FEBRUARY 2022

AIM HIGH TO THE SKY

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

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

By: James McDonald

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

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

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

NEW COVID GUIDELINES

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

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

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

FUNDRAISING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IMPORTANT DATES & EVENTS

Jan 31       - Registration for current families

Feb 1        - Registration for community families

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

Feb 21      - Family Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Mar14-18 - Spring Break: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

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

RAINBOW ROOM - DANIELLE, VIBHA, SUSAN, ROSE

Hello 2022!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

 

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

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

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

SUNFLOWER ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE, CAROL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

JANUARY 2022

JANUARY 2022

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you had an amazing Christmas break! Thank you so much for all your wonderful cards and gifts of thanks. The teachers really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

We have 2 new teachers starting in January. Please give a BIG welcome to our two returning teachers: Susan (Rainbow Room) and Gabi (Treehouse Room). We are so happy to have them back with us again!!

We made it to 2022!!

Here we are again at the beginning of a new year. It has been a little tricky navigating through this new world but we are determined to make sure our children have a safe, nurturing and exciting place to learn and to be with friends. 

Currently, we have had a few covid exposures and unfortunately, we had to shut down the Sunflower room for a week. Even though we are wearing masks, washing hands and doing extra cleaning, this new variant spreads VERY fast.

Please remember that even though most of us adults are vaccinated, our children are not. Please be extra diligent in keeping your children home if they have any symptoms at all and on your non-school days, please try to stay as safe as you can and avoid large gatherings or those not in your bubbles. 

Also, it is very important for those of you who have nannies or grandparents who pick up and drop off to make sure you are sharing information with them. We are finding that parents know the rules but they don't always pass along all the important info.

If you would like your nanny or grandparent to be added to our mailing lists, please let us know. It is important that all caregivers are on the same page.

REGISTRATION SEPT. 2022

If your child is born in 2020, 2019 or 2018, you are able to register them for September 2022 classes.

All currently enrolled families will get PRIORITY PLACEMENT as long as their registration forms and deposits are in to the preschool before the end of January. Reg. sheets and fees are online and a hard copy will be sent home with your child as well.

Important Dates & Events

Jan 31       - Registration for current families

Feb 1        - Registration for community families

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

Feb 21      - Family Day: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Mar14-18 - Spring Break: PRESCHOOL CLOSED

December was a VERY busy month. Please see what we did in the classrooms!

RAINBOW ROOM: Danielle, Marjan, Rose, Susan, Vibha

Happy New Year Everyone!! We hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing White Christmas this year. What fun the snow is to play in!! We want to express our gratitude for the lovely cards, gifts, and Christmas greetings we received.

The Discovery Twos had a very busy but enjoyable time in December. We began by creating a unique surprise gift for you. We hope you liked it and that it found its way under your Christmas Tree!

We set up a ‘Winter Scene’ on our science table, complete with cedar boughs, wooden trees & Canadian winter creatures as well as finger puppets for the children to explore. On the light table we set up the Nativity Scene so the children could play with the Characters including Baby Jesus, Mary, The 3 Wisemen. We remodeled the housekeeping corner into a Christmas Bakery, with cookies, aprons, measuring cups, muffin trays and cash registers. They had lots of fun baking, serving themselves and others and using their imagination. 

For Art we used Christmas sequins to embellish popsicle trees and made a paper plate wreath with green paint and red/green felt squares. We enjoyed the different textures of the slippery sequins and the soft felt pieces mixed in with the wet paint/glue. We used dabbers with white paint to decorate Gingerbread Men and we coloured Christmas ornaments with stickers & Crayons. We also had fun decorating our own Reindeer Hats with crayons, stickers, and stamps. We enjoyed wearing them on our Party Day with a little red nose paint. Thank you to those parents who brought party food.

For circle we listened to many stories. There was a CD Story called ‘Noisy Santa’ and we read the books ‘5 Christmas Penguins’ & ‘My First Christmas’. We listened to the felt rhymes Christmas Tree, Christmas Tree, what do you See? 5 Santa’s, 5 Gingerbread Men & we played the games Where are you hiding Little Mouse? & Which colour ornament was missing.  We sang Shake it Santa with a Santa shaped shaker, Hickory Dickory & Snowflake, Snowflake Little Snowflake.

In the upcoming weeks we will be talking about Winter and what we might see or do outside or what we wear when it’s cold.

Just a reminder, that if it’s not raining or snowing, we usually go outside to play, so please pack a warm jacket, mittens & hat.

We would also like to mention that if anyone is starting toilet training, please let us know as consistency is the key.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to come and talk to us.

TREEHOUSE ROOM: Brita, Carol, Gabi, Karen, Marjan, Monica, Rose

Happy New Year! We hope you’ve had a relaxing, safe and enjoyable Christmas. We’d like to say a big “Thank you” for all the lovely cards, gifts and well wishes. They were greatly appreciated.

We are rested and relaxed from our Christmas break and we are ready to make the year 2022 the BEST ONE YET!

December was a busy and fun filled month in the Treehouse room. 

Throughout the month we took many photos and they were put together in a slide show, please let us know if you did not received it in an email.

We started with Nativity talking about what Christmas is about through a variety of stories presented through books, felt board pieces and a Nativity play set with Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, Wise Men, Shepherds, The Angel and animals. We continued on with a stable scene titled “Away in a Manger” made by the children for art.

At the end of November we started to rehearse our songs for our recorded Christmas Service. We hope you enjoyed the children singing “I’m a Little Pine Tree,” “Away in a Manger,” “Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” and “We Wish you Merry Christmas”(if you did not get it please let us know or contact the office). 

Circle times were filled with Christmas books, tape stories, games, sing-a-longs to familiar favourites, how the weather was changing and plans for the holidays.

During one of our circle times we talked about what the children wanted for Christmas which lead to a discussion about what gift they wanted. They even drew a picture of it which was then sent to the North Pole. We received a letter back just before the children left for the break (picture included).

Art time was busy with the children making…

Paper Plate Wreaths

Decorated trees

Snowflakes

Santa Clause 

Glittery Glue Paper Stockings, Candy Canes, Stars and Ornaments

Popsicle Stick Christmas Trees

Egg Carton Bells

Santa Binoculars

Decorating Gingerbread people

Pasta Necklaces 

Cardboard “gingerbread” houses

Christmas Colour bracelets 

Pinecone Gnome (take home gift for the family) 

The home corners were transformed into a Bake Shop, Christmas Tree Farm, Reindeers with a sleigh, and an Ice Cave under the Treehouse.

Our last few days of school were filled with Christmas parties (thank you to the families who brought in food to share), Classic Holiday DVD’s and lots of Christmas Music to dance and sing too.

To start off January we will be discussing Winter, from animals to what to wear to sports.

We will also have a new teacher joining our class and her name is Gabi, please welcome her. 

As always please feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have with any of the teachers. 

Thank you for reading,

SUNFLOWER ROOM: Cecilia, Danielle, Carol

December flew by but, as always, it began (and ended) with gifts. The children carefully chose the materials with which to adorn their Christmas “windows” and we hope they shared with you this holiday season their creative process.

The start of the month included silly and poignant stories by Robert Munsch. “Aaron’s Hair” segued us into a home corner turned hair salon where budding stylists practiced their trade. A reading of “Love You Forever” meant that even baby dolls came to the salon with their mamas and papas. But it was the baby Jesus on whom the star shone bright as the class listened to fellow children tell the story of the Nativity. They then took turns laying gifts by the manger like the three wise men.

Books (such as “Christmas in the Manger” and “Dear Santa”), felts (like the Nativity characters), songs and games (including ‘Simon Says,’ ‘Suzy got a haircut’ and body movement activities) kept the children actively engaged in the spirit of the season: love, family, and the greatest gift of all—a child.

Naturally Christmas took center stage during the two weeks before winter break. The home corner morphed into a bustling bakery and children busily placed cookies by the fireplace for Santa and his reindeer. The following week the area became Santa’s Workshop and little elves checked off lists and filled Santa’s sack with wooden toys they had “constructed.”

We hope you enjoyed the virtual Christmas concert as the children worked hard to learn the songs and how to sign “Silent Night.” Caroling in Edgemont Village on the Wednesday before break allowed the class to share their music with the community. And the Christmas Party was a smashing success thanks to your generous donations of drinks, chips, cheese, fruit and Fairy Bread, an Australian treat.

Books read: “Gingerbread Man,” “A Magical Christmas,” “The Littlest Christmas Tree,” “Santa Knows,” “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell,” “Five Busy Elves,” “What Star Is This?” Letter from Santa, “Legend of the Candy Cane: The Candymaker’s Gift”

Felt stories, songs, rhymes & games: ‘Five Christmas Trees,’ What light is missing from the Christmas tree? ‘Christmas tree, Christmas tree, what do you see?’ ‘Five Christmas Angels,’ ‘Five Christmas Stars,’ Which angel was in the house? Matching Nutcrackers game, Christmas bell toss, ‘Shake it, Santa’ ‘Five Little Stockings’.

Danielle and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every family for their kind words, their thoughtful gifts, and all the Christmas cheer. We are the lucky ones but y'all made us feel so warm and fuzzy during this particularly cold winter. Our sincerest thanks for the privilege of playing and learning with your little ones.

We look forward to getting a move on in 2022 as we explore planes, trains and automobiles the first couple weeks and then travel Around the World through the cultures of our classroom families. Please consider sending in props or sharing a video about your heritage so that we can all learn from each other.

Thank you, parents, for continuing to pack more food rather than less (one container for snack and one for lunch) as we are here for 4 hours a day and the children tend to work up an appetite. We will also be going outside to play when conditions allow so please pack appropriate footwear, winter jackets and mittens.

We’re happy to report that children have been practicing self-help skills such as putting on their own footwear and apparel. We will continue to guide them with zipper and button skills as well as managing bulky backpacks. We’re certain your little ones will be thrilled to show you how capable they are becoming so please continue to reinforce these self-help skills at home.

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

RESOURCE OFFICE - Marion

COMING SOON.....STAY TUUUUUUUUNED!

DECEMBER 2021

 Let Every Day Be Christmas

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.
– Norman Wesley Brooks

It's DECEMBER! And it's the most wonderful time of the year!! Christmas! And sparkles! And presents! And sparkles! And snow! And sparkles! And candy canes! And sparkles! (It's just not Christmas at Preschool without SPARKLES!!)

It's a short month with our last day being Friday, December 17th. We have packed a lot into those two and a half weeks just to get it all done before the New Year!

TRAVEL AND COVID PROTOCOL

Please remember if you are travelling out of Canada this holiday season, your unvaccinated children must stay home from school for 2 weeks before they are able to return. Please refer to the Government website for current and up to date information.

If you plan on taking extra time off for your holidays, don't forget to let the teachers know so they can plan the classroom activities accordingly. It is always good to know in advance who will be away.

Thank you to all those in the Treehouse & Sunflower Rooms who sent in requests to extend their child's day starting January! It is going to be a fun time for all! If you have not contacted us but are thinking of extending hours, let us know asap as spots are filling up with new families registering.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

DEC. 7/8          - Children's Christmas Service 

DEC. 15/16/17 - Children's Christmas Parties

DEC. 17           - Last Day before Christmas Break

JAN. 4              - First Day back to Preschool

JAN. 4-31         - 2022 Registration for Current Families

FEB. 1              - 2022 Registration for Community Families

FEB. 10/14      - Children's Valentine's Day Parties

FEB 21            - Family Day PRESCHOOL CLOSED

MAR 14-18    - Spring Break PRESCHOOL CLOSED

THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our Photo Days pictures we sent to you. We still plan on taking photos of those who missed the day. If you have not already done so, please let the office know you would like a photo taken of your child. We will try to do another group shot near the end of the year, when more children are in attendance.

CHRISTMAS DONATION TO NORTH SHORE FAMILY SERVICES

Thank you to everyone who has donated a gift card for our collection with the Church for the North Shore Family Services. They will distribute the cards to families who are in need this holiday season.

The last day to donate is Friday, Dec. 3rd.

THANK YOU to everyone who helped us fundraise over the last couple of months. We raised over $600 from our Samosa Fundraiser and we raised over $1000 from our Purdys' Fundraiser! We raised $180 from our Photo Days fundraiser. Your support is very much appreciated! Don't forget about Scholastic Books, Lovable Labels, Cobbs; Edgemont, Return-It Bottle Return; Brooksbank, and Boston Pizza Esplanade! These are all great ways to support our school! And coming soon...Little Kitchen Academy; Edgemont.

Let's see what is happening inside the classrooms: 

RAINBOW ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE, MARJAN, ROSE, VIBHA

We go by car.

We go by plane.

We go by boat.

We go by train.

We go by land 

and sea and air.

We go, go, go,

From here to there!

~ Poem by Richard Scarry,

What a fun and exciting month of November we had learning about different modes of transportation.

For art:  we made yellow school buses with dabbers, decorated paper plate sailboats and cars with colourful tissue paper,  fire truck printing, transportation cookie cutter collage, we decorated rocket ship with foil and used dabbers to make our own train carriage.

During circle time, we read a fun- filled sing along tape story “We all go traveling by.”

"Blue train, Blue train what do you see?" and 

"Soft road, bumpy road" song.

Felt rhymes are always a big hit with our two’s. Such as Five Little Buses, Twinkle, Twinkle Motor Car, Zoom , Zoom, Zoom, We’re Going to the Moon,  Space Ship, Space Ship, What Do You See?   And everyone’s favourite “The Wheels On The Bus.”

We also transformed our housekeeping corner into a train station. 

As always, please come and speak to us if you have any concerns or questions.  

And thank you all for your continued support

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

Hello Treehouse families,

It has been a busy fun filled month and the children are settling in well to the routines.


For the month of November, we learned all about community helpers and why they are so important to us. We focused on animal vets, dentists, construction workers, police officers, firefighters, and chefs.

The children played Guess the Community Helper, sang songs, and read books at circle time.

Our home corner was transformed into a veterinarian office where the children pretended to help animals get well.

The block corner was a fire station for the children to pretend to rush to a fire.

The train table became a coffee shop where the children could serve coffee and bake delicious treats to serve to their friends! 

Karen made banana pancakes with the children when we were learning about chefs as community helpers! They were so delicious!
We watched a Little People video on Community Helpers that the children really enjoyed!

The afternoon program went for a walk to Edgemont Village to see all the different community helpers hard at work.

For Remembrance Day , the children made poppies for art and they learned why it was such an important day.


The last week of the month was spent exploring the world of Hibernation. We discovered what animals, insects, and reptiles hibernate in the winter and where they make their homes such as in a cave, den, or tree. We looked at why they hibernate and for how long. The home corner became a hibernation center for bears, snakes, raccoons, and squirrels.

We finished up the month with the children writing letters to Santa and making their special Christmas gifts!

Please remember that the Christmas Services are being filmed on Tuesday, December 7th and Wednesday, December 8th. The children have been practicing their songs and they are looking forward to singing them for you on video!

Our Christmas parties are on December 16th and 17th and the children can dress in their favourite pajamas!

Thank you for all your support and understanding about masks, social distancing, and keeping your child home if they are not well. The phone calls and emails are truly appreciated about this.

Please remember to pack runners for your child so they can participate in the fun activities in the gym.

If you plan to travel outside the country, please check the BC Government website about Covid information and return to school information.

Please visit the blog next month to see the fun activities we got up to in December!

SUNFLOWER ROOM - CECILIA, DANIELLE

Wow, I cannot believe how busy we have been and what we have been learning about. There is soooo much, I am not sure I have will enough room.

We started November talking about Pete the Cat.  We read “Pete the cat: I love my White Shoes, His Four Groovy Buttons, Rocking in My School Shoes, Pete the Cat and The New Guy, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses & Pete the Cat and The Missing Cupcakes". We sang I've Got a Black Cat on My Knee, 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe and listened to the felt rhyme ‘5 Little Kittens Standing in a Row’. 

We danced to Boogie Pete and marched to the beat of the drum in ‘The Pete’s Go Marching. 

We played the games Shoe Relay, Button, button who's got the button? & Find the missing items from the Magic Sunglasses book. 

For Art we used shoes to make prints in red, blue & brown. We also glued Pete the Cat together with his 4 groovy buttons and we made our own Pete the Cat Mask with Sunglasses. 

We explored ‘shoe shopping’ in the house corner and buttons in the sand & water table.

We moved on to talk about how to be a good friend. We read “Fox makes Friends, “When you need a friend”, “My Friends” & Listened to the CD story “Very Special Friends”. We played Ring a Ring a Rosie, Row, Row your boat, What’s the time My Friend? and we searched for missing items in the classroom with a friend.  We also touched on Remembrance Day and how it is very important for everyone to use their words when talking to each other and to keep our hands to our own bodies. 

We read “The Soldiers Puppy & If The Kids Ruled the World”. We listened to the rhyme 5 Brave Soldiers & 5 Poppies. We guessed which colored Poppy was missing & we marched to the song “The Grand Old Duke of York’ with drums. For art we worked together to paint our den for our winter animals, made a stick friend and traced Poppy’s & decorated them with red tissue paper. In the water table we explored red magnets with black metal and had tea with babies in the home corner.

For the last 2 weeks of November, we talked about Hibernation and the animals in our forest…We started with animals that hibernate, Bears, Turtles & Hedgehogs. We read “Time to Sleep, Turtle's First Winter Now I Know: Turtle, We're Going on a Bear Hunt & Felt Story: Ouch” (hedgehog's dilemma). We sung Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around & Hibernation.

We played the games “Bear Bingo, Who woke the Sleeping Bear? & Which Animal Track is this?’. We moved like a bear and a turtle. We met “Freddy” the bear who will sleep in a box until spring. For Art we used marble painting to decorate paper plate bears, potato masher turtles and Hedgehogs with forks.  We created a bear cave in the home corner that we later turned into a forest with deer’s, racoons & a wolf cave. 

We then moved onto talk about animals in the forest that don’t hibernate. We talked about Foxes, Owls & Moose’s.  For circle we read “Winter Dance, A Fall Ball for All, Little Tails, When a Tree Grows, Night-Night Forest Friends & Who’s in the forest?”. We learnt the rhymes- Foxy Loxy, If you are a fox & you know it, 5 Little Owls, Moosey Loosey and we moved like forest animals. We sang the action rhyme ‘The animals in the Forest’ and when on a Animal Hunt in the classroom. We played the game What animal is missing? & ran around in the gym to the Animal Wall game. For art we explored Foxes by using glue, scissors & paper to make a fox face, paper plates for a snowy owl & we put the moose’s face together like a puzzle.

 

We have also been busy practicing our Christmas Songs for our Christmas Concert that we are having next week.  We will be sending you all a video of the children performing that a few days later.

 

For the last few weeks of the year, we will explore The Nativity & Christmas, as well as continuing to have fun learning and playing together.

Please remember to pack more food than less (one container for snack & one for lunch) as we are here for 4 hours a day, so the children get hungry.  We will also be going outside to play so pack appropriate footwear & jackets.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the office so we can arrange a meeting after school hours. 

RESOURCE OFFICE - MARION

Children love toys and the best toys are often the simplest ones, like Lego or Duplo for the younger children.  These toys allow children to be creative and spontaneous.  Children enjoy toys that they can master and that are right for their stage of development.  

Preschoolers learn a lot about socialization through pretend play.  Finger puppets and hand puppets allow children to communicate through them while playing with peers or by themselves.  This play allows them to get a sense of the real world around them.  

Crayons, finger paints and Play-Doh help develop fine motors skills as well, allows children to be creative. Children also make huge gains in both fine and gross motor skills throughout this period, so puzzles, blocks and other construction toys are perfect for fine motor development and ball games and bikes are great for gross motor skills. It is important to buy toys that involve brain activity and hand or muscle movements.

Children bring a special gift to us all and especially at Christmas time.  The gift of imagination and curiosity. As we near Christmas break, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!

Please check out a new event happening at some of the stores in the Village: "An Artist's Advent Calendar 2021".  

St. Catherine's Childcare Society submitted "Hope" to BC Playthings and "Love" to Delish General Store. Please visit these stores, and others to see all the Artist Creations!

On Christmas Eve this year, St. Catherine's Church is  planning a Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant from 3 pm to 4 pm. Please feel free to come dressed up as a Shepherd, Angel or Wise "Person".  There will be some costumes and props available at 2:30 pm.  

Please visit: www.saint.catherine.org for more information.

THANK YOU FOR READING OUR BLOG. If you have made it this far, you are amazing! Please let the teachers know you have read their blog. Tell them what you think of all the amazing activities and pictures you have seen on the blog. Let them know what you would like to see more of!!