February 2020

Okay! We have just made it through another month of winter and we are hoping we have seen the last of the cold and ice! We are ready for some longer days and some milder weather to kick-start Spring!

REGISTRATION FORMS for September 2020 Preschool classes should be handed in to the preschool office before Feb. 1st if you want PRIORITY REGISTRATION.

PRESCHOOL CLOSED on FRIDAY, JAN. 31st for our teacher's Professional Development Workshop.

SAMOSA ORDERS due FEB. 13TH! Thanks for supporting our school!

UPCOMING DATES & SPECIAL EVENTS
JAN 31 - PRO D DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
FEB 1 - REGISTRATION FOR CURRENT FAMILIES
FEB 3 - REGISTRATION FOR COMMUNITY FAMILIES
FEB 12/13/14 - CHILDREN'S VALENTINE'S DAY PARTIES
FEB 12 - SCHOLASTIC ORDERS DUE
FEB 13 - SAMOSA ORDERS DUE
FEB 17 - FAMILY DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED
FEB 25 - CHURCH PANCAKE SUPPER
MAR 6 - 4'S SKATING PARTY
MAR 16-20 - SPRING BREAK - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

The teachers had a Professional Day on Jan. 31st and we watched a great documentary on the importance of Play. Please check it out below:
The Power of Play - Episode of The Nature of Things: https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/unstructured-play-can-create-mentally-healthier-kids

Please note: The red gate at the Ridgewood Drive entrance to our parking lot is being moved. Preschool families should be parking in the main parking lot (entrance on Wellington) and can park in any space in the main section. The smaller section, behind the red gate, will be for Church staff and Church visitors only. Please do not park in the small parking lot section that enters off of Ridgewood Drive. 

DISCOVERY TWOS - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan, Rose, Vibha

Thank you parents for all the lovely gifts and kind words of encouragement and appreciation expressed in your Christmas cards to us.

We wish you all the best in 2020!

What a fun and exciting month of January we had learning about winter.  We discovered that penguins and polar bears live where it is very cold.  We also learned about what clothes we would need to dress ourselves for winter weather.  Some winter art activities that the children enjoyed doing were decorating mittens with tissue paper, making winter collage, gluing igloo with white pieces of paper, melted snowmen with shaving cream and glue,  ice- cube painting, decorated penguins with different shapes, made polar bears and made winter hats with roller brush.

At circle time, we talked about winter animals, Five little penguins felt rhyme, snowmen, snowmen what do you see and colour recognition winter mitten game. 

Here are some of our favourite songs:

Snowball, Snowball

Cold and round

Behind which mittens can you be found?

Snowflake Dance

( Sung to: Are you Sleeping)

Dance like snowflakes,

Dance like snowflakes,

In the air, In the air

Whirling, Twirling snowflakes

Whirling Twirling snowflakes

Here and there, Here and there

 

Gung Hay Fat Choi- we also celebrated Chinese New Years.  For art, we created fireworks with red and gold paint.  Our 2’s really enjoyed exploring and pouring red and white rice.  At circle we read a book about my first Chinese New Year followed by five little red dragons felt song.

202 had the opportunity to learn a little about Australia as Danielle had been there on a holiday.  They did dot-to-dot patterns using q-tips on boomerangs and read ' I am Australian '. We acted out the way Australian animals walk or fly using hand puppets..

 

We would like to ask that you as parents continue to support your children’s independence with a few simple tasks when they come into the classroom.  Please continue to have your children walk up and down the stairs by themselves holding the railing and/or your hand.  When they get to their cubbies, please have them hang up their jackets on the hook. And encourage them to put their own snack bag in the basket.

Our theme’s for February will be Love, Friendship, Feeling and Transportation.

As always, please come and talk to us if you have any concerns.

TREEHOUSE ROOM- Karen, Susan, Brita, Marjan, Carol

Welcome back to the Treehouse room for January! It was a busy month of learning for the children. For the first week, we explored the topics of winter, snow, and snowflakes. For week two, we covered the topics of snow, ice, the cold, and winter clothing. For the third week, we explored the world of Black and Grizzly bears of B.C., and Chinese New Year! We finished off for the last week by having fun with teddy bears!

We started off the month by painting snowflakes with salt water that crystallized when dry. The children created melted snowmen by painting with shaving cream and glue and placing the pieces of the snowmen on the snow. The water table had snow and ice in it. The play dough table had snow slime that the children could manipulate and play with. At circle, we read the books “ The old lady who swallowed some snow” and “ Winter, winter cold and snow”. We learned a felt rhyme “5 Little Snowmen”, and talked about winter activities and what you can do in the snow.

For week two, we continued our theme on winter and added ice and the cold. At art, the children created penguins by gluing the pieces on the penguin, ice painting, and stamp painting mitten shapes. At circle, we read the felt story “The mitten” and played find the missing mitten.

The children learned about the Black Bears and Grizzly Bears of B.C. and Chinese New Year for week 3. For art, we painted Black bear shapes, made paper plate Grizzly bear faces, painted lanterns, and fans. At circle, the children explored the world of our B.C. bears. They learned about where they live, diet,  appearance, and other fun facts. We read the books “Yodel the Black Yearling” and “Bear is Hungry” and the rhyme 5 Black Bears. For Chinese New Year, the children were educated about the celebration. They were shown pictures about the lantern celebrations, fancy foods, and dress. We talked about the year of the rat and gave out good luck red envelopes and coins for good luck. We talked about the different animals on the calendar and the meaning of each one. We played the find the missing lantern game and we made rice for some fun snack!

Finally, we finished off the month with a teddy bear theme! For art, the children created a teddy picnic scene by gluing on a blanket, teddy, and food. At snack time, the children had a picnic on a big blanket with their stuffed animals.  At circle time, the children played hide the teddy game, danced and sang to the teddy bear picnic song. It was a lot of fun! It was a great way to finish off the month!

Don’t forget about your children’s show and share time at preschool!

The fours will begin to take home Echo, the Killer Whale on February the 6th.

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Arsi, Danielle, Carol

Wow! Christmas break sure went by fast! We hope you all had a great time celebrating with your loved ones! We’d like to thank you all for your wonderful gifts and very thoughtful cards!

January brought us a little bit of cold winter weather, so we decided to dive into some stories from one our favourite author, Robert Munsch! In the first week, we read “Deep Snow,” “Zero Below,” and “Just One Goal.” These stories brought some giggles to the children. 

The children also enjoyed watching a “cut and tell story” called “Winter Fun with Friends.” It was neat to see a piece of paper turn into a snowman right in front of their eyes. Moreover, we enjoyed the felt rhymes “5 Little Snowmen,” and “5 little Snowflakes.” For art, we decorated our own snowmen. We also used water-colours on snowflake shaped diffusing paper, and we decorated our own winter boot shape using various materials. The following week, we looked at penguins and polar bears. We learned about where each

  animal lives, what they eat, how they move, and what they look like. We read the books, “Be Brave Little Penguin,”and “Where’s Home Lil Pip?” There was a lot of laughter when we looked at the silly felt rhyme of “5 Little Penguins on the ice.” They all fell down and bump their heads. For art, the children used oval and heart shapes to create their own penguin. 

The next animal was a polar bear. It was a great opportunity to compare the 2 winter animals. The stories we read were “Good morning Polar bear,” and the felt story “Polly the Polar Bear.” We used a fork to give the polar bear head a special furry effect. What an interesting way to paint!

The children sure had missed Danielle and she had missed them too! We also wanted to thank Brita for helping us out! She was great fun! The topic was Australia and the amazing animals in the outback. There was talk about emus, kangaroos, snakes, koalas, kookaburras, and echidnas. The children listened to the stories called “Hunwick’s Egg,” “ABC Dreaming,” and “I’m Australian too.” These books were a great introduction to the various animals in the outback and about Australia. We even got a chance to listen to Danielle sing the song “Kookaburra,” and the children sang with her too. At the art table, we practiced our hand eye coordination by tracing and cutting a boomerang shape. We then used Q-tips with red, white, and black paint to decorate them. They looked great. 

Furthermore, we also made a collage of the Australian outback by using the same method with the Q-tip. Once the children decorated their scene, they picked one animal, either an emu, kangaroo, or a frill necked lizard, to glue on their scene. All the kids were super excited to get a little surprise from Danielle from Australia. She truly had missed them all!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! We learned how to say Happy New Year as we learned about the customs of Chinese New Year. The children listened to the story called “Bringing in the New Year,” and enjoyed the felt rhyme “5 Golden Dragons.” We talked about the many animals and how this year was the year of the rat! We danced with streamers with beautiful traditional music and the children all got a red envelope to take home for good luck! What a fun day!

On our last week in January, we turned to the classic Ukrainian stories of Jan Brett. We read “The Mitten,” “The Hat” and a few others of her collection. For art, the children traced and glued the animals onto the mitten and decorated their own hats too. We also looked at the felt rhymes “5 Little Mittens” and “5 Colourful Umbrellas.” What a great way to end this month!

In the coming weeks, we will be talking about Valentine’s Day, kindergarten readiness and continuing our bucket filling!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask your teachers!

MUSIC PROGRAM - Tiffany

January was a short month for music and we worked mostly on the Rhythm family. We can play the different members of the Rhythm family on various handheld instruments we have been introduced to. Such as, the clavi, tambourine, cymbals, maracas and triangle. One of the children’s favourite activities, which doubles as a reward for hard work, is doing a ‘parade’ around the classroom. With our collection instruments in hand and big smiles on our faces, we are heading for big success in the months to come. Our Easter Service, in April, is going to be fantastic.

To wrap up January, we are going to build our skills in recognizing the Rhythm family members, in a real piece of music; March of the Toreadors, composed by George Bizet, during the Classical music era.

Some goals for February are, learning to use the Rhythm family notes in small sequences to make rhythmic patterns that we can clap. Singing the notes of the rhythmic patterns and guessing the rhythmic pattern based on what we hear. We will also continue with our ‘listening’ portion of the class and begin learning about the Woodwind family.

Stay tuned for a surprise, take home, music class craft! 

RESOURCE ROOM - Marion

Routines: Everyday Magic!

Children in the preschool years thrive on routines.  They like their lives to be clear and predictable, and they enjoy the security of comfortable repetition (which is, incidentally, one of the easiest ways for young children to learn).  

A familiar routine in the morning, at mealtimes, and at bedtime can eliminate the need children often feel to test their boundaries.  Clear expectation and predictable activities can smooth the rough spots out of a youngster’s day (and that of his/her parents and teachers).

As children grow older and begin school, using routines can eliminate many of the hassles surrounding chores or homework, especially when the child is old enough to help create family rules and routines.  When the child knows the routine, the parent or teacher just has to asks “What is our routine?” and everyone knows what should happen next.  Routines will vary from family to family, from preschool to preschool, but they are useful ways to take the struggle out of the terrible trio of sleeping, eating and toileting.