Each school day we gather for a morning meeting. In the past (this year and other years) students have walked in and begun play time immediately, followed by a morning meeting. This was simply the most convenient since students were entering our classroom over staggered period of time...sometimes stretching out to as much as a half hour. Going forward, we are changing our routine to meet and talk about character education, making good choices, etc. before play time. We started this last week and already see many good things!
Just to be clear, I am not initiating this because of anything your children are or are not doing. I simply feel it is best practice for any group of children coming together in a social setting.
In order for this to take place in the most effective manner, we are requesting your help...please try your best to drop off your children between 7:45 and 8:00. You may see older students coming in earlier because they often have appointments with their teachers. Thank you for your understanding. At 8:00, we'll start our morning meeting.
As stated, we started our new morning routine last week and our letter for the week was R. Before play time, we talked about what the word "respect" means. We read a book about respect written for young children and I emphasized three "special words."
1. please2. thank you
3. excuse me
The children are already using these words more in the classroom, especially "excuse me." We look forward to many more morning meetings BEFORE play time so that we can continue to build on these.
Another activity we did last week (during center time) was play a giant faith-based version of the game, "Memory." They had to walk around the cards to turn them over. They certainly enjoyed this! I played with each group and we added two more cards each round. You might want to play other versions of memory at home. I updated our 3K photos where you'll see some of the kids playing this. See the link to the left.
We also played a ring toss game in the gym. I rarely get photos of our gym games...I'm usually running around with them. (I'm always way more winded than them!)
We also learned a song in which the first line is, "Oh, it's raining cats and dogs, pitter patter, pitter patter." They really enjoyed doing actions to this song.
I can't believe we're on the letter S already! Spring is right around the corner...or so we hope!!!
Just a heads up...On May 24, St. Clare will have its Spring Concert & Fine Arts Show. Similar to the Christmas concert, there will be performances at 1:00 and 6:00. Again, 3K is invited to sing songs with 4K. In April or May I will send home a sign up sheet and you can let me know if your child will be participating either of these performances.
Looking Ahead
March 23 - Book orders due (please order online)
March 31 - Registration deadline for securing lowest tuition rate
May 4 - SAVE THE DATE! St. Clare's $10,000 Raffle
May 24 - SAVE THE DATE! Spring Concert & Fine Arts Show
*St. Clare School is always collecting Box Tops. Send them to school anytime!
