Tuesday 3 December 2019

December 2019

      

We are at the end of 2019! One more month and then we get to head into the '20s!! But for now, we have a lot packed in to these last 3 weeks of preschool! 

Thank you to all of you who joined in our Purdy's Fundraiser this year! We far surpassed our goal of selling $1000 worth of chocolate and in fact sold over $3100!! Our preschool made a profit of $730! Wow! Amazing! Thanks for supporting the children by supporting our preschool!! We will be holding our Samosa fundraiser again in January if you missed it the last time!

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

DEC. 5 - CLASS PHOTO ORDERS DUE (3s & 4s)
DEC 11/12 - CHRISTMAS SERVICES - 6:00PM (children arrive 5:45pm)
DEC. 18/19/20 - CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS PARTIES (in class)
DEC. 20 - LAST DAY OF CLASSES BEFORE WINTER BREAK
JAN. 6 - FIRST DAY OF CLASSES AFTER WINTER BREAK
JAN. 31 - STAFF PRO D DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
FEB. 1 - CURRENT FAMILIES REGISTRATION FOR SEPT. 2020
FEB. 3 - COMMUNITY FAMILIES REGISTRATION FOR SEPT. 2020

DISCOVERY TWOS - ARSI, DANIELLE, MARJAN, VIBHA

What a busy month we had in our Discovery Two’s.  We spent time exploring our Senses through touch, sight and sound and we also learnt about the 3 Primary Colors – Blue, Red & Yellow.
While learning about ‘our senses’ at circle, we spent time listening to a Sound CD where we matched the sound to the pictures. We read stories about what different sounds that animals make and we read the book “Tails”. We sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” & “Shake it, Baby Shake it”.  We also enjoyed spending time with Tiffany, our music teacher who sang songs with instruments with us.
We had LOTS of fun exploring our senses at Art time with mixing shaving cream & powder paint with our fingers. We also painted bubble wrap and felt the bumps as we rubbed it to make prints. We then spent time feeling different textures of materials to glue on corrugated paper eg. feathers, rough & smooth paper. We also changed the playdough for colored rice and last week we experimented with cornmeal instead.
We moved onto exploring primary colors while still using our senses.   For circle we listened to the CD story “Pete the Cat and his White Shoes”. We listened to the felt rhymes 5 Umbrellas, 5 Monkeys and played a guessing game with different Color Houses. We also listened to Old Macdonald and sang ‘If you are wearing red, shake your head’. We also sang some of our favorite songs.
For Art we experimented with coconut conditioner and blue water color to see how it would feel.  We used glue, blue paint and salt to make designs onto smooth paper. We also used paper cups to make red circles.  Next we made a collage of yellow tissue & crepe paper with yellow paint…all fun & exciting things.
Just a few reminders: Please encourage your child to walk up and down the stairs at school, place their snack bag in the basket and if you are starting toilet training at home, let us know as consistency is the key…
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us,

TREEHOUSE ROOM - KAREN, SUSAN, BRITA, MARJAN, CAROL

We ended the month of October with Halloween, so we thought it would be a great time to start talking about healthy eating after all the Halloween sweets that would have been eaten. 

Thank you to all the parents that brought in their child's favourite fruit to share. For this activity each child was given a plastic knife and cut their fruit into bite size pieces  which turned into a fruit salad that we shared at snack time. 


We discussed what foods were a healthy choice and which ones were not by playing a game at circle where the children came up and put what food item they had in their hand on a happy tooth or a sad tooth. On the back board in the classroom we made a large fruit basket filled with apples, bananas, grapes, oranges and pears. At snack time we talked about what the children were eating and talked about healthy choices. 

Everyone was very happy to talk about what they were eating. In the hallway there was a board that had apples that we made from egg cartons and hung them from branches. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away". 

For Remembrance Day we made paper poppies and talked about what we were thankful for. 

Before we have our snack/lunch we also say grace to give thanks for our food and the song we sing is Johnny Appleseed. We watched a video and then talked about how important seeds are and what they provide for us. 

Our clay exploration was fun! We hope you have seen the board in the hallway with what the children discovered while rolling, molding and cutting it. We also brought in the book "Boo boo bird and the grump bird" figures to play in the clay. Shape cutters were used also which lead to a shape partner matching game. Some of the children also made clay pizzas with their favourite toppings. 

Marion came in to class and shared fire safety with the children in a video starring fireman Dan. It's a classic here at St. Catherine's. We practiced Stop, drop and roll. Also how to crawl low to the ground to stay out of the smoke. 


Christmas is just around the corner and we are getting started with our letters to Santa and our Christmas surprise that the children make to give to their parents. In just a few weeks we will also be having our Christmas Service that our music teacher Tiffany puts together for us. If you hear your child singing them it is because we will be practicing them a lot! 

Also in the month of December we will be going on a walking field trip to the library, caroling in the village and having our Christmas parties. Please keep a lookout for the food items we would like the parents to bring in and share. 

Last but not least we will be having bins for any donations you may have (non-perishable food, clothing and toys) to donate to charity. This is the time for giving after all. 


SUNFLOWER ROOM - ARSI, DANIELLE, CAROL

November has sure been a busy month! We started the month in our Pajamas while we listened to Robert Munsch’s book “Pajama Day” and talked about what we need to do before we go to bed. It was a perfect day to enjoy some delicious pumpkin pancakes that the children helped to make and taste at snack! What a fun day!

Our next topic was one that will continue throughout the school year! We read the book “Have You Filled A Bucket Today?” and “Only One You.” We talked about how bucket filling means saying and doing nice things for friends and family such as sharing or helping at home. We also learned that everyone has an invisible bucket that they carry around and throughout the day depending on what they say and do, they fill or dip into their bucket! Furthermore, we learned that bucket dipping hurts our friends and families. Bucket dippers are people who don’t share or say things that are hurtful. We decided as a class we are going to do our best to be bucket fillers and fill our classroom jar! (Once it’s full of our bucking filling hearts, the class will get a surprise....Ssshhh!) Furthermore, each child got a bucket sticker sheet to fill throughout the day as they learn to bucket fill. For art, the children decorated their own “buckets” and as a class we finger painted two big buckets for our board.

For Remembrance Day, we read a book called “A Soldier’s Puppy,” and the felt rhymes called “Five Brave Soldiers,” and “Five Colorful Poppies.” We discussed how a long time ago men and women had to go far from home to help bring peace and safety to Canada. Moreover, we talked about how we remember the brave men and women who weren’t able to come back home by wearing red poppies. For art, the children traced and decorated a poppy.

All the children were super excited when we introduced Echo. Echo is our real adopted whale that is part of pod A55. Since he’s happier swimming in the ocean, the children take turns taking Echo, our class stuffy, home for a weekend! It’s a great way for them to share their adventures with Echo with their friends at circle time. We are excited to see all your pictures, drawings, or mini stories in the coming weeks! The children made their own orca by using white paint to decorate the spots on their whale. This led to our week of sea life where we read the story “Whales Passing,” and sang “Old MacDonald had an Ocean.” We also looked at jellyfish and learned how they do not have brains and can be very dangerous to the touch. We read the book “Vincent & Spencer: the jellyfish brothers.” For art, the children used their hand-eye coordination to cut out the tentacles of their jellyfish and paint them too. It was a fun week exploring sea life!

Our last two weeks of November, we looked into the people in our community who help us out! We took a closer look at police officers, dentists, firefighters, construction workers, and mail carriers. The children were very interested and had their own stories to tell at circle. There was great discussion about what police officers do and how they help keep our communities safe. The children enjoyed the rhyme called “Five Police Officers.” For art, the children had to sequence various shapes to make a police officer. Furthermore, we looked at what the dentist does to keep our teeth clean and what we need to use to keep our teeth clean such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss. We also played a game of “Happy tooth, Sad tooth.” This was fun as the children had to decide which tooth the food item they were given went on. For art, we used real toothbrushes to “clean” the yellow teeth into white teeth. 



Our next community helper were firefighters! We also talked about the importance of their job and how they help the community in case of emergencies. We also watched the dvd with Fireman Dan. As the children watched, they learned about fire safety such as stop, drop, and roll. They also learned about staying low in case there is smoke and even practiced it under our “smoke” sheet. Fireman Dan also talked about how only adults are allowed to use matches or lighters and the importance of fire safety in a house.

 On our last week of the month, we looked at construction workers and read the book “Let’s meet a construction worker.” We learned how a blueprint is so important from an architect and how the construction foreman makes sure his workers are safe by wearing safety gear. Moreover, we all enjoyed the rhyme called “Construction Bear.” For art, the children used their cutting skills to cut out a tool belt shape and decorate it with various tools like a hammer. 
The last community helper we looked at was mail carriers. The children enjoyed telling each other what the mail carriers job is and how it helps letters and packages go to their spots. We read the books “Penguins Post” and the funny story called “Millie waits for the mail.” It was great timing as the children drew a picture to Santa to let him know what they’d like for Christmas. We also started on our very special surprises for Christmas!

We would like to thank all our parents for being so understanding on our day with no power! We were glad to see everyone again on Friday! This actually led our class to an awesome discussion at circle time about power generators and how we need electricity to give us light and heat!
In the upcoming weeks, we will be focusing on the story of the Nativity and many fun filled Christmas stories, songs, and art! We will also be practicing our songs for our Christmas concert, we will head to the library for story time and we will have our classroom Christmas party to end our year!





MUSIC - TIFFANY

Happy Holidays, families! As our Fall term comes to a close, we have had fun celebrating our hard work by playing musical chairs. We have spent most of the month rehearsing and we are excited to show you what we have prepared for the upcoming, Christmas Service. We are signing loud and proud, ringing our bells and we might even do a little drumming! Laugh along with us and sing as we celebrate the birth. Together, with joy and music!!

Our service will include traditional Christmas carols as well as some seasonal poems that have been set to music. Please encourage your children to sing loud and proud for the Christmas services. We have worked so hard!

The New Year brings opportunities to explore even more instruments and to officially meet ‘The Rhythm family’. We will learn how to read and count basic rhythms in duple time. Prepare for lots of clapping, tapping and stomping as we enter the new year with style and a sweet beat!

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Here we are heading into the busiest time of the year.  So many things to think about and do.  While shopping for toys this year remember that toys that do too much don’t allow a child to use their own imagination.  Dolls and stuffed animals that talk or sing or direct children to press certain buttons essentially take charge of the play situation when the child should be the one directing the action.  The best toys are often the simplest ones – like Lego blocks – because they allow children to be creative and spontaneous.  When my boys were little I learnt that having too many toys out at one time made it harder for them to focus on any one of them.  I would rotate their toys from time to time and found that they were so excited to see the old toys come out.  The same toy can also carry a child through many different developmental stages, so don’t be in a rush to replace old toys with new ones.  Children enjoy toys that they can master and that are right for their particular stage of development.  Preschoolers learn a lot about socialization and do a lot of pretend play.  Miniature farm and house sets allow them to exercise their imagination, while large crayons, finger paints and Play-Doh help develop creativity.

Children also make huge gains in both fine and gross motor skills throughout this period, so puzzles, Lego, and other construction toys are perfect age appropriate toys.  Toys that require physical testing are best for two-year-old as well as those that help them with their language and social skills.  Playing pretend also allows them to get a sense of the real world.  It is important to buy toys that involve brain activity and hand or muscle movements.  Allowing preschoolers to participate in crafting with scissors and crayons, playing outside and memory building is ideal.  Toys are more than playthings, though, and while they should be fun, they should also be age-appropriate, stimulating and safe.

Tiffany, the teachers and the children are practicing every week for the Christmas Services.  This year we have decided to do a Christmas Clothing/Toy and Food drive.  Please drop off donations in your classrooms or bring them to the Services and St. Nicholas will be there to greet you and your family.
Wishing you and your family and Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

Monday 4 November 2019

November 2019




NO green grass.
NO blue sky.
NO bare feet going by.
NO birds.
NO bees.
NO leaves on trees.
NO wonder they call it NOvember!!


HAPPY NOVEMBER!

We are zipping through Autumn pretty quickly! November is a very busy month with Fundraisers and Preschool get-togethers!
Please check your emails for notices that have been sent out and please, check your child's bulletin boards daily for new notices. We don't want you missing all the due dates coming up!!
Please check out what went on in the classrooms last month: read the blogs below!

Important Dates

NOV 1 - PURDY'S CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER BEGINS
NOV 6 - SCHOLASTIC ORDERS DUE
NOV 7/8 - PHOTO DAYS (3s & 4s)
NOV 11 - REMEMBRANCE DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
NOV 20 - PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK - 5:30PM
NOV 24 - CHURCH FAMILY NIGHT - 5-6:30PM
NOV 26 - PURDY'S ORDERS DUE
DEC 11/12 - CHRISTMAS SERVICES (3s & 4s)
DEC 18/19/20 - CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS PARTIES
DEC 20 - LAST DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS BREAK
JAN 6 - FIRST DAY BACK TO CLASSES
JAN 31 - STAFF PRO D DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED


Discovery Twos - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan, Vibha

Welcome to the Rainbow Room blog and thanks for your time for reading this blog to get an idea of the activities and other things that we do in the class.

We started this month with "The Leaves are Falling on the Ground" song during circle time with lots of colourful scarf dancing. Such a beautiful dance it was. We decorated the class with prints of leaves which was one of our art projects. The first Fall holiday was Thanksgiving and we made a beautiful painting with feathers. The children enjoyed using feathers as paintbrushes. After that, we went through the pumpkin carving fun for Halloween. The children used their senses to touch, smell and discover seeds and other stuff inside the pumpkin. 

We continued Halloween with decorating the room with lots of beautiful hanging materials, which then became prettier with more of the children's artwork. They made a ghost with shaving cream and used their fingers and hands for painting them. Also, the children made bats and pumpkins and we used blocks for painting pumpkins. During Circle Time, we read "Whooooo' s That?", a lift-the flap pumpkin fun book, and also "Halloween Treats", a touch and feel book.

We would like to thank all the parents who helped us for the Halloween parties. Our parties will always be prettier and more fun with your help and efforts. 

As usual, please come and talk to us if you have any comments or concerns. Thanks again for your time reading this blog.


Treehouse Classroom - Karen, Susan, Brita, Marjan, Carol


Welcome to the Treehouse room blog. Thank you for taking the time to read and review our class highlights, activities and messages from teachers.

The month of October got off to a beautiful start. The classroom was decorated with red, yellow, orange and brown Fall art and leaves. Here in the Treehouse room we love celebrating each season and holiday with decorations. The children’s Fall leaves were displayed throughout the class. The first Fall holiday was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving brings art such as a hand print turkeys, books such as “There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Turkey” and cooking apple sauce with fresh apples. Thank you to all of the children and parents who brought in a peeled apple for our activity.

Before the hype of Halloween hit, the Treehouse room teachers decided to make a fun day out of “crazy hair day”. The children came with some very creative hairstyles, us teachers joined in on the fun too. Throughout the year we will partake in fun and creative days that takes all of us out of the typical daily routine. We will keep you posted on our next special event via email.

We moved from Thanksgiving to Halloween seamlessly. Halloween is an exciting and lively celebration for the children in the Treehouse room. We began Halloween art with a pumpkin patch at the back of our classroom. Take a look at the “puffy paint” pumpkins. Skeletons were made with Q-tips and are also displayed on our school walls. This specific art work allowed the children to openly create a skeleton as well as follow the teacher’s directions. We all enjoy the energy of Halloween however we don’t want the classroom to become too “scary” or “spooky”. We thank the parents for following our costume rules on the day of our class party and celebrations.
Over the last month we have been able to take walking excursions during our afternoon class. We are lucky to be located close to Edgemont Village as well as calm roads to take a stroll. The lovely Fall weather has allowed us to walk through our preschool neighbourhood to pick leaves and acknowledge the changing colours. We were lucky enough to have a fun village visit this month. The students and teachers ventured over to Edgemont Village to have a hot chocolate at Delaney's, pick a small pumpkin from Columbus farm market and collect stickers from BC playthings and the firefighters. This walkabout was very fun for us all!
Elmer the Safety Elephant joined us for a morning lesson this month. The children enjoyed listening to him and his friend “Ruff” talk about the importance of road safety. Elmer highlights safe crossings when on the road, wearing a helmet and the different traffic light signals. At St. Catherine’s Preschool we feel learning road safety is imperative to our students, especially now that we are venturing into the neighbourhood for walks.
Team Clarke dropped off pumpkins at the preschool for our Halloween festivities. We would like to thank Team Clarke Real Estate for their generous contribution. 

To end the blog post, us Treehouse room teachers would like to take the time to go over a couple housekeeping notes. First off, with many children staying all day, it is important to pack a generous amount of food/snacks. We are finding many of the children are running out of food at last snack. Please come and chat with us if you have any questions. Secondly, we would like to thank all of the parents who contributed to our Halloween parties. The parties would not be possible without your help. The children always love party days and eating yummy food.


Thank you for taking the time to read the blog and we hope you check back here next month! 


Sunflower Classroom - Arsi, Danielle, Carol

It is hard to believe we have only been at school for 2 months…We have been so busy doing so many things.
For the Month of October, we started with Thanksgiving and what we are Thankful for.  It was lots of fun to hear each child show and share their ‘Tom Turkey” they made with their families. There were some very interesting places the Turkey got to hide in.  We listened to the Story about ‘The Little Old Lady who swallowed a Turkey’ & sang 5 Little Turkeys.  We listened to a Felt story about Harvest Time and talked about what we were Thankful for. We also played ‘pin’ the feather on the Turkey.  We painted with corn, carrots potatoes & peppers and decorated Turkey’s.

We then moved onto Fall…and talked about all the beautiful colours we could see on the trees and on the ground. We listened to the story about why the leaves change colour.  We listened to a Felt story about a Scarecrow and sang 5 Black Crows and listened to the story ‘Going on a Leaf Hunt’. We played games where we matched different colour leaves or had to guess which leaves were missing. For art we made prints with real leaves and used diffusing paper and water colour and watched the colours red & yellow merge together to make orange. We also turned our home corner into a pumpkin patch and collected our own ‘pumpkins’.
Of course it was now time for Halloween…We talked about how we make pumpkins into Jack o Lanterns and we listened to the story about the Pumpkin who didn’t want to be orange. We put our muscles to work and cut out and decorated our own pumpkins. ‘We listened to the story “There was an old Lady who swallowed a Bat’ and ‘Room on a Broom’. We played games with our 5 Witches and sung “The Spooky Hokey Pokey’. We laughed when we heard about the Skeleton with the Hiccups and we also discovered a skeleton in our water table.  We used Q-tips to make our own skeleton body and work out how many ribs we needed.  We decorated Bats and glued our own Witches together. We also had the opportunity to meet Elmer the Safety Elephant. On our last day of the week we come to school in PJ’s and made Pumpkin Pancakes…Yummy…Thanks to all the families who brought our yummy party food…it was enjoyed by all!!

Just a reminder that it is getting chilly outside and we do play outside if it is not raining so please pack a warm jacket.  Any questions, please feel free to ask us.  


Music Program - Tiffany


Image result for halloween stompCongratulations on a successful October, filled with many tricks, musical treats and spooky surprises! In October, we danced to the ‘Halloween Stomp’ and sang like witches, ghosts and werewolves! We also used shakers to get to know our body parts by, ‘Shaking our Skeleton Bones’. One of our biggest achievements from October is learning the difference between ‘forte’ which is to sing or play loudly and ‘piano’ which is to sing or play quietly.

Image result for forte and pianoThe children are singing loud and proud with confidence and careful musical intention. As we continue to build our vocal technique, we have also become more comfortable with the listening portion of creative music. We are enhancing our ability to recognize different types of instruments by listening and then guessing which one we are listening to. The music wall is a great tool for instrument identification.

Image result for keyboard familyIn October, we covered the instruments in the Keyboard family and this month we are focusing on the string family. We enjoy listening to the instruments on the music wall and we love to pretend we are playing; Just like the real thing!


November brings excitement for the holidays as we prepare for our annual Christmas Service. We will continue to experiment with various instruments that resonate, such as the triangle and the hand bells. Our voices resonate too! Stay tuned, as we add even more vocal texture to our toolbox, by learning to sing ‘legato’ and ‘staccato’. Our upcoming Christmas Service is just around the corner and we can’t wait to showcase all that we have learned. WE LOVE TO SING!

Resource Office - Marion

I hope everyone had a good October.  I was away in Australia visiting my youngest son, Derek and his wife Gemma. They are expecting their first baby in March.  We had a great holiday, but it is nice to be back home and see all the children and staff.  I have been at St. Catherine’s for 22 years and it is a very big part of my life.  It was so nice to see all the wonderful bulletin boards with all the amazing art projects.  I thought I would start this blog by describing two of our classroom activities and what they bring to your child’s development. 

DRAMATIC PLAY: We are:
  • We are sharing, taking turns and cooperating
  • Making sense of our world
  • Speaking and listening
  • Problem solving
  • Role playing
  • Expressing our ideas
  • Making connections to our world
  • Imagining and creating
  • Understanding feelings.
ART ACTIVITIES: We are:
  • Creating
  • Expressing ourselves
  • Exploring a variety of media and textures
  • Building self esteem
  • Experimenting with colour, line and shape
  • Using the language of artists
  • Taking risks
  • Using big and small muscles

If you have any questions or concerns about your child please speak to the teachers and/or drop by the office.