Mrs. Dougherty's Classroom Connection

The weather seems to be warming up finally, hooray! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and especially the nice, sunny weather we had on Saturday.
Congratulations Tommy, he's our Star of the Week!!
Thank you to everyone who have brought in baby wipes and glue sticks, they were much needed!
I'm still looking for "rocking chair" readers. If you are interested, please let me know. It can be any afternoon, after 1:00pm. Send a note or email me if you are interested. I know the kids love it when a Grandma or Grandpa comes to read!

Here is a look at our week...
Monday
Take home books were sent home. Remember if your child received one, please have them read it during the week, and bring it back on Friday. The readers last Friday did a great job reading their books.
We have started letter Nn today. It was very exciting for three of the students, Nicole, Nicky, and Natalie :) We have also started discussing money. We will learn about the penny, nickel, and dime this week and next. It is a fun unit, and I encourage you to ask your child to count out change for you, them seem to enjoy it.
Homework: Letter Nn picture page.

Tuesday
Homework: Letter Nn printing page.

Wednesday
We will be reading our story today. Remember to preview it with your child. Overall I am very happy with our reading during the stories. Last week they all did wonderful with "Ed's Paint" and it was a long story, 3 pages!

Thursday
Computers & Art I hope you are enjoying the word list your child types during computers, they are becoming excellent little typist!

Friday
Library and Take home books are due back. The students did not check out books last week, so only overdue library books are due back.
Homework: Riddle of the Week.
Remember no school on Monday!

Have a great week!
Mrs. Dougherty

Who knew that our picture for March there would still be snow on the ground! Out of our 7 pictures...5 pictures have no leaves, 3 pictures have snow on the ground, and only 2 have a nice full green tree. We haven't seen many changes from February's tree, but there are still a lot of buds! The tree is covered and we are confident that by our April picture a leaf should be seen :)

With March here let's hope for some Spring weather on it's way! I hope everyone had a great weekend.
Here is a look at our week...
Monday
Congratulations Sebastian ~ he is our star of the week!
We started letter Rr today. We are also beginning to discuss rhyming words. Please go over the word list that was sent home today and have your child try to pick out the rhyming words.
Scholastic Book orders for March were sent home. If you order your books online I posted two additional Spring catalogs for you to look at.
A letter regarding my take home reading program was sent home. Books will start coming home tomorrow. Remember it is o.k. if your child does not receive a book at first. Throughout the remainder of the year, all children who are ready will receive one. Remember these books are due back on Friday.

Tuesday
Letter Rr picture page for homework.
*Today we will be taking our class tree picture. Please send your child to school with their winter boots today. Who knew the courtyard would have the most snow for our March picture!! Thank you, and check back this week for the picture!

Wednesday
We will be reading our story "Ed's Paint" today. The story is about the mixing of primary colors. So we will be doing our own paint experiment in class, ask your child about which colors you can mix to make new ones!
Letter Rr printing page for homework.

Thursday
As I had mentioned in the newsletter we are in need of glue sticks and baby wipes. Thank you in advance :)

Friday
Happy Birthday Mary!!
Scholastic Book Orders Due Back.
Classroom take home books & Library books due back.
Rest Towels coming home.
Homework: Riddle of the week. Last week I put on the blog that we had a riddle last Friday, but we did not. I must have been in the habit of writing it on Friday :) But look for it this Friday, a new one will be coming home for homework. Remember to have your child draw a picture and color it in the middle of the page. At the end of the year when these are all put together in a book they look so nice when they are colorful.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Dougherty

I just realized this never posted last week! Even though it is a little late, here it is...
Congratulations to Nicole, she is our Star of the Week!!
I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend.
Here is a look at our week...
Tuesday
We started letter Bb today.
Homework: letter Bb picture page.
Wednesday
Ice Cream $1.00
Homework: Letter Bb printing page. Please check your child's homework to make sure they have printed "b" and not "d." This can be an easy mix for them.
Thursday
We are discussing our teeth today ~ how to keep them healthy and the different parts of a tooth. February is National Dental Month.
Friday
Happy Birthday Isabella!!
Homework: Riddle of the Week
Progress Reports are being sent home. Your child was tested on a list of words that we have learned in class. Overall I am VERY happy with how well the students are reading, I think they are pretty proud too. Along with the progress report a list of our "memory words" will be sent home and each word your child can read will be circled. Your child is not expected to read all of the words. We have only covered about half of these words. By the end of the year your child should be able to recognize all of them, this is just to show you where he/she is so far.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Dougherty

I apologize for the late posting this week, it's been a busy one so far :) I hope everyone enjoyed the three day weekend and there is another one for the students coming up. Monday there will be no school, the teachers are attending a conference for the Archdiocese.
Thank you to Mrs. McNamara and all the other parents who helped the class celebrate during the Valentine's Day Party! It was a lot of fun!
Here is a look at the remainder of the week...
On Friday we received our very first letter mailed back and yesterday we received two more! Thank you for taking the time to mail us our letters we really enjoy reading them.
We started letter Uu yesterday and we read our story "Tug" this week. I am very impressed with the progress in reading this year. Please continue to work with your child on the word lists sent home. I will be starting a take home reading program in the next two weeks. A letter will be sent home to explain.
Today was Ash Wednesday and the Preschool and Kindergartners were in charge. They did a wonderful job!
In your child's folder a "Lenten Promises" calendar was sent home. Please hang this calendar in a spot where your child can view it everyday and mark off when the promise is complete. We will be looking at each promise during circle time and discussing it.
In Math we are discussing four different geometric figures ~ the cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder. I told the students if they find something at home that is the same shape they are more than welcome to bring it in and share it with the class.
Friday ~ Great America Reading forms are due back. The ticket for Great America will be given out in May.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Dougherty

First I would like to thank everyone for the thoughtful cards and gifts I received on Friday. A big thank you to Mrs. Ogean who was the lunch mom for the class while I enjoyed my hour luncheon! She was very kind and helped the class create a poster for me! I have it hanging on my door, it's very cute :)

We have very exciting news in our room!! Isabella is now a big sister to not one, but two babies :) Bella's mom had her twins this Sunday morning ~ Samantha and Cesar! We are very happy for Bella, Mom, Dad, and the two newest members of the Romo family ~ CONGRATULATIONS!

Rocking Chair Reading!
I would like to invite some special guests to our classroom for some Rocking Chair Reading! If your child's Grandma or Grandpa would like to come and read to the classroom, we would love to have you! If a Grandparent is not available Aunts and Uncles are great too and are more than welcome! If you are interested please let me know, we are free mostly any afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00pm. Please email me and let me know :) Last year I had many special guests come and read to the class, and the kids loved it!

Here is a look at this week...
Monday
Congratulations Victoria...our STAR of the Week!!
We are starting letter Hh. As I had mentioned in my newsletter we are now working on one letter per week. I am confident that the class is ready, they are doing very well in Reading and I am very happy with the progress we have made so far! Thanks for helping out at home too!!
Homework: Letter Hh picture page

Tuesday
The Preschool and Kindergarten are in charge of the Ash Wednesday Mass coming up. If your child has a speaking part a note along with their part will be coming home on Wednesday. Please help your child memorize their part. Not all children will receive a part, only a few this time, but don't worry...there will be lots of parts saved for graduation :)

Wednesday
We will be reading our story today in groups ~ "Ted's Hat."

Thursday
With all the Valentine's we will be delivering soon, I am teaching a unit on the postal system. On Monday we wrote a letter as a class that I typed up. We discussed the different parts of the letter and what we need to put on the envelope: the address, stamp, and return address. Everyone should be receiving a special delivery in their mailbox soon!! We are waiting to see how long it takes to get to your house. If you choose to write us back, please include in the letter the date you received the letter and the date you mail it out to help us better track our postal delivery times ;) I really appreciate it!! The children are VERY excited about receiving mail at school!

Friday
Ladies Guild Hot Lunch
Library Books due back.
SHOW n' TELL ~ please have your child bring in one item that either shows love or that they love. They each will get a turn to share it with the class and explain why it is sooo lovely!
Valentine's Day Party!!
Our party will be held from 10am to 11am. If you would like to come and help out, please contact Mrs. McNamara. We are busy decorating our boxes for all our Valentines. Please remember to NOT put names on the outside envelopes, only have your child sign their name, this makes passing them out much easier. We have 17 children in our class.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend! Remember no school on Monday!
Mrs. Dougherty

Here are some pictures from today and yesterday (our class tree picture).
I hope you enjoy...we really enjoyed our day today :)

This morning our class received a WONDERFUL gift from Nicky and his Dad ~ a dog house for Lucky! It is not just a regular dog house either, it was made by Nicky and his Dad and it came out fabulous. The class loves it and we think Lucky does too! Thank You again Mr. Baker!!!

After our great surprise we started celebrating our 100th day of school! We made special crowns for us to wear throughout the day. At circle time we counted out 100 gummy bears! Each day we hung a bear that corresponded with our number of days at school.

Then we each had a turn to stand up and present our 100 days poster, and let me tell you everyone did a fantastic job!



Our next adventure would be to pass our 100 heart shaped suckers! We visited a few classrooms and a few teachers and in no time they were gone! We did manage to save 17 for us :)




When we got back to our classroom we had a special reading activity ~ reading 100 words. With their tables they took turn reading each word in our chart, then they took some time to color them!

In Math we did a special "mystery" page. I told the students different numbers to color in order to see the mystery picture...

Ask your child all about their day, I'm sure they will tell you all about it!
We couldn't forget about Groundhog's Day, so this afternoon we predicted if we thought the groundhog would see his shadow. The majority of the class thought he would not see his shadow, but when we found out that he DID see his shadow we thought of ways to prepare for the next six weeks of winter :)

Here is our class tree picture from yesterday...

Happy Catholic Schools Week!!
What an exciting time in our classroom, not only is it Catholic Schools Week, but it is also our 100th day of school tomorrow!! It was great seeing so many of you yesterday at the Open House. I hope you enjoyed the poem and card and autobiography. The poem was made by the class and each student gave one or two lines.
Congratulations to Ryan, our Star of the Week!!
Here is a look at our week...

Monday
Happy Parent Appreciation Day! Thank you, thank you for ALL that you do!! I know your children are very appreciative and so am I! I hope you enjoyed your coupon in your child's folder and remember there is no expiration date :)
Thank you to those who have brought in their shoe boxes already for the Valentines! We will be decorating these on Friday, so please make sure to send it in by then. If you need more construction paper please let me know.
We are continuing with letter Ee this week. Today a copy of our story "Ed's Sled" went home in your child's folder. Please review it with your child and have them point out certain words for you, this will help them read the story and not memorize it. We were all very excited to meet our new character Ed today, and when I asked which animal they thought he would be, one of the first guesses was "elephant!"
Letter Ee printing paper for homework tonight.
We took our picture in front of our tree today, and WOW there were a lot of buds on the branches, hopefully this is a sign that Spring is near. I will post the picture tomorrow.

Tuesday
Happy 100th Day of School!! Wow can you believe we have been in school this long already? This year is really going by fast and we are enjoying every day. I have a lot of fun activities planned for the day. Check out the blog to see pictures that will take you through our day.
It is also Groundhog's day today. We will discuss this also and take a vote to see if we think the groundhog will see his shadow or not??
100th Day Posters are due.

Wednesday
Student Appreciation Day!!
Another day filled with exciting events ~ and remember your child can dress down today.
Some activities that are planned for the day are...
~ FTC Assembly in the morning.
~ All School Bingo
~ Movie and popcorn in the afternoon ~ what a treat!

Thursday
Open House from 9am to 11am. As I had mentioned in my newsletter last week, my class is in Computers and Art from 9:30 until 11:00am. You are still more than welcome to come and visit during that time and see all they do in computers and art.
NJHS Bake Sale! All items are 50 cents and we will be going to it right before lunch. If you would like your child to purchase an item or two please send the money in an envelope in your child's folder. All the money collected will be sent to help the people of Haiti.

Friday
Teacher Appreciation Day
Library books are due back.
Riddle of the Week for homework.

Have a great week!
~Mrs. Dougherty

I hope everyone had a great weekend! If you have not already done so, please return the report card envelope in your child's folder. You may keep their report card.
Here is a look at this week...

Monday
Congratulations to our Star of the Week...Rory!!
Started with the letter Ee this week, how Excellent! Letter Ee can be a tricky one for the students so please take some extra time at home to go over the word list. We will be reading a story in our letter Ee book next week, a copy of the story will go home next Monday.
Letter Ee picture page ~ **only short e sounds, ex: egg, elephant**

Tuesday
We are busy preparing a special project for the Open House on Sunday!!
Also, please send in your kindness hearts whenever they are complete, I have already received some and wow...we have a KIND class!!
Wednesday
Let me know if you have any questions regarding the 100 days of school project. The letter went home Monday, and feel free to use your own posterboard or paper. If you finish the project early you may bring it in :)

Thursday
Scholastic Book Orders for February sent home today. Remember you can order online too!

Friday
Kindness hearts are due back.
Library books due back.
Rest towels coming home.

Next week is Catholic Schools Week. A letter is going home this week explaining the events that will be going on. I hope to see everyone at the Open House this Sunday, Jan. 31st after 10:30am Mass. It will give you a chance to look around your child's room and receive a special project your child has been working on.

If you have any questions, just let me know!
Mrs. Dougherty