DECEMBER 2022

DECEMBER 2022

Wow! I am always surprised by how fast each month goes by! And December is just a short month for us and we only have another week and a half before the Christmas break!

We will try to get everything done!

PURDYS 

Hey! We had a goal of $5000 and we passed it!! We raised a total of $5008.50!! That gives our school a profit of $1314.73! Thanks so much to all of our supporters!

PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK

Well, it was a great night! Such a fun time! It was a very busy night with a lot going on! The teachers made some delicious salads and our Board Members made some delicious desserts! And we can't forget about our neighbourhood FRESH SLICE PIZZA who delivered us some nice hot pizza!

The Mary Pellatt Room was busy with the Cake Walk! The music plays and the children go around the chairs and whoever stops at the right chair gets to pick a cake off the table!! 

Thanks so much to all the parents, board members and staff who donated cakes!

Once the games were done, at the end of the night, we auctioned off six more cakes! And then the very last cake was given to the winner of the cake raffle.

It was a great event and even though we don't like to call this a Fundraiser (It's more of a social get-together), we made a profit of $1029!! How awesome is that?! That will be added to our other fundraiser event funds to help to maintain and beautify our play yard! Thanks to everyone who supports us!

IMPORTANT DATES & SCHOOL CLOSURES

DEC. 7 - Christmas Service 6pm

DEC. 14/15/16 - Children's Christmas Parties

DEC. 16 - Last Day of Preschool before Christmas Break

JAN 3 - First Day back after Christmas Break

JAN 31 - REGISTRATION for Sept.2023 - Current Families

FEB 1 - Registration for Sept. 2023 - Community Families

FEB 13/14 - Children's Valentine's Day Parties

FEB. 20 - FAMILY DAY - PRESCHOOL CLOSED

FEB. 21 - Church Pancake Supper

MAR 13-17 - SPRING BREAK - PRESCHOOL CLOSED 1 WEEK

We Sent Something Home To Every Family! Did you get it?

Lindsay Wilson, one of our Parent Members on our Board has been working very hard at putting together a little something for all the families. Please look for a little RETURN IT package that includes a couple of plastic bags, a couple of stickers and an info sheet! 

We all know that we do a lot of socializing during the Christmas and New Year seasons so this is a good time to send home this fundraiser!

Please save all your cans, bottles, milk jugs, and other returnables in the bags provided and drop them off at the RETURN IT Depot at the Brooksbank location: 310 Brooksbank Avenue.

All of the proceeds we collect will go towards the maintenance and improvements to our Play yard!

Thanks for your support!!

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CLASSROOMS?

One special thing that happened is we have a new member of our TREEHOUSE Teaching Team! Please WELCOME KAMAL to the Treehouse MWF class! We are happy to have her join our little family!

Check out what else happened here: 

RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle, Susan, Vibha

November was a such a great and eventful month. There were two new themes presented: Construction and Pete the Cat.

For construction week we talked about many kinds of tools, their purposes and tool safety.

(Sing to the tune “Mulberry Bush”)

This is the way we saw our wood

Saw our wood, saw our wood 

This is the way we saw our wood 

So early in the morning.

Other verses: pound our nails, drill a hole and use a screwdriver.

For art, we made our own tool belts, dump trucks and trucks in the mud painting was a big hit with our two’s. 

At circle we talked about construction bear with felt pieces, five big dump trucks, how many trucks do you see, goodnight, goodnight construction site book and played memory game about which tool is missing from the pile.

During the final two weeks we learned about Pete the Cat, who would say:  "Don’t be sad, don’t be blue, there is something everyone can do."

For art, we made shoe prints with blue, red and brown paint, glued tissue paper on Pete’s shoes, marble painted Pete the cat and explored with groovy buttons.

At Circle time, we listened to two popular CD stories:

Pete the Cat and his groovy buttons

Pete the Cat and his white shoes.

Five black cats felt rhyme and what colour shoe is missing.

We also practised a yoga cat pose:

My hands and knees on the floor 

I become a cat

Stretching on leg to form a tail

I say meow just like that.

In December we will be focusing on Christmas. We have many more exciting things to do around this special time of the year.

Please continue to send extra clothing as there some very enthusiastic painters and children who enjoy the water play.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to speak to any of us.

TREEHOUSE ROOM - Gabi, Karen, Rose, Carol, Kamal

Hello Treehouse Families. Please welcome the newest member to our teaching team: KAMAL! We are glad to have you with us!

We had another fun, busy month with all your lovely children. The unusually dry weather allowed us to spend more time playing outside and gave us the opportunity to take a few lucky children to explore the neighbourhood on some sunny, quiet afternoons. 

We practiced some real life skills along the way, like finding lost boots, fixing hats to be able to see, or holding onto our partners hands, just to name a few. By the 4th trip, the little troopers forgot to complain “Are we there yet?” and walked happily, chatting about traffic, things that they spotted in windows or on the road. It’s amazing how simple things in life make us feel content!

In the classroom we remembered the soldiers who lost their lives for

 us, and created a poppy

art with a poem printed on the back. Remembrance Day is a heavy topic for 3 and 4 year olds,

but they were interested to learn about the past. Please ask your children whenever you see an

interactive project in their backpacks, it might open up a conversation on a subject we covered

at school. Sometimes the children amaze us by remembering things we learned about months

ago!

In the first two weeks of November we shared books and felt board stories that we, the teachers

like to work with. Eric Carle’s book simplicity and stunning illustrations, Dr. Seuss’s complex and

clever, funny language, and Pete the Cat’s fun, interactive stories were all loved by both classes.

For the past few weeks we covered multiple topics including: shapes, colours and numbers.

The children learned to recognize and name shapes that were displayed to them on the felt

board. They were able to differentiate a square from a rectangle! We played memory games,

favoured by many, where they had to guess or choose the correct shape, colour or number. (“Red

Circle”, “Snails in a Pail,” “ Little Mouse”, “Crayons, Crayons”, were some of the favourites.)

Some of the art projects that were the most popular were a shape train paper collage, and

a finger painting “experiment“ where the children mixed primary colours to reveal secondary

colours. Seeing purple after mixing some blue and red always creates some amazing reactions!

Hearing “Wow, I really did make this beautiful purple!!” is priceless every time.

Equally exciting is to share the Nativity story with the children before we read any other

Christmas stories. Angels and a baby were amongst some well loved art projects. Some of the free play times were replaced by practices for the Christmas Service. We have

been practicing relentlessly, the children are very excited to showcase their talents. We hope

that you can all make it and celebrate with us, (unless you haven’t changed your mind about

that family trip to boring Hawaii, or other warm, boring places :)

Enjoy the time you will have with your little ones over the holidays. We wish you all a very

happy, peaceful and safe Christmas and a prosperous, healthy New Year!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Carol, Danielle, Rose

It is hard to believe it will be Christmas next month but after the busy month we have had, we will be

ready for a holiday.

We started the month of November talking about Sealife, with an emphasis on Orca Whales. We

discovered that as a school we have ‘adopted’ an orca whale in the ocean, off Vancouver Island named

Echo. As a class, we each will get to take him home in his ‘aquarium’ and spend the weekend with him

and bring him back to show and share with our friends. We also explored crabs and jellyfish. 

We read “Looking for Crabs", "Swimmy" and "One Tiny Turtle”. We listened to the felt songs "Three  Jellyfish", "Baby Beluga", "Swimming in the Ocean" and "5 Whales". We matched different kinds of sea creatures and guessed what Sea Animal was missing. We used diffusing paper and watercolors to make jellyfish, paper plates to make crabs and used a salad spinner to decorate our orca whales.

We also spent a day talking about Remembrance Day. We learned that a long time ago adults stopped

talking to each other and started a war. We discussed how to be a good friend, keep our hands to our

own bodies and use our words when we are not happy. We read "Ava’s Poppy" and "The Soldiers Puppy" and listened to the felt rhymes -Five Brave Soldiers and Five Poppies. We marched to the song ‘The Grand old Duke of York’. For art we used red tissue paper and a black pompoms to make our own poppy.

For the last two weeks we decided to take a step back into our childhoods and talk about our favorite

fairytales. We started with "The Three Little Pigs", "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" and then "Goldilocks and The 3 Bears", "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Gingerbread Man." 

We also managed to schedule a visit to the library where we listened to the story "Hansel and Gretel – Ninja Chicks". 

We have also heard a few stories that take the old fairy tales into a different direction. We read “The Three Little Wolves and The Big Bad Pig", "Jack and The Giant BBQ", "Suddenly, Snoring Beauty", "Tacky Locks", "Old Macdonald Had a Dragon" and "Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears”. 

For art we used popsicle sticks to make our own houses, glue and paper to make the face of a goat and tissue paper, cotton wool and real beans to make our own beanstalk in the sky. We also used oatmeal to make three bowls of porridge and made a forest with strips of paper and silhouettes of Red Riding Hood and the wolf plus we all enjoyed decorating our own gingerbread man to take home. We also have been very busy Elves making something special for our loved ones.

We have been very busy practicing our Christmas Songs for our Christmas Service that we are having

next week. We are looking forward to performing it in front of our families.

For the last few weeks of the year, we will explore The Nativity and Christmas, as well as continuing to

have fun learning and playing together.

Please remember to pack more food than less (one container for snack and one for lunch) as beginning in December we will be here for 4 ½ hours a day. 

We will also be going outside to play if it’s not raining, so pack appropriate footwear and 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

This is such a magical time of the year and I am so lucky to be able to experience the anticipation of the Holiday Season through the eyes of the children.  

The teachers have been rehearsing for the Christmas Service on Wednesday, December 7th at 6 pm.  Please drop off the children in the Rainbow Room by 5:30 pm.  We are so happy that we are able to celebrate this event in person. 

The Pizza Night was such a fun, successful evening. Thank you everyone for your support of the school.  The cake walk is always the highlight for me and once again I wasn't surprised by all the smiles and laughter.

I want to wish all our families a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

November 2022

We have been extremely lucky with our extended summer weather throughout October but now we need to hunker down and get ready for rain, snow, hail, sun and wind....and that could just be a Monday! 

Please remember to send your child with indoor shoes if they come to school in boots. Running around in the gym is not safe in boots and children are not allowed to run around without footwear. Best to send extra socks and clothes in their packs so they can put on a sweater if they get cold or change if they get wet from outside.

SAMOSA FUNDRAISER - Wow! Our Samosa Fundraiser sold over $3061 worth of products!! And that give our school a profit of $765.49 that will go towards our playground upgrade! Thank you so much for supporting our school and thanks you to The Samosa Fundraising Company for another amazing campaign! Order Pickup will be Nov. 9th - 11:30-12:45pm at the preschool.

PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK: THURS., NOV. 17th - We can not wait for this event!! It has been two years since we have gathered together and we are READY TO PARTY! Pizza forms will be sent home so please plan on stopping by for dinner, conversation and perhaps you might WIN A CAKE! This event will be hosted by St. Catherine's Board Members and Teachers and we have great food and exciting games to play! We will also have a silent auction for some of our best decorated cakes! Please feel free to donate a cake for our cake walk/auction if you feel so inclined!

PURDYS CHOCOLATE FUNDRAISER HAS OPENED! 

Every Christmas we like to do our Purdys Chocolate Fundraiser and it seems to be a hit each year! Our goal is to sell over $5000 worth of chocolate. This year we will give a prize to the family that orders the most chocolate! If you send the ordering link to others, and they order chocolate then you will get credit for their orders as well! Just tell them to let us know you recommended our fundraiser. Good luck and Happy Eating! Just go to Purdys Fundraising and use our ordering code 11053: https://fundraising.purdys.com/1191-97629

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!

Children who want to register for the 2023-2024 Kindergarten school year and who will have reached the age of 5 prior to December 30, 2023 (year of birth 2018) are eligible.

Please go online to the North Vancouver School District web site for more information.

NEW CCFRI REBATE AMOUNTS! 

I have sent out an email to all the 3s and 4s outlining that our CCFRI rebate amounts will be changing as of Dec. 1st. If you have not received any such email, please contact the office immediately as fees are changing and because a full day rate will give you up to 3 times as much as a part day rate, you may want to extend your hours. You will get a new fee schedule for Dec-June emailed to you shortly.

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

Nov 8 - Purdys Chocolate Fundraiser Opens

Nov 11 - Remembrance Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Nov.15 - Pizza Orders Due

Nov 17 - Pizza Day & Cake Walk

Nov 29 - Purdys Orders Due

Dec 7 - Christmas Service (all mwf & t/th classes)

Dec 14/15/16 - Children's Christmas Parties

Dec 16 - Last Day before Christmas Break

Jan 3 - First Day of Classes

DID YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CLASSROOMS? Check it out in our BLOG: https://stcpre.blogspot.com/2022/11/november-2022.html

RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle (T/Th), Susan (M/W) Vibha (M-Th)

Hello to all of our two’s families. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog as it’s a great way to learn about all the fun we are having in the rainbow room classroom.

The month of October was full of celebrations! We first celebrated and learned about the Thanksgiving holiday. This is a time for the teachers to remind the children about the importance of giving thanks to family our friends and God. The second exciting holiday we took part in was Halloween. The highlight of the month was our Halloween parties for sure! The children all looked so sweet in their Halloween/ black and orange themed clothing. The party energy filled the classroom, the children had their faces painted, listened to Halloween music, and even watched a short Halloween themed movie. Fun was had by all and thank you to the parents who generously contributed food to our festivities.

The teachers always take the time to creatively decorate the classroom for the theme of the month. This time of the year is filled with Fall colours and some spooky ghosts, bats, and pumpkins. The children’s art was beautifully displayed on the classroom walls. A few highlights of the student’s artwork were hand print bats, paper plate spiders, sponge print ghosts, along with pumpkin and leave prints. We are so proud of each of the children for the effort, creativity, and enthusiasm for each of their art pieces. We love fostering creativity in the classroom and encourage all parents to take the time to discuss their children’s art as they bring them home.

Some other fun activities that took place in the classroom this month was the table activities and floor toys.  When setting up the classroom activities the teachers take the time to acknowledge what the children are interested in as well as keeping the theme in mind. The two-year-olds are developing their fine motor skills rapidly so to foster this skill toys such as our lock box are out to engage with. The lock box is always a hit with the children.  Small figures are often appealing to take in and out of the doors. The locks are a great small motor activity. 

When we set up the classroom, we love giving the children the opportunity to learn a new skill such as their colours. Often our toys are sorted by colours shapes or material type. A sorting activity is chance for the teachers to sit down and engage with the students one on one during classroom time. Parents are encouraged to create fun tabletop activities at home too. A engaging sorting activity that can be done with household materials is sorting rocks, leaves, yard treasures in a muffin tin. Children love showing and talking to their caregivers about what they have found and this creates a great chance for adult and child exchange.

Thank you again to the parents who contributed to the Halloween parties, they wouldn’t be possible without you.

A reminder to the parents, if you child comes to school in rain boots, please pack a pair of runners or sneakers for child. Boots are great for stomping in puddles, but they are hard to walk in when in the classroom.

We are so excited to see the magic of Christmas through the children’s eyes in upcoming months!

Thanks for reading!

TREEHOUSE ROOM - Karen (M-F), Gabi (M-F), Rose (T/Th), Carol (T/Th)

Greetings Treehouse Families

Welcome to our second blog for this school year. 

I wanted to start off with a ‘few’ reminders. 

• Please send an extra set of clothing with your child’s belongings. We are running very low on spare items.
• With the wet weather upon us most children are wearing boots. Please send your child with dry, more comfortable shoes to wear in class. Boots are not easy to run around in the gym, stairs are not easy to walk and sitting at circle carpet can be uncomfortable. 
• Please take your child to the washroom before leaving home. We are being asked by children as soon as they arrive to go and this is a busy time getting all the children settled in.
• Keep the candy/sweets for after school. With your child having access to their food the sweets are normally the first thing they eat and then no longer interested in the food. 
• Some of the children have very small (cute) backpacks. These can be very difficult and frustrating for some children to try and unpack and pack, more space is better and good practice for Kindergarten.

On to all the things your children may or may not have told you this month…

We started off the month talking about Autumn/Fall. Asking the children what they have noticed, about what the changes are that happen. The children responded with some great answers. “The leaves are changing colour and falling to the ground”. “We are wearing our jackets more because it is getting colder outside”. “Mom said I can’t wear shorts anymore”. Just to name a few.

Art was full of all colours we find in Autumn. The children made leaf wreaths on a paper plate, leaf stamping using real leaves, ornamental corn using a paper bag and painting with their fingertips, cutting up a variety of real leaves and pasting them to paper shaped leaves and pasting Autumn coloured tissue paper on to crayon drawn trees. Music time was filled with songs “Autumn Leaves are Falling Down”, “Sleeping Turkeys”, “We Are Going on a Leaf Hunt” “Autumn is Here”. We also went for a neighbourhood walk with some of the children to collect leaves, enjoy hot chocolate at Delany’s and a visit to the library. 

Thanksgiving was a opportunity for sharing what we are all thankful for. You will be happy to know the most popular answer was Mommys and Daddys.

For Art the children made paper plate turkeys, coloured cornucopias, mini pumpkin paint stamping and some children brought home turkeys made with play-dough. 

We had a special visit from one of our teachers, Vibha who talked about Diwali. This is a Festival of Lights that is celebrated for 5 days. People celebrate by decorating their homes with lights, flowers and Diyas. Vibha brought some in for the children to decorate and it also contained a tea light. Like many festivals, Diwali is a time when families get together to have fun, share sweets, gifts and eat lots of delicious food.

 

Vibha talked about Rangoli which consist of beautiful patterns made with colourful patterns, flowers and grains. At circle time Vibha shared a story and Diwali and dancing with brightly colour scarves. Fun was had by all. Thank you Vibha.

Just like that we were into everything Halloween. This year we started a community garden and planted pumpkin seeds. Only one grew and then children decorated small ornamental ones to keep it company.

Circle time was filled with conversations about what is real and what is pretend: The costumes that the children would be wearing, who visited a pumpkin patch and how loud my Dad snores! :) Once one child mentioned this everyone's hands went up to share. We also played “Boo’s under the Blanket?, Bibbity, Bobbity Alphabet Brew. We also read “Room on a Broom”, “Pumpkin, Pumpkin What Do You See?” “Are You My Mummy?”, “Frogs on a Spoon”, “Winnie and Wilbur and the Flying Carpet” “The Little Orange House” “Go Away Big Green Monster” “The Chocolate Chip Ghost” and many more. We also played many games on the felt board like Which House is the Ghost in? Witch is My Name-o. What Coloured Bat is Missing? 

A classic for every Halloween is “5 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate”. We also made this an art project that I hope the children shared with you. We attached the rhyme on the back. 

You may have noticed a ‘bit’ more art this month… puffy paint ghost, interactive paper plate bat scene, witch caldron, handprint spiders, mummies, bat crowns, silly pumpkin faces made from craft paper, magic water colour painting, monster making with shapes, and sticky rice crispy treat.

Our home corners were set up with a Witch Emporium, Pumpkin Patch, Spooky Castles and Ships.

Our Halloween parties were started with being greeted by the children in costumes.
Throughout the day we made a yummy edible potion, experimented with baking soda and vinegar in small caldrons, played Halloween Bingo, listened to lots of Halloween music “Monster Mash”, “Halloween Stomp”, “Ghostbusters” “Monster Boogie” “Halloween Freeze” “Spooky Wheels on the Bus” and dancing. A big thank you to the families who brought in party food to share. If you didn’t get a chance to sign up we will be having another opportunity for our Christmas party.

Last but not least we just wanted to share what we have been observing in the classroom. All the children have settled in and are getting more comfortable with each class. Every child is showing their independence upon arrival and following our daily routines smoothly. Friendships are forming and existing ones are flourishing. Interactions between peers can sometimes be challenging as each child may interpret the others actions as being hurtful. However each child communicates their feelings and ideas in a way that they are familiar with. Friendships take effort and understanding and there will be good days and not so good days. At any time if we hear or see hurtful interactions we take this opportunity to discuss what has happened and to acknowledge the other person's feelings. Most children are able to tell a peer that what they are doing is not okay. We are always there to guide the children in a situation that will have a positive outcome. 

For the month of November we will be focusing on children’s authors…Dr. Seuss, Eric Carle and Eric Litwin.

Well I hope you made it to the end, give us a thumbs up at drop off or pickup if you did!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Danielle, Carol, Rose

Hello Everyone,

We’ve had a wonderful October, with so many warm and sunny days for us to play outside in our playground. Of course, at the time of writing, the weather has changed considerably, so it’s a good thing we have lots of great gym equipment!

The children are continuing to work on independent skills including: taking off and putting on jackets, hanging them up along with their back packs in their cubbies, and now, changing from rain boots into indoor shoes- a valuable life skill in B.C.

During the first week of October we learned about Thanksgiving. At circle we played Turkey games, the best of which was Pin the Tail Feathers on the Turkey. We practiced gross motor skills by tossing small pumpkins into a cornucopia. We read books like “There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Pie”, Peppa’s Windy Fall Day” and “Thanks For Thanksgiving”, among others. At the Art tables, we made Turkeys by tracing, (4 year olds), and gluing on eyes and feathers; we made a leaf and handprint wreath and answered the question “What are you thankful for?”. That day we used feathers to paint with at the easel. We also made cornucopias by gluing on pictures of foods we might eat at Thanksgiving Dinner. We went outside for a very short walk to look at the community garden boxes in the corner of the church parking lot where we left our decorated mini (real) pumpkins and discussed all the amazing fruits and vegetables the gardeners had grown.

 We next had a week of looking at Autumn.

Circle included lots of games, books and songs like: Going on a Leaf Hunt, Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, Who’s Under the Blanket?, 5 Baby Owls. We learned about different types of leaves and the life cycle of apples.

In the music room we did dancing with leaves and played the Farmer’s in the Dell.

At Art we made scarecrows out of paper bags, used sliced apples to make prints, painted apple trees and had dry leaves in the (dry) water table.

 The last two weeks of October we have been preparing for Hallowe’en.

We read “10 Little Pumpkins”, “Mouse’s First Hallowe’en”, “Baby Bat’s Lullaby”, “Scaredy Cat Splat” and “Insy Winsy Spider”, ”Happy Hallowe’en Little Critter”, ”Boo Who”, “Little Boo”, and “The Spooky Wheels on the Bus”.

We sang Fly Fly Little Bats, There’s a Spider on my Leg, The Haunted House song and many others.

We played throwing spiders bats and eyeballs into a cauldron, played Hallowe’en Hokey Pokey, and in the music room we read “the Witch on Hallowe’en” and played freeze dance to Hallowe’en music.

In art we traced pumpkins for a collage, used a half small pumpkin for stamping, made hand print bats, gluing on eyes, teeth and ears, made paper plate spiders with accordion legs; we painted  ghosts using balloons and made witches’ hats which we painted and decorated.

During these last weeks of October we also had two special sessions. Marion lead us through a Fire Safety programme with Firefighter Dan, including the important points: never touching fire/heat; Stop Drop and Roll; and Crawl Low Under Smoke.

We also had an exciting visit from Teacher Vibha (Rainbow Rm), who came to share her celebration of  the Festival of Diwali, a celebration of Light.

We talked about diyas, small clay lamps which we painted to take home, Rangoli, beautiful patterns which we coloured at the art table, and we tasted some delicious Gulab Jamun, a sweet syrup soaked small cake, a very popular treat with our class! Thank you so much Vibha for your time and generosity, we all loved that special lesson.

 Of course October ended with our class Hallowe’en Party.

It’s always lovely to see all the cute, beautiful and scary costumes the children come in.

We had special party food at snack time (Thank you to the parents chosen this time), we played party games, sang songs and read Hallowe’en books.

 Thank you all for your continued support; we have a few fundraisers coming up, including The Pizza Night, 17th of November, and the Purdy’s Chocolates fundraiser throughout November.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask any of the teachers,

RESOURCE ROOM - Marion

As the school year progresses, so do the little friendships in the classrooms.  Some children come with a ready set group of friends, while others start off not knowing anyone.  Each child develops at their own pace and interacting with peers is different for each child.  Then there are the stages of play: solitary, parallel, associate and cooperative play.  The children are developing their social skills and while playing with peers they are learning how to express their emotions and how to take turns.  The dynamics in the groups change each day and they need to be able to communicate their needs to each other.  

The classrooms are set up with a number of play areas. During free play the children are able to move from one activity to another.  Young children are learning how to form friendships with a number of children, this sometimes depends on their play interest at the time.  There are leaders and followers and young children may try on both roles during play. The teachers use Circle time to teach the children about peer interactions, being kind to others and our number one rule: No One Gets Hurt.  If you any questions please speak with you child's teachers or email the office.

We are very excited that we will once again have our Christmas Service in the Church on Wednesday, Dec 7th, 2022 @ 6pm.  The children in the Treehouse and Sunflower Rooms will be rehearsing  during class time. 

OCTOBER 2022

 

WELCOME TO OCTOBER!!

Pumpkins, ghosts and bats...OH MY! The hallways are getting spookier by the day!! 

This month we are talking about Autumn (or Fall), Thanksgiving, and Halloween! And I think we will be making some pumpkin spice playdoh!!

Important Dates & Events

OCT. 10 - Thanksgiving: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

OCT. 11 - Samosa Fundraiser Starts

OCT. 23 - Samosa Fundraiser Ends

OCT.27/31 - Children's Halloween Parties

NOV. 1/2 - Photo Days

NOV. 2 - Samosa Pick Up Day (11:30-12:45)

NOV. 3 - Purdys Chocolate Fundraiser Starts

NOV. 11 - Remembrance Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

NOV. 17 - Pizza Night & Cake Walk 

NOV. 29 - Purdys Chocolate Fundraiser Ends

DEC. 6-12 - Chocolate Delivery 

Childcare Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI)

Starting in December, the amount of your CCFRI rebate will be increasing. The Provincial and Canadian Governments have begun the steps to increase the CCFRI and I will receive more information regarding the specific amounts in the next couple of weeks. Once I have the numbers, I will redo your 3's & 4's fee schedules and send them out to you in November.

Pizza Night & Cake Walk: Nov. 17th, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Please save the date for this amazing night! The teachers and board members will be cooking up a storm of delicious salads & desserts to go along with our pizza! It is a fun night where your children  can WIN A CAKE! Please think about donating a cake that will either be a prize for the cake walk winners or if you have amazing cake decorating skills,  your cake may be chosen as one of the many cakes we have for our cake auction! (If your child doesn't win a cake, you can keep them happy by trying to get the highest bid!) Bring your loonies to buy your cake walk tickets and prepare to have some fun while getting to know your children's friends and families.

Fundraisers coming up

1.  SAMOSAS - We will be doing our Samosa fundraiser this month and starting on October 11th, you will receive information on how to order. Pick up will be on Nov. 2nd from 11:30-12:45pm

2.  PURDYS CHOCOLATE - We will be doing our Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser again this year!

Our goal this year is $5000! And perhaps we will give a prize to the family that raises the most money! The order forms will go out in November. The order deadline will be Nov. 29th and pick up will be the second week of December. 

What is happening in the CLASSROOMS??

We have had an entire month just FLY BY! The Teachers did so much programming over the last month and the children seemed to be happy and engaged with their friends and the amazing activities!

Please check out the Blog to see what the children got up to in September and please check out the photos so you can see the classroom in action!!

RAINBOW ROOM

Danelle (T/Th), Susan (M/W), Vibha (M-Th)

A big welcome to our new and returning families!  Thank you parents for all your support and patience during gradual entry.  It’s been 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 like to be independent. Favourite words are “mine” and “no” and “I do it”. Emotions take on a roller coaster like quality as 2 year olds can go from excitement to anger to laughter within a few minutes. The most interesting area of child development is their language development and the blossoming of  their speech. Another interesting development is the beginning of pretend play - playing with dolls, dishes and dress-up clothes. 

Some ideas for parents:

-Read to your children everyday. Encourage them to look at books; simple story lines are best.

-Let children help you with simple chores such as picking up toys or putting clothes in the laundry basket.

-Give two’s clear and simple choices: Do you want to drink milk or juice?

-Encourage verbal skills by giving simple directions. 

A little information about our Rainbow Room: 

We setup the rooms in a way that facilitates exploration and discovery through play.  Two year olds love painting, splashing in the water table, playing in the housekeeping corner, and singing and dancing at circle time.  

The month of October we will 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

Here’s the song we sing before having snack:

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

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.  At pick up time, please check our white board outside for a synopsis of our day. 

Please feel free to talk to us if you have any questions or concerns.

TREEHOUSE ROOM

Karen (M-F), Gabi (M-F), Rose (T/Th), Carol (T/Th)

Dear returning and new members of our ever growing St. Catherine’s family - welcome to you all. 

Thank you for your trust in us to spend many happy hours, days, months, even years with your young treasures! It’s been a challenging, but rewarding few weeks to get to know all the children, their personalities, their preferences or dislikes. 

One thing for sure is that the children in both of our classes like music with a wide variety of genres and artists. (ABBA is just one interesting choice of a 3 yr old!) 

Our young students always amaze us by how quickly and seemingly effortless they adapt to a new routine, how happy and cheerful they (usually) are. 

It’s just a wild guess, but we noticed that after the general feeling of ‘darkness’ the pandemic caused, the children seem more mature in their self-help skills and more eager to join any group activities. With the negative news that is being presented to us on our TVs and computers, it’s more important than ever to shield our children and their mental, emotional health by being more loving, caring, a bit more happy, a bit more silly. That is our plan for your children this year! 

We started it all off by creating a poster with the children's handprints and then we had a conversation on how to be inclusive and caring and a good friend. 

We practiced good listening skills, and talked about expectations while on the circle carpet. We played games where the children had to pick a good or bad choice in situations that might happen in our classroom . 

We have been practicing how to line up, move safely as a group and to wait patiently for our friends who need more time to finish tasks. Don’t worry, we had lots of fun too when we sang songs, shared many stories, played name games to learn each other’s names, and had a picnic outside just to name a few. 

We learned about Canada, animals native to BC (where one conversation turned into a debate whether a unicorn would qualify as a BC resident). We looked at some beautiful art pieces created by indigenous communities, and the children created their own dream catchers, totem poles and priceless jewelry. We ‘traveled’ in a boat installed in the home corner, had a 'camp fire' roasted 'marshmallows’ and used a flashlight in the dark.

The new mural in the hallway is fantastic and some children love to take more frequent bathroom breaks just to look at it. Please ask your children what animals they can name that live in our province that are also painted on the wall!

The weather has been fantastic so far, but please remember to dress your children in layers as the mornings are chilly and the playground could be wet. Extra clothes in their backpacks would also be appreciated.

Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns!

SUNFLOWER ROOM

Carol (MWF), Danielle (MWF), Rose (MWF)

Welcome back Everyone! We are very excited and happy to meet some new and old friends in our Sunflower Classroom.

Over the next 10 months, we have lots of learning, playing and discovering new things planned. We will be making new friends, exploring with art and learning to listen and understand new things at circle time.

For the first week of School, we spent lots of time playing and learning about our new classroom & friends. We sang name games and action rhymes. We also talked about our number one rule “No-one Gets Hurt” & we read “What does it mean to be Kind?’.  For art we used our hands to decorate our Sunflower poster. We listened to the felt story ‘Leo the Lion’ and heard how a tiny mouse could make friends with a lion. We also introduced the game ‘Stop & Go’, where we used pictures of things that are a stop or a go… We read ‘The Kissing Hand’ and used diffusing paper to make matching handprints.

We moved onto exploring Ourselves and our Families. For circle we talked about who lives in our house and what color hair/eyes we had. We read ‘Whoever you are’ & ‘I’m Like You, You’re Like Me’. 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 rectangles and triangles to make our own houses – some were small, some wide and some were tall. In the water table we had small houses and people to play with. We had babies and baby stuff in the home corner.

For the last week of September, we listened to the CD stories about ‘Pete the Cat’. Two of the popular stories were ‘Pete the Cat and his Groovy Buttons’ & Pete the Cat & His White Shoes.’ We had fun singing along to the CD stories and acting out being a ‘cat’. We played the game ‘Find the shoe’ and “What color jacket is missing?’ We made shoe prints with blue, red & white paint and decorated Pete the Cat with glue, paint and whiskers.  We were ‘Vets’ in the home corner with stuffed cats & dogs and matched colored shoes on the light table.  In the water table we got to mix ‘colored shaving cream’ and add buttons to our creations.

In October we will be talking about Thanksgiving, Fall 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, so the children get hungry.  We have seen some yummy lunch/snack suggestions over the last few weeks. For e.g. veggies & dip, grilled cheese sandwich, boiled eggs, pasta in a thermos, waffles & sushi. So much variety makes the teachers want to upgrade their lunches 😊.  We will also be going outside to play when it’s not raining, 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 Porter

Welcome to a new school year.  

Even after 25 years at St. Catherine's I still feel so excited to see the returning families and to meet the new ones.  We are so lucky to be enjoying Summer like weather in October and the children are spending time out in the playground.  

Gradual entry went very smoothly this year and the children have settled into their classrooms and are making friends.  They are getting to know their teachers and their classmates.  

All the children are enjoying welcoming circles and doing fun art activities.  I have been spending time in each classroom and connecting with all the children.  

We encourage the children to work on their self help skills.  They come in, hang up their backpacks and take off their jackets.  Parents can work on some of these skills at home and this will help them be more independent at school.

I will be sharing information about early learning and child development in the monthly Blog.  If you have an questions or concerns, please email the office or give me a call.