This week we continue with the teen numbers and identify ordinal positions to the tenth place.

The children learned about the Epiphany this week, they recalled details from the story, and they colored their toilet paper roll Three Kings.  The children also had interesting questions, such as:  Where did they sleep?, What did they eat? and How many humps did the camels have?.  Next week we will be talking about the baptism of Jesus and our own baptism.  We continue to work on intentions, praying with reverence, and reviewing procedures for Mass.  We attended Adoration on Wednesday and everyone was very reverent and spent their time talking with Jesus, God, or Mary.

We had two very exciting Science experiments this past week.  The children created the layers of soil with colored sand after learning about soil from our Star of the Week, and then we made “goo” with our 5th grade Science Buddies.  That was a very messy, but fun, experience by all.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

JACKETS, SWEATSHIRTS - please be sure that your child’s name is on the tag.   Reminder- no hoods are allowed.

CHANT CHART - please review this with your child.  There were a number of children who asked what it was, even though we use one three times a week for journals.

WATER BOTTLES - please remember to have your child bring one everyday.  Even though the weather is cooler, staying hydrated is very important.

SNACKS - please have your child remember to pack one every day.  Reminder- NO NUTS.

SPECIAL PERSONS DAY - please complete the form if your child will have a special person attend on Friday, February, 5th.

EMPTY TOILET PAPER and PAPER TOWEL ROLLS NEEDED - please save and send in with your child.

REPORT CARDS - I hope that you have accessed your child’s report card and have shared the results with them.  I am very proud of their accomplishments.

BEHAVIOR CHART - as of January 4th the orange card has been removed.  At this time of the year there are very few reminders before a child turns his/her card.  It all comes down to choices.  They all know that each child is responsible for their own behavior and no one makes them make a wrong choice except themselves.

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop  

   KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 12/7/09

I heard that the children did an outstanding job this week with Mrs. D’Aloia.  It was a fun week with Christmas activities and a lot of practice for our performance on Friday.

This week we will continue with Christmas around the world.  We will be talking about the traditions of Sweden, England, France, Germany, and the United States.  We will be making gingerbread houses on Thursday morning from 11:15-12:00.  If you are available, we could use 2-3 volunteers.

On Wednesday morning we will have the opportunity to see the school Christmas program.  At night we will walk over to St. Benedict’s for our song and then return to the classroom.  On Wednesday, children should be in the classroom around 6:00 p.m. and picked up after the performance ends.

On Friday morning, Dec. 18th, our Christmas Around the World performance will begin at 9:00 a.m. in the MPR.  We will then have a small get together after to share the food brought in.  If you have not returned your RSVP, please do so on Monday.  This way I know how many people to expect and to see what items I still need to purchase.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SONGS - please continue to practice these with your child.  Mrs. D’Aloia told me they have come a long way this past week.

CTODP - contributions can be made until Dec. 31st.  The link to do so is ... www.catholictuition.org.  

Shopping bags needed - one with handles needed for the children to take home their Parent Christmas presents in.  We currently have 7 and we need 22.  If you can help us out, please send them in with your child.  Thank you.

 

Have a very blessed week.

 

Carol Prezkop 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 11/30/09

Where are the months going?  It is hard to believe that we are already in December.  This week we began our Christmas Centers and practice for our Christmas Program on December 18th.

In Religion we have been talking about Advent.  We created our Advent chains for our countdown to Christmas Day. We reviewed what we are thankful for, the children listened to a story and learned a song for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and  they learned a little about St. Nicholas.  The children made shoes to place on their tables in hopes that St. Nicholas will bring them a special gift for being good. Next week the children will attend Mass on Tuesday and Friday, and learn about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

We continue to work on onset and rime, the segmenting of words, completing the missing word in a sentence, identifying pictures that begin with a specific letter, writing sentences with high frequency words, and reading short stories for Reading.  The children are completing the activities in the workbook independently with very few mistakes.  I know that some still don’t realize that they are reading these sentences.  Next week we will not have our normal Reading time due to various things going on during that time.

In Math we finished Chapter 3 on solid and plane shapes and have begun Chapter 4.  We continue to count one number higher, by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

ADOPT-A-FAMILY - these are due on Dec. 15th.  Please attach the tag to the  wrapped gift.

SNACKS - please don’t forget to have your child pack a snack on Fridays.

DENIM DOLLAR DAY - this will be on Thursday, Dec. 17th instead of Wed., Dec. 16th.

YEARBOOKS - If you would like to order a yearbook for your child, please go to the link on the SJB web page to order on line.  If you do not want to oder online, you may also pay by check, $33.00 made out to SJB, and sent to my attention.

NEXT WEEK - I will not be at school next week.  The children will have Mrs. D’Aloia as their teacher.  They all know her because she has been in our class a number of times.    They will have a fun week with lots of fun activities planned.

SONGS - the songs for our program will be sent home on Monday.  Please practice these with your child.  Thank you.

Have a wonderful and blessed Second week of Advent. 

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 11/16/09

It’s hard to believe that November is quickly coming to an end and Christmas is right around the corner.

The class has been busy learning about the Pilgrims journey to America, their encounters with the Indians, and the first Thanksgiving. The children had fun with being Pilgrims and bringing in their three items they were allowed to take with them on the Mayflower.  This gave them another opportunity to speak in front of the class and practice focused listening skills.

Each child has completed a blessings box with their Religion Buddies.  Each day the children write one person or thing that they are thankful for and place it in their box.  These boxes will be sent home for Thanksgiving.  On Thanksgiving your child can share all the things that he or she is thankful for.  The children have also written their own prayer of thanksgiving and are learning a new grace.

In Reading the children are identifying the onset and rime of words, completing sentences with the missing words, identifying things that begin with a specific letter sound, writing sentences with high frequency words, and reading in small groups.  In Journals we continue to stress the use of phonetic skills to sound out words, using the tools provided and the word wall, spacing between words, and punctuation at the end of each sentence.

We are currently working on geometric solids in Math.  The children can identify the geometric shapes, items we may see them in, and the difference between the solids and regular geometric shapes.  We will continue to work on solids this week.

Wednesday, November 25th is our Thanksgiving celebration with Mrs. McCormick’s class.  Each year our classes dress up as Pilgrim’s and Indians as a remembrance of the first thanksgiving.  This year our class are the Indians.  If you are available to join us, it is a fun celebration.  It will take place in the MPR from 10:00-11:00.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS - please don’t forget to pack your child a snack on Friday.  My extra snacks are now gone.  Have your child be responsible for packing his or her snack every day.  

Water Bottles - please send a water bottle every day.

Wednesday, Nov. 25th - noon release.

Items for feast - if you have signed up for bringing in food for Wednesday, please bring it in on Wednesday morning.

Items for Dirt Cake - please send these in on Tuesday, Nov. 24th.  I still need 2 more volunteers from 10:30-12:00.  This is a very involved process that includes all children.  I also need another hand mixer and 4 rolling pins.  If you are able to donate these for Tuesday, I will make sure that they are returned to you.  Thank you.

Adopt a Family - each class is responsible for supporting a family so that they can have gifts and food for their family on Christmas.  The ornaments will be placed on our classroom tree shortly.

CTODP Reminder:

Anyone who makes their CTODP contribution prior to December 8^th will be entered into the drawing for front row seating and a prime parking space at the Christmas show.  New this year – for anyone outside of our school (family, neighbors, friends) that you personally invite and who then makes a contribution designating St. John Bosco (school code 211) you will receive an additional entry for the drawing.  There is no limit to the number of times you can enter. 

Contributions can be made online at www.catholiceducation.org or by dropping off your form in the front office. 

The tax dollars you redirect to St. John Bosco between now and December 31^st go toward funding the scholarships awarded in the spring.  Every family is expected to participate.  Any amount is acceptable.  (limit $1000 married, $500 single)

Questions?  Gabe Ortiz – gjunior88(at)cox.net, Tracy Ryan – tracyryan26(at)cox.net, Bill Mager – magersul(at)cox.net, Lisa Campbell – lcampbell(at)cox.net 

 

Daisy Apron - found.  It is with Mrs. Harvey.

Have a great and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 11/2/09

This week it was all about Bats.  The children learned about mega and micro bats, what they ate, how to tell them apart, and about echolocation.  I am sure that you have heard the Echolocation song.  The song was an instant favorite and we enjoyed singing it.  We continue into the beginning of this week when the children become bat biologists with the help of Ms. Whalen, our  Jr. High Science Teacher.

Our Journals entries are consistently showing improvement.  The children are using their tools to spell words, the spacing between words is becoming second nature, and most are working to complete their entries independently.  Before long, everyone will have the confidence to write on their own.  One thing that can help your child with our Monday entry, which is what they did over the weekend, is to talk with your child about what he or she will write.  This may help some who cannot decide what to write about.

In Religion we talked about Saints, the Day of the Dead, appreciating the sense of sight, and identifying people who are important to them.  On Wednesday we attended Adoration, which everyone is welcome to attend with us.  If you are available on Dec. 2nd, from 10:45-11:00, please join us in the Chapel.  We also walked over to St. Vincent de Paul Pantry at St. Benedict’s to bring our donations.  Thank you for your generosity.  I would like to continue the monthly walk to the pantry.  There are months that food is low and we can help support them through our discipleship.  I will be in contact with the coordinator and she will let me know what they need the most.

We began our next unit in Math with geometric shapes and symmetry.  The children created finger painted and paper symmetrical designs to help them understand the concept.  This week we move to halves, and even and uneven splits.  This past week we counted to 250 as each table packed up for the day.

In Science we also created marshmallow structures with our buddies in addition to our study of bats.

Our Social Studies Unit for the next 2 weeks is on Pilgrims, Native Americans, and Thanksgiving. We will have a Kindergarten Feast on Wednesday, November 25th.  I will

forward the list to you this week.  It will also be posted on the board for signup.  All are welcome to join us.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS & WATER BOTTLES - please remember to pack one each day, especially on days that your child may have hot lunch.  Better yet, have your child pack his or her snack.

SWEATSHIRTS - the weather may be cooling down, please write your child’s name on the tag of their sweatshirt.  All sweatshirts look the same and Kindergartners do not remember if it is their sweatshirt when they are left.

VOLUNTEERS IN CLASSROOM - PLEASE COME!  We are in need of your help.  I currently have only 2.  If you don’t remember the times you signed up for, please let me know.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 10/26/09

This was a very quick week that was packed with a lot of fine motor activities and fun Halloween things.  Thank you to the parents for your time creating and manning the fun centers for our Halloween Center day. The children had a great time creating their treasures. 

On Friday the children attended a Saints Presentation by some of the  7th Graders.  They learned a little about a few of the saints and we sang “When the Saints Come Marching In”.  This week we will continue with All Saints Day, the Day of the Dead, prayers, and the topic of helpers and God’s family.

In Journals the children continue to grow in their confidence in writing independently and using their phonetic skills to sound out words. They are very creative on squiggles which were recently introduced.  Their Reading books are all up to date and we will continue to work on identifying pictures that begin with specific letters, using high frequency words in sentences, reviewing our Red Words, and beginning small Reading groups.

For Math we were reviewed graphing and we will begin our next unit on geometric shapes and symmetry.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS & WATER BOTTLES - please remember to have your child pack both each day.

NOV. 4th - please have your child bring in canned goods or boxed foods that will be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Pantry at St. Benedict’s.  We will be walking over to St. Benedict’s, as a class, and the children will place the items on the shelves.

 

 CONFERENCES - I enjoyed meeting with you to share your child’s successes during the first quarter.  I loved sharing this information and I am looking forward to sharing your child’s continued spiritual and academic growth through out the year. 

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 10/19/09

This week our theme was “Pumpkins”.  The children learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, we are in the process of finishing the emergent readers regarding the life cycle, we are sequencing pumpkins from pumpkin to jack-o-lantern, we are making pumpkin people, and we visited the pumpkin patch on Thursday, at Schnepf’s Farm.

In Religion we continued to talk about sharing, the correct way of making The Sign of the Cross, and praying with reverence.  This week our lessons are on identifying the important people in their lives, that they are important and the importance of helping people.  This fits in nicely with our presentation this week from  the St. Vincent de Paul

Society.

This past week the class was introduced to Squiggles.  The children use their imagination and create the part that is drawn into something.  They then write what it is.  This is in addition to our journal writing.  I was very impressed with their first attempt at squiggles. 

 In Reading we continue to identify words that begin with a specific letter, and writing the missing words in a sentence in the workbooks.  We spent a lot of time catching up on unfinished pages.  We only average 1-2 pages each day, but when it is not completed during the allotted time, the unfinished pages add up.  All children worked hard and there are only a few still behind.  These books will be given to you during our conference so that you can help your child complete any unfinished work at home.

We are finishing our second unit in Math on more and less, ordinal numbers, and graphing.  This week our focus is on graphing.  With the start of November we will be going on to Geometry and Fractions.

This week I reassessed children in order to share a current update with you at our Parent/ Teacher Conferences.  I also included the first 25 red words to see where each child is on them.  I was very impressed with what they know which is a “kudos” to you for helping them get to that point so early in the year.  I love Conference time and sitting with parents to share their child’s successes.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: 

Water bottles - please remember to send one very day, even with the weather getting cooler.

Snacks - please pack one or have your child pack one every day.

Tuesday-Friday - 12:00 p.m. dismissal.  No lunch.

Wed - Oct. 28th - we are having a very low keyed Halloween celebration.  We are having a snack and Halloween Centers.  If you have taken your class, Called to Protect, and would like to join us, it will be from 10:00-11:30.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

   Kindergarten Capers

Week of 10/12/09

This past week our theme was “Spiders”.  The children learned facts about spiders and the different types of webs they weave.  We created spider headbands, spider webs, and a spider book in one of our centers.

In Religion we practiced the Hail Mary, the children learned that the Sign of the Cross is a sign of Jesus’ followers, that we belong to our family, the school family, and a church family.  We also continue to practice praying with reverence and reviewing Mass procedures.  The children are doing an excellent job at Mass and I am very proud of them.  This week we will be talking about sharing with others, identifying people who are important to them, and that they are very important as they are called by Jesus to help others.

In Math we worked with ordinal numbers and solved problems using logical reasoning.  This week it is the concepts of more and fewer and graphing.  The graphing part should be easy since we have completed a number of class graphs already.

We are focusing on using our D’Nealian handwriting when writing in journals.  It is very easy for children to revert to their comfort zone of capital letters and large lowercase letters instead of using their Chant Chart to write.  We are also working on using the red word list each child has in their journal folder.  Spacing between words is also challenging to some, but all are making progress from their first entry.

A big thank you to all the parents that assisted in creating our wall and bus for the Harvest Fest.  Your hard work is greatly appreciated.  I know that the children enjoyed making the hats and flowers.  The highlight was the glitter.

Thanks again.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Water bottles - please don’t forget to send one every day.

SNACKS - these are very important.  I do not have extra snacks in the classroom.  Please have your child pack his or her snack the night before.  This way they can’t blame you for not having one.

Thursday, Oct. 22nd - Kindergarten field trip.  The class will be wearing jeans with their polo shirt.  No skirts or skorts should be worn.  All children must bring their lunch, a water bottle, and a hat that day.  Please NO PEANUT BUTTER.  

 We’re ALL Going for a Walk!

We decided to adopt the SVdP Pantry Walk as a school-wide service project again this year.  There are an increasing number of families within the boundaries of St., Benedict parish that are struggling to put food on the table and purchase basic toiletry items many of us take for granted.    We ask that each student contribute items to help stock the SVdP pantry and on Wednesday November 4, 2009 every class will walk over to St. Benedict and stock the items on the shelves themselves.  The items will go directly from the shelves, to a family in need.  We ask that each student bring only the number of items they can safely carry in their hands or in a bag.  A list of suggested non-perishable and toiletry items will be sent home soon but please encourage your child to think of items that they might enjoy themselves if they were hungry.  Imagine the difference 570+ children on one short walk can make!

Parent-Teacher Conferences:  This should be available online at the beginning of this week.  Conferences begin next Tuesday, October 27th - Oct. 30th.  The schedule will reflect all the available times.

Have a great and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

  

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 9/28/09

This past week we completed the majority of the apple activities.  We still have one on Monday that is related to the story Ten Apples Up On Top.  IT is then on to the many themes of October.  The first ones are Community Helpers, Fire Safety, and Scarecrows.

We began our first Promise magazine this week in Religion.  This week it was to recognize that we are welcomed at church and that Jesus always wanted the little children to come to him.  Each week Promise relates the Gospel reading to their lives.  We also practice our prayers with reverence, we have begun saying the Hail Mary in class, and we practice our Mass procedures.  I am very pleased with the class Mass behavior.  We are still working on not doing a “Drive By “ blessing.

In Reading we began our second theme, Colors All Around.  The children have finished writing the letters of the alphabet and now the focus is on pictures that begin with the letter sounds.  First up will be the letter “S”.  In Phonemic Awareness we are focusing on the beginning sounds of words which is helpful in the sounding out of words in Journals.  We also sequenced the pictures of our story  for first, next, and last.  

The children have been practicing their D’Nealian handwriting in class with a letter focus each week.  They are also encouraged to try and write the other letters with the use of their Chant Charts.  Last week our letter was “Dd” and this week it will be “G”.

In Math we have identified one to one correspondence, the numbers 1-5 in different arrangements of objects and the writing of the numbers.  This week it is the number zero, writing the number of objects in a set, and the use of logical reasoning to problem solve.

Thank you for the great turn out for classroom volunteers meeting.  I will be checking that all parents have completed their Called to Protect class before you come to work in the class.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - these are necessary every day even with cooler weather.

SNACKS - Please remember that your child needs a healthy, NO NUTS, snack every day.

WED., Oct. 7th, Denim Dollar Day.  The white shoes are required for PE.

WED. Oct. 7th - the Rosary will be held in the courtyard at 9:00 a.m. and our Adoration time is at 10:45-11:00.  All parents are welcome to attend.

Friends of the Orphans - each class sponsors and orphan as part of our stewardship.  Please have your child earn money, by doing chores, that can be donated.  There is a can for donations in our room.

VOLUNTEERS - This week begins volunteers in the classroom.

Animal Pictures - Please send in pictures of your pets by Tuesday, Oct. 6th.  These will be part of a poster that will be blessed by Fr. Hoorman on Wednesday, in celebration of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  All pictures will be returned.

 

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop      

    Kindergarten Capers

Week of 9/21/09

It is hard to believe that the month of September is coming to an end and we begin October on Thursday.

The children have been working hard in all areas.  We began our Apple Unit with apple graphing and taste testing.  Our class made predictions regarding which apple they thought would have the best taste.  After our taste test, the results were noticeably different from the predictions. Our Centers focused on apple fun with apple glasses, apple puzzles, apple wreaths, and apple people.  We are in the process of completing the apple glasses and apple wreaths.  Our theme will continue through this week with the story of Johnny Appleseed, the life cycle of an apple, a class book, and two emergent reader stories.

In Reading we are continuing our practice of writing letters and writing the missing letters.  We are also working on identifying beginning sounds, reviewing our first two word families, “at” and “an”, and comparing and contrasting parts of a story through the use of a Venn Diagram.  This week we will finish our first theme, Look at Us!, and begin theme 2, Colors All Around.

Our stories in Religion connected to the letter we were writing this past week.  The children listened to two versions of Daniel and the Lion’s Den, they completed an emergent story and are working on the character puppets to retell the story.  We also traced hands with our Religion Buddies to create a heart to represent that we are Children of God.  We continue to practice Mass procedures and praying with reverence and respect.  This week we begin our first Promise magazine which relates to the Gospel message of the week.

In Math we finished our first two chapters and the first booklet.  The culmination of the chapters was a test which reviewed the concepts of  position words, patterns, and sorting.  This week we begin one to one correspondence, and modeling number configurations  for numbers 1-5.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS - Please remember to pack your child’s snack separate from their lunch.  Our lunch boxes are not kept in our room and forgotten snacks are not accessible.

FRIDAY FOLDERS - these should be returned by Tuesday.

WATER BOTTLES - Please don’t forget to send one every day.

SERVICE TO LIFE - Tuesday, Sept. 29th, MPR - 6:30-8:00 p.m.  All are invited to attend .    Does a certain organization standout to you that we as a class can help?  Join us and help decide our class discipleship for this year.   All children who attend will receive a free dress pass for Wednesday, Sept. 30th.

SATURDAY, Oct. 3rd - Partners Breakfast

By choosing to send your children to St. John Bosco Interparish School, you have become a "Partner in the Journey."  By supporting the mission of St. John Bosco Interparish School, you are "Continuing the Journey."  By gathering together as one community, we are all "United in the Journey."  Please plan to attend the Partners' Breakfast on October 3rd, 8:30 am to 10:00 am.  Hear directly from students and teachers how YOU make a difference at St. John Bosco.

We have posted a survey for parents that we need as close to 100% participation from parents as we can get. This information is critical to the self-study and we would like to get started.  We are asking families to complete the survey before October 1.

The survey will take about 20 minutes, some questions are check-the-box and some are fill-in, open ended responses.  When you get to the end of the survey please print the thank you page and handwrite your child's name and class so they may participate in a school-wide free dress day to be held Thursday, October 8. The survey is totally anonymous so if you don't print and turn in this page, we don't have a way to track who has yet to participate.

Here is the survey link  Here is a .pdf of the survey in case you would like to look it over before you get started.

(The link should cut and paste - but in case it doesn't:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Q9pSn6bjYVuhboqEGiJkDA_3d_3d and the pdf:

  http://www.sjbosco.org/fileadmin/general/Administration/Survey_Parent2009.pdf  )

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 9/7/09

This was a very short week but we accomplished a lot.  

In Language Arts the children listened to different versions of The Three Little Pigs, they sequenced pictures to retell the story, they learned the pink color song, and they were introduced to Journals.

We continued with identifying rhyming words in Nursery Rhymes and stories in Reading and the practice of writing the letters K & L.  This week we will begin identifying beginning sounds in words, identifying the beginning, the middle, and the end of stories, and continue to practice writing letters.  The children will also be introduced to handwriting in D’Nealian.

In Math we finished our patterns concept.  This week we will begin Sorting and Classifying objects.  We are also completing our calendar activities and the children have been introduced to a weather chant and a bar graph to track the weather.

We are practicing our reverence when praying and our Mass procedures in Religion.  We are currently on God’s gifts to us, our five senses.  This week the children will go on a sense walk and draw what they saw, touched, smelled, and heard.  We will also discuss that God teaches us how to love and God shows love to us as children of God.

In Science, with the help of our Science Buddies, every child brought home their fingerprints.  We observed them, compared and contrasted them and classified them on a graph.  Both classes had a great time.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - these are a must every day.

SNACKS - as of Wednesday, Sept. 16th, all children will supply their own PEANUT FREE snack. 

ROOM MOM or DAD - I am still looking for one more brave soul to become a Room Mom or Room Dad.  Please let me know if you are interested.

BOX - Reminder from Curriculum Night - I recommended that you have a decorated shoe box or plastic box to hold your child’s little books and word family wheels. throughout the year I ask the children to practice different word families or read little books sent home.  The first word family is coming home this week. 

REMINDER:

Please join us for PTO's first family dinner night of the year. 

Where: Macayo's Mexican Restaurant 12637 S. 48th St.(cross street is Warner) in Ahwatukee

When: Wednesday, September 16th from 5:00pm - 9:00pm.

Macayo's will give back a portion of money to SJB.  Please bring the flyer that we provide(this will be in you child's backpack Friday or Monday).  You must dine in, not take out.

So come out and have a great night of good food and fun with your family and other SJB families!

Any questions please email Alicia Figueroa at aajenfig@yahoo.com.

Service to Life - September 29th, 2009 6:30-8:00pm

WHO DO YOU WANT TO SERVE? If you want your family to have a say in this, save the date for 9-29-09. Teachers and students will choose a homeroom stewardship focus this year. To help kick off this opportunity, we've moved Service to Life to the beginning of our school year. Come to Service to Life to help your homeroom decide! 

ATTENDANCE INCENTIVES. Each student in attendance will receive FREE DRESS on September 30th!

IT'S A WAY OF LIFE. To bring together our parish and school community, we are inviting Edge, Life Teen and St. Benedict's Family Journey program so we can all get involved in service to those in need. Even if your children choose a homeroom organization, your family can choose a different one.

All students who attend will have a free dress day on 9-30-09.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 8/31/09

This past week the children were introduced to our first Centers.  These included the word family “at”, completing an “All About Me” biography, creating Mary’s little lamb, and an abstract design based on the painter Piet Mondrian.

In Reading the focus was on identifying rhyming words in Nursery Rhymes and stories.  We are continuing to write the missing letters and practicing the formation of different letters. We will begin our first unit, “All About Me” this week.  The phonemic awareness focus will then change from identifying rhyming words to words with the same beginning sound.

The Creation books were completed this week and have been sent home.  I hope that your child read the story of Creation with you.  Their illustrations were very good.  We continue to work on reverence during prayer, learning our Guardian Angel prayer in addition to the Glory Be, and Mass procedures.  Please have your child participate at Mass when you attend as a family.  Your child should be sitting and standing with the congregation in addition to looking toward whomever is speaking.

In Math we are working with patterns.  We began with rhythmic patterns and we are now on identifying and extending patterns.  This will continue through next week.  We are also working on identifying the  day of the week, the month, date, and year, identifying today, tomorrow and yesterday, and counting one number farther on the number line.  This week the children will be introduced to the weather graph and the weather chant.

Over the next two weeks our themes are family and friends, shapes, and the colors pink, gray, and orange.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - please remember to pack you child a water bottle everyday.

SNACKS - we will continue with the group snack until Sept. 15th.  At that time each child will bring their own snack.  We are having more and more saying no to the given snack.  Mrs. Johnson and I greatly appreciate them because they have all been healthy.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop  

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 8/24/09

The children had a great week learning color songs,  about Creation, practicing our Listening and Following Directions Skills, Nursery Rhymes, about themselves and meeting new Buddies.

In Reading we continue to work on writing the letters of the alphabet, identifying letters that are missing, completing activities by listening and following directions, and working without talking. This week we move to the theme “All About Me” and environmental print.

We finished our focus on position words for now in Math.  The hardest concepts were left and right.  We will continue using left and right in various activities so that all children become successful in distinguishing between the two. This week we move on to Patterns.  Don’t be surprised when your child looks to see if they can find and identify patterns in things at home.

In Religion we are completing our Creation Book and will continue with Creation this week.  The children will be completing various activities related to the theme as we now look into how we can take care of God’s world.  We are also working on praying with reverence and practicing Mass procedures.  This Wednesday we will attend our first Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in our Chapel.

The children had fun with our Science Buddies on Thursday.  Our experiment was to see if the sun could cook an egg.  Each group decided on the materials they would use for their egg, where they would place it, and predicted if it would cook.  Only two eggs didn’t fully cook. Both the Kinders and the 5th graders were excited to see their results.

Thank you for all who attended  our Curriculum Night.  If you were unable to attend, the information folder was sent home in your child’s backpack on Friday.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or talk to me after school.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - these are a MUST every day.  It is important that the children stay hydrated in this extreme heat.

STAR OF THE WEEK - If you did not sign up for a week for your child on Thursday, I will be emailing you this week with the available weeks.

VOLUNTEERS - I also have signup sheets for volunteers in the classroom and at home.

PARTIES - I am still looking for volunteers to chair or help at our classroom parties.  In Kindergarten we hold our parties at snack time (10:00 - 11:00) on the actual date( i.e. Valentine's Day) or closest to the date.

ROOM PARENT - I am looking for another Room Mom or Room Dad to help Marian Henderson.  If you are interested, please let me know.  We will be meeting on Tuesday,  Sept. 1st, after school.   

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop 

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 8/17/09

We had a great first full week of school.  The children are learning and becoming more familiar with the  rules and procedures of the classroom and the school.

In Reading we are currently in the introduction section.  The class is listening and discussing familiar stories and learning new Nursery Rhymes. They are also practicing writing letters in our preview of letters and using their Listening and Following Directions skills to complete whole group activities. 

We began our Creation unit for Religion and we completed pictures for the first three days.  The children are learning a Creation song in addition to the  review of what God created each day.  We are also practicing The Sign of the Cross and learning the Glory Be and Guardian Angel Prayer.  This week we will finish learning about what God created on days 4-6, our song, and our illustrated book.  The children have also done an outstanding job at Mass.  We continue to review Mass procedures every Friday before we attend.

In Math the children completed a pre-assessment of various concepts and we began learning about position words.  This week also is focused on various position words which tie nicely with some of our Nursery Rhymes.

The children have met their Religion Buddies and one of the 6th grade Reading Buddies.  This week they will meet their other 6th Grade Reading Buddies and participate in their first experiment with their 5th Grade Science Buddies.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - these are very important every day.  Children need to stay hydrated.

CURRICULUM NIGHT - Thursday, August 27th, 6:30 p.m. in the MPR prior to going to the classroom.  This is a very important night for parents to attend.

FRIDAY FOLDERS - Please return your child’s Friday Folder by Tuesday.

HOMEWORK FOLDERS- Homework is returned in the Homework Folder on Friday.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS
Week of 5/18/09

This week our week was filled with practice, practice, practice, and more practice for our class Mass this past Friday.  All the children did an outstanding job with their part of the Mass.  The readers were exceptional and I was extremely proud of all of them.  The remainder of the time we worked on Father’s Day presents and books.

In Reading we continue to plug away at our book.  It has been getting more difficult for the children to focus on their work, but they are demonstrating their independence on reading sentences to complete them with the missing words.  Many have tabs for unfinished work and they will remain in the books if they are not caught up by Thursday, when the books are sent home.  If your child gets bored this summer, you can have him/her finish the workbook.

For Religion we spent our time focused on our Mass and praying with reverence.  We will continue with our Growing In Love activities on Tuesday and Wednesday.  

As we wind down the year, we are working on learning about a few more countries for our “Around the World”.  We will focus on Kenya, Germany, China, and Australia.  Good thing this is only an imaginary trip.  We will also be practicing our songs for Thursday night.  This night is for everyone in your family.  After dinner and our presentation, we will  have class awards.  If at all possible, the children should wear red, white, and blue, that night.  All children need to be in the classroom by 6:15 p.m. and we will come in as a class.  Please don’t forget to bring your SURPRISE sign welcoming them home.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

THURSDAY, May 28th - Welcome Home Party, MPR - 6:15-8:00 p.m.

SIGN-UP - I do need everyone to bring something for that night.  We usually have about 120 people.  Please refer to the email I sent last week.  Please email me with some choices.  The plates, forks, and napkins are already taken care of.

RSVP - Please return your RSVP on Tuesday, May 26th.

Have a very safe and blessed weekend.

Carol Prezkop     

  Kindergarten Capers

Week of 5/11/09

This week our theme was the Amazon rainforest as part of our “Around the World”.  The children learned about the four levels of the rainforest, some of its inhabitants, and we created our own rainforest in our room.  Next week we are off to Egypt, on Safari, to Germany, and to China.

In Reading we continue to identify the beginning, the middle, and the end of stories, fill in the blank with the missing words, review pictures that begin with different letters, practice our red words, and read in small groups.  It is great to see how it is all coming together for the children.  In Journals we continue to build on writing more than one sentence using the conventions of writing that we have been working on.  On Wednesday the children took the Spelling test from last week.  We had outstanding results with 14 children receiving 100%, and 3 with 90%.  There was also a very noticeable improvement with the remainder of the class.  These weekly tests will help the children be ready for the Spelling tests in first grade.

This week we began subtraction in Math and the children were introduced to the 2 minute math facts paper.  We continue to count  by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, & 10’s.  Next week we will complete our last counting assessment.

In Religion we are working on our “Growing in Love” portion of our curriculum.  This is a great way to review the topics discussed throughout the year.  Next Friday, May 22nd, the Mass will be led by our class.  All children have been assigned a part in our Mass and the assigned reading parts have been sent home with your child.  Please have your child practice his/her part everyday so that he/she can speak it fluently.  All parents are invited to attend our Mass.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

THURSDAY - May 21st - Father’s Day Breakfast in the MPR - 7:45-8:30 a.m.

FRIDAY - May 22nd - our class Mass at St. Benedict’s at 11:40 a.m.

THURSDAY - May 28th - “Welcome Home Party” in the MPR at 6:15-7:30 p.m. 

Invitations will be sent home next week.  This is open to all family members.  There will be a  food signup by the middle of the week.

Have a very blessed weekend and week.

Carol Prezkop 

 

Kindergarten Capers

Week of 4/27/09

This week we finished our dinosaur eggs, attended a Talent Show, attended the May Crowning, and created very large pinatas.

In Reading we are plugging away at our workbooks.  The children are using their reading skills to complete sentences, review high frequency words or red words, review word families and read stories.  I love listening to the children read as they continue to improve on their fluency and confidence.

We have had fun with addition through the use of interactive dice on our Smart board.  The children change the dice and everyone reads the equations.  It was a fun way to learn math.  We will continue this week and start our two minute math practice.  We will then go on to Subtraction.

We began our Growing in Love series portion of our Religion curriculum.  This is a review of topics we have learned throughout the year.  During the month of May we will pray the rosary in the Mary Garden once a week.  We continue to practice Mass procedures which are very important.

In preparation for Cinco de May we created pinatas.  Our pinatas will be dinosaurs or any other animal the children like.  This is the kick off for our imaginary trip “Around the World”.  Our class will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a party on Tuesday.  If you have signed up to send in items, please send them in on Tuesday.  

After we talk about Mexico we are off to Brazil and the rainforest.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

FRIDAY - May 8th, Mother’s Day Breakfast in the Room, 7:30-8:30 a.m.

WEDNESDAY, May 13th - $3.00 free dress day.  If the class collects $80.00 for Friends of the Orphans, we will have a free dress day on Thursday also.

THURSDAY, May 21st, Breakfast with Dad, MPR, 7:45 - 8:30 a.m.

THURSDAY, May 28th, “Welcome Home Party”, MPR, all family members, 

6:15 - 8:00 p.m. 

Have a safe and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

  KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 4/20/09

This week we celebrated Easter with an Easter egg hunt and small party.  We also began our Dinosaur theme which will continue through this week.  The remainder of the year will be our multicultural unit with our imaginary trip “Around the World”.

This week you have received your child’s 4th Quarter Progress Report.  You should be very proud of your child’s academic accomplishments.  In Math counting, 99% of the class has counted to 200.  The goal is to have 100% by the end of May.  Over 50% of the class has already mastered the 94 RED words that are listed as Pre-Primer and Primer and these children are moving on to the first and second grade lists. An additional 30 % is close to mastery.  The remainder of the class is half way there and improve weekly.  

In Reading we  are working on identifying the cause and effect in stories, the completion of sentences with missing words, reading sight words, and reading in small groups and with partners.  I love to listen to the children read to me with confidence and with ease.  In Journals we are working on writing two or more sentences using punctuation.

Addition is our Math concept.  This past week we added sets together, the + and = symbols were introduced, and we are reading the equations.  This week we continue to work with adding doubles, adding two to a group, vertical addition, and we will begin 2 minute math tests on addition problems.

In Science we are learning about  some of the different types of Dinosaurs. We will also be learning about which ones were in which period.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

MAY 8th - Mother’s Day Breakfast in the classroom from 7:30-8:30 a.m.

MAY 13th - Free dress day for $3.00. The money will be given to Friends of the Orphans. If the class collects $80.00 on May 13th, then we have a free dress day on May 14th.

MAY 21st - Breakfast with Dad in the MPR - 7:45-8:30 a.m.

MAY 28th - “Welcome Home” Party for the entire family in the MPR,

                    6:15-7:30 p.m.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop    

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 3/30/09

It is hard to believe that it is already April and we are entering Holy Week and the celebration of Easter.

This week we finished our life cycle of the butterfly, we compared the life cycle of the butterfly to a ladybug life cycle, created Hungry Caterpillar books, parts for a butterfly mobile, a butterfly garden for our wall and bug headbands.  This week the mobiles will be hung up and the bug headbands worn home once everyone has completed theirs.  

It was very exciting to listen to the majority of the class read with me.  All of the children are working very hard and reading! This week I will read twice with the ones who did not get a chance to read and once with the rest.  Other opportunities we have are during DEAR Time in the afternoon.  We continue to identify beginning, middle, and ending of stories, complete sentences with the correct word, as teams put words in order to make a sentence,  practice our D’Nealian handwriting, and writing complete sentences in Journals.

During Religion we viewed a children’s video version of the Passion with our Religion buddies, the Passion was discussed in Atrium and we will watch the Passion Play presented by the fourth grade this Tuesday.  We also talked about forgiveness, saying you are sorry, and honesty. 

We created kites with our Science buddies and flew them out in the rocks.  Just like your store bought kites, we had ones that got tangled up.

This week we will be talking about Holy Week, going to the Stations of the Cross, attending Earth Fest activities and making Easter crafts.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

NEEDED: - clean 1 gallon plastic milk containers by TUESDAY, April 7th.

                         Filled eggs - 6 per child.  Due by Thursday, April 9th.  Items to put in: stickers,   

                        erasers, or anything that can fit into an egg.  These will be placed in the field    

                        when we return and both Kindergartens will have an egg hunt.

Needed:  Cardboard egg cartons - after Easter.

                Glue Sticks

SAVE THE DATES:

MAY 8th - Mother’s Day Breakfast - 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. in the 

         classroom.

         MAY 20th - Breakfast with Dad - 7:45 a.m. - 8:45 a.m. in the MPR.

         (Both Kindergarten classes).

  MAY 28th - “Welcome Home Party” in MPR 6:15 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. 

Have a wonderful and blessed Holy Week.  

Carol Prezkop 

We are coming to the end of another month as we head into the home stretch of Kindergarten.  Our current themes are “Plants” and “Insets & Butterflies”.

In Reading we have been reviewing word families,  completing sentences with the correct words, placing words in ABC order and reading in small groups.  The children are  working on their reading kite tails that list the stories they read to either Mrs. Johnson or me during DEAR time.  In Journals we continue to focus on writing complete sentences with the goal being  two or more using the conventions of writing.  We are also practicing handwriting on our whiteboards and in our handwriting books.  It is important that the children learn D’Nealian handwriting because it is used through 3rd grade when they learn cursive.  The children know that I expect them to use this in class and on their homework.

We will finish our ordering by weight and capacity this week in Math.  The next unit will be on addition and the understanding of this concept.  We continue our counting by 1’s and the children are being assessed on their counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. 

In Science we discussed the parts of a plant, living and non-living things,insect characteristics and the life cycle of the butterfly.  This week they will create their butterfly life cycle mobile and our butterfly garden for our wall.

I hope that your child is keeping up with the items that are to be added to their Lenten pots.  Over the past two weeks we discussed the life of St. Patrick, the Shepherd and the Lost Sheep, and making  good choices.    

As of April 1st you will see one or two stamps on your child’s weekly behavior chart.  You will see how your child’s day would end if they were in first grade and how it ended based on earning cards back.  In first grade the children do not earn cards back for changing their behavior.  By first grade children are expected to have listening and following directions skills down pat.  

IMPORTANT  INFORMATION:

CRAYONS -  Donations needed for St. Joseph’s Hospital are due by April 2nd.

Donations for Auction items are due by April 3rd.

Glue Sticks and pencils - we are in need of glue sticks and pencils in our class.  We are down to the last 30 pencils and we are out of glue sticks.   If you can help us out, it would be greatly appreciated.

Save the date - Thursday, May 28th, 6:30-8:00 p.m. MPR - our end of the year  family party.  It is our Welcome Home from our imaginary trip from around the world.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

4th Sunday of Lent: John 4: 5-42

Jesus heals a man who was born blind.

Scripture comment:

Can you imagine what it would be like if you could not see?

Close your eyes really tight, and imagine what it would be like if you could not see anything. Tell Jesus how you feel about that. Maybe you can even show or tell Jesus some of the things you would miss, things you like seeing now.

Just let Jesus know how happy you are that you can see.

If you want to be with God some more, you might think about some people you have trouble seeing in a good way, maybe someone you've been angry with, or someone who gives you a hard time. Let Jesus know what's been hard about being friends with this person.

Then ask Jesus to help you to see better. Just let Jesus touch your “heart” eyes. Stay there with Jesus, and enjoy being with Him.

  KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 3/9/09

This was a very short  and productive week.  The children now sign in on a white board that they are in class to learn.  The fourth quarter is very important as we prepare the children for first grade as there is still a lot to cover over the next two and a half months.   

In Reading small groups created picture sorts for various letters and then we identified beginning, middle, and ending sounds of the  picture words.  We continue to review words families and red words, everyone is reading sentences, and the reading fluency is increasing daily.  This week we will begin recording stories read to Mrs. Johnson or myself during our D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time every afternoon after lunch.  The titles will be added to a kite tail and the kites will be hung in our room. Once the kite tail is full, the kites will be sent home.  In Journals we continue to focus on the conventions of writing a complete sentence.  

Our footsteps to Jesus has begun.  Children earn a footprint when they are caught doing something nice for someone.  The goal is to have the footprints reach the crucifix by Holy Thursday.  Please don’t forget to place the rubber band in you pot for the third week of Lent.  We are learning about the Rosary mysteries in class, reviewing our Lenten promises, taking part in a Lent meditation, and  working on improving our praying with reverence.

In Math we continued with time on the hour and time on the half hour will be introduced this week before we continue on with addition.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

FIELD TRIP - Tuesday, March 17th, Desert Botanical Garden.  The children will wear jeans or  jean shorts with their polo shirt.  All children need to bring a water bottle and a hat, and wear sunscreen, 

BEAR DAY - MONDAY, March 16h.  Bring a bear to school day.  If anyone has a blanket we may borrow, we would like to have snack outside on the grass tomorrow.

SNACKS - these are important to have every day.

HOMEWORK - please note that all homework needs a parent signature for the remainder of the year.  Please check that your child also uses D’Nealian handwriting at all times.  If you did not keep the name tag with the letter formation on it, please let me know so that I can send another one home.  This handwriting is important and the children have been told it is what I expect on their work in school and their homework.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop  

3rd Sunday of Lent: John 4: 5-42

Jesus tells a woman with whom He is speaking that she should ask for Living Water.

Scripture comment:

Did you ever feel tired, or worn out, or really bored, almost like a plant that is all dried up?

Can you picture a dried up plant; and then can you see someone pouring water on the plant? Watch carefully as the plant slowly comes back to life.

Could you picture yourself like that dried up plant? Maybe you can tell or show Jesus what it's like when you feel that way.

Now, can you picture Jesus being with you and pouring water on your inner heart? What happens when Jesus does that? (Take your time picturing what happens in your inner heart when Jesus does this.)

Tell or show Jesus what it's like for you when He is with you and pours water on your heart. 

 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 3/2/09

This week we celebrated Dr Seuss’ birthday, we tried the raisins we made, and we had a great Field Day.

In Reading we continue to identify the beginning, the middle, and the end of stories, fill in the blank with the missing word, and identify pictures that begin with a specific letter.  During Journals we are focusing on the conventions of writing and trying to write two or more sentences.  If a child is not quite at writing two or more sentences, then I do expect that he/she writes one complete sentence.  We created a language experience story about a grape and we will use this story next week to identify our red words and adjectives.

 We finished  the concept of using a calendar to gain information in Math and

began time on the hour. We will continue with time on the hour and the half hour next week. In addition to this we are counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s & 10’s to 130.

In Religion we are focusing on Lent and being kind to others.  Next week we will begin our  following in the footsteps to Jesus for the remainder of Lent.  The footprints will be placed on our walls for all acts of kindness we catch the children doing.  We continue to work on praying with reverence and we began a weekly meditation in class and attended our monthly Adoration.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

WATER BOTTLES - Please remind your child to bring one every day.

SNACKS - Please have your child bring a snack every day.  We do not have extra snacks in our room.  

PERMISSION SLIPS - If you have not turned in your child’s permission slip for the Botanical Garden, please have it in on Wednesday.

FRIDAY FOLDERS - Please remind your child to return these every week.

NO SCHOOL - March  9th & 10th

PRAYER POTS - Don’t forget to add the seed to your pot on Sunday.

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

2nd Sunday of Lent: Matthew 17:1-9

Jesus' friends were really amazed when they saw surprising events.

Scripture comment:

Have you ever been amazed? You can tell or show God in your heart about a time when you've been amazed. Was something really so wonderful that for a moment it almost "took your breath away"?

Tell or show God the parts that amazed you.

When you're ready, picture Jesus with you in that time or place, enjoying that amazing time. (Give yourself as much time as you need for this.)

Listen as Jesus tells you that He wants to amaze you too.

End your together time with Jesus by telling or showing Jesus how you feel about amazing things now         KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

              2/23/09

We had a fun week celebrating George Washington’s birthday, Mardi Gras, and seeing the Childsplay presentation of Ferdinand the Bull. 

In Reading the children are identifying the beginning, the middle, and the end of stories, identifying pictures for a given letter, and identifying high frequency words.  In Journals we are working on writing complete sentences and using imaginations to complete squiggles.

During Religion class the children made Lenten crosses for our wall and Lenten pots for the season of Lent.   We attended Mass on  Ash Wednesday and we discussed the symbolism of the ashes.   We will continue with weekly Lenten activities, and begin praying a decade or two of the Rosary on a daily basis.  The Lenten promises that were completed as last weeks assignment will be placed on the wall as a daily reminder of what each child would like to work on improving during this Lenten season. The items that will be added to the pots will be sent home in the Homework Folder on Monday.

This past week in Math we reviewed the days of the week, placed them in order, identified activities that take a longer and shorter time, and learned how to read a calendar to obtain information.  This week the children will learn time on the hour and possible time on the half hour using both an analog and digital clock.

March begins with Dr. Seuss’ Birthday on Monday and a day of reading Dr. Seuss books.  These books are great for word families, which are important for early reading and writing.  Please have your child bring in one of their favorite Dr. Seuss books they have at home on Monday.  The rest of the week will be related to our Bear Unit.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

 FEB. STEWARDSHIP- please send in your child’s completed Feb. calendar and their donation to our class sponsored orphan.

WATER BOTTLES - Please don’t forget these.  The days are getting warmer.   

MARCH 4th - Science Fair in the MPR - Wednesday Night for K-4.  We have a table with our experiment results.

MARCH 5h - FIELD DAY- Children wear their PE uniforms.  If you would like to help, please let the PE Dept. know. 

MARCH 6-10 - NO SCHOOL

Have a great and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

Something to share with your family.  We will be sharing this in class this week also.

1st Sunday of Lent:
Matthew 4:1-11

The devil tried to tempt Jesus to do something wrong, but even though Jesus was tired and hungry, He did what was right.

Scripture comment:

Sometimes it's hard to do what is right and good, isn't it?

Tell God, or show God in your heart, one time when it was hard for you to do what was right and good. Take your time telling or showing this to God.

Then, tell or show God what made this hard for you. (God already knows this, but it can help you if you show this part of your heart to God.)

Ask Jesus to help you to remember that he's always with you; and then, when you are ready, picture Jesus with you in that hard time. Notice what Jesus is doing... is Jesus helping you?

Tell Jesus how you felt knowing that He was there with you.

 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 2/16/09

The weeks are flying by and we are coming to the end of February.  The revamping of our Reading and Writing will take place this week.  Unfortunately, with Gesell Assessments last week and a Substitute Teacher, I did not want to implement the changes.

In Reading and in one of our Centers the children are identifying and drawing the beginning , middle and end of stories.  They are identifying pictures that begin with the sound of /g/, and we continue to work on writing two or more sentences.  This is getting stronger but it is still a challenge when it comes to writing the second or third sentence.

For Math the children are working with money.  We have been working with pennies, nickels and dimes, identifying their value, and learning how to count it.  this week we will finish money and go on to identifying days of the week and using a calendar to obtain information.

In Religion we continue to work daily on reverence during prayer and being kind to others.  We also talked about the people who help them.  This week we will be talking about Ash Wednesday, Lent and things that each of us can work on, and identifying ways they help others.

We began our class Science Project for the Science Fair on March 4th.  Our project is “Grapes to Raisins”.  The children described their grapes before eating them and then again after they ate one with their buddy. We will be tracking the time it takes for a grape to become a raisin.  We also completed a “Sink or Float” experiment with our Science Buddies.  The Science continued with Sloan’s experiment on Friday as Star of the Week.  This experiment was a different type of “Sink or Float”.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

CHILDSPLAY - If you have not sent in your child’s $3.00 for the Wednesday performance of Ferdinand the Bull, please do so on Monday.

Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos - Please don’t forget to have your child continue to earn money for Damiana (Friends of the Orphans).  The money earned should be brought in on Friday, Feb. 27th.

Water Bottles and Snacks - these both need to be sent in daily.

ASH WEDNESDAY - we will be attending Mass at 12:00 p.m. at St. Benedict’s.  Our lunch will be at 11:15 a.m.

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 2/9/09

We had a fun week with our field trip to the Phoenix Zoo and the Student-Led Conferences.  I know that everyone had a great time in the cool weather on Tuesday as we trekked through the Zoo. Thank you to all the chaperones that helped make our field trip a success.  The fun continued  on Tuesday and Wednesday as the children shared their work and their reading skills with you.  

A big thank you to Mrs. Breen and Mrs. Ortiz for organizing our Valentine’s Day Party.  The children loved it.  Also a thank you to all the parents that came and helped with the Centers and snack.

This week I will be revamping our Reading groups and activities.  Children will be assigned to different colored groups.  Each group will complete two different set activities each day, which includes two to three reading times for each group each week, story writing, workbooks,  and handwriting. If you are available from 9:00-9:45 on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday, your help would be greatly appreciated.  

In Math we began our Money Unit with the introduction of the penny and the story of Abraham Lincoln.  This week we will continue with the nickel and the dime, and complete it with the quarter.  This will be introduced in conjunction with the story of George Washington.

The rest of the month is very busy with the following themes:  Heart Smart, Bears, Black History, and Mardi Gras.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

 CLASS STEWARDSHIP - Please don’t forget to  have your child earn money for Friends of the Orphan during the month of February. 

WATER BOTTLES - Please have your child bring one every day.  They need to stay hydrated even in cool weather.

SNACKS - Please have your child pack one every day.

HOMEWORK - Please have your child follow all the directions, even when they don’t want to.  It is important that every paper has your child’s first and last name on it.

Have a very blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

Week of 9/1/08

This week the children shared their people, what they liked to do, and what each one of them wanted to be when they grow up.  Their people will be on the wall this coming week along with the items they found for the assigned color for the Color Hunt.

In Reading the children listened to stories, practiced writing the letters Hh and Ii, and filled in the missing letters. We practiced reading and writing our  first five REDwords.  Next week there will be the next 5 RED words to practice.

On Wednesday the children attended their first Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  They did well with being quiet for a long period of time and then we prayed together.  We will be attending Adoration once a month and parents are welcome to attend with us.  I will advise you when we attend in October.  We are continuing our practice of praying with reverence and procedures for Mass.

In Math the children worked with partners to sort objects by color and shape.  We then worked in our workbooks identifying same and different and sorted objects by color.  This week we continue to work with sorting objects by shape and size and begin graphing.

We are also working on using manners, appropriate voice levels, becoming self-disiplined and taking responsibility for ones actions.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SNACKS - please don’t forget to pack your child a snack everyday.  We do not have extra snacks in the classroom.

WATER BOTTLES - Please send one every day.  It is important that the children stay hydrated.  If possible, please send in water bottles with a sport top.  We have had a number of spills already in the classroom with the open top bottles.

LUNCH DRINKS - If your child brings his/her lunch please pack a drink in it. Milk or juice is available  for purchase at lunch for $.40 if you do not pack one.

Have a safe and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop    

Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.

                                                                                  - Job 37:14 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

WEEK OF 8/25/08

This was a very fast week.  The children continued their practice of listening, following directions, and following classroom and school rules.  This past Wednesday, Mrs. Douglas spoke with the class about rules and procedures to help keep them safe and to learn.  Her lesson reiterated our procedures and their importance.

In Reading we visited familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes, practiced writing the letters D-G, identified these letters in groups of letters, and completed activities with the missing letters by using listening and following directions skills.

The class was introduced to their first Math book assessment where they had to identify and use positional words they had been taught to this point.  The hardest part to this is that there is no help. The assessment helps me to assess if children need additional practice with these concepts.  Next week we will begin sorting and classifying objects.

On Thursday the class met their 5th grade Science buddies from Mr. Brant’s class.  Together each group completed an egg experiment.  The groups had to decide their materials, if the egg would cook outside, and each group had to choose a place to place their experiment.  The results varied but all eggs cooked to some degree over the 3 1/2 hours they were outside.  We did have some mishaps with our experiments being picked up and put into the trash, but I retrieved them to see what the result was of each.  Both classes had fun and we will meet every other week to complete some type of experiment throughout the year.

In Religion we are finishing with illustrating our Creation books, learning our Creation songs and listening to stories about Creation.  Next week we will discuss how we can take care of our world and put the finishing touches on the books.  In addition to this, we are practicing saying prayers with reverence and practicing the procedures for Mass.  Please continue to reiterate these when you attend as a family.  This helps to reinforce what is expected of them at our all school Masses.    

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

NO SCHOOL - Sept. 1st and Sept. 2nd

WATER BOTTLES - Please send a water bottle each day.  If at all possible, please send one with a sport top.  We have had a number of spills in the room with the regular tops.

SNACKS - Thank you for packing them for your child.  Please don’t forget them on the days that your child has hot lunch.  We do not have any backup snacks in the room.

DRINKS - please pack your child a drink in their lunch box.  Your child may also purchase milk or juice for $.40.

FRIDAY Folders - please try to send them in by Tuesday.  The behavior calendars, that will be stapled into your child’s Friday Folder, are marked daily.

THANK YOU to all the parents that were able to attend our Çurriculum Night on Thursday.  If you have any questions, please feel to contact me at any time.  If you were unable to attend, your child should have brought home the folders left in their cubbies.

STAR OF THE WEEK - If you have not sighed up your child for Star of the Week, I will sending you a separate email.

SHOW & TELL - NO Show & Tell next week due to it only being 3 days.  Reminder - Your child’s Show & Tell is every week on the day assigned, except when  we have 3 day weeks.  On the 4 day weeks, children who have Show & Tell on Monday, will have it on Tuesday.

Have a safe and blessed holiday and week.

Carol Prezkop   

  "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good."

                                                (Genesis 1:31) 

KINDERGARTEN CAPERS

We completed our first full week and are off to a great beginning of our school year.  The children have been busy learning class and school wide procedures.  Each day was a little bit better and we will continue with this next week.  It is very important that all children understand and learn our procedures and rules.

In Reading and Language Arts the children listened to a number of familiar stories.  They were introduced to sequencing pictures to retell a story, and we compared different versions of familiar stories for the main characters.  In the Reading Workbooks the children practiced writing the first three letters of the alphabet and used their Listening and Following Directions skills.

We are reviewing shapes and colors through popular Nursery Rhymes, Math, and Art activities.  This integration will continue over the next two weeks.  The children are also learning Color Songs, which helps them spell the color words. 

This past week our class met two of their buddies that they will be working with this year.  Our Religion Buddies are from Mrs. Christopher’s 3rd Grade Class and we will meet on Mondays to review the Gospel readings, complete Religion activities and stories, and watch various videos on saints.  On Thursday we will meet with Mrs. Hernandez’s 6th Grade Class for Reading Buddies and sometimes Religion.  Our other two buddies are Mrs. Navarro’s 6th Grade Class and Mr. Brant’s 5th Grade Class.  Mrs.Navarro’s Class will be our Tuesday Reading Buddies and Mr. Brant’s Class will be our Science Buddies on every other Thursday.

Our first Religion theme is Creation.  The children are learning about the order in which God created things, each child is illustrating their own Creation book, and we are learning a song about Creation.  In addition to this, we are practicing the Sign of the Cross, the Glory Be, a Grace before meals, and praying with reverence.  We will be practicing Mass procedures every week before Mass and I would like you to encourage your child to do these when you attend as a family.  We are practicing  how to genuflect, standing without touching anything during Mass, holding hands during the Our Father, giving others the sign of peace, and to receive a blessing without it being a drive by  blessing, walking back to the seat with folded hands, and genuflecting at the end of Mass.

Next week we will finish our Creation theme, begin All About Me, and begin position words and sorting in Math.

Important Information:

Instructional Assistant - I have a permanent Instructional Assistant as of this past Thursday.  Her name is Mrs. Colleen Johnson and I am very excited on having her.  Mrs. Johnson fits perfectly with our class.

PE- Monday and Wednesday are our PE days.  Please have your child wear their tennis shoes and their PE uniforms.

Curriculum Night - Thursday, August 28th.  It begins at 6:30 p.m. in the MPR.

Water Bottles - these are very important to help your child stay hydrated.

Snacks - Please continue to pack your child a healthy snack everyday.

Lunch - please tell your child when he/she has hot lunch.  This way our lunch count is accurate.            

Fridays - we do have lunch on Friday.  Please pack your child a regular lunch. 

Have a wonderful and blessed week.

Carol Prezkop

God, you created everything,

                      and you love it all. 

                                                         Wisdom  11:24

 

St John Bosco Catholic School
16035 S. 48th St., Phoenix, AZ 85048
480-219-4848

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