Mrs. Melissa Fiala-Perry

"But Jesus called the children to Him and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'"

Luke 18:15-17

Upcoming Events &

Reminders

Spring Program- Monday April 30th- 7:00

Kindergarten Program-Thursday May 17th- 7:00

Reading Dinner Date TBA!

May Saint Awards-First Friday in May and the last school Mass- TWO AWARDS in MAY!

Zoo Trip

Please remember the following regarding coming to school each day:

*FIRST BELL: 8:00 - students will enter our classroom right after the first bell with one of our 3 H's...they know all about it! :) (handshake, highfive or hug...or some opt for all three!)

*SECOND BELL (start of school day) 8:10- Any student not in the classroom at 8:10 will be marked tardy.

*DISMISSAL 3:00

rockSTAR Student

L U C A S

favorite food: bananas

favorite book: The Little Red Hen

favorite color: blue

favorite part of school: recess

Prayers We are Learning:

Our Father

Hail Mary

Angel Prayer

Prayer Before Meals

If you need a copy of any of these prayers just let me know.

Please practice these at home.

Prayer is our LIFELINE!

~ Our Class Count ~

11 girls

8 boys

19 total smart cookies!

*********************

Classroom Rules

We have 3 simple classroom rules to follow:

1. Show RESPECT and KINDNESS to EVERYONE.

2. Follow classroom PROCEDURES at ALL times.

3. Be an ACTIVE LISTENER. Listen with your EYES, EARS and HEART.

Mass & Specials Schedule

*MASS*

Every THURSDAY, FIRST FRIDAY of the month (it is not on Thursday when it is First Friday) and all HOLY DAYS.

You are encouraged to attend Mass with your smart cookie whenever you can. Mass is a special time to share with your child and it is one of the things I find most rewarding about teaching. I love the FAITH that builds each and every time we allow ourselves to grow closer to Christ. Are you the parent of younger siblings to your cookie? Feel free to bring them along. Jesus said "let the little children come to Me." ALL ARE WELCOME

Special Classes: Computer, Gym, Music (schedule will be posted SOON)

Monday~ Tech

Tuesday~ Gym

Wednesday~ Library & Music

Thursday~Gym & Tech

Friday~ Mrs. Berman & Music

we attend several classes twice a week . with All Day Kindergarten there are extra opportunities for enrichment during the day

Hey now you're an

ALL STAR

Smart Cookies are shoe tying ALL STARS! Show Mrs. Perry or Mrs. Wise you can tie and receive a Converse ALL STAR inspired badge for your locker or backpack. Of course we are also keeping our tradition of the ever popular JINGLE BELL CLUB which starts in December. Smart cookies receive bells tied to their shoes if they can tie. (cookies LOVE to jingle wherever they go!)

* Practicing at home is key in helping children get the hang of this sometimes tricky skill.

*WE HAVE SOME ALL STARS! CHECK OUR LOCKERS TO SEE WHO HAS A SPARKING CONVERSE STAR ON THEIR LOCKER. WAY TO GO! THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET EARNED YOUR STAR KEEP WORKING HARD. WE HAVE ONE WAITING FOR YOU!*

Parent Volunteer Schedule:

Monday-Mrs. Dysard

Tuesday-Mrs. Cooper & Mrs. Griffin

Wednesday-Mrs. Ritzler,

& Mrs. Bremyer

Thursday-Mrs. Vera

Friday- Ms. Hemingway

We HEART parent volunteers!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Popcorn words are high frequency words that should

be memorized regularly. Please see the RAINBOW RING that your child has and review these words on a regular basis! at home!

~ I heart CALVERT~

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Below is a list of saints we have learned about so far this year.

The internet holds a wealth of information about saints. I thought you might find the following website helpful :::

http://www.catholic.org/saints/

check out the picture link below for another FANTASTIC site . . . made especially for kids!

Saints Stories for Kids from Loyola Pressgreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

Click on the photo above for a brand new site I found that is awesome in helping to discuss saints with your smart cookie. Once you are on the site if you click "A List of Saints for Kids" it will give you a more extensive list and you can find many different options when it comes to learning about these ordinary people who lived EXTRAordinary lives.

I plan to use this site in the classroom this year and am so glad I found it.

~WONDERFUL for kids~

+ CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR MARCH SAINT WINNERS +

L Y D I A . A V E R Y

Avery and Lydia are LIVING TO BE SAINTS every day at Calvert Elementary. I am so VERY PROUD of them both as they continue to share their FAITH with us all on a daily basis both in and out of the classroom. Please join me in congratulating these smart cookies on this very special achievement. Remember to look for more saint winners every month. These awards are special to our classmates and an inspiration to us all!

~Celebrate +CATHOLIC+ schools~

I am honored, blessed and humbled to be a teacher in such an amazing CATHOLIC school. Your child is a gift from GOD in my life and the support of you parents is also such a

treasure. Sharing FAITH each day with these precious children is one of the things I value MOST in my life and I know with every fiber of my being that God has called me to be here. I celebrate with you in the realization that this is a unique and AWESOME place to be where Christ is present each and every moment!

God Bless~

Mrs. Perry

+ Living to be a SAINT +

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~Better OURSELVES in 2012~

~ WORD PARTS ~

sh . ch . th . ar . or . oi . oy . ea . ai . er . ir . ur . ing . ow . ou . oa

*PLEASE REVIEW THESE!*

and don't forget to keep your eyes open for that SNEAKY E!

These word parts are all included on your child's RAINBOW RING for you! ;)

Learning these will help your child immensely on their journey to being a STRONG reader and those children who know these can read with ease.

Don't you just LOVE to READ?

~ From Mrs. Perry's Desk ~

It always helps to be in the KNOW . Check out helpful reminders below:

*Have you checked out the studies section of our website? I made updates and changes recently- please make not of ALL we are learning. ;)

*READING REWARDS PROGRAM IS IN FULL EFFECT-Keep on READING! You will see those who have reached the goal of reading 100 books have a sparkly award on their locker. Once you reach 100 please continue reading! Students can still keep logs and earn more prizes. Yes we are all about prizes in Kindergarten! :)

*Book bags come home on WEDNESDAY evenings. Please read with your child as many of the books as you can- bonus they are double duty and can be counted on your reading logs! woot woot! :)

*PLEASE REVIEW THE RAINBOW WORD RINGS ON A NIGHTLY BASIS! Practice is KEY in students retaining these. We will be adding NEW words and word parts SOON. At this point there are not any that you should be focusing on over others. They ALL are important. We will be using them DAILY in our sentence writing and READING. The word parts are BRAND NEW and the children seem to be doing AWESOME learning these! These will be a MAJOR help as students are sounding out words.

*Mass-9:00 Thursday- THRILLED to see so many of you at Mass each week! Grandparents, aunts and uncles and anyone else also WELCOME!
*Parent Volunteers are doing an AWESOME JOB. We appreciate all you are doing to make our classroom a better place!

~ I HEART CALVERT ~

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**VIDEO GALLERY**

Check out our videos below . be sure to pause the playlist at the bottom . more videos will be added to keep checking back .

SNAPS & WOWS to:

NEW SNAPS & WOWS COMING SOON!

~ Mrs. Perry's Book of the Month ~

read read read a book . open the cover and take a look!

February's books: We are keeping ERIC CARLE in the spotlight for this month! There are so many wonderful books- feel free to check out our classroom selection. Or ask your child what is his or her favorite title. Special thanks to JACKIE WELLMAN for donating 3 NEW Eric Carle books to our classroom! That was so wonderful and we appreciate it so very much!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar continues to be a FAVORITE. Other titles you might consider: The Very Lonely Firefly, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, Little Cloud, Dream Snow, The Tiny Seed and the list goes on...:)

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March & April Studies

more updates comings soon . some items will stay and many more will be added!

Religion~ We are studying the ROSARY. We will learn the Mysteries of the Rosary and the story of how the Rosary was given to St. Dominic. We discuss the parts of the Rosary and the prayers and how we say the Rosary. We delve deep into our study and learn that Mary gave us the Rosary as a gift. We are called to conversion (change) and each day is a chance to be a better person. We will also continue our study of the saints. We learn that LOVE is a choice and to LOVE ONE ANOTHER is our call from Christ. We learn our hearts should be open to spread that love to others at all times. We also discuss the Corporal Works of Mercy. We will also celebrate Catholic Schools Week and the importance of being in a school where we can practice our FAITH .

Language Arts~Letter of the Week continues. We are READING with fluency now. We will discuss sentence structure, spacing and rules of good sentence writing. We learn to capitalize ONLY the first letter of a sentence or proper nouns. We learn our punctuation marks and how to use them properly in sentences. We are working hard on learning our WORD PARTS to help us be strong readers and we are also continuing to work on our POPCORN words on our RAINBOW rings. We learn the difference between author and illustrator. We study ERIC CARLE and his writing and illustrating for the next few weeks.

Writing~We are SENTENCE WRITERS! As stated above we are learning proper sentence structure and applying it to our writing. Students write words they sound out daily in their journals using "invented spelling." We will move from writing a few words in our journals to complete sentences! We will write in books, letters and even on the SMART BOARD to express ourselves through the power of writing!

Reading~We are continuing our guided reading together within the classroom. Additionally our Reading Rewards Program continues. We read on a DAILY basis as we work together. We are having fun reading loads of Eric Carle books.

Math~ Our focus for math will skip counting (we learn hands on ways to help us with this), numeral writing and identification and then we move into pre addition games/skills that will get us ready to add and subtract soon!

Science~ We are studying the FIVE SENSES. Additionally I have some fun science experiments planned for the students.

Social Studies~Our social studies topics include: Martin Luther King Jr, Chinese New Year and Mapping. We are also continuing our work on the difference between city, state, country and we also will learn our continents and oceans!

Art~Lots of art will be done this month and much of it will be based on our studies of Eric Carle. We learn how he paints and try our hand at being creative all month long.

Specials~ Has your smart cookie talked to you about their special classes? Gym, Technology, Music and Character Education are all weekly parts of our studies and students truly enjoy working with these awesome teachers! This is helping us become well rounded.

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HOMEWORK

Here are some items that you can work on with your little SMART COOKIE rockSTAR at home...

PENCIL GRIP- This is mentioned in our September studies section however I thought I would bring it to your attention again to make sure it is something that is reinforced in your home. Many of the children are in need of help with this. It will really showed up as an area of need when we work on our handwriting for letter Nn. I will be teaching the children the pinch and flip trick and also the bunny trick. Both are effective in helping children hold their pencil correctly. I would be happy to show you these any time before or after school.
HANDWRITING-With special emphasis on the letter of the week we are working on at the moment. We will be working a lot in class on this as many students are finding handwriting in D'Nealian a challenge. While we are on the subject helping your smart cookie to write his or her name properly will also be helpful. Remember an uppercase first letter and lowercase letters for the rest of his or her name. See the name papers that come home on Fridays for proper formation for a great sample. The handwriting sheets even have dots that help mark the spot for your child to start his or her pencil at.
LETTER RECOGNITION & SOUNDS-Reinforcement is always helpful! ;)
COLOR & NUMBER "POPCORN WORDS"- The more you practice with your child the better and more fluent they will be inside and outside of the classroom with these important words that "pop" up in our reading and writing. Right now our focus is the color words but you can always think ahead and start working on the number words. More words will come as we continue our year and it is best to stay on top of these words that pop up so that your child is fluent and can be a strong rockSTAR reader!

SHOE TYING- need i say more? ;)

Perry Pix

~ smart cookies 2011-2012 ~

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we are the W O R L D

we are the C H I L D R E N

~ Lord I want to be a SAINT for YOU~

*living to be SAINTS *

(you will hear this ALL year long as we strive each day to be better)

Saints are ordinary people who lived EXTRAordinary lives. Learning language arts, math skills, science and social studies are important however the most vital thing this year is your child's journey of FAITH. The saints play a huge role in helping us learn how to be better people. We will soon begin studying saints and will talk DAILY about how to live to be a saint. Our goal will be to closer to sainthood by the end of the school year. Be prepared for your smart cookie to come home talking about this and even referring to this in their everyday language. More information and links are below on this page if you would like to get started with some at home saint studies. We will be studying many saints in depth and I will keep you updated with a list of saints we have studied on our web page. One of the first saints we will study is our Blessed Mother Mary. We will study her example all school year. We learn about her gift of the rosary and how she said "yes" to God. The Hail Mary is also one of the first prayers we will learn this school year.

*Students will be excited to work towards earning a Saint Award this year.

Our first Saint Awards will be in November!

Welcome to KINDERGARTEN!

~ I can tell that we are gonna be friends ~

Welcome...Welcome...Welcome! Calvert Catholic Schools is a wonderful place to be and I know this will be an awesome school year. God is doing great things in my life and I am sure He is working in all of your lives as well. I am so happy to have each and every student in my class this school year. We will learn so much and have loads of fun doing it. From abc to 123 the journey will be exciting and filled with opportunities for learning at every corner. Most importantly we will learn about the amazing love our Lord has for each and every one of us.

Blessings and peace to you all!

Mrs. Fiala-Perry :)

Mrs. Perry's Photo Album

Check out my photo album below to

see my family---including my pets!

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~Meet Mrs. Perry~

Hi! I'm Melissa Fiala Perry. Let me first off start by saying how much I enjoy teaching...especially Kindergarten. I am blessed by God to be given the privilege and opportunity to be a member of the Calvert Catholic Schools staff. I taught all day Kindergarten for six years at St. Wendelin. For the past three years I have been teaching all day Kindergarten at Calvert Catholic Schools. So this will be my tenth year in Kindergarten! I know the importance of our faith and that is the whole reason I am a teacher. I am so thankful that I now get to teach my favorite grade in the parish I am a part of and I see the opportunity to be your child's teacher as an amazing blessing.

As far as teaching goes as I mentioned above, I have been teaching Kindergarten for the past seven years. I also taught a year of high school English and a year of preschool. Additionally I coached basketball. Needless to say I have found my true love in Kindergarten. There is just something that is magical about this year of school. I have my undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University and my graduate degree from the University of Findlay.

I am originally from the Cleveland area. Has anyone even heard of Litchfield? :) My incredible parents still reside there and they visit me quite often. Currently I live in Tiffin with my wonderful husband Chad and our three pets. Now that I am married I also have a plethora of fabulous new family members most of whom also live in Tiffin. We just moved this past April and it was not a far commute--we moved literally right across the street from our old house. Chad and I are enjoying making this new house feel like home.

I have many interests and enjoy being creative. I currently work as a professional photographer in addition to teaching---feel free to check out my website. (www.melissaperryphotography.com) I am snapping away all the time! My husband Chad and I also work as independent coaches for Team Beachbody. We love helping others achieve their fitness goals--as well as achieving those goals ourselves!

Writing is another passion of mine and you will often find me whipping up a poem for a birthday card or gift. I even have a children's book in the works. Dancing is something I'd like to do more, but can't seem to find time for right now. Maybe someday I'll become a great salsa dancer. I guess I do get to dance a lot though because we are always singing and dancing in the Kindergarten room. :) Some of my other favorite things are: the ocean, pizza, playing basketball, decorating, working out, fashion and lets not forget...my FAMILY. I have an amazing family and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

Well friends I guess that is enough rambling about myself for now. I hope you've learned a bit about me...maybe you learned more than you wanted? :) If you ever have any questions or concerns I want you to know that my door is always open to you. I consider us partners on this road and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has placed us together for a reason.

~Welcome Mrs. Kris Wise~

I am pleased to welcome back Mrs. Kris Wise as the full time Kindergarten Aide this school year. Mrs. Wise has years of experience with little ones and she is a valuable and perfect fit for our classroom. She is LOVED by students, parents and all who know here. Kris has a wonderful way with the children and helps me on a daily basis as we work together to bring the best possible environment to our classroom. I feel blessed that she will again be helping out this year and I know your SMART COOKIE will adore her!