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.