May 2019

        

Wow! There are only 31 school days left in this year! It is hard to believe but the time has just flown by! We have accomplished so much! But we still have a lot planned so stay tuned....

Important Dates and Events

May 8/9 - Music Open House (watch for your invitation)

May 10 - Staff Pro-D Day PRESCHOOL CLOSED

May 20 - Victoria Day PRESCHOOL CLOSED

May 27 - Last Scholastics order due 

June 13/14 - 4's Graduation (watch for your invitation)

June 14 - Last day of Preschool Classes

June 17/18 - Picnics (Mahon Water Park)

A reminder to support our Fundraisers...

SCHOLASTIC BOOKS - Only one order left! If you order online you can pick a FREE book. So far this year we have raised almost $650 that will go towards new school supplies for next year! THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE FAMILIES WHO ORDERED BOOKS THIS YEAR!! 

LOVABLE LABELS - 20% of every online order will support our Preschool! And we all need labels! They have labels for containers that are dishwasher and microwave proof and are waterproof. The clothing labels are bleach, laundry and sunscreen safe! and the Mini-Metal Bag Tags are waterproof and sunscreen proof! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!

PLACE YOUR ORDER AT: www.StCatherines.lovablelabels.ca

JEANS WEEK - Thank you to everyone who donated to The BC Children's Hospital through our Jeans Week Fundraiser! It's not too late to donate!! Look for the umbrellas in your child's classroom!

                        

JULY SUMMER PROGRAM - There are still spaces available! Contact Marion in the preschool office for more information!

I CAN'T BELIEVE ALL THE THINGS WE DO IN CLASS! 

Read below and see for yourself! 

DISCOVERY TWOS - Brita, Danielle, Vibha

Hello Everyone!  March and April have been busy months talking about farm animals and Easter.

We transformed our housekeeping corner into a Pet Shop.  The children really enjoyed taking care of the “animals” using the doctor’s kit.  

Then we moved onto Easter with baskets and eggs.  The children enjoyed filling the baskets and hiding the eggs in the housekeeping corner.

 

Here are some of the farm art activities we did: Tractor painting with coffee and sand, painted individual red barns, and Mommy and Daddy ducks with feathers and paper plate pigs.

At Circle children enjoyed Cows in the Kitchen and sounds on the farm books.  But Old MacDonald on the Farm was definitely the two’s favourite-especially naming and making the animal sounds.

Hop little Rabbit, hop, hop, hop

Hop little Rabbit, don’t you stop

Hop little Rabbit, 1,2,3

Hop little Rabbit hop to me.

Easter theme is always a big hit with our twos.  We decorated Easter cookies with icing and we face painted ourselves into Easter bunnies.  The children also enjoyed experimenting with egg tongs at the science table to pick up eggs and other small Easter objects.  It’s a great way to promote fine motor and eye and hand coordination skills.  We put shredded paper into the water-table with different coloured eggs to promote colour recognition.

 

For art, children enjoyed marble painting Easter eggs, decorating Easter bunnies with cotton balls, painting bunnies with forks, and making cute little baby chicks with egg cartons.

In amongst this busy month we decorated miniature Jeans for BC Children’s Hospital.

As always, please come and talk to us if you have any concerns or questions.

301 - Carol, Susan

Welcome to class 301 blog and thank you for taking the time to read and explore the many highlights of our classroom. 

The children in 301 thoroughly enjoyed the month of April. In the first half of the month the children engaged in the splendors of spring. Each child planted a seed in a tiny cup. The seeds were either radishes or beans. We hope your tiny seed has sprouted and you and your child enjoy taking care of them. 

Our car corner was changed into a farm area with farm animals and barns. The farm animals were a nice change for the children and they enjoyed playing, imagining and building with their friends. 

Along with transforming the car corner, we also transitioned our home corner into an Easter themed zone. The Easter eggs were out to hide, the baskets were hanging on the hooks and bunny ears were available to wear. 

Within the second half of the month the children had been practicing hard for their Easter service that was held in the gym and church. We were all thrilled with the outcome of the services and we have to say that this year was particularly delightful. 

Once the hype of practicing and singing was over the children enjoyed an Easter egg hunt within our classroom. The Easter bunny always has a sneaky way of dropping by and the children were over the moon when we got back from the gym with a special note taped to the door. 

We all hope you enjoyed your 4-day weekend; we know you all deserve it! The children were happy to be back at school after a few days off, we noticed confidence, enthusiasm and strong voices, we all know now that there are only a couple short months left of preschool! 

Jeans week kicked off April 22^nd with an umbrella hanging within our classroom, please take this opportunity to support an important cause and educate your children on the importance of giving back. The teachers love to get involved as well; we wear head to toe denim! Thank you for all who have already donated to the cause. The children have been very curious about helping the sick and injured. 

Before we close, we must not forget one of the highlights of the month was walking to the library for story time. The children did so well on the walks to and from and they listened beautifully. The story time was Spring time focused and we loved the many felt stories and books the librarian had chosen for us. Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time to help us that day, we really appreciate it! 

Again, thank you for taking the time to read our class blog and we hope you enjoy the month of May! 

302/404 - Karen, Susan, Carol

Welcome to our class blog! We are so happy to have you here reading our highlights over the past month. 

The month of April was focused on the excitement of Spring and Easter. The Spring flowers bloomed within our classroom with our back wall displaying the children’s Spring art. Our car corner was changed into a farm area with farm animals and barns. The farm animals were a nice change for the children and they enjoyed playing, imagining and building with their friends. 

Within this classroom of multi-age children we are able to focus on activities such as “Echo” and “Show and Share”. The orca whale “Echo” is a stuffed animal that the children take home for the weekend. “Echo” can enjoy going to the park, eating dinner out or practicing soccer. The premise of this home activity is to encourage the conservation of our local orcas and bringing awareness to our preschool’s contributions to the BC whales. 

Along with introducing “Echo” our classroom also started the fun activity of Show and Share. This is a great way for the children to bring a piece of home to school. 

As we moved deeper into April the excitement of Easter began to rise. First off was our Easter services and tea. The children worked very hard to practice for this important event. We were very pleased with the results; we hope you were too! 

Secondly, the Easter bunny came to our classroom! The children took part in an Easter egg hunt with baskets they had hand made. Along with making Easter baskets the children created an adorable bunny art that is on display in our hallway. Please take the time to look at these art boards as many of the pieces are made with love and care! The children were very excited for the holiday ahead and having a couple extra days with their families. We hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. 

Jeans week kicked off April 22^nd with an umbrella hanging within our classroom. Please take this opportunity to support an important cause and educate your children on the importance of giving back. The teachers love to get involved as well; we wear head to toe denim! Thank you to all who have already donated to the cause. The children have been very curious about helping the sick and injured. 

To carry on the idea of helping and caring we set our home corner up as a veterinary office. The children had the opportunity to provide care to the animals with our doctor’s kit. 

Unbelievably we only have a month and a half left of school! We are looking forward to spending time outside in the sunshine and welcoming caterpillars into our classroom on May 7^th. 

Again, thank you for taking the time to read our class blog and we hope you enjoy the month of May! 

401 - Arsi, Karen, Lisa, Marjan

April brought us letters J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S and T. Our art projects were Jellyfish painted with JELLO, kites, lollipops, masks, P with puzzle pieces glued onto paper, rainbows, snakes and tulips.

Our Easter service was held on the 10th and the children did a wonderful job! We hope you enjoyed the tea, sandwiches and cookies afterwards. This was such a nice time for the parents to sit down and talk with each other.

The Easter bunny paid us a visit on 17th. We decorated paper plate baskets and when the Easter bunny was hopping by, he saw them. There was a note left on our door and the children were left 4 chocolate eggs to find.

We also started our week to support the Children’s Hospital. The children decorated mini jeans (cut out by Marion) with glitter glue, glitter, buttons and sequins. We have an upside down umbrella in our room for donations.

The season changed from Winter to Spring this month and we are starting to talk about seeds, planting, how things change with the changing season. A few days ago the children were sent home with a small cup with a Sunflower seed in it. Please replant them once the cup becomes too small. We would love to see some pictures of their progress.

A special day is coming in May and we are working on a gift. We hope you like it.

Our whale Echo has one more student to go home with. We just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone for taking such good care of him while you had him. Some of his adventures were going to birthday parties, bouncy castles, skiing, swimming, meeting other stuffed animal friends and there was lots of cuddling.

Show and Share has been a great success. Everyone has been so happy to share with the group what they have brought in.

Last but not least, thank you to all the parents who supported our annual Card project. It is such a great way to show off the children’s art.

Thanks for reading.

402 - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan

Graduation is just around the corner, so we’ve kicked it into high gear for our kindergarten readiness this month. We have been learning our alphabet and what sound(s) each letter makes. We have been tracing the letters each week by using dot to dot or following numbers. By doing so, we have also started to use our pincer grip to write. It is really important for the children to practice this grip at home as well for this will help them when they begin writing more in kindergarten. Furthermore, this allows them to use their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination when it comes to other activities. We would like to encourage parents to keep practicing the letters at home. This may be in the form of dot to dot tracing letters or just pointing out letters you may see around the house/grocery store (on a toy box, sign,poster etc). When it feels like a game, it’s more fun to learn!

The children have also worked really hard on the letters of their names and printing their name. We are encouraging them to print their own names on their art at school. This can also be extended at home with their drawings, paintings, or even a birthday card. A fun activity is writing their names in shaving cream on a cookie sheet! (Easy clean up too!)

Some of the activities we did to incorporate the alphabet this month:

*find the matching upper and lower case letters

*guess which letter is missing

*find the friend with the matching upper\lower case letter

* alphabet box

This month we also said goodbye to Echo as he went back to his family. It was so much fun sharing all the wonderful adventures with our friends at school. Thank you, families for taking such good care of Echo!

    We hopped our way into Easter and we painted paper plates and made them into our Easter baskets! You can’t have Easter without decorating eggs! We traced and cut out egg shapes and used shaving cream and water colours to make a mosaic pattern. We decorated bunnies and listened to the story of “Peter Cottontail.” Furthermore, we had a special visit from the Easter Bunny who left us some treats to hunt! What a fun time! We hope everyone had a great Easter!

It was such a fun art to decorate mini jeans as we discussed the importance of giving and helping others with Jeans Week! The children were very engaged as they listened to each other talking about who had been to a hospital and what a hospital was for. We learned that the umbrella in our classroom was meant for collecting money to help the families and hospitals that are in need. Thank you to everyone who donated for such a worthy cause!

In the upcoming weeks, we will continue to work on our alphabet and other aspects of kindergarten readiness!  We will also look into how flowers grow and do some planting. We will talk about Mother’s Day and what goes on in the jungle!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to talk to us!    

304/403 -  Karen, Susan, Brita, Carol

Hello and welcome to your child’s class blog! 

The month of April has been filled with many exciting highlights. First of all, let’s start with the class visit to the library. The children and teachers attended the Capilano library story time. We were entertained with spring themed books, felt stories and songs. The librarian did a great job with keeping the children interested and engaged. 

Secondly, within the classroom we focused on the themes of spring and Easter. The children were able to dive deeply into spring with planting their own seed. The children carefully chose their tiny seed to plant and we hope you are able to enjoy and care for them at home. 

Our car corner was changed into a farm area with farm animals and barns. The farm animals were a nice change for the children and they enjoyed playing, imagining and building with their friends. 

Within mid-April we were into the thick of Easter. We all practiced very hard for our Easter services; we hope you enjoyed them and much as we did! Of course, lots of Easter decorations and art was displayed in the classroom and hallways. Please take the time to check out the art boards! 

Lastly, once back from a long weekend, we started jeans week. Jeans week kicked off April 22^nd with an umbrella hanging within our classroom, please take this opportunity to support an important cause and educate your children on the importance of giving back. The teachers love to get involved as well; we wear head to toe denim! Thank you to all who have already donated to the cause, the children have been very curious about helping the sick and injured. Unbelievably we only have a month and a half left of school!

We are looking forward to spending time outside in the sunshine and welcoming caterpillars into our classroom on May 7^th. 

Thank you for reading our blog and we hope you enjoy the month of May! 

MUSIC PROGRAM - Tiffany

May is here and we’ve got the rhythm of the hands, the feet, the eyes and the hips! Woo-we! Congratulations, children, on a successful Easter Service. You are all great musicians.

This month, we will be focusing on basic note identification, using the Rhythm Family and the Cousins Three. We will drive our cars along the grand staff and go on an epic search for middle ‘c’. Additionally, we will learn new musical terms, such as ‘treble clef’ where the high voices sing. And ‘bass clef’ where the low voices sing.

We will practice our note value recognition with a memory matching game and we we will refine our musical ears by learning the major intervals through ‘solfege songs’. Did you know that ‘do-do-sol-sol’ sounds just like ABC? And ‘do-fa-fa-fa-fa’ sounds like The Wheels on the Bus. Try it!

 

As we head into our final months of the school year, the children are invited to bring in an instrument or musical item, from home, that they would like to share with the class.

Happy sing-I mean, Spring!

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

May is such a special time in the preschool.  We hope you enjoyed the Easter Services and the Tea afterwards.  

The caterpillars will be arriving on the 7^th of May and will reside in the Treehouse Room as they turn into butterflies.  All the classes are invited to visit and see how the process unfolds.  When the butterflies are ready to be released they will be set free in the Memorial Garden.  

The classrooms are so much brighter with Spring colours.  The sandbox was recently opened in the playground after the long winter months.  

I have been visiting the classrooms and observing the children as they are practicing all the new skills that they have learned throughout the year.  As the 4s move onto Kindergarten they are working on the readiness skills.  Parents can help with the transition to Kindergarten by:

• Talking with their child about some of the impending changes.  Do not overwhelm them with too much information.  A good time to talk to them would be after their school visit.
• Helping your child acquire new self help skills (putting on their own shoes or jacket)
• Encourage your child to ask for help when needed
• Allowing your child to practice working independently
• Teaching your child to follow directions
• Teaching your child about rules and how important they are
• Encouraging you child to print their own name

SUMMER PROGRAM:

Registration is on going and several morning sessions are already full.

 I have lots of spaces in the afternoons 1-4 pm.  Please drop by the office and sign up.

JEANS DAY – Thursday, May 2^nd.   Every year we collect donations for the BC Children’s Hospital.  The umbrellas will be upside down in all the classrooms this week.

Thanks you for your kind donations.  

April 2019

Spring has sprung! 

Finally we can enjoy some warmer weather as we coast through the last three months of preschool. That's right!! There are only three months left!! So let's make the best of it while it lasts! Please check out what is happening in the classrooms. It is amazing how much the teachers do each day and they are proud to share this with you. 

Important Upcoming Events

APRIL 10/11 - Easter Services & Tea (Threes & Fours)

APRIL 19 - Good Friday - Preschool Closed

APRIL 22 - Easter Monday - Preschool Closed

APRIL 22-26 - Jean's Week for Children's Hospital 

MAY 8/9 - Music Open House (Threes & Fours)

MAY 10 - Staff Pro D Day - Preschool Closed

MAY 20 - Victoria Day - Preschool Closed


INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUMMER PROGRAM REGISTRATION BELOW

Discovery Twos - Brita, Danielle, Vibha

For the month of March, the children explored the world of insects, spiders, and worms. The theme was set up throughout the classroom so the children could experience this wonderful world! For example, we had insects in the water table , spiders in the sand table, incredible puzzles of different insects and huge insects on the science table!

For art,  the children made egg carton caterpillars and bumble bees. They created butterflies by using tissue paper and decorated paper plates to make spiders. The children made wiggling worms in mud and beautiful lady bug stamping.

During circle time, the teachers read books like “ The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, “ The Very Busy Spider”, “Wiggling Worms at Work“, and “ Creepy Crawly”. We sang songs like the Enzie Wenzie Spider and Baby Bumble Bee. We wiggled our bodies like worms and learned the butterfly yoga pose. We watched the Hunger Caterpillar movie and listened to the felt rhyme 5 Butterflies. The children loved the 10 Lucky Lady Bugs felt rhyme!

It was a very busy month and we look forward to learning about farms and Easter next month! We hope everyone got some rest during Spring Break!

Class 301 - Carol, Susan

March certainly was true to form this year. It "came in like a lion and went out like a lamb." So cold in those first weeks, and then so lovely and warm and sunny.

Our theme at the start of the month was Books and Reading; more specifically, our favourite children's books. We turned the house corner into a library, complete with a wall of books, some computers, more books, and of course some stuffed animals for us to read to! We hope you were able to come into the classroom at some point and have a look, and maybe you found your favourite book.

The books we featured over the two weeks included:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Blueberries For Sal

The Grouchy Ladybug

And many more by Eric Carle.

We then enjoyed a sunny, relaxing Spring Break, and we do hope you all had a good time as well.

The last week of March has been perfect spring weather, especially for our theme of Spring and Planting.

We planted seeds in little pots to take home; the children were given a choice between radishes or beans, both chosen because they are fairly quick to germinate. Instead of playdough this week, we've been exploring trays of seeds to play with, first with spoons and cups, then with tractors and trucks...lots of fun, and lots of sweeping up!

We also learned about seeds we eat such as peas, beans, popcorn, lentils etc.

The children made a picture of seeds growing into plants. Look for these on our display board outside the classroom.

We've begun preparation and rehearsals for the Easter Service, to be held on Wednesday April 10th  for Class 301. More information about that later, but we hope to see you all there. The children are really looking forward to showing you some of what they do at Preschool.

Enjoy the better weather.

Class 302/404 - Karen, Susan, Carol

Greetings parents of 302/404

We hope you all had a relaxing Spring break, the weather was definitely in our favor.

For the first 2 weeks of March we talked about the author Eric Carle. The children were familiar with most of the books we read which made the interaction while reading them a constructive group circle. Picking what books to share with the children was the hardest part as there are so many great stories but we narrowed it down to The Greedy Python, The Mixed up Chameleon, The Grouchy Ladybug and Papa, Please get me to the Moon. Please check out the art boards outside of the classroom to see the art the children made.

Once we came back from Spring Break we starting talking about Spring. We put out a tray of different seeds for the children to explore. From this came an art project about what grows from a seed drawing. The children were very imaginative and their finished art is on the walls outside the classroom. What are some things we are finding in the garden….Snails. We went outside to the garden to look for snails and other insects. The children made paper plate snails and are on the wall in the back of the room.

*We have put a Show and Share sign up sheet on the bulletin board, please only sign up once. Spots are filling up quickly!

*Starting April 2nd we will be sending Echo home with our 4’s. On the container there will be an explanation about Echo. We will talk more about it in class, but if you have any questions please ask.

*We will also be starting the children's weekly journals with the 4’s.

We will be continuing on with Spring and Easter in April.

Last but not least we will be practicing songs for our Easter service.

Class 401 - Arsi, Karen, Lisa, Marjan

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

A told B and B told C, “I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree.”

Amongst our everyday learning we have been busy exploring our ABC’s.  We have collaged some of our letters, made animals out of others like elephants and ducks.  Our children also practiced tracing the letters and cutting them out.  

 

We have continued working on our journals and there are some great pictures and stories to tell.

We are also nearing the last few turns with Echo.  It’s been really great hearing about Echo’s adventure so far. 

Just a reminder, although the sun has been shining a bit more, our yard tends to be shady and cool.  Please pack a jacket for your child.  We are continuing to practice being more independent by putting on and zipping up our own jacket, opening and closing our own snack containers, and pouring our own water into cups.  

Please continue to encourage your child to do these activities at home to help with their readiness for Kindergarten.

As, always if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask.

Class 402 - Arsi, Danielle, Marjan

We hope everyone had a great Spring Break! What beautiful weather we had as well! 

Before we went off for our break, we started our Alphabets!  In our first week, we looked at A, B, and C. We listened to the stories, “Alligator Baby,” “Bad Kitty,” and “Clumsy Crab.” We traced the uppercase and lowercase A and used sponge dabbers and red paint to make them into apples! 

For the letter B, we used our hand eye coordination to trace the upper case B and then decorated it with yellow tissue paper to make it into a school bus! 

The letter C was turned into a cat! The children used their cutting skills to cut out the cat’s triangle shaped ears and nose!

On our following week, we looked at the letters D, E, and F. We read the books, “Duck’s Vacation,” “Elephant’s Story,” and listened to the CD story called “Fidgety Fish.” The children used their fine motor skills to draw a doll and used tissue paper to dress the doll.

While learning our alphabet, we have also talked about Spring! The children had a chance to observe the Persian tradition of Nowruz (Persian New Year) as Marjan showed them what a traditional Nowruz table looks like. The children learned that there are 7 items displayed on the table that start with the letter S. Furthermore, Marjan let the children know that Nowruz was celebrated as a welcome to the season of Spring! 

We also have been talking about the sights and sounds of spring as well and read the story “Mouse’s First Spring.”

Before our break, our 4’s had a fun time skating at Harry Jerome! Thanks everyone who came out! What a fun 4’s tradition!

 After spring break, we dove right back into our alphabet with the letters G, H, I. The children listened and acted out the story of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” For art, we turned the letter G into a goat! We listened to a little penguin eat spicy tacos and get Hiccups and we looked at a little worm who outsmarted a nightingale in the story “Inch by Inch.” For the letter I, the children made ice cream cones and we were super lucky to have some vanilla ice cream at snack! Yummy! 

We have also started our journals and this will continue until end of school year each week. 

We have started tracing our upper case and lower case letters. Please continue to encourage your children to write their names at home!

Just a few reminders:

*encourage your children to zip up and down their own jackets 

*please leave all toys and stuffed animals at home especially for children who go over to other classes, they have lots to carry over 

*please take your child to bathroom in the morning before coming into class 

*please remember to give them a quick goodbye in the morning, sometimes staying a bit longer may lengthen the process of goodbye in the morning and may upset the child

In the following weeks, we will continue our alphabet, kindergarten readiness, and we will be talking about baby animals, Easter, and Jeans week!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask! 

Class 304/403 - Karen, Susan, Brita, Carol

Hello Parents of 304/403

We started off the month with the ever popular author Eric Carle. The books we shared were enjoyed by all the children as they were familiar with what we were reading. So what did we read you ask….The Mixed up Chameleon, The Greedy Python, The Hungry Caterpillar,   Papa, Please Take me to the Moon, The Grumpy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider and Pancakes, Pancakes.

Along with these wonderful books comes wonderful art. Check it all out on the boards outside of the classroom. The one art you will not see on the board is the homemade chocolate chip pancakes we made in class on the Friday😊.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at Harry Jerome for our annual 4’s skating party. It was great to see so many families participate.

After our week off for Spring Break we started talking about Spring. The weather was beautiful and we decided to go on a few field trips. Our first one was to the Murdo Frazer duck pond. We brought some seeds to feed the ducks and good thing because there were a lot and they were hungry. On our way back we stopped by the village toy store and checked out all the cool toys in the drawers...if you don’t know what I mean you should check it out.

Our second field trip was around the community looking for ‘Signs of Spring’. We talked about what Spring sounds, smells and feels like. We saw many birds, insects and flowers starting to bloom. Back in the classroom we put out a tray of different seeds and the children were so interested in them that we turned it into an art project. Each child picked a seed and then drew what they thought would grow from it. Their art is displayed on a board outside the classroom, some very cool things come from seeds😃.

Check out our back wall as the library has now been taken down to make way for ‘SPRING IS IN THE AIR’. The children have been making paper plate snails, paper daffodils and coffee filter butterflies.

We have lots to look forward to in April….Children's Easter service, Jeans week and our  Easter egg hunt. In addition for the 4’s we will be starting Kindergarten readiness, journals and introducing our stuffy whale Echo. Instructions for Echo will be on the container but we will also talk about it in class. Please feel free to talk to us about what you have read in our blog.

Have a great day!

Music Program - Tiffany

Inch by inch, row by row, we’re making our musical garden grow!

Spring is here and we are prepped and ready for our upcoming Easter Services. The children have put together a performance filled with singing, dancing and laughter. We hope you enjoy our songs about windmills, seeds, sunshine and rain. Watch our fours as they play ‘tic-toc’ on the xylophone and see the threes' petals pop as they grow to flowers from seeds in the soil.

For the Spring, we are going to focus on taking turns. We will explore some of the different elements of music. From the rhythm to the beat and dynamics too, we now have enough musical language to lead each other in music and even make up songs of our own! We are great musicians and most importantly, we’re all together again, we’re here. We’re here!

Resource Office - Marion

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Spring Break, I know I enjoyed the sunnier, warmer temperatures.  As the weather warms up and you start spending more time outdoors at the parks and beaches, your children will have lots of opportunities to make new friends.  Play enhances feelings of acceptance of differences, increases empathy, compassion and sharing.  Play dates are very important, especially for the 4s, as they head off to Kindergarten.  The teachers will post a sheet  and families will be able to write down which elementary school their child will be attending in September.  It is always easier to go into a new environment with someone you know, so plan play dates before the summer.   Younger children gain confidence from repeating the same song, game or activity over and over.  But, with older children, offering a new activity that provides a bit of a challenge, will help them become comfortable with new situations.  They will develop confidence in their ability to be successful.  The 4s’ teachers have sent some information home about some of the expectations for Kindergarten.  If you have any questions on what they are working on please feel free to speak to them.  Marion

SUMMER PROGRAM

This summer the children will be blasting off to “Outer Space”!  Registration will be begin Monday, April 15^th (first come – first serve basis).  It runs for the month of July.  The first week will be Tuesday to Friday (2-5) and the following weeks will be Monday to Thursday (8-11, 15-18 and 22-25).  This program is open to the community for children ages 3 – 5 years.    

Church Services:

With Easter just around the corner, I would like to let you know about some of the Church Services this month.  

Palm Sunday, April 14^th (10 am)  Palm procession, children’s story and a reading of Christ’s passion help us enter the spirit of Holy week.

Easter Sunday, April 21^st (10 am) Family Service with music, children’s story and Holy Communion.  There will be also be an Easter Egg hunt!

It is with sadness that we share the news of Sousan Hakimy Kashany’s passing on March 14^th.  Sousan taught in the preschool for 5 years and was part of the teaching team for the Summer Program.  Sousan had a loving and thoughtful way of caring for the children.  She was patient and nurturing, especially with those requiring extra support.  A celebration of her life was held on March 21^st here at St. Catherine’s Church.  We will miss her and our prayers and thoughts are with her family.