Laughter and Fun - October 2015

A note from Jen - Coordinator

What a busy couple of months we have had around here! Everyone is settling in to the program very nicely, making friends and learning lots! We had so much fun over Halloween and it was so cute to see all of our little 2's in their pajamas for their parties and our 3's and 4's dressed in their costumes!

Cakes from last years cake walk!! YUMMY!

This month our 3's and 4's have had their photograph taken (we do re-takes if you were away on that day - we will let you know when that will be in the next little while). We also have pizza night TONIGHT. This is a very fun night and a great way to meet other preschool families!

Please chat with your classroom teachers, Marion, Jen or Tina if you have any questions or concerns about the program or your child's social, emotional or developmental needs, we are always here to help in any way that we can!

Important upcoming dates

Thursday, November 19th - Purdys orders due.
Thursday, November 19th - Pizza Night and Cake Walk 5:30-7:30pm.
Tuesday, November 24th - Christmas Scholastic Orders due.
Thursday, November 26th - Messy Church.
Wednesday, December 9th - Christmas Services - 6pm - 301/401 7pm - 304/403
Thursday, December 10th - Christmas Service - 6pm - 302/402
Friday, December 11th - Wine raffle draw!
Wednesday, December 16th - Christmas party - 201
Thursday, December 17th - Christmas parties - 202/302/304
Friday, December 18th - Christmas parties - 301/401/402/403
Sat Dec 19th - Sun Jan 3rd - Christmas Break.
Monday January 4th - Back to preschool.

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 Marion - Developmental Resource Teacher

It is so wonderful to walk into the classrooms and see the children engaging in play. The 2’s are learning the daily routines and are working hard at mastering new skills, like walking up and down the stairs. Each week I see improvement. The 3’s are moving from solitary play to parallel play and some even are engaging in co-operative play.  The 4’s are becoming more independent and are working on their pre-kindergarten skills. The children are learning to be responsible, caring and respectful of others.

We can help them feel good about themselves by talking to them in an encouraging, positive way. Look at your child while you are speaking to them and encourage them to look back at you. It is important to make eye contact, as facial expressions are as important as the spoken word. Use short sentences and simple words. This helps your child understand what you are saying. A young child is confused by a long explanation. Listen carefully and help your child to talk about feelings. Children learn by watching us and listening to what we say and how we say it. Take time to listen to your children and give them time to respond to your questions. It sometimes takes them a little longer to collect their thoughts and verbalize them.

A note from the Rainbow Room - 2's - Vibha, Karen, Danielle, Susan, and Sali

Our youngest members of the preschool are beginning to settle in nicely to the program and are getting more comfortable 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 still need to stay close to their primary base of support and trust. Separation anxiety can be quite strong at this stage, but often it is only the "goodbye" which is difficult. For this reason we encourage you to make your "good-bye's" 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. Toddlers feel secure in environments which are secure and familiar and for this reason you may see the same toys and equipment out for several weeks. What we do, is present these familiar toys in differing configurations, for example adding a set of wooden blocks to the cars and garage. Two's love painting, splashing in the water table, housekeeping, singing songs and dancing at circle time. Although, play tends to be more solitary they do enjoy being in each-others company and are beginning to spend more time playing side by side. We hope to be able to catch many of these special moments on our camera.

Please encourage your child to walk up and down the stairs holding on the railing when coming to and leaving preschool. Each day we will be going outside or to the gym, therefore it would be nice for the children to feel comfortable with walking up and down the stairs on their own - and it's a great way to increase those gross motor skills! Also please make sure to check your child's cubby for beautiful artwork to go home as well as checking the board outside the classroom for a synopsis of our day. We look forward to an exciting year of tremendous growth in both confidence and abilities. We hope that this first group experience will be a positive one for both you and your child.

A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 301 - Gabi and Estelle

What a great group of little people we have to work with! Gradual entry always has its challenges but we felt that overall our class was able to come together quickly and relatively easily. The children have adjusted well to preschool, they know the routines and are very cooperative at transitions.They all find their name-tags at the tables, and it took them a very short time to find their way to their cubbies. They are getting more independent day by day!

We learned everybody’s name by singing a number of name songs, and playing games at Circle Time. We learned about families and friends, while discussing feelings and manners too.

We celebrated Thanksgiving and had a discussion on what we are thankful for. We observed leaves and the changes in the environment that fall brings.

The second half of October was spent on Halloween fun projects, spooky stories, silly songs, and of course the preparation for the well anticipated first party. We had a wonderful time in our costumes, sharing some yummy food. Thank you for your thoughtful treats!

We have been discussing ways to keep our bodies healthy, and will be continuing with the theme until the last week of November. With the cold weather on the way, please dress your child appropriately, we try to spend time outside as much as possible!

A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 302 - Susan and Gabi

It is hard to believe that we have been in the classroom for over two months now! We are very lucky with some very special children and very supportive adults in their lives. Gradual entry went well, and the little ones are now nicely settled in in our daily routine.

In a short amount of time they transformed the Treehouse room with vivid, brightly coloured, happy art. In the first few weeks we got to know each other by discussing family, friends, likes and dislikes, manners and sang name songs to remember each other’s names.

Autumn came quickly; we talked about the colours of the leaves and other changes in the new season. We celebrated Thanksgiving, and the children gave us some great ideas of why we should be thankful.

Halloween is always an exciting time of the year, we practiced some silly songs and rhymes, carved a pumpkin, created some spooky art pieces, and of course the highlight of the month was to put on a costume and celebrate with a party. Thank you for the generous food/drink supply!

Marion had a Fire Safety session with the children when they learned how to stop, drop and roll as well as how to crawl low under smoke. Health and Body is the next topic we will be learning about.

A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 304 - Stephanie and Gabi

It has been a pleasure getting to know the children of this class. They have all come together so well. For the first couple of weeks of October we talked about Thanksgiving. At circle we sang some turkey songs and read books about things people were thankful for. For art we made coffee filter turkeys, leaf prints with glitter, Thanksgiving collages, and diffusing paper leaves with watercolour. 

Next we talked about a very exciting day that was coming up; Halloween! With all the decorations the children were seeing all around the community and all the songs and stories we read, they were becoming more and more enthusiastic about this day. We carved a pumpkin and made a happy face for it. For art we made splatter paint bats, paper plate spiders, jack 'o' lanterns, and puffy paint ghosts. We ended the month off with a bang at our Halloween party. We all came dressed up to school and have lots of fun playing and dancing with our friends. Thank you to all of the parents who brought the delicious snacks for our party. 

Next month we will be learning about colours and shapes. 

As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress your child in appropriate clothing as we will be going outside if it is not raining. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to one of the teachers.

A note from the Sunflower Room - Class 401 - Stephanie, Sali, Karen and Susan

What an exciting month it has been! To start things off we talked about Thanksgiving. During circle we went around and found what everyone was thankful for. It was so nice to hear all of the different ideas the children had. For art we made hand-print turkeys, watercolour diffusing paper leaves, and Lego stamping corn. One of the activities the children really enjoyed was bringing in a fruit and helping to cut it up into small pieces to put into an ice cream cone to resemble a cornucopia. It was a lot of fun to make and to eat! We also talked about who Johnny Appleseed was and why we sing his song at grace. To end things off, we made apple muffins. They were delicious! 

Next it was on to Halloween! With all the candy that was going to be around for this special day, we decided to have the dentist come in to talk to us about how we can keep our teeth healthy. We learnt a lot about what things were good and bad for our teeth and how we can keep them nice and clean. 

We did a lot of neat art activities for Halloween such as marble painting spider webs, hand-print spiders, Frankensteins, puffy paint jack o lanterns, bright bats, and Halloween collages. At circle we talked about what things we see during Halloween that are real and which things are pretend. The highlight of the month was our party day. It was so exciting seeing everyone come to school dressed up in their costumes. Thank you to all of the parents who contributed a snack for our party! 

As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress your child in appropriate clothing as we will be going outside if it is not raining. Next month we will be introducing our killer whale, Echo and focusing on the topic of sea life. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers


A note from the Sunflower Room - Class 402 - Danielle, Arsi and Sousan

What a great start to the beginning of the new preschool year. It was awesome to meet some new faces and welcome back some familiar ones. Everyone has settled in quickly. 

We spent the first few weeks getting reacquainted with each other and our number one rule – No One Gets Hurt. We read the book “Stone Soup” by Jon J Muth and learnt how to work as a team, working together. We used the vegetables from the soup (carrots, corn, celery, stones and pototoes) to make prints for our own `soup bowls`. We also spent some time talking about sharing with our friends and learning our friends names.

We explored “Me, Myself and I” and it was interesting to see how the children pictured themselves. We used pencils to make our own self portraits and then used popsticks and coloured paper to make 'My family” in our own houses. We read the stories “I like Myself" & "Families are Different”.

We introduced a 'new friend' to our classroom when we read “Franklin get's a new pet”.  We even came up with name for our classroom pet.  We made goldfish prints with bubble wrap. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, as is our 'other new friend'...We have decided to not get any more fish for the moment...

We spent a week looking at fall; how the leaves change colours, why do they change and that we have so many different types of leaves. We experimented with colours by mixing orange, red and yellow water colour onto diffusing paper. We watched it spread over the paper and change colours, just like the leaves that fall from the trees. We also used real leaves to make 'leaf prints rubs'.  As we used our hands to smooth the paint, we could feel the veins of the leaves and hear the crackle of the dry leaf. We also tried our hand at tracing, cutting and decorating our own leaf...We are very quickly using our 4 Year Old hands to learn.

Next on the agenda were Skeletons, witches, and ghosts!! Oh my! October was such a fun month!

We got right into it starting with fall, Thanksgiving, and of course Halloween!!!  We all enjoyed listening to the variety of Tom Turkey's stories of his/her disguises and talked about what we were thankful for. We even made cornmeal muffins and painted with corn on the cob.

The excitement leading to Halloween brought us to springy Witches, broomsticks, paper bowl spiders, ghosts, and much more. With each art, the children got a chance to use their fine motor skills by practicing their cutting and tracing. We ended Halloween with our fun filled party day. We danced to Halloween music and ate yummy treats. Thank you to those parents who volunteered this time!!!

In November, we will be focusing on the work of Hans Christian Anderson and also learning about Bucket Filling. We will also touched on Remembrance Day.

Just a little reminder that we are here for 4 hours, so it is better to pack more food than not. Extra food can always be taken 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, thank you!


A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 403 - Stephanie and Gabi

Time sure flies when you are having fun! There was so much going on this month that it seemed like the month was over in no time. First we started to talk about Thanksgiving. We made pine cone turkeys that said what we were thankful for. We talked about who Johnny Appleseed was and why we sing his song at grace. We also watched a video to show us how he planted Apple seeds all around and how nice of a man he was. To celebrate being thankful for the food we have, we used apples to make muffins. The children were great helpers at adding all the ingredients and taking turns with each other. 

Next it was onto Halloween. At circle we talked about things that are real versus pretend. The children knew that most things that looked scary weren't real. For art we marble painted spider webs, made handprint spiders, candy corn, made faces on pumpkin cut outs, put together our own version of Frankenstein, made mummies with masking tape, and created monsters. It was so exciting to see all of the children come dressed in their costumes on our party day. We all had so much fun that day. Thank you to all of the parents who contributed party food. 

We also had a special guest come to our school this month; it was the dentist! She came and taught us about how we can keep our teeth healthy. We learned about the good and bad things for our teeth and how we should brush our teeth so they stay clean. 

This month we will be talking about Echo, the Orca whale we adopted and we will be focusing on certain books and bringing them to life by expanding them into all areas of the classroom. 

As the weather is getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress your children in appropriate clothing as we will be going outside if it is not raining. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers.