St. Aidan Catholic School

Williston Park, NY

Together in Learning, Together in Christ

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N-6 Mrs. O'Gara

- Welcome to Nursery!
  
  In our Nursery class at Saint Aidan, the students will experience learning in a safe, loving, child-centered environment, based on Catholic values. The program aims to develop readiness skills, social interaction, a love of learning, and compassion for others. The children will be introduced to parental separation, learning our class routines, songs, making friends, sharing, art projects, and listening to stories. Our day also includes music and movement, free play, prayer, and activities that develop both fine and gross motor skills. As the year progresses, the children will work on recognizing their printed name, letters, colors, shapes, and numbers. Catholic values are incorporated into our curriculum through books, daily prayer, celebration, and discussion of holidays.
- NURSERY NEWS
- October 12, 2021
- We started the day today with manipulatives. While the children are working, they are also busy unpacking, and becoming quite independent with this first job of the day.
- The children are starting to work together more. They are moving from table to table to try new materials and engage with their classmates. It makes the morning fun!
- It is very exciting to be chosen as the special helper. Here is our special helper of the day collecting the nametags during our morning circle time.
- Today, we read the book "Big Pumpkin" by Erica Silverman. The children loved the characters!
- We have been very busy painting our pumpkins. As soon as they are done, we will add Jack-o-Lantern faces and hang them up to decorate the classroom, Everyone got to choose whether they wanted to paint a tall or a fat pumpkin!
- We learned a funny new song today. Our silly version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider. We practiced it a few times so that they could do it with family at home. Here are the words:
  The itsy bitsy spider crawled up on (name) head.
  It crawled all around and used it for a bed.
  It crawled down (his/her) back,
  and jumped onto the floor.
  Then the itsy bitsy spider
  crawled underneath the door.
- Today at play time we also started our tissue paper pumpkins. The children loved squeezing the glue and spreading it around!
- Have a great day tomorrow and I will see everyone on Thursday!
- September 27 - October 1
- The children are really starting to learn our class routines! The morning is very busy. This week we started the letter A. We also spent a lot of time learning about apples. We read two apple books, cut apples open to see the seeds inside, and sorted apples by color and size. We painted apples too!
- One of the best, and most important parts of the Nursery day is free play. That is also the time when we work on a craft. The children are learning to engage with one another, take turns and explore different areas of the classroom. When they sit down to do a craft it is a chance for them to have one on one time with us. Free play is fun!
- The weather was beautiful, and so we were able to enjoy the playground.
- There are so many new things to experience. This week the children had a great time with the parachute and the blocks.
- I will see everyone on Tuesday!
- The first week of Nursery was a success! A few tears that dried up as soon as we got to the classroom, and we were off and learning all the routines of our day.
  
  Folders in the yellow basket, lunchbags on the blue shelf and activities at the tables. It is a busy morning.
  
  Along with routines, this week's theme was All About Me.
- This week we read the book, "Seven Little Mice Go to School". The mama mouse used yarn to make pretend train tracks to get her little mice to go to school. We acted out the story using our own little mice, and then marched around the room to the train song.
- We made a train of our own and marched around the room to our Train Song. We always get up, move, sing and dance after circle time!
  
  We were so lucky to have a music class with Miss Reagan as well. Everyone loved it.
- We talked about our birthdays, and what kinds of things we did when we were babies, and all of the new things that we can do now that we are in Nursery school. The children began painting the birthday crown that they get to wear when we celebrate their special day.
- We had a great time on the playground too!
  
  I am looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday!
- May 17 - May 21
- Our morning table activities
- Our busy special helpers this week. Look at all the jobs we do:
- We are off to the book fair! Thank you to Mrs. Serrano and all of the moms who helped us shop. We had so much fun.
- Playtime fun!
- Finishing V is for Violets.
- Playground fun
- We celebrated a birthday this week.
- We had a beautiful day for our Walk-A-Thon! Thank you to all of the people who came to walk with us.
- May 10 - May 14
- Some morning fun in N-6.
- One of our special helpers doing her jobs this week:
- There is so much excitement over our butterflies. We had 10 emerge over the weekend!
- Here we are headed out to release our beautiful butterflies. We have watched them, and waited, and we are so happy to let them fly free!
- A beautiful, warm, sunny day the - perfect kind of day for joyful children playing outside!
- We have been exploring plants this month. What makes something like a plant a living thing,the parts of a plant, and what they need to grow. We have also been looking at different types of seeds.
- May 3 - May 7
- These are the special helpers this week.
- Morning building time!
- Here we are painting the wings we will wear when we release our butterflies:
- We finally have butterflies and we are so excited!
- The Playground!
- Having fun at play time.
- Here we are making our T is for tree project.
- April 26 - April 30
- Mornings are for building together.
- Here are our special helpers this week.
- This week was all about the letter T. Our favorite new word was time-out!
- We had so much fun on the playground!
- Our caterpillars are making their cocoons! We used sponges last week to make our very own hungry caterpillars, and now that they are dry we have added the details.
- SNACKTIME !
- Here we are finishing our spotted snakes.
- Play-Doh time means baking pretend cookies!
- Week of April 12-April 17
- Welcome back to everyone! It was so exciting for the children to be back with their Nursery friends. We got right back into our routine and had a great week. Here are some pictures of the special helpers this week:
- We have been focusing on the spring and talking about the weather a lot. The April showers had us painting colorful umbrellas this week. They look beautiful hanging up outside the classroom.
- R was our letter of the week. We carefully colored in the Rainbow fish and then we got to pick our favorite color glitter and use it to make one of his shiny scales.
- The children really enjoyed writing letter R step by step and drawing together at circle time.
- We had a lot of fun building together this week!
- We celebrated two birthdays this week! So much fun.
- We read to the children as soon as they are done with their lunch. Everybody gets a book of their choice, and they love it. On this day though, they did not want to wait for us and they read to each other.
- I will see everyone on Tuesday!
- March 22-25
- Good Morning!
  It is circle time for Nursery 6
- Time to build!
- We were very excited to celebrate the arrival of spring by waking up our bears from hibernation. We have been patiently waiting and crossing off the days on a calendar. The day has finally arrived!
- We talked about forsythia and how it is one of the first signs of spring. We then made our own. How pretty!
- These boys had such a good time together at playtime. Playing with the Superheroes, using their imagination, and talking up a storm. I finished a large roll of art paper and gave them the cardboard tube. They had so much fun with it.
- The spring weather gave us the perfect opportunity to play OUTSIDE!
- We celebrated a birthday this week. The children had so much fun making cakes in the play kitchen, and then delivering them to the birthday girl.
- Have a wonderful weekend!
- March 8-12
- Our mornings are so busy! We unpack and then it is on to puzzles, manipulatives, and our morning routine.
- The special helper has so many jobs. Everyone loves when their name is in the basket to be special helper.
- We had so much fun learning about the letter O this week. We read books about the ocean and did ocean themed activities.
- We used different shades of blue to make an ocean scene. It was so much fun mixing and swirling the paint colors together. When the paint was dry we glued little fish to it. We loved squeezing the glue and drawing the happy faces!
- We also watercolored an octopus and glued on different shapes to match the ones that were on his tentacles. This was one of our favorite table activities.
- AGGHH! The teacher is being chased by a shark!
- We really enjoyed participating in Spirit Week! Here we are on Superhero Day.
- We were so happy to enjoy the beautiful weather on our little playground. Fun, fun, fun!
- It was wonderful to be back together again after the long winter break. We spent the week getting back into our routines, learning new songs and most importantly doing our special helper jobs. It is one of the children's favorite parts of the day.
- We had our belated Valentine celebration! It may have been delayed but it wasn't any less fun for us. The children enjoyed decorating their mailbags, but what they loved the most was delivering their Valentines!
- The best part of being back together was playtime!
- We learned about magnets this week. We learned how they work, and then we experimented to see all of the interesting things we can do with them. The children spent so much time on this activity. They were fascinated.
- This group loves play-doh time. They especially love to take out the trays when we are doing play-doh, and pretend that they are making food. They even clear out oven space for one another in the play kitchen. The cookie cutters are their favorite. We put on relaxing music and the time goes by so quickly. There is a lot of sweet conversation that takes place during play-doh time.
- Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all on Tuesday. We have a lot of birthdays coming up in March!
- January 25th - January 29th
- Nursery 6 just loves puzzles. This is a very social group and they have so much fun doing things together.
- Our morning circle time is always very lively. Prayers are said, the special helper chosen, we say the pledge, go over the calendar and weather and wrap it all up with a song or dance chosen by the special helper. Here are this week's special helpers:
- Playtime is busy! We have added some matchbox cars to our classroom and they are a big hit with everyone.
- These girls love the houses and the people and they never mind when a superhero comes to visit!
- Our week was shortened because of the snow, but on Tuesday the children were all in the Christmas spirit! Christmas hats and headbands helped a lot. They were very excited to talk about the snow.
- Monday, December 14, 2020
- We worked on a manger Nativity craft and had to pay careful attention to directions. The children did a great job and were so proud. They have heard the Christmas story several times and love to tell it themselves.
- Have a wonderful weekend and I will see everyone on Tuesday!
- The children also painted Christmas trees on the easel. When they are dry, we will decorate them and put a star on the top. This is a favorite activity and makes a beautiful decoration for the classroom. This painter had an audience while they waited patiently for their turn.
- We spent the week talking about the letter J, positional words and hibernation. We have read several books about hibernation, and we have put our bears into their "lair" (which is on my desk). Snooze our friendly classroom mascot comes out of his log every day to sing with us. He makes everyone laugh!
- The special helper and a favorite job.
- Some parachute fun.
- Our mornings are busy and fun!
- We celebrated a birthday this week!
- We are finishing our snowmen and getting ready to add the details.
- PLAYTIME!
- Thursday, October 29, 2020
  Happy Halloween!
- What a nice day we had today! Here is our special helper collecting the name tags and holding the flag.
- Tuesday, November 3, 2020
- Happy New Year!
  2021
  
  It was hard to come back and fall into routine after Christmas vacation. Once everyone was settled in however, it was so much fun to listen to the children talk about what they did while at home, what treats they left for Santa Claus and what he had left for them. It made for a very exciting circle time discussion.
  This week we will be talking about the letter I. Ice cream scoops and cones were added to the play kitchen.
  We will also be focusing on winter. Winter clothing, weather, and activities will all be part of the books we read, projects we make, and even the games we play. We are decorating our "art gallery" with snowmen. We begin by painting their bodies and then we will add all the details. They are as individual as the children.
  We will discuss hibernation and the children will make bears. They will put their bears into a "cave" ( a painted box with a door) and the bears will take a long sleep until the first day of spring. The children will mark off each day they are in the cave until we take them out. This is one of the special helper's jobs each morning.
- January 4th - January 8th
- The Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th. We took out our Nativity set one last time and talked about the Three Kins coming with gifts to see baby Jesus. We then made our own Three Kings craft.
- We read the book "Snowballs", and then built our own snowman!
- Our mornings are busy. After unpacking we begin our most important work - playing and socializing!
- Some playtime fun and bowling to end the day!
- The weather was nicer today. The sun was out, and the wind had died down, so we went outside to play.
- We talked about the new month and all the things we see as the weather gets colder. We talked about the squirrels collecting nuts and acorns and then made our own squirrel. We used paint to give him a bushy tail. The children loved helping mix the paint colors to make gray.
- Running,
  Running,
  Running,
  makes us so happy!
- Thursday, November 12, 2020
- Here is our special helper holding the flag.
- We began the day with manipulatives today. The children like to go to different tables and work with friends. It is sweet to watch them socialize
- One of our favorite times of the day is lunchtime. The children love helping to set the table- flowers, napkins, and tablecloth. The conversation is the best part.
- At play time, we made a scarecrow and sang the song "I'm a Dingle Dangle Scarecrow". The children love picking out the hat decorations and deciding which direction to glue the eyes but, best part of the project was scrunching up the paper to stuff his head! Aren't they cute?
- We played a matching game to work on letter recognition and the children really enjoyed it.
- Tuesday, November 10, 2020
- We worked on puzzles this morning. It is wonderful to watch them help one another. They really are developing nice friendships.
- The special helper was busy at work collecting the name tags, holding the flag and counting the days on our calendar.
- It was so cold this week that we had to have all of our fun indoors. Scooters, some balls and baskets made it exciting. Listening to directions, waiting our turn and cheering on our friends were all part of the fun.
- Here is the book we read today, "Elmer," by Davis McKee. We talked about how we are all different and special because we are uniquely created by God. They loved the book!
- After the children finish eating their lunch, they can come to the front and choose books to read. When everyone is done and cleaned up, Miss Karen and I read one book to every child that wants one. This is always everyone! There are some favorites that the children want us read over and over (Goodnight Gorilla and The Gingerbread Man) but on Thursday, they wanted to read to each other. It was the sweetest thing to listen to, and I am so happy to see them develop a love of books they share with their buddies.
- The children water colored their own unique Elmer the elephant. Painting is definitely a favorite activity in this class. The children take their time working and chatting while they paint and they are very complimentary of one another's work.
- Some more playground fun. We have been so lucky with the weather.
- The parachute is one of our favorite activities. The special helper always gets a ride at the end.
- A quiet afternoon building zoo enclosures for animals. Some unusual combinations, but so much fun.
- Our elephant craft!
- A lot of play time conversation here!
- Thursday, November 5, 2020
- We have finally finished our snowmen and are ready to paint the details.
- The special helper of the day was very busy!
- It is hard to believe that January is over. February will bring hearts, cards, and love! I will see everyone on Tuesday!
- Manipulatives to start the day today. Building things together is so much fun. Here are the children busy at work.
- A very beautiful morning for the playground today.
- Here we are having so much fun at play time!
- Our maple tree counting song.
- We had a great time playing toss the pumpkin. We had to get it into the ghost's mouth! We also gave a furry spider a ride on our parachute.
- We had a wonderful day! Here is the special helper collecting the name tags and holding the flag.
- We have been very busy making Christmas decorations! Some are sent home, many are hanging in the classroom and some are a secret -lovingly made to bring home to you. The children are very excited to wrap them.
- We begin circle time with a prayer. The children are always excited to see who the special helper will be!
- We spend the beginning part of our day building and working on various skills while we unpack. This class loves puzzles!
- Week of Monday, December 7, 2020
- This week we learned about the letter H, reviewed our shapes, talked about the birth of Jesus, and sang a lot of songs with our jingle bells.
- We were able to enjoy some outdoor play this week!

N-6 Mrs. O'Gara

Welcome to Nursery!

NURSERY NEWS

October 12, 2021

September 27 - October 1

May 17 - May 21

May 10 - May 14

May 3 - May 7

The Playground!

April 26 - April 30

SNACKTIME !

Week of April 12-April 17

I will see everyone on Tuesday!

March 22-25

Have a wonderful weekend!

Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all on Tuesday. We have a lot of birthdays coming up in March!

January 25th - January 29th

Monday, December 14, 2020

Have a wonderful weekend and I will see everyone on Tuesday!

Thursday, October 29, 2020 Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Happy New Year! 2021

January 4th - January 8th

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Week of Monday, December 7, 2020

Thursday, October 29, 2020
Happy Halloween!

Happy New Year!
2021