A note from Jen Staff and Program Coordinator
Wow what a fun month October is at preschool! Everyone is settling in well, getting to know and connecting with their teachers, making friends, and enjoying fun activities. Our preschoolers have been creating some fantastic Autumn inspired art as well as some very spooky witches, ghosties and pumpkins! I have been lucky enough to spend some time in each class and am enjoying getting to know all your beautiful children.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns about your child's preschool experience please pop by the office at any time and have a chat with me.
A note from Cheryl Creative Music
Music 3's
Well we navigated our way through the beginning of music class successfully. Now we know eachother a little bit better we have started to explore some different instruments. We met a music room friend “Patches the Scarecrow” and sang a song about different ways we can shake our arms and legs.We used the shaker-eggs to make the shaky sound that a scarecrow would make if it was dancing.
I'm a jingle jangle scarecrow
With a flippy floppy hat.
I can shake my arms like this!
I can shake my legs like that!
Each child told the rest of the class how to shake their arms or their legs; we have some very creative kids! We also used Halloween as an opportunity to talk about real things we might see as decorations: pumpkins, owls, skeletons etc and how they are real but they aren’t scary because they are just decorations.We also talked about witches ghosts and goblins and how they are not real at all - just for fun!
Skeleton bones go rattle tattle.
Skeleton voices go BOO!
Skeleton bones go rattle tattle.
They can't scare you!
We made ourselves very big and brave and showed how they won't scare us.
And finally yes on October 30th and 31st we started to learn our songs and poems for the Christmas Services!
Music 4's
We entered October with gusto! We learned the jingle jangle scarecrow song like the 3's but we added a bit before.
When all the cows were sleeping,
And the sun was behind the cloud.
Up jumped the scarecrow
And shouted VERY LOUD!
Then we sang the rest of the song. We used the maracas which I told them I only let my 4's use as they are too fragile for the younger children. They sure liked having that power! We used the maracas to shake our arms and legs like the scarecrow.
I also introduced storytelling. I told them a “scary” story but I promised they would end up laughing!
The Dark
In the dark dark woods,
there was a dark dark house.
In the dark dark house,
there was a dark dark door.
Through the dark dark door
there were some dark dark stairs.
Up those dark dark stairs,
there was a dark dark room
In that dark dark room,
there was a dark dark closet.
In that dark dark closet,
there was a dark dark box.
In that dark dark box
there was........ME!
Boy would the kids jump and bust a gut laughing!
We talked about how powerful storytelling could be by acting out a story using your voice, body and instruments. We will be doing further development of the art of storytelling as we go through the year.
We are very excited about learning our Christmas Service songs and poems. We also found out that some friends get to talk into the microphone and others get to dress in costumes for the telling of the nativity.
A Note from the Discovery 2's Danielle, Estelle, Vibha, Stephanie and Karen
What a great time we have been having in the Two's so far this year. October was our first full month together. Not only have we been busy getting to know each other, but we have been having so much fun painting, singing, reading stories and of course most importantly, playing.
For Thanksgiving we made Turkey Hand Prints, coloured turkey feathers and talked about what we are thankful for. We sang “Dingle Dangle Scarecrow”, "5 Little Turkey's" and many more.
Halloween was such a great time as we painted spooky, sparkly ghosts, bats and spiders. We glued buttons onto pumpkins or stamped paint onto pumpkins. We even experimented with water colours on water paper to make our ghosts a mixture of colours. Of course the best fun of all was carving the pumpkin and feeling the 'gooey' stuff inside of it. We had fun at circle time with reading stories about Halloween, singing about “5 Pumpkins sitting on a gate” and listening to felt stories “Who is hiding behind the house?” and “Children, Children What do you see on Halloween Night?”
Of course we had a great Halloween party and everyone looked very cute in their PJ's. Thanks for those family's who brought snacks for the party and don't worry! Everyone will eventually get a turn to bring some treats!
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.
We have also noticed some children are having trouble walking up and down the stairs, so please encourage your child to use the stairs holding on to the railing when coming and leaving the preschool.
If you have any questions please feel free to speak to any of us.
A note from the Down Under Room 301 Gabi and Permjit
It's November already and the children have started to settle into a routine. We are all enjoying our time with friends old and new.
We are finding that the children will be enjoying a particular toy or activity and will ask for it. This is very important for them so that they can continue with play and imagination from where they left off and it encourages them to work together; negotiating and taking turns.
Thanksgiving was busy. We made Turkey paintings, covered them in feathers and listened to stories about Thanksgiving. We also played games trying to find the turkey his feathers. We discussed what we were thankful for, what we were going to have for dinner, and who was coming to dinner. Those turkeys were everywhere!
Next we began our preparation for Halloween. Spooky ghosts with lots of sparkles were floating on our boards. Sitting on our huge web, scary spiders were sitting waiting so quietly and you may have noticed that they did catch something.... It had a black hat and a broom!!
Our Spooky castle was sooooo scary! cats were roaming around looking for their friend the witch who seemed to be caught up somewhere in a web or was she busy picking up spooky treats??
The Halloween party was lots of fun. We all had fun wearing our costumes and some of us really enjoyed describing in great detail who we were! Thanks to all the parents who took the time to make everything look and taste so yummy; a great time was had by all!
Marion came in to talk to our class about fire safety and the children watched a video with Fireman Dam and his spotty dog. Then we learned what to do in case of emergency, to stop drop, roll and crawl. Thank you Marion.
Please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing for preschool, as we will go out to play when it is not raining.
Please come to and talk to us if you have any concerns.
A note from the Down Under Room 302 Gabi, Rachel and Sali
Wow! We can't believe how quickly the first few months have flown by. The children have already been busy practicing all their Christmas songs with Cheryl. In October the children helped us make the classroom look a lot like fall with all their wonderful art pieces; fingerprint leaves and hand-print owls to name a couple! We also got ready for an exciting day; Halloween!! The children all looked so cute in their costumes for the party. Thank you for all the yummy snacks. A few of the Halloween art projects that filled the classroom were painted paper bag Jack-o-lanterns, the children were creative with strips of paper to create mummies, and we painted cats.
A Halloween rhyme our class really enjoyed was:
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said "there are witches in the air!"
The third one said "but we don't care!"
The fourth one said "let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "Let's have some fun!"
Then WOOOO went the wind.
And OUT went the lights!
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said "Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said "there are witches in the air!"
The third one said "but we don't care!"
The fourth one said "let's run and run and run!"
The fifth one said "Let's have some fun!"
Then WOOOO went the wind.
And OUT went the lights!
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!
We are now learning about shapes and colours. If you have any questions please speak with one of us!
October was a very exciting month for all of us! First we started talking about Thanksgiving and things that we are thankful for. At circle we talked about apples and the different things we can use apples for. There were so many ideas! We also cut an apple in half and counted how many seeds there were inside. One interesting thing we found out was if we cut an apple in half from the sides, there was a surprise inside; a star! We used the apples with paint to make apple prints. We talked about the different food we might see during Thanksgiving. We decorated turkeys with feathers and made turkeys using play dough.
Then it was on to Halloween! We had such a great time talking about all the different things we see during this time. We talked about what things are real and pretend and read many stories and sang songs about Halloween. For art we decorated bats with glitter, made our own Jack-o-lanterns, made ghosts with streamers, decorated black cats, made witch hats, and painted more bats and ghosts. The one thing that the children were extra excited about was the Halloween party! When the day came it was so much fun to see all of the amazing costumes each of them had on. We turned out some lights in the classroom and played fun Halloween music. Thank you for all of the delicious treats for the party!
Marion came to talk to all of us about fire safety. We learned what to do of fire ever got onto our clothes (Stop, drop, and roll). We also learned what to do if we were ever in a place where there was a fire. We saw what an exit sign looks like and we practiced crawling low under smoke.
For the next couple of weeks we will be talking about colours.
As the weather is starting to get chilly now, please dress children in running shoes and a warm jacket because we will be going outside if it is not raining.
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak with any of the teachers.
Thank you for all the yummy snacks!
In October, we started with Thanksgiving, discussed Johnny Appleseed (his real name being John Chapman) and how he planted apple seeds everywhere he went so that people wouldn't go hungry. We also talked about why we sing the Johnny Appleseed grace song before snack time because we are thankful.
Next we talked about what foods we traditionally eat for Thanksgiving such as turkey, corn, potatoes etc. Since corn was a popular item, we decided to do corn-roller painting and also a popcorn science experiment with blue and green food colouring. We dyed two containers of popcorn kernels with blue and green food colouring, then we asked the children if they thought the popcorn would pop green and blue when they popped and they thought that it would! When the time came to pop the kernels, we discovered that in fact the kernels popped out white!! We were all surprised, but it still tasted delicious!
Another fun thing we did was to make a cornucopia using waffle cones, vanilla frosting, and fall shaped candy. Th children really enjoyed making these as they go to taste what frosting ended up on their fingers!
Before we knew it, it was time for Halloween, with all the fun of stories, songs and art projects. For art we made skeletons out of Q-tips, spiders and spider webs out of glue and black sparkles, Frankensteins out of paper bags, Jack-O-lanterns and witches hats.
On Halloween day the children came dressed up in their costumes. We had princesses, super heroes and some story book characters too! Our party was so much fun with Halloween music and delicious treats, we even had a witches cauldron with spooky smoke!
We would like to thank the parents who bought in the food and beverages for our Halloween party, they were yummy!
During October we also had Marion talk to our class about fire safety. We watched a very important video which taught us to STOP, DROP and ROLL if fire gets on our clothes as well as practicing CRAWLING LOW UNDER SMOKE.
Elmer the Safety Elephant dropped by as well and talked to us about the importance of pedestrian safety and traffic safety. He showed us the correct way to cross the street, traffic light safety and how to play safely outside.
It's been a fun and busy October and now we're looking ahead to November where we will discuss Remembrance Day and focus on some popular children's book authors such as Lio Lionni.
If at anytime you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to us.
A note from 401 Rachel, Sali and Karen
We can't believe how the months have passed so quickly and we are already nearing December! During October we were getting ready for an exciting day; Halloween! The children took part in many different art projects as well as helped us to turn our dramatic house corner into a spooky house! The children cut out all their own pieces of paper to create faces for their Jack-o-lanterns, they also made spooky trees using watercolors and straws.
The children all looked great in their different costumes for the Halloween party! After the party we watched Franklin's Halloween we also had a smokey witches cauldron which was made with dry ice.
Thank you for all the yummy snacks!
A Halloween song our class really enjoyed was:
1 little, 2 little 3 little witches.
Fly over haystacks, fly over ditches...
Fly over moon beams, without any hitches...
Hey, Ho Halloween is here!!
We are now learning about space in our class! Please feel free to chat to us if you have any questions or concerns.
1 little, 2 little 3 little witches.
Fly over haystacks, fly over ditches...
Fly over moon beams, without any hitches...
Hey, Ho Halloween is here!!
We are now learning about space in our class! Please feel free to chat to us if you have any questions or concerns.
A note from 402 Treehouse/Rainbow Room Stephanie, Arsi, Karen and Cheryl
It's hard to believe how quickly October flew by in in our 402 class; we had a lot of fun and learned a lot too. The children have settled nicely and have continued their friendships from previous years as well as making new connections. It's great to come to work and see their smiling faces!
In October, we started with Thanksgiving, discussed Johnny Appleseed (his real name being John Chapman) and how he planted apple seeds everywhere he went so that people wouldn't go hungry. We also talked about why we sing the Johnny Appleseed grace song before snack time because we are thankful.
Next we talked about what foods we traditionally eat for Thanksgiving such as turkey, corn, potatoes etc. Since corn was a popular item, we decided to do corn-roller painting and also a popcorn science experiment with blue and green food colouring. We dyed two containers of popcorn kernels with blue and green food colouring, then we asked the children if they thought the popcorn would pop green and blue when they popped and they thought that it would! When the time came to pop the kernels, we discovered that in fact the kernels popped out white!! We were all surprised, but it still tasted delicious!Another fun thing we did was to make a cornucopia using waffle cones, vanilla frosting, and fall shaped candy. Th children really enjoyed making these as they go to taste what frosting ended up on their fingers!
Before we knew it, it was time for Halloween, with all the fun of stories, songs and art projects. For art we made skeletons out of Q-tips, spiders and spider webs out of glue and black sparkles, Frankensteins out of paper bags, Jack-O-lanterns and witches hats.
On Halloween day the children came dressed up in their costumes. We had princesses, super heroes and some story book characters too! Our party was so much fun with Halloween music and delicious treats, we even had a witches cauldron with spooky smoke!
We would like to thank the parents who bought in the food and beverages for our Halloween party, they were yummy!
During October we also had Marion talk to our class about fire safety. We watched a very important video which taught us to STOP, DROP and ROLL if fire gets on our clothes as well as practicing CRAWLING LOW UNDER SMOKE.
It's been a fun and busy October and now we're looking ahead to November where we will discuss Remembrance Day and focus on some popular children's book authors such as Lio Lionni.
If at anytime you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to us.
A note from 403 Treehouse Room Permjit, Stephanie and Gabi
Well! It seems a long way from September when we started school, but we have really begun to settle in and enjoy our time with friends old and new. On-going are the rules of the classroom "No One Gets Hurt" and talk about how to get along with all our friends and that we all have different needs, ways of doing things and have the right to be respected. These rules are on-going throughout the year and afford lots of opportunity for timely discussion when required.
Thanksgiving was busy. The children made paper bag turkeys and read the story Thanks for Thanksgiving and we asked the children what things they were thankful for. The children made applesauce and they had fun cutting the apples and then some of us enjoyed eating it while others just did not like the taste and some were not too sure about it at all! It was fun to see all the facial expressions when it came to tasting! We watched a video to learn all about Johnny Appleseed.Turkeys and Apples were everywhere!
Thanksgiving was busy. The children made paper bag turkeys and read the story Thanks for Thanksgiving and we asked the children what things they were thankful for. The children made applesauce and they had fun cutting the apples and then some of us enjoyed eating it while others just did not like the taste and some were not too sure about it at all! It was fun to see all the facial expressions when it came to tasting! We watched a video to learn all about Johnny Appleseed.Turkeys and Apples were everywhere!
Next we began our preparation for our Spooky Halloween. Witches flying on their broomsticks, ghosts floating around and scary spiders sitting quietly on their spider webs!These were just a few of the spooky activities we did. We read lots of fun Halloween stories and had felt board guessing games and felt stories. We talked about what was real and pretend. Children had so much fun and excitement about what they were going to be dressed up as. We talked about the rules of being safe when trick or treating and before we knew it, it was Halloween party time! Everyone enjoyed the bubbling cauldron, especially when the lights were dimmed it was so awesome, the children just kept asking us to keep it bubbling! We watched Franklin and his Halloween adventure on video after our party.
Thank you so much to all the parents who bought in yummy treats for the party. We all enjoyed them very much!
Please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing for preschool, as we will go out to play when it is not raining.
Please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing for preschool, as we will go out to play when it is not raining.
Dates to remember:
Wednesday November 20: Pizza Night, Cake Walk, Cake Auction and Scholastic Book Fair: 5:30-730pm in the gym!
Thursday and Friday November 21/22: Scholastic Book Fair in the gym.
Monday November 25: Final Day to submit December Scholastic Orders.
Wednesday November 27: Last day to order Purdy's Chocolate.
Please remember to visit www.stelladot.com and www.GooseandMoose.ca for great Christmas gift ideas and to help fund-raise for our preschool.
For questions or general information please see Jen, Tina or Marion in the office or contact us:
Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
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