Christmas Concert Information

The St. Malachy Christmas concert is Wednesday December 7th @ 6:30.  A.ll students in three and four year old preschool are a part of the concert. They have been working very hard on their part of the concert.

Please have your child at the high schoool between 6:00-6:15. The dress code is Mass attire: slacks, polo, button up shirts, sweaters, dress, etc. (no sweats). I can't wait to see their performance!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I have uploaded pictures from the three year old classes Thanksgiving Celebration. I will have the four year old class photos posted on the blog as soon as they upload. Thank you to everyone who brought a food item to share! Mrs. Dinham and I really really appreciate it.  For the feast we joined our Kindergarten friends, who were dressed as Native Americans. They made a lovely table for us all to eat and enjoy each others company, complete with Native American symbols. It was a huge hit!

The Turkey in disguise projects look fantastic! I can see everyone worked very hard on theirs. This week we have continued to work on our handwriting and learning alphabet letters.  Al, our puppet friend from Al's Pals has visited twice this week. He has discussed a variety of feelings and what to do with them when you have them. Al's place is a rocking chair with a stuffed animal in our classroom. Any child may use this at anytime when they are having big feelings, need to calm down or just need a break. Please let me know if you have any questions about Al's Pals.


Come visit the St. Malachy vendor fair tomorrow! There will be a wide variety of items at this show. Find the perfect gift for people on your list!

Non-Traditional Thanksgiving Feast- Tuesday Novemeber 22, please bring a food item to share with 17 people. We've had a wide variety of food items brought in the past. We have been working on pilgrim costumes for preschool.

Have a great weekend!

Stem Night- 11/10/16

        Our first annual STEM night is just around the corner!  This Thursday November 10, from 5:30-7:30.  St. Malachy students can come join us for a night of STEM. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students will be able to walk around and go up to individual exhibitor tables and interact hands on with the STEM equipment.  Students will be able to touch and interact with an ultrasound, robotics, a model train, animal furs, augmented reality sand table and many more fun items.  
       We have representatives coming from Stalker Cheverolet, A & G pizza, SWCC, Southern Hills Veternary, Greater Regional, and Creston High School just to name a few.  Our PTO will be serving popcorn and every student that comes will get a take home gift.  We hope you can join us and explore our STEM night.  RSVP here so we make sure every child receives a gift.  https://goo.gl/forms/tiQT4u3NGA2WRuho2

This night is going to be a great time. I look forward to seeing all of you there! Use the link to RSVP or send me an email! 

Field Trip to the Fire Station

This past Thursday Preschool and Kindergarten took a trip to the Creston Fire Station. Our first field trip was a success! We enjoyed riding on the trolley, what an adventure! We took a tour of the fire station. Our preschool class asked some great questions and got great answers as well!We learned that one of the fire trucks can hold 750 gallons of water, which is like 750 big milks! They each got a turn to sit in the big fire truck! Also, they took a turn picking up heavy items the fire fighters have to carry! They were pretty heavy! You'll see some photos on the right under the Pages tab from our adventure!

Thursday 10/20/16

Three school days this week really made the week fly by! However, at preschool we have been super busy! We will our last week of the Creative Curriculum, beginning of the year study. We will be reading books and discussing how to make and keep friends. We have been busy with our alphabet letters. We have learned about Ll, Ff, and Ee. 

The last week of this unit works well, as we just started, "Al's Pals, kids making healthy choices;" There is a note in your child's take home folder about Al's Pals. This program has three puppet friends who use a variety of songs and discussions to learn how to handle and understand situations. 
For more information follow this link: Al's Pals Information

Field Trip: 

Who: St. Malachy Preschool (afternoon) and Kindergarten classes
What: Field trip
When: Thursday, October 27, 2016
Where: Creston Fire Department
Why: Fire safety information

Please check folders for permission slips. Return permission slips and $1 (to ride the trolley) by Tuesday October 25. 

Don't forget to sign up for conferences. See blog post below for Conference sign up!

Conference Sign Up

Please take a moment to sign up for your child's Fall parent/teacher conference. Each conference is 20 minutes long.


Fall Conference Sign Up  <------ sign up here!

Have a great Tuesday!

Miss McKasson

October 13

It's Thursday and as my preschool friends say, "We have 4 stay home days." No school Monday, October, 17. Teachers have professional development meetings in Des Moines. This week, Mrs. Bearden stepped in for me, while I attended an Early Childhood PBIS seminar (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports). I learned a lot at this training and I'm super excited to start using some techniques in class. Some preschool friends were given a note today for a positive behavior they showed. EACH student will get a note within the next few weeks. This website has great information about Early Childhood PBIS---- https://www.pbis.org/community/early-childhood

Mat man is the first part of this handwriting series. He is made up of shapes, lines and curves. This week we started working on handwriting, the curriculum used at St. Malachy is Get Ready for School; Handwriting without Tears. Get ready for school teaches preschoolers to write using four components to write letters; Big line, Little line, Big curve and Little Curve.  Click the link below for a way to connect Preschool, Home and Get Ready for School!

Sam, Cashton and Braylen are working in a variety of ways to learn to write the letter Ff

More information on our Handwriting Curriculum here:  http://www.hwtears.com/gss/parents

Today the Creston Fire Department, dropped off some Fire Safety information. We read about Sparky the Fire dog and ways to be safe! Also, we talked about the fire exits of the room! I showed them the two exits in our classroom.

We love Thursdays! Choice snack day, they are able to choose their snack for the day. The Fire hats were a big hit!

I'm super proud of my preschool class. They have been working SO hard on a variety of things so far this year. I'm very pleased with how polite and kind they are to one another.

IGDI's?! What are IGDI's?

  This week in 4 year old preschool. I have been working on IGDI's assessments. What are those you ask?
           "Individual Growth & Development Indicators (IGDIs) are a set of early childhood assessment tools for monitoring the growth and development of preschool-aged children on the pathway to kindergarten. Scientifically validated for identifying children who are experiencing difficulties acquiring fundamental skills necessary for academic success, IGDIs can also be used to measure developmental gains and inform instructional needs of individual children."  The data I gathered I will go over at conferences, if you have any questions before please feel free to email me. I have attached the link for more information about IGDI's.

IGDI's Information


A few photos of us playing with friends!

The second week of preschool has been a busy one! We are getting the hang of the preschool routine. Next week we will start working with The Creative Curriculum content and introducing Handwriting Without Tears, our handwriting curriculum.  Today was our first day of preschool music with Mrs. Stoner and it was awesome! We got to play with percussion instruments and LOVED it! Preschool will be performing at the concert in December!

St. Malachy Color Run, is a fundraiser through the St. Malachy PTO. It will be Sunday September 25, 2 p.m. The Color Run is replacing the Fall Fundraiser (normally cookie dough, wrapping paper, etc.) Please join us on September 25! It is going to be a great time! We are hoping for a huge crowd!

Age 11 and older- $25

Age 10 and younger- $15

Use this link to sign up!  https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=124699 

A few reminders:

-Feel free to send an extra pair of clothes. Sometimes we play too hard and accidents happen.

-Please wait for the classroom door to be opened before dropping off your child. I will open the door 5 minutes before class time; 7:55 or 12:10.

First Week

Puzzles

Playing together in the block center

Outside time with friends

Exploring dramatic play center

Playing new games on the iPad

Scooter time!

3 year old preschool friends playing in the block center

 I just wanted to share a few pictures from our first week of preschool! We have had a great first week! This week we are focusing on getting to know our friends, preschool routine, rules and reminders. This week I only opened a few centers so we would be able to explore the center and learn the rules. Next week all centers will be open and we will be adding more to our daily routine. I'm very excited for this school year!

Preschool

  I hope that all of you had a wonderful summer spent with family and friends making memories! I had a fun summer! I spent part of my summer traveling to St. Louis (Go Cards!) and Charlotte. I had a great time in both places! I spent the other part of my summer working and moving into a town home where I can have my dog, Hank. We have been adjusting to the move very well!  I'm very excited to get this school year started. I have a lot planned and cannot wait to share it! This year with a larger class size than last year, I'm hoping to team up with Kindergarten to go on some field trips!

I'll be seeing you at home visits this week or Monday.

Please do not hesitate with questions or concerns!