June 2017

WE HAVE MADE IT TO THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR!!

WOW! That went really fast! It feels like the last ten months just flew by!! The last day of preschool will be:

201: Wed., June 14th

202/302/304: Thurs., June 15th

301/401/402/403: Fri., June 16th.

Class Picnics will be on Monday, June 19th (201/301/401/403) and Tuesday, June 20th (202/302/402/304) at Mahon Park from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm. 

Summer Program begins in July---SPACES AVAILABLE!!

Word of Mouth is our BEST ADVERTISING so please tell others about our fantastic Preschool! We have plenty of spaces left for September for 2s, 3s and 4s. Spread the word!!

Here are some things that happened in our Classrooms this past month:

RESOURCE OFFICE

June already!.  It has been a year full of learning and exploration.  The Christmas and Easter Services are always very special.  Thank you to Rachel for all her hard work.  The 2s are all developing the necessary skills to be successful in the 3s program.  They have become more independent and able to sit and listen at circle time.  They follow the daily routines and are interacting with their peers.  The 3s have moved on from parallel play to co-operative play.  They can carry on conversations during play and are starting to problem solve.  They are following 3 to 4 step directions when doing their art activities. The 4s are certainly showing us that they are ready to move on.  They have been working on the skills needed to be successful in elementary school. I want to wish all the 4s and their families all the best in Kindergarten and for the future.  Some of the families have been part of the Preschool family for several years and we will certainly miss you.

 

We had 25 butterflies emerge and we are starting to release them into the Memorial Garden this week.  All the classes have had an opportunity to visit them in all their stages of development.  

Cheryl and I are looking forward to seeing some of you during the Summer Program in July.  We have a few spots left in the afternoons.  I don’t like to say good bye, but see you in the Village.  

Marion 

DISCOVERY TWOS

It is hard to believe that school is almost at the end. The Two’s in September have grown from sad toddlers to engaging, exploring and communicating Three Year Old’s.

They are now playing and talking with friends. They are becoming so much more independent with their snacks, jackets, bags, walking up & down the stairs and circle time.

In the Month of May, we were very busy learning about the Jungle and what animals you will find there.

We read many exciting books like ‘Rumble in the Jumble’ & ‘Walking Through the Jungle’.  We sang ‘The Hokey Pokey Jungle’, ‘5 Naughty Monkeys’ & ‘Jungle Animals Action Song’. We learnt Yoga poses of a Snake and a Monkey and we also played a guessing game about which animal were missing?

For Art we painted snakes, collaged Geckos, used feathers to decorate parrots, sponge painted leaves and flowers and used paper plates to make Lions.

We have started looking in transportation for June.  How there is many different ways we can get around and that there are many different types of trucks.

Thank you in advance for those who signed up to bring food to end of Year Party.

Have a lovely summer and we hope to see you all next year.

Any questions, please feel free to ask us.  

Arsi, Danielle, Stephanie, Susan & Vibha.

301

Here’s to our last blog for the year. I can’t believe we are already in June. What a year we’ve had with an unusual winter of many snowy days.

We are talking to the children about their upcoming move to the four’s in September and what will be expected of them. They are well on their way to being prepared.

We have had a busy month; the Card Project, Jean’s Week, Mother’s Day and starting on Father’s Day surprises and our theme of Fairy Tales. The children worked hard at preparing Mother’s Day gifts, working on the Card Project and many other art activities to tie in with our fairy tale theme. They also enjoyed hearing the classic fairy tales such as The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood and many others.

We have a new addition to the class, the chrysalises have become butterflies and we will be releasing them soon into our garden.

Have a great summer! We look forward to seeing you in September in the fours.

Estelle, Gabi and Karen

302

We have been busy as ever in the past few weeks at preschool by exploring the many wonders of classic children stories. We visited some far-away magical lands with all the wonderful creatures coming alive in picture books, on felt board or through songs and riddles.

We also incorporated some science and art projects into some of our well loved stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Three Little Pigs.

We even planted a magic bean that we hope you are enjoying taking care of, as it is your homework to keep it alive!

The children were excited to work on a very special present for Mother's Day, and they are delighted to prepare a surprise for another famous family member we will be celebrating soon.

Another highlight in the classroom was the butterfly display.  It is amazing to witness caterpillars growing double in size in just a few days, move into their cocoons, and in the final stage, butterflies emerge to fascinate children and adults alike. They were intrigued to see the life cycle stages known from books so close and personal! They were also wonderful hosts as 'the little 2's' or 'big 4's 'classes came to visit in groups to see the wonder ( thank you Marion for making this happen every year!)

Thank you for your trust, your support, and for sharing your wonderful girls and boys with us. We have been fortunate to have such a lovely group of children, each so unique, such strong personalities in those tiny bodies! We will miss each and every one!

We both wish you a healthy, happy, sunny summer, and all the best in your new adventures!

Karen and Gabi

304

During the first two weeks of May we focused on Mother's Day. The children were so excited to make a gift for their moms. We sang songs and read stories about moms during circle time. 

Then we went into talking about fairy tales. Each day we would read a new fairy tale and an art activity that relates to it. For Jack and the Beanstalk we decorated mason jars with tissue paper and then planted bean seeds inside. For The Three Little Pigs we decorated the different houses of each pig. For The Ugly Duckling we decorated ducks with black paint and white feathers, and for The Gingerbread Man we decorated gingerbread cookies with icing and chocolate chips. 

 

We had something special in the classroom for the past few weeks. They started off as caterpillars and we watched them go into a chrysalis and then become a butterfly. It was so neat observing all the changes. Now we have a whole bunch of painted lady butterflies in our classroom that we will set free soon. Feel free to come in and have a look! 

Next month we will be making a special gift for our dads and talking about Father's Day. 

Stephanie and Gabi 

401

Hi everyone,

It is hard to believe that this year is almost over! The month of May was jam packed with activities. Some of the highlights of the month were the preparation of the our Mothers Day gifts, having a Hawaiian Luau and exploring knights and princesses.

The children took lots of time and effort to complete their special gifts for their mothers. The children enjoyed decorating each one. A highlight for all of us in the preschool is the Mother's Day questionnaires that are answered by the children. The children even enjoy describing their mothers and feel proud of their answers. We hope the mothers enjoyed these special gifts made by each of their children with pride and love. We kicked off the month of May with a Hawaiian Luau. The children wore their new tie dyed t-shirts, ate yummy food and danced the limbo! This party is always one of the high points of the school year. The month of May finished off with the explorations of knights, princesses, kings, queens and castles. This in depth exploration was played out with costumes, small knights figures and art relating to this theme. Throughout the weeks the children created their own family crest or shield of arms, decorated crowns and made their own castles. This art work is displayed within our classroom, so please come in and have a look! We are looking forward to the last month with our students and plan to savour every last moment with them.

Stephanie and Susan    

402

Time flies when you're learning and having fun! We can't believe it's almost graduation time!!

Well, our 4's have been busy bees in these last few months.

We all had a chance to take home the Alphabet box and learn our letters from A-Z. It was great to see the children sharing their items in front of the class. In May, we also talked about Mother's Day and what our moms do that make them so special. Moreover, we talked about how families are all different and special in their own way. The children helped make a "surprise" cupcake bath bomb for their moms to enjoy! Hope all the moms had a chance to relax in the tub!!

We then moved onto our topic of castles, knights, princesses, dragons, kings, and queens. We looked at some books about castles that showed us the various part of castles such as the moat, turrets, drawbridge, and the why some castles were different then others. We learned that in the old days castles didn't have electricity and some castles were built just for protection. We made our own castles cutting out the triangles, squares, and rectangles for parts like the windows, doors, and flags. We also learned about how knights had to learn to use shields and swords to protect the castles. 

We then made our own knights forming the body in a certain sequence and drew his head and hands. Our next focus was princesses, queens, and kings. We looked at some funny books such as "Princess and the Pea" and "Princess In Training." These stories showed us how much princesses need to work on being a princess. They have certain etiquette they must follow such as learning to wave properly or learning to use the right utensils at a dinner. We also learned that a princess must have a queen and a king for parents in order for her to be a princess. It was super fun cutting out squares and triangles to make a princess and the children also drew her head and face. We all became kings and queens by making beautiful crowns using jewels. Our last week of this topic, we listened to "Puff the Magic Dragon" and we read "The Paper Bag Princess." The children used their cutting skills cutting certain parts of the dragon and also the paper bag princess. They also had to glue the parts of each art together in a certain sequence.

Our last two weeks of school we will be focusing on going to kindergarten and also Father's Day. It's been a very fun filled year and we will miss all the children. We wish them all much luck as they journey to a new milestone in their lives.

Arsi, Danielle, Sousan

403

This is our last blog of the year and it has been a busy month. This past month we had our Hawaii theme, card project, jeans week, mother’s day and Under the Sea theme. The children greatly enjoyed making their own tie-dye t-shirts and ending the week with a Hawaii party where we did some Hula and Limbo dancing.

The children have worked hard on various art projects, decorating jeans, painting with different mediums, fish, sea horses, making leis and preparing their mother’s day gifts.

We have a new addition to the class, our chrysalises are now butterflies, which we will soon release into the garden.

We have been talking about how the children will soon be going to kindergarten in the Fall and the children have been telling us about their visits to their new schools. They are well prepared for this next big step. We look forward to seeing you at the four’s graduation and celebrating this achievement. Congratulations and good luck for September.

Estelle, Stephanie, Gabi, Karen and Sousan

April 2017

APRIL has been a bit rainy but OH! When that sun does come out!!! GLORIOUS! Spring is in the air!

Important Dates to Remember:

Friday, May 12th - Staff Pro D Day (Preschool Closed)

May 17th/18th - Music Open House

Monday, May 22nd - Victoria Day (Preschool Closed)

Friday, June 16th - Last Day of Preschool

Friday, June 16th - Four's Graduation

June 19th/20th - Picnics (Mahon Park)

Things to Note:

1. Summer Program - We are still accepting registrations for morning and afternoon classes!

2. Deposit Cheques for September will be cashed on May 15th.

3. Gradual Entry Schedules for September will be emailed in July.




THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED TO OUR JEAN'S WEEK EVENT!!

We will be sending all the donations to Children's Hospital next week so there is still time to donate if you want!!

I Heard A Rumour That Something Wonderful Happened at Preschool Last Month in the Classrooms....

RESOURCE OFFICE

It is hard to believe that it is May and only seven more weeks of preschool.  All the children have demonstrated that they are ready for new challenges.

The 2s have begun to make connections with their peers and we can now hear some conversations emerging that are absolutely delightful to listen to.  Thank you to the parents and teachers for their help in toilet training and getting them ready for the 3s.

The 3s have learned about sharing, using their words and developing their listening skills.  For most of the children, going into the 4s will mean an extra day of preschool.  

In the 4s the children will learn to be more independent in their self-help skills.  This will be the year for the children to develop their kindergarten readiness skills.

   Parents can help with the transition into Kindergarten by:

                          Talking to your child about the impending changes

                              Spend some time in and around their new school and visit the playground

                              Helping you child acquire and practice self-help skills

                              Encouraging your child to ask for help when needed

                              Allowing your child to practice working independently

                              Teaching your child to follow directions

                              Helping your child learn his/her full name, address and phone number

                              Teaching your child about rules and how important they are

       Marion

DISCOVERY TWOS

April was a very fun filled month! For the first two weeks we did all things Easter. At circle we would sing songs about the Easter Bunny and play Find the Egg games. At art we decorated paper plate Easter baskets and eggs. We used icing to decorate Arrowroot cookies and added sprinkles to them. They were delicious! We also made bunny hats. The children really enjoyed wearing them around the classroom to pretend to be the Easter Bunny. 

Next we explored a variety of different textures. The classroom was set up where each area contained different types of textures that the children could feel and explore with their sense of touch. For art we made a collage of different textured materials and we used our hands to explore shaving cream and glue on aluminum foil. 

The last week of the month we decorated jeans in support of Children's Hospital. Thank you for everyone who made donations into our umbrella in the classroom! 

Our next theme will be Jungle and Mother's Day. 

Vibha, Danielle, Arsi, Susan, Stephanie

301

We have certainly had fun the past few weeks exploring spring further, and that included flowers, bugs, frogs, weather, birds and all the wonderful things that we see around us waking and growing after a very long winter sleep.

The children enjoyed the wide variety of songs, stories and activities, but the highlight of the month was the Easter Services. The class was very excited to get ready for the big event. They had practiced hard to learn all their lines, the songs, not to mention the moves of dancing baby Robbins.

They were equally keen to toss coins in the umbrella hanging in our classroom for the annual Jeans Week fundraiser in support of the Children’s Hospital. Thank you all for your donations. It’s for a great cause.

We can’t believe it’s the last full month of this preschool year (makes us sad as it’s always hard to say good bye to “our”children). We will be practicing all the skills, habits and knowledge that we have been working so far in the school year: reinforcing self-confidence, kindness, independence and other great qualities that they all showed us in the little time that we were fortunate to spend with them so far.

We will be have some fun sharing classic children stories, fairy tales and silly tales for the month of May, and we are working on a special project for a very special person.

Gabi & Estelle

302

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! 

We hope everyone enjoyed the Easter service and the tea that followed. We spend many hours singing with the children and teaching them their actions. It may not always look that way, but performing in front of an audience can make children shy or in some cases a little more excitable. 

The children have been working on our annual Card Project. It is a fundraiser that is a win win for everyone. If you choose to buy your child’s card you will receive a personal piece of art and we get a portion of the proceeds to buy supplies for the school. We asked the children this year to paint something they like using bright colours. On the back of each completed card there will be a title and the artists name. 

Something else we also do every year is support the Children's hospital in their Jean’s week. All the children decorate cut out jeans and we display them in our room. We also have an upside down umbrella hanging form the ceiling to put any donations you would like to give, thank you for all your support. 

For Easter we had the children decorate their own baskets. We had a visit from the Easter bunny whom hid eggs around the room for the children to find, a big surprise as the children were not aware that the Easter bunny came to preschool😉.

We hope your children shared their experience with the experiment we did…..walking on raw whole eggs! We explain how strong an egg is and how difficult it is to break them when you walk on them in the carton. Many children were unsure at first but when the eggs did not break most of them came back to try it again.

Presently, we are working on a special surprise for the children to bring home on May 14th…….You will just have to wait and see! 

Gabi and Karen

304

Spring is in the air! It has been so nice getting some sunshine this month and seeing all of the beautiful flowers blooming all around us. This month was all about Easter and Spring. We painted Easter baskets, decorated foam eggs with stickers, and created the Easter Bunny. We also had a nice surprise from the Easter Bunny. He came to our classroom and hid chocolate eggs all over. It was so much fun going on an egg hunt. 

The Easter service was a huge success! The children did an amazing job up there at singing and dancing. Hope you all enjoyed it. It was so nice seeing everyone at the tea afterwards. 

 

During the last week of the month we decorated jeans in support of Children's Hospital. Thank you to everyone who put donations into the umbrella. 

Next month will be about a special lady in our lives; our mother! 

Gabi, Stephanie and Rosie

401

For the first few weeks of April we talked about Easter and how it is the meaning of new life. We decorated Easter baskets and made Easter Bunnies out of paper plates and our footprints as the ears. We played a game at circle where each child had a chance to be the Easter Bunny and they had to find who was hiding their Easter egg. We also got a very lovely surprise from the actual Easter Bunny himself. He decided to come to our classroom and hide chocolate eggs for us to find. It was so much fun going on an egg hunt. Some of the eggs were hard to find. 

 

The children have worked so hard preparing and practicing for the service. They did such a wonderful job at singing their songs and doing the Robin dance. Hope you all enjoyed it. It was nice seeing you at the tea up in the gym. 

 

For jeans week, we decorated jeans and hung them in our classroom. Thank you to everyone who made donations in our umbrella to support Children's Hospital. 

We had a nice little treat to end off the month. We had a yoga class in the gym. It was so much fun learning different yoga moves. It was relaxing and felt so nice to stretch our bodies in different ways. 

Next month we will be talking about Hawaii and Mother's Day. 

Stephanie and Susan

402

What a busy Easter month!

We were very busy getting ready for our Ester Services, which were great!

It began with cutting out our Easter Eggs. We used chalk and water to decorate them. We watched the chalk as it crumbled and softened on the paper. We then went on to assemble our own Easter Bunny. We then threaded marshmallows onto sticks and dipped them into chocolate and sprinkles. We ended Easter with a visit from the Easter Bunny and a hunt for eggs in the gym. Yummy!

Amongst our everyday learning we have been busy exploring our ABC's. We have collaged some of our letters, made animals out of others (elephants) and did Dot-to-Dot activities. We've hunted in teams for the matching letters, danced to music, looked for words that started with the letter of the day and used action words (body movements) to describe the letter.

We have continued working on our journals and there are some great pictures and stories happening!

For our last week of April we used sequins and glitter glue to decorate jeans for Jeans Week! We also touched on the theme Canada. We learned about the Prairies through a poem. We collaged a Canadian flag and put together a "Busy Beaver" dam. We learned about the symbols that represent Canada: Maple leaf, beaver and ice hockey. 

In the month of May we will finish our alphabet and continue our kindergarten readiness. We will also be having parents come and play with us after Mother's Day.

Any questions, please feel free to speak to us.

Arsi, Danielle & Sousan

403

For the first few weeks of April we talked about Easter and how it is the meaning of new life. We decorated Easter baskets and made Easter Bunnies out of paper plates and our footprints as the ears. We played a game at circle where each child had a chance to be the Easter Bunny and they had to find who was hiding their Easter egg. We also got a very lovely surprise from the actual Easter Bunny himself. He decided to come to our classroom and hide chocolate eggs for us to find. It was so much fun going on an egg hunt. Some of the eggs were hard to find. 

 

The children have worked so hard preparing and practicing for the service. They did such a wonderful job at singing their songs and doing the Robin dance. Hope you all enjoyed it. It was nice seeing you at the tea up in the gym. 

 

For jeans week, we decorated jeans and hung them in our classroom. Thank you to everyone who made donations in our umbrella to support Children's Hospital. 

We had a nice little treat to end off the month. We had a yoga class in the gym. It was so much fun learning different yoga moves. It was relaxing and felt so nice to stretch our bodies in different ways. 

Next month we will be talking about Hawaii and Mother's Day. 

Stephanie, Estelle, Gabi, Karen, Sousan,