First Day of Preschool

I am a little delinquent in reporting about Mae's first day of school. The good thing about my delinquency, I have a little bit more to report about it all. To rewind, Mae started preschool at Blessed Sacrament a week and half ago. She went on Wednesday, September 4th for a one hour orientation and then went "full" time starting the next day from 8:45 to 11:45. She will attend school five days a week, which is definitely a big transition from going only two days last year. The church affliated with the school is my childhood parish and still my parent's parish. I also attended ECC preschool many, many moons ago and my younger sister, Julie, attended grade school at Blessed Sacrament. So although we are familiar with it, I don't remember my days as a preschooler and I definitely have a different lens as a parent. 

After over a week of Mae attending preschool, I can say that it is a great school and I am so happy that she is at Blessed Sacrament. Even better, Mae also thinks it is a great school and loves going and learning. Since the preschool is attached to the K8 school, it is run really well. The communication about things happening is top notch. The procedures in place to make the kids safe are first rate and the learning and development that is happening seems to me excellent. Along with doing the usual things in preschool - play, circle time, art - Mae has four enrichment activities on Monday through Thursday. They include library, Spanish/French, Music, and PE. I love that they use the grade school teachers for the activities and go to the location in the school where these are taught. 

Also a few other projects they are working/will work on: 

*At back to school night, photographs were hanging on the wall that the teachers took of each kid. Each kid was holding a sign that said "First Day." Underneath the photograph they had to draw a picture of themselves. 

*The teachers started a book where each kids name was written on a page. The kids were then told to write their name on the page. They will do it again throughout the year and the teacher remarked how fascinating it is to see how much they have developed with writing in that year. 

*Starting in October, they will start doing the Letter Bag. Each week will be a different letter, starting with A. The kids will each need to bring an item with that letter and they will each say what they brought. So sort of like, "show and tell" every week. 

*Starting at the first of the year, one kid a week will be sent home with a plain piece of poster board. They will then each need to decorate the poster board of stuff about them. They will then explain it to the class. 

Here are photos that I took of Mae on her very first day of school.