DECEMBER 2021

 Let Every Day Be Christmas

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.
– Norman Wesley Brooks

It's DECEMBER! And it's the most wonderful time of the year!! Christmas! And sparkles! And presents! And sparkles! And snow! And sparkles! And candy canes! And sparkles! (It's just not Christmas at Preschool without SPARKLES!!)

It's a short month with our last day being Friday, December 17th. We have packed a lot into those two and a half weeks just to get it all done before the New Year!

TRAVEL AND COVID PROTOCOL

Please remember if you are travelling out of Canada this holiday season, your unvaccinated children must stay home from school for 2 weeks before they are able to return. Please refer to the Government website for current and up to date information.

If you plan on taking extra time off for your holidays, don't forget to let the teachers know so they can plan the classroom activities accordingly. It is always good to know in advance who will be away.

Thank you to all those in the Treehouse & Sunflower Rooms who sent in requests to extend their child's day starting January! It is going to be a fun time for all! If you have not contacted us but are thinking of extending hours, let us know asap as spots are filling up with new families registering.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

DEC. 7/8          - Children's Christmas Service 

DEC. 15/16/17 - Children's Christmas Parties

DEC. 17           - Last Day before Christmas Break

JAN. 4              - First Day back to Preschool

JAN. 4-31         - 2022 Registration for Current Families

FEB. 1              - 2022 Registration for Community Families

FEB. 10/14      - Children's Valentine's Day Parties

FEB 21            - Family Day PRESCHOOL CLOSED

MAR 14-18    - Spring Break PRESCHOOL CLOSED

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our Photo Days pictures we sent to you. We still plan on taking photos of those who missed the day. If you have not already done so, please let the office know you would like a photo taken of your child. We will try to do another group shot near the end of the year, when more children are in attendance.

CHRISTMAS DONATION TO NORTH SHORE FAMILY SERVICES

Thank you to everyone who has donated a gift card for our collection with the Church for the North Shore Family Services. They will distribute the cards to families who are in need this holiday season.

The last day to donate is Friday, Dec. 3rd.

THANK YOU to everyone who helped us fundraise over the last couple of months. We raised over $600 from our Samosa Fundraiser and we raised over $1000 from our Purdys' Fundraiser! We raised $180 from our Photo Days fundraiser. Your support is very much appreciated! Don't forget about Scholastic Books, Lovable Labels, Cobbs; Edgemont, Return-It Bottle Return; Brooksbank, and Boston Pizza Esplanade! These are all great ways to support our school! And coming soon...Little Kitchen Academy; Edgemont.

Let's see what is happening inside the classrooms: 

RAINBOW ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE, MARJAN, ROSE, VIBHA

We go by car.

We go by plane.

We go by boat.

We go by train.

We go by land 

and sea and air.

We go, go, go,

From here to there!

~ Poem by Richard Scarry,

What a fun and exciting month of November we had learning about different modes of transportation.

For art:  we made yellow school buses with dabbers, decorated paper plate sailboats and cars with colourful tissue paper,  fire truck printing, transportation cookie cutter collage, we decorated rocket ship with foil and used dabbers to make our own train carriage.

During circle time, we read a fun- filled sing along tape story “We all go traveling by.”

"Blue train, Blue train what do you see?" and 

"Soft road, bumpy road" song.

Felt rhymes are always a big hit with our two’s. Such as Five Little Buses, Twinkle, Twinkle Motor Car, Zoom , Zoom, Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon,  Space Ship, Space Ship, What Do You See?   And everyone’s favourite “The Wheels On The Bus.”

We also transformed our housekeeping corner into a train station. 

As always, please come and speak to us if you have any concerns or questions.  

And thank you all for your continued support

TREEHOUSE ROOM - BRITA, CAROL, KAREN, MARJAN, MONICA, ROSE

Hello Treehouse families,

It has been a busy fun filled month and the children are settling in well to the routines.


For the month of November, we learned all about community helpers and why they are so important to us. We focused on animal vets, dentists, construction workers, police officers, firefighters, and chefs.

The children played Guess the Community Helper, sang songs, and read books at circle time.

Our home corner was transformed into a veterinarian office where the children pretended to help animals get well.

The block corner was a fire station for the children to pretend to rush to a fire.

The train table became a coffee shop where the children could serve coffee and bake delicious treats to serve to their friends! 

Karen made banana pancakes with the children when we were learning about chefs as community helpers! They were so delicious!
We watched a Little People video on Community Helpers that the children really enjoyed!

The afternoon program went for a walk to Edgemont Village to see all the different community helpers hard at work.

For Remembrance Day , the children made poppies for art and they learned why it was such an important day.


The last week of the month was spent exploring the world of Hibernation. We discovered what animals, insects, and reptiles hibernate in the winter and where they make their homes such as in a cave, den, or tree. We looked at why they hibernate and for how long. The home corner became a hibernation center for bears, snakes, raccoons, and squirrels.

We finished up the month with the children writing letters to Santa and making their special Christmas gifts!

Please remember that the Christmas Services are being filmed on Tuesday, December 7th and Wednesday, December 8th. The children have been practicing their songs and they are looking forward to singing them for you on video!

Our Christmas parties are on December 16th and 17th and the children can dress in their favourite pajamas!

Thank you for all your support and understanding about masks, social distancing, and keeping your child home if they are not well. The phone calls and emails are truly appreciated about this.

Please remember to pack runners for your child so they can participate in the fun activities in the gym.

If you plan to travel outside the country, please check the BC Government website about Covid information and return to school information.

Please visit the blog next month to see the fun activities we got up to in December!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE

Wow, I cannot believe how busy we have been and what we have been learning about. There is soooo much, I am not sure I have will enough room.

We started November talking about Pete the Cat.  We read “Pete the cat: I love my White Shoes, His Four Groovy Buttons, Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and The New Guy, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses & Pete the Cat and The Missing Cupcakes". We sang I've Got a Black Cat on My Knee, 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe and listened to the felt rhyme ‘5 Little Kittens Standing in a Row’. 

We danced to Boogie Pete and marched to the beat of the drum in ‘The Pete’s Go Marching. 

We played the games Shoe Relay, Button, button who's got the button? & Find the missing items from the Magic Sunglasses book. 

For Art we used shoes to make prints in red, blue & brown. We also glued Pete the Cat together with his 4 groovy buttons and we made our own Pete the Cat Mask with Sunglasses. 

We explored ‘shoe shopping’ in the house corner and buttons in the sand & water table.

We moved on to talk about how to be a good friend. We read “Fox makes Friends, “When you need a friend”, “My Friends” & Listened to the CD story “Very Special Friends”. We played Ring a Ring a Rosie, Row, Row your boat, What’s the time My Friend? and we searched for missing items in the classroom with a friend.  We also touched on Remembrance Day and how it is very important for everyone to use their words when talking to each other and to keep our hands to our own bodies. 

We read “The Soldiers Puppy & If The Kids Ruled the World”. We listened to the rhyme 5 Brave Soldiers & 5 Poppies. We guessed which colored Poppy was missing & we marched to the song “The Grand Old Duke of York’ with drums. For art we worked together to paint our den for our winter animals, made a stick friend and traced Poppy’s & decorated them with red tissue paper. In the water table we explored red magnets with black metal and had tea with babies in the home corner.

For the last 2 weeks of November, we talked about Hibernation and the animals in our forest…We started with animals that hibernate, Bears, Turtles & Hedgehogs. We read “Time to Sleep, Turtle's First Winter Now I Know: Turtle, We're Going on a Bear Hunt & Felt Story: Ouch” (hedgehog's dilemma). We sung Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around & Hibernation.

We played the games “Bear Bingo, Who woke the Sleeping Bear? & Which Animal Track is this?’. We moved like a bear and a turtle. We met “Freddy” the bear who will sleep in a box until spring. For Art we used marble painting to decorate paper plate bears, potato masher turtles and Hedgehogs with forks.  We created a bear cave in the home corner that we later turned into a forest with deer’s, racoons & a wolf cave. 

We then moved onto talk about animals in the forest that don’t hibernate. We talked about Foxes, Owls & Moose’s.  For circle we read “Winter Dance, A Fall Ball for All, Little Tails, When a Tree Grows, Night-Night Forest Friends & Who’s in the forest?”. We learnt the rhymes- Foxy Loxy, If you are a fox & you know it, 5 Little Owls, Moosey Loosey and we moved like forest animals. We sang the action rhyme ‘The animals in the Forest’ and when on a Animal Hunt in the classroom. We played the game What animal is missing? & ran around in the gym to the Animal Wall game. For art we explored Foxes by using glue, scissors & paper to make a fox face, paper plates for a snowy owl & we put the moose’s face together like a puzzle.

 

We have also been busy practicing our Christmas Songs for our Christmas Concert that we are having next week.  We will be sending you all a video of the children performing that a few days later.

 

For the last few weeks of the year, we will explore The Nativity & Christmas, as well as continuing to have fun learning and playing together.

Please remember to pack more food than less (one container for snack & one for lunch) as we are here for 4 hours a day, so the children get hungry.  We will also be going outside to play so pack appropriate footwear & jackets.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office so we can arrange a meeting after school hours. 

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Children love toys and the best toys are often the simplest ones, like Lego or Duplo for the younger children.  These toys allow children to be creative and spontaneous.  Children enjoy toys that they can master and that are right for their stage of development.  

Preschoolers learn a lot about socialization through pretend play.  Finger puppets and hand puppets allow children to communicate through them while playing with peers or by themselves.  This play allows them to get a sense of the real world around them.  

Crayons, finger paints and Play-Doh help develop fine motors skills as well, allows children to be creative. Children also make huge gains in both fine and gross motor skills throughout this period, so puzzles, blocks and other construction toys are perfect for fine motor development and ball games and bikes are great for gross motor skills. It is important to buy toys that involve brain activity and hand or muscle movements.

Children bring a special gift to us all and especially at Christmas time.  The gift of imagination and curiosity. As we near Christmas break, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!

Please check out a new event happening at some of the stores in the Village: "An Artist's Advent Calendar 2021".  

St. Catherine's Childcare Society submitted "Hope" to BC Playthings and "Love" to Delish General Store. Please visit these stores, and others to see all the Artist Creations!

On Christmas Eve this year, St. Catherine's Church is  planning a Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant from 3 pm to 4 pm. Please feel free to come dressed up as a Shepherd, Angel or Wise "Person".  There will be some costumes and props available at 2:30 pm.  

Please visit: www.saint.catherine.org for more information.

THANK YOU FOR READING OUR BLOG. If you have made it this far, you are amazing! Please let the teachers know you have read their blog. Tell them what you think of all the amazing activities and pictures you have seen on the blog. Let them know what you would like to see more of!!

NOVEMBER 2021

 

We are happily moving along to the last couple of months of 2021! Hard to believe the time could go so fast!

Make sure you check our Calendar of Events below so you don't miss out on any of the closures, due dates or special events coming up!!

THANK YOU to everyone who attended our AGM! We will introduce you to the new Board in our December blog once we have had our first Board Meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 9th.

THANK YOU to everyone who ordered SAMOSAS. We raised over $600 in profit! The new pick up date is: Wed., Nov. 10th: 11:30-1:30pm. 

CLASS PHOTOS 

were done on Nov. 2nd and Nov. 3rd. Don't worry if your child was absent, we will be able to re do for you at a later date. Please let the office know your child was absent and will need a photo done.

PURDY'S CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER

Don't forget to get your orders in!! Last day to order is Tues. Nov. 16th. You will be able to pick up your orders on Dec. 1st/2nd.

https://fundraising.purdys.com/login.aspx?returnurl=%2fdashboard.aspx

Open a new account and click on Join Campaign: 11053 use this number to find us. You can order online, with a cheque and paper order form, or call the office and we will do it over the phone!

DATES TO REMEMBER

Nov. 11 ---------  Remembrance Day: School Closed

Nov. 16 ---------  Last day to order Purdys

Dec. 1st/2nd ---  Pick up Purdys

Dec. 7/8 --------- Christmas Services (3s & 4s)

Dec. 15/16/17 -- Children's Christmas Parties

Dec. 17 ---------- Last Day before Christmas Break

Jan. 4 ------------ First Day back to School

IT IS NOT A SECRET THAT WE ARE DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL IN OUR CLASSROOMS!! 

RAINBOW ROOM - Cecilia, Danielle, Marjan, Rose, Vibha

Where did October go? A beautiful sight was starting to happen… the leaves were changing colour, fall was here.

October was an exciting month within the Rainbow Room. We celebrated the holidays, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. First we talked about Thanksgiving and we talked about what we were thankful for. For Art, some of us painted turkeys with feathers, others used paper plate to make turkeys and also making turkeys with coffee filter. On the science table, we explored our Thanksgiving vegetables: corn and ...... . 

For circle time, we read stories about Thanksgiving's turkey, listened to the felt rhymes "5 fat Turkeys", "what color Turkey is missing" game, "Five little pumpkins sitting on the gate", "Black bat, Black bat what do you see?", "Five Silly Turkeys (felt Rhyme)", "Five Spooky Ghosts", "5 Bats Flying In the Night", dancing to Halloween music and looked at Thanksgiving pictures like turkey coming out of the oven, pumpkin pie , cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. Also during circle, we have been encouraging the children to relax and breathe. Some examples of yoga poses that we have been practicing with the children are “Cat pose”, “Tree pose” and “Table pose”. 

October is always a great month to explore leaves and the season of Autumn. We had such a great time exploring leaves in the water table. Children were able to touch and see the leaves close up. At house corner, we had pumpkins and two wheelbarrows, children really enjoyed to play with them. At science table, we had lots of  beautiful stuffy with blocks. For art, children made wreath with beautiful leaves, leaf print with real leaves, and made a real leaves window collage.  

At circle, we talked about all the different changes we see in the Fall and sang songs like leaves are falling, and read stories about leaves and the different colours they are changing. 

After fall comes another exciting

celebration… Halloween. At art, we made paper plate spiders or used white paint & shaving cream to paint a ghost and marbles inside a pringles can to decorate bats. For circle we listened to the felt rhymes “5 Little Pumpkins", "5 Little Ghosts", and "5 Little bats". 

We read the stories: "It's Pumpkin Day", "Mouse Pumpkin Faces",  and "The Spooky Wheels on the Bus". We also played the "Which Colour Spider Is Missing?" game, "Four Scary Spider Jumping on the Bed", and "Bats Flying in the Night". We also had lots of fun dancing to Halloween music. 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 and wheelbarrow. 

In the next few weeks we are going to talk about transportation… Lots of more fun to come.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office and make a time to talk to us. 

TREEHOUSE ROOM - Brita, Carol, Karen, Marjan, Monica, Rose

Hello Everyone!

Another busy busy month has gone by. We really packed our days and weeks with fun play and learning opportunities.

In the last week of September, we ended our theme on B.C., by focusing on B.C.'s indigenous people and culture. We recognised Truth and Reconciliation Day with the general messages of 'No one gets hurt' and 'Be kind to everyone'. In our art during that week, we tried to reflect local indigenous artistic themes.

As we moved into October, our tent was still up in the house corner, and we had a  Farmer's market in the block corner. All the fruit, vegetables and produce from our farmer's market filled cornucopias for Thanksgiving.

Our next theme was Night Creatures; we had touched on some of these last month when discussing the wildlife of B.C. We now concentrated on Owls and Bats; we learned that there are owls  everywhere in the world except Antarctica, and we heard the many different sounds that owls make.

As bats and owls like to eat insects, we included bugs and spiders in our autumn leaves, and then put them into our witches' cauldrons!

Our bear cave became a Bat cave, and our house corner had now been transformed into a Witches' Brew House, complete with potion cards, recipes and lots of ingredients.....spiders, flies, frogs, bats, bones, hair and eyeballs.....all necessary for a really good potion or spell.

With our thoughts now on Hallowe'en, we spent two days talking about Fire Safety. We watched a DVD about "Fireman Dan" and practiced "Stop Drop and Roll" and "Crawl low under smoke". The children were instructed to go home and teach you these.....practice helps!

The afternoon class went for a few walks, both to collect dry and beautifully coloured leaves for the classroom, and also to look at Hallowe'en decorations in our neighbourhood. 

The Great Canadian Landscaping Co. very kindly gifted us a huge load of pumpkins, enough for each child to take one home. We had fun decorating them, and then feeling how heavy they were to carry home!

Now we ended the month with our Hallowe'en parties, which were a great success. We enjoyed each other's costumes, had our regular free play time, but also had awesome party food and watched a short DVD "Franklin's Hallowe'en".

Thank you to the parents who provided the food for the parties. Each family will get a turn to do this at some point in the coming year.

The afternoon class went Trick or Treating in Edgemont village while we were in our costumes. We had a fun time shouting "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you!", and the shop owners were really delighted to see all our costumes and smiling faces.

As the weather continues to get colder and wetter, please remember to send your children in appropriate outdoor clothing and boots (and indoor shoes to change into). If it's not raining, we usually try to go outside for extra running and fresh air. Also be extra careful in the parking lot at drop-off and pick-up; visibility is especially difficult on rainy days, and it can get very busy.

Thank you all for your continued support and understanding concerning masks, social distancing and phoning the office if you're running late or your child is unwell.

It's been a very successful start to our year and we're really excited about our plans for the next few months. 

Keep reading the blog, but if you have anything you'd like to discuss with any of the teachers, just ask, email or phone, and we'll arrange a time to get together.

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Cecilia, Danielle

October began with thanks to the Lord for “giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the apple seed…” The lyrics to our song of grace were made more meaningful this month by passing around a heart at circle time and discussing at the art table the things for which our children are thankful.

Through books (such as “Give Thanks for Each Day” and “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie”), felt stories (like ‘Mrs. Rabbit’s Vegetable Soup’ and ‘Tommy Turkey’) and songs and games (including ‘Pin the Feather on the Turkey’) the children were reminded of timeless Thanksgiving traditions: family meals, cornucopias and shared stories.

Fire Prevention Month was the opportune time to introduce the Sunflowers to the valiant work of our community helpers. At circle they talked about what firefighters do and what they wear. Marion introduced them to Fireman Dan and practiced fire safety with the group. During free play children put out pretend house fires (the “fire hydrant” even had an interactive component) and sprayed “flames” in the water table while at art they assembled their own fire trucks. The children began pointing out fire extinguishers throughout the building as they grew in their awareness of fire safety and the importance of “stop, drop and roll.”

Books read: “The Fire Engine,” “Firehouse,” “The Wheels on the Fire Truck,” “Firebears”

Felt stories, songs, rhymes & games: ‘Five Little Firefighters,’ ‘What Do They Wear,’ ‘What colour hat is missing?’ ‘Drive the Firetruck,’ ‘Five Brave Firefighters,’ bean bag toss into the fire helmet, ‘The Wheels on the Fire Truck’

It was the Halloween spirit that sparked the imagination of our children for the final weeks of October. Jack o’ lanterns, skeletons, and ghosts got them excited, while spiders, bats, witches and cats rounded out our celebrations.

The children utilized their fine motor skills to push pegs into a pumpkin, including its hard stem. They dressed up and went trick or treating in the classroom. And they even built their own gadgets with wooden blocks and Duplo. On music Wednesdays they used rhythm sticks to rattle “Dem Bones” and creatively moved to the tune of “Halloween Freeze Dance." 

Books read: “Five Little Pumpkins,” “Splat the Cat, “Dem Bones,” “Skeleton Hiccups,” “Ghost Cat,” “The Spooky Wheels on the Bus,” “Happy Halloween Little Critter,” “Five Little Bats Flying in the Night,” “Golden Man, Golden Man, What do you see?”

Felt stories, songs, rhymes & games: ‘This is the we plant a seed,’ ‘Chocolate Chip Ghost,’ ‘Ghost, ghost, skeleton,’ “Halloween Hokey Pokey,” ‘What colour spider is missing?’ ‘Five Little Bats,’ ‘Five Black Crows,’ ‘What Halloween costume is missing?’

Celebrations culminated with a costumed Halloween Party complete with yummy snacks provided by our generous parents. Your enthusiasm, including matching costumes, and consistent support fuel the Sunflower Room with creative energy. Thank you, families and Happy Halloween!

We look forward to reading “Pete the Cat” for the start of November, a meaningful week of Remembrance Day art and activities, and hibernation to usher us into the winter months.

Thank you, parents, for packing more food than less (one container for snack and one for lunch) as we are here for 4 hours a day and the children tend to work up an appetite. We will also be going outside to play when conditions allow so please pack appropriate footwear, winter jackets and mittens.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office so that we can arrange a meeting time after school hours.

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

We are now into our third month of school and I wanted to talk about "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 his/her diaper or doing the little dance. Most children begin to show signs between 18 months and 24 months, although some may be ready sooner than later.

Instead of using age as a readiness indicator, look for the signs that your child may be ready to start toilet training.  Here are a few signs to look for:

* follows simple instructions

* understands the words about the toileting process

* verbally can express his/her need to go pee

* keeps a diaper dry for 2 or more hours

* shows interest in going to the toilet 

* goes to the toilet/potty, sits down for a few minutes and can get off

* interested in wearing underwear 

At school the teachers are always looking for these signs and if a child asks to go to the washroom, the teacher will ask if anyone else needs to go.  In the Discovery 2s program the children are taken in small groups to try and use the toilet/potty.  

Parents can help by letting the teachers know what they are doing at home regarding toilet training so we can follow through at school.  Getting children out of diapers/pull-ups is the first step.  Let them choose their own underwear. The training needs to be consistent and know that accidents will happen.  Praise your child for all attempts even if they don't pee.  Dress your child in loose fitting clothing, avoid overalls and under shirts with snaps.  Children need to be able to dress and undress themselves with minimal help.

Lots of liquids during the day and nothing after 6 pm depending on their bedtime was a little trick I used.   If you have any questions, please speak with the teachers.  

OCTOBER 2021

OCTOBER is here and we are ready to jump into Autumn with both feet! 

Another preschool year is in full swing here at St. Catherine's and the first month has flown by really quick with gradual entry, meeting friends old and new, and getting to know teachers, classrooms and routines. For some of you this will be your first preschool experience and for others not so much! No matter what, we hope to make your time here at St. Catherine's special, rewarding and memorable.

As I walk through the hallways it's wonderful to hear the happy hum of chatter, songs and laughter coming from the classrooms and if I'm lucky I might just get a little visitor or two to my office throughout the day!

If you have any questions or concerns please talk with your teachers, Marion or myself (Tina). We are really lucky here at St. Catherine's to have so many people available to help with any issues that arise. Communication is so important and helps us to all be on the same page with regards to your child's preschool experience.

IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS COMING UP

OCT. 17 - Last Day to Order SAMOSAS

OCT. 27 - Pick Up SAMOSAS at school

OCT. 27 - ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 6:30 pm (Zoom/Hybrid)

                 You must PRE-REGISTER with the office to attend the meeting.

OCT. 27/28/29 - Children's Halloween Parties

NOV. 2/3 - Photo Days (Children's Portraits)

NOV. 11 - REMEMBRANCE DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

NOV. 16 - Last Day to Order PURDYS CHOCOLATES

DEC. 1 - Pick up PURDYS CHOCOLATES

DEC. 15/16/17 - Children's Christmas Parties

DEC. 17 - LAST DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS BREAK

JAN. 4 - FIRST DAY BACK TO PRESCHOOL

Scholastic Books : October Digi-Flyers!

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE CLASSROOMS?? Find out here:

RAINBOW ROOM - Cecilia, Danielle, Marjan, Vibha, Rose

A big welcome to our returning new families!  Thank you parents for all your support and patience during gradual entry.  It’s being a great success.

Our youngest members of St. Catherine’s Preschool are beginning to settle in nicely to the program.  Most are happy to stretch their boundaries. A few still need a little more time to feel secure with mom and Dad leaving.  Such is the nature of our two year olds.  Often this is their first experience away from family. 

Two year olds love to explore their surroundings, but need to stay close to their primary base of support and trust.

Separation anxiety is quite strong at this stage, but often it is only the “good-bye” that is difficult.

We setup the rooms in a way that facilitates exploration and discovery through play.  A great deal of time is spent exploring, pulling, filling, dumping and touching. Two year olds love painting, splashing in the water table, housekeeping, singing and dancing at circle time, although play tends to be more solitary.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about Thanksgiving, Fall and Halloween.  

We are still waiting for a few more family photos.  Children love to look at these photos especially if they are missing you. 

We sing grace before snack and our Goodbye song at the end of the day.  As per requested here are the lyrics to these tunes.

    

GRACE

God is great

God is good

And we thank him for our food

We’re going to thank him in the morning, noon and night 

 We’re going to thank him coz he’s out of sight.  Amen

GOODBYE SONG

Goodbye my friends, goodbye! Goodbye my friends, goodbye!

Goodbye my friends, goodbye my friends, goodbye my friends goodbye!!

We look forward to an exciting year - a year of tremendous growth in confidence and abilities.  We hope that this first group experience will be an enjoyable and memorable one both for you and your child.  

Please let us know if your child is going to be absent from class and if they are sick, what the symptoms are. And please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

TREEHOUSE ROOM - Brita, Carol, Karen, Marjan, Rose, Monica

Hi families of the Treehouse Room! Welcome to our first blog for this year!

We are excited to be back and happy to see so many familiar faces. We also welcome our new families and look forward to getting to know you better.

As September began we introduced our #1 rule, NO ONE GETS HURT. We made a poster that included all of the children’s handprints and talked about what NO ONE GETS HURT actually means. We talked about sharing, calm hands, kind words, walking feet and much more.

 

We have talked about the importance of hand washing, sneezing and coughing into their arm, using tissues and not to put fingers into mouths. 

Lets move on to the fun stuff. 

Roughly every 2-4 weeks we have a planned theme and this year we started off  with WHERE WE LIVE: BC, our community. Due to travel restrictions many of you may of had your summer holidays locally. We really do have so much to see in BC. We talked about places the children may have been to such as the Vancouver Aquarium, Science World, Stanley Park, Capilano Suspension Bridge, Lonsdale Quay, Grouse Mountain, Maplewood Farm and Whistler, I could go on but I think you get the picture. The children were all very happy share their experiences with so many of these familiar places. There was also lots of bike riding, hiking, beach and park time and camping.

In the classroom we have carpeted areas and we have made one into a camping area with a tent, campfire, trees and animals and another with a life-size boat fitted with small oars, lifejackets, fishing rods and other sea-life. We also had a Farmers Market with baskets, play food and money. Last but not least a Bear cave under the Treehouse, CAUTION, BEAR IN AREA.

We explored our local animals from our ocean to our forests. There was a lot of talk about seeing bears in backyards and parks. Which brought up another conversation about why we are seeing so many more and what we can do to be BEAR AWARE.

By now you should have received an email of a slide show that introduces all of the children in our classes. If not please let us know. 

Just a few reminders:

-Please say your goodbye promptly when your child is being dropped off so the teachers can take them down to start their day.

-If your child is going to be late, away or is sick, please call or email the office and let them know the reason for the absence and if they are sick what the symptoms are.

-Pack extra clothing in your child’s backpack.

-The weather is changing and many children are wearing rain boots to school, please send along inside shoes. Also a jacket, its best to have one that not. Who knows what the weather will do throughout the day.

As always we are always happy to discuss any issues you may have. This is best done through a phone call or email. Drop off and pick up can be a busy time and the children’s safety is a priority during these times. 

We are looking forward to a fun and exciting year, thanks for joining us!

PS Check out our Bio’s from September's blog so you can see us without our masks

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Cecilia, Danielle

Welcome back! We are very excited to meet our new friends in the Sunflower Classroom.

We are looking forward to the next 10 months of learning, playing and discovering new things. We are making new friends, exploring art, and learning to listen at circle time.

For the first week of school, we were learning about our number one rule: No-one Gets Hurt. We read, “What Does It Mean To Be Kind?” “You Hold Me Up,” ”Swimmy,” and listened to the felt story, ‘Leo the Lion.’ We also introduced the game, ‘Stop & Go,’ where we used pictures of things that are a stop or a go…We also used a thumbs up or thumbs down signal as we don’t always have our stop signs on us. We listened to the felt rhymes, ‘5 Green Frogs,’ ‘Little Red Bug,’ & ‘3 Jelly Fish.’ We played the game ‘match the coloured puzzle pieces’ & ‘Sleeping Children.’ For art we used our hands to decorate our Sunflower poster. We decorated ourselves with our ‘hands up’ and made our own fish to be part of ‘the big fish’ as we all work together as a team.

We moved on to exploring Ourselves and our Families. For circle we read, “We Are All Alike, We Are All Different,” “Scribble Spot,” “Here Are My Hands,” and “Whoever You Are.’ We sang Willaby Wallaby Woo, The Hokey Pokey, and played the game ‘Who’s Under the Blanket?’ We listened to the felt rhyme, ‘Our 5 Senses’ & used our bodies for yoga poses. We danced with colorful scarves and played sleeping bunnies.  For art we used a mirror to work out what color eyes & hair we have, where our nose & lips go to make a self-portrait. We used a salad spinner to decorate our body and used tissue paper to also decorate ourselves. We used rectangles and triangles to make our own houses – some were small, some wide and some were tall. We also used people stencils that we could trace and color house shapes with felts and stickers. In the water table we had small houses and people to play with. We had babies and doctors’ kits in the home corner

For the last week of September, we are exploring fall—the leaves, the colors and the weather. We read, “Summer Green to Autumn Gold,” “We Are Going On A Leaf Hunt,” “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves,” “Fall Leaves Fall,” & listened to the felt story, ‘Sammy the Squirrel.’ We danced with leaves, listened to music while we drew, and sang, ‘Dingle Dangle Scarecrow.’ We also listened to the felt rhymes, ‘5 Leaves,’ ‘Scarecrow, Scarecrow, What Do You see?’ ‘Fall Is In The Air,’ ‘5 Baby Owls’ & ‘Harvest Time.’ We played, ‘What Colour Leaf is Missing?’ ‘Sleeping Scarecrows,’ and sang the song, ‘Leaves’ (to the tune of “Wheels On the Bus”). For art we explored leaves galore…in the water table, the sand table and through art. We used leaves to make ‘a window,’ a salt dough print, and we watched watercolour spread on diffusing paper to make ‘fall colored leaves.’ There were also stamps with leaf prints, potato leaf prints at the easel and Lego pieces to decorate corn. We had a farm with pumpkins, corn, hay, wheelbarrows and scarecrows in the home corner...this was a busy spot.

In October we will be talking about Thanksgiving, Fire Safety and Halloween.

Please remember to pack more food than less (one container for snack & one for lunch) as we are here for 4 hours a day and the children tend to work up quite an appetite. We will also be going outside to play so kindly pack appropriate footwear & jackets. Thank you and we look forward to growing our connections this school year.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office so we can arrange a meeting after school hours. 

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Welcome.  

Due to continued Covid restrictions we are again using outdoor drop off/pick up areas around the Church.  Thank you to all our families for their continued support and understading as we start this new school year.  During gradual entry the teachers are able to make connections with all the children, first with smaller groups and then all together. The children have settled into their classrooms and are learning all about our daily routines, reconnecting with friends and making new ones.  I have been spending time in each of the classrooms and am enjoying getting to know your children.  

The Discovery 2s need to be reassured that you will be back to pick them up and that they are in experienced, loving and caring hands.  Once your child feels comfortable with the teachers, it is much easier to say a quick good-bye.  Right now they are in the stage of solitary play and are moving into parallel play with their peers.

Children in the Treehouse and Sunflower Rooms will be learning independence throughout the school year.  Walking up and down the stairs holding the railings, hanging up their jackets and back packs.  Getting their snacks/lunches out and putting them away when they are done.  The 4s will be registering for Kindergarten soon and the teachers will be monitoring developmental stages and self-help skills.

We believe in our philosophy of "Children Learn Best Through Play". They learn language skills and develop literacy, social and emotional skills.  Play fosters creativity and imagination.  It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them.  Children learn to make decisions, problem solve, negotiate and manage stress.

We have an open door policy and we encourage you to speak with your teachers if you have any questions or concerns.  As the Developmental Resource Educator I am here to support our preschool programs, the teachers and all the children.  If you have any topics that you would like to have discussed in the blog or in a parent forum, please let me know.  Looking forward to another year full of learning and laughter

WE HOPE TO "SEE" EVERYONE AT OUR AGM ON OCT. 27TH! 

You must PRE-REGISTER with the office to attend the online ZOOM meeting.

Let us know if you are interested in being a board member. All meetings are done online and we get together the second Tuesday of the month. We often will skip months so there will only be 6 or 7 meetings all year. Get involved and help us to make this the best school in North Vancouver!!

Thanks for reading our blog and as usual, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us in the office.