SEPTEMBER 2021

SEPTEMBER is the monthWhen Summer turns to Fall.
Vacation time is over,
It's back to school for all.    
So even though I'm sad,
How fast the Summer ends,
I'm really glad I have the chance 
To meet and make new friends!!

WOW! Every year it seems like the Summer goes faster and faster! Here we are back at school again!

The hallways have begun to "buzz" with excitement once again! Little faces, little voices and little pitter patters up and down the stairs!

NOTE: Corrections on the Year At A Glance

Please note that the Preschool is CLOSED for Thanksgiving on MONDAY, OCTOBER 11TH.

Please note that the Children's Christmas Parties are on Dec. 15/16/17.

Please Note: 

St. Catherine's Childcare Society ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING is on WED., OCT 27, 2021 @ 6:30PM.

We have more children this year and so we have had to hire more teachers. Please take a look at our Staff Bios to learn a little more about the teachers in your child's classroom.

TEACHERS

BRITA: My name is Brita Bendrodt and I have worked in the childcare industry for more than 30 years. I received my ECE education at Capilano College and began working in daycares and preschools after that. I worked for Family Services of the North Shore as a one-on-one childcare worker and facilitated supervised visits.

I began working for St. Catherine’s in 2008 as a preschool teacher and support teacher and I have basically been here ever since.
Outside of work, my interests consists of raising two active children, walking, tennis, being by the ocean, and heading to Vancouver Island for vacation!

KAREN:This will be my tenth year at St.Catherine’s as a teacher. My three children also attended St. Catherine's. Connor is my oldest and he is 18. He is presently awaiting his course to start at BCIT. Next is my daughter Alexis 17, it will be her final year at Handsworth Secondary. Last but not least my youngest is Amanda,13 and she is presently at Handsworth in Grade 9. I have been married for 20 years to a wonderful man named Adrian and our 21st year is just around the corner. We have two Golden Doodles named Bailey and Guinness and also a very vocal Burmese cat named Valdy.

Prior to my employment with St.Catherine’s I was a stay at home mom and before that I was a caterer for the local movie sets.
When I have some time to myself I enjoy walking my dogs, cooking, gardening, hiking, biking, sailing and just anything outside. I recently got my motorcycle L and can’t wait to get started.
I am very happy to be working at St.Catherine's and will continue to work here as long as they will have me.

ROSE: Rose Leung has been teaching at St Catherine’s Preschool for 3 years. She has a passion for teaching and loves seeing smiles on children’s faces especially when they learn something new. She is a mother of 3 children and she loves photography during her free time (especially on food). She is very happy to be part of the St Catherine’s Family.

MONICA: I have been in the E.C.E field for many years working in Montessori schools.. I have also taught  Phys-ed and Art as well as remedial work in  a Montessori Elementary School.

I enjoy traveling, kayaking and skiing. 

DANIELLE:My name is Danielle and I was born in Perth, Western Australia.  Many years ago, I came to Vancouver on a work visa and meet my husband Rick…Long story short we got married, had 3 children in Australia and moved back to Vancouver 17 years ago. My children are Alyssa 25, who lives in Australia, Rhys 23 years & Haylee 19 years and they still live at home while they study/work. In our spare time we love to go for walks on the North Shore with our dog Marely.  I also like to watch movies and read to relax.

I have been working at St Catherine’s Childcare Society for 16 years in the 4’s, Discovery Two Program and now the 3/4 yrs program in the Sunflower Room.  I have been working with children for over 30 years and I am amazed everyday at the wonder I see in their eyes when they are exploring, learning new things and playing with their friends. 

MARION:Hello, I have been working here at St. Catherine's since 1997.  It is my home away from home.  I was born in Montreal and moved to St. John's, then Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg and back to Vancouver.  Jim and I have been married 40 years and have three adult sons.  The two oldest live in Winnipeg and the youngest lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and our first grandson, Freddy.  Jim and I enjoy camping, boating and archery.  We have a 5 year old Flat Coated Retriever named Rupert.

I received my Early Childhood Educators' Certificate in 1981, followed by my post basic certification in Infant Toddler and Special Needs.  I am the Developmental Resource Educator/ Director and am part of the Admin staff.  I provide resources to all the staff, and am considered a .5 teacher when I am in a classroom.  I am also on the North Shore Supported Child Development Advisory Committee which keeps me updated on the needs of families with children requiring extra support.  

I look forward to spending time with your children as they "Learn Through Play."   This is the school's 30th Anniversary and hopefully we will be able to celebrate all together soon.

VIBHA:My name is Vibha Sisodraker.  I was born in the Fiji Islands and moved with my family to Toronto in 1987.  I completed my Early Childhood Education there before moving to Vancouver in 1995.  

I am married and we have a beautiful daughter, Ria, who is 19 years old. I spend my free time experimenting with food and I have written a cookbook. I also enjoy practicing yoga and hiking. I have also written a children's book so I suppose writing is another interest.

I look forward to a fun-filled year with our children and can’t wait to watch them blossom and grow as the year goes on.

TINA:  I grew up in North Van. and this is where I raised my two boys who are now 25 and 29 years old! I started out at SFU studying math and science but in 1989 I decided to get my ECE and have been working in childcare ever since. I have worked with infants, toddlers, 3-5s, out of school care but I have found my home in Preschool...in the office!  My off time is usually spent going for walks, hikes, or paddling in my kayak or on my paddleboard!  

CAROL: I was brought up in North Vancouver and got a degree in Special Education at U.B.C.

I then moved to Scotland where I studied Gaelic, enjoyed many outdoor activities and travel and raised my three boys (now men). Raising a family in the wilds of Scotland involved a VW Camper Van and hundreds of Shinty and Rugby matches.

It was there that I did my ECE training and worked in a wonderful outdoor Kindergarten.

In 2014 I returned to North Van to be closer to my elderly parents and happily joined the team at St. Catherine's Preschool.

I participate in outdoor sports, but  also enjoy music, reading and painting. 

CECILIA:One of my greatest joys has been raising my daughter who is now 19. We both love pets (I have a lap dog and she has a kitten), enjoy Asian cuisine (Thai for me, Japanese for her), and we relish beautiful things (I cherish nature walks while my daughter is an artist). I grew up in the lower mainland but moved to L.A. when I got married. After 18 years there, I am thrilled to be back and living in North Vancouver where my husband and I enjoy discovering new trails together.

Being with children, learning and laughing with them is my absolute privilege. While my background is in writing and administration, I pursued my childhood dream of becoming a teacher after working as an assistant at a Montessori preschool. I recently completed my ECE and look forward to serving with the dedicated group of educators at St. Catherine's. My faith is what informs me at this stage of my life and I concur wholeheartedly with author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "what is essential is invisible to the eye." 

MARJAN:  Hi, I am Marjan. I have been working in preschools for over 14 years.  

I am originally from Iran, and immigrated to Canada in 2001. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Educational Technology and since I am passionate about kids, I obtained my Certificate in Early Childhood Education, at VCC, in 2008.

As a mother of two kids, my philosophy is to be a friend with children and establish a good relationship with them.  I love kids and I always want to provide good quality care for them.

My hobbies are trying new restaurants and exercising.

Thank you for taking the time to read our Blog. Make sure you read it every month as this will be the place to find out everything that is going on in the classrooms. 

JUNE 2021

 

It's getting HOT!

The sky is clear.

We're still in school,

But the end is near!

We love to play,

'Cause Summer's fun!

We jump in our pools,

And lay in the sun!

This is our last month at school! Our last days of classes are THURSDAY, JUNE 17TH & FRIDAY, JUNE 18TH.

There will be in-class celebrations for the children only on these days. 

The fours will have their graduations on these days as well. As we are not allowing adults into the building, there will be separate instructions emailed to the 4's families outlining what will happen for each class. 

The staff at St. Catherine's Childcare Society just want to say THANK YOU for an amazing year! We had a few challenges this year but everyone rose to the occasion and we sailed through the year without any major hiccups! 

THANK YOU to the Parent Members of our Board for all your help throughout the year with meetings and voting and voicing parent issues and just for all your great ideas to help support St. Catherine's. We hope to see some of you again next year! Thank you to Chris Bowra, Sameena Tisdall, Gemma Turner, Andrea Libman and Lyndsay Wilson! 

Please remember to visit our Fundraising Partners over the Summer to keep supporting the school! You can look back over past Blogs to see specifically how to do that at the following places: 

Scholastics Books, Lovable Labels, Return It Bottle return (Brooksbank), Boston Pizza (Esplanade) and Cobs Bakery (Edgemont).

 

The Teachers have something to tell you about what happened in the class in May....

RAINBOW ROOM - DANIELLE, MARJAN, VIBHA

It is hard to believe that our time with the children has almost come to an end.  As we look back over the year, it really is exciting to see how much the children have grown physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually.  

Two weeks into May we talked about Summer fruit such as strawberries, blueberries and pineapples.

For art we decorated strawberries with black paint using our fingers.  We explored with blue paint to create blueberries for our basket.  Later, we made prickly pineapples and decorated them with gold glitter.  Our children had a lot of fun creating delicious fruit salad with strawberries, pineapple, blueberries and grapes.  We quickly discovered that pineapple juice was not a huge hit with our kids.  

For circle, we read a tape story about “The Little Mouse and the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear”, we sang the "Five Strawberries at the Grocery" song.  We also played a memory game with Summer fruit and tried to guess which fruit was missing.

Over the last few weeks we have been very busy expanding our world by talking about “Under the Sea”, and all the wonderful sea creatures associated with this.  We painted jellyfish with orange and pink paint and made colourful fish with water colours.  Our children had a great time experimenting with marble painting to make seahorses.  Our Tues/Thurs class enjoyed decorating seahorses with pink tissue paper.  We made paper plate clumsy crabs where the children had a great time gluing legs and claws. 

For Circle we sang Slippery Fish, One Little Fish Swimming in the Water, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble Pop and the children’s favourite, Baby Beluga.   We read The Clumsy Crab tape story and Snappy Little Fishes.  We also played a colour recognition game in which the children had to guess what colour jellyfish was missing.  

Our Home Corner was transformed into an Under The Sea theme, where our children pretended to be sea creatures by using hand puppets.  

We’ll be very busy the first week of June crafting something very special for our Dad’s for Father’s Day.

Since this is our final newsletter, we want to express our gratitude to all of our parents and children.  It has been such a joy teaching your children this year and we look forward to watching them grow over the next two years in the 3’s and 4’s.  To the families who are leaving us this year, we would like to say Goodbye, and wish you all the best and stay safe. And to those families who are returning in September, have a wonderful, safe Summer and we will see you in the Fall! 

TREEHOUSE ROOM - ARSI, BRITA, CAROL, KAREN, MARJAN, ROSE

June already! It is hard to believe that this year is almost over.  It has been a year full of learning and exploration and the children have all grown so much, not just physically, but more so socially and emotionally, and they have become quite independent in almost everything they do in a day at preschool. 

The month of May was jam packed with activities. Children were so excited to make a gift for their Moms. A highlight for all of us in the preschool is the Mother's Day questionnaires that are answered by the children.  They even enjoyed describing their Mothers and felt proud of their answers. We hope the Mothers enjoyed these special gifts made by each of their children with pride and love.

We sang songs like Mommy Bingo and I Love You Mommy and read What Moms Do Best, Fancy Nancy's Marvelous, Mother's day Brunch, Mama's Work Shoes, Guess How Much I Love You and a Mommy Felt Board story about Moms during circle time. 

Of course we were very, very busy making something very special for our Dads for Father's Day!

Over the last few weeks we have been very busy expanding our world by talking about "Under the Sea" and all the wonderful things associated with this.

For art, children made fish, crabs, sea anemones, octopi, whales, clams ,ocean paintings ,seahorses, sea life stamping to make an ocean scenes, decorated fish shapes with shiny foil, streamers, mini square shapes to look like scales, puffy paint starfish with bright colours, painting seashells with water colours, sponge painting sea turtles, canary ribbons ,cutting along the lines to make an octopus puzzle, and also planted beans in plastic cups to see how the roots grow.

For Circle Time, we read Rainbow Fish, Pout Pout Fish story, 5 Fish , Jelly Fish Jelly Fish What Do You See felt rhyme, The Very Silly Shark Pop Out, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell, Things We See at the Ocean Yoga, A Day At The Beach and we introduced seashells and starfish, Sea Animals, National Geographic Kids, Sea Turtles, 5 Jelly Fish, Which Jelly Fish is Missing, Old Macdonald had an Ocean felt story, 5 Little Crabs rhyme, The Clumsy Crab, 5 Little Fish Swimming in the Water, Bubble Pop, Slippery Fish, and Mister Seahorse.

We played a game at the circle carpet called Hide a Sea Life Mammal. The creatures were under a blue blanket and children had to guess which one we took away. We also took the afternoon Tues/Thursday children to Mackey creek. We took paper and markers and drew what we saw. Also the children closed their eyes and listened to what surrounded us and we also shared a snack.

In the water table, we had lots of sea animals like crabs, fish, sharks, and the children really enjoyed playing with them.

Another highlight in the classroom was the butterfly display.  It is amazing to witness caterpillars growing double in size in just a few days and then they move into their cocoons, and begin the final stage be butterflies.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful children with us. We will cherish all the wonderful memories from this past school year.  We will see some of you in September, and for the families we won't, we wish you all the best in your new adventures!  Enjoy these precious years with your little ones. 

With love, we wish you all a safe and healthy Summer!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - ARSI, DANIELLE, CAROL

It is hard to believe that I am writing our last newsletter for the Sunflower Room as this has been a crazy year.  There are only a few weeks left where some of the children will be moving onto Kindergarten and others onto new adventures. Oh, how much they have all developed and grown in the last 10 months.

The Month of May is a special one as we talk about our Mothers and how important they are to us and what we love about our Moms. We read ‘Just for You’ and ‘Mommy is a Soft Warm Kiss’. We sang the rhymes “Mommy” (tune of Bingo) , ‘I Love Mommy’, ’5 Little Mommies’ and we listened to the rhyme ‘5 Flower Baskets’, where each of the children got to take a basket away.  For Music we drew pictures about our Mommies while listening to classical music. For Art we made a Mother’s Day card by filling in a heart shape with tissue paper. We traced our hands & cut them out to make an  “I Love You this Much” sign.

Tied into Mother’s Day week, we also continued exploring the Alphabet.  We started with the Letter P and we read “Ping Pong Pig”, acted out animal movements that started with the letter P and tossed bean bags into a letter P on the floor. For the letter Q we made Quails out of the letter Q, adding feet, head and feathers. We also acted out actions starting with the letter Q. For the letter R we read ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ & listened to a CD story ‘I know a Rhino’. We acted out the actions of animals that start with the letter R and we went on a matching alphabet hunt around the classroom with a friend.

We then moved onto the letter S. We read ‘The Greedy Python’ & ‘The Biggest House in the World’. We acted out the song ‘Let’s All Do a Little Stomping’ and listened to the rhyme ‘Mr. Snake’.  For art we traced the swirl inside the snail shell and used the Salad Spinner to decorate it with Silver, Sapphire & Scarlet paint. In the House Corner we turned it into a school for the children with books, paper, a board with a calendar so they can all take turns being a ‘T’ for teacher as well.  For the letter T we read the story ‘I Don’t Want to Go to Bed’ & listened to the CD story ‘Franklin and the Thunderstorm’. We listened to the song ‘Deep in the Jungle’ & ‘I had a Little Turtle’. For music we played the parachute game.  For Art we cut out a turtle shell and glued it onto paper and added feet, head, eyes and tissue paper for the letter T on the shell.

We are now in the home stretch, U, V, W. For Circle we read ‘Thelma the Unicorn' & 'Blue Whale Blues’. We listened to the rhymes 5 Unicorns, 5 Green Vipers & 5 Blue Whales. We used our bodies to be a Unicorn, Snake and threw Bean Bags onto the letter V on the floor. For art we made a Unicorn out of the letter U and cut out the horn that they glued on and added hair.  We also made a vase with the letter V. Lastly, X,Y and Z.  We read ‘Chick a Chicka, Boom, Boom’ & ‘Greedy Zebra’. We sang ‘ABC’ & listened to the rhyme ‘5 Zebras’ & played the game - Find the Letter X Behind the Coloured Houses. We used different parts of our bodies to make the letter X. For Music we played with the xylophones and finished watching the Alphabet DVD. For Art we used the letter Z to make a Zebra. We cut out the black stripes and glued them on, along with eyes and hair.

When all the "serious" letter work had finished it was time to have some FUN…. We spent a few days learning about Pirates. We read the stories ‘There was an Old Pirate that Swallowed a Fish’, ‘Are You the Pirate Captain?’, ‘This Little Pirate’ & ‘Do Pirates Take Baths’.  We sang ‘If You’re a Pirate and You Know It’ and ‘Row, Row, Row your Boat’. We listened to the rhymes ‘5 Little Pirates’ &  the felt story ‘5 Pirates’. We played the games ‘Pirates Looking for Treasure’ in the music room and in the gym we played ‘What is the Time Pirate Captain?’ and the Memory Wall Game.  For Art we cut out the face for our pirate and glued on the hat, eye patch and drew on his eye, nose, mouth and stubble. On our last day we decorated pirate ships with glitter glue, sails & tissue paper. It was such a fun week…Ahoy Matey!

For the last few weeks, we will explore the Island of Hawaii and learn how to Hula Dance. We will also spend some time making something special for our Father’s including a lovely card.  We will finish our Journals and read stories about going to a new school.

We wish you all a Great Summer and the best of luck on your new Adventures. Please come back and visit us!!!

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

June is here and I feel that after 25 years, this year has been both challenging and at the same time rewarding.  I am thankful for the support of the Church and our Board of Directors who have guided us through this school year.  Thank you to the staff for being flexible with the changes that needed to be made to keep the children safe while learning through play and to all our supportive families. Our fundraising projects have been very successful due to your generosity. Thank you. 

This is our first year where we have had all our 3s & 4s learning in multi-age classrooms.  Younger children were able to enhance their language and behavior skills by watching and listening to the older children.  The older children were able to mentor the younger ones, while building on their sense of responsibility, self-esteem and empathy skills.  Instilling leadership qualities early on makes children more independent and children are able to do and learn things at their own pace. The teachers encourage children to focus on what they can do rather than what they can't do.  This motivates children as well as helps nourish their own strengths and abilities in a better way.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks with the children and I want to wish all the 4s a happy transition into Kindergarten.  Have a great Summer everyone and hopefully it will involve travelling and seeing family and friends.  See you in the Village.

MAY 2021

May is the month
Of sunshine and flowers

Birds in their nests,
And one or two showers.
Games to play and kites to fly
Or just looking at the sky.
We could spend a year this way
If the year was made of May.

May is here and that means we don't have much time left at preschool! And we know how fast time is flying so it will be summer before we know it!!

Things that PARENTS need to know:

September deposits have been cashed (May 4th).

Friday, May 14th - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Professional Day

Monday, May 24th - PRESCHOOL CLOSED - Victoria Day

A BIG, BIG THANK YOU to everyone who donated to the BC Children's Hospital! We raised $505! That is a record! You should be proud!!

Hey, hey, hey! The month is May! Read what the teachers have to say! Don't be a frog, get off your log and read the blog. It's the best thing you'll read today!!

RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle, Marjan, Vibha

Spring is in the air. Finally we can enjoy some warmer weather as we coast through the last two months of preschool. That's right!! There are only two months left!! 

April was a very fun filled month and we mostly talked about Spring. We started with flowers and the children were printing cherry blossom on paper while looking at the fresh blossom on the table which was a very nice eye and hand coordination activity. Another art project was purple flowers where the children used foam to stamp out the flower onto the paper. For circle time, we sang "I am a Little Sunflower" song and also watched  "5 Little Pansies Flowers" and "Five Little Flowers" felt story.

Five little flowers growing in a row.

The 1st one said: I am purple you know.

The 2nd one said: I am pink as can be.

the 3rd one said:  I am blue like the sea.

The 4th one said: I am a very red fellow.

The 5th one said: my colour is yellow.

Then out came the sun , big and bright.

And 5 little flowers danced in delight.

Also we read "Mouse First Spring" and Weather story books.

There was a game called, "What Colour Flower is Missing?"

 At the science table, there were lots of nests and birds with pinecones and flowers for the children to peruse. At the light table, there was a Birds and Flowers matching game that children really loved.

Then we moved to the theme of Birds. For art, the children made blue birds with handprints and also made  a nest with a bird inside with feather and string. For circle time, we tried the Bird Pose while doing yoga:

High on my tip toes,

I am a bird preparing to fly,

Flapping my wings repeatedly,

I give flying a try!

We listened to two felt stories: "Red Bird, Red Bird, What Do You See?" that showed different colours of birds and animals and another story was:

Two little dickey birds sitting on a wall 

One named Peter, one named Paul!

Fly away Peter! Fly away Paul!

Come back Peter! Come back Paul!

We were using the children's names when singing this song.

Then we moved to the themes of  Weather and Umbrellas. Children made umbrellas with paper plates and  pipe cleaners and also used bubble wrap.

For Circle Time, we also listened to a felt story about umbrellas:

Five umbrellas stood by the back door,

The red one went outside-then there were four.

Four umbrellas pretty as can be,

The blue one went outside- then there were three.

Three umbrellas with nothing to do,

The green one went outside-then there were two.

Two umbrellas not having too much fun,

The yellow one went outside-then there was one.

Just one umbrella alone in the hall.

The purple one went outside-and that was all.

We talked about caterpillars and butterflies and after, the children made caterpillars out of egg cartons and they also made butterflies with different paint colours.

For Circle Time, we read caterpillar books and listened to felt stories and we also played "Which caterpillar is missing?" game. We sang some songs and a favourite is "Sleeping Caterpillars and Butterflies."

We talked about Insects and Bees and children made bees with yellow and black construction paper and with potato masher tools . We read "Buzz-Bees Busy Bees" book to the children as well.

The children made a special gift for Mother's Day that will be sent home soon and also during Circle Time we read the "Moms Bed" story book for them.

We celebrated Jeans Day to raise funds for the BC Children's Hospital this month and the children decorated a little pair of jeans  with glitter glue and we hung them up in the classroom.

And thank you for all your donations to help and support the BC Children's Hospital during Jean's week at St. Catherine's Preschool!

TREEHOUSE ROOM - Arsi, Brita, Carol, Karen, Marjan, Rose

Another month gone by! Time flies when you're having fun! 

I hope you have enjoyed reading our blogs regarding all the things we do in the Treehouse room. By now I’m sure your child tells you everything they do during their day with us 😁. 

This has been a very unusual year for everyone. Normally we would have the children brought down by their caregivers and they would help their children unpack their bags, help with their coats, shoes and anything else they might need before coming into class. This year all the children have done an excellent job at being independent in these tasks 👏🏼. 

We also would normally have a sign up sheet for parents to come into class and join us…so I will tell you how our day goes in class. 

It starts with Free Play for the first twenty minutes of class. Our room is filled with different activities that challenge the children’s  minds and the best part is that it is all through play. From a puzzle, to blocks, imaginary play in the home corner, making your own art, using scissors, and socializing with peers and teachers. 

Next comes our morning Circle where we sing our welcoming Good Morning song, take attendance, talk about the calendar and depending what our theme is, talk about that. We just finished Spring so we discussed how the weather changes, what changes around us and what we hear and see outside. We also discussed birds, bugs, a caterpillar life cycle, frogs, what happens when you plant seeds and baby animals. We also read many books, sang songs, played games and listened to felt board stories.

* On Wednesday and Thursday we alternate Music Class and Art.

Once the Circle is over, we start our teacher-lead art. This is a time for the children to learn to follow instructions to the best of their abilities. The children have made some wonderful pieces of art this month. We used shapes to create a bunny, a flower vase, caterpillars, an umbrella scene, rainbows and ladybugs. We also made different types of flowers from cherry blossoms, to daffodils and tulips.

When art is completed we sing our Clean-Up song and all the children help to put the toys away so we can get ready for our morning snack. Then children are asked to look at a book on the circle carpet.

 

On the tables we put out name cards for the children so they can  become familiar with their own names. We also use these sometimes at Circle when we are doing attendance. When book time is over, all the children come to the door and line up. We then make our way down to the bathroom to wash our hands and at this time, the  teachers will encourage all children to use the toilet. 

Once we are done, we make a line and go to the cubbies to get out the snacks. The children then enter the room and find their names, sit down and we sing Grace. Most children are able to open their own containers and packaged food and sit while they eat. 

When snack is done, all the children wash their hands and we line up to go to the gym or outside to the playground. This is a great way for the children to burn off some energy with riding scooters and trikes, kicking balls, throwing balls, using the climber, playing hockey and basketball, hopscotch, hula hooping, playing in the sandbox and just running around having fun😊. 

Our class goes until 2:45pm but some of our friends leave at 11:30am so we say goodbye and continue to play. A short while later we go down to have our lunch. Once again the children are encouraged to use the toilet and wash their hands. Name cards are placed on the table again.

Once lunch is done the afternoon could hold a neighborhood walk with a scavenger hunt, hot chocolate at Delany's, Cobb’s bread treats, a visit to the library, cooking, a walk to Eldon Park to play, a Murdo Frazer duck pond visit, a video with popcorn, more art, extra time outside with a picnic snack or games in the gym.

 

There you have it! That is a breakdown of our day. 

And also, A BIG THANK YOU to all the families that supported us by donating money in supporting Jeans week for Children’s hospital and for purchasing cards, bags and books from the Card Project. 

Thanks for reading our blog 🌈

SUNFLOWER ROOM - Arsi, Danielle, Carol

ABCDEFG……we have started our alphabet! We continue our kindergarten readiness and the children are having a great time learning their ABCs. 

During circle, we listen to each letter we are doing that day to hear what it sounds like. We have learned some letters make more than one sound. For the letters A,B, and C, we read the books: Alligator Baby, Ben the Beaver, and The Cat who Changed Colours. We also enjoyed the felt board rhymes such as 5 Apples, 5 Black Bats and 5 Cupcakes. We played an Apple Colour Matching game and a Bug Matching game. The children also enjoyed singing Baa Baa Black Sheep. 

For art, we traced the upper case and lower case letter A and used mini sponges to dab the letters  red to look like apples. We even added some seeds to the middle of the letters and a leaf on top. Moreover, we used bingo dabbers to trace the letters A, B, and C. For the letters D, E, and F, we listened to the stories: Dinosaur, Dinosaur and the CD story, Duck at the Door. We played the fun game of Which Dinosaur is Missing? and we acted out the song 5 Elephants Balancing. Furthermore, we read the books Little Beaver and the Echo and Farm Flu. Of course we had an all time favourite song 5 Little Frogs. For art, we used our fine motor skills to cut an oval shape for our paper plate dog. Woof woof! 

Our next set of letters were G, H and I!

For these letters, we looked into the jungle and found G for giraffe, H for hippo, and I for iguana! The children enjoyed a funny book called Giraffe Problems….oh giraffe…glad you liked your long neck! We did giraffe yoga poses and pretended to be giraffes with long necks reaching for leaves. We even enjoyed 5 giraffes Jumping in a Tree. For art, we used the letter G and sequenced different body parts to make a giraffe. At the Make-It table, the children used giraffe and gorilla stickers to make jungle scenes. 

Hippos are amazing animals and guess what our next letter was…..H!  At circle, we read: Hilda Must be Dancing about a Hippo who Loved to Dance. We also sang the Hippo Bingo song and we listened to the felt rhyme, 5 Hungry Hippos. At the art table, the children used cotton Q-tips to paint their hippos so it looked like they had rough skin. We used the letter H to stick on horse and hen stickers. 

We moved on to the letter I for Iguana! We read the book: I Wanna Iguana. The little boy really wanted an pet iguana….and he finally convinced his mom! We played the game Which Item Starting with I is Missing? and we played Find the Matching Letter game. For art, we used the upper case I to make an iguana! They turned out great!

J is for Jeans week! We spent a bit of time talking about how Jeans week is important and how we can help the hospital that helps children. Moreover, we talked about what the upside down umbrella was for and how the donations would help many children. Thank you to all our families for helping with this important cause! We appreciate all your donations! And we couldn’t have Jeans week without decorating some mini Jeans with glitter glue and lots of sequins! The fun continued with the book called Rumble in the Jungle and the game called Which Jungle Animal is Missing? The Three Jellyfish felt board rhyme made us chuckle as they slipped into the water too! Furthermore, we made our way up to the gym to play a jungle animal wall memory game. 

Our next two letter were K and L.   We listened to the CD story called Kissing Kangaroo and the book Koala Lu. For art, we used grey paint to paint the paper plate body of our koala and then sequenced the rest of its body parts. The children hung them on our K shaped tree on our classroom board! 

Roooaarr says the lion! For the letter L, we listened to the felt board story:  The lion & the Mouse and we read Llama Llama Loose Tooth Drama! Oh that Llama!  The children also had fun picking a lollipop for the action rhyme 5 Lollipops in the Candy Shop. We even leaned, leapt, lifted and looked to move our bodies. Since we were really into our letters, we played Find the Matching Letter Around the Classroom game! For art, the children glued, drew, and used their hand-eye coordination to cut the lion's mane! 

For our last week in April, we looked at the letters M, N, and O! 

Five Little Monkeys were teasing Mr. Crocodile on our felt board. We even had a mouse hide behind different coloured houses and the children guessed which one he was hiding in. We read the book Maxwell the Monkey Barber and we did what the action book Spunky Little Monkey asked us to do….stomp, shake, and stretch. At art, the children turned the letter M into a mouse. They used their fine motor skills to cut the whiskers and sequenced the rest of its face. For the letter N, we read the books: The Salamander Room and Not Your Nest! We played What Item is Missing? game and we sang the song Build a Nest to the tune of Hokey Pokey. The children also pretended to be nightingale birds as we sang and played the game called Two Little Nightingales! 

For the last letter of this month, we looked at the letter O. We learned that O makes two sounds like in 'octopus' and 'orange'! We read Orangutanka and looked at the felt rhyme 5 Cheeky Orangutans. We also started the DVD called Barney’s ABC’s. 

The children have also been finding a few items from home that starts with a certain letter given to them. We’ve been playing a guessing game with our friends at circle with these items! Great job so far!

For the letters N and O, during art time, we have been working super hard on our Mother’s Day surprises! But shh….it’s a surprise! 

In the coming few weeks, we will continue with our alphabet, kindergarten readiness and our independent skills. Please continue to encourage your children with putting on and taking off of their jackets and zippers too!

If you have any concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to ask your teachers! 

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

Self-esteem develops slowly over time and can start with a child feeling safe, loved and accepted.  Children who feel good about themselves have the confidence to try new things.  Self-esteem helps children cope with mistakes.  It helps them want to try something again, even if they were not successful the first time.  As a result, self-esteem helps children do better at home, at school and with their friends.  If a child has low self-esteem they may have a hard time standing up for themselves and may give up easily, or not try at all.  Children with low self-esteem find it hard to cope when they make a mistake. 

As children grow, self-esteem can grow too. Every time a child tries something new it can be a chance for self-esteem to grow.  This can happen when children are kind and help others and receive praise for appropriate behaviours.  

Every child is different and self-esteem may come easier to some children than others.  As your child grows, things like learning to dress themselves and riding a bike are chances for self-esteem to grow.  When teaching young children how to do something new, be patient and show and help them at first.  Then let them do what they can, even if they make a mistake.  Be sure your child gets a chance to learn, try and feel proud.  Don't make new challenges too easy or too hard.  Your praise is a way to show them that you are proud of the effort they have made.  Do not focus on the results. Self-esteem grows when children get to see that what they do matters to others.  Helping and kind acts build self-esteem and other positive feelings.

As we enter the 9th month of our school year the children have certainly become more independent. They are now hanging up their backpacks and jackets in their cubbies, getting their snacks/lunches out and sitting down at the table and cleaning up afterwards.  They are following their daily routines like using the washrooms, lining up and going up and down down the stairs holding the railing by themselves.  Giving them realistic expectations and following through with support if needed and praising their efforts is so important at this early age. 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the office.