Week 25

Three weeks into March and Mrs. P.'s class has been seeing green! Using various St. Patrick's Day activities and games, our classroom has been learning about this month's Irish holiday, as well as the symbols, words and customs associated with it! In handwriting class, students made their own pots of gold, cutting out pictures and writing out words to tell what they themselves would like to find at the end of their rainbows. Ranging from tacos to music, from Santa Clause to movies, each of Mrs. P.'s students had something they longed to find in an imaginary pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day. Mrs. P. herself wished to find good listeners at the end of her rainbow, and from students' great performance this week, it is clear that she had the luck of the Irish!

Please continue to make good choices regarding nutrition! In physical education, students have offered up great, healthy snack options to their teachers and been able to tell green light foods from red light foods. We have also been working hard to make environmentally green choices, recycling our paper and plastics to do our part to better the Earth. Let's all try to fill our lunchboxes with the greenest choices we think we can make and fill our recycling bins with the things that we can reuse!

On Thursday, Mrs. P. put her students to the test with a race to find and identify sight words she hid around the room. Divided into teams of three, students raced to find their words and cheered on their friends. When the races finished the whole class joined together as a team to find and identify their Olympic sight words, finishing in Olmpic gold medal time!

Mrs. P.'s class was delighted to welcome various visitors who came to visit the school this Friday to join in our St. Patrick's Day festivities! In the morning, friends from McQuaid Jesuit Highschool came to observe our class' hard work, and assisted us in preparing this week's special Irish treat: Shamrock Shakes! Students' showed our guests how they follow directions, take pride in the their tasks and work together as a team to achieve their goals and rewards themselves!

In the afternoon, the School of the Holy Childhood was treated to another fabulous performance by the talented dancers of  Drumclife Irish School of Dance. Year after year, students and teachers here at Holy Childhood alike are both impressed and grateful for such a wonderful special event. Thank you!

Have a green weekend everyone! Practice your sight words and see you next week!

Week 24

This week Mrs. P.'s class continued learning about the topics we were introduced to last week. We continued building our volleyball skills, as well as deciphering which snacks are healthy for our bodies and which we should generally avoid. Teachers here at school would love to see fruits and vegetables replace the common sweets and cookies we see come in, so please encourage your student to make healthy choices about the snacks they eat when packing their lunches at home!

Students learned a few things about themselves this week, as we continued to learn about our own home country, the United States of America. We learned about some of our country's favorite foods, sports, and hobbies, as well as the values and traditions that make us great! What makes your student proud to be an American? Talk about these things at home, as they would be great things to share with one another here in class during group.

One thing that all of Mrs. P.'s students can be proud of, is the homemade American flag they constructed to hang in our classroom. Using our brains, our hands, and a whole lot of teamwork, our classroom Olympians made the stars and stripes a true reflection of themselves and the country they love!

Have a fabulous weekend, and be reminded that there is a half day for students on Wednesday, March 14. And kids- remember to practice those sight words! Your progress has been extraordinary!

Week 23

Welcome back everyone! We hope that everyone had a nice, relaxing vacation! From what teachers have heard here at school, Mrs. P.'s students had a lot of fun over break and from the looks of it, many of them were busy practicing their sight words! Mrs. P. was pleasantly surprised by how much progress students had made with their sight words by practicing on their own time, and continues to encourage ALL of her students to do this as much as possible at home. Keep up the great work kids!

Our week back marked the start of several new things! As we march into March, we are moving on from February's country and sport (Australia and swimming) to this month's concentration: the United States of America and basketball! Yes, this month we will be learning about our very own homeland, about what makes our country special and great and different from other places in the world. And as March Madness gets under way in the middle of the month, teachers could think of no better sport to learn about than basketball in  March! We wrapped up last month's lessons on Australia by preparing one of the Aussies favorite snacks in SPOT group, Nutella, granola and berry parfaits. Yum!

Having completed our dance and circles units in physical education and health, students began learning about volleyball and nutrition this week. For volleyball, students were each given a balloon to work with to practice throwing and setting, working together to learn the skills they'll need to play a real volleyball game. In nutrition, students were shown various snack choices to decipher which were "green light" snacks and which were "red light" snacks. Apples, granola bars, water and vegetables beat chips, cookies, soda pop and candy in a landslide, and students are encouraged to carry these lessons straight into their lunch boxes. Mrs. P. would love to see her classroom Olympians eat like the champions they are!

This month's new Olympic sight words are: United States, basketball, court, dribble and shoot.

This week we wished a happy birthday to both one of Mrs. P.'s students, and everyone's favorite doctor, Dr. Seusse! Mrs. P.'s class celebrated Dr. Seusse's birthday by reading one of his books each day this week, ending with "Bartholomew and the Ooblek" on Friday when we made our very own, green, gunky oolblek! Using water, cornstarch, some green food coloring and teamwork, students had a blast making their own Seussical creation. Was our ooblek a solid or a liquid? It was a little bit of both, and a whole lot of fun!

See you next week everyone! Have a great weekend and remember to practice your sight words at home!