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| St. Catherine's Logo cloth bags |
The month of May just flew by in a whirlwind of science experiments, classic children's stories, music open houses, caterpillars turning into butterflies, pirates, princesses, knights and gorgeous art work! Whenever I walk through the classrooms I find children who are busy learning, laughing and gaining confidence in their own skills and independence.
Now that we are into June we have parties happening, graduation for the 4's and picnics for all the classes at Mahon Park.
We have St. Catherine's Logo bags for sale through the office, these bags are great for library books, grocery shopping or just for fun! They are also a great keepsake from your time here at preschool! Small bags are $4 and large are $8.
We are still taking registrations for the 2013/2014 preschool year. Please be sure to let people know about our fantastic 2's, 3's, and 4's programs here at St. Catherine's Preschool!
Tuesday June 18th: 10:45am 402 Graduation Ceremony.
Tuesday June 18th: 2:00pm 403 and 404 Graduation Ceremony.
Wednesday June 19th: 10:45am 401 Graduation Ceremony.
Wednesday June 19th: Final day of classes.
Thursday June 20th: 11:30-1:30pm 202/204/302/402/404 Picnic
Friday June 21st: 11:30-1:30pm 201/301/401/303/403 Picnic.
To contact us or for more information:
Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Please "LIKE" our facebook page: St. Catherine's Childcare Society
From the resource office Marion
Well the school year is almost finished and I look forward to the next couple of weeks of graduations, parties and of course the picnics. For those families moving on from St. Catherine’s I want to wish you all the best in the future. It has been an exciting year watching all the children develop their individual personalities.
Kindergarten will bring new adventures. The children will be working on their listening skills and social interactions. They should also be aware of their personal space and be tuned-in to the feelings of others. They will need to use their problem solving skills and always feel that they can ask questions when they are unsure.
During the summer months you can work with your child on number skills and recognizing simple words (their own name in print) and letting them do some tasks independently. They should also know the importance of rules and how to follow them, especially when it comes to safety issues. Have fun and enjoy this next phase of your child’s education! Although they are leaving some friends they will quickly make new ones. REMEMBER: It typically takes 180 hours to teach a 4 year old to tell time; it takes 1 hour and 10 minutes to teach a 6 year old to tell time; and it takes 10 minutes to teach a 7 year old to tell time.
For those returning families who feel that this is the time to toilet train before the 3’s here are a few thoughts: girls may be ready sooner than boys. Children may be ready when they are able to do most of the following:
- Can pull down pants and get on and off the potty.
- Can say a few words and understand simple directions.
- Wants to “do it myself".
- Is interested in the toilet.
- Stays dry for a few hours.
- Has regular bowel movements.
- Can tell you if they need to use the toilet or potty – by words or actions.
You can prepare your child by:
- Helping child get used to the potty.
- Having child flush the toilet.
- Having child wear clothes that are easy to take off.
It’s better not to start toilet training if:
- The child or a family member is ill.
- You are travelling.
- There is a new baby in the family.
- Child is at the “NO” stage.
Have your child sit on the potty several times during the day:
- Before and after bedtime.
- After being dry for 2 hours.
If your child is successful, give lots of praise. If nothing happens, say “Good Try – we will try again later”. Go out and have your child pick out their own underwear and stock up. Get rid of the pull-ups and stick with the underwear. Children need to know how it feels to get wet, accidents will happen. Parents and children often feel frustrated and disappointed when it takes a long time for the child to toilet train. If the child is not mostly successful within 2-3 weeks, wait a month and try again.
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| Painted Lady butterfly |
Remember, it will happen! Be patient or come and see me during the Summer Program and we can discuss your goals.
I will not say goodbye to the families leaving us, I’ll just say see you in the village. I will see some of you during the Summer Program and others in September. May everyone have a great summer with lots of sunshine (not too much) and lots of family time.
From Creative Music Cheryl
Three's Music
Oh my goodness has the year flown by! My little 3's are not so little anymore. We have explored many aspects of music and creative music. To finish our year I introduced 'The Orchestra' and we talked about the conductor, the conductor's batton and how all the orchestra musicians have to watch the conductor to see when they should start, how fast or slow they should go, and when to stop. Every child got a turn to be the conductor during our music open house and they seemed to really enjoy having all eyes on them as they decided how the music piece would be performed!
I look forward to next year when we will continue our exploration of all things music!!
Kindergarten here they come! I was telling the children on our last day of class how sad I was that I won't be teaching them again next year. One boy said, "We have music class in kindergarten so we will see you there." I had to break it to him that they would have a different music teacher at elementary school. So cute!
To wind up our year we listened to, and talked about Peter and the Wolf, written by Sergei Prokofiev. Each character is represented by a member of the orchestra. The children learned which character corresponded to which instrument and heard the story. It took us four weeks to listen to the story, with each week ending in a cliffhanger moment which the children had to wait until the following week to find out what was going to happen!
From the Discovery 2's Vibha, Danielle, Cheryl, Gabi Estelle and Karen
It's hard to believe that June is here already, and the preschool year is coming to an end.
As we look back over the year, it is really exciting to see how much the two's are growing up to be confident and capable little three's. We are seeing them work so well together and their play is starting to incorporate more and more friends.
In June, we started a new theme "Under the Sea". For art, we made handprint crabs, paper plate turtles, jelly fish, starfish with sand and blue whales. At the moment, we're working on a Father's Day project.
As this will be the last blog from the 2's, we wanted to say a big thank you to all our parents and children. It has been such a pleasure teaching your children this year, and we look forward to watching them grow over the next two years in the 3's and 4's. For those of you who are moving on, we wish you well wherever you go! Have a wonderful and safe summer.
From 301 Rainbow Room Joanna, Sali and Karen
With the school year coming to a close, the teachers started to think about what would be a good unit to end the year. Classic children’s stories was the idea; inspiring the children to re-enact or retell the stories to family and friends was the outcome we wanted the children to be left with. Both the teachers and children have enjoyed how we used many different mediums to tell the stories to the children. The teachers let the children play with masks, felt stories and prop boxes and then the stories were told through these mediums as well as classic stories told with a twist such as "The Three Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig" or "Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs".
Altogether six stories were focused on over eight weeks.
First was "The Three Little Pigs". The children made toilet paper roll pigs, three houses made out of straw, sticks and bricks. As well as this, the children made wolf masks. We hope the children took some time at home to tell the story with their props like they had practiced at school!
Second came the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff". In the classroom the children sponge painted a bridge for the goats to trot across. They also made paper plate trolls to hide under the bridge.
Next came the story of "Little Red Riding Hood". During this story the children explored painting with red using different mediums to paint paper red all over. Because Red Riding Hood was taking a basket of cookies to her Grandmother’s house to share, the children all made two cookies, one to eat in class and a second to take home to share with someone they love. The children also enjoyed drawing pictures of their favourite part of the story and telling the teachers what they had drawn and why they liked it. This will help the children get ready for the 4’s next year when they will start journals. Each week they will be asked to draw a picture and tell the story that goes along with it.
The children took a week off from their classic story unit to spend a special day showing their families what they do in music class. Thank you to all the special people that came to spend the music class with their children, it was so nice to see the joy having the people they love come to school to sing and share with them.
Following the break the children read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". The children enjoyed making fuzzy warm brown bears. Just like the bowls in the story, the children made three different sizes of oatmeal bowls. The children also made Goldilocks paper bag puppets. On the day the children were making their puppets, Goldilocks even came to the classroom to visit! This story was particularly close to the teachers heart because while the children listen to the story they are learning more than just a story about a curios little girl because with everything she comes across we have three sizes and the children are learning about size, small medium and large. Every time Goldilocks finds new objects these ideas are reinforced. Learning size is a great pre math skill so any time the teachers get to teach these very important things it makes us happy.
The last story the children read was "The Little Red Hen". The children always enjoy making different types of food; the bread they baked with Sali was no different. The children enjoyed measuring and mixing the ingredients which are again great pre math skills along with the sharing of responsibilities and waiting their turn to help. Baking and cooking with children is such a great activity for young minds.
As the school year winds down the children are busy making special surprises for Father’s day. Thank you to everyone for such a great year. Thank you for all the support and for any time we came to you with concerns we felt we had such great understanding and support from you. We know these wee little minds are more than ready to conquer the 4 year old program!
From 302 Treehouse Room Stephanie, Rachel and Joanna
Wow! Where did the year go?! We can't believe it's almost time to say goodbye. We have had such a fun year with your children, getting to know each of them and watching their realtionships with eachother grow. Next year they will be the big fours and we look forward to seeing them continue to grow and gain confidence, life skills and independence!
The children have been doing a bug theme this past month and they have really enjoyed learning about many different kinds of creepy crawlies! They also got to see the life cycle of a butterfly! They have done many wonderful art projects, they made coffee filter butterflies, egg carton ants and paper plate ladybugs.
A song the children really enjoyed was:
Sing to the tune..(are you sleeping)
Big bugs, small bugs
Big bugs, small bugs
See them crawl, on the wall
Bugs,bugs,bugs!
Bugs, bugs, bugs!
From 303/403 Treehouse Room Vibha Stephanie and Sali
We can't believe there are only a few more weeks left!
For the past few weeks we were on a big adventure sailing the high seas with our crew of pirates! We transformed our house keeping corner into a Pirate ship and the children had great fun playing make-believe in there.
For art, we enjoyed making paper plate pirates, treasure maps, flags and pirate hats. At circle, we talked about what pirates wear and how pirates find treasure. We also enjoyed a pirate story time at the library.
Our practicum student, Drew read us the story "How I became a pirate'' and we sang a song "The day I went to sea".
Graduation will be the final adventure as we say farewell to some of
our children and wish them all the best in Kindergarten. The teachers have been very blessed to have had an opportunity to teach your children. They are a wonderful group and we have enjoyed the experience of getting to know them. Each one brings something special to the class and we will miss them.
We would like to thank all of our families for their support and contributions to our parties and special occasions.
Our best wishes for the future and have a great summer!
From the Treehouse Room 401 Rachel, Stephanie and Krystal
Wow! Where did the year go? We can't believe it's almost time to say goodbye to our big fours as they leave preschool and go on to new adventures at elementary school. It has been such a pleasure to spend this year connecting with your children, being able to share in their many accomplishments and spending our days laughing and playing! We will miss each and every one of them and we wish our families all the best!
We've been talking about the butterfly life cycle this past month. We ordered butterfly larvae which came from Vernon at the beginning of May. The children helped us to put them into their individual containers with food, where they grew into large caterpillars and we observed them build their chrysalis'.
After two weeks the children got to see the different stages of the chrysalis, first it went transparent, dark, and then gold and shiny before turning into beautiful, painted lady butterflies! The children did some beautiful art pieces displaying the different stages of a butterfly's life cycle. They made a tree with egg carton caterpillars, then when the real caterpillars built a chrysalis we put our caterpillars into paper bags. When they turned into butterflies inside the tank we marble painted butterfly wings and added them to our own caterpillars to make them into butterflies!
When it was time, we released the butterflies into the garden and we couldn't help but think that our little fours will soon be spreading their wings and beginning their next adeventures just like our butterflies did.
Thank you to all our families for their support over the last year (years) at preschool. We have loved getting to know you, and we feel so lucky to have been your child's first teachers.
Have a wonderful summer!
From the Downunder Room 402/404 Libby Permjit, Joanna and Gabi
This is our final blog for this year and we would like to take this time to say a big thank you for a great year and for the pleasure it has been getting to know and teaching your wonderful children. We have had lots of belly laughs and endless conversations about anything and everything!
In the last few weeks we have enjoyed visiting Ancient Egypt, while our special person for Fridays was Mozart. We enjoyed making violins and writing our own music with quill pens! After this we went on to looking at Medieval castles, knights and princesses, this was so much fun especially our banquet at the end of the theme.
Another special person we looked at was the famous Canadian artist Tom Thomson. The children really enjoyed painting on a stetched out canvas using acrylic paints and we felt very proud of our art exhibition with cheese, crackers, cookies and "champagne".
Joanna, Gabi and Permjit would like to wish Libby all the best in her retirement. Libby has taught here at St. Catherine's for over 20 years and we will all miss her passion for teaching and her moto "over plan and then we can always take things out"!! Thank you for all your hard work and for your commitment to giving young children the best possible start to their education.
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| Our Royal Teachers! |
To our families, we have enjoyed getting to know you all over this past year and your previous years here at St. Catherine's. Spending time with your precious little ones is such a privilege and we are so thankful to each and every one of you for choosing us to be your child's first teachers. We wish you all the best as you move on to Kindergarten and remember you are welcome to come back and visit us whenever you get the chance!
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