February 2017

FABULOUS FEBRUARY!!

Here we are! We managed to dig our way out of all that snow without too much trouble. Now we need to get out our rubber boots for the rain that should be coming our way next!! And something else to look forward to...

UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER

FEB. 28 - CHURCH PANCAKE SUPPER

MAR 10 - 4'S SKATING PARTY 

MAR. 13-17 - SPRING BREAK - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

APR. 14 - GOOD FRIDAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
APR. 17 - EASTER MONDAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
APR. 20/21 - EASTER SERVICES

PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR CURRENT FUNDRAISERS! All fundraising this year will be going to upgrade our Play Yard!!!

Epicure - Healthy cooking products. Purchase items from SallyCullen@live.com. Mention St. Catherine's Preschool

Cobs Bakery - Edgemont Blvd. store. Mention St. Catherine's Preschool when they ring you up.

Lovable Labels - Labels & Tags. Mention you support St. Catherine's Preschool and we will get some of the profits.

Scholastic Canada - Monthly Book orders get us free books & learning materials for our classrooms.

LOOKING FOR PARENT BOARD MEMBERS!!

We are still looking for more parent members to sit on St. Catherine's Childcare Society's Board. We are a non-profit society and to keep this status we must meet all the conditions needed. Currently we have two parent members but we would like to have at least one more and we are looking specifically for someone who would like to take on the task of being the Board Secretary. Please contact the office or let your teacher know you may be interested!! 

AND THIS IS WHAT WE DID LAST MONTH IN THE CLASSROOMS:

DISCOVERY TWOS

Well January was certainly a great way to talk about Winter.  With so much snow, it was easy for them to visualize how cold it can get.

We talked about what animals you see in winter…Polar Bears, Penguins, Beluga whales, Deer, Wolves and Snow Owls. Some of us even made our own snow owls using paper plates, glue and feathers.

We also painted snowmen and made our own snowflakes…of course no two were alike.

Have you ever painted with coloured ice? Some of us did! Simply put water and tempera watercolour in an ice-cube tray with a Popsicle stick for a handle. Once they are frozen children can use them to paint a picture. 

We decorated our own Snow Hats and Mittens too to complete our winter theme.

Circle time was filled with the stories, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You See? In the Snow, Under My Hat, 10 Snow Flakes and Hiding Snowflakes Behind Coloured Houses.  We also learned some Yoga poses and sang some Winter Action songs. We listened to Felt stories about snowmen, penguins, polar bears and lost mittens. We hope your children enjoyed our theme.

Here we come February! Love, friendship, feelings and all things Valentines!

Just a few housekeeping reminders…the children are now turning 3 and should be starting their road to independence.  This includes toilet training, walking down the stairs themselves, putting their snacks in the baskets and hanging up their coats.  This will help a lot for when they go into the 3’s in September.

If you are starting toilet training, please let us know as consistency is the KEY.

Any questions please see Arsi, Danielle, Stephanie, Susan or Vibha.

301

Hello everyone. Welcome back and a happy new year to you all.  The children seem well rested and ready to be back at preschool after the Christmas holidays.

January has been a great month for talking about our winter theme, as we had actual snow and lots of it. The children were excited to relate to our activities and circle times, and that they too had made snowmen and played in the snow.

We finished off the month with celebrating Chinese’s new years. The children enjoyed learning new rhymes about dragons.

The children are starting to form friendships in the class and seek out their special friends. It is a joy to watch them grow and develop in this area.

The children have adapted well to the classroom routine for the most part. They need fewer reminders to listen at circle time and when we line up to go outside or to music. We are always continuing to work on taking turns and using words to express feelings but are also seeing improvements in this area.

Hopefully with the snow all gone we will be able to spend more time outside. Although the children have been enjoying their gym time.

Estelle and Gabi

302

Greetings St. Catherine's blog readers. Thanks for checking in, 

Gabi and I would like to say a big thank you to you for the gifts we received. We hope you had a great Christmas break.

We started off the New Year with the children entering a winter wonderland decorated with snowflakes, snowmen, polar bears and penguins.

We talked about seasonal changes, having to do with animals hibernating and how they adapt. 

The children enjoyed the gym with our bikes, scooter, climber and many other interactive toys. As you all know it was cold and there was lots of snow on the ground.

We celebrated Chinese New Year by making an 'everything red' collage and fans. We also had many things around the class pertaining to Chinese New Year.

Next up Valentines Day... too be continued.

Gabi and Karen

304

Happy new year! Hope everyone had a nice winter break with their family and friends. We would like to thank everyone for the kind words and lovely gifts during the holiday season. They were greatly appreciated. 

To start off the year we thought it would be a great idea to talk about winter, especially because there was snow all around us! For art we made penguins, snowflakes, polar bears, mittens, and did some ice cube painting. We even brought snow from outside into the classroom to explore. 

Then we spent a week talking about Chinese New Year. At circle we talked about the traditions that occur during this time. For art we made red paper lanterns and painted dragons. At the end of the week we received lucky red envelopes. 

The children are all coming together as a group and playing together. It is nice to see some of the conversations going on in their play with each other. We are also  starting to put out more challenging puzzles and toys to expand their play. 

For the next month we will be talking about Valentine's Day, friendship, and feelings. 

Stephanie and Gabi 

401

Happy New Year to all of our 401 families!

January was a month full of winter activities and space exploration!

We learned about the solar system within a three week period. We completed puffy painting of the moon, built our own solar system that hung from a clothing hanger and created a rocket ship that could blast into space. The children really enjoyed learning about each planet. Many discussions at circle consisted of questions like...."what planet is that?" "How big is Jupiter?" And "Is Pluto a planet?" Each of these questions sparked the children's excitement for learning. We as teachers look forward to our next in depth exploration within the classroom.

Along with learning about space we took some time to focus on the snowy winter weather. The snow was a common occurrence in January so we took full advantage! We brought snow in to the classroom. The children were able to touch, smell and maybe even taste ;) the snow in the water table. Along with getting to know the winter weather better we had tons of fun doing arts and crafts that centered around winter.

We hope you enjoyed reading up about our first month of 2017 in the 401 classroom!

Stephanie and Susan 

402
Happy 2017! We hope everyone had a great holiday season! We would like to thank all
our families for their thoughtful gifts and well wishes.
We were very excited to see the children back and ready to start the new year. Our
winter has definitely been a cold one and so we started by tracing, cutting, and
decorating snowmen. It was fun to see all the different results of the children’s hard
work. We also talked a little about what we wear and the how the climate changes
during winter.
Our next topic was Space! This was a two week process since there was so
much to learn and take in. We introduced our solar system to the class on our first week
and talked about the Milky Way. We talked about each planet and how we live on Earth.
The children were very quick to pick up the names of each planet and some of their
characteristics. For art, the children made a solar system by gluing the planets in order
from the closest to the sun to the farthest. We also talked about the moon and we
learned how some planets have more than one moon. For this art, children traced the
shape of a circle and also painted moon. They then used various size lids to make the
craters of the moon. They turned out great! Our next adventure into space was building
our own model of a surface of a planet. We began this project by gluing different shapes
of wood pieces onto a wooden board. The children got creative! The next step was
using plaster of Paris to cover the wooden pieces. We rolled up our sleeves and
covered our surface. The last step was painting our surface with a grey color. Once it
dried, the project looked amazing! We set it out for the children to use with the
astronauts and rocket ships! In between all the hard work, the class also traced the
shape of Mars and decorated it with red crepe paper and cellophane! They all knew
Mars is also called the red planet.
Our last week of space, we talked about rocket ships and astronauts. We
discussed a little about the Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield and also what it takes to
become an astronaut. For a fun art, the children had to find the letter of their names and
construct the shape of a rocket ship from top to bottom. It was a little tricky but with
some help from the teachers, they all made their rocket ships. Our next art about
astronauts was to put together the suit of an astronaut in order and glue the picture of
their heads into the space helmet. It was a funny experience as the children made
themselves into astronauts! We had a fun and giggly time! We couldn’t wrap up space
without baking! The children all helped in making “Earth” muffins! We poured, stirred,
and baked! The surprise when biting the muffin was the green and blue colors of the
earth colors in the muffin! Yum!
Gung hay fat choy! May you prosper! We welcomed Chinese New Year at the
end of January! We learned that it’s the year of the Rooster and we also talked about
many interesting traditions in the preparation of the festivals for families. The children
cut and decorated their own Chinese lanterns and even tried to write Chinese
characters using black paint and a fine tipped brush. Our class was also excited to make
their own veggie dumplings. Most who tried did like them!
As we move forward in the coming months, we will be looking at kindergarten
readiness. This is an important time in the children’s lives to learn to become more
independent which in turn promotes self-confidence. We will be practicing putting on
and taking off our own jackets and also zipping up and down our jacket zippers. We
also will be focusing on identifying the letters in their names and also printing their
names. Moreover, we have been letting the children pour their own water into their cups
to practice fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. This also helps with opening
their own containers at snack and lunch time.
We will also be talking about Valentine’s Day and how it’s important to be caring,
loving, and empathetic in the next few weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask your teachers.

403

Hello parents. Welcome back. January has been a great month to do our winter theme, with all the snow we had. We finished off the month with Chinese New Year and had fun learning about the traditions and stories around this holiday.

Over the next few weeks we will be working on our kindergarten readiness checklist. We will be looking at five main areas; fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social skills, academic skills and personal information skills. Here are a couple of examples from each area:

--For fine motor skills we will look at pencil grip and using scissors. 

--For gross motor skills we will look at walking up and down stairs and playing with a ball. 

--For social skills we will look at using words to express feelings and playing with other children. 

--For academic skill we will look at recognizing shapes and recognizing their names. 

--For personal information we will look at does your child know their first and last name and how old they are.

This way we can work individually with each child and as a group to help and practice the skills to prepare them for kindergarten.

Some things you can do at home or may already be doing: 

--Provide your child with drawing materials and scissors to do arts and crafts. 

--Teach your child their full name, your first names and their address and their phone number. 

--Play ball with your child with catching, bouncing and kicking. 

--Encourage your child to help out at home and take care of their own things; such as setting the table, putting their backpacks away and putting their clothes in the hamper etc.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to talk to Estelle or Stephanie.

RESOURCE OFFICE

Wishing you and your families all the best for 2017.  Thank you for your lovely gifts, cards and well wishes.  All the children seem older after the Christmas Break and are ready to learn new skills.  

--The 2s will be learning about sharing and interacting with their peers.  

--The 3s are developing their listening skills, especially at circle time.  They are becoming more focused on interacting with peers during play time.  

--The 4s will have lots of opportunities to develop their kindergarten readiness skills.   They will be working on becoming more independent.  Allowing your child some extra time to dress themselves and follow directions is very helpful.  Some things that are helpful for school readiness are:

• Emotional Development – a strong sense of trust, security, confidence and self-esteem – is the foundation for learning and growing. 
• Social Competence – making friends, sharing, turn taking, cooperation – is identified in all research as a critical factor for school success.
• Language Development – Vocabulary building, rhyming, oral communication, listening – is identified in all research as a prerequisite for academic success.

If you have any questions or concerns please speak to the teachers or drop by the office.  I am always available to spend some time in the classrooms.   Marion