FEBRUARY 2022

AIM HIGH TO THE SKY

Aim high to the sky,
In all that you do.
Because you just never know,
What it takes to be you.

Be strong and be brave,
But at the same time be kind.
And always be sure,
That you’re using your mind.

By: James McDonald

FEBRUARY 2022 is a short month but we have much to do!!

REGISTRATION for September 2022 is well under way! And GOOD NEWS! Every family who registered got the days and times they want! We won't assign classrooms until about 2 weeks before school starts. Watch your emails for an official message in the next week or two.

SCHOOL CLOSURES are coming up! Please check the Calendar of Events below.

NEW COVID GUIDELINES

Thank you to all our families for being so diligent in keeping your sick children home. We have made it through the worst part of the Flu Season and we have managed to keep sicknesses to a minimum. We had a moment when all three teachers of the Treehouse Room were away at the same time! Luckily, the low attendance recently and the fact we have so many staff members, we were able to keep within ratios and fun was had by all! A big THANK YOU to Marion for stepping onto the floor to help out, even on her day off!!

Please remember to phone or email the school when your child is going to be absent. If we have prior knowledge of an absence, it helps us so we can arrange staffing schedules to meet the needs in the school. If your child is away because of sickness, please let us know the symptoms so we can keep track of the sicknesses moving through our school and families. If your child is away, but is not sick, please let us know they are just having a home day.

Thank you to those families who are letting us know when COVID passes through your homes and families. Current regs. state that as long as your child is not exhibiting symptoms, or had not been told by a doctor to isolate, they are fine to come to school. Parents who are themselves sick or exhibiting symptoms should not be dropping their children off at school. 

FUNDRAISING

We are getting ready for another year at school! Busy classrooms and happy voices will be echoing our halls shortly!!

            There is so much to do in our classrooms, and this is partly due to the great Fundraising Events that we hold throughout the year!

            When families like yours support our school by choosing to participate in one, some or all of our Fundraisers, it is the children that reap the benefits!

            This year our fundraising efforts will be going towards Playground Improvements (done by The Great Canadian Landscaping Company) as well as new classroom supplies and activities!

            Please check out the list below of all our Fundraisers and how we have been doing this year and what we plan to do with the profits we receive!

1.      Little Kitchen Academy (NEW!) will be welcoming the first students into their kitchen at LKA Edgemont Village on March 14th, the key ingredient for an independent child! The first-of-its-kind Montessori-inspired cooking school for kids ages three through teen, is offering all St. Catherine's Childcare Society families $50 off their registration through March 1st, using the code SCCS2022. They will also be donating $10 back to your school for every registration that selects St. Catherine's Childcare Society as their referral source.

Every week in their three-hour classes, your child will learn practical life skills while developing their independence and having lots of fun. Registration is open on for Spring break sessions which run from March 14 - March 27th. Spring sessions will run from March 28th - June 19th. With only 10 students per class, spots will fill up fast! Register now.

2.      Scholastics (Ongoing): Order books online using our special ordering code (RC168576). These make great birthday and Christmas gifts and reading with your child daily is a great way to foster that love of reading that is so important for school readiness and fostering a love of learning. Last year we were able to spend over $500 on classroom materials from Scholastics!!

3.      Lovable Labels (Ongoing): Order personalized labels for your children’s clothes, lunch boxes and containers and anything else that needs labeling. 20% of every order will support St. Catherine’s Childcare Society. Place your order online at www.StCatherines.lovablelabels.ca . No orders were made last year.

4.      Cobs Bakery (Ongoing): When you make a purchase at the Edgemont Village Cobs Bread Store, you can mention you would like to support St. Catherine’s Preschool and 5% of your purchase will be forwarded to St. Catherine’s.

5.      Return It Recycling (Ongoing): Take your cans and bottles to the Return It Depot on Brooksbank Ave. and you can donate them to St. Catherine’s Childcare Society. You just need to print off a St. Catherine’s Childcare Society sticker (can get from the preschool office) and put that on your clear bag of cans/bottles and St. Catherine’s will get the proceeds! Last year we made about $75! Wow! Let’s beat last year’s total! Stickers available in the Preschool Office.

6.      Boston Pizza (Ongoing): When you purchase food from the Boston Pizza on Esplanade & Chesterfield in North Vancouver, you can take a clear picture of your receipt and email it to the preschool. We will forward these on, and we will receive 5% of the food sales! Sounds like a Win-Win situation!!

7.      Purdy’s Chocolates (November): Last school year we sold $5630.10 worth of chocolate! That means that the school received a profit of $1407.53! And because we sold more than $5000 worth of chocolate, we got an extra rebate of $140!! Wow! Wow! Wow! Did we beat that this year?? I don’t know the final numbers yet but we made $6169.50 in sales, and we received a profit of $1619.50. We have yet to receive notice if we qualified for the extra rebate but I have a good feeling!!

8.      Samosas (November & March): This year in November our ever-popular Samosa Fundraiser ran: We made $668! Great for entertaining or quick meals!

9.      The Card Project (Spring): The children work hard at creating a beautiful art piece and then we send them off and they get turned into beautiful greeting cards, exercise books or sketch pads! They make great gifts for grandparents and of course, who doesn’t need blank greeting cards!?! The children are so proud of their creations too!

10.  Donations (Ongoing): Last year we decided to take our own individual and class photos because the Covid-19 protocols were preventing us from having class photos done. We asked for donations for the pictures you received, and we collected about $150! Which is about the same amount we made if we use the photography company! Wow! Thank you so much! Last year we  also had a few families donate their CCFRI rebates! Totally unexpected but absolutely appreciated!

We here at St. Catherine’s thank you and your friends and family for helping to support our wonderful school!  A big THANK YOU from the St. Catherine’s Board Members and Staff!!

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

Jan 31       - Registration for current families

Feb 1        - Registration for community families

Feb 10/14 - Children's Valentine's Day parties

Feb 21      - Family Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Mar14-18 - Spring Break: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

HEY! Did you hear what happened last month in the classrooms? No?! Well check it out here!!

RAINBOW ROOM - DANIELLE, VIBHA, SUSAN, ROSE

Hello 2022!

 A new year in the Discovery Twos class and we are excited to welcome all the children back! 

January started off with exploring our current season of winter. The room was decorated beautifully by the teachers with snowflakes, ice painting art, snowmen sculptures and even toboggans to ride in.

Following the fun two weeks of Winter theme, we moved on to the exploration of Dinosaurs. The children had the opportunity to play with large dinosaur figures, cut out playdough dinosaur shapes with cookie cutters and did some Dino prints with paint.

A few highlights in the classroom were when the children played in the two toboggans on the floor. The children took turns pulling each other around the room. This exercise allowed the children to understand each other’s weight and strength. Some children were able to pull their peers without the help of the teachers. The teachers stepped in and even got a ride in the sled. 

Another highlight in the classroom was the conversion between teacher Vibha and the students where they spoke about the dinosaur tape story “How Do Dinosaurs Go to School”. When Vibha asked the children "How do dinosaurs go to school?" The students answered in some creative ways; “Dinosaurs can’t walk”, “walk”, “with Daddy”, “Drive the car”, “I don’t know”. Another conversation got going about what dinosaurs eat and some answers were; “cookies”, “I don’t know”, fruit snacks”, “muffins”, “sandwich”, “pizza”, “bacon”, “cereal”, “toast”, “grass”, “crackers”, “broccoli”, “cake”.  

The last month has given us some fair weather, so we have played in our outside playground. The outside activities allow the children to interact with nature and experience the weather. For one week we had a lot of fog which made the sky very misty and the conversation about weather was had by many of the teachers and students. When the weather wasn’t optimal the children played in the gym. Lots of running, throwing, and climbing was done. The children always enjoy our gross motor movements in the gym.

Here in the Rainbow Room we celebrated the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Tiger. The children played with rice in the water table and we painted calligraphy with black paint as well as read stories about traditional Chinese New Year activities. 

We would like to remind parents to bring runners if your child comes to school in boots. We know that boots are great footwear for this time of the year, but they are not great shoes to play in.

We are looking forward to another exciting month of fun with the children of the Rainbow Room!

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

“Gong Hey Fat Choi” Happy Chinese New year everyone!

  

What a fun month we had! During the month of January, we focused about Winter. We transformed our block corner into a snowy airport! We also had so much fun with the snow cave, sleds, and building snowmen. At the art table, we made penguins, owls, artic foxes and polar bears.  

 

As Chinese New Year came at the end of the month, we talked about how people celebrate Chinese New year, types of food they eat during the New year, and what’s inside the “Hong Bao” (Red envelope)!! We also played Chinese music that are being played in the New Year! We made Lanterns, decorated tigers, and wrote Chinese characters, (福 pronounced Fú) during art! We read a story about the Chinese Zodiac and talked about the race that made the 12 animals in the Zodiac during circle time! 

Next month, you will be seeing lots of hearts in the Treehouse room for Valentine’s!  We will be having a Valentines celebration! Please feel free to bring in Valentine's card and exchange with friends - definitely a good way to practice writing their names!  

Please always feel free to discuss any questions or concern you have. 

SUNFLOWER ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE, CAROL

Welcome Back and Happy New Year 2022!! It was a bumpy start to the new year but we managed to pack a lot of learning in.

We began the new year learning about different modes of Transportation.  We started with talking about cars & boats. We sung ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Motor Car, Here is the Sea & Row, Row your Boat’. We listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Cars’, ‘5 Sailboats’ and “Stop said the Red Light’. We read the Books “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Car”, “Row, Row, Row your Boat”, “Busy Boats’ & listened to the CD Story “We all go Traveling By”.  We played a memory game with different types of transportation and played the guessing game: What Color Sailboat is Missing? We had fun pulling our friends on toboggans and playing ‘Pin the Pirate’ on the Treasure Map. For art we used paper towel rolls to make our own cars and we made driftwood sailboats with watercolors and coffee filter paper.

We moved onto talk about trains, buses and airplanes. We sung “Choo Choo Train, One Lonely Bus Driver & The Airplane Song” We listened to felt rhymes ‘Colored Train Car’, ‘The Airplane has great wings’ & the felt Story “Freight Train” We read “I’m taking a Trip on my Train”, “Bus Stops”, “In the Air” & “Going on a Plane”. We played a Memory Game with Trains and a magnetic game where we had to decide whether the vehicle is found on the ‘land, water or air’? We took a train ride around the classroom to the tune of “Riding on a Train” and ‘drove around’ an Obstacle Course in the gym.  We had fun at art time using wheels to make ‘tracks’ onto our own train carriages. We made buses by gluing on yellow popsicles sticks to paper. We experimented with feathers as paint brushes and painted airplanes. In the home corner we took turns to ride in the train or on the airplane.

We decided to move our theme of transportation into space. How do we get there? Rockets of course!!! We sung “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’, ‘Bumping Up & Down in my Little Space Rocket’ & ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. We read ‘Little Rockets Special Star” & played the game ‘Rocket, Rocket, Blast Off’. We listened to the felt rhyme 5 Rockets and ‘Rocket Ship, Rocket Ship What do you see?’ We created our own rockets with tinfoil, paper towel rolls and cellophane.  We then moved on to explore Astronauts. What they wear, why they wear them and what they do in space.   We read “The Astronaut”, “There was and old Astronaut who swallowed the Moon” and listened to the Felt Rhymes ‘5 Astronauts & ‘My Astronaut’.  We played the game ‘What color Helmet is missing? We went on a ‘Space Walk’ with a flashlight through the building looking for things in space. We took a break from art to make our own ‘space playdough’. We then blasted off into learning about the Planets. We read “My book of Planets” and “On the Moon”. We sung ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star & 8 Little Planets’. We played the game ‘Pass the Planet’ and What colored Star is Missing? We had lots of fun at art, painting our own planets with a mixture of paint & bicarb soda and watched it bubble when we sprayed water onto it. We enjoyed playing in our own spaceship in the home corner.

For the end of January, we explored Chinese New Year! The Year of the Tiger. We read “Sam & the Lucky Money” & “Come the Terrible Tiger’. We listened to the felt story ‘5 Red & Gold Dragons’ and 5 Colored Lanterns’. We danced with scarves and watched a DVD about Chinese New Year. We practiced cutting by making our own lanterns and painting them with gold paint. We had fun in the water table with rice and red pompoms. We were busy in the home corner preparing our ‘house’ for the new year by baking, cleaning and playing with our friends.

For February we will talk about Valentine’s Day and go on a trip “Around the World’.

If you have any questions for concerns please feel free to let us know. 

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Thank your for all your warm wishes and gifts for the holiday season. 

There has been a lot going on after Christmas Break in the classrooms, so I missed the January Blog deadline.  

It was lovely having a white Christmas and the children returned to the classrooms talking about Winter and all the activities that happen outside in the snow.

This is the time of year, with registration happening, that parents are wondering if their child is ready for the next step.  This might mean more sessions, longer hours or going off to Kindergarten.  Young children change so fast - if they can't do something one week, they may be able to do it a few weeks later.  

When preparing children for Kindergarten the teachers are looking for certain skills which will help with the next step.  Our daily routines involve allowing the children to be independent in doing many activities by themselves.  We encourage the children to hang up their backpacks and coats.  They get their snacks/lunches out and put them away when they are finished.  They are supervised in the washrooms with going to the bathroom and washing hands.  We also encourage the children to ask for help when they need it.  This will be an important skill in Kindergarten.  

We will be sending out a letter soon with a check list for Kindergarten readiness and the teachers will be working on many of the skills.  Please review the information and if you have any questions, please speak to the teachers or email me in the office.

The Discovery 2s program is for two year-olds only.  When they turn three, they will be in a multi-age program.  Children can benefit from this type of programming.  Children learn at their own pace with age appropriate activities.  This type of programming allows children to work at their own achievement level and with appropriate support. The children are not held to a strict curriculum that may be too challenging or not challenging enough.  Younger children look up to the older ones to model turn taking, sharing and problem solving techniques.  The older children are starting to take on leadership roles.  Every child within the multi-age classroom is viewed as an exclusive individual. 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the office.  Have a good month.