Over the past month and a half the children and staff have been so busy preparing for our Christmas Services and I'm sure you will all agree that they turned out absolutely beautifully! Seeing all the children standing up there smiling, singing, saying their lines and looking so proud of themselves is a very special part of the year for all the staff and worth every minute of practice time!
Now we are in our final week of preschool before we break for Christmas and there is so much excitement in the air! We have parties happening in all the classes and lots of cookie decorating, Christmas art, stories and talk of Santa! There is no better place to work than preschool at Christmas time; it's just so much fun!
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Christmas hamper for our Sponsored Family. We were able to go above and beyond for a family who is struggling this Christmas. We ended up being able to purchase not only the $250 gift card from Real Canadian Superstore, but also a $150 gift card for Walmart as well as warm jackets for both dad and the little boy and of course we also have all the beautiful toys, clothing and food donated by you, our wonderful families! This hamper will be an incredible gift to receive this Christmas, thanks to you!
This month we purchased some new items for our classrooms with our fundraising money. We have a beautiful teaching kit for the Jan Brett book "The Mitten" with the book, floor puzzle, teaching guide, a mitten with plush animals to tell the story and poster boards with pieces for telling the story at circle time! It is so important to tell a story in many different ways so that children get a chance to absorb the information from the story in a variety of ways. We also bought a new colour sorting set with fruits and veggies and cute little baskets to sort them into! You can never have too many ways to sort and sequence when you are a preschooler!
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Christmas hamper for our Sponsored Family. We were able to go above and beyond for a family who is struggling this Christmas. We ended up being able to purchase not only the $250 gift card from Real Canadian Superstore, but also a $150 gift card for Walmart as well as warm jackets for both dad and the little boy and of course we also have all the beautiful toys, clothing and food donated by you, our wonderful families! This hamper will be an incredible gift to receive this Christmas, thanks to you!
This month we purchased some new items for our classrooms with our fundraising money. We have a beautiful teaching kit for the Jan Brett book "The Mitten" with the book, floor puzzle, teaching guide, a mitten with plush animals to tell the story and poster boards with pieces for telling the story at circle time! It is so important to tell a story in many different ways so that children get a chance to absorb the information from the story in a variety of ways. We also bought a new colour sorting set with fruits and veggies and cute little baskets to sort them into! You can never have too many ways to sort and sequence when you are a preschooler!
On behalf of all the staff of St. Catherine's Preschool we wish each of our families a peaceful, happy Christmas, filled with love, laughter and lots of cuddles with your precious children. We will see you back at preschool on January 6th.
A note from Marion Developmental Resource Teacher
What a magical time of year! I feel especially blessed at Christmas time to be surrounded by children every day. I wanted to take a moment to share a family tradition that Jim and I continue with our boys each year even though they are now aged 30, 29, and 27. Every Christmas Eve we give them a new pair of PJ's. This year we had to send our youngest off to Australia with his, and then a pair for each of the boys in Winnipeg, and let's not forget the girlfriends! They grow up so fast so take the time to enjoy these special moments and remember to pass on those family traditions.
I was so proud of all the children in the Services and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2014.
A note from Cheryl Creative Music Teacher
Thank you to everyone for all their hard work over the past weeks as we prepared for the Christmas Services. The Services are very dear to my heart and seeing it all come together and sharing it with all the families is incredibly rewarding and a very special time for me.
I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and laughter and of course, music!
A note from the Discovery 2's Danielle, Vibha, Estelle, Stephanie and Karen
The seasons are just flying by, here we are already into December preparing and decorating for all the Christmas festivities. Last month we continued with our Fall theme as well as talking about how to get along with our classmates.
A note from Marion Developmental Resource Teacher
What a magical time of year! I feel especially blessed at Christmas time to be surrounded by children every day. I wanted to take a moment to share a family tradition that Jim and I continue with our boys each year even though they are now aged 30, 29, and 27. Every Christmas Eve we give them a new pair of PJ's. This year we had to send our youngest off to Australia with his, and then a pair for each of the boys in Winnipeg, and let's not forget the girlfriends! They grow up so fast so take the time to enjoy these special moments and remember to pass on those family traditions.I was so proud of all the children in the Services and I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2014.
A note from Cheryl Creative Music Teacher
Thank you to everyone for all their hard work over the past weeks as we prepared for the Christmas Services. The Services are very dear to my heart and seeing it all come together and sharing it with all the families is incredibly rewarding and a very special time for me.I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas filled with love and laughter and of course, music!
A note from the Discovery 2's Danielle, Vibha, Estelle, Stephanie and Karen
The seasons are just flying by, here we are already into December preparing and decorating for all the Christmas festivities. Last month we continued with our Fall theme as well as talking about how to get along with our classmates.
For art we painted with leaves, made a leaf collage, did bubble wrap painting decorated squirrels, bears and acorns. At circle time we sang songs about Fall, and did some movement songs. We played games with our names and find the mouse or acorn. These games taught us patience and how to wait for our turn, which is hard to do when you are only two or even younger! We also talked about using our words instead of our hands when we would like something especially if someone else is using it; “stop”, “my turn” and “no thank you”. We read books such as “Hands are not for hitting” to help teach this important lesson. 
Quite a few children are starting to use the toilet. If you would like us to help you in this next milestone please let us know and we would be happy to help you out. Just remember to send extra clothes and shoes.
Remember these early years go by fast. Please take the time this season to slow down and enjoy those special moments with your child. Whether it’s reading a book together, doing a puzzle, baking cookies, going for a walk or just being silly together! Merry Christmas from the 2's teachers!
A note from 301 Permjit and Gabi
It's been a very busy couple of months.
We celebrated Remembrance Day and did poppy collages and talked about freedom and peace.
We went over colours and shapes and had lots of fun
playing games which incorporated remembering and naming different ones.
Then along came December and we were very busy bees indeed! We
rehearsed for our Christmas Services as well as having fun doing lots of Christmas
activities. We made Christmas trees, Christmas surprises, gingerbread houses and people. These are just a few of our festive activities!
We talked about the real meaning of Christmas and
introduced our Nativity sets. At circle we told the story of Jesus's birth
through felt board stories.
We have to congratulate the children on their marvelous performances at the Christmas Service. They worked very hard and it really paid of.
We were in awe of them!
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing everyone in 2014.
A note from 302 Gabi Rachel and Sali
Hello everyone!
For the month of November we focused on shapes and the children created some incredible art pieces using different shapes. Next we
talked about Remembrance Day and why we wear red poppies and our art and circle were also themed around this topic.
We had lots fun at music rehearing for our Service. Our
Service was a great success. Thank you for all the participation and a big
thank you to Cheryl and Marion for motivating our class. They were all
fantastic on the night and we are so proud of them!
We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
A note from 304 Stephanie and Gabi
Wow we can't believe how quickly the days are passing by. We are doing so many exciting things at the preschool that it just seems to zoom by. This month we focused on colours and shapes. During circle time we read many stories and played games to help us recognize our shapes and colours.
Wow we can't believe how quickly the days are passing by. We are doing so many exciting things at the preschool that it just seems to zoom by. This month we focused on colours and shapes. During circle time we read many stories and played games to help us recognize our shapes and colours.
For
colours we talked about the primary colours and what happens when we
mix two of them together. The children were amazed at what happened. The
each experimented with them by choosing two colours and fingerpainting
with them to see what happens.
For
shapes we talked about the basic shapes such as squares, circles,
rectangles, and triangles. We talked about how shapes are all around us
and created art using a variety of different shapes.
We
got started on Christmas activities before November ended. The children
worked on a beautiful Christmas surprise for the parents and we did
many Christmas crafts with lots of glitter and paint! The children are
very excited about this very special day. We also wrote a group letter
to Santa! We can't wait to hear back from him.
If you have any questions or concerns please speak to one of the teachers.
A note from 401 Sali Rachel and Karen
We were lucky to have some great weather for most of
November and enjoyed many days playing outside.Toward the end of November, we started Christmas activities.
Take a look at our boards outside the classroom and you will see our display of
snowmen, collage Christmas trees and how we sponge painted the background. We
also made gingerbread men and sparkly candies for our gingerbread house board.
We wish you all a very happy and healthy holiday season and
are looking forward to a wonderful New Year with your children.
A note from 402 Arsi Stephanie Karen and Cheryl
Brr... The weather is getting colder as the days pass! We love to go outside every chance we get so please dress your children in warm jackets with mittens and toques and proper running shoes.
We spent one day talking about what Remembrance Day is and made some poppy art.Next we moved onto some of our favorite books. It was great reading the stories at circle time and bringing them to life with out artwork. There are so many different ways you can expand on one book!
We looked at two different books that were written by the same author, Leo Lionni. They were Swimmy and Frederick. For the book Swimmy we painted fish with red paint and big Lego blocks. For the book Frederick we created a mouse out of construction paper.
Next we read Mmm, Cookies! By Robert Munsch. It was such a silly story! We used that story and decided to make our own playdough cookies to take home. Then it was on to the book Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. We brought this book to life by working together as a group and painting characters from the story to put up on our bulletin board in the classroom.
Another story was The Wonderful Pigs Of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman. The children each had a chance to create their own paper pigs. The last book we focused on was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. We spent a week on this book because there was so much to do. One day we made the coconut tree and put our names on it. Then we counted how many letters we have in our name. Then we examined a coconut using our 5 senses. We passed it around during circle time so we could see what a real coconut looks and feels like. Then we shook it to see what it sounded like inside. We cracked it open and smelt it then cut it up into pieces so each child could try to see what it tasted like. We made a chart to see who liked it and who didn't. It was interesting to see the results! The last day we made our very own Chicka Chicka boom boom hats.
We are all excited now to be celebrating Christmas in our classroom! We are very proud of how well our class performed during the Service and we are sure you are too!
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers.
A note from 403 Stephanie Gabi and Permjit
We are always keeping busy in the classroom and this month we are focusing on a famous author named Robert Munsch. We focused on 3 of our favorite stories written by him. Before we talked about the stories we talked about who Robert Munsch was and how he started writing silly stories.
The first book was called Smelly Socks. The children practiced their cutting skills by cutting out a pair of socks and then painting them. Then they made their own clothes line with socks hanging from it.The second book was called Mmm, Cookies! The children made their own play dough cookies to take home. It was so interesting listening to their conversations while they were doing this. They had so many ideas about how they were going to trick their parents with their pretend cookie! The third book was called The Paper Bag Princess. We all worked together to paint a big dragon for our board in the classroom then each child made their own princess out of a paper bag.
We also spent a day talking about why we have Remembrance Day and made tissue paper poppies for art.
As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress your children in a warm jacket with toques and mittens and proper running shoes, as we will be going outside unless it is raining.
Now we are well into our celebration of Christmas and there is a lot of excitement in the air! The children's performance in the Christmas Service was fantastic and we are so proud of them! Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our families!
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers.
Dates to remember:
Wednesday December 18: 201/301/401/403 Christmas Parties.
Thursday December 19: 202/204/302/304/402 Christmas Parties.
Friday December 20: Last Day of classes before Christmas break.
December 21-January 5: Christmas break.January 6 Back to preschool.
For general information please contact Jen or Tina in the office.
Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
Facebook: St. Catherine's Childcare Society
Our theme for November was Space. We had a supersonic time
exploring the universe, learning the names and order of the planets. We also learned
how the planets move around the sun. We played active games where the children would be moons ,
planets or the sun and read lots of
books about space both fiction and non-fiction.
A couple of the children’s favourite songs were ‘Zoom, zoom,
zoom”(a movement song) and “Five little men in a flying saucer” (a
counting finger play).
For art, we made puffy paint out of shaving cream and glue to
paint astronauts. We made sparkly stars, flying saucers and earth’s where we
traced and cut out a circle, then sponge painted with blue and green.
We transformed the home corner into a spaceship, the children
were excited to use out-dated computers and phones as modern day space equipment!
We were lucky to have some great weather for most of
November and enjoyed many days playing outside.Toward the end of November, we started Christmas activities.
Take a look at our boards outside the classroom and you will see our display of
snowmen, collage Christmas trees and how we sponge painted the background. We
also made gingerbread men and sparkly candies for our gingerbread house board.
We have transformed the house corner once again, this time
into a gingerbread bakery.
The children have also been busy working on a surprise for
their families.
The children were so great at learning their songs and words
for the Christmas services and were so proud to have family members and friends
there to watch. Thank you all for coming out.
We have also been teaching the children about giving with
our Christmas hamper project and have been happily checking much needed items
off the list, thank you so much for your generous donations.
We are now looking forward to the class Christmas party on
Wednesday where we hope you will join us to share a snack and sing some festive
songs!
A note from 402 Arsi Stephanie Karen and Cheryl
Brr... The weather is getting colder as the days pass! We love to go outside every chance we get so please dress your children in warm jackets with mittens and toques and proper running shoes.
We spent one day talking about what Remembrance Day is and made some poppy art.Next we moved onto some of our favorite books. It was great reading the stories at circle time and bringing them to life with out artwork. There are so many different ways you can expand on one book!
We looked at two different books that were written by the same author, Leo Lionni. They were Swimmy and Frederick. For the book Swimmy we painted fish with red paint and big Lego blocks. For the book Frederick we created a mouse out of construction paper.
Next we read Mmm, Cookies! By Robert Munsch. It was such a silly story! We used that story and decided to make our own playdough cookies to take home. Then it was on to the book Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. We brought this book to life by working together as a group and painting characters from the story to put up on our bulletin board in the classroom.
Another story was The Wonderful Pigs Of Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman. The children each had a chance to create their own paper pigs. The last book we focused on was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. We spent a week on this book because there was so much to do. One day we made the coconut tree and put our names on it. Then we counted how many letters we have in our name. Then we examined a coconut using our 5 senses. We passed it around during circle time so we could see what a real coconut looks and feels like. Then we shook it to see what it sounded like inside. We cracked it open and smelt it then cut it up into pieces so each child could try to see what it tasted like. We made a chart to see who liked it and who didn't. It was interesting to see the results! The last day we made our very own Chicka Chicka boom boom hats. We are all excited now to be celebrating Christmas in our classroom! We are very proud of how well our class performed during the Service and we are sure you are too!
Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers.
A note from 403 Stephanie Gabi and Permjit
We are always keeping busy in the classroom and this month we are focusing on a famous author named Robert Munsch. We focused on 3 of our favorite stories written by him. Before we talked about the stories we talked about who Robert Munsch was and how he started writing silly stories.
We also spent a day talking about why we have Remembrance Day and made tissue paper poppies for art.
As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress your children in a warm jacket with toques and mittens and proper running shoes, as we will be going outside unless it is raining.
Now we are well into our celebration of Christmas and there is a lot of excitement in the air! The children's performance in the Christmas Service was fantastic and we are so proud of them! Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our families!
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers.
Dates to remember:
Wednesday December 18: 201/301/401/403 Christmas Parties.
Thursday December 19: 202/204/302/304/402 Christmas Parties.
Friday December 20: Last Day of classes before Christmas break.
December 21-January 5: Christmas break.January 6 Back to preschool.
For general information please contact Jen or Tina in the office.
Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
Facebook: St. Catherine's Childcare Society
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