Mrs. Dougherty's Class Connection

The St. Linus server is back up and so are the blogs! This week was a lot of fun as we celebrated Catholic Schools Week! Thursday was student appreciation day and the kids had fun playing all day inside and outside. We even got to watch a short movie, Arthur's Best Friend! It was a great day. Today was teacher appreciation day and while Mrs. Bittner and I were at our luncheon Mrs. Gambino and Mrs. Romo were especially generous to come and watch the class. We were so surprised to come back to a nice clean room and a beautiful poster made by the children...THANK YOU! In the afternoon we went to the gym to see the "Pocket Circus." It was a lot of fun and the children really seemed to enjoy it. This week we were also busy learning about the letter X. Next week we will start learning about the letter V and continue for 2 weeks.
Here is a look at next week..

Monday
Please remember to bring in a cereal box for your child if you have not done so already. We will be decorating them this week for our Valentine's Day Party!
In our sensory tub will be pink and red hearts on paper for the children to practice cutting out.
In the morning we will be playing, Pin the Heart on Cupid!
In the afternoon we will playing a heart matching game, where the children must match the broken hearts by number and corresponding dots.

Tuesday
Today is recyclable art. We will be graphing candy hearts both in the morning and the afternoon. In the morning we will graph how many of each colored hearts there are in a container to see which color has the most and the least. In the afternoon we will graph our favorite color candy heart. We might even get to taste a few too :)

Wednesday
For our art project today we will be making a heart butterfly. We will also work on our printing pages today for our portfolios. We will be doing a science experiment today where we place 3 white carnations in 3 different vases with 3 different colored water. We will all predict what we think will happen to the carnations over night. We might even need to wait until Monday to see if anything changes! We will also be learning new Valentine's Day songs this week. I'm sure you will be hearing them at home too.

Thursday
Today we have an 11:30am dismissal. AM preschoolers will still be dismissed at 11:00am.
Parent Teacher Conferences are today from 1:00pm to 4:00pm and then again from 5:00pm to 7:30pm. I am very pleased with the progress the class is making, if you feel you need a conference feel free to come in any time during the times mentioned above.

Friday
No School

Just a reminder that our Valentine's Day Party is on Tuesday, February 14th. Each child can bring in Valentine's for the class, but please remember to only have your child sign their name. This makes passing them out much easier. There are 26 children in our class.

Have a great weekend!!
Mrs. Dougherty

We are ending our unit on Valentine's Day this week, along with our letter V packet. We had a fun time with our carnation experiment, and everyone was very excited to see them change colors!
Just a reminder, if you have not already brought back your report card envelope, please do so. Thank You!

Here is a look at our week...

Monday
For our art project today we will be making a Valentine's Day Shaker out of paper plates. We will also be playing a game, "What's on the Heart?" Each child will draw a heart out of a bag and have to explain what is on their heart.

Tuesday
Happy Valentine's Day! Our class party will be from 10:00am to 11:00am. If your child does not attend on Tuesdays, please have them come at 10:00 to the preschool doors and you can pick them up at 11:00 outside the preschool doors. If your child attends in the afternoon, please have them arrive at 10:00am and remember to pack them a lunch. Thank you in advance to Mrs. Nolan, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Klonowski, Mrs. Willette, Mrs. Romo, and Mrs. Paterimos for helping at our party, I know it will be great! :)

If your child is bringing in valentines to pass out, please remember to only have them sign their name and not to address them. This makes passing them out much easier.

Wednesday
Today we will be gluing strips of velvet onto the letter V. We will also be making a volcano using baking soda and vinegar. Today we will try to play volleyball with balloons, it should be a lot of fun!

Thursday
Today we will be working on our Religion packet.
We will discuss different vegetables too. After we are done discussing different types, we will graph our favorites.

Friday
For our art project today we will be finger painting with the letter V. In the morning and the afternoon we will be making a special treat...vanilla ice cream!! By adding the ingredients into a ziplock bag and then doing some special "Cooking" we will have our very own vanilla ice cream in minutes! Yum!

Monday, February 20th we do not have school.

Have a great long weekend!
Mrs. Dougherty

What a wonderful surprise I had today...the baby shower was wonderful! A big thank you to Mrs. Bittner and all the Moms who came out today to help celebrate. The children were so excited and I was too :) Thank you to EVERYONE for the wonderful gifts...this baby is so lucky and I am so lucky to be teaching such wonderful and sweet children. I will definitely miss them when I am gone, and will be excited to see them when I return. Everyone was so generous and the day was so special, it's definitely one I will remember!

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! What beautiful weather we are still having. This week and next week our theme is "Family Fun." We will be talking all about our families and I have lots of Fun activities planned. Our letter of the week is Ff. In our sensory tub this week we will be washing dishes. We will be discussing different chores we do around the houses to help our family, and this is one we can practice at school. :) At the easel there are different colors and the children are encouraged to paint portraits of their families. The ones done today turned out great!

Here is a look at our week...

Tuesday
For art we did recyclable art. In the morning we went to Library with Mrs. Conn, it is always fun to have some special books read to us. We also started our letter Ff packet. In the afternoon we will start drawing pictures of our family for a class family tree that will be going out in the hallway.

Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Today the preschoolers will be joining the rest of the school for the 10:00am Ash Wednesday Mass. Please remind your child of proper Church behavior.
For an art project today we will be cutting out pictures from magazines of different families to make a family collage. **Please send in any "family" magazines you may have at home that you no longer need. We will be using them again later on this week and next. Thank You!**
In the afternoon we will learn a song called, "Families in the House." This is sung to the tune of the farmer in the dell.

Thursday
Recyclable Art
This week for Religion we will be working on our Chapter that deals with our Family! Also, in the morning the SXU speech girls will be in to do a special activity with the children. . We will also be learning different songs that are about families in the morning. In the afternoon we will play a game called, "Are you my Mommy?" where we have to match baby animals to their mothers.

Friday
For an art project today we will be making a paper plate puppet of someone in our family. We will be using different parts of magazine faces to make them, so they may turn out a little silly. In the morning we will make a class list of special things we like to do as a family. In the afternoon we will discuss different chores that we do either as a family or to help out the family.

*Next week we will continue to discuss our same theme "Family Fun" but we will also be discussing how our pets are a part of our family. If you have a pet at home, please send in a picture of them on Monday for your child to share with the class. If you do not have a pet at home, your child can print out a picture of a pet they wish they had.

Have a great week!!
Mrs. Dougherty

Today the class made a list in the morning of special activities each child did with their family and in the afternoon we made a list of different chores each child did to help out around the house. I thought I would share them with you. Especially the chores :)

AM Preschool...Our Family Activities

Secilia...Went on a family vacation with my cousins.
Kaitlyn...We go to Branson to see family.
Katelyn...The whole family ate breakfast together on vacation.
Ava...We have a special breakfast.
Ellie...We went to Disneyland
Jordan...Going to Florida and the Beach.
Amanda...Grandma takes me to McDonalds when I visit.
Abby...We eat pizza together.
Natalie...I play games with Brett.
Ronin...We went to Key Lime Cove.
Sean...We went to a restaurant for my Grandpa's Birthday.
Aidan..My whole family goes on vacation to a hotel.
Nicholas...We eat cake together.
Thomas...We went to a hotel.
Peter...I go to McDonalds with my Mom and Brother.
T.J...Grandma takes me to the carnival.
Quinn...I make special crafts with my Mom.
Jack...We go to Flapjacks for Mickey Mouse Pancakes.
Keith...We go to McDonalds.

PM Preschool...Our Family Chores

Charlie...Make my bed.
Ronin...Clean up the downstairs.
Nicholas...Clean up my whole room.
Aidan...Put sheets on my bed and my brother's bed.
Peter...Clean the whole house.
Thomas...Fold the laundry.
Keith...Clean the house with my brother.
T.J...Clean up my toys.
Jordan...Fold clothes.
Ava...Clean up A.J.'s room and do the dishes.
Amanda...Clean the glasses.
Kaitlyn...Make my Mom and Dad's Bed.
Secilia...Clean my room and wash dishes for Grandma.
Allyson...Clean my room.
Julianna...Clean up the toys.
Katelyn...Clean my Dad's office and fix my Mom's bed.

This week we are continuing on with our Family Fun Theme! If you have a pet, please remember to bring in a picture of him/her this week to share with the class.
Mrs. Sally O'Connell, the sub that will be taking over for me joined us on Monday and today to get to know the class and our routine before I leave for my maternity leave. The kids all loved her and I am confident it will be an easy transition for the children. My tentative last day will be this Friday, but I will keep you posted on the blog if anything changes. I will be checking my email throughout my maternity leave, so feel free to email me. If you need to contact Mrs. O'Connell, please either call during school hours, or write a note in your child's folder. She will not have email access.

Here is a look at our week...

Monday
Today during free play we worked on two art projects. We first glued on feathers to the letter F and then we decorated shamrocks for the school's March bulletin board, located by the gym. The preschool and Kindergarten Class is in charge of the bulletin board for March.
We also had our first Rocking Chair Reader...Amanda's Nana came to read a wonderful book to the class. It was a lot of fun and Amanda was beaming :) If you would like your child's grandparent or special friend to come and read to the class, please send a note in your child's folder.

Tuesday
Today we will be working on our take home books! A letter went home yesterday regarding these two books that will be completed this week and start going home next week.
We will also be playing freeze dance today!

Wednesday
We will continue to work on our class book today!
During circle time we will discuss why pets are a part of our family too.
We will also play a game called "Mommy Says" or "Daddy Says". This will be played just like Simon Says.

Thursday
Recyclable Art
Today we will be playing family charades!
We will also work on our next Religion Chapter

Friday
Our family books will be complete and I will share the finished product with the class! We will finish up our letter Ff packets too.

Have a great week!!
Mrs. Dougherty