NOVEMBER 2023
We made it through ANOTHER MONTH! October was quick but boy, so much happened!!
Leaves
by Elsie N. Brady
How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,
Content to sleep, their work well done,
Colours gleaming in the sun.
At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow.
IMPORTANT DATES & SCHOOL CLOSURES
NOV 1/2 - PICTURE DAY (Class Picture & Portrait to be emailed)
NOV 13 - REMEMBRANCE DAY - Preschool Closed
NOV 16 - PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK 5:30pm-7:30pm
NOV 18 - ST. CATHERINE’S 40s THEMED DINNER/DANCE
NOV 20 - LAST DAY TO ORDER PURDYS
NOV 25 - SCHOLASTIC ORDERS DUE
PIZZA NIGHT & CAKE WALK: Wednesday, November 16th: 5:30pm-7:30pm
Order forms have been sent home so please, fill them out and return them before Nov. 15th! You do not want to miss Pizza Night! This is our biggest and most fun Fundraiser! Come out and meet our Board Members, our Teachers and the rest of our Preschool Community!
There will be pizza, 10 kinds of salads (made by the teachers) and a whole bunch of desserts (made by the board members) and of course…CAKE!
Please think about DONATING a cake for our cake walk or for our Auction! You see, if your child is upset because they did not win during the cake walk game, you can try to outbid others for one!! Any unused cake walk tickets can be used in the final raffle for the last cake.
HEY! Get your dancing shoes shined up and ready to go for Nov. 25th!
Tickets on sale now in the Church or Preschool Office: $50-$75
Catered Dinner, 2 Big Bands
The Preschool's Purdys Chocolate Fundraiser is NOW OPEN!
You can order online at https://fundraising.purdys.com/1191-107827
Our Customer number is 11053
1. Sign in or create a new supporter account either by clicking the link sent to you by our coordinator or by visiting fundraising.purdys.com
2. If you’re creating a new account, please enter the customer number above on the registration page.
3. If you’re signing into an existing account, enter the number above into the search bar that will come up after you’ve signed in.
4. Click on JOIN CAMPAIGN.
We will have order forms available in the Church lobby if you would like to pay by cheque.
Please fill out your form and make a cheque payable to ST. CATHERINE'S CHILDCARE SOCIETY and drop it off to the preschool office before November 29th.
CLASS PHOTOS were held on Nov 1st & 2nd. They turned out very nice despite the rain! We have a few more pictures to take but you should be receiving your child’s Class Photos soon (1 Portrait & 1 Group). If your child was absent on these days, please let us know and we will make arrangements to get their portrait done.
in lieu of paying for a package of photos, we suggest that, if you are able, please think about a donation to the school. All donations will go directly to the upkeep, maintenance of our play yard with some monies going to our gym/yard equipment.
Scholastic Canada has so many great books for your child to learn to LOVE READING! I remember as a young child, getting to order books and just loving it when they finally arrived! Help to foster a love of reading in your child by starting a reading routine! If you order books and use our special order number 11053 then our classrooms will collect BONUS BUCKS to get free books for our classrooms! Books make great GIFTS too!!
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE CLASSROOMS IN OCTOBER??
RAINBOW ROOM - Danielle, Rebecca, Vibha
October was a very busy and exciting month in the Rainbow Room! With three fantastic themes to explore, Thanksgiving, beauty of Fall and spooktacular Halloween fun.
For Thanksgiving, our little ones had a great time making turkey crafts using paper plates and colourful feathers. During circle time, we shared an exciting story about five little turkeys with a felt rhyme and we even tried a turkey yoga pose!
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down. Red, Yellow, Orange and Brown.
Halloween in our preschool is all about imagination and creativity, and our little twos created some spooktacular masterpieces.
For art we created spooky purple spiders using shaving cream and glue to create a unique texture. Marble painted white pumpkins were next, using a mix of black, orange and gold paint. The children then decorated bats with purple and black glitter and we created bat silhouettes, using white and gold paint. Also, the children enjoyed gluing and creating a ghost collage. We introduced our little explorers to magical goop, made from a mixture of cornstarch and water.
At circle time we listened to the felt rhymes Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on the Gate, Five Little Ghosts, Five Little Bats, Spooky Tree, Spooky Tree, What Do You See? We also read “The Two Spooky Wheels on the Bus” and “Little Boo”, a story about a little pumpkin seed who can't wait to grow up and be scary.
Our Halloween party was a blast. Our twos looked so adorable in their cozy pyjamas! Thank you for the delicious treats for our party.
Our themes for November will be Rainbow and Carnival. As always, please do not hesitate to talk to us with any concerns or questions.
Vibha, Danielle & Rebecca.
TREEHOUSE ROOM - MWF: Gabi, Karen, Mary, Catriona TUE/THU: Carol, Gabi, Karen, Mary
Hello Treehouse families!
We have had another month with your children to get to know each other well. We have a nicely balanced number of children who like to follow directions, who like to tell others to follow instructions, and a few who tell the first two groups to mind their own business. Within these groups we have some friends who feel very comfortable to be around others, especially those who’ve been with us for the second year, and some friends who have just decided that preschool is not that bad at all. No one is crying anymore; neither the little ones, nor the teachers, although we have seen some of the parents walking to their cars too quickly or way too slowly. (Tears of joy, or tears of sadness?)
October was a busy, colourful month at preschool. We started it off by celebrating Thanksgiving Day with turkeys galore in our arts, rhymes, and stories about the big bird, and feasts with family and friends. We were happy to note that all the children had a clear idea of what they were thankful for, and just like every year, family members, friends, pets, and toys made the top list. Some (our favourites) even included us, their teachers.
The children practiced Fire Safety with Marion, and we extended the interest into Street Safety.
We talked about the difference between fictional and non-fictional books and characters leading into some fun Halloween-themed adventures. We particularly enjoyed playing in the home corner, which was transformed into a spooky Potion Lab with a cauldron and “ingredients” of spiders, rats, and such.
Finding characters on the wall with a magnifying glass and matching them with characters on a small table was another fun activity that our little people particularly liked. Thank you to the families who provided food and juice for the parties! Don’t worry if you didn’t find a place on the sign-up sheet, you will have an opportunity to bring goodies to other parties.
Colder and wetter weather means more clothing, so please send your children in layers and in appropriate footwear. Wearing boots is an excellent way to enjoy playing outside, but not so comfortable to wear in the gym or the classroom for an extended period so please send indoor shoes on rainy days. A change of clothing items in their backpacks is also recommended as our students love exploring at the water table, and spills are commonly occurring during mealtimes and of course, accidents are common in this age group.
Please feel free to talk to any of us if you have any questions or concerns.
SUNFLOWER ROOM MWF: CAROL, DANIELLE
Hello Parents and Friends,
We have had another wonderful month of learning through play in the Sunflower Room.
The weather has been very kind this October and we’ve been able to play outside much more than usual, which is always nice. This past week, though, it has become much colder, so please remember to send your children to preschool in warm jackets, toques (hats) and mittens. Play and exercise in the fresh air is so important and a lot of fun too.
Each day in the Sunflower Room includes free play, teacher lead art, a second art project done more independently, plus the painting easel, sand table, play dough, water table and chalk or crayons. We also have 3 Circle times, for lessons, books, songs, games, felt stories and other fun activities.
In our first circle, we sing a Welcome Song, call and response of each child’s name, and look at and discuss the Calendar and Weather. We then introduce that day’s theme.
The second circle is before lunch and concentrates on Cognitive and Gross Motor Learning. It always involves some sort of learning game and action games sometimes in the classroom, but more often in the gym or music room.
The final circle is after lunch and just before we say good-bye, so we reflect on what we’ve done and learned that day, usually have a story and songs and always sing our “Good-bye Song”. Ask your child to sing it for you, they definitely know it! It starts with “two hands up…..”
On Wednesdays, we go to the Music Room to further explore song, dance, creative movement, instruments and stories.
Our first theme this month was Thanksgiving. We learned about Turkeys, Harvest time, Cornucopias, and celebrating with family and friends through shared meals together. We discussed why we sing a prayer of thanks before we eat snack and lunch at preschool.
In our house corner we had a Farmer’s Market and on the science table we had fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers from our planters which we examined with tongs and magnifying glasses.
Our art projects included handprint turkey and leaf wreaths, and we used our plastic play vegetables to stamp into cornucopias.
We then moved on to Autumn and Fall Birds. We talked about bird feeders, Autumn leaves changing colour and falling, migrating geese, owls and other birds and we played an action game where children acted as different types of birds. Our favourite book from this theme was “The Leaf Thief”.
In art we made bird feeders from “Wow Butter” and bird seed; one child reported that theirs was raided by squirrels instead of birds…. still a good lesson! We also did leaf paintings and cute owls with real feathers.
Our final theme for the month was (of course) Hallowe’en. We decorated the classroom with all manner of spooky things: spiders and webs, a few witches, some ghosts, lots of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, bats and skeletons. We’ve been talking about the costumes we’ll wear for trick-or-treating, how to turn pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and how to stay safe. Marion gave the class a special lesson from “Fireman Dan” in which they learned how to “Stop, Drop, and Roll” and to “Crawl low under smoke”. We practice these phrases and skills and have reminder sessions throughout the school year.
Our favourite books were “16 Runaway Pumpkins”, “Skeleton Hiccups”, the CD story “Boo Who?” and the felt story The Very Busy Spider. We also played matching games, memory games, and sang and danced to the song Dem Bones.
For art we explored textures and different processes, including marble art pumpkins, monsters with funny shapes and many eyes, silhouettes of bats and cats dabbed with sponges to reveal the shapes. We did pumpkin collages, used balloons to paint ghosts, made crepe paper spiders and made some very wonky skeletons.
October at preschool always ends with a great party, made especially fun by wearing our Hallowe’en costumes. We played Freeze Dance, the Hokey Pokey and went on a Costume Parade. We shared special food with our friends and decorated Hallowe’en cookies with a parent guest. Thank you to all the parents who helped with food at this party, it is much appreciated.
Some of the social skills we are working on (especially at this stage and early in the school year) are:
sharing toys, taking turns and “gentle hands” (keeping our hands to ourselves). We do this in many ways during the preschool day. We try to have at least two of everything available at a time, such as two wheelbarrows, two motorbikes, in the gym. When a lot of children want to play with a few toys, we share them, giving reminders and perhaps a “5 -minute warning”, so that after 5 minutes, a child knows it’s time for another child to have a turn. We use terms like “gentle hands” and “hands on your own body” to keep children aware of personal space and safe play.
We’ve had a very fun and interesting month and of course have big plans for November! Thank you for taking an interest in our program, and as always, if you have any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to talk to one of the teachers.
Carol and Danielle
Sunflower Room
RESOURCE ROOM - Marion
As Christmas approaches, I thought it might be helpful to give you some gift ideas for your children.
The wonderful two year olds are all working so hard on primary skills, e.g. communicating with peers and sharing toys. Language is starting to emerge and they are beginning to realize that their needs can be met by using their words. Imitative and imaginary play is an important part of their day. They love to be creative and enjoy rhythmic movement and the more repetitive the better.
The three to five year old children are developing specific skills. They are working on their social interactions with peers, learning basic academic skills, e.g. recognizing their names, sorting and counting objects. They are learning to adjust to more structured activities with defined roles during play. Some recommended toys for this age would be simple board games, card games, dominoes, puppets and dress-up clothes.
Toys enhance play value when they:
* can be used in various ways
* allow children to determine the play
* are not linked to video games, TV or movies
* can be used with other toys for new and more complex play
* will stand the test of time and continue to be part of play as the children develop new interests and skills
* promote respectful, non-stereotyped, non violent interactions among children
* help children develop skills important for further learning and a sense of achievement
Happy Shopping, Marion