MAY 2022

April Showers bring MAY flowers,

That is what they say.

But if all the showers turned to flowers,

We'd have quite a colourful day!!

There'd be bluebells and cockleshells,

Tulips red and green,

Daffodils and Crocus too,

The brightest you've ever seen.

We have such a short time left in this school year! Let's make the most of it! We have a few fun things planned for the classrooms this month so stay tuned! Here is a hint:

Things that PARENTS need to know:

September deposits will be cashed Tuesday, May 17th.

Friday, May 13th - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Professional Day

Monday, May 23rd - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Victoria Day

A big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to the BC Children's Hospital! We raised $202! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our Jean's Week! 

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Teachers spend a lot of time planning activities that are stimulating, entertaining and developmentally appropriate for your child. They work hard at making learning activities fun and interesting. 

Please take the time to ask your child open ended questions regarding their day at school. These questions can be ones like: What kind of art did your do today? What is your favourite thing to do at school? What was something funny that happened today? Who did you sit next to at morning snack today?". 

The blog is a way that the teachers can let you know what is going on in the classrooms. Take the time to read the blog so you can chat with your child about the things they are learning. 

And without further ado.....

RAINBOW ROOM - Vibha, Danielle, Susan, Rose

What a blast we had this month, learning about Easter, exploring bugs and talking about being sick and hospitals!

We began by ‘hopping’ into April by talking about Easter. For circle we sang lots of Action songs and finger rhymes. Some of them were Hop Little Bunny, Little Peter Rabbit, Sleeping Bunnies and 5 Little Chicks Balancing. We listened to the prop story “The Golden Egg Book” & “The Egg Who Couldn’t Decide”.  We heard the CD story “The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Chick” and played the game ‘What color Egg is missing? For art we enjoyed marble painting Easter eggs & Easter Bunnies plus decorating bunnies with cotton wool & tissue paper. In the water table we enjoyed finding eggs hidden in the shredded paper.

On the science table we were using our hand eye coordination to match colored Easter items into the same-colored baskets. This helps promote color recognition as well. We also had fun in the home corner hiding eggs in cupboards and collecting them with Easter Baskets. 

During free play, especially in the home corner we have noticed our little two-year old’s are growing up.  We are seeing them start to include friends in their pretend play or call for friends to play with them.

Next, we moved on to exploring Bugs!! There are so many too discover. We had bugs in the water table, bugs on the science table, bugs on the light table and hand puppet bugs in the home corner where we used doctors’ kits to make sure the bugs were healthy.  

For circle we read “10 Buzzy Bugs’ & “The Hungry Caterpillar” with a huge caterpillar hand puppet, that kept on getting bigger and bigger. We also listened to the felt rhymes Lady Bug & 5 Dragon Flies and sang Rickety, Tickety Bumble Bee. We also enjoyed singing ‘We are going on a Nature Hunt’.

We had lots of fun making paper Plate Ladybugs or Salad Spinning with Ladybugs. We also watched colored water mixing together on bug shaped diffusing paper, so many different colors were made.

Over the last week we spent some time talking about Hospitals. We learnt about the people who work in the hospitals, that there are many different departments and Doctors who specialize in caring for our bodies in hospitals. We read the books “Bear Feels Sick’ & “Helping Hospital Book”. We played a game where we had to put Band aids on Bear, who was stung by a bee and we sang ‘Miss Polly Had a Dolly’. For Art we decorated Jeans with glitter glue and sequins. In the home corner we had Babies who needed to be looked after and cared for.

We would like to Thank all of you who donated money towards our Fundraiser for BC Children’s Hospital.

For the Month of May we move onto talking about the Jungle and Construction.

If your child has started toilet training, please let us know as we would like to continue with it at Preschool. Consistency is the key!!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

TREEHOUSE ROOM 

- Karen, Carol, Rose, Brita, Gabi, Monica

We had an amazing month of April!

 

Children were super excited to get ready for the big Easter event!  We made Easter baskets for their Egg hunt, painted chicks, decorated Easter eggs and walked on raw whole eggs!! And of course, the most excited egg hunt! They were super surprised as they were not aware that the Easter bunny came by to our Treehouse room. 

We have also been focusing on Kindergarten readiness for the 4’s, this is an ongoing topic that we will be continuing till June. We are looking at the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make by practicing writing their names in their journals. 

We also encourage children to keep practice putting and zipping up their own jackets and opening/closing their snack/lunch containers. These are important learning experiences that will prepare them for Kindergarten.

Getting to the end of April, we talked about Earth day! On Earth day, teachers created an example of the polluted ocean and explained to the children how the garbage will pollute and damage the life cycle of all the sea animals in the ocean.  

That also led to our sea life theme this month. Children enjoyed learning and exploring all the different kinds of sea animals. Ask them about their favorite sea animals.  

 

The last week of the month we decorated cut-out jeans in support of Children’s Hospital. We can’t wait till next month and talk about Mother’s day!   

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Danielle, Cecilia, Carol

A is for April and alphabet. This month the classroom evolved to emphasize the letter (or two) of the day in fun and meaningful ways so as to promote letter recognition and phonemic awareness. At the start, the children got to play school and had a blast pretending to be the teacher next to a kid-sized calendar board. But, of course, Easter celebrations dominated the first half of April.

The home corner morphed into an Easter garden the first full week of the month. A giant bunny stuffy lived next to the carrot patch and children got to “plant” in sensory trays of black rice and bean “soil.” Their fine motor skills were challenged with Easter tongs, plastic eggs to fill and hide for classmate egg hunts, and art activities such as dot bunnies and baskets decorated with glitter glue and tissue paper.

The following week Easter anticipation grew with an unexpected visit from the Easter Bunny who left a note for the children and prints to follow as each child got to find and keep two hidden eggs. The excitement continued when the class went on a hunt throughout the school to find the elusive bunny and the children pondered whether he had cleverly hid himself under the ceiling tiles. During circle they learned about Easter traditions and asked meaningful questions about Jesus and whether he was alive or dead. Upon their return from Easter break, they shared about the number of eggs they had found at home and one child proclaimed he had found an “infinity of eggs!”

Sample books read: “Easter,” “The Bunny Who Found Easter,” “The Golden Egg,” “Happy Easter Little Critter,” “The Egg Who Couldn’t Decide”

Felts, songs & games: Bunny Basket, Little Peter Rabbit, Sleepy Bunnies, garden matching game, 5 Chicks Balancing

All the while, the children were steadily learning the letters of the alphabet. For the letter H, our classroom bear (dubbed Freddie by the children) finally awoke from hibernation and we celebrated with a teddy bear picnic in the music room. The final count for days asleep in his shoebox den: 141!

The second full week of April the children got to take care of jungle animals in the home corner and at the water table. And during week three the alphabet train made an appearance with Thomas helping to encourage dramatic play. As the children boarded, they noticed the letter cards and images along the walls of the train and spontaneously broke out into a chorus of the Alphabet song.

Further associations were developed with kangaroos and koalas in the sandbox, lemons and limes in the water table, keyboard playing opportunities to make music, sticks and strings and other nest-building supplies on the science table, etc.

Earth Day provided the children with a chance to perform an ocean waste cleanup of sorts at the water table and, during the week, they got to build with boxes—a fun way to reuse and recycle.

The final week of April we raised awareness and funds for the B.C. Children’s Hospital (where one of our students proudly declared he was born). At circle the class discussed the role of doctors and nurses and where we go when we’re sick. They had loads of fun placing “Band-Aids” on felt bear who was stung by bees whilst searching for honey. And, in the home corner, children got to play doctor themselves by looking at x-rays, diagnosing teachers with their various ailments, and checking heart functions and reflex times.

Some books read: “Mouse House,” “Nighttime Animals,” “Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups,” “The Hospital Dog,” “Bear Feels Sick”

Songs, felts, games: Alphabet Bean Bag Toss, ‘The Lion and the Mouse,’ The Floor is Lava, Miss Polly Has A Dolly, Go Go Stop, We’re Going On a T Hunt

Thank you, Sunflower families, for your generosity in donating funds during Jeans Week. Together we can make a significant difference in the lives of children across beautiful B.C. Thank you also for your kind support of the Cards Project! We hope your friends and family enjoy the cards as much as your little ones did during the process of creating them.

In the classroom, we continue to remind the children about thumbs up behaviors which lead to smiles and happiness (such as helping a friend or extending a compliment) rather than frowns and hurt feelings from not sharing or using hands instead of words. Thank you for reinforcing this message at home so that kindness is hopefully nurtured for life.

May themes include Mothers’ Day and At the Zoo as we wind down our exploration of the alphabet. This year’s group seems to adore animals so we’re anticipating lots of dramatic play in May.

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

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion 

Excitement is building in the school as we await the arrival of our Butterfly Kits.  Thirty caterpillars will arrive this Thursday and they will spend the next few weeks preparing to make their chrysalis and then become Painted Lady butterflies.  Each class will be able to visit the Treehouse Room and follow the transformation from caterpillars to butterflies.  In early June we will release them into the Memorial Garden.

North Vancouver School District 44 has scheduled Ready, Set, Learn events during the months of April and May.  Elementary schools that enroll Kindergarten classes hold these events in their schools or communities.  They are designed to foster positive connections among families, schools and early learning community partners.

Here is a list of the upcoming events:

Norgate Elementary - May 4th (11am to 12 pm) Please call (604) 903-3680

Westview Elementary - May 4th (1:30 pm) Please call (604) 903-3680

Canyon Heights Elementary - May 6th (9 am - 10 am) Please call (604) 903-3680

Princess Park - May 6th (9 am -11 am) No RSVP needed

Carisbrooke Elementary - May 13th (1:30 pm - 2:30 pm) Phone: (604) 903-3380 or alawson@sd44.ca 

It is hard to believe, but it is May already and the children have grown and developed before our very eyes.  As the weather warms up and many of the restrictions have been lifted, there will be more opportunities to gather with friends and family.   This is a good time to ask other families where their child will be going to Kindergarten and make plans to have play dates before school starts in September.

Thank you for participating in our fundraising events this year and we are looking forward to our Spring Cleanup of our playground.