WELCOME November!!
It's hard to believe that we are zipping through Autumn so fast!! We have two months of preschool under our belt and we are ready for number three! We have a lot planned for the next couple of months so stay tuned!!!
*REMINDER*
We will be having our AGM on Wednesday, November 18th and will be doing it online at 6:30pm.
Thanks to all who participated in our SAMOSA FUNDRAISER!! We raised $1000. to go towards playground improvements!!
DATES TO REMEMBER
Check out below what happened in the Classrooms in October!!
RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle, Marjan, Vibha
What an interesting month we have had…it all started when we FINALLY began staying at school for the full 2.5 hours. The children have been doing great saying goodbye to parents at the front door and coming downstairs by themselves (with a teacher of course).
We have been very busy this month starting with
Thanksgiving. For Art some of us painted
Turkeys with feathers, others used their handprints to make a Turkey Print on a
paper plate. On the science table we explored our Thanksgiving vegetables:
squash, corn, sweet potato and potatoes.
When then went further and cut them in half and used them to make
vegetable prints with paint. For circle we read stories about Turkey’s
Thanksgiving and listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Turkeys’ and what color
Turkey is missing game?
After Thanksgiving, we moved onto a teacher favorite, Fall. In the water table there was lots of LEAVES…. we then had fun finding little apples & acorns under them. We also used real leaves to make a Leaf Paper Plate Wreathe and we used leaf sponges to make prints of leaves using fall colors. For circle we sang “All the Leaves are falling down” and read the story “Going on a Leaf Hunt’ & the felt story ‘Sammy Squirrel’. We listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Owls’ & ‘5 Little Leaves’. We also enjoyed spending time outside as there was a lot of sunshine, usual for this time of the year.
After fall comes another exciting celebration… Halloween! This is always a fun packed few weeks. At art we made paper plate spiders, made a pumpkin collage or used white paint & shaving cream to paint a ghost. Some of the children used stamps to decorate their own pumpkins while others shook marbles inside a pringles can to decorate bats. For circle we listened to the felt rhymes “5 Little Pumpkins, 5 Little Ghosts, 5 Little bats, Incy Winsy Spider & Spooky Tree, Spooky Tree, what do you see? We read the stories ‘The Spooky Wheels on the Bus & heard a story about a pumpkin. We listened to the felt stories ‘The Chocolate Chip Ghost & Whooooooos’. We also had lots of fun dancing to Halloween music, ‘Ghostbusters’ being the most popular song. In the water table we had pumpkins, eyeballs & skulls…mixed in with water and shaving cream…this was very popular. In the home corner we had a pumpkin shop, with real pumpkins, shopping carts and cash registers… This year, it was a bit different as we couldn’t have a party but we made it fun by wearing our PJ’s, decorating the classroom and using a tablecloth for snack. We also had a yummy cupcake to top it off!
In the next few weeks we are going to explore cats & dogs, rain and hibernation…Lots of more fun to come.
TREEHOUSE ROOM - Karen, Brita, Rose, Arsi, Carol, Marjan
👋🏽 Hello Treehouse Parents
What a fun busy time we have had this month. October is one of my favourite months because there is so much happening. We started off talking about everything fall brings, from beautiful colours, falling leaves and pumpkins. At circle we talked about the different kinds, shapes, colours and sizes of leaves. Books we read we’re “I Know it’s Autumn,” “Leaves are Falling,” Five little squirrels felt rhyme, I am a tree song. For art we coloured diffusing paper leaves with watercolour, painted with leaves, leaf stamping, puffy paint leaves and leaf wreathes.
Gobble, gobble and then it was Thanksgiving. We talked about what we were thankful for at circle and you will be happy to know that family was at the top of the list❤️. We also shared a Harvest Time felt story, “What am I Thankful for?” book, a food matching game, memory game and where’s the Turkey hiding and what is your favourite food discussion, most children said Turkey. We made cornucopias, turkey handprints, pop-up scarecrow and leaf wreathes.
As you may already know we always sing Johnny Appleseed
before we have our snack and we discuss why we sing it. To further explore we
watched a classic video about how the legend began. We continued with making
our own applesauce and apple juice, apple printing, painted plates to look like
apples and laced with wool and made apple blossom trees. For circle we read
“The Biggest Apple ever,”and 10 apples on a tree felt rhyme and what bucket is
the apple behind game.
What
kinda of music do mummies like?… Wrap music😆
Halloween
is upon us and what better way to start off with a silly joke.
You
may have noticed your child came home with a lot of Halloween art, they were
very happy with all their creations. The classroom was decorated with mummies,
paper plate spiders, orange coloured coffee filter pumpkins, glittery bats,
cauldrons, handprint q-tip skeletons, puffy paint ghosts, and orange stamped
pumpkins. We also made the home corner into a pumpkin patch. For circle we read
“Where’s my Mummy?”, White ghost, white ghost what do you see?felt rhyme, what
colour house is the ghost spooking in felt game, where is the pumpkin felt
game, 5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom we’re riding on a
broom and what colour pumpkin is missing.
Normally
around Halloween we take a walk to the library for a circle time hosted by the
librarian. This year we tried something different through Zoom. It was an
interactive story time and the children took part as the librarian called them
by name. We ended Halloween with a cupcake and an orange Kool-aid drink box. We
also watched a movie called Curious George: A Halloween Boo Feast.
Every year right before Halloween Marion introduces the children to Fireman Dan. This is a video that talks about fire safety and once it is over we set up a prop for the children to crawl under as if they were in a real fire situation. Crawl low under smoke.
Just
a few reminders
- We
will continue to go outside if the weather is nice, please dress your
child in appropriate clothes and bring mittens and toque.
- Please
label all food containers.
- Please
sent your child to school with a large enough back pack to carry all their
belonging.
Arsi,
Karen, Marjan and Carol Tues/Thurs
Brita,
Rose, Karen and Carol Mon/Wed/Friday
SUNFLOWER ROOM - Arsi, Danielle, Carol
What a fun
packed month we’ve had in October!
So much to learn and to explore!
We started the month talking about Thanksgiving! We talked
about how it’s important to celebrate the time of harvest. We learned that
harvest meant farmers working hard to grow fruit and vegetables for us.
Moreover, the children were excited to learn how those fruits and vegetables
were sent to the grocery stores where we buy them. We also talked about how
Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate with family and to be thankful for
what we have. For art, we used pictures of yummy Thanksgiving food and glued
them onto cornucopia shapes. Furthermore, we talked about turkeys and what they
sound and look like. At circle, we read the book “Runaway Turkey” and we sang
“Turkey word red feathers.” We also had some laughs watching 5 felt turkeys fly
away home. For art, we traced a turkey shape and glued some colourful feathers
on his body. The children also decorated a turkey shape with various colours of
tissue to represent the different color of their feathers.
The following week, we had a blast
with Pete the Cat. He’s the grooviest cat in town!
“Pete the Cat: I love my white shoes,”
was the first book we listened to followed by “Rocking in my school shoes.”
During circle, we played a fun game of trying to find our friends’ matching
shoe. Moreover, we played a felt board guessing game where the children had to
guess which color shoe was missing. For art, we used real shoes to make
imprints on paper and we sparkled them up too. In the house corner, we had a
very busy shoe shop! Another popular book we listened to was “Pete the Cat and
his Four groovy buttons.”
We played a fun game of Pin (tape) the
button on the jacket, which jacket is missing, and which color button is
missing. The had lots of laughs singing, “Hi, my name is Joe and I work in a
button factory.” It got silly and funny! For art, we used our hand eye
coordination to cut a part of Pete’s jacket and then glued some colourful
buttons on. So much fun was had with Pete!
The last two weeks of the month we
focused on Halloween! Boo! Our house corner turned into a pumpkin patch where
the children bought pumpkins in their shopping carts from the checkout! At
circle, we read “Rollaway Pumpkin,” and “Splat the Cat: Pumpkin picking plan.”
We also listened to 5 little pumpkins felt rhyme, How to make a Jack o lantern
felt rhyme and the felt story “Percy the Pumpkin.” For art, we traced a pumpkin
shaped and used glitter glue to collage fun Halloween sequence shapes. Our next
book we listened to was “Bat’s Lullaby” and “Five Little Bats.” We also sang
the action song called “Sleeping Bats” and when we woke up, we flew around.
Moreover, we sang the songs “Way up high in the Bat tree” and “Five bats went
out” felt board rhyme. For art, we used marbles to paint our purple and silver
flying bats. This was so fun!
“The Witch had an Itch” was a funny book
and action song that we had fun doing. For art, the children used various
shapes to make their own witch with wavy arms and legs!
On our last week of October, we talked about ghosts, spiders, and skeletons. We listened to the felt story called “The Chocolate chip ghost,” “Skeleton Hiccups,” and “The Spookiest Halloween Ever.” We danced to the Halloween Hokey Pokey and we shook our bones! The children also enjoyed guessing which color house the ghost was hiding in and waved bye to the 5 little ghosts rhyme. We asked the Golden moon, what do you see? (Felt rhyme) and invited more spiders to come out and play on a web with a fun rhyming song. For art, we used white tissue paper to decorate a ghost shape, we counted 8 wavy legs to glue our spiders’ legs and we used Q-tips to make our skeleton. On our party day we loved seeing the children in their costumes. We enjoyed a story time via zoom with Kaley from the Capilano library. As a treat, we munched on some yummy cupcakes!! Happy Halloween!
Marion also showed the children a very important video on fire safety. Fireman Dan talked about stop, drop, and roll. We even practiced doing that and also practiced crawling low under smoke!
What a busy month!
In the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at sea life animals, Remembrance Day and some classic fairy tales!
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not
hesitate to ask your teachers.
MUSIC ROOM - Tiffany
Fall
is in full swing and Winter is just around the corner! The young musicians of
St. Catherine’s Preschool had an energizing October, listening to the
instruments of the Keyboard family as well as some of the instruments in the
String family. We listened to and learned the difference between the acoustic
and electric guitar. We also got a chance to use rhythm sticks as ‘bows’ to
play our invisible violins.
We
are currently reading the book, “M is for Music” and in our book, the letter
‘B’ stood for Beatles! What a great opportunity to introduce little ears to the
iconic group, The Fab Four.
We
finished off the month with some spooky, Halloween themed music, such as The
Halloween STOMP and an instructional song about Mysterious Things... BOO! Some
of the instruments we used this month were, rhythm sticks, egg shakers and hand
drums. So cool.
Next
month, we will continue to build our knowledge of the musical alphabet,
learning the hand signs that go with the names. We will also learn the words
‘forte’ which means, to sing or play loudly. And ‘piano’ which means to sing or
play softly. Towards the middle of November we will start to work hard on our
Christmas repertoire. Stay tuned for what’s in store this upcoming holiday
season with St. Catherine’s music kids!
RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion
Thank you to all our families and teachers for their
patience and respect for the guidelines that we have had to put in place to keep
everyone safe.
We are in our 3rd month of preschool and what better time to
discuss "Toilet Training". Not all children are ready at the
same age. It is important to watch your child for signs of readiness such
as stopping an activity for a few seconds, clutching at his/her diaper or doing
a "little dance".
Your child may be ready to start toilet training when he/she
can:
* follow simple directions
* understand words about the toileting process
* verbally express his/her need to go to "pee"
* keep his/her diaper dry for 2 hours or longer
* go to the potty/toilet, sit down and try, then get off and
pull up his/her
pants
At preschool the teachers are watching the children for the usual signs. When a child asks to go to the washroom, the teacher will ask if any one else needs to go, usually there are 1 or 2 other children who will want to go. Parents can help by informing the teachers that they are working on toileting at home, or if the child wears underwear at home but pull-ups for preschool. Getting your child out of diapers/pull-ups is the first step. Let your child pick out their own underwear, they are pretty excited about the many designs. Be sure to praise your child for all attempts to use the toilet, even if nothing happens and remember accidents will happen. Tell your child that it was an accident and offer support. Lots of liquids during the day and nothing after 6 pm depending on your child's bedtime, that was my little trick. Dress your child in loose fitting clothing, such as jogging pants or leggings when toilet training. Avoid overalls, children need to practice dressing and undressing with minimum help. It is a process that cannot be rushed so set aside some time to devote to toilet training. Establish a bathroom routine, first potty then wash hands.
If you have any questions or concerns about developmental
milestones please e-mail: stcpre@telus.net.
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