April 2017

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

Important Dates to Remember:

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

May 17th/18th - Music Open House

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

Friday, June 16th - Last Day of Preschool

Friday, June 16th - Four's Graduation

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

Things to Note:

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

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

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




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

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

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

RESOURCE OFFICE

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

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

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

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

   Parents can help with the transition into Kindergarten by:

                          Talking to your child about the impending changes

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

                              Helping you child acquire and practice self-help skills

                              Encouraging your child to ask for help when needed

                              Allowing your child to practice working independently

                              Teaching your child to follow directions

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

                              Teaching your child about rules and how important they are

       Marion

DISCOVERY TWOS

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

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

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

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

Vibha, Danielle, Arsi, Susan, Stephanie

301

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

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

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

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

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

Gabi & Estelle

302

April showers bring May flowers.

That is what they say.

But if all the showers turned to flowers,

We’d have quite a colourful day! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gabi and Karen

304

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

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

 

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

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

Gabi, Stephanie and Rosie

401

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Stephanie and Susan

402

What a busy Easter month!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Any questions, please feel free to speak to us.

Arsi, Danielle & Sousan

403

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

Stephanie, Estelle, Gabi, Karen, Sousan,