December 2018
Winter is soon to be here.
Scrape ice off windows to clear.
The wind has a chill.
We will slide down the hill,
When the snow is finally here!
It is absolutely unbelievable that we are into December already!! How did the time go by so fast?? We were probably having way too much fun!!
IMPORTANT DATES COMING UP:
Dec. 12 - Christmas Service - Classes 302 & 402 - 6pm
Dec. 13 - Christmas Service - Classes 301 & 401 & 304/403 - 6pm
Dec. 20/21/22 - Children's Christmas Parties
Dec. 22 - Last Day Before Christmas Break
Jan. 8 - First Day Back To Preschool
Jan. 8 - Preschool Registration for Sept. 2018 - Current Families
Feb. 1 - Preschool Registration for Sept. 2018 - Community
Feb. 12 - Family Day - Preschool Closed
We will be sponsoring a family this Christmas from the Christmas Bureau.
We are waiting for the Christmas Bureau to issue us a family to sponsor this Christmas. We will be putting together a hamper and would love to have our families get involved.
If you feel that you are able to donate cash, gift cards or some of the items that have been requested by the family (list to come later), please drop them off at the preschool office at your earliest convenience.
Along with the items we will get for the hamper, we will also be looking for wrapping paper & bags and a big Tupperware bin to put all the treasures into! Let us know if you are able to help out!!
FUNDRAISING HAS BEEN TREMENDOUS!!
Wow!! Such generous families we have!!
We raised $850 from our Pizza Night, which was a HUGE SUCCESS!
We also raised $515 from all our Purdy's Chocolate sales!! Woot! Woot! Way better than last year!! Thanks to all you who ordered!
Thank you for purchasing your child's photos! We will be receiving a cheque from Bestway Photos once all the orders have been placed!
Scholastic Books has been a very popular fundraiser this year! Thank you to those of you who keep us supplied with free books and learning resources all year long!!
Don't forget to visit Cobs Bakery in Edgemont Village! Tell them when they are ringing you up that you support St. Catherine's Preschool and we will get 5% of your bill sent to us! Last year we got a cheque for $80! And who doesn't love to eat stuff from Cobs!!?
All the money that we raise from our fundraisers this year will go towards upgrading our playground.
Fundraisers to come:
Parent Social Night (ideas? Want to get involved?)
Parent Education Night (What do you want to learn about??)
The Card Project, and...?
Hope to see you out at some of our events!!
What Is Happening in the Classrooms??? Check it out!!!
Please take the time to read about what is going on it the classrooms. The teachers and children had a busy November learning and playing and having a lot of fun!
DISCOVERY TWOS - Arsi, Danielle, Susan & Vibha
What a great month it has been.
We started with looking at some old nursery
rhymes that the teachers learnt as children. They were Hickory Dickory Dock,
Humpty Dumpty, Mary had a little Lamb, Hey Diddle Diddle and Twinkle Twinkle
Little Star. We explored with paint and glue and made our own mice and used lots
of gold glitter to decorate our stars.
We helped put ‘Humpty’ back together with band aids and glue. We
decorated Lambs with Cotton Wool and we danced to Mary Had a Little Lamb and
learned Yoga poses for some of the animals.
We made paper plate collages of Hey Diddle Diddle and watched as the cow
jumped over the moon. 
We moved onto Bears for the last two weeks. We
listened to "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Did You See?". We looked at different
coloured bears and guessed which colour was missing. We learned that bears and some other animals
go to sleep in the winter time when it is cold. We read many stories about
bears, some include "Bear’s Blanket" and "Bear Goes to the Zoo". We danced to Teddy Bear Songs and ‘slept’
like sleeping bears. We listened to the
story song Teddy Bears Picnic and on the last day had a Picnic in our PJ’s with
our Bears. For art we sponged painted Bears, made paper plate bears and some of
us even made Teddy Bear Hats. We also enjoyed spending time in our ‘bear cave’
with some snuggly bears to play with.
For the next few weeks we will be focusing on
Christmas. We are also working on the
children walking up and down the stairs on their own.
If you are starting
toilet training, please let us know as consistency is the KEY.
Any questions
please see Arsi, Danielle, Susan or Vibha.
301 - Estelle & Susan
Hi Everyone!
Over the last few months the students have been full of
energy, excitement and enthusiasm to learn and play. We took the month of
November to focus on the theme of Bears and Hibernation. This was a very
successful month with the children engaging in all sorts of play, art and
exploration. The home corner was set up as a bear cave with a tent, stuffed bears
and play food for a picnic. During circle and art time the teachers widened the
children’s interest in hibernation with books and crafts on the topic. A
highlight was the children working together to paint a bear cave, this was
displayed on the back board. 
The classroom is always decorated with the
children art work. Each child takes great pleasure and care in their pieces.
Please take a look at our art boards in the hallways and in the classrooms as they change regularly.
The weather has changed in the last few weeks so we
moved inside to play. Please remember to bring running shoes for your children
as rain boots can be hard to play and run in and running around in socks is not permitted.
Christmas is just around the
corner and the children have been busy practicing for their Christmas concert
which takes place on Wednesday December 13th at 6pm. Please see our parent board or call the office for more information. Have a wonderful Christmas break and we will see
all of you in the New Year. 302 - Karen, Sousan, Aleysha & Brita
It’s hard to believe November is over already! It was a pleasure to see our children come
out to the pizza night with their families and have fun with their friends; we
thank you all for coming.
Here are some activities we have done throughout the month of
November:
In the month of November, we learned about bears and hibernation by
making a cave in the corner of our room with a little bear and mama bear
collecting food in it. The children had fun sitting in the cave and playing
with the bears while pretending to feed them. We also explored other animals’
hibernation habits such as squirrels, hedgehogs, and snakes. 
We
also learned about numbers, playing with magnets and Duplos in the different
shapes at the table stations.
During
Circle Time, we played a colour matching game using bears. We also played a
game where the children had to find where the little bear is in his habitat on the
felt-board. We also read the books
“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin, “The Very Itchy Bear”
by Mick Bland , “The Little Busy Squirrel” by Nancy Tafuri as well as “We’re
Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen. We also sang the songs “I Love My
Teddy” and “Five Little Squirrels”.
For
art we made Itsy Bitsy Bear books with different species of bears that talked
about their favourite foods. We also made collages of bear caves and
squirrel, and hedgehog homes to show their habitats. 
In memory of Remembrance Day, we decorated paper plates with paper
poppies.
As for next month,
we have already started to get ready for our Christmas Service, and make our
“Christmas Surprise” during the Art time! We also read the book “Little Tree” by E.E Cummings and sang some Christmas songs such as “Five Little Reindeer” and “Christmas Lights” at circle time.
Just a quick
reminder, please don’t forget to dress your children according to the colder
weather because we will go the playground when it is not raining. Please be
sure to pack a pair of sneakers to change with their boots for indoor wear.
Please
check our bulletin boards to be informed of our upcoming Christmas service and
class Christmas Party.
401 - Karen & Rosie
Wow it feels like November just flew by!
The children accomplished so much this month, as they learned about Remembrance
Day, the Deep Blue Sea and Construction! To start our month off the children
read silly stories in class, and remembered that it is always healthy to laugh,
and be kind with our friends and the people all around us. To commemorate Remembrance
Day, as a class we discussed why we celebrate November 11th and made
Poppies that the children said, “look just like the ones on our coats!”.
We began our Under
the Sea week by introducing Echo! Echo is our Orca Whale friend that lives in
the ocean, but we keep a special stuffed animal version so that it can be in
our classroom too. Echo will be sent home with each child, for one weekend, so
that they can go on lots of exciting adventures together.
On Monday, after
their special weekend we will hear all about what Echo got to do! The children
are already very excited to take Echo home, if they have not already! To
welcome Echo into our class the children made Echo puppets, so they could
always remember the special Orca Whale from 401.
We also made some super
painted, paper bag Puffer Fish and Crazy Colourful Jellyfish!
As we concluded
looking at Sea Life, we changed directions and began learning about
Construction! In our week of Construction, we discussed different big machines
that help us build, construction workers and the construction site itself. We
reviewed our shapes when we built our Bulldozers and painted houses with
different shaped sponges!
Of course, we cannot forget that we even had a
special visitor, Ken the Carpenter come in and teach all about working on a
construction site. Ken talked about his different tools and how to be safe when
you work in Construction!
It was a wonderful month filled with
delightful moments of learning.
402 - Arsi, Danielle & Rosie
We can’t believe how quickly November came and went!
We started November with the most groovy cat we know, Pete.
We read a few popular Pete the Cat books and discovered Pete loves his white shoes and he has lots of groovy buttons. This allowed the children a great opportunity to practice their cutting when they cut Pete’s shirt to glue on his groovy buttons. We also used our fine motor skills and hand eye coordination by collaging Pete himself and his colorful shoes.
Our next exciting topic was a little book with big fun called “Have you filled a bucket today?” We talked about how everyone has an invisible bucket that they carry and throughout the day, they must try doing good things to fill their buckets. For example, helping clean up or share a toy. The children were excited about introducing a class jar that we get to fill as long as we work together as a team to do kind things. We will be continuing bucket filling throughout the school year and we encourage parents to do so at home as well.
We also talked about Remembrance Day and how a long time ago people were bucket dipping and not being friendly. The children learned this day was for us to remember the people who had gone to heaven in order to make Canada a safe and peaceful place for
us to live. We listened to a poem called “Poppy” and also looked at a felt rhyme called “Five little soldiers.” We also made a wreath using red poppies.
Our next adventure led us to our adopted orca named Echo and we learned that he lives in a pod of whales. The children were excited to find out that they could have their own time with our stuffy Echo. This is a great opportunity for them to share and also to speak in front of their peers. For art, we used lids to create our own black and white orca, we made an ocean collage, and we also made sea life impressions is salt dough.
Finally, we took on the fun and busy topic of construction. In our first week, we focused on construction workers and safety gear, tools that workers use, and also some construction vehicles such as a dump truck and a cement mixer. We learned that the “boss” at the construction zone is called a foreman and that he makes sure everyone is safe and knows their job. We also looked at some tools such as a hammer, wrench, screwdriver, and a level. The children then made their own construction worker and tool belt. Our second week, we also looked at bulldozers and cranes. We talked about
construction sites and all the busy people working on a site. We practiced more cutting, collaging, and gluing. We even had Ken the construction worker come visit us. He showed us some cool tools from his tool belt and his safety gear. On our last day, we even became construction workers as we used a hammer and nails to make our own wooden art piece. What a fun month it has been.
In December, the children will be busy learning their songs for our Christmas concert.
We will be doing a lot of fun Christmas activities as well.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask a teacher!
403 - Estelle, Karen, Sousan
This past month we talked about Remembrance Day and to be
thankful for the people who fought for our freedom. The children also made a
poppy collage using paper and paint.
Our next theme was about animals and hibernation. The
children enjoyed having their own bear cave in the class and learning about
what other animals hibernate, such as turtles, frogs and skunks. We also talked
about Canadian geese, who instead of hibernating for the winter, fly south to
somewhere warm.
The children enjoyed exploring different art mediums such as
sponge and roller painting.
The children also learned some animal rhymes and songs and
went on a pretend bear hunt.
To finish off we had an indoor picnic with special stuffed
animals from home and teddy grahams for our snack.
The children are hard at work preparing their Christmas
gifts and learning their songs for the upcoming Christmas concert.
We hope you have a merry and restful Christmas with friends
and family. We look forward to seeing you back in the New year.
MUSIC PROGRAM - Rachel
Practice practice practice! The
music classes are busy getting ready for our Christmas Pageants on December 12
and 13 at 6 pm. We will be telling the story of Mary and Joseph's journey to
Bethlehem and their search for a place to spend the night. 
With lyrics, melodies,
costumes, and sign language, it's a lot to remember, but the preschoolers never
cease to impress!
We look forward to seeing all the friends and family who come
out to support everyone's hard work in making these pageants a success.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TINA & MARION IN THE OFFICE!!
Have a wonderful Christmas break and we will see you all back January 8th!