October 2019

Crunching, crinkling Autumn leaves, spiraling swirling in the breeze!

Gone are the days of Summer with late nights, beaches and family vacations. 

We will miss Summer, but Autumn is pretty special too! The colours, the smells and the SWEATERS!

Take the time to create special Autumn memories with your families by having game nights, outside treasure hunts, Thanksgiving get togethers and of course...pumpkin carving for Halloween!

The weather will be getting unpredictable so please make sure you have all the appropriate clothing and outside gear so your little one will be comfortable, whatever the weather.

Sickness is a big part of this time of year so please make sure you keep your little ones home when they are not well. If they have fevers, coughs, rashes, loose stools or are just running low on energy, keep them home. Even though your child is able to attend if they are sick, we cannot risk them getting those who are immune compromised sick as for them, it could mean a hospital stay.

We also have many special events coming up so stay tuned to the bulletin boards, notices and your Year at a Glance so nothing gets forgotten! 

Preschool is a special time in your child's life and it will go fast. Please take the time to be a part of the preschool community and help your child to foster a love of school and community spirit. 

We have an Open Door policy so please stop in anytime to have a chat.

And check out our FUNDRAISERS! We are a non-profit and any money we make we funnel directly back into the preschool in the form of books, supplies, sports equipment, playground upgrades and special activities and events! We couldn't do what we do without your support!

                                                                                                      

                              LOVABLE LABELS

SAMOSAS 

Important Dates

OCT 14 - THANKSGIVING - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

OCT 30/31 -CHILDREN'S HALLOWEEN PARTIES

NOV 1 - PURDY'S CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER BEGINS

NOV 7/8 - PHOTO DAYS (3s & 4s)

NOV 11 - REMEMBRANCE DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

NOV 20 - PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK - 5:30PM

NOV 24 - CHURCH FAMILY NIGHT - 5-6:30PM

NOV 26 - PURDY'S ORDERS DUE

Discovery Twos - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan, Vibha

Our  youngest members of St.Catherine's Preschool are beginning to settle in

nicely to the program.  Most are happy to stretch their boundaries.  A few

still need a little more time to feel secure with Mom and Dad leaving.  Such

is the nature of two year olds.  Often this is their first experience away

from family.  They love to explore their surroundings, but need to still

stay close to their primary base of support and trust.  Separation anxiety

is quite strong at this stage, but often it is only the "good-bye" that is

difficult.  For this reason we encourage you to make "good-byes" short and

reassuring.

We set up the rooms in a way that facilitates exploration and discovery
through play.  A great deal of time is spent exploring, pushing, pulling,
filling, dumping and touching.  Two year olds  feel secure in environments that are familiar and for this reason you may see the same toys and equipment out  for several weeks.  What we will do is present these familiar
toys in different setups (e.g adding a set of wooden blocks to the cars and garage).


Two's love painting, splashing in the water table, housekeeping, singing and
dancing at circle time.  Although play tends to be more solitary, they enjoy
being in each other's company, playing side by side.  We are still waiting
for a few more family photos.  Children love to look at these pictures especially if they are missing mom or dad.  Please encourage your child to
walk up and down the stairs holding onto the railing when being brought to
or leaving the preschool.

Check the white board outside the classroom for a synopsis of our day and
please feel free to talk to us if you have any questions or concerns.


We look forward to an exciting year- a year of tremendous growth in
confidence and abilities.  We hope that this first group experience will be
an enjoyable and memorable one for both you and your child.

Treehouse Classroom - Karen, Susan, Brita, Marjan, Carol

Welcome to our first blog for the Treehouse room. Please continue to check us out as this blog is a monthly occurrence. It will keep you up to date on all the fun things your child is doing at preschool. 

For the beginning of this year we decided to talk about where we live, British Columbia and Canada. In case your child has not told you or you have not noticed we have put a boat in the home corner fitted with life jackets and oars. We are making our way down the Capilano River. Along the way we have seen salmon, ravens, bears, deer, skunks, raccoons, owls and cedar trees (stuffed animals that is). Take a look in the hall at the totem poles and the salmon run. We have also put up a board for art that comes from the easel.

The children made paper Inukshuks for art and we introduced a Canadian artist named Ted Harrison who was known for his colourful landscape paintings. 

Another art we did was Culinary, we made pancakes with...eggs, buttermilk, sugar, flour, butter, baking powder, blueberries and maple syrup from either B.C. or Canada. Everyone had a turn to measure the ingredients, stir the batter, put a pancake in the pan and last but not least eat one.

Our circle time has been filled with stories about places to visit locally and it was nice to hear that so many of the children were familiar with what we were reading…..ABC Canada, Soaring Salmon, Ferry Ride, An Inukshuk Means Welcome, Oh Canada our National anthem just to name a few. We also played a game on our felt board, What colour Salmon is missing? What local animals do we have and what habitat do they live in and Black bear, black bear what do you see? Yoga was also done at circle with poses from our local animals and the Inukshuk pose. We really enjoyed starting up the year with this theme and we hope the children did too.

We have started our Family Tree. All the children have made a paper animal to attach and we now need a family photo to put with it. Thank you to those who have bought one already. The children love looking at their family picture and talking about them with their friends. 

Our #1 rule in our preschool is NO ONE GETS HURT. All the children have placed a hand print on a poster with those words placed in the middle of it. We played a stop and go game about behaviours that are or are not acceptable in school. Check out the poster, it is put up on the wall where our circle corner is. 

Our wonderful music teacher Tiffany has started her program which the children will be going to on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Every class we pick a leader and leaders helper to help with the calendar and general things, EVERYONE WILL GET A TURN.Even if your child says they did not get one😁.

Keep reading you are almost done…

A few reminders.

*Take your child to the bathroom before class.

*Take all their belongings and art at the end of class from their cubbies.

*Put on appropriate footwear, runners or closed toed shoes are best.

*We are nut free

*Provide extra clothing in their backpack (shirt, pants, socks, underwear).

*Let us or the office know if your child will be late or absent. 

*Pick up your child on time. At the end of class children are looking for their people to pick them up and when they do not see you it makes them sad.

Thank you for joining us and we look forward to another exciting school year!

Karen (Monday-Friday all day)

Susan (Monday -Friday all day)

Carol (M,W afternoons & Tuesday/Thursdays all day)

Brita (M,W,F mornings & Tuesday/Thursday afternoons)

Marjan (Tuesday/Thursday mornings)

Sunflower Classroom - Arsi, Danielle, Carol

It’s been a great start to our new preschool year! The children have settled in nicely and are slowly getting used to routines & transitions.

We have begun talking about our rule at school which is NO ONE GETS HURT! This led to a discussion about our friends at preschool and teamwork! We have also touched on the topic of our families and how we all come from  different families and how we are all unique in our own special way! 


We have read some books such as “Swimmy,” “Families,” and “The Grouchy Ladybug.” In the coming weeks we will be talking about Thanksgiving, Fall and Halloween!

Check out our boards in the classroom for amazing art done by your children!

Below is just a quick reminder of all our class information!

There will be cubbies set up outside the Sunflower room for your child

St.Catherine’s preschool is a NUT FREE zone, even if our class may not have allergies we do share the room with other children that may be allergic.

Upon arrival each morning, we do ask parents to please take your child to the bathroom in order for the teachers to be on the floor for morning communication/questions with parents/nannies etc

Since we are a longer day, there will be 2 opportunities for the children to eat - snack & lunch

We do ask that you pack more food than less because we are a busy class and the children do get quite hungry.

Please pack a separate snack from lunch so your child will know which one is for each eating period.

We do ask parents to leave the snack out in their child’s cubby so they will have quick access to it

Please label all containers and also cups/water bottles (we do not drink juice or milk at school)

We do not use the microwave for children’s food however thermoses are fine

Please provide extra clothes in their bags in case of accidents or water spills/paint etc

We do ask all toys to stay at home, unless it’s a comfy toy/blanket, in which case must remain in their cubby because we don’t want them to get lost or ripped

If your child is going to be absent for holidays or is sick, please do let us know either by calling the office or telling us

If you have any questions or concerns, we are always available to talk. If that particular day is busy please feel free to set up another day and we will discuss any concerns you may have

This is a great class with lots of fun learning experiences however, as teachers we also like to suggest to parents as the children get to know each other, to also set up play dates outside of school time. This allows children to make new friends in a quieter setting where they may feel comfortable to be more social.

Music Program - Tiffany

Happy new school year to parents, children and staff. Our creative music class has taken flight and I am very pleased with what I’m noticing. We begin each music class by choosing a button to sit on. Children can pick their favourite colour!

We began our September month by getting to know each other! We shook our sillies out and experimented with shakers, learning how to ‘shake and stop’ and shaking on different parts of the body. The children have been introduced to ‘the musical alphabet’ and are practicing their skills, singing a ‘C’ major scale with the proper, well known, Curwen hand signals. We have also been introduced to a variety of musical instruments on the ‘music wall’, what they look like and how they sound. We love to practice playing such instruments as the cello, flute, trumpet, banjo and drums in our ‘musical instrument freeze’ game.

Moving into October, I have incorporated lots of imaginary play into our lesson plan, as we hop and swim around like frogs and sing like a dinosaur, the children are developing a sense of vocal range and body awareness. Now that we know what different instruments sound like, we can enjoy guessing which one is being played at the beginning of class. We have also become more confident in using different levels of voice such as speaking, whispering, yelling and singing.

Some goals I have for the fall/winter is to introduce the musical term, ‘tempo’, which means to go fast or slow. Additionally I would like to teach two very important musical dynamics, ‘forte’, which means to play loudly and ‘piano’ meaning to play soft or quietly. Please encourage singing and dancing in the home and ask your children what they learned in music class! I am looking forward to travelling with your children on their musical journey and I can’t wait to see what new heights we can reach because...

The more we get together, the happier we’ll be!

Resource Office - Marion

Welcome to all our families this year.  I am very excited  getting to know you and your children.  I hope everyone had a great summer and  our philosophy is “Learning Through Play” and that is what we will be doing for  the next 9 months.  

My role as Developmental Resource Teacher is to observe in the classrooms and am a resource for the teachers.  I am a liaison person in the community for any professionals who may work with your child.  We have an open door policy and invite professionals to observe in the classroom.  You need to book a time with me as there may be others wanting to observe.  

The teachers are skilled to notice any issues with gross or fine motor development and they listen for speech and language development.   

Please speak to your teachers with any questions you may have.  I will be away in Australia for most of October.  My youngest son, Derek and his wife, Gemma live there and are expecting our first grandchild in March.  

September 2019

WELCOME FAMILIES of St. Catherine’s Preschool to the 2019/2020 school year! Here we go! We, at St. Catherine’s are so excited to get this year going. And it will go FAST so HOLD ON and get ready for a FABULOUS year!

The Board and staff are looking forward to having your family involved in the Preschool and we are confident your child will have a positive experience.

This Program Package contains all the required forms for your child to attend St. Catherine’s Preschool as well as some policy guidelines for your information. Please read it thoroughly and fill out all forms clearly in ink.

Vancouver Coastal Health, Community Care Licensing requires us to have this information in writing prior to the commencement of the school year. Your nine post-dated cheques for the annual tuition fees, dated October 1, 2019 to June 1, 2020 are also due at this time.  Please make cheques payable to St. Catherine’s Childcare Society.

THINGS TO REMEMBER FOR YOUR FIRST DAY:

1.      Forms – You will receive your child’s package of forms. Please fill out ALL pages and please PRINT CLEARLY! (In an emergency, we don’t want to be wondering if it is a 4 or a 9!!)

2.      Leaving your Child – All parents will stay on the first day but when it is time to leave your child, please make sure to let the teacher (and your child) know that you are leaving. Coffee/Tea will be available in the Mary Pellatt Room beside the Gym. Please do not sit in the church lobby to wait for your child. (NOTE: You cannot leave the building until all forms are handed in to the office)

3.      Parking Lot Safety – Please remember to drive slowly and always hold your child’s hand when walking through the parking lot. Also remember, the parking lot is not a place for children to play.

4.      Cellphones – Please try to be present by keeping your cellphones in your pockets when picking up and dropping off your children.

Important Upcoming Dates

SEP 4       Begin Gradual Entry (201/301/401/403)

SEP 5       Begin Gradual Entry (202/302/304)

SEP 11    Play, Eat, Learn Program begins

SEP 10    All Forms & Cheques Due

SEP 19    AGM & Welcome Assembly – 6:30 PM – 

      ALL FAMILIES ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND. Childcare available (please sign up)

SEP 18    Scholastic Books Orders Due

SEP 29    Church’s Pet / Stuffy Blessing – 10 am

OCT 14     Thanksgiving – Preschool Closed

St. Catherine’s Childcare Society is a non-profit Society. To maintain our status as a non-profit organization we are required to hold an Annual General Meeting. As parents, you are all members of the Society you are expected to attend, and we are counting on your support to do so. The preschool is only able to apply for Government Grants, Municipal Grants and other sources of funding because it is a non-profit organization.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns please do not hesitate to contact Tina or Marion in the Preschool office. 604-980-1326

St. Catherine’s Childcare Society

June 2019

Well! Here we are! The end of the school year! It is hard to believe how fast the last 10 months have gone by! Your children have come such a long way in that time! 

The Twos no longer seem like babies! They are saying "Goodbye" to Mom & Dad without a lot of tears, playing with and making new friends and learning how to follow directions and routines.

The Threes have perfected the skills they learned in the Twos and are developing their social skills by interacting with friends at school and having play dates.

The Fours are developing their self awareness by building on the things they learned in the Twos and Threes. They are doing things to help get them ready for Kindergarten such as letter recognition, printing, speaking in front of the class and asking questions when they need help.

Important June Events

JUNE 13/14 - 4's Graduation 

JUNE 14 - Last Day of Preschool Classes

JUNE 17/18 - Picnics - Mahon Park

JULY 2 - Summer Program Starts

JULY 25 - Summer Program Ends

JULY 26 - Preschool Closed for Summer

SEPT 4 - First Day of Preschool Classes

SEPT 19 - Preschool AGM 

At the end of the year, what do the teachers have to say about your children? See below!!

DISCOVERY TWOS - Brita, Danielle, Vibha

It is hard to believe school is almost over! The time has flown by.  The children have grown from upset two-year old’s, to interactive, exploring and talking three-year old’s. They are now playing with their friends and starting to take turns and share their toys.  They are becoming so much more independent with toileting, snack time, jackets and walking up & down the stairs.

Circle time has become a time for lots of listening and learning as they now sit for a longer time.  This month we started with talking about Mother’s Day. We read ‘Just for U’, Sang ‘Skidamirink a dink’ and learned “I Love You” in sign language. We spent some time decorating our lovely Mother’s Day gifts. We hope you loved them!

We moved on to learn about Safari Animals. Some of the stories we read were ‘Can Snakes Crawl Backwards?’, Jolly Jungle & The Animal Boogie’. We listened to the Felt Rhymes ‘5 Little Zebra’s, 5 Elephants Balancing & 5 Naughty Monkey’s’. We also listened to the felt stories ‘Lion, Lion What do you see?’ and ‘Zebra, Zebra What do you hear?” We moved around stomping like Elephants, slithering like snakes, swinging like Monkeys and doing yoga poses like a Lion.

We also love spending time with Tiffany, our music teacher who introduces us to her musical instruments and new songs.

For Art we were very busy making a Safari Collage, Paper plate Elephants, using our hand prints to make snakes and monkeys, salad spinning giraffes, stamping with Jungle animals, paper bag Zebras and painting paper plate Lions.  We had lots of fun and you can see our art on the boards around our classroom.

For the next few weeks in June we will talk about Father’s Day and summer.

Thank you for those in advance that have signed up for food for our end of year Party.

Have a Lovely Summer and we hope to see you all in September.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us. 

CLASS 301 - Carol, Susan

As I write this looking out on my deck full of flowers, it really feels as if summer is here.

We've had a fun, busy, and very creative month in the Treehouse Room at St. Catherine's Preschool.

We started off making Mother's Day cards with hand print tulips; a lovely keepsake of those little hands. The children also decorated small flower pots and hand planted some flowers as a Mother's Day present. I do hope the plants have survived!

We have been learning about shapes and colours and have created a lot of artwork using stamps, stencils and all sorts of different shapes from around the classroom.

Many of you have followed the amazing progress of our Painted Lady butterflies, and we have used their presence as an inspiration for artwork, reading and science lessons. We watched a DVD (VHS video,

actually!) about the life cycle of the butterfly.

The house corner has been transformed into a Hairdresser's/Barber Shop. Wow, what creative children we have, and we were never short of "customers"....most of the children and all of the teachers have had their hair "done" in new and wonderful ways.

The house corner is now a grocery store, and is proving just as popular.

The staff had a very successful and productive Professional Development Day. We each made at least one, some made two or three, Felt Stories. These are used to aid lessons, songs, stories and games, and are very popular with the children. Tina kindly lead the day and was very patient with those of us who are less adept with hot glue guns, etc.

Tiffany held open days during which parents were welcomed into the music room to observe the music classes. The children were very excited to have an audience and to see their parents, grandparents and friends there. I'm sure all who attended were impressed by the breadth of knowledge the children have after a relatively short time.

This will be the last blog for this term, so we'd like to wish you all a very happy and safe summer. We will see some of you at the summer program, some next term in September, and those who are moving on to Kindergarten, I'm sure we'll see you in the neighbourhood.

CLASS 302/404 - Karen, Susan, Carol

Where did the year go, it can not already be June! This will be our last blog for the year so thank you for checking it out.

We started off the month making Mother’s Day gifts. We hope you got to enjoy the lavender Epsom salts and enjoyed reading the questionnaire. At circle we played a felt board game about places mom’s would be or what she would be doing...the mall, exercising, cleaning the house and so on. We also read How to Raise a Mom and I Love You Forever.

Every year Marion brings in Painted Lady butterflies. They start off as eggs, then to a caterpillar, into a pupa and out comes a butterfly. We get to watch the transformations and talk about each stage. When all the butterflies are ready to be set free we go the Memorial garden and release them.

Check out the board in the hallway as it has caterpillars that turn into colourful butterflies. Hanging across the room we strung up hand print butterflies. On our back wall there are black and white pictures of butterflies made from stencils. On the windows are flowers that were painted by using a salad spinner. The children were cheering on their friends as they made the spinner turn faster and faster.

You may have noticed other art we have put up about shapes and colours. We have a lot of books on this topic which we read at circle...The Shape of Things, Scribble, Shapes that Roll, Not a Box and many more. We also played felt board games about what each shapes/colour sees and what shape/colour is missing.

The children have started on their Father's Day gifts; fine motor skills hard at work!

As you know this has been a combined class with 5 of our students that will be graduating from our 4’s. It has be wonderful to see how the 3’s have had positive support from the older children. We wish them Good luck in Kindergarten!

On Thursday June the 14th we will be having our Year End/Graduation Party. There we be a sign up sheet on our bulletin board for food items to share, thank you in advance!

We have had a wonderful year getting to know all the children and the parents. But the time has come to say….

It’s time to say goodbye to all my friends.

It’s time to say goodbye to all my friends.

It’s time to say goodbye give a smile and wave up high.

It’s time to say goodbye to all my friends.

Have a wonderful summer!

CLASS 401 - Arsi, Karen, Vibha, Lisa, Marjan

May was a very busy month for our class! We had lots to talk about such as Mother’s Day, flowers and gardening, and bugs! We got to work!

During circle time, we read the book called “One Bean,” which introduced the class about what we need to plant a seed. We talked about garden words such as trowel, wheelbarrow, gloves, soil and so on. The children knew they need sun and rain to make sure flowers grow. We learned about the parts of a flower such as the roots, the stems, leaves and flower. It was great to see the children practice their own gardening skills by planting their own sunflower seed in class. Hope they’re still watering their flowers at home!

We also finished our alphabets with the letters U,W, X, Y, and Z! Some of the art we did were: decorate umbrellas and Popsicle V shapes, we used watercolors to color diffusing paper flowers, turned an X into a xylophone, used yarn and circle shapes to make a yo-yo for the letter Y, and practiced tracing our letter Z for zebra! 

We read books such as “Zoomer’s Summer Snowstorm,” and “No more Yawning.” Just for one, the children made roti with Vibha. What a fun activity to do with friends at school! They were yummy too! 

Remember parents, the alphabets surrounds us every day so have fun looking for letters anywhere you! It great practice and it’s fun!

Our next topic was Mother’s Day! The children worked very hard to keep their surprises until the special day! We got to work decorating and glittering jars that the children chose to turn into candle holders. We used various coloured collage paper and silver glitter to give the candle holders a special touch from them! Once we finished the candle holders, we moved onto making hand print tulip cards! What a special keepsake! Hope all our mommies had a great Mother’s Day weekend and enjoyed the children's gifts! 

During circle, we talked about why we love our mommies and what we love to do with our mommies. We sang the song M-O-M-M-Y in the tune of Bingo and it was tricky but fun! We also played a felt board story called `What do mommies do on Mother`s Day?” 

For our last two weeks of May, we looked into bugs! We took a special close look at ants, butterflies, ladybugs and bees! We sang “The ants go marching by” as we looked at the funny book at circle time. For art, the children used circle and rectangle shapes to create their own ants. We played a memory bug game where the children had to remember which bugs were hiding under the towel! There were lots of bugs to choose from but the children sure remembered them all! 

Since our butterflies were soon going to hatch from their chrysalises, we thought it was great to learn about butterflies as well! We learned that the butterflies start out as tiny eggs which hatch into caterpillars. They then form a chrysalis to sleep for a bit until they are ready to hatch into a beautiful butterfly! It has also been great for the children to see this transformation really happen as we have visited our live chrysalises in the office! At circle, we read the book “Ten Fluttering Butterflies” and played the game “Which butterfly is missing?”

Ladybug, ladybug where do you live? Our next bug was the ladybug. We learned that ladybugs are part of the beetle family and that some have no spots and some have up to twenty spots! The children listened to the story called “The Very Lazy Ladybug,” and watch “Five Little Ladybugs” get snatched by Mr.Bird in the funny felt board song. We then read the story called “Bizzy Mizz Lizzie” about a very busy bee! We learned that bees live all over the world except in Antarctica. They like to eat pollen and nectar and they make honey! The children also enjoyed guessing which colour beehive the bee was hiding under in the felt board game called “Busy Bee.” For art, we made bees using circle, rectangle,and triangle shapes to make cute little bees that liked to buzz.

In the last few weeks of school, we will be continuing with our journals, working on a special surprise,talking about Father’s Day and getting ready for graduation and going to kindergarten! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your teachers!

CLASS 402 - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan

It’s hard to believe that I am writing our last newsletter for 402 for this year.  They are only a few weeks away from Graduating and moving onto Kindergarten… Oh how much they have developed and grown in the last 10 months!

The Month of May is a special one as we talk about our Mothers and how important they are too us and what we love about our Moms.  We read ‘Just Like You’ and sang the rhyme “Mommy” (Tune of Bingo).  For art we decorated our own Flower Pots and planted Sunflower Seeds… I wonder how big are they now?

We moved onto Spring & Planting. Some of the stories we read were “One Bean", "The Enormous Potato" and "Franklin Plants a Tree". We have also spent time in the home corner ‘planting flowers and taking care of them’.  We had flowers, shovels, watering cans, gloves, buckets and vases. The flowers looked great!! We spent some time being seeds and ‘growing’.

We also finally finished discovering the last of the Alphabet.  It was amazing to watch the children as they each took turns with their letter of the alphabet and tried to ‘trick’ their friends into guessing what was inside.  Remember to keep practicing by writing their names or even putting letters up around the house to familiarize them with each letter.

For the last two weeks we explored the ‘Jungle’.  This was lots of fun. In the first week we looked into Monkeys, Elephants & Tigers.  We read “Who is the Beast", "Monkey Puzzle" & “Strictly No Elephants". We listened to the felt rhymes "5 Little Monkeys", "5 Tiny Tigers" & "5 Elephants went out to play". We then decorated Monkeys and cut our Elephant Masks and then painted them.  

The next week we explored Poisonous Frogs, Bats & Toucans. We read the stories "Ah Ha", "Bumblebee Bat" & "Toucan Can" and we listened to “The Animal Boogie". We danced around like birds with scarves and acted out animal movements that matched their pictures.  We made our own 3D Frogs on Lily Pads and painted, cut and glued our own Toucans. We have had fun exploring the different jungle animals – learning about the difference between mammals and birds and where they live in the jungle.

In the next few weeks we will be talking about Father’s Day, finishing our Journals and stories about going to Kindergarten.

We wish you all a Great Summer and all the best of luck in Kindergarten. Please come back and visit us!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us. 

CLASS 403/304 - Karen, Susan, Carol, Lisa, Brita

The month of May brought us caterpillars that turned into butterflies, shapes, colours and Mother's Day art. The home corner was turned into a hairdressing studio and a grocery store (not at the same time😆). Just saying that we have some very amazing hair stylists at St. Catherine's!

We celebrated the arrival of the butterflies by honouring them with lots of art. We coloured diffusing paper that were shaped like butterflies with watercolor, hand print butterflies, used stencils to outline butterflies and cut out craft paper to make a butterfly.

Our fun Friday we watched a DVD from The Magic School Bus all about Butterflies. We also made star shaped crayons using 7 different colours. I hope that all the children drew something fun with them.

Have a look in the hallway at the shape art the children did. We talked about how we are surrounded by shapes and that you might not even notice them.

The afternoons brought warmer weather in the playground and we brought out water pails with paint brushes, bubbles, drawing with chalk and we opened the sandbox, where there were many sand cakes and castles made.  

The highlight of this butterfly month was that we got to see how their life cycle progressed from eggs, caterpillars, pupas to butterflies. When they are ready to be released we go up to the Memorial gardens and set them free. A big thank you to Marion for bringing this experience to us!

Our year end party is coming soon and it will also be a Graduation celebration for our 4’s.   We wish them well in Kindergarten.

This will be our last blog of the year and we just want to say that it has been wonderful getting to know your children. I just wish that the time did not go by so quickly. But that's what happens when you are having fun.

Have a great summer!

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

Such an exciting time of year around the preschool.  The 4s are very excited about visiting their new Kindergartens, some even think they should be going there now, but we still have lots to do this year. 

 The caterpillars in the Treehouse Room have finished emerging into butterflies.  There are 32 of them and they have been released into the Memorial Garden some time next week.  I usually take each class out and we release a few at a time.  

As the weather gets warmer there will be more opportunities for play dates outside.  Check out the 4s bulletin boards for the list of Kindergartens and who is going where.  It is always nice to know someone when you start something new.

I have enjoyed spending time with your precious children.  They have learnt so many things this year and some have been here 3 years.   Looking forward to the Graduations and the class picnics.  

 Have a great summer and I will see you around the Village.

MUSIC - Tiffany

With just a couple of weeks left in the school year, we are enjoying every musical minute we have together. We are now applying the skills we have learned over the term and have begun to read actual music! We can tell the difference between the lengths of music notes. We know the high voices sing in the treble clef and the low voices sing in the bass clef. We can incorporate phrasing into our songs with the musical dynamics, forte and piano.

Thank you, to all the parents and family members who were able to participate in the Music Open House, last month. I believe the children are most proud to show off their developing musicianship. I am also proud of the hard work they have done.

As Summer Break approaches, we will be listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, ‘Summer’ series and colouring to that. We are also having fun playing musical chairs and freeze dance!

Moving into the Summer, I would recommend playing as much music in the home as possible. The children love to hear cultural music, they love to dance and clapping/tapping is a big part of their ability to recognize rhythms and the beat. Singing should always be encouraged and If it gets too loud, ask them to sing, ‘piano’.

If you have a musical instrument in your home, I would suggest exploring it with your child. Let them play it. If you do not have any musical instruments in your home, I would suggest purchasing something small, such as a children’s sized xylophone or a hand drum. Bells and shakers can be taken in the car or to the park and your own voice is an instrument, too! One that follows wherever you go and one that does not cost money in a store.

Happy Summer Break, everyone. The pleasure to teach music has been all mine. Congratulations to the children moving off to Kindergarten. Bravo!