New Photos (Mostly December)

Peppermint play doh was such a hit I made a little bag for each child.

Making Trees and below we decorated our felt tree.

We are all learning at different paces. 

No direction, just shapes.  Look at their creations.

We made a patterned chain that was 106 loops long!

Learning about Andy Warhol and Pop Art.  It was tougher than it looks!

All pretty and dapper, ready for the Christmas Program.  They did so great.

Making Mommy and Daddy special cards and gifts. 

Polar Express Day:  We did Math with marshmallows and made a shape train.  We also wrote some fun words from the movie.  Don't forget the hot chocolate, it was super yummy.

Here is a bunch of books I read to the class over the month. 

Our Christmas party was a success thanks to all the grown ups who volunteered to come in and help with crafts and games. 

We are just flying through the school year.  I can not express how amazed I am with each and everyone of these children so far this year.  The new year brings new excitement and new topics for learning.  I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and Cheers to a WONDERFUL, BLESSED NEW YEAR!

Mrs. Boyle :)

NEW photos... long over due!

62 blocks high!

NC the friend of the week in November

Super cool Scientist of the week EH talking about BLUBBER!  We learned blubber keeps animals warm and helps them float!

BP brought in his tortoise to finish up our story La Tortuga.  We measured his shell and we will remeasure in the spring!

KD another friend of the week.

Sparky is certainly growing quickly!

The Month Of December has come and nearly GONE!!

Prek 4 has been so busy I don't even know where to start!

In Reading we have been working with the main story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker".  The focus has been top, middle and bottom adding to prereading and writing skills.  I have begun working with smaller more focused groups on things from letter identification to decoding 3 letter words.  ALL students have learned alliteration, rhyme and just this week SYLLABLES.  Ask them to demonstrate throughout break.  They love showing how smart they are.

Math has been a building block.  Some are ready to try some basic addition which will begin after break.  Others are working on writing and identifying as well as connecting the number to a group of objects.  Counting is different than identification.  Most of these guys can COUNT to 100 without a problem.  We even started counting by 10's for fun.  HOWEVER they must know numbers 1-10 and be able to write and hopefully spell those numbers by the end of the year.

We have had a couple of Scientists these last few weeks.  I will post them and their photos in the next post.  We have also had a few instagram assignments.  The last one was on Christmas traditions in their homes.  We have been talking about different traditions around the world during this time of the year.  We have talked about Christmas in Germany, Mexico, Italy and the US along with St. Lucia in Sweden and the Jewish tradition of Hanukkah.  They loved seeing all the different foods and photos of events that happen during this time.

Over break, I ask that you spend a little time practicing names and letters Aa-Hh both printing and identifying.  They should be doing these pretty well at this point.  If you have specific questions, please email me.  Watch their grips and letter formation as these can be difficult habits to break, so I need your help at home as well.  :)

I hope by now you have all seen our first touchcast.  Tomorrow, I will be filming another.  They are fun insights into the classroom. I love sharing what we are doing.

FINALLY, ENJOY YOUR BREAK WITH YOUR GIFT FROM GOD! They are amazing little people and I LOVE everyday that I get to spend with them.  I love seeing them grow and learn.  I hope you are seeing amazing growth too.  Thank you for letting me be a part of their lives.

Merry Christmas and God's Blessings for a new year!

Love,
T B :)

more church videos

Mass November 19, 2014

I am trying to get all the videos on.  Please be patient! Thanks.

November Photos

The rough results of our "Where is your family from?" assignment.

AB our friend of the week

Our Patchwork Quilt (http://vimeo.com/6275389)

Using simple Popsicle sticks and our brains to create shapes and other things.

KD was our scientist of the week talking about why it rains.

Coming up with our own patterns.

Finger print leaves. 

No words.... Just adorable.

Creating Bird Feeders

Gelatin, bird seed, warm water and a splash or corn syrup.

We put them in cups in the fridge then took them to the Grotto.

Our cornucopia of Blessings

We are thankful little turkeys!

The Month of Blessings and Thanks

I feel like November always seems to get forgotten and it is one of my favorite months.  I love the celebration of blessings and family.  I hope that the children are getting that these last couple of weeks as we have been focusing a lot on both of those things.  We talked about the many blessings we have in life.  We talked about being thankful for all we have, going beyond just family and friends.  It may seem a little rough, but we talked about how some people go without food, shoes, clean water and even school.  We agreed that those things are all GREAT blessings in our lives and we should be thankful daily!

Regarding family, the quilt looks great.  We read patchwork quilt and talked about the tradition of quilting.  We also talked about different families other than our blood relatives.  We are a prek family, an OLV family and we even have a church family.  The instagram videos are GREAT.  I loved hearing them say the states, point them out and be so excited about it.  We showed the videos on Friday and then pinned the locations on the map in our classroom.

Speaking of Instagram, I LOVE using this tool.  The children love seeing the videos at the end of the week when we get to discuss the similarities and differences that they all came up with for their assignments.  PLEASE remember to submit the video, not just a photo.  Sometimes I will ask for a photo, but thus far they have all been videos.  If you send it directly to me, that is fine, but it doesn't show up on my instagram feed and I can't share it.  So, I do prefer you just post and tag me @mrsboyleprek.  I also appreciate you learning this new tool.

We have been doing a tons of patterns, rhyming and this week we even started with alliteration.  Please be sure to ask them to show you some patterns at home.  Have them create a variety to show you they really are understanding the concept.  Rhyming is a word pattern or word family.  Give them a starter word and listen to them go.  Finally Alliteration is so fun.  Think tongue twister.  We started this on Thursday and will continue using this the rest of the year.  Everything we learn builds on to a new skill, it is never taught then forgotten. 

We finished our STAR Assessments this week.  Those results will be discussed on report card pick up day.  I did small groups and made it relaxed so no one would feel any stress of a "test".  We said it was a little test game to see how 57 days smarter looks! (58,59th day respectively) That made them feel good because we talk about what day of school it is, count it and say we feel 59 days smarter etc...

Finally a bit of housekeeping:
1.  PLEASE send hat, gloves and scarves daily.  We go out unless it is below 25 and or raining.
2.  REMEMBER church this Wednesday.  The children have been practicing hard at school, I hope at home as well.  If you are coming to church, be there by 8:15.
3.  Friday is PT conference day.  If you can't make it, send me an email to reschedule.
4.  Tuesday is Thanksgiving Luncheon.  Please RSVP to the office asap.  Dismissal will be 1:30ish. 
5.  Don't forget to share the good work here at OLV.  We know it is getting close to parents starting to look for schools and re-register.  We hope you have been super happy and will continue to help us expand!

Many thanks and blessings to you and your family this Thanksgiving!
Mrs. Boyle

ps... there will be a video instagram this week and photo instagram over Thanksgiving.

An Excellent Read

Please take a minute to read this beautifully written blog piece.  As a mom and teacher it really hit home. 

http://missnightmutters.com/2014/11/dear-parent-about-that-kid.html

Mrs. Boyle

Finishing up October

We learned a lot about pumpkins and Jackolanterns.  Ask your child why a Jackolantern gets moldy. We did an in class instagram observation on a moldy pumpkin.  This was an accidental moldy pumpkin, so it was a wonderful side lesson.  I encourage you to look for "accidental" learning opportunities like this!  Don't forget to follow me and check instagram twice a week for videos and homework. 

We have been working a lot with colors and patterns.  Our patterns have been simple abab, but we have also practiced aabaab and abbabb.  They will have another instagram assignment this week with patterns.  Let them practice these assignments and then present them on the video. 

We took our nocturnal animal unit all the way up to the week before Halloween.  The children learned about different animals and what makes them nocturnal.  They especially loved learning about echolocation.  Ask them about that!

In religion, we are starting to talk about family.  Each child will be getting some specific homework to work on next week.  Please be sure to help them with it.  A heads up will be to have a 3x5 or 4x6 family photo.  We are also practicing for our mass.  YES! We are doing the readings and petitions.  We will need at home and at school practice for this to be great, so please do help us with this. 

The halloween party was great! Thanks to Mrs. W, Mrs. M, Mrs. M, Mrs. R and Mrs. M (yeah, too many M's!)  Enjoy a few photos.