Love, Love, Love! February 2015

A note from Jen McEneany - Coordinator

February is always a really fun month at preschool, the art work is full of hearts, pinks, purples, reds and of course as much glitter as possible and we have lots of parties and sweet treats happening! This is also the perfect opportunity for us to discuss friendship, love and how important the relationships we have with our family and friends are to us!

Have a wonderful spring break!

Scholastic Goodies!

Important upcoming dates:

M-F March 9-13: Spring Break - Preschool closed
Fri April 3: Good Friday - Preschool closed
Mon April 6: Easter Monday - Preschool closed
Wed April 8: Parent Seminar with Chris Burt
Thurs/Fri April 9/10: Easter Services

For general information about our programs please contact Jen or Tina:

Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
Please "LIKE" our facebook page "St. Catherine's Child Care Society" Thank you!

A note from the Discovery 2's - Sali, Vibha, Stephanie, Estelle and Danielle

As February is the month where we celebrate 'love' we decided to combine Valentine's Day with learning about 'being a friend'. This involved decorating heart's, using Valentine colours in a group art and making feet shaped heart's. We also did lots of art involving finger painting, gluing, butterfly prints and stamping with apples. At circle time we reinforced our manners: Please, Thank you, Excuse Me and Using our gentle hands. We learnt many songs about using our manners, taking turns and sharing. We worked together to sing Ring a Ring a Rosie and The More we Get Together.

Sweet Little Feet!

On Valentine's Day we had a lovely PJ Party with yummy food supplied by our parents (Thank you for that), face painting and dancing.

As February was also Chinese New Year, the Year of the Sheep, we made Dragon Puppets and painted with Red, Gold and Black. We read "My Chinese New Year", danced with scarves to Chinese New Year Music and listened to the felt rhyme '5 Chinese Dragons'.

As the children are now starting to grow and develop, we have noticed some of them moving away from Parallel play to more Social play...choosing a friend to play with  e.g. At the trains, home corner, sand box and even outside. 

We will now move on to talk about Easter and Spring, as well as continuing to reinforce how to use our manners and share with our friends. As the warmer weather is starting, this is a great opportunity to start toilet training for those who have not yet started. Please let us know if this is the case, as consistency is the key.

I would also like to remind you to bring an extra change of clothes to preschool.... We have lots of fun and often need to change...

If you have any questions please feel free to speak to any of us!

A note from the Treehouse Room, class 301 - Permjit, Gabi and Sousan

We like to get messy!

We had a really fun February! We spent the month celebrating Chinese New Year with lots of artwork in red, gold and black and stories about this special time in the Chinese calendar. Next we talked about friendship and feelings for Valentine's day. We made a "Friendship Fruit Salad" which was absolutely delicious and then we had a pj party with all our friends (thanks to the parents who provided yummy treats).

The weather has warmed up this past week so we have really enjoyed getting outside and playing in the sand box, climbing and running outside!

We hope that you all have a lovely Spring Break and we look forward to hearing about all the fun you had once we get back to preschool! If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact us!

A note from the Treehouse Room, class 302 - Susan, Stephanie and Karen

Hello Everyone!

This month has been filled with many exciting events and holidays. We celebrated Valentine’s Day in style! We all sported our pajamas and enjoyed some yummy treats at our Valentine’s class party. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Valentine’s Day party. We also celebrated Chinese New Year’s. This week was filled with Chinese themed art and activities. Feel free to check out our Chinese Lanterns which are displayed in our classroom!

The weather over the last few weeks has been incredible and has allowed our class to spend lots of time outside. The sand box has been open for digging, exploring and building. The children are playing well together in this outside setting by playing tag, “my little ponies” and "baking" in the play house!

 Within the classroom, we have discussed the importance of feelings, emotions and friends. Our home corner is currently a place to gather with your friends and dolls! The children have been very receptive to the idea of feelings and friends. There has been an emphasis in the classroom on caring, sharing and playing well together and the children are rising to the challenge!

 This month has gone by so fast due to our many exciting activities and we are looking forward to exploring the new spring season after our break when we will dive into the ideas of gardening, planting, flowers and of course Easter! Have a wonderful Spring Break and we will see you back on Tuesday March 17th.

A note from the Sunflower Room, class 401 - Stephanie, Susan and Karen

Rice Cake

February flew by with two big celebrations. First we got prepared for Valentine's Day with lots of art which centered around love and friendship. We also read stories which discussed being kind and about friendship as well singing lots of fun songs about love! We finished up with a very formal dinner party at "Chez St. Catherine's" complete with fancy candle holders on the table and menus! It was so cute to see all our class dressed up all fancy. Thanks to the parents who provided yummy treats!


Next we spent a week talking about Chinese New Years. We learnt a lot about the different traditions that happen for this day. We also baked a dessert that called a rice cake. It was interesting trying something we have never tried before.

This week we just said goodbye to Hannah our classroom volunteer who has been with us for quite some time now, we know that she will be missed as all the children really enjoyed playing with her. We wish her all the best!

We hope you have a fantastic spring break and we will see you back at preschool on Monday March 16th!

A note from the Sunflower/Rainbow Room, class 402 - Arsi, Danielle and Sousan

What a 'lovely' month we have just had...talking about Valentine'sDay and learning about How to be Bucket Fillers, not Bucket Dippers...We 'brainstormed' actions/words that helped fill our buckets e.g. Sharing, listening, hugging, helping, playing with our friends and using our manners.  We also discussed ways that 'dip' into our bucket, e.g. hurting our friends, being mean, not listening, breaking toys, leaving a mess, shouting and not sharing. We are now working as a team to help fill the classroom bucket. This involves listening, sharing, playing with our friends, helping clean up and using our manners... It is moving along slowly but it is great to see how everyone is using their words to try and 'bucket fill'. 

On Valentine's Day we had a lovely Red/Pink & White party with yummy food supplied by parents and some lovely Valentine's Day notes for friends.

The Tunnel of Love!

We also celebrated Chinese New Year, the year of the Sheep. We were very busy collaging dancing dragons, marble painting with black, red and gold colours, trying to write Chinese characters, dancing to Chinese Music and finally making our own sheep masks for our Dancing Parade! We watched a video about Chinese New Year, were we learnt some Chinese words and new types of food. We listened to the story “Goldy Luck and the 3 Panda's”.

As our 4's turn to 5's we are starting to get ready for Kindergarten, so we have started to introduce the ABC's....We are exploring what words start with each letter, the shape of them, how to write them and encouraging them to think of their own words for the “Letter of the Day".

In the next few weeks we are discussing spring and Easter. We will continue to work on the alphabet and start our journey into our journals...

Just a little reminder that we are here for 4 hours, so it is better to pack more food than not.  They can always take it home. Please continue to send extra clothing as there are some very enthusiastic painters and children who enjoy water play. With the cold weather here, please remember to send warm coats and hats. Our playground is shaded and tends to be cooler earlier in the day.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to speak to either Danielle,  Arsi or Sousan.

A note from the Treehouse Room, class 304 - Vibha, Stephanie, Gabi and Karen

What a fun and exciting month we just had with Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day happeni

Bob Marley inspired artwork!

ng so close to one another. First, we talked about Chinese New Year and we looked at a Chinese calender to see the different animals that represent each year. We talked about a big parade that happens with lion dancers and how families hand out lucky red envelopes. For art we decorated red paper lanterns with gold paint. 

After all the excitement of Chinese New Year was over, we jumped right into Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day gave us a great opportunity to talk about friendship and feelings. We did a variety of different crafts using hearts. At circle time we read books and sang songs about friendship and feelings. We asked the children what they loved. Here are some of the responses... Hugs, Horses, Spiderman, Wiggles, Cars, Princess and Wizard of Oz. To finish up this theme, we had a Valentine's Day party. We would like to thank the parents who brought all the delicious treats to share!

A note from the Treehouse Room, class 403 - Stephanie, Permjit, Karen and Gabi

Love filled the air during the month of February! There were lots of hearts all around us. For the first two weeks we talked about friendship and did many activities around Valentine's Day. At circle we got into partners and did activities with them. It was a great chance for everyone to play with someone who they don't usually play with. For art we decorated Valentine bags, cut out hearts and decorated them, and made heart people. Each of us also brought in a piece of fruit and we all worked together to cut them up and made a friendship fruit salad. To end things off we had a very lovely formal Valentine's party. We transformed the classroom into a fancy restaurant and the children were seated by the hostess and given menus to order from. It was such a neat experience for everyone! Thank you to all of the parents who brought the delicious treats for the party. 

Friendship!

Next we spent a week talking about Chinese New Years. We learnt a lot about the different traditions that happen for this day. We made paper bag dragon puppets and decorated red paper lanterns to celebrate this special day. We also baked a dessert that called a rice cake. It was interesting trying something we have never tried before. 

The children became scientists for two weeks. It was so much fun exploring a variety of different experiments. There were a lot of theories being made and it was neat to find out the conclusion to each theory. One of the highlights of our experiments was seeing what happened when we put mentos into a bottle of coke. It was such an amazing explosion! We did an experiment about walking water, mixed colours with glue and water-colours, borax snowflakes, cornstarch and water, milk and bursting colours with dish soap, and made puffy paintings. 

Recipe for puffy paintings 

1 tbsp. Self rising flour

1 tbsp. salt

Water

Food colouring 

Mix together flour and salt. Add water until consistency of yogurt. Add few drops of food colouring. 

Use it to paint a picture on a thick piece of paper. When finished, put in the microwave for 30 seconds. 

Next month we will be talking about Spring and Easter! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers. 

A Brand New Year... January 2015

A note from Jen McEneany - Coordinator

It's hard to believe that over a month of 2015 is already behind us and spring is just around the corner; thinking about how fast time goes by made me think of a poem which was written by Henry Twells in the late 1800's called Time's Paces:

Our newest goodies from Scholastic!

"When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I waxed more bold.

Time strolled.

When I became a full grown man,

Time RAN.

When older still I daily grew,

Time FLEW,

Soon I shall find in passing on,

Time gone."

I think this poem is so relevant even today, over a hundred years after it was first published, because we all feel the pressures of time on a daily basis. Our society is fast paced and full of TO-DO lists which never seem to get any shorter and we all feel a lot of pressure to be working much of the time. Remembering that time is fleeting means that we need to prioritize what is truly important to us and do as much of it as we possibly can! So play with your children, get outside with them, listen to them, read with them, dance with them and enjoy these truly special early years because before you know it they will be on to the next stage and you will wonder where those years went...

Don't forget to place your Feb book orders by the 12th!

This month we have been asking our families to decide on the classes they would like for their children for the 2015/2016 preschool year. As currently enrolled families you will have had the opportunity to take part in our priority registration for classes provided we received the registration forms and a deposit cheque for your first choice by the January 30th deadline.

This time of year can be stressful because some classes are very popular and as is the case with class 401, may require a lottery draw. Please be patient as we work to get everyone into their classes and try to understand that while we would love to be able to place everyone in their first choice it's not always possible.

Even if you do end up being placed in your second choice class and being wait-listed for your first choice, don't despair! Often we find that we are able to place many people on our wait-lists before September starts because lots of changes happen between now and then. 

If you have any questions regarding registration (or anything else) please pop by the office and chat with Tina, Jen or Marion.

Important February dates:

Thurs Feb 5, 6:30-8:00pm: Community registration.

Fri Feb 6, 8:30am - 3:00pm: Community registration.

Mon Feb 9: Preschool Closed for Family Day.

Wed/Thurs Feb 11/12/13: Valentine's Parties.

Tues Feb 17: Church Pancake Supper.
Thurs Feb 26: Messy Church 5:00-6:30pm

And don't for get about our Sunday School Program run by our wonderful preschool teacher Gabi and her daughter Rebecca! Everyone is welcome to join the Sunday Service at 10 am; you can drop your children with Gabi in the Rainbow Room for some songs, crafts and a snack and then head up to the Church for the Service.

For general information about our programs please contact Jen or Tina:

Tel: 604-980-1326
Fax: 604-982-3277
Email: stcpre@telus.net
Website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com
Please "LIKE" our facebook page "St. Catherine's Child Care Society" Thank you!

A note from Marion Porter - Developmental Resource Educator

I truly hope everyone had a relaxing, fun time over the Holidays. I would like to thank everyone for their warm wishes and lovely gifts, they are very much appreciated. I am happy to be back to a routine and looking forward to getting our 4’s ready for their next step, Kindergarten. The 2’s have welcomed a few new little faces and so I have been in the classroom helping out and I’m pleased to see the social interaction that is happening, they are showing signs of building independence and confidence. The 3’s are busy playing cooperatively and are able to focus longer on activities and sitting at circle time.

The Essentials of Development:

Emotional Development means developing a full range of emotions, from sad to happy to angry, and learning to handle them appropriately. This leads to deeper qualities- sympathy, caring, resilience, self-esteem, assertiveness and being able to rise to life’s challenges.

Cognitive Development means being able to communicate, to think both creatively and abstractly, to pay attention and to solve problems, and develop keen judgment and a lifelong readiness to learn.

Social Development means being able to make friends and get along with others, work as part of a team and be a good leader, all of which are built on self-confidence, cooperation and trust.

A note from Laura Kaario - Music Teacher

Our new table top light box!

Canada,

Canada,

Today our music comes from where?

Canada!

(tune of Hot Crossed Buns)     

This January we have started to sing songs and hear music from around the world. So far we have learned about Austria, South Africa and our very own Canada. We did silly yodel echoes, sang Canadian folk-songs (the 4’s even learned a lullaby in Iroquois!) and talked about our national anthem, Here is the South African version of Ring around a Rosie that we learned.

Willy, willy, wally.

Our new light table for the Sunflower Room!

The monkey’s on the barrel,

Boom! Bang! He fell down,

Willy, willy, wally.

We also did an instrument exploration circle of ten different percussion instruments that everyone got to try. Everyone managed to control their excitement enough to have their good listening ears on! We practiced respecting the instruments, how to play some new ones, listening to their different sounds, taking turns, playing quietly and loudly, and controlling the number of beats we played. I'm looking forward to us learning about more music from other countries – and we’ll even be starting to learn our Easter music soon! 

A note from the Discovery 2's - Vibha, Estelle, Danielle, Sali, Stephanie

Welcome back! The children seem well rested and glad to be back at preschool after the Christmas holidays. We would like to welcome some new children to the program. In 201; welcome to Luke B., Luke D., Willa, Max and Neeve. In 202; welcome to Isaac and goodbye to Will and good luck.

Discovery 2's artwork!

For the month of January our theme was winter and winter animals. The children played with polar bear figurines, blue water, white play dough with sparkles and winter animal stuffies.

At art we explored different mediums such as painting with ice cubes, shaving cream, glue, salt and using a screen with a scrub brush. The children decorated penguins, polar bears and fish with these different materials.

At circle we sang songs and rhymes about mittens, polar bears, snowmen, belugas and kittens. We played games using colours, talked about using our manners; such as saying excuse me when we want to get by and asking for a turn with a toy someone else is using.

Our 2's family board!

Here is one of the new songs we learned :

I’m a little polar bear (I’m a little teapot tune)

I’m a little polar bear

Soft and white

I catch a tasty fish

And take a big bite

When the day is over

I know what is right

I lay down my sleepy head

And say “Goodnight”



A note from the Treehouse Room Class 301 - Gabi, Permjit and Sousan

Working on our 3D hedgehogs!

Welcome back from the holidays! Wishing all of you a wonderful and joyful New Year! We've noticed that some of the children seemed to have had growth spurts over the break. It makes you really value the time spent with them. It often feels like we are endlessly running after them but we need to enjoy the moments with them that show us how profound and awesome they are. The children have this unique way of thinking that is straight forward and often hilarious. We joke with them and of course they love to tease us! And they all love to say to us "Did you know....?"

We have a lot of fun but as with everything there can be moments of conflict. We try to encourage them to think about the effect their words can have on each other and how feelings might be hurt. We are fortunate that we have a class that gels really well together. 

"Look what I made!"

We encourage learning through the use of themes and play based activities. We started off January with a Winter theme and asked the children what season they thought it was. Also the children got to make penguin creations during art and explore topics such as animal habits and hibernation. They also got to read books on all these animals that are either sleeping, adapting, or migrating when the weather gets cold. They also learnt about animals that have a huge amount of blubber so they can stay warm in the cold climate. (Polar Bear, etc.)

We explored one of our favourite books by Jan Brett, "The Mitten" and made our own story props so that we could take it home and tell it to our families. We finished the winter theme off with our 3D hedgehogs which was a lot of fun but we got carried away making a home for it that took a long time to dry and be ready! This is just a few of the activities over the last month.

"I'm taking him home!"

During the holiday season we received a number of lovely gifts from you and we wanted to say a huge thank you. It was great to relax with a good book from Indigo and a Starbucks Eggnog latte, apparently it's not Christmas unless you have one! All the presents were thoughtful and it was nice to be able to light our candles, open a box of chocolates and have a peaceful bath. The festive period was made even better by the fact we had personalized lettered mugs so no fighting! The mugs are still being used and we indulged in quite a few homemade cookies! Thank you everyone.

We enjoyed getting back to routine and loved hearing about their holidays. One thing's for sure, they all loved just being with their family, cousins and grandparents and friends! We will be working on a number of themes in February including: Valentine's, Chinese New Year and friendships. If you have any queries please speak to us.

A note from the Treehouse Room Class 302 - Gabi, Susan and Karen

Happy New Year everyone! Thank you so much for all your nice, personal messages in the cards we received as well as the good wishes along with the abundance of presents you showered us with! 

Arriving back in January you will have noticed some changes in our class with the addition of our new teacher Susan. Your children accepted this change calmly and gracefully, so we are really glad that this transition did not cause any anxiety. We would like to welcome Susan to our class as well as two new friends Nico and Cole!

In January (not having any snow to play with outside) we decided to bring snow into our classroom! We made a "Snowman Building Factory" in our home corner by wrapping boxes in white paper and using them to build with; we even had a snowball fight with balls of white paper!

We also read lots of stories, made art pieces and had discussions about how animals survive outside in the harsh winter conditions by either adapting, migrating or hibernating. As usual there were many new songs to be learned and a whole bucket of sprinkles was used up at the art table!

Next we will be celebrating Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day! Please make sure to dress your children in weather appropriate clothing as we try to spend as much time outside as possible; thank you!

A note from the Sunflower Room Class 401 - Susan, Stephanie and Karen

Winter Sports Board!

Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful winter break with family and friends. We would like to thank everyone for the thoughtful cards and gifts during the holiday season. It was much appreciated. 

It was great seeing all of the enthusiastic children waiting to come into the doors after the break. They have all grown so much in a number of ways. We have seen their play grow in the last few months. There is more communication and conversations between each other. We have also been putting out more challenging activities as they are developing and maturing. With kindergarten on its way we will be working on kindergarten readiness skills with the children. At snack time the children are pouring their own water now. We are working on independence skills in the classroom, so giving them more responsibilities. 

"People in a Snowstorm"

For the month of January we focused on winter. At circle we talked about the weather during the winter, the clothes we wear, different winter sports, and animals that hibernate. For art we made a person in a snowstorm, ice cream snowmen, water-colour snowflakes, ice skates, hockey jerseys, marble painting, paper-mâché rocks with snakes inside, penguins, and laced a mitten. 

For the next month our theme will be Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to any of the teachers. 

A note from the Sunflower/Rainbow Room Class 402- Danielle, Arsi and Sousan

Wow what a great month it's been! We've looked at some winter animals and sports and have dived into the amazing work of Eric Carle.

We have been practicing our hand-eye coordination by tracing penguin, firefly, and ladybug shapes. Some of this art also required using our cutting skills which we will continue practicing in the coming months.

We talked about ice skating and hockey and brought in ice to see if we could make sculptures. The children were really into watching what salt did when added to ice. We decorated our own skates too and used different materials to make snowmen. Of course we couldn't leave out making beautiful winter collages.

Aww!

The last two weeks of January we spent taking a closer look at the amazing work by Eric Carle. Our first book was called "Slowly,Slowly, Slowly, said the Sloth." During circle, we discussed what animals move fast and which ones move slow (eagle, snail) and we charted our answers. We also watched a movie about sloths. For art, the children used diffusing paper with beautiful water colours to replicate the leaves found in the book. Our next book was "The Very Mixed Up Chameleon." This story showed us how it's good to be ourselves. For art, the children used bleeding tissue to bring out the many colours of the chameleon. Our next book was "The Very Lonely Firefly." The poor firefly was in search of finding others like him which

he eventually does. We couldn't resist dancing in the dark with glow sticks and playing a game of find the matching firefly. Our next books were "The Very Grouchy Ladybug" and "The Lamb and the Butterfly." The grouchy ladybug made us think about what makes us grouchy and the lamb reminded us how great home can be. The children traced and cut out their own ladybugs and created their own sheep using cotton balls.

In the next month, we will be talking about friends, feelings, and working on kindergarten readiness. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask.

A note from the Treehouse Room Class 304 - Stephanie, Vibha, Karen and Gabi

The month of January we focused on building sculptures by using various art mediums. We created 3D pictures using strips of colorful paper and we had lots of fun exploring with clay and connecting lollipop sticks to create a sculpture which is an excellent activity for children's fine motor skills. Also, our artistically talented children created a 3D structure with paper towel rolls and glued them onto a paper plate. We had lots of fun exploring with pipe cleaners and connecting it to pieces of Styrofoam.  

At circle time, we watched a mighty machine movie where we learned about assembling a crane. For the month of February, we will be talking about Valentine's Day, love and friendship. We recently transformed our housekeeping area into a pet-shop which is a lot of fun for our class as they all love animals. As always, please come and talk to us if you have any concerns.

A note from the Treehouse Room Class 403 Permjit, Stephanie, Gabi and Karen

Welcome back and a Happy, peaceful New Year to all our wonderful families. We all enjoyed our Christmas break and we're ready to get back into a routine again. After Christmas we noticed a significant change in the children; maturity seems to have settled in and they have gelled with their friends again. They reconnected and seemed to have missed each other.

We talked about what they liked best about the holidays and being with family topped it all!

403 Girlies!

Throughout the  year we are going to be encouraging the children to practice self regulation and taking other peoples feelings into account. It's important for them to realise that not everyone enjoys participating in every game & activity and that's OK. Sometimes getting excited about a game is only great, if everyone enjoys participating. The biggest challenge is that everyone has a choice and it's OK for them to say no to doing something they don't enjoy. As adults we don't always want to participate in certain activities and enjoy just pottering about and being in the moment and it's the same for our children.

Fun at the light table!

We have also been focusing on the theme of winter this year including animals that hibernate, adapt and migrate. We've talked about bears, snakes, hedgehogs and other animals  that hibernate. One surprising fact the children learnt was that some animals do wake up during the winter months (this is known as torpor). Bears are one example. They have young cubs they have to attend to and feed. Hedgehogs on the other hand move and build another nest. This is just a few of the activities we took part in. We really enjoyed the story "The Mitten" and had so much fun lacing our own mitten and taking our props home.

Friends!

We are very excited to welcome Gabi and Karen, two new teachers, as we continue 2015. Yippee!!!

Thank you very much for the generous gifts at Christmas time. We enjoyed our tea in our mugs and enjoyed going for coffee. At the end of the week, enjoying a glass of wine with yummy chocolate was a delight. Now we have our special personalised lettered mugs, no one can accidentally think its theirs! Jingle bells were a real hoot; had to ring them and have everyone come to the dinner table. Ideal for Christmas Day!!! I did wonder if I kept ringing them, could we get everyone to do my bidding...! As for our cold hands, put on some nice hand cream and our awesome mittens to keep them warm. Thank you so much!!

Lego time!

We have been working on a number of things already this year such as ABC's/numbers/colours/ memory games etc. We are encouraging the children's learning through guessing games such as the right letters for the correct days of the week. What two colours make green! Kindergarten readiness is what we will  work on throughout the rest of year as well as other fun themes. Please do come and see us if you have any queries. We are fortunate that we have Marion who is always on hand to help as well. She's always available in her office. We will be going on to a very pink and red month with Valentines and Chinese New year. We are looking forward to a very colourful February!

  

Merry Christmas! 2014

A note from Jen McEneany   Coordinator

Thanks Dessert Gems for donating this fab cake to our auction!

Christmas is such a special time at preschool. I love walking through the hallways and hearing the children singing "Jingle Bells' and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (or the theme song from Frozen!) and looking at all the beautiful artwork up on the boards. The Christmas Services were fantastic and I think you will all agree that the children were so sweet up there performing! A HUGE THANK YOU to Laura our new music teacher for putting together her first Services and of course Marion who helped at every step of the way to make sure that everything ran smoothly as well as our teachers who worked so hard to make sure that the children knew their songs and were taken care of on the night.

This month we have been working on putting together a very special Christmas hamper for a family in need on the North Shore. This year our family consists of a mum with twin 3 year old boys. We know that they are going to be extremely excited to receive this hamper full of toys and surprises as well as gift cards to Real Canadian Superstore and Walmart so that mum can go out and buy the groceries she needs this Christmas. Your generosity will make this family's Christmas much brighter!

Yummy worms and dirt cake!

We would also like to say thank you to all our parents for their support over the past few months from helping out in the classrooms, to preparing special treats for our parties to making donations to our various events and fundraisers, we really appreciate it!

From the whole team here at St. Catherine's Preschool we would like to wish all of our families a joyous, safe and relaxing Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Important Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday December 17: Class Christmas Parties 201/403

Thursday December 18: Class Christmas Parties 202/302/304

Friday December 19: Class Christmas Parties 301/401/402

Friday December 19: 4's Christmas Caroling in the village.

Friday December 19: Last day of classes.

Saturday December 20-Sunday January 4: Christmas break.

Monday January 5: Preschool re-opens.

For General information please contact Tina or Jen in the office:

Tel: 604-980-1326

Fax: 604-982-3277

Email: stcpre@telus.net

website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com

Please "LIKE" our Facebook page "St. Catherine's Child Care Society"

A note from our parent board members:

Thank you to everyone who donated wine, bought or sold tickets for our wine raffle. We sold over 200 tickets and made over $2400 so this was a very successful fundraiser for our preschool!

The winners were:

3rd prize and winner of 4 bottles of wine: Andrea Youck

2nd prize and winner of 8 bottles of wine: Jonathan Mackin

1st prize and winner of 12 bottles of wine: Lauren Sinclair

Thank you so much for your support and cheers to a very Merry Christmas Season with your children and families!

Fundraising Update:

Wine Auction!!

As you know we have been fundraising for 2 new light tables for our preschool (we are sick and tired of heavy tables around here!!). Seriously though, light tables are fantastic tools for multi-sensory exploration and play and we are so excited to say that as we have surpassed our goal of raising the $1500; we will be ordering them as soon as we get back to preschool in January!!

With all the fundraising we do 50% goes towards classroom needs 25% goes towards updating our office equipment and 25% goes into a contingency fund for future needs.

Fundraising Totals:

PIZZA NIGHT       $993.00     ($496.50 towards light tables)
PURDY'S             $554.05     ($277.00 towards light tables)
WINE RAFFLE   $2410.00   ($1205.00 towards light tables)

TOTAL                 $3957.05   ($1978.53 towards light tables)

A note from the Discovery 2's  Sali, Vibha, Stephanie, Danielle, Estelle

For the month of November, it was all about hibernation. We all worked together to paint a big tree for our chipmunks to hibernate in and we decorated paper plate snails. We also worked together to paint a bear cave and then we decorated bears with cinnamon to put around it and we made bear masks. At circle we read "Goldilocks and The Three Bears". For art we glued oats onto three bowls; a  large one for Papa Bear, a medium sized one for Mama Bear, and a small one for Baby bear. To end our theme we had a teddy bear picnic. It was great to see all of the children in their pajamas and having their favourite stuffies with them. For snack we laid out some blankets and enjoyed the egg-free oatmeal cookies we made that day. They were delicious!

Next it was onto a very special time of the year; Christmas! We put extra love into a very special Christmas surprise that we made. We decorated angels with shiny paper, Christmas ball ornaments, salt dough ornaments, foam snowflakes, and painted with pine tree branches. At circle we've been singing many Christmas songs and listening to Christmas stories.

Now we are looking forward to our Christmas party and spending some time with our families, enjoying some yummy treats and celebrating together on our last day of preschool before our Christmas break.

With the weather getting colder, we would like to remind parents to dress their child warmly (jacket, mittens, toque) as we will be going outside if it is not raining.

Pine branch painting!

If you see that your child is showing signs that they are ready to be toilet trained, the two weeks off for winter break would be a great opportunity to start. It is always great for children to have consistency at home and school so if you have started toilet training, please let us know and we will continue doing the same at school. When you come to school, please send your child in underwear and bring plenty of extra clothes (underwear, pants, socks, and shoes). Good luck!

We would like to send our warmest wishes to you and your family during the holiday season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A note from 301  Gabi, Permjit and Sousan

November was an ‘easy month’ in our class, we tried our best to take time to connect with each of ‘our’ children and plan activities that were fun and helpful for them to make new connections with each other. We used some well-known children's stories to discuss anything that interested our little friends. We incorporated some teaching of healthy habits and the importance of proper hygiene to stay well in our Circle times.

We can’t believe it is already December! There is magic in the air (with some help of the occasional use of peppermint, cocoa, ginger or cinnamon in our play-dough!) The children are starry eyed from all the excitement, preparation and anticipation that only the Christmas Season can bring.  

We started the season off early, the last week of November, with introducing the Nativity Story. The children were delighted to play with the sets we have at the preschool to re-tell the story. We practiced every time we could fit into our busy schedule for the Christmas Service, and all the time sitting on the carpet instead of playing paid off! They were fantastic! Even some of the shy 3’s participated and we are just as proud as you must be!

301’s class Christmas Party will be on Friday, December 19^th. Family members are welcome to come in and join us at 11:15 to sing some Christmas songs with us!

Enjoy the moments with your loved ones during the Christmas break, and have a Happy New Year!

A note from 302  Gabi, Narine and Karen

November was a nice, relaxing month to prepare ourselves for the busy, full of activities month of December. We were lucky enough to be able to spend most days outside and observe changes in nature. To brighten the few dark rainy days we used vivid colors and lot of sparkles in art projects!

It is wonderful to see the children walking into the classroom looking for faces, new friends they can’t wait to see again, talk to, play with. They are comfortable enough with us the teachers too to ask for help, particular toys or stories.They all settled in nicely and proud that they can follow directions and routines with just a little, or no help at all from the teachers!

December is a magical, most anticipated month of the year for the youngest (and for some of us as well), but also the busiest at home and at school. We introduced the Nativity Story first before we moved into practicing our songs and rhyme for the Christmas Service. With only two days a week we had to sacrifice some well loved free play time and a few last bites of snacks to memorize lines and tunes but it was worth it! They all looked adorable and performed well! Thank you parents, Laura and Marion!

Lots and lots of sparkles, funny Christmas stories, and some new Christmas songs will make us happy for the little time we have left of this year.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 A note from 401  Stephanie, Narine and Karen

For the month of November we focused on a very popular author, Robert Munsch. We read many of his stories at circle time and then for art we would create something that was connected to the story of the day. For the story "The Fire Station" we made fire trucks, for "Andrew's Loose Tooth" we decorated a tooth, for "Get Out of Bed" we made beds, for "Mmm, Cookies!" We decorated play dough cookies, for "The Paper Bag Princess" we made a princess with a paper bag, for "The sandcastle Contest" we made castles, for "Roar" we made hand-print lions, and for "Makeup Mess" we created paper plate faces.

We also took one day out of the month to talk about Remembrance Day. For art we made poppies using hearts.

December was such a busy month for us. At circle we talked about the story of Christmas and then for art we created a nativity scene with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. We worked on a special Christmas surprise, made snowmen, decorated gingerbread people, and snowflakes with glitter.

The children have worked so hard practicing their songs for the Christmas Service. It was a huge success. They all did such an amazing job at singing. Thank you to Laura for putting it all together and Marion for all her work in organizing everything.

Now we look forward to spending some time all together at the Christmas parties. It is always nice to be around family and friends during this time of the year and we are glad that we get to do a little bit of celebrating with you and your children!

To end the last day of school before the holidays we will go Christmas caroling in Edgemont. This is a special tradition that we only do with our 4 year old programs and the business owners and people strolling through the village are always really happy to hear our preschoolers singing for them!

Wishing you and your family a joyous holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A note from 402  Danielle, Arsi and Sousan

Wow, how time flies...We have been at school for just over 3 months and it will soon be time for Christmas break.

The month of November has been very busy. We started off with Remembrance Day. This was a great opportunity for us to reinforce why we should use our words; so people don`t get hurt. We decorated our own Poppies and listened to some Remembrance Day Poems.

We then focused on the great author and song writer Raffi. We used his songs to dance too, move around, create some great art i.e. Beluga whales, trees that grow, the world we live in and a fishy aquarium. We read some new books and some favourite ones. "Baby Beluga", "Shake Your Sillies Out"  and "Everything Grows" were the more popular ones, but we also discovered new books "This Little Light of Mine" and "Me, Myself & I".

Next we moved onto "The Nutcracker". This was a fun filled week. We read the story, watched the movie, listened to the music and participated in many fun art activities. We decorated Ballerinas, assembled and painted Soldiers and Nutcrackers but best of all, we painted to the music of "The Dance of Hot Chocolate, Tea and Coffee..." The room smelled like Starbucks!

We have also had fun listening to our Class Pet Echo's, many adventures. He sure gets around and he loves to have his photo taken!

In our last few weeks, we have been busy talking about Christmas...Writing our letters to Santa was our first task. We have also been busy making decorations for our homes, Christmas presents for our families and just enjoying the spirit of Christmas...We plan to end our last week of school with Caroling in the Village and a party when we return.

Just a little reminder that we are here for 4 hours, so it is better to pack more food than not. Leftovers can always be taken home. We also ask if you could please separate Lunch and Snack...This is a great opportunity for the children to learn what should be eaten for Snack and what is best left for Lunch, as they will be at full time Kindergarten next year and making their own choices.

Please continue to send extra clothing as there are some very enthusiastic painters and children who enjoy water play. With the cold weather here, please remember to send warm coats and hats. Our playground is shaded and tends to be cooler earlier in the day.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to speak to either Danielle, Arsi or Sousan. 

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

A note from class 304  Vibha, Stephanie and Gabi

For the month of November we focused on a frozen theme. We worked together to paint a big white ice castle, we used glue and shaving cream to make puffy "Olaf" snowmen, painted with ice cubes, decorated popsicle stick snowflakes with glitter, and created ice sculptures with a variety of different shaped ice. We used salt to make the ice stick together so they we would be able to put up and create different structures with them. Then we used pipettes to colour the ice sculptures with water colour.

December seemed to approach us so quickly. We were so busy preparing for the Christmas services. The children worked so hard practicing their songs and they all sang beautifully that night. Thank you to Laura for putting it together and to Marion for organizing everything.

At circle we talked about the story of Christmas and how it was all about the birth of Baby Jesus. For art the children all helped to colour the different characters of the nativity scene and we put them up in our classroom to show us the story of Christmas. We worked on a special Christmas surprise, decorated trees with glitter, paper plate wreaths with sequins, and 3D Christmas trees. We also went for a walk through the village to see all of the Christmas decorations in the store windows.

No we are looking forward to having our Christmas party on Thursday and spending some time with our families celebrating this special time of year. Thanks to all the parents who are providing some yummy treats for our party!

We would like to wish you and your family a wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A note from class 403  Stephanie and Permjit

For the month of November we spent a week talking about shapes, a week about colours, and a week learning about numbers. At circle we would talk about the different shapes, then for art we would create things using a variety of different shapes such as people and vehicles. For numbers we made a caterpillar and each circle represented a number in which the children put that amount of stickers onto it. For colours we heard the felt story "Mouse Paint" which the children really enjoyed. For art we used the three primary colours and mixed two of them together to create a new colour. We used shaving cream and made prints with these colours.

We also took one day out of the month to talk about Remembrance Day. For art we made poppies using hearts.

December was such a busy month for us. At circle we talked about the story of Christmas and then for art we created a nativity scene with Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. We worked on a special Christmas surprise, decorated gingerbread people, Christmas trees and salt dough star ornaments with glitter. We drew a picture for Santa and we were so excited to hear back from him. It was exciting to see the letters he sent us!

The children worked so hard practicing their songs for the Christmas Service and it was a huge success. They all did such an amazing job at singing. Thank you to Laura for putting it all together and Marion for all her work in organizing everything.

Now we are looking forward to our Christmas party. It is always nice to be around family and friends during this time of the year. Thank you to everyone who is bringing a treat for our celebration.

To end the last day of school before the holidays we will be going Christmas caroling through the village which is so much fun!

Wishing you and your family a joyous holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!