February is always a really fun month at preschool, the art work is full of hearts, pinks, purples, reds and of course as much glitter as possible and we have lots of parties and sweet treats happening! This is also the perfect opportunity for us to discuss friendship, love and how important the relationships we have with our family and friends are to us!
Have a wonderful spring break!
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| Scholastic Goodies! |
Important upcoming dates:
M-F March 9-13: Spring Break - Preschool closed
Fri April 3: Good Friday - Preschool closed
Mon April 6: Easter Monday - Preschool closed
Wed April 8: Parent Seminar with Chris Burt
Thurs/Fri April 9/10: Easter Services
For general information about our programs please contact Jen or Tina:
Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
Please "LIKE" our facebook page "St. Catherine's Child Care Society" Thank you!
A note from the Discovery 2's - Sali, Vibha, Stephanie, Estelle and Danielle
As February is the month where we celebrate 'love' we
decided to combine Valentine's Day with learning about 'being a friend'. This involved decorating heart's, using
Valentine colours in a group art and making feet shaped heart's. We also did lots of art involving finger painting, gluing,
butterfly prints and stamping with apples. At circle time we reinforced our manners: Please, Thank you,
Excuse Me and Using our gentle hands. We
learnt many songs about using our manners, taking turns and sharing. We worked together to sing Ring a Ring a
Rosie and The More we Get Together.
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| Sweet Little Feet! |
On Valentine's Day we had a lovely PJ Party with yummy food
supplied by our parents (Thank you for that), face painting and dancing.
As February was also Chinese New Year, the Year of the
Sheep, we made Dragon Puppets and painted with Red, Gold and Black. We read "My Chinese New Year",
danced with scarves to Chinese New Year Music and listened to the felt rhyme '5
Chinese Dragons'.
As the children are now starting to grow and develop, we
have noticed some of them moving away from Parallel play to more Social
play...choosing a friend to play with e.g.
At the trains, home corner, sand box and even outside.
We will now move on to talk about Easter and Spring, as well
as continuing to reinforce how to use our manners and share with our friends. As the warmer weather is starting, this is a great
opportunity to start toilet training for those who have not yet started. Please let us know if this is the case, as
consistency is the key.
I would also like to remind you to bring an extra change
of clothes to preschool.... We have lots of fun and often need to change...
A note from the Treehouse Room, class 301 - Permjit, Gabi and Sousan
We had a really fun February! We spent the month celebrating Chinese New Year with lots of artwork in red, gold and black and stories about this special time in the Chinese calendar. Next we talked about friendship and feelings for Valentine's day. We made a "Friendship Fruit Salad" which was absolutely delicious and then we had a pj party with all our friends (thanks to the parents who provided yummy treats).
The weather has warmed up this past week so we have really enjoyed getting outside and playing in the sand box, climbing and running outside!
We hope that you all have a lovely Spring Break and we look forward to hearing about all the fun you had once we get back to preschool! If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact us!
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| We like to get messy! |
The weather has warmed up this past week so we have really enjoyed getting outside and playing in the sand box, climbing and running outside!We hope that you all have a lovely Spring Break and we look forward to hearing about all the fun you had once we get back to preschool! If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact us!
A note from the Treehouse Room, class 302 - Susan, Stephanie and Karen
Hello Everyone!
This month has been filled with many exciting events and
holidays. We celebrated Valentine’s Day in style! We all sported our pajamas
and enjoyed some yummy treats at our Valentine’s class party. Thank you to
everyone who contributed to our Valentine’s Day party. We also celebrated
Chinese New Year’s. This week was filled with Chinese themed art and
activities. Feel free to check out our Chinese Lanterns which are displayed in
our classroom!
The weather over the last few weeks has been incredible and
has allowed our class to spend lots of time outside. The sand box has been open
for digging, exploring and building. The children are playing well together in
this outside setting by playing tag, “my little ponies” and "baking" in the play
house!
Within the classroom, we have discussed the importance of feelings,
emotions and friends. Our home corner is currently a place to gather with your
friends and dolls! The children have been very receptive to the idea of
feelings and friends. There has been an
emphasis in the classroom on caring, sharing and playing well together and the children are rising to the challenge!
This month has gone by so fast due to our many exciting
activities and we are looking forward to exploring the new spring season after our break when we will dive
into the ideas of gardening, planting, flowers and of course Easter! Have a wonderful Spring Break and we will see you back on Tuesday March 17th.
Within the classroom, we have discussed the importance of feelings,
emotions and friends. Our home corner is currently a place to gather with your
friends and dolls! The children have been very receptive to the idea of
feelings and friends. There has been an
emphasis in the classroom on caring, sharing and playing well together and the children are rising to the challenge!
A note from the Sunflower Room, class 401 - Stephanie, Susan and Karen
February flew by with two big celebrations. First we got prepared for Valentine's Day with lots of art which centered around love and friendship. We also read stories which discussed being kind and about friendship as well singing lots of fun songs about love! We finished up with a very formal dinner party at "Chez St. Catherine's" complete with fancy candle holders on the table and menus! It was so cute to see all our class dressed up all fancy. Thanks to the parents who provided yummy treats!
Next we spent a week talking about Chinese New Years. We learnt a lot about the different traditions that happen for this day. We also baked a dessert that called a rice cake. It was interesting trying something we have never tried before.
This week we just said goodbye to Hannah our classroom volunteer who has been with us for quite some time now, we know that she will be missed as all the children really enjoyed playing with her. We wish her all the best!
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| Rice Cake |
Next we spent a week talking about Chinese New Years. We learnt a lot about the different traditions that happen for this day. We also baked a dessert that called a rice cake. It was interesting trying something we have never tried before.
This week we just said goodbye to Hannah our classroom volunteer who has been with us for quite some time now, we know that she will be missed as all the children really enjoyed playing with her. We wish her all the best!
We hope you have a fantastic spring break and we will see you back at preschool on Monday March 16th!
A note from the Sunflower/Rainbow Room, class 402 - Arsi, Danielle and Sousan
What a 'lovely' month we have just
had...talking about Valentine'sDay and learning about How to be Bucket Fillers,
not Bucket Dippers...We 'brainstormed' actions/words that helped fill our
buckets e.g. Sharing, listening, hugging, helping, playing with our friends and
using our manners. We also discussed
ways that 'dip' into our bucket, e.g. hurting our friends, being mean, not
listening, breaking toys, leaving a mess, shouting and not sharing. We are now
working as a team to help fill the classroom bucket. This involves listening, sharing, playing
with our friends, helping clean up and using our manners... It is moving along
slowly but it is great to see how everyone is using their words to try and
'bucket fill'.
On Valentine's Day we had a lovely Red/Pink
& White party with yummy food supplied by parents and some lovely
Valentine's Day notes for friends.
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| The Tunnel of Love! |
As our 4's turn to 5's we are starting to
get ready for Kindergarten, so we have started to introduce the ABC's....We are exploring what words start with each letter, the shape of them,
how to write them and encouraging them to think of their own words for the
“Letter of the Day".
In the next few weeks we are discussing
spring and Easter. We will continue to
work on the alphabet and start our journey into our journals...
Just a little reminder that we are here for
4 hours, so it is better to pack more food than not. They can always take it home. Please continue to send extra clothing as
there are some very enthusiastic painters and children who enjoy water play.
With the cold weather here, please remember to send warm coats and hats. Our
playground is shaded and tends to be cooler earlier in the day.
If you have any questions or concerns,
please feel free to speak to either Danielle,
Arsi or Sousan.
A note from the Treehouse Room, class 304 - Vibha, Stephanie, Gabi and Karen
What
a fun and exciting month we just had with Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day
happeni
ng so close to one another. First, we talked about Chinese New
Year and we looked at a Chinese calender to see the different animals that
represent each year. We talked about a big parade that happens with lion
dancers and how families hand out lucky red envelopes. For art we decorated
red paper lanterns with gold paint.
After all the excitement of Chinese
New Year was over, we jumped right into Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day gave us a great opportunity
to talk about friendship and feelings. We did a variety of different
crafts using hearts. At circle time we read books and sang songs about
friendship and feelings. We asked the children what they loved. Here
are some of the responses... Hugs, Horses, Spiderman, Wiggles, Cars, Princess and Wizard
of Oz. To finish up this theme, we had a Valentine's Day party. We would
like to thank the parents who brought all the delicious treats to share!
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| Bob Marley inspired artwork! |
A note from the Treehouse Room, class 403 - Stephanie, Permjit, Karen and Gabi
Love
filled the air during the month of February! There were lots of hearts all
around us. For the first two weeks we talked about friendship and did many
activities around Valentine's Day. At circle we got into partners and did
activities with them. It was a great chance for everyone to play with someone
who they don't usually play with. For art we decorated Valentine bags, cut out
hearts and decorated them, and made heart people. Each of us also brought in a
piece of fruit and we all worked together to cut them up and made a friendship
fruit salad. To end things off we had a very lovely formal Valentine's party.
We transformed the classroom into a fancy restaurant and the children were
seated by the hostess and given menus to order from. It was such a neat
experience for everyone! Thank you to all of the parents who brought the
delicious treats for the party.  |
| Friendship! |
Next
we spent a week talking about Chinese New Years. We learnt a lot about the different
traditions that happen for this day. We made paper bag dragon puppets and
decorated red paper lanterns to celebrate this special day. We also baked a
dessert that called a rice cake. It was interesting trying something we have
never tried before.
The
children became scientists for two weeks. It was so much fun exploring a
variety of different experiments. There were a lot of theories being made and
it was neat to find out the conclusion to each theory. One of the highlights of
our experiments was seeing what happened when we put mentos into a bottle of
coke. It was such an amazing explosion! We did an experiment about walking
water, mixed colours with glue and water-colours, borax snowflakes, cornstarch
and water, milk and bursting colours with dish soap, and made puffy
paintings.
Recipe
for puffy paintings
1
tbsp. Self rising flour
1
tbsp. salt
Water
Food
colouring
Mix
together flour and salt. Add water until consistency of yogurt. Add few drops
of food colouring.
Use
it to paint a picture on a thick piece of paper. When finished, put in the
microwave for 30 seconds.
Next
month we will be talking about Spring and Easter! If
you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the
teachers.
