💕Valentine's Day💕

We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Thursday, February 14th! If you are planning to send Valentine's cards to school, please ensure that all students are included. We have 29 students in our class. Kindly label them "To my friend" and have your child sign their name! (This is excellent writing practice.) Please do not send in candy, chocolate or food. We have students with allergies and we are not permitted to distribute food. Any food items will be returned. Thank you for your co-operation.

PAT Time

Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds or phonemes. A child's skill in phonemic awareness is a good predictor of later reading success or difficulty.

Phonemic Awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching or otherwise chaning words. Children can demonstrate phonemic awareness in several ways, including:

• recognizing which words in a set of words begin with the same sound (Bell, bike and boy all have b at the beginning)
• isolating and saying the first or last sound in a word (The beginning sound of dog is d. The ending sound is g.
• combining or blending separate sounds in a word to say the word (d/o/g - dog)
• breaking, or segmenting a word into its separate sounds (dog- d/o/g)

Phonemic awareness and phonics are not the same thing. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. Phonics is the understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds through written language. Children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them written in words.

Source: http://www.readingrockets.org

Please review our classroom PAT schedule below. It is helpful to prepare your child each week for their presentation. Together choose a fun object of interest to your child that begins with the letter of the week. Have your child practice their presentation, focusing on breaking up the sounds in the word. For example, "My name is .... I brought in dog. Dog starts with the letter d and makes the duh sound. Dog. Duh-awe-g. Dog." And don't worry if your child hesitates or is shy, we will guide them through their presentation if necessary.

PAT Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Alexandria	Jessica	Luca	Morakinyo	River
Anastasia	Joseph	Lukas	Nolan	Oliver
James	Callum	Matheya	Mason K.	Sarai
Aaliyah	Davi	Mason L.	Lami	Shelby
Aria	Jojo	Kiran	Nina	Sebastian
Bjorn	Lara	Leo	Khrystyna	Alyssa

Please note that if your child is scheduled for PAT Time on a Friday PA Day, please allow them to bring in their object on a Thursday. If your child is scheduled for PAT Time on a Monday PA Day, please allow them to bring in their object on a Tuesday. If your child is absent on their scheduled PAT day, they may bring in their object upon their return to school.

Have a Blast at Mass!

Starting on Feb.17, Mary Mother of God Parish will start a three week initiative to invite young families to try Children Liturgy of the Word called “Have a Blast at Mass”. Each week they will have special activities for the children and families. Please consider giving  Children’s Liturgy a try on Feb 17, Feb 24 or March 3rd.

Children’s Liturgy of the Word (CLW) is an age-appropriate program offered to children ages 3 to 7 at the 9:00 am and 11:00 am Masses. No pre-registration is necessary. All children are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Just before the readings begin during Mass, these children are invited to go with the weekly leaders from the church to the Annunciation Room just outside of the sanctuary. During this special time, the volunteer teacher leads the children through prayers, songs, and activities that are simplified and appropriate for their age group.

The children learn about the same Scripture readings that you are hearing during Mass. They are taught a simplified main message of the readings and are encouraged to share that message with their parents after Mass.

After the homily, the leaders will lead the children back into the church to rejoin their families for the remainder of the Mass. CLW allows you to give your full attention to the readings and homily during the Mass, while letting your children hear the Word of God in a way that is meaningful to them. It is not a child care program, but a rich experience of God’s Word with prayers and activities designed to help reinforce the message of the Sunday readings.

FAQ’s

• Each session has one adult volunteer teacher and two teen helpers to facilitate. The average number of kids who attend each week is between 25 and 30.
• You should arrive at Mass and sit in a pew as a family for the beginning of Mass. When CLW is about to begin, the presider will call the children to the front of the church and offer them a blessing before they are led to their classroom by their leaders.
• Parents are welcome to quietly observe from the back of the room the first few times your child attends.
• If your child is crying or asking for you, one of the helpers will walk them back to you in the church.
• Children who attend are expected to be potty trained and able to sit and listen for several minutes during the readings.
• If your child needs any aids to self regulate ( a fidget toy, stress ball, etc.) please speak to the leader after Mass and we’ll do our best to accommodate them.
• CLW runs each Sunday from September to May and is paused during Christmas and March Breaks.

Children's Liturgy of the Word CLW Mary Mother of God Parish MMOG