A Brand New Year... January 2015

A note from Jen McEneany - Coordinator

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

Our newest goodies from Scholastic!

"When as a child I laughed and wept,

Time crept.

When as a youth I waxed more bold.

Time strolled.

When I became a full grown man,

Time RAN.

When older still I daily grew,

Time FLEW,

Soon I shall find in passing on,

Time gone."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Important February dates:

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

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

Mon Feb 9: Preschool Closed for Family Day.

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

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

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

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

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

A note from Marion Porter - Developmental Resource Educator

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

The Essentials of Development:

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

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

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

A note from Laura Kaario - Music Teacher

Our new table top light box!

Canada,

Canada,

Today our music comes from where?

Canada!

(tune of Hot Crossed Buns)     

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

Willy, willy, wally.

Our new light table for the Sunflower Room!

The monkey’s on the barrel,

Boom! Bang! He fell down,

Willy, willy, wally.

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

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

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

Discovery 2's artwork!

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

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

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

Our 2's family board!

Here is one of the new songs we learned :

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

I’m a little polar bear

Soft and white

I catch a tasty fish

And take a big bite

When the day is over

I know what is right

I lay down my sleepy head

And say “Goodnight”



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

Working on our 3D hedgehogs!

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

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

"Look what I made!"

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

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

"I'm taking him home!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Winter Sports Board!

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

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

"People in a Snowstorm"

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aww!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

403 Girlies!

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

Fun at the light table!

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

Friends!

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

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

Lego time!

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

  

Merry Christmas! 2014

A note from Jen McEneany   Coordinator

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

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

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

Yummy worms and dirt cake!

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

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

Important Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday December 17: Class Christmas Parties 201/403

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

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

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

Friday December 19: Last day of classes.

Saturday December 20-Sunday January 4: Christmas break.

Monday January 5: Preschool re-opens.

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

Tel: 604-980-1326

Fax: 604-982-3277

Email: stcpre@telus.net

website: www.stcatherinespreschool.com

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

A note from our parent board members:

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

The winners were:

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

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

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

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

Fundraising Update:

Wine Auction!!

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

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

Fundraising Totals:

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

TOTAL                 $3957.05   ($1978.53 towards light tables)

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

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

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

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

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

Pine branch painting!

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

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

A note from 301  Gabi, Permjit and Sousan

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

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

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

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

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

A note from 302  Gabi, Narine and Karen

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

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

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

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

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

 A note from 401  Stephanie, Narine and Karen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A note from 402  Danielle, Arsi and Sousan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

A note from class 304  Vibha, Stephanie and Gabi

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

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

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

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

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

A note from class 403  Stephanie and Permjit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pumpkins, Bats and Black Cats!

A note from Jen - Coordinator...

Wow October just flew by in a whirl of pumpkins, bats and spiders! It was so cute to see all the children dressed up in their Halloween costumes and I think I saw at least 10 Annas and Elsas running around the preschool (Princesses from Frozen for those of you who haven't watched the movie 20 times!) October is also the month in which we give thanks for all the special people and things in our lives and it's really heart warming (and sometimes funny) to learn what is most special to our preschoolers. This year I heard that "a story with mommy" and "walking my dog with daddy" are things that our children are thankful for as well as "candy!" and "my Batman t-shirt" were some of the funny ones!

Just a quick reminder that even as the weather gets colder we still try to get outside to play in the fresh air as often as we can. Warm coats, hats and mittens are really necessary as well as shoes/boots with good grip so that our little ones can fully enjoy their outside play time. 

Something else I want to mention is that when you are dropping your children off at preschool, please make sure to physically bring them into the classroom or at least hand them over to a teacher at the door. Drop-off and pick-up times can be very hectic and it's so important that our teachers are able to acknowledge each and every child as they arrive. 

Important Upcoming Dates...

Sunday, November 16th - First week of Sunday School.
Tuesday, November 18th - Scholastic orders due.
Wednesday, November 19th - Pizza Night 5:30-7:30pm. 
Friday, November 21st - Purdy's orders due.
Thursday, November 27th - Messy Church.
Wed/Thurs, December 10/11th - 3's/4's Christmas Services.

For general information or questions about our programs:

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

A note from Marion - Developmental Resource Teacher...

This month I spent some time with our 3's and 4's going over some fire safety concepts. I use a video which illustrates the techniques of stop, drop and roll and crawl low under smoke and then we all practice together. 

I have spent time in the classrooms offering support, guidance and strategies to our teachers which help to make sure that our program is as inclusive as possible. I have also been working closely with our music teacher Laura both in the daily running of her music classes as well as helping her to put together her very first Christmas Service!

We also had Elmer the Safety Elephant in to talk with the 4's about road safety and then it was time for our Halloween parties, so busy busy!

On November 27th we have our Messy Church evening so if you are able to attend I will look forward to seeing you there!

As always, please come and speak with me if you have any questions or concerns with regards to your children's development.

A note from the Church...

Charlie the Church Mouse! (Sweater by Marion!)

Beginning on Sunday, November 16th St. Catherine's Anglican Church is starting Sunday School here in the Rainbow Room with our wonderful preschool teacher Gabi Pasek (along with her daughter Rebecca) running the program. 

If you are interested in attending Church and having the positive influence of Sunday School for your children then please drop your preschoolers (aged 3-5) off downstairs in the Rainbow Room at 9:45am and continue upstairs for the 10am Service. 

During their time at Sunday School your children will experience stories, songs, crafts and a light snack before being brought up to join you at approximately 10:50am.

Please confirm your attendance at stcpre@telus.net.

We look forward to seeing you on Sundays!

A note from Laura Kaario - Music Teacher...

We’re still learning about fast and slow and loud and quiet, and this October we learned about high sounds and low sounds. Mice, birds and mothers usually make high sounds, and bears, lions and fathers usually make low sounds. With the threes we read Goldilocks and the Three Bears and used high voices for baby bear, medium voices for mama bear and low voices for papa bear. Fours played high triangles and low drums. We listened to some excerpts from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Isis und Osiris is sung by a bass, a man with a really low voice. The Queen of the Night aria is sung by a soprano, a woman with a high voice, and this piece has even higher notes than a lot of sopranos can sing! (This one was a favourite.)

We’re also working on clapping rhythms that go with words. For example:

Jack O’Lantern – short-short-short-short

Boo! – loooong

Pumpkin – long-long

At Thanksgiving, we did the Turkey Pokey and sang If You’re Thankful and You Know it Clap Your Hands. We also sang this simple song (tune of Frère Jacques) that could be used as a grace:

I am thankful, I am thankful,

Yes, I am, Yes, I am.

Thankful for my mommy, Thankful for my daddy,

And our food, and our food.

We heard Mozart’s Piano Variations on the Melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and talked about how we can change a tune we all know a little bit by doing it faster or slower, or louder and quieter, or by adding instruments or changing words. We’re going to do a different version of Twinkle Twinkle at our Christmas service.

Later in the month, we sang about pumpkins and witches, and learned a fun poem about a scarecrow:

When all the cows are sleeping

Our new play-stands

And the sun had gone to bed,

Up jumped the scarecrow

And this is what he said:

I’m a dingle dangle scarecrow

With a flippy, floppy hat,

I can shake my hands like this,

I can shake my feet like that.

We listened to In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg and snuck around the room. (I get requests to listen to this again every week.) We also talked about how this piece is fast and quiet, although at the end it’s really loud. On Halloween week, we listened to part of the Fifth movement of Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz and imagined what his Halloweeny dream could be about.

You can check our Listening List on the door of the music class for what music we listened to each week and listen to it at home. Any other music is great too!

Now that we are in November we are working on our Christmas Service Songs!

A note from our parent board members...

Amy Green - Secretary

I am a stay at home mom to Molly (4) and Logan (2) and wife to my first love, David. We have two huge fluffy cats and one sweet and gentle horse (who lives in Langley). 

I went to school first for massage therapy and then for Marketing Management with a specialty in Entrepreneurship at BCIT. From there I jumped into working in management at a large office supply company and then into sales and pagination for a community newspaper. I took off from there to start a graphic design boutique with a partner where we created an adorable office in Fort Langley, but more importantly, a great business helping small to medium sized businesses with branding, printing, design and web.

Marion's home made veggies!

A couple of years ago with our second baby on the way, I shifted gears into freelancing and working with only a few key clients (Canada Place / Port Metro, a quilting magazine and a delicious cupcake shop) in order to be at home full time with our wee ones. 

As of this past summer I have taken a leave from work in order to fully enjoy this fabulous and fleeting time with our kids. So now my days are a whole lot less marketing strategy meetings and a whole lot more meal prep, playing trains and playing dress up. This is our daughter's third year at St Catherine's Preschool and we have really enjoyed the amazing teachers and families that are a part of this school. 

I am hoping this year as part of the preschool board that I will be able to lend some of my experience with marketing, fundraising and problem solving in order to help our school.  

Caroline Cave - Board member

I'm Caroline Cave and I'm the mother of Luca (4's) and Merryn Diligenti (2's).

Born and raised on the North Shore, I married Pepe Diligenti, The Cute and Rebellious Childhood Paperboy, in 2010. This brought me rather unexpectedly home after 16 years away pursuing studies and career.

I'm a classically trained actress (Gemini Award/Actra Award/Dora/Jessie and other nominations). Before children, I worked across the country in film, television and theatre. I've lived in Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Toronto. 

I feel most fortunate to raise my kids in North Van near their cousins and grandparents. Now in my third year at the preschool, it's an honour to serve the board. I really believe  the health of the community is integral to the health of the individual. 

I have several ties within the St. Catherine's community: 

I grew up down the road from Lauren (Barré) Sinclair; I was friends with her older sisters. 

We used to have boys over in her parents' absence and then threaten Lauren to secrecy! I also grew up alongside Laura (Steuart) Griffiths, mother of Gracie, Noah and Tucker, and Buffie (Steuart) Mayo, mum of Logan and London. I babysat Laura and Buff and apparently I let them smoke in the backyard!!

Look what we built!

Our dads are 70 and started playing music together at 15 at West Van High. They still gig regularly in a busy R'n'B band called Souled Out.

My goal this year is to raise enough funds to purchase two light tables for the preschoolers as well as new office computers and accompanying IT support and software. The monetary vision in my head is 5k. I'm very enthusiastic about the Wine Raffle we're holding, as well as two social events including a Fashion Girls' Night Out in the spring.

I look forward to meeting more of the St. Catherine's community, to joining the new church Sunday School Program, and to raising funds to enhance the kids' experience of preschool.

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

We started the month of October with a theme of fall. We talked about the colours of fall and the leaves on the trees changing. In art, we made hand-print leaves by painting our hands with Fall colours and printing them on paper. We also glued pieces of red, yellow and orange tissue paper onto a tree template to resemble leaves.

We are doing really well at circle time, our listening skills are improving every day. We sang Fall songs such as “All the leaves are falling down” and “Dingle Dangle Scarecrow”. We also enjoyed familiar songs such as “ Roly Poly up, Roly Poly down”, “Open, shut them” and “Miss Polly had a dolly”.

For Thanksgiving we read stories and sang songs about turkeys. We painted pine cones and made turkeys to take home. Next we moved on to Halloween. We read “Little Mouse’s Halloween” and learned that it’s “not so scary after all”. We sang movement songs and many counting songs involving pumpkins, ghosts and goblins. We decorated our boards for Halloween with numerous art projects: hand-print spiders, spiders with crazy legs and puffy paint pumpkins! We also enjoyed carving and exploring our pumpkins during our Halloween parties. Thank you to everyone who provided treats. If you did not get asked to bring something, don’t worry, we have many occasions for parties and will ask every family in turn.

A couple of reminders :

Now that the weather is colder, please be sure to dress your child appropriately. We will play outside unless it is raining. Also, we would appreciate if you could have your child walk up and down the stairs, holding the railing on the right hand side, they need the practice!! Happy Fall! 

A note from class 301 - Permjit, Gabi and Sousan...

We are all into the swing of things. Busy bees actually. We have started to gel very well as a class and help each other out. It's a beautiful, calm class with great personalities!

At the beginning of October we started off with an autumn theme; the colours of leaves, printing with them and activities and songs about fall. The children loved the story "The Giving Tree".  From there we went onto Thanksgiving and what we are thankful for. A popular choice after chocolate and candy was dad, mum and siblings. We had endless discussions about what our favourite food was on Thanksgiving. We made turkeys using feathers, potato printing and felt stories.Then it was time to move onto Halloween and Diwali. We started off by talking about what is real and pretend. We made spider webs using our favourite thing of all, sparkles! They were everywhere! We decorated pumpkins, cats, bats, spooky houses, as well as felt stories and songs. Our favourite one was " Five black and shiny crows, Sitting on a Scarecrows back, eating the most delicious corn."

We had a few days in the middle of October, to talk about Diwali, which is a celebration of the Festival of Lights. It's about good over evil. It's celebrated in India and other parts of the world and it's like Christmas. Presents are exchanged and families get together. We painted Diva's and tasted Halva which some of us loved and others not so much.

We would like to say big thank you for our yummy treats for our Halloween party!! We had so much fun dressing up and enjoyed our room being made spooky! I would like to say a big thank you to Marion, who helps us during these extra busy times and works her magic when we want special things done! We came in the morning and the children noticed the treehouse had different animals in it and were dressed for Halloween!

If you have any concerns or queries please come and talk to us.

A note from class 302 - Narine, Gabi and Karen...

Our class is really coming together nicely as the children become more comfortable with the routines and expectations of preschool. This month we learned about fire safety with Marion our Developmental Resource Teacher. Marion showed the children a video which illustrated many important fire safety rules including "STOP, DROP and ROLL" in case fire was to get on your clothing and "CRAWL LOW UNDER SMOKE" to help you to get out of a building if it was on fire. These concepts might seem scary but are taught sensitively and I think we can all agree how important it is to practice such life saving techniques.

October is the month in which we give thanks for all the wonderful things in our lives. We talked about who is special and how we can show them that we care, we created art which centered around the beautiful autumn leaves which are all around us as we walk around our neighbourhoods as well as some turkey inspired art.

Next we began to talk about Halloween, and enjoyed making some really cool "Rock Spiders" as well as having an awesome Halloween Party in which we dressed up in our Halloween costumes and ate some yummy treats brought in by our lovely parents - thank you!

Please come and speak with us if you have any questions or concerns.

A note from class 401 - Stephanie, Narine and Karen...

Hello, everyone!

Incredible! October has gone and very soon the wonderful season of Christmas will be here!  But let us first review what we have done during this beautiful autumn month of October.

In the first couple of weeks we were doing lots of seasonal crafts and activities. For example, we “painted” apples on apple trees using our thumbs which was a lot of fun! Some children decided to put to use all of their fingers creating a very rich apple harvest on the trees and under them! During this art we were talking about the different colours of the apples as well as how delicious they taste. The autumn foliage is especially beautiful during October.  We talked about “falling down leaves – red, yellow, brown …” about the different shapes the leaves have, why they change colour etc.

Next came Thanksgiving! Our children decorated their own turkeys by gluing “googly” eyes, feathers, and the beak. We sang a new finger play Thanksgiving song with children happily participating and enjoying themselves. Another craft that we worked on was “button corn”. We were talking about different parts of the corn plant, the different coloured kernels they may have, how sweet and delicious they taste, and the different ways we prepare it. It became a little bit messy when we were gluing button “kernels” but at the same time it was interesting and exciting.

Finally lots of Halloween fun was had! But what is the Halloween without a spooky art!?  We were talking about real versus pretend to help children not be scared of “booo and wooo” stuff.  Children cheerfully participated in making Q-tip skeletons, potato-painting pumpkins, gluing many eyes on their spiders to make them spooky, creating shape monsters and ghosts, and making a Jack-o-Lantern. We enjoyed hearing all about the children's Halloween night and we are glad to know that everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.

A note from class 402 - Danielle, Arsi and Sousan...

What a fun and busy month October has been. The children have settled in nicely and are getting used to our routine and transitions.

In the beginning of October we talked about Thanksgiving. During one of our circles we discussed what we were thankful for and some of the answers the children gave were, "friends" "pets" and "family." A very fun family activity we did this year was disguising Tom Turkey. The results were great. Thank you to the children and their families for their creative ideas!! We also made pumpkins muffins and tarts (who doesn't love the smell of yummy fresh treats?!). The children also enjoyed making pumpkin prints using mini pumpkins as their stencils. We had a special visit from Elmer the Elephant and Ruff who talked to us about pedestrian and traffic safety. Ruff also let us know the importance of wearing a seat belt in a car.

Before we knew it, Halloween was around the corner. We started off by painting ghosts using a salad spinner. The children were surprised how blobs of paint turned into cool designs. We then made bats from egg cartons, we drew our own spider web designs and sparkled them as well. Of course the webs needed spiders and so we made some. The children counted the legs to make sure they had eight! Another fun art activity the children made were spooky Halloween stained glass windows. They were excited to see what their windows looked like after they added their design to it.....spooookkkyyy!!!

Last but most fun...was our Halloween party!!! It was so fun to see the children in their costumes. We had a great time dancing and eating yummy party food. We even had a chance to watch a bit of "Stellaluna" since we had read the book too.

Thank you to the parents who brought the yummy food and drinks for our party.

Looking forward to November, we will be introducing Echo, our adopted killer whale to the children. We will also be touching on Remembrance Day.

If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to ask us.

A note from class 304 - Vibha, Stephanie and Gabi...

October was a very busy an exciting month.  First, we talked about Thanksgiving and things that we are thankful for.  We decorated foam turkeys with colourful feathers and made turkeys using play dough.  At circle, we talked about apples and the different things we can use apples for. We cut up apples into small pieces and made applesauce then we ate it at snack and it was delicious!

Next, we celebrated Diwali (Festival of Lights).  We learned how to say Namaste ( Hello) in Hindi.  For art, we decorated clay diyas (Lamp) with paint.  The Children also, had the opportunity to make Roti (Indian Bread)  which were enjoyed by the children for snack.

Before we knew it, it was Halloween. For art, we made paper bag pumpkins, spiders, and owls. The Halloween party was lots of fun. We all had fun dressing up in our costumes and some of us enjoyed describing who we were. A huge thank you to parents for bringing in yummy treats for the party. We all enjoyed them very much.

Marion came to our class and talked about fire safety. We watched a video which taught us to STOP, DROP AND ROLL if fire gets on our clothes as well as practicing crawling low under smoke.  

Please make sure that your child has appropriate clothing for preschool, as we will go out to play when it is not raining.  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to us.

A note from class 403 - Permjit and Stephanie...

In October, we started with Thanksgiving, discussed Johnny Appleseed (his real name being John Chapman) and how he planted apple seeds everywhere he went so that people wouldn't go hungry. We also talked about why we sing the Johnny Appleseed grace song before snack time because we are thankful. We enjoyed making apple muffins together and best part was eating them! We enjoyed stories about Thanksgiving, made turkeys using feathers, sparkles and helped to make cranberry sauce which we took home to share.

Room on the Broom

Then it was time to move on to Halloween. We talked about what's real and pretend. We loved making ghosts, using shaving foam and glue, they were 3D so it was messy and fun! We cut out our pumpkins and made them into Jack-o-Lanterns and enjoyed a story about a witch looking for a home and how it ended up being a Jack-o-Lantern house. We did so many activities at Halloween and enjoyed lots of fun stories using felt props and books. One of the songs we enjoyed was, "There's a spider on the floor, on the floor". 

We took a few days out from Halloween and celebrated Diwali, Festival of Lights. We painted Divas and tried Halva, which was very sweet. Some of us loved it and others not so sure. It's a big time of celebration in certain parts of the world. In India it's an official holiday like Christmas. Presents are exchanged and there are big family get-togethers. The house is lit with little lights using tiny little lamps (divas) made of clay and it's a beautiful welcoming atmosphere. This celebration signifies good combating over evil.

On Halloween day the children came dressed up in their costumes. We had princesses, super heroes and some spookier characters too! Our party was so much fun with Halloween music and delicious treats and we had a witches cauldron with spooky smoke! We dimmed the lights in the room and the effects were great and everyone got into the spirit of having fun (no pun intended!).

We would like to thank the parents who bought in the food and beverages for our Halloween party, they were yummy!

We also had some important safety talks and videos during October. Marion came in to talk to our class about fire safety and the children watched a video with Fireman Dam and his spotty dog. Then we learned what to do in case of emergency, to stop drop, roll and crawl low under smoke. Thank you Marion!

 

Elmer the Safety Elephant dropped by as well and talked to us about the importance of pedestrian safety and traffic safety. He showed us the correct way to cross the street, traffic light safety and how to play safely outside.

It's been a fun and busy October and now we're looking ahead to November where we will discuss Remembrance Day and focus on colours, numbers and shapes.

If at anytime you have any questions, please do not hesitate to speak to us.

Thanks for reading our blog, have a great day!