JUNE 2022

Welcome Families of St. Catherine's to the last two weeks of school! Wow oh wow!

We are finally here at the end of the year and what an amazing year it was!

Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic year.

The Last Two Weeks

The teachers have a lot of things planned for our last two weeks so if your child will be away, please let the office know.

If you plan on leaving early on the last day of school, or you do not plan on being here at all, please let the office know.

Year End Gifts

I get asked this question a lot so I thought I would put it here for all to read. 

Teachers do not expect gifts but if you want to show your appreciation to your teacher by giving them a gift, these are the most requested:

- gift cards to local shops (Edgemont / Park Royal)

- gift cards to restaurants

- wine

- mani/pedi

To get a list of teacher names, please check out the blog below.

Important Days & Events

4s Graduation: Thurs/Fri, June 16/17

Last Day of Preschool: Friday, June 17th

Picnic: Wed., June 22nd, 11:30-1:30 at Mahon Park

The Church is hiring!! Know anyone who wants a job??? https://www.saint-catherines.org/news/st-catherines-is-hiring-again

Please see what we did last month and what we are finishing up on this month inside the classrooms: www.stcpre.blogspot.com

RAINBOW ROOM - Vibha, Danielle, Susan, Rose, Marion

Walking through the Jungle 

Walking through the Jungle

What do you see?

What do you see?

I think I see a lion, Roar! Roar! Roar!

Chasing after me

Chasing after me

What a fun and exciting month of May we had learning about jungle and zoo animals with the children.

We seemed to have covered so much…it’s hard to know where to begin.

For Art, the children made:

- Painted crocodile’s with roller brush

- Pop up Giraffe in a cup was a big hit with our children.

- Glued brown tissue paper on monkey’s

- Green spiral snakes

- pink paper plate flamingos 

- Decorated parrots with colourful feathers

- We used silver and gold paint to make elephants in a salad spinner

- Zebra paper bag puppets

- paper plate orange tigers and grey koalas 

- We used the salad spinner to make turtles

- Lastly, we created an Australian outback collage with brown, orange and yellow paint and glued hopping kangaroo’s.

We read many exciting books at circle time:

Rumble in the Jungle

Giraffe can’t dance

Walking through the Jungle 

Dear Zoo

Miss Mary Mack

I love to eat bugs

Koala Lou 

Roo know Blue

Fussy Flaming- one young flamingo is about to discover that you really are what you eat. 

Pinky Crashes the party 

Felt, songs and games

Five koalas jumping on the bed

Five little monkey’s swinging on a tree 

Five kangaroo’s teasing Mr. Crocodile

Five busy flamingo’s we’re resting in the shade

There was a little turtle his name was tiny Tim song.

Yoga pose- pretending to be turtles.

Lastly, we stamped our way around the classroom like elephant’s, giraffes  zebras, snakes, tigers, lions and monkeys. All of the animals were adapted into yoga poses. 

For the next few weeks in June, we will be talking about camping and Father’s Day, and then wrapping up the end of the year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for giving us the pleasure of teaching your most precious children. We have had so much fun and enjoyed everyone’s unique personality. We truly feel blessed to be part of your children’s live and they have brought so much to ours. We look forward to watching them grow over the next two years in the 3’s and 4’s. 

Have a wonderful and relaxing summer!

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

 Hello Parents,

Wow! The school year has flown by! This will be our last blog for the Treehouse room so let’s jump right in!

The caterpillars arrived at St. Catherine’s, hooray! The children have been going in small groups to visit the caterpillars and to see the lifecycle of a butterfly in real time!

We began the month by finishing off our sea life theme. The home corner was transformed into a underwater wonderland. The children could get inside the submarine and pretend that they were exploring the bottom of the ocean with crabs, dolphins, whales, starfish, and hermit crabs going by. There were jellyfish and seaweed floating above the submarine for the full experience. The backdrop was filled with your children’s incredible  sea life  art. Also, the children could wear shark hats and play with fish and octopus face masks.

 The block corner was transformed into boats at sea! The children could climb inside the boats and set off to sea. They were busy catching fish for supper or practicing the catch and release program!

For art, the children created an underwater scene, paper plate jellyfish, crabs, water colour fish, starfish, large painted seahorses, and they used balloons to print sand dollars.

 At circle time, the children were treated to a under the sea movie which they loved!

 We read many fun books about the incredible richness the ocean has to offer and we talked about how we can protect it. They loved singing songs about the ocean like Slippery Fish.

 We did a reminder about the thumbs up behaviours that are acceptable in the classroom and how they make everyone happy. We read the book” Hug”.

 We played the game Where will Mommy be on Mother’s Day! They children had to try find where mom was hiding behind an activity! They absolutely loved playing this! They sang the song Mommy Was Her Name O!

 For weeks two and three, our theme did a complete transformation into the amazing world of dinosaurs! The children made a huge paper mache volcano which they painted and created lava coming out of it with coloured streamers. The volcano became our centre piece in the home corner. The many dinosaurs were roaming the land in search of plants to eat and place to sleep in a cave.

In the block corner, the large dinosaurs were climbing mountains or having stand-offs to protect their land. We added a sightseeing train and cameras so the children could pretend that they were travelling through a Jurassic Park.

 At circle time, the children got to share their experiences at Science World which was a huge dinosaur exhibit and the amazing dinosaur exhibition at the Trade and Convention center. We read books like The Dinosaur, Some Dinosaurs are Small, Dinosaurs love Underpants, I Love Dinosaurs, and Am I Yours. We talked about which dinosaurs are still alive today and which dinosaur family did they come from.

At music class the children watched the movie “ The Dinosaur”, had dinosaur races, and we moved around like dinosaurs to the song “ We are the Dinosaurs Marching”.

For art, the children made paper plate Stegosaurus, glued coloured macaroni onto dinosaur shapes, we painted baby dinosaurs and their eggs, and they painted large dinosaur shapes at the easel. The children got to break open hardened dinosaur eggs that were made from coffee grinds, flour, and water with a baby dinosaur inside.

The tables were filled with dinosaur puzzles, lacing shapes, matching games, a smaller dinosaur scene.

The children know so much about dinosaurs and they loved the whole experience. They were very helpful to the teachers by knowing all their names!

In the last week of May, the children were submerged into the world of bugs! The home corner transformed into a bug picnic where the children could enjoy a meal with their favourite bugs. They wore ladybug and bumblebee hats. They had cameras so they could pretend to take pictures of their fun experience. The block corner became a fun place to have bug races to see which bug was the fastest. The tables were filled with matching games, bug bingo, puzzles, bug layers, lacing shapes, and felt board stories. The water was filled with shredded green paper and bugs galore. For art, the children made water colour butterflies and dragonflies, symmetrical butterfly painting, painted rocks to create bumble bees and ladybugs, and painted large bug shapes on the easel.
The children worked very hard on their Father’s Day surprise!

At circle time, the children learned about what is a bug, its parts, why they are important to our world, and why it is important to be kind to them. We talked about what bees brought to our world and  why they are so important to our ecosystem. We talked about how ants have superhuman strength and how they can carry 10 to 50 times their body weight! We learned about how important ladybugs are for our garden and the incredible job they do protecting our plants. We touched upon dragonflies, stink bugs, moths, and beetles. We spent a day learning all about caterpillars and butterflies to correspond with our live caterpillars transforming into butterflies. We read books like, Ladybugs, Creepy Crawlies, The Little Butterfly that Could, My Stinky Summer, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Impatient Caterpillar, and more. We sang songs and played games that involved bugs.

The month of June will be filled with games, toys, art, crazy activity days, 4’s Graduation, year end picnic, and goodbyes! Please refer to the blue handout for the important dates or ask a teacher for a copy.

The teachers would like to thank all the parents for all their patients, understanding, kindness, and thoughtfulness throughout this school year.
We would like to congratulate the 4’s for graduating St. Catherine’s Preschool and we wish them all the best in their new chapter of their lives.
We look forward to seeing the 3’s back at the preschool for another fun filled year!
It was our pleasure teaching all the children this year and we hope you have a relaxing summer vacation!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Danielle, Cecilia, Carol

It is hard to believe this is our last blog for the school year. Time has flown by with lots of learning, playing, making new friends, and having fun. The month of May was no exception. It was packed full of new things we discovered.
We wish you all a safe, happy and fun summer!

 

We started with Mother’s Day. We talked about what they would like to give their mamas for Mother's Day. E.g., a "pink hedgehog", a "big squeeze hug, a picture and a "sparkly dress." They also discussed some things that their mother’s do for them – give them chocolate & clean up after them. They sang the songs – ‘I Picked Some Flowers for My Mom, Tea for Two & On Mother's Day’. We read the stories "Mama Zooms","Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash”, “Mama, If You Had A Wish" and "Are You My Mother?" We also continued with our Alphabet – with the letters U, W, V, X & Y. The children had fun playing the Ukulele and listening to the low & high notes on the Xylophones.  

The children also walked across a yellow "brick" road while listening to tune of the same name. The children tossed Alphabet Bean Bags into upturned Umbrellas, saying the letter as they threw. They used their gross motor skills to balance on steppingstones, pass the balloon around to try to keep it afloat and dance around the gym with ribbon wands so we could watch it wave around and make wind. For art we used our handprints & thumbprints to make a flowerpot for mom. We glued on Umbrella’s and made it rain with blue paint and cotton buds. We painted whales with block paint and explored shaving cream and powder paint with our fingers to make a heart shaped print.

We finished of the alphabet and the month of May talking about the animals you find in a ‘Z00’. This was a lot of fun and we covered so many animals. Of course, we started with Zebra and listened to the CD story “Animal Strike at the Zoo” and the felt rhyme 5 Zebra’s. We sang ‘I’m a little Zebra’ & “We’re going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo’. We used our bodies to move like Zoo Animals. We talked about who had been to the zoo and what their favorite Zoo Animal was. For art we made Zebra’s out of the letter Z. We moved onto talk about Elephants & Giraffes. We listened to the stories ’10 Tall Giraffes, the CD story “I am not a Chair” and the felt rhyme 5 Elephants Balancing. We worked together with a friend to find the matching alphabet letter that was hidden in the classroom. For art we used popsicle sticks to make our own tall giraffe with spots. We set up the home corner as a Zoo, complete with stuffed animals, an aquarium with fish and a snake terrarium.

The following week we learnt about Tigers & Pandas, Wolves & Raccoons and Monkeys & Sloths. We listened to the stories "It's A Tiger", "Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See", “The Wolf’s Chicken Stew”, “Animal Sounds”, “Who Has These Feet”, "Monkey Puzzle" and "Sloth at the Zoom". We watched a short video of baby tigers in the zoo and listened to the music Peter & the Wolf while we moved our bodies to the music. We played the games - What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? How many Bananas can you count? and Wacky Zoo Animal mix & match

For art we used paper plates, a fork and black paper to make Pandas. We also used glue, paper plates & googly eyes to make a wolf’s face. We used tiger striped paper to make tigers and used zoo animal stickers to make a zoo collage. We used tissue paper and paint to decorate our monkeys and block paints to color a sloth.

For our last week we talked about some exotic zoo animals. We learned lots of facts about Bats, Crocodiles, Camels and Flamingos. We read “Superbat”, “Alligator Baby”, Jamal’s Journey” & “Fussy Flamingo”. We listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Bats and 5 Flamingo’s’. We sung the action rhymes “Sleeping Bats’, ‘Crocodile, Crocodile Turn Around’ & “Alice the Camel’. We played the games Crocodile down by the lake, Stay out of the Swamp, Flamingo Tag and What color Camel is missing? For art we made crocodiles out of paper towel rolls. We made a Sunset Scene with sand, paint and a camel silhouette.

For our last few weeks we will be exploring The Beach & Aquatic Animals. We will talk about Father’s Day and make a special something for him. We will also be busy preparing the children who turn 5 this year for Graduation Day on June 17th.

The Resource Office - Marion

As this is our last blog for the 2021-2022 school year I would like to thank you all for your confidence and support for our inclusive, play based school. 

I would also, like to thank Gillian Holland, Chairperson and our committed Board of Directors for their guidance and support this year.  

A shout out to Tina for working by my side in keeping the school on track and thanks to all the wonderful teachers for their commitment to your children's early learning through play.  They have chosen amazing themes to encourage learning and imagination.  

A few of our favorite school events are starting to return.  We are looking forward to welcoming our graduating families to our ceremonies in the gym.  We will once again gather for our fun year end Picnic on June 22nd.  

We welcomed our practicum student from Pacific Rim Institute, Diane into the Treehouse Room where she engaged with the teachers and children for 5 weeks.  She established Turtle Corner, a small quiet area where the children can go to just sit, read or talk quietly with a teacher.  They can use this area to regroup and process their emotions.  It is so reaffirming that we are looked upon as a teaching school for Early Childhood Educators.

  

Please remember that building self esteem and age appropriate independence is a very important in developing a happy, trusting and confident child.  

It has been a pleasure teaching in the Discovery 2s program these last few months.  I started the program over 15 years ago and am always amazed on how much learning takes place at such a young age.  

I want to wish you all a great Summer and hope to see you around the Village.  To the  children heading off to Kindergarten, I wish you all much success and happiness.