I Am Special

This week we learned about the things that make us special!  We learned about our special characteristics, abilities, and talents.

We started by listing thing that we can do that make us special.  We can jump off of the diving board, do a somersault, and dance silly.  We have some very talented Hoots!

"God made me. God loves me. God knows my name."  Isiah 43:1-4

We talked about our name and how they are one of the very first things that our parents give to us.  Our names can be family names or have special meanings that our parents liked.  In one of our religion lessons this week Mrs. Milton told us what our name mean and we made special bracelets with our names and meanings.  

Hoot Names and meanings:

 Abbie- Father's joy

Anna- grace

Annie- grace

Caleb- faithful

Elida- God knows

Elise- pledged to God

Etchieson- a surname 

Lawson- law 

Lilly- innocence

Lucy- light

Luke- light giving

Mason- stoneworker

Mira- wonderful

Nicholas- people's victory

Preston- the priest's village

Samantha- listener

Thomas- twin

After learning what our names mean we spent time counting the letters in our names and comparing them with our classmates.  

Four friends have four letters in their name.

Seven friends have five letters in their name.

Two friends have six letters in their name.

One friend has seven letters in his name.

Two friends have eight letters in their name.

One friend has nine letters in her name.

My favorite craft of the week is our self portrait craft!  After making our portraits we compare the number of boys and girls in our class.  This year we have ten girls and seven boys!

Look at these adorable Hoots and their portraits!

We talked about our eye color and how it makes us special!  We have eight friends with brown eyes and nine with blue.

We also talked about our hair color and how it it makes us special!  We have ten friends with brown hair, five with blonde hair, and two with red hair.

Another characteristic we compared is our height.  Even though we are all four and five years old we are growing at different rates and our different heights make us special!

One thing that makes us special is our birthday.  We learned that even though we have friends who celebrate birthdays in the same month no two friends in our class have a birthday on the same day!

We ended the week by talking about our fingerprints.  No one in the whole world has finger prints like us.  God made us one one of a kind and that makes us special!

This week Mrs. Milton taught us all about the rosary in religion.  We ended the week by making beautiful beaded decades.  The children had such a fun time making these and they turned out so lovely!

Thank you to all who sent supplies for the flood victims in Louisiana.  Here is Caleb with the supplies he and our other classmates brought!

Hoot Hoot Hooray for a GREAT first week in PreK!

We had a wonderful first week of school!  

This post will give you a sneak peek at the fun things we did together but first let me introduce you to the newest Hoots of PreK B!

Lilly

Lawson

Elise

Luke

Anna

Thomas

Samantha

Mira

Caleb

Etchieson

Preston

Elida

Nicholas

Abbie

Lucy

Mason

Annie

After meeting all of our new friends and teachers we got busy decorating our classroom with beautiful artwork.  Our first project of the year was drawing portraits of ourselves on the first day of school to hang on our chalkboard.

After learning the classroom rules it was time for lunch and rest time.  After rest we had a yummy snack then closed our first day with the first pep rally of the year! We had so much fun learning all about Wabbits having H.E.A.R.T. and getting to stand up to be recognised as new students at HSS!

On Tuesday we learned how to play in centers and spent some time playing with a partner.

Lawson and Abbie enjoyed a good book in Reading Center.

Anna and Caleb built vehicles in Blocks Center.

Lucy and Samantha matched Oreo shapes in Games Center.

Elise listened to Leo the Lion in Listening Center.

Nicholas and Elida stamped masterpieces in Art Center.

Thomas and Lilly played a measure and sort game in Science Center.

Mira and Preston practiced number sequencing in Math Center.

Etchieson and Mason enjoyed dressing up as a Vet and a Construction Worker in Housekeeping Center.

Annie and Luke practiced writing and tracing letters with chalk and dry erase markers in Handwriting Center.

Tuesday was also the day that we took a tour around our school to meet teachers and staff who help us.

We met Mrs.Eichelmann our Librarian.

We met Mrs.Palazzi our Technology Coordinator.

We met Me.Brune our Athletic Director and Mrs. Miller our PE teacher.

We met Mrs.Korte our Nurse, Mrs.Handloser our Assistant Principal, and Mrs.Suski our Secretary.  Mrs.Dobbins was in a meeting so we will have to make another special trip to meet our Principal. 

We met Mrs.Golliday our Music Teacher.

We visited the Church where we will attend Mass starting in October.

We ended our tour in the cafeteria where we met our cafeteria staff Mr.Ricky and Ms.Charlotte.

We are so thankful for all of the people who help us around our school!

On Wednesday as we continued to learn all about the rules of our classroom and school, we read a story called No, David! about a little boy who had a hard time following the rules.  After we read our story we had our first lesson in using our glue sticks the right way and we glued together our own Davids.  They hang in our classroom as fun decorations but also as reminders to do the right thing!

On Thursday we had our first guided drawing lesson of the year.  I'm sure you could guess that our first guided drawing was of an owl!  Guided drawings are one of my favorite art projects because even being given the same directions each student's work turns out wonderfully unique!

On Friday we read a story about a sweet raccoon named Chester in the Kissing Hands who was a little scared to start school.  But with reassurance from his mom and a special kiss on his hand he had a great first day.   After reading the story we made our own Chester raccoons!

We ended our week with special kisses from Mrs.Baker and Mrs.Milton!

I am so looking forward to a wonderful year with this sweet group of Hoots!