Little Love Bugs... February 2016

A note from Jen McEneany - Coordinator

New Scholastic goodies!

We had a fun and very sweet February with all the classes talking about kindness, friendship and family in celebration of Valentine's day. We also enjoyed learning about and celebrating Chinese New Year. With March upon us, we will be taking one week for Spring Break and then the following week we have a 4 day weekend with Easter falling early this year. Please make sure to note down the date and time for your child's Easter Service which will be held during regular preschool hours with a lovely tea happening up in the gym afterwards.

Important upcoming dates:

Fri Mar 11 - 4's Skating Party 1:30-2:30pm Karen Magnussen Rec Centre.
M-F Mar 14-18 - Spring Break - PRESCHOOL CLOSED.
Fri Mar 25 - Good Friday - PRESCHOOL CLOSED.
Mon Mar 28 - Easter Monday - PRESCHOOL CLOSED.
Thurs Mar 31 - Messy Church 5-6:30pm.
Thurs Apr 7 - Easter Services - Classes 302/402 10:30am.
Fri Apr 8 - Easter Services Class 301/401 10:30am and 304/403 1:45pm.
Fri Apr 15 - Staff Professional Development Day - PRESCHOOL CLOSED.
M-F Apr 18-22 - Jeans Week.
Tues Apr 19 - Sportball - Classes 302/304.
Wed Apr 20 - Summer Program Registration.
Fri Apr 22 - Sportball - Classes 301/401/402/403
Wed Apr 27 - Parent Education Evening - Master The Maze - 7-9pm.
Thurs Apr 28 - Messy Church 5-6:30pm.

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" and take a moment to rate our preschool. Thank you!

A note from The Discovery 2s - Arsi, Susan, Vibha, Danielle, Sali, Karen, Stephanie

Valentine fun!

The month of February was a great month for the children and teachers in the Discovery 2's Program. We focused on friends and friendship then celebrated two exciting holidays - Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. For Chinese New Year we painted on black paper with golden, red and yellow paint. The children each used chop sticks to paint which was an interesting new way of painting. The Rainbow room home corner was transformed into a bakery of love and hearts galore! The children baked, cooked and decorated our play cookies, cupcakes and donuts.

Little Love Bugs!

The Children's artwork was displayed on the walls to decorate and make the classroom festive. A Valentine's party was held in our classroom and as always was a great success! We enjoyed all of the yummy food and were very comfortable in our pajamas! Some of the art that we displayed on the walls was stamping with cookie cutters to make Valentine's decorations as well as other artwork.

The children in this class are all doing so well socially, creatively and building on their independence each day. The teachers have noticed such positive growth in each of the children's abilities and can't wait to explore and learn more as the year continues. Spring is approaching and we are all looking forward to learning about  flowers, Easter and baby animals in the coming weeks. 

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

Hello Everyone!

February was a busy month. We celebrated Chinese New Year and Valentine’s day. We also talked about friendship and feelings, and then moved on to shapes and colours.

At circle time we played group games, name games and had fun learning the shapes and colours in French and English. We talked about how all types of feelings are OK such as anger, sadness, happiness and feeling scared. The children are also learning how to express their feelings in a positive way and about the need for personal space. We teach this by talking about how everyone has a bubble around themselves and it is OK to say "You are in my bubble, I need more space" etc. This is especially helpful at circle time, and the children are getting quite good at expressing themselves verbally rather than physically.

Another big hit at circle was “Pete the cat” which was read in book form and acted out with felt pieces.

The children then got to make their own Pete the cat at art time!

We said goodbye to Sara as she has moved to Coquitlam and welcome to our class a new friend, Toby!

The children are beginning to learn their songs for the Easter service. They  can’t wait to put on a great show for their families.

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

The class of 302 had a very exciting February. Some of the highlights that took place within the month was celebrating  Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. For Chinese New Year we displayed chop sticks, Chinese banners, lanterns and red envelopes. Each of these items allowed the children to create their own play and explore a new culture. 

Valentine's week was a great success and the children were so engaged in celebrating this fun holiday. Within the home corner the importance of love and care was emphasized with its transformation into a veterinary office. The class took care of the sick animals with such love and kindness. This creative play warmed the hearts of all of us at the preschool. Now that spring is on its way we have already started discussing Easter and the class has started practicing for the Easter services! We can't wait to perform for you all, and begin to enjoy the season of spring.

A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 304 - Stephanie, Gabi, Sousan

Lots of hearts filled the classroom this month. We made collage hearts with glitter and sequins, decorated diffusing paper hearts with watercolour, and decorated our Valentine bags with lots of little hearts. At circle we talked about friendship and feelings.

We also, spent one day talking about Chinese New Year. We talked about the different traditions that happen for this special day. We looked at the Chinese calendar and learned about how a different animal represents each year and that this was the year of the monkey and for art we decorated red paper lanterns.

Next we moved on to talking about transportation. We talked about all things that take us from one place to another place. We spent each day talking about a different type of transportation and then creating it at the art table. We used cars in paint to make tracks on a paper, made rocket-ships, boats, and paper airplanes. The children had a lot of fun flying the planes in the classroom once they were done!

For the month of March we will be talking about spring and Easter. 

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

The month of February brought with it Valentine’s day. We talked about friendship, kindness and of course... Hearts! The children decorated bags for their friends to place Valentine cards in and learned about giving and receiving while handing out the cards. The children folded paper and cut out half a heart shape then saw how it unfolded into a heart, then they decorated it.The children very much enjoyed their Valentine’s Day party. It was wonderful to see the children dressed in their formal wear. We decorated the classroom as a fancy restaurant. The children had their own menus and enjoyed choosing their snacks.

Sense of touch!

After Valentine’s day we discovered the five senses. For the sense of sight, we planted grass and watched it grow, for touch we made collages out of different textures, for hearing, we played sound games , for smell we had different scents in jars and the children enjoyed tasting many different foods: salty, sweet, bitter and sour!

We have set up a listening centre in the classroom where the children can listen to an audio book or play a sound game with a friend.

We have started our Kindergarten Readiness program which is usually on Mondays. The children work in small groups to develop skills such as letter and number recognition, how to write their name and sequencing and sorting activities.

We are looking forward to seeing you all at the Skating party on Friday March 11th.

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

February has been a busy month as we have continued with our Kindergarten Readiness.

I is for Iguana!

We started with celebrating Chinese New Year and we discovered that it was the year of the Monkey. We learnt how to say 'Gung Hey Fat Choy' and that 'Nihao' means 'Hello' in Chinese. We went on a "red walk" and danced with streamers to Chinese Music. We practiced our fine motor skills by cutting and painting our own lanterns and learning how to write Chinese characters. Next we watched a video about Chinese New Year, in which we learnt some Chinese words and new types of food. We also listened to the story “Goldy Luck and the 3 Panda's”.

For Valentine's Day we had a lovely Red/Pink & White themed party with yummy food supplied by our parents and some lovely Valentine's Day notes for friends. We reminded everyone how to 'love' our families and friends and to continue to fill everyone's buckets. We talked about what we love and for art we cut out our names to make a 'Heart Shaped Name Puzzle'. We also made a lovely Valentine's collage.

We then moved into exploring our ABC's.We are learning what words start with each letter, how they sound, the shape of them, how to write them and encouraging them to think of their own words for the “Letter of the Day'. We have done this by introducing the 'Alphabet Box'. We now explore a letter at home and share it with their friends the next day in class. We are having a lot of fun with tracing, cutting and decorating apples, painting balloons, baking cupcakes and turning D's into ducks, E's into elephants and making paper plate foxes (Thanks Nicole, Wyatt's mum).  

In the next few weeks we are discussing spring and Easter. We will continue to work on the Alphabet and start our journey into our journals.

Just a little reminder that we are here for 4 hours, so it is better to pack more food than not. They can always take it home to snack on later! Also please continue to send extra clothing as there are some very enthusiastic painters and children who enjoy water play. With the cold weather here, please remember to send warm coats and hats. Our playground is shaded and tends to be cooler earlier in the day.


If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to speak to either Danielle, Arsi or Sousan.

A note from the Treehouse Room - Class 403 - Estelle, Stepanie, Gabi, Karen, Sousan

Hello Everyone!

For the month of February, we celebrated Valentine’s day and Chinese New Year, we also talked about the five senses, our health and continued with our veterinarian theme in the home corner as it was very popular!

We talked about healthy foods and made a food chart with the different food groups.

Textured art collage.

We also made a shared fruit salad, which covered the taste sense. The children enjoyed using their sense of smell to smell some different essential oils such as lavender and tea tree oil (not so much). They liked guessing by touch what materials were in the balloons (rice and beans etc.) and making art with different textures. At circle the children enjoyed guessing the sounds with a sound CD. 

Since we have two practicum students to help us, we decided to walk to the duck pond behind the library on a Friday afternoon. The children quite enjoyed this and were excited to feed the ducks and see one of their classmate’s house along the way!

The children have started to learn their songs for the Easter service and we look forward to seeing you there.

The children will begin journaling after spring break. This is another step we do for kindergarten readiness. The children will draw a picture and then tell us what to write about their picture. They will bring home their journals at the end of the year.