APRIL 2022

 

April Showers bring...well...umbrellas! Weather is crazy this time of year so make sure your child has lots of choices in their backpacks for appropriate clothing and footwear. And on rainy, wet days, please make sure you pack indoor shoes so we don't make a mess of the school floors as well as your child will have appropriate footwear for playing in the gym.

Missing Items: 

We have had a few children's items get misplaced or have gone  home with other children. Help us to minimize this by labeling all your child's items: lunch box, containers, water bottles, footwear and clothing. And please think about purchasing some labels from our Fundraiser: www.StCatherines.lovablelabels.ca

JEANS WEEK- April 25-29 

Jeans week is coming up! This is the week that we collect donations for The BC Children's Hospital. 

Please save up your Loonies and Toonies and throw them into the Umbrellas that we will have set up at pick up and drop off times. 

Last year we raised the most we ever had at $505! And don't forget to send your child in some denim!!

UPCOMING SCHOOL CLOSURES

APRIL 15 - GOOD FRIDAY 

APRIL 18 - EASTER MONDAY

MAY 13 - PRO-D DAY

MAY 23 - VICTORIA DAY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Plenty of things happened in the classrooms last month. The teachers would like you to check out what they have been working on!

RAINBOW ROOM - DANIELLE, VIBHA, SUSAN, ROSE

Welcome to Spring!

Now that new life is popping up from the ground and sprouting from trees, we are so excited that the weather is getting warmer and Spring is here. We began the month learning about farm animals. The children enjoyed listening to farm stories and taking part in farm themed art activities. Some of the fun farm stories we listened to at Circle were “Hello Farm” and “Cows In The Kitchen”. 

A great activity that always excites the children is a farm listening game that plays the many sounds on a farm. The children often get excited when they hear a duck, cow, or pig in our classroom! 

At the art table we explored with paint and coffee grinds to make muddy pigs. The texture of the paint gives the children a real-life idea of brown mud. A barn was created on one of our classrooms presentation boards. The children’s farm animals such as sheep made with cotton balls and cows made from paper plates were proudly displayed.

Our room started to bloom with beautiful Spring art after the break. Handprint tulips, cherry blossoms and even butterflies could be seen within the Rainbow room class. The bright pop of colour really gets the children and teachers in the Springtime spirit. 

At Circle we learned about flowers, gardening and even umbrellas. We enjoyed listening to two different CD stories at Circle Time, “The Apple Tree” and “Trees for all Seasons”. The 2s always enjoy listening to a story by hearing it through the CD player, and it gives variety to our Circles and creates an exciting mood with sound effects and entertaining voices. As teachers we love seeing the children become deeply engaged in a story.  

The children enjoyed listening to a felt rhyme about the 5 coloured umbrellas as well.  A story we read that highlights all the pretty spring bulbs is called “Planting A Rainbow”. This book is great for anyone who loves plants and gardening. 

Speaking of gardening, we had shovels, buckets, and watering cans in the house corner for the children to imagine and play with. Providing a creative environment for the students to imagine is something with strive for all over the classroom but we especially like to see imaginative play in the house corner.

As we say goodbye to March, we look forward to what April will bring! We are hopeful for more sunny days so we can spend time in our outdoor playground spotting new growth and even butterflies! 

TREEHOUSE ROOM - KAREN, BRITA, ROSE, CAROL, GABI, MONICA

Welcome to the month of March in the Treehouse room. 

We finished off our theme of Space the first week of March, but we could have continued longer as there was so much more we could have explored. 

Our next theme was based on Eric Carle. His first published book was The Hungry Caterpillar and there were so many others that followed. So many books….but we can’t read them all. We started off with Papa Please Take Me to the Moon, followed by Grouchy Ladybug, The Hungry Caterpillar, Today is Monday, The Greedy Python, The No Nonsense Show, Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?  Little Cloud, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Lonely Firefly and The Very Quiet Cricket.

For art the children made a puffy paint moon, tissue paper ladybug, sponge painted caterpillar, egg carton caterpillars, paper spiral python, paper stars and handprint brown bears.

As part of our Kindergarten readiness we are including more cutting into our everyday activities from shapes, lines and any other kind of paper. We encourage you to continue your child's cutting skills at home. Practicing letter writing (child's name) is also a part of what we are working on. 

So many of the children are capable of managing themselves when it comes to taking off/putting on their coats and zipping or buttoning, taking off and putting on their own shoes for inside and out, and packing their own back packs and putting them on. Of course the teachers are always there to help if needed. Please encourage children to practice these activities on their own at home as well.

Our last day before our one week Spring Break, we had a “make your own pizza” for snack, watched a short DVD about the last days of Winter and ate popcorn.

This month we also had some preschool excursions. The one  sunny day we had in March we went for an impromptu walk in the afternoon to the Duck Pond by Murdo Frazer. Along the way we looked for signs of Spring. 

Our next excursion was to the Capilano Public Library. This worked well with our Eric Carle theme as he was part of a theme at the library. Along the way we looked for knitting around trees, benches and bike stands. Also some store windows were taking part in COME FIND Fairies and Beasts in Enchanted Edgemont Village.

Once we were at the library we put the children into small groups with a teacher and they had to go around the children’s department looking for food from The Hungry Caterpillar story. Each item had a letter and once they were all found it made a word…BUTTERFLY. Once each group was done everyone sat on the circle carpet and we read some Eric Carle books.

Our last excursion was an impromptu walk to Dudley Park playground in the afternoon. This is a fun, interactive, colourful, age appropriate space that all the children enjoy. Check it out if you haven’t already. 

Spring has arrived and we are talking about the buds that are blooming, hearing and seeing more birds, seeing more insects and how the weather is changing. 

The children made paper daffodils for art and drew what Spring means to them in their journals.

At Circle the children leaned about the life cycle of a seed. To continue the process the children drew a seed and what might grow from it and we also planted real seeds in soil. Their options were corn, peas, beans and cucumber. These will be going home once they are established. 

By now everyone should have received The Card Project envelope. This is a great way to support your child's art displayed on a booklet, mug, cloth bag…..and partial proceeds come to the classroom for additional supplies. Thank in advance for your support in this wonderful fundraiser.

We have started practicing our songs for Spring so you may hear your child singing them. Our plan is to video record the children and email to you our little Easter celebration. 

For the beginning of April we will be focusing on Easter.

Thanks for reading.

SUNFLOWER ROOM - DANIELLE, CECILIA, CAROL

For our first week of March, we continued our journey around the world. We had just a few stops left via the Caribbean on our way to North America.  The children learned about the animals, food & culture of Trinidad from library books. They attempted the movement game - limbo (it originated in Trinidad) to the sounds of a steel drum band and marched with tambourines to the beat of the American national anthem. We listened to a story about a grandfather’s childhood encounter with his baseball hero. We learned about the things you find in USA: Bald Eagles, American Football and explored American animals through yoga poses.  For art, we traced a surfboard and made prints with a baseball, basketball, and a football.  We turned the home corner into a camp site. Complete with sleeping bags, picnic food & our own BBQ.

Our last stop was Canada. We made it home! We explored the map of Canada and found where we live. We discussed our favorite things about our home and what we love. We read “Why I love British Columbia” and “What House is the Polar Bear Hiding?”.  We played a memory game with Canadian Animals & Hockey in the gym. We made pancakes with lots of 100% Maple Syrup and decorated a Canada Goose with feathers and painted a beaver at the Easel.

We then moved onto Spring & Planting.  We converted the Home Corner into a flowering garden with shovels, buckets, watering cans and flowers. For circle we read “How a Seed Grows", "Mouse’s 1^st Spring", "Planting a Rainbow", "How to Grow a Friend" and "Good-bye Winter & Hello Spring”. We listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Flowers', '5 Little Umbrellas' and '5 Spring Flowers’. We learnt Spring Yoga poses & how our bodies grow from a seed to a flower. We played the game ‘Match the Coloured Flowers’ and 'Sprinkle, Sprinkle'. For art we planted sunflower & cosmos seeds. We used celery hearts to make flower prints. We also decorated coffee filters we turned into flowers, used watercolors to paint ‘spring’ and decorated sunflowers with seeds.

In keeping with Spring, we moved onto explore BUGS! The home corner was turned into a Bug Garden complete with tunnels, bugs and magnifying glasses. We listened to the felts “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and “Ladybugs”. We read the books “From Caterpillar to Butterfly", "Bees Like Flowers" and nature books on ladybugs & dragonflies. We sang ‘Insects All Around’, ‘Little Grasshopper’ and ‘Bumble Bee’. We played the games 'Counting Bugs Dominoes', 'Feeding the Ladybug' and "Meadow Ring Toss". For art we made butterfly prints, cut out Bee bodies and glued on yellow stripes, antennas & eyes. We cut out the ladybug shape & used a salad spinner to decorate the body and then glued on the wings.

For our last week we began our journey into the Alphabet. Each letter is introduced by a song that sounds out how the letter should ‘sound’. We then have an Alphabet Soup Can with examples of things that start with the letter we are learning. We listened to the CD Stories “Apple Countdown" and "Duck at Your Door”. We read “Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom” and listened to the felt “The Cat Who Changed Colors”. We used our bodies to act out the actions of animals who start with the Letter A, C & D. We used Drums to sing songs and played the memory game of what things are missing, starting with the letter B? We listened to the felt rhymes '5 Apples', '5 Buses', 'Ben the Beaver' and '5 Cupcakes'. For art we followed different steps to make an Avocado using paper, pipe cleaners & glue and we used watercolors to paint a cookie. The Home Corner was turned into ‘the Circle carpet’ where each child had a turn to be the teacher and use the calendar & work out who was the leader/helper.

We will continue our learning of the Alphabet along with Easter for April. We are also continuing with the children practicing their self-help skills.  We encourage them to put on their own jackets, zip them up, change their shoes if they need to and take out their snacks.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Danielle, Cecilia & Carol.

 

RESOURCE ROOM - MARION

Happy Spring.  Jim and I had a lovely trip to Australia and most importantly finally met our 2 year old grandson, Freddy.  It was sad to leave but I'm glad to be home and back teaching. 

I hope everyone had a good Spring Break.  These next few months will be filled with so many learning opportunities.  The classrooms have all sprung into Spring.  

Our butterfly kits will be arriving May 5th.  It takes about three to four weeks for the caterpillars to complete their process of changing into butterflies.  The children will be able to visit them in the Treehouse Room throughout the month of May and then they will be released into the Memorial Garden in June.

The teachers have sent home the Kindergarten Readiness letters and are working with small groups of children on their individual journals.  They are playing games involving letters, shapes and numbers.

We are encouraging the children to be more independent.  The teachers are watching as the children put away their coats and back packs.  They encourage the children to ask for help when needed.  It does take a little more time, but just letting them put on their own coat is so rewarding for them and helps build self confidence.  

If you have any questions, please speak with the teachers. 

MARCH 2022

               

We are getting closer and closer to Spring every day!! Wow!

Weather Appropriate Clothing/footwear

March is a month where we could have sunny skies one moment, snow the next and then a wind storm with thunder and lightning!! And all before noon!!

With that in mind, it is very helpful for children to come to school with inside shoes when they wear boots to school, have an extra jacket or sweater in case the weather changes, and to have extra clothes in their backpacks just in case they get wet outside.

Absent Children

Thank you for continuing to call/email to let us know when/why your children are absent due to sickness or holidays. If they are sick, please let us know the symptoms. 

New Fundraiser - Card Project

We are almost ready for our Card Project fundraiser to start.

The children made amazing art for this exciting fundraiser!

Orders open Monday, March 28.

Look out for your child’s greeting card coming home after spring break.

Every child’s card is unique.

The front showcases their own art with

their name and grade printed on the back.

You can order professionally printed greeting cards, notebooks, digital prints,

stretched canvasses and now, canvas tote bags, mugs and tea towels.

From March 28, you can see your child’s art and place an order online at:

www.TheCardProject.ca

ORDERS are due by Sunday, April 10 for delivery in the week of April 25-29 – in time for Mother’s Day!

This is a wonderful fundraising opportunity for our school. We receive 20% of the sales.

Remember, the cards and notebooks make great gifts!

THANK YOU in advance for your support.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Marcelle at Marcelle@TheCardProject.ca

SCHOOL CLOSURES AND SPECIAL DATES

MAR. 14-18 - Spring Break SCHOOL CLOSED

(If you are going to be away on vacation in March, please let us know)

APR. 12/13 - Easter Services (in-person? TBA)

APR. 15 - Good Friday SCHOOL CLOSED

APR. 18 - Easter Monday SCHOOL CLOSED

APR 25-29 - Jean's Week: Fundraiser for BC Children's Hospital

MAY 13 - Professional Dev. Day - SCHOOL CLOSED

MAY 23 - Victoria Day - SCHOOL CLOSED

JUN 17 - 4's Graduation (in-person? TBA)

JUN 17 - Last Day of School

JUN 21/22 - Picnics (Location TBA)

The teachers did some amazing things in the classrooms during February. Check out below what happened and ask your child about it! 

RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle, Susan, Vibha, Rose

February was such a great and eventful month. Three different themes were introduced: Valentine’s Day, Pete the Cat, and Paw Patrol.

 

For Valentine’s Day week, we sang Skidamarink  and The More We Get Together.  In addition, we learned how to communicate “I LOVE YOU” in sign language.  For art, we used marbles and pink, gold and grey paint to decorate hearts. We decorated a heart wreath with pink and red tissue paper.  We finished our Valentine’s Day week with a PJ party and we prepared delicious pancakes for snack.

Then we moved into Pete the Cat theme.  For art we stamped buttons on Pete the Cat and had lots of fun shoe stamping with red, blue and brown paint. Also, our children enjoyed colouring Pete the Cat with crayons and then adding watercolours. At Circle, we listened to two tape stories: I Love My White Shoes and Pete the Cat with Four Groovy Buttons.  We played Pete the Cat Shoe Colour Recognition Game and Five Cats in a Bed song. 

We pretended to be cats, butterflies and dogs while doing yoga poses. 

BUTTERFLY 

With the soles of my feet touching

I gaze straight ahead

My hands rest on my shoulders

As my butterfly wings spread 

CAT

My hands and knees on the floor

I become a cat

Stretching one leg to form a tail 

I say, “Meow” just like that.

DOG

I am a dog

Stretching from a nap

On my hands and knees

I begin to yap

Straightening my legs

And lifting my hips

I spread each and every one

Looking down

I can see my toes

And I focus on breathing 

In and out through my nose.

We talked about Paw Patrol.

Paw Patrol is ready to roll!

There’s no job too big and no pup too small.  “Paw Patrol to the Lookout!” shouts Ryder.

For art, we made paw printing with brown paint and enjoyed making  paw patrol collage with our favourite characters. For circle, we read "Pups to the Rescue" book and "High-Flying Skye" story tape.  We also sang the Do you know the Paw Patrol? song. 

We transformed our Housekeeping Corner into a Vet where the children really enjoyed taking care of the animals. 

If you are actively toilet training at home, please let us know and we would kindly help you at the preschool. Thank you parents for your on going support.

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

February has been a fun filled month of activities for your children! For the first half of the month we focused on friendship, kindness, and Valentine’s Day.

 The home corner was transformed into a chocolate shop where the children baked chocolates, packed them up for customers to purchase! The tables were filled with matching games, lacing shapes, small and large puzzles, which the children liked to work on together.

At Circle Time , we focused on being kind to one another, what makes a good friend, and how to show kindness.  The teachers acted out different scenarios to show the children how different behaviours can make you feel. They learned that being kind to others makes you feel good about yourself and others will be kind to you.

We read books such as “The Smartest Giant in Town", "A Color of his Own", and "Happy Valentine’s Day Curious George". We played Find the Missing Heart, Send Your Friend a Valentine, and sang songs like Skidamarink.

For art we decorated Valentine’s bags, marble painted hearts, created heart people, love bugs, and bee-kind bumble bees. Thanks to Chef Karen, the children were able to decorate heart shaped sugar cookies!

Thank you for helping your child make Valentine’s Day cards for their friends. They were so excited to show the teachers and place them in their friend’s bags. It was a great opportunity for your child to practice writing their name.

For the last half of the month we explored the theme of Outer Space. The Block Corner looked like we had landed on the moon with lunar vehicles, space rocks, and astronauts. The Home Corner became the inside of the space station with control panels, computer controls, jetpacks, cameras, and space phones. The train table was were the children could build satellites.

For Art, the children made spaceships, rockets, green 

Martians, stars, the Sun, and constellations out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

For Circle, the children learned about our fascinating solar system. They learned about the different planets that make up our solar system and what makes each one unique. We explored the Moon, the Sun, and planet Earth. We read books such as “On the Moon", "Planets", "Our Solar System", "The Amazing Planet Earth", and "Aliens Love Underpants”.  We played games like Name That Planet and Find the Missing Planet. The children loved playing the Lava Game. It is such an amazing theme to discover.

We have been working with the 4s on their Kindergarten Readiness skills which includes both gross and fine motor activities.

We are so lucky to have the use of the gym for our gross motor activities on rainy days so indoor runners work best on their feet. When it is not raining, we love to go outside in the fresh air so warm jackets, hats, mittens, and boots keep the children warm on those brisk days.

The children have created beautiful art work for our next fundraiser, The Card Project and we just can’t wait for you to see them, so please stay tuned.

Thank you for continuing to keep your child home from school if they are not feeling well. Please continue to contact the preschool if your child is going to be absent for any reason. We truly appreciate it.

 

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Cecilia, Danielle, Carol

February may be the shortest, but it proved to be one of the most exciting months as Sunflower friends shared sweet treats for Valentine’s and traditional foods from their various backgrounds.

On the continent of Asia, we sampled roasted seaweed from Korea and learned about áo

dài when one of our children came dressed in the traditional Vietnamese “long shirt.” In Pakistan, we listened to a fun story about how roti can give us super strength and tried some delicious cumin crackers. One of our Iranian families brought in a gorgeous representation of items found on a Haft-sin table for Nowruz, Persian New Year.

Soon it was time to fly to the land down under and no trip to Australia would be complete without Vegemite, catchy tunes, and kangaroo stuffies.

Europe was next as we went on a whirlwind excursion to Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. 

We learned about kilts—one worn to school had even been passed on from mother to daughter—and how they communicated belonging to a certain clan. Real British pounds, English breakfast tea, a double decker bus, and a commemorative plate helped convey a sense of England and Walker’s shortbread cookies brought home that UK vibe.

Denmark was next with a representative Viking t-shirt and family photos of Christmas traditions such as elves around the house and a hidden almond in the rice pudding dessert.

Poignantly our last stop this month was Ukraine. A child’s grandmother, his баба, had beautifully embroidered a table runner which we got to see and touch, and he also brought in pictures of pysanky or decorated eggs that she had lovingly made.

While Valentine’s pajama parties with fruit parfaits and popcorn are always fun, learning about where we come from and sharing some of our foods and traditions truly filled our hearts this February. THANK YOU, FAMILIES, for your enthusiastic participation! Our trip around the world would not have been possible without you.

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

My husband, Jim and I will be heading to Sydney, Australia to meet our first grandchild, Freddy on March 6th and returning on March 29th.  We have never met Freddy and are looking forward to celebrating his 2nd birthday with our son and extended family in Australia.

Kindergarten Readiness letters will be handed out to all the children who are registered for Kindergarten in September. 

The teachers are already starting to encourage the children to learn the letters in their names and try and print them out in their Journals and on their Art work.  

Letters and Numbers will be all around them for the next couple of months.  If you have any questions, please speak to your child's teachers.  This is an exciting time of year for all the children and we are looking forward to so many Spring time activities.  

Wishing everyone a happy and fun Spring break.

 

FEBRUARY 2022

AIM HIGH TO THE SKY

Aim high to the sky,
In all that you do.
Because you just never know,
What it takes to be you.

Be strong and be brave,
But at the same time be kind.
And always be sure,
That you’re using your mind.

By: James McDonald

FEBRUARY 2022 is a short month but we have much to do!!

REGISTRATION for September 2022 is well under way! And GOOD NEWS! Every family who registered got the days and times they want! We won't assign classrooms until about 2 weeks before school starts. Watch your emails for an official message in the next week or two.

SCHOOL CLOSURES are coming up! Please check the Calendar of Events below.

NEW COVID GUIDELINES

Thank you to all our families for being so diligent in keeping your sick children home. We have made it through the worst part of the Flu Season and we have managed to keep sicknesses to a minimum. We had a moment when all three teachers of the Treehouse Room were away at the same time! Luckily, the low attendance recently and the fact we have so many staff members, we were able to keep within ratios and fun was had by all! A big THANK YOU to Marion for stepping onto the floor to help out, even on her day off!!

Please remember to phone or email the school when your child is going to be absent. If we have prior knowledge of an absence, it helps us so we can arrange staffing schedules to meet the needs in the school. If your child is away because of sickness, please let us know the symptoms so we can keep track of the sicknesses moving through our school and families. If your child is away, but is not sick, please let us know they are just having a home day.

Thank you to those families who are letting us know when COVID passes through your homes and families. Current regs. state that as long as your child is not exhibiting symptoms, or had not been told by a doctor to isolate, they are fine to come to school. Parents who are themselves sick or exhibiting symptoms should not be dropping their children off at school. 

FUNDRAISING

We are getting ready for another year at school! Busy classrooms and happy voices will be echoing our halls shortly!!

            There is so much to do in our classrooms, and this is partly due to the great Fundraising Events that we hold throughout the year!

            When families like yours support our school by choosing to participate in one, some or all of our Fundraisers, it is the children that reap the benefits!

            This year our fundraising efforts will be going towards Playground Improvements (done by The Great Canadian Landscaping Company) as well as new classroom supplies and activities!

            Please check out the list below of all our Fundraisers and how we have been doing this year and what we plan to do with the profits we receive!

1.      Little Kitchen Academy (NEW!) will be welcoming the first students into their kitchen at LKA Edgemont Village on March 14th, the key ingredient for an independent child! The first-of-its-kind Montessori-inspired cooking school for kids ages three through teen, is offering all St. Catherine's Childcare Society families $50 off their registration through March 1st, using the code SCCS2022. They will also be donating $10 back to your school for every registration that selects St. Catherine's Childcare Society as their referral source.

Every week in their three-hour classes, your child will learn practical life skills while developing their independence and having lots of fun. Registration is open on for Spring break sessions which run from March 14 - March 27th. Spring sessions will run from March 28th - June 19th. With only 10 students per class, spots will fill up fast! Register now.

2.      Scholastics (Ongoing): Order books online using our special ordering code (RC168576). These make great birthday and Christmas gifts and reading with your child daily is a great way to foster that love of reading that is so important for school readiness and fostering a love of learning. Last year we were able to spend over $500 on classroom materials from Scholastics!!

3.      Lovable Labels (Ongoing): Order personalized labels for your children’s clothes, lunch boxes and containers and anything else that needs labeling. 20% of every order will support St. Catherine’s Childcare Society. Place your order online at www.StCatherines.lovablelabels.ca . No orders were made last year.

4.      Cobs Bakery (Ongoing): When you make a purchase at the Edgemont Village Cobs Bread Store, you can mention you would like to support St. Catherine’s Preschool and 5% of your purchase will be forwarded to St. Catherine’s.

5.      Return It Recycling (Ongoing): Take your cans and bottles to the Return It Depot on Brooksbank Ave. and you can donate them to St. Catherine’s Childcare Society. You just need to print off a St. Catherine’s Childcare Society sticker (can get from the preschool office) and put that on your clear bag of cans/bottles and St. Catherine’s will get the proceeds! Last year we made about $75! Wow! Let’s beat last year’s total! Stickers available in the Preschool Office.

6.      Boston Pizza (Ongoing): When you purchase food from the Boston Pizza on Esplanade & Chesterfield in North Vancouver, you can take a clear picture of your receipt and email it to the preschool. We will forward these on, and we will receive 5% of the food sales! Sounds like a Win-Win situation!!

7.      Purdy’s Chocolates (November): Last school year we sold $5630.10 worth of chocolate! That means that the school received a profit of $1407.53! And because we sold more than $5000 worth of chocolate, we got an extra rebate of $140!! Wow! Wow! Wow! Did we beat that this year?? I don’t know the final numbers yet but we made $6169.50 in sales, and we received a profit of $1619.50. We have yet to receive notice if we qualified for the extra rebate but I have a good feeling!!

8.      Samosas (November & March): This year in November our ever-popular Samosa Fundraiser ran: We made $668! Great for entertaining or quick meals!

9.      The Card Project (Spring): The children work hard at creating a beautiful art piece and then we send them off and they get turned into beautiful greeting cards, exercise books or sketch pads! They make great gifts for grandparents and of course, who doesn’t need blank greeting cards!?! The children are so proud of their creations too!

10.  Donations (Ongoing): Last year we decided to take our own individual and class photos because the Covid-19 protocols were preventing us from having class photos done. We asked for donations for the pictures you received, and we collected about $150! Which is about the same amount we made if we use the photography company! Wow! Thank you so much! Last year we  also had a few families donate their CCFRI rebates! Totally unexpected but absolutely appreciated!

We here at St. Catherine’s thank you and your friends and family for helping to support our wonderful school!  A big THANK YOU from the St. Catherine’s Board Members and Staff!!

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

Jan 31       - Registration for current families

Feb 1        - Registration for community families

Feb 10/14 - Children's Valentine's Day parties

Feb 21      - Family Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Mar14-18 - Spring Break: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

HEY! Did you hear what happened last month in the classrooms? No?! Well check it out here!!

RAINBOW ROOM - DANIELLE, VIBHA, SUSAN, ROSE

Hello 2022!

 A new year in the Discovery Twos class and we are excited to welcome all the children back! 

January started off with exploring our current season of winter. The room was decorated beautifully by the teachers with snowflakes, ice painting art, snowmen sculptures and even toboggans to ride in.

Following the fun two weeks of Winter theme, we moved on to the exploration of Dinosaurs. The children had the opportunity to play with large dinosaur figures, cut out playdough dinosaur shapes with cookie cutters and did some Dino prints with paint.

A few highlights in the classroom were when the children played in the two toboggans on the floor. The children took turns pulling each other around the room. This exercise allowed the children to understand each other’s weight and strength. Some children were able to pull their peers without the help of the teachers. The teachers stepped in and even got a ride in the sled. 

Another highlight in the classroom was the conversion between teacher Vibha and the students where they spoke about the dinosaur tape story “How Do Dinosaurs Go to School”. When Vibha asked the children "How do dinosaurs go to school?" The students answered in some creative ways; “Dinosaurs can’t walk”, “walk”, “with Daddy”, “Drive the car”, “I don’t know”. Another conversation got going about what dinosaurs eat and some answers were; “cookies”, “I don’t know”, fruit snacks”, “muffins”, “sandwich”, “pizza”, “bacon”, “cereal”, “toast”, “grass”, “crackers”, “broccoli”, “cake”.  

The last month has given us some fair weather, so we have played in our outside playground. The outside activities allow the children to interact with nature and experience the weather. For one week we had a lot of fog which made the sky very misty and the conversation about weather was had by many of the teachers and students. When the weather wasn’t optimal the children played in the gym. Lots of running, throwing, and climbing was done. The children always enjoy our gross motor movements in the gym.

Here in the Rainbow Room we celebrated the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Tiger. The children played with rice in the water table and we painted calligraphy with black paint as well as read stories about traditional Chinese New Year activities. 

We would like to remind parents to bring runners if your child comes to school in boots. We know that boots are great footwear for this time of the year, but they are not great shoes to play in.

We are looking forward to another exciting month of fun with the children of the Rainbow Room!

TREEHOUSE ROOM - BRITA, KAREN, ROSE, MONICA, CAROL, GABI

“Gong Hey Fat Choi” Happy Chinese New year everyone!

  

What a fun month we had! During the month of January, we focused about Winter. We transformed our block corner into a snowy airport! We also had so much fun with the snow cave, sleds, and building snowmen. At the art table, we made penguins, owls, artic foxes and polar bears.  

 

As Chinese New Year came at the end of the month, we talked about how people celebrate Chinese New year, types of food they eat during the New year, and what’s inside the “Hong Bao” (Red envelope)!! We also played Chinese music that are being played in the New Year! We made Lanterns, decorated tigers, and wrote Chinese characters, (福 pronounced Fú) during art! We read a story about the Chinese Zodiac and talked about the race that made the 12 animals in the Zodiac during circle time! 

Next month, you will be seeing lots of hearts in the Treehouse room for Valentine’s!  We will be having a Valentines celebration! Please feel free to bring in Valentine's card and exchange with friends - definitely a good way to practice writing their names!  

Please always feel free to discuss any questions or concern you have. 

SUNFLOWER ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE, CAROL

Welcome Back and Happy New Year 2022!! It was a bumpy start to the new year but we managed to pack a lot of learning in.

We began the new year learning about different modes of Transportation.  We started with talking about cars & boats. We sung ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Motor Car, Here is the Sea & Row, Row your Boat’. We listened to the felt rhymes ‘5 Little Cars’, ‘5 Sailboats’ and “Stop said the Red Light’. We read the Books “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Car”, “Row, Row, Row your Boat”, “Busy Boats’ & listened to the CD Story “We all go Traveling By”.  We played a memory game with different types of transportation and played the guessing game: What Color Sailboat is Missing? We had fun pulling our friends on toboggans and playing ‘Pin the Pirate’ on the Treasure Map. For art we used paper towel rolls to make our own cars and we made driftwood sailboats with watercolors and coffee filter paper.

We moved onto talk about trains, buses and airplanes. We sung “Choo Choo Train, One Lonely Bus Driver & The Airplane Song” We listened to felt rhymes ‘Colored Train Car’, ‘The Airplane has great wings’ & the felt Story “Freight Train” We read “I’m taking a Trip on my Train”, “Bus Stops”, “In the Air” & “Going on a Plane”. We played a Memory Game with Trains and a magnetic game where we had to decide whether the vehicle is found on the ‘land, water or air’? We took a train ride around the classroom to the tune of “Riding on a Train” and ‘drove around’ an Obstacle Course in the gym.  We had fun at art time using wheels to make ‘tracks’ onto our own train carriages. We made buses by gluing on yellow popsicles sticks to paper. We experimented with feathers as paint brushes and painted airplanes. In the home corner we took turns to ride in the train or on the airplane.

We decided to move our theme of transportation into space. How do we get there? Rockets of course!!! We sung “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom’, ‘Bumping Up & Down in my Little Space Rocket’ & ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. We read ‘Little Rockets Special Star” & played the game ‘Rocket, Rocket, Blast Off’. We listened to the felt rhyme 5 Rockets and ‘Rocket Ship, Rocket Ship What do you see?’ We created our own rockets with tinfoil, paper towel rolls and cellophane.  We then moved on to explore Astronauts. What they wear, why they wear them and what they do in space.   We read “The Astronaut”, “There was and old Astronaut who swallowed the Moon” and listened to the Felt Rhymes ‘5 Astronauts & ‘My Astronaut’.  We played the game ‘What color Helmet is missing? We went on a ‘Space Walk’ with a flashlight through the building looking for things in space. We took a break from art to make our own ‘space playdough’. We then blasted off into learning about the Planets. We read “My book of Planets” and “On the Moon”. We sung ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star & 8 Little Planets’. We played the game ‘Pass the Planet’ and What colored Star is Missing? We had lots of fun at art, painting our own planets with a mixture of paint & bicarb soda and watched it bubble when we sprayed water onto it. We enjoyed playing in our own spaceship in the home corner.

For the end of January, we explored Chinese New Year! The Year of the Tiger. We read “Sam & the Lucky Money” & “Come the Terrible Tiger’. We listened to the felt story ‘5 Red & Gold Dragons’ and 5 Colored Lanterns’. We danced with scarves and watched a DVD about Chinese New Year. We practiced cutting by making our own lanterns and painting them with gold paint. We had fun in the water table with rice and red pompoms. We were busy in the home corner preparing our ‘house’ for the new year by baking, cleaning and playing with our friends.

For February we will talk about Valentine’s Day and go on a trip “Around the World’.

If you have any questions for concerns please feel free to let us know. 

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Thank your for all your warm wishes and gifts for the holiday season. 

There has been a lot going on after Christmas Break in the classrooms, so I missed the January Blog deadline.  

It was lovely having a white Christmas and the children returned to the classrooms talking about Winter and all the activities that happen outside in the snow.

This is the time of year, with registration happening, that parents are wondering if their child is ready for the next step.  This might mean more sessions, longer hours or going off to Kindergarten.  Young children change so fast - if they can't do something one week, they may be able to do it a few weeks later.  

When preparing children for Kindergarten the teachers are looking for certain skills which will help with the next step.  Our daily routines involve allowing the children to be independent in doing many activities by themselves.  We encourage the children to hang up their backpacks and coats.  They get their snacks/lunches out and put them away when they are finished.  They are supervised in the washrooms with going to the bathroom and washing hands.  We also encourage the children to ask for help when they need it.  This will be an important skill in Kindergarten.  

We will be sending out a letter soon with a check list for Kindergarten readiness and the teachers will be working on many of the skills.  Please review the information and if you have any questions, please speak to the teachers or email me in the office.

The Discovery 2s program is for two year-olds only.  When they turn three, they will be in a multi-age program.  Children can benefit from this type of programming.  Children learn at their own pace with age appropriate activities.  This type of programming allows children to work at their own achievement level and with appropriate support. The children are not held to a strict curriculum that may be too challenging or not challenging enough.  Younger children look up to the older ones to model turn taking, sharing and problem solving techniques.  The older children are starting to take on leadership roles.  Every child within the multi-age classroom is viewed as an exclusive individual. 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the office.  Have a good month.