JUNE 2022

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

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

Thanks to everyone for making this a fantastic year.

The Last Two Weeks

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

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

Year End Gifts

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

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

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

- gift cards to restaurants

- wine

- mani/pedi

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

Important Days & Events

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

Last Day of Preschool: Friday, June 17th

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

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

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

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

Walking through the Jungle 

Walking through the Jungle

What do you see?

What do you see?

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

Chasing after me

Chasing after me

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

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

For Art, the children made:

- Painted crocodile’s with roller brush

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

- Glued brown tissue paper on monkey’s

- Green spiral snakes

- pink paper plate flamingos 

- Decorated parrots with colourful feathers

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

- Zebra paper bag puppets

- paper plate orange tigers and grey koalas 

- We used the salad spinner to make turtles

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

We read many exciting books at circle time:

Rumble in the Jungle

Giraffe can’t dance

Walking through the Jungle 

Dear Zoo

Miss Mary Mack

I love to eat bugs

Koala Lou 

Roo know Blue

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

Pinky Crashes the party 

Felt, songs and games

Five koalas jumping on the bed

Five little monkey’s swinging on a tree 

Five kangaroo’s teasing Mr. Crocodile

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

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

Yoga pose- pretending to be turtles.

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

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

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

Have a wonderful and relaxing summer!

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

 Hello Parents,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Danielle, Cecilia, Carol

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Resource Office - Marion

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

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

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

MAY 2022

April Showers bring MAY flowers,

That is what they say.

But if all the showers turned to flowers,

We'd have quite a colourful day!!

There'd be bluebells and cockleshells,

Tulips red and green,

Daffodils and Crocus too,

The brightest you've ever seen.

We have such a short time left in this school year! Let's make the most of it! We have a few fun things planned for the classrooms this month so stay tuned! Here is a hint:

Things that PARENTS need to know:

September deposits will be cashed Tuesday, May 17th.

Friday, May 13th - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Professional Day

Monday, May 23rd - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Victoria Day

A big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to the BC Children's Hospital! We raised $202! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our Jean's Week! 

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Teachers spend a lot of time planning activities that are stimulating, entertaining and developmentally appropriate for your child. They work hard at making learning activities fun and interesting. 

Please take the time to ask your child open ended questions regarding their day at school. These questions can be ones like: What kind of art did your do today? What is your favourite thing to do at school? What was something funny that happened today? Who did you sit next to at morning snack today?". 

The blog is a way that the teachers can let you know what is going on in the classrooms. Take the time to read the blog so you can chat with your child about the things they are learning. 

And without further ado.....

RAINBOW ROOM - Vibha, Danielle, Susan, Rose

What a blast we had this month, learning about Easter, exploring bugs and talking about being sick and hospitals!

We began by ‘hopping’ into April by talking about Easter. For circle we sang lots of Action songs and finger rhymes. Some of them were Hop Little Bunny, Little Peter Rabbit, Sleeping Bunnies and 5 Little Chicks Balancing. We listened to the prop story “The Golden Egg Book” & “The Egg Who Couldn’t Decide”.  We heard the CD story “The Old Lady Who Swallowed the Chick” and played the game ‘What color Egg is missing? For art we enjoyed marble painting Easter eggs & Easter Bunnies plus decorating bunnies with cotton wool & tissue paper. In the water table we enjoyed finding eggs hidden in the shredded paper.

On the science table we were using our hand eye coordination to match colored Easter items into the same-colored baskets. This helps promote color recognition as well. We also had fun in the home corner hiding eggs in cupboards and collecting them with Easter Baskets. 

During free play, especially in the home corner we have noticed our little two-year old’s are growing up.  We are seeing them start to include friends in their pretend play or call for friends to play with them.

Next, we moved on to exploring Bugs!! There are so many too discover. We had bugs in the water table, bugs on the science table, bugs on the light table and hand puppet bugs in the home corner where we used doctors’ kits to make sure the bugs were healthy.  

For circle we read “10 Buzzy Bugs’ & “The Hungry Caterpillar” with a huge caterpillar hand puppet, that kept on getting bigger and bigger. We also listened to the felt rhymes Lady Bug & 5 Dragon Flies and sang Rickety, Tickety Bumble Bee. We also enjoyed singing ‘We are going on a Nature Hunt’.

We had lots of fun making paper Plate Ladybugs or Salad Spinning with Ladybugs. We also watched colored water mixing together on bug shaped diffusing paper, so many different colors were made.

Over the last week we spent some time talking about Hospitals. We learnt about the people who work in the hospitals, that there are many different departments and Doctors who specialize in caring for our bodies in hospitals. We read the books “Bear Feels Sick’ & “Helping Hospital Book”. We played a game where we had to put Band aids on Bear, who was stung by a bee and we sang ‘Miss Polly Had a Dolly’. For Art we decorated Jeans with glitter glue and sequins. In the home corner we had Babies who needed to be looked after and cared for.

We would like to Thank all of you who donated money towards our Fundraiser for BC Children’s Hospital.

For the Month of May we move onto talking about the Jungle and Construction.

If your child has started toilet training, please let us know as we would like to continue with it at Preschool. Consistency is the key!!

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

TREEHOUSE ROOM 

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

We had an amazing month of April!

 

Children were super excited to get ready for the big Easter event!  We made Easter baskets for their Egg hunt, painted chicks, decorated Easter eggs and walked on raw whole eggs!! And of course, the most excited egg hunt! They were super surprised as they were not aware that the Easter bunny came by to our Treehouse room. 

We have also been focusing on Kindergarten readiness for the 4’s, this is an ongoing topic that we will be continuing till June. We are looking at the letters of the alphabet and what sounds they make by practicing writing their names in their journals. 

We also encourage children to keep practice putting and zipping up their own jackets and opening/closing their snack/lunch containers. These are important learning experiences that will prepare them for Kindergarten.

Getting to the end of April, we talked about Earth day! On Earth day, teachers created an example of the polluted ocean and explained to the children how the garbage will pollute and damage the life cycle of all the sea animals in the ocean.  

That also led to our sea life theme this month. Children enjoyed learning and exploring all the different kinds of sea animals. Ask them about their favorite sea animals.  

 

The last week of the month we decorated cut-out jeans in support of Children’s Hospital. We can’t wait till next month and talk about Mother’s day!   

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Danielle, Cecilia, Carol

A is for April and alphabet. This month the classroom evolved to emphasize the letter (or two) of the day in fun and meaningful ways so as to promote letter recognition and phonemic awareness. At the start, the children got to play school and had a blast pretending to be the teacher next to a kid-sized calendar board. But, of course, Easter celebrations dominated the first half of April.

The home corner morphed into an Easter garden the first full week of the month. A giant bunny stuffy lived next to the carrot patch and children got to “plant” in sensory trays of black rice and bean “soil.” Their fine motor skills were challenged with Easter tongs, plastic eggs to fill and hide for classmate egg hunts, and art activities such as dot bunnies and baskets decorated with glitter glue and tissue paper.

The following week Easter anticipation grew with an unexpected visit from the Easter Bunny who left a note for the children and prints to follow as each child got to find and keep two hidden eggs. The excitement continued when the class went on a hunt throughout the school to find the elusive bunny and the children pondered whether he had cleverly hid himself under the ceiling tiles. During circle they learned about Easter traditions and asked meaningful questions about Jesus and whether he was alive or dead. Upon their return from Easter break, they shared about the number of eggs they had found at home and one child proclaimed he had found an “infinity of eggs!”

Sample books read: “Easter,” “The Bunny Who Found Easter,” “The Golden Egg,” “Happy Easter Little Critter,” “The Egg Who Couldn’t Decide”

Felts, songs & games: Bunny Basket, Little Peter Rabbit, Sleepy Bunnies, garden matching game, 5 Chicks Balancing

All the while, the children were steadily learning the letters of the alphabet. For the letter H, our classroom bear (dubbed Freddie by the children) finally awoke from hibernation and we celebrated with a teddy bear picnic in the music room. The final count for days asleep in his shoebox den: 141!

The second full week of April the children got to take care of jungle animals in the home corner and at the water table. And during week three the alphabet train made an appearance with Thomas helping to encourage dramatic play. As the children boarded, they noticed the letter cards and images along the walls of the train and spontaneously broke out into a chorus of the Alphabet song.

Further associations were developed with kangaroos and koalas in the sandbox, lemons and limes in the water table, keyboard playing opportunities to make music, sticks and strings and other nest-building supplies on the science table, etc.

Earth Day provided the children with a chance to perform an ocean waste cleanup of sorts at the water table and, during the week, they got to build with boxes—a fun way to reuse and recycle.

The final week of April we raised awareness and funds for the B.C. Children’s Hospital (where one of our students proudly declared he was born). At circle the class discussed the role of doctors and nurses and where we go when we’re sick. They had loads of fun placing “Band-Aids” on felt bear who was stung by bees whilst searching for honey. And, in the home corner, children got to play doctor themselves by looking at x-rays, diagnosing teachers with their various ailments, and checking heart functions and reflex times.

Some books read: “Mouse House,” “Nighttime Animals,” “Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups,” “The Hospital Dog,” “Bear Feels Sick”

Songs, felts, games: Alphabet Bean Bag Toss, ‘The Lion and the Mouse,’ The Floor is Lava, Miss Polly Has A Dolly, Go Go Stop, We’re Going On a T Hunt

Thank you, Sunflower families, for your generosity in donating funds during Jeans Week. Together we can make a significant difference in the lives of children across beautiful B.C. Thank you also for your kind support of the Cards Project! We hope your friends and family enjoy the cards as much as your little ones did during the process of creating them.

In the classroom, we continue to remind the children about thumbs up behaviors which lead to smiles and happiness (such as helping a friend or extending a compliment) rather than frowns and hurt feelings from not sharing or using hands instead of words. Thank you for reinforcing this message at home so that kindness is hopefully nurtured for life.

May themes include Mothers’ Day and At the Zoo as we wind down our exploration of the alphabet. This year’s group seems to adore animals so we’re anticipating lots of dramatic play in May.

As always, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office so that we can arrange a meeting time during after school hours.

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion 

Excitement is building in the school as we await the arrival of our Butterfly Kits.  Thirty caterpillars will arrive this Thursday and they will spend the next few weeks preparing to make their chrysalis and then become Painted Lady butterflies.  Each class will be able to visit the Treehouse Room and follow the transformation from caterpillars to butterflies.  In early June we will release them into the Memorial Garden.

North Vancouver School District 44 has scheduled Ready, Set, Learn events during the months of April and May.  Elementary schools that enroll Kindergarten classes hold these events in their schools or communities.  They are designed to foster positive connections among families, schools and early learning community partners.

Here is a list of the upcoming events:

Norgate Elementary - May 4th (11am to 12 pm) Please call (604) 903-3680

Westview Elementary - May 4th (1:30 pm) Please call (604) 903-3680

Canyon Heights Elementary - May 6th (9 am - 10 am) Please call (604) 903-3680

Princess Park - May 6th (9 am -11 am) No RSVP needed

Carisbrooke Elementary - May 13th (1:30 pm - 2:30 pm) Phone: (604) 903-3380 or alawson@sd44.ca 

It is hard to believe, but it is May already and the children have grown and developed before our very eyes.  As the weather warms up and many of the restrictions have been lifted, there will be more opportunities to gather with friends and family.   This is a good time to ask other families where their child will be going to Kindergarten and make plans to have play dates before school starts in September.

Thank you for participating in our fundraising events this year and we are looking forward to our Spring Cleanup of our playground.

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.