St. Joseph Catholic School

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Welcome to Preschool at St. Joseph Catholic School! 

I am so excited to be your child’s preschool teacher this year!

This is my sixth year at St. Joseph Catholic School and I am looking

forward to helping your child grow, and learn,

and have fun this year.

I have been a preschool teacher in Libertyville for over 25 years,

and am passionate about helping young children learn.

I believe children learn best with hands-on experiences and

help facilitate their many different learning styles

in a kind and nurturing setting.

We will have an amazing year together meeting new friends, sharing new

discoveries, and learning new skills everyday.

Our instructional aide, Mrs. Tina Truskowski, has much experience in the classroom

after being a aide at St. Joseph Catholic School for over 15 years!

Together, we help build positive relationships with children to help foster

growth and confidence in a caring classroom community.

We are both looking forward to sharing a wonderful year with your child.

 

*Please remember to subscribe to my website for updates including fun photos

and videos of our classroom!!

Welcome to Our Bunch!

 

 

 

 

Posts

As our preschoolers get ready to begin checking out their own books from our SJ library, we are learning how to handle and take care of books!  We watched a cute video that reminded us how NOT to take care of a book! 
Playdo Pals! We introduced playdo during Choice Time today! The children enjoyed rolling, flattening, pinching, squeezing, and manipulating the playdo ! All awesome for promoting fine motor development in our young learners! 
All About Me: The Skin I’m In! We compared the skin color on our hands with other friends! Preschoolers discovered God made us many colors! We used color cards to help us identify colors in our own skin, and gain an awareness of differences/similarities in our friends! The children enjoyed listening to our story, The Shades of People, and discovering what else makes us unique, such as eye color and hair color!
The Colors of Us! Skin is just the wrapping paper on a very special gift from God called YOU! We explored all the colors that skin can be today! The children did an amazing job of painting their hands independently!!!!!!, and making handprints on their paper! 
Happy, Sad, Sleepy, Mad, Surprised, Silly! Last week’s poem about feelings was a fun one to repeat! Preschoolers joined in as we read the poem, and enjoyed showing some faces of their own! 
Music & Movement: I Know a Chicken!
Preschoolers used their Shakey Egg to keep rhythm during our song today! They experimented with slow and fast, loud and soft, up and down, and even drew large circle in the air with their egg! Activities such as this are the best for helping develop following directions and listening skills! They totally engage!
Media with Mrs. Hoglund!
Last week Mrs. Hoglund introduced to the character Rainbow Fish, and promised that each week we would enjoy meeting one new character from a storybook! Today preschoolers met Piggy and Elephant (aka Gerald). They loved listening to the book, My Friend is Sad, and locating the hidden Pigeon! They learned that the author, Mo Willems, hides Pigeon in all his books! Mrs. Hoglund let us know that a new Pigeon book comes out very soon, and that we would be one of the first to read it!
Literacy Circle! Clap a friend’ name with me! We segmented names today to help our young learners develop  phonological awareness! We recorded the number of claps in each friend’s names, and compared the results! Ask your preschooler who had 5 claps in their name!
All Aboard! 🚂 Preschoolers each built their train from the letters in their bag! They began to understand the importance of left to right progression during assembly and placing letters in the correct order! Using unified cubes gave us the extra bonus of fine motor, and the children each were excited to show off their Letter Trains!
Whole lotta learning’ going on! Preschoolers listened carefully to each to Challenge given, and then searched the classroom for a friend’s matching Letter Train!
1. Find a Letter Train longer than yours!
2. Find a Letter Train that is shorter that yours!
3. Find a Letter train that is the same size as yours!
4. Find a Letter Train that has the same letter as yours!
5. Find a Letter Train that is the same length as yours!
This self-directed activity had our group up and moving, using teamwork, collaboration, and communication to complete each challenge! They understood math language, such as “longer” and “shorter”, and had meaningful conversations about letters! Win, Win!
 
Scissor Skill Practice! Preschoolers used bilateral coordination with each hand doing something different! Helper Hand holds and guides the paper, and Scissor Hand is aided by eye/hand coordination to cut on the dotted line! The children understood the STOP sign was where they stopped their cutting! Look for these in your folders tomorrow!
Math Circle. Preschoolers were introduced to patterns today, and one of our fave videos! Banana, Banana, Meatball! 🍌 🍌 !