Hansel and Gretel Preschool is moving to Hague, Sk.

                                    please stay tune for updates to the 2023-24 school year

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The coordinator and lead teacher of Hansel & Gretel Preschool, Uli Hecker will be retiring at the end of the 2022/23 school year.

We would like to thank all preschool families, Brevoort Park School and the Brevoort Park Community for the support that we have received over the past 30 years!

We wish our former and current preschool students all the best for their future. We hope they all flourish and remember Hansel & Gretel Preschool as a place where "Fun met Learning"!

The board is hoping to find alternative options to continue an English-German preschool program!

At this point it is uncertain if Brevoort Park will offer a preschool program for the 2023/24 school year. We recommend checking the BP School Website and our website for any information or updates.

Kind Regards,

Uli Hecker & Board of Directors

Interview with CBC One

 

This morning Uli Hecker gave an interview with CBC One as part of their Saskatchewan Weekend Show with Shauna Powers. Uli chatted about the importance of making and keeping preschool a fun and happy place, how to escape blizzards while also spreading happiness for children as we go through this pandemic. 

Listen to the interview with Shauna Powers here.

Registration is now open to the public so make sure to register your little one! More information can be found on the "Registration" tab!

Check out our Facebook page for more pictures!

Update

There are still openings in the current preschool classes!

However, if you are looking to register your child for the 2022/2023 school year, the registration is on January 20, 2022 at 7pm. The registration will be online only!

If you'd like a tour prior to registration, please contact Uli at 306-281-4428

November/December Newsletter

Winter has officially arrived! Pretty soon we will have enough snow to make snow angels, build snowmen, turn bushes into ‘caves’ etc. We will continue to go on (short) nature walks at the end of the day. Our ‘magic forest’ will provide shelter for us while we are fuelling up with oxygen and strengthen our immune system.

Thank you, parents for dressing your child warm enough that he/she can fully enjoy our daily part of outdoor learning!! Once the wind chill makes it difficult to play and explore outside, we will of course spend most of our teaching days inside! For now, we will play it by ear and just try to keep outside time fun, for as long as we can.

NOVEMBER

ANIMAL “WINTER HEROES”

This month most activities will evolve around different animals and how they use  their amazing powers for winter survival. We will provide our children with lots of ‘hands on’ activities to grasp weather protection strategies of our ‘animal heroes’.  We will be looking for footprints in the snow outside and pretend to be bears that are looking for caves to hibernate. Inside the classroom children will be counting and sorting nuts for squirrels, berries for bears and rocks for penguins to make their nest. Can’t wait to see our students, tracing letters and names in shaving cream and  creating their little ‘winter scenarios’ at the literacy table.

HIBERNATION DAY NOV 22/23 (wear your Pj’s)

The highlight of this winter unit will be “HIBERNATION DAY” when our classroom will turn into an animal shelter place. Tables will turn into caves and card boxes into burrows for our little ones.

In order to add some coziness, we invite all children to come in their PJ’s. I am sure there will be loud snoring going on that day! I will bring lots of blankets to keep our little bears warm and toasty.

Part of this umbrella theme will be winter crafts and science experiments with ice and snow. Paint brushes will transform snow into winter art and ice into ‘magic paint’.

FUNDRAISER:  MOM’S PANTRY (orders are due Nov 19)

Thank you for considering, to support our annual fundraiser to raise funds for our Non-Profit preschool. MOM’S PANTRY is a great opportunity to purchase high quality food and baking products for yourself, friends or family.

Thank you very much to Brianne Semenchuk (fundraiser committee) for helping our preschool to find ways to maintain a high-quality Early Childhood Learning Program!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS

Thank you, Miranda Lettrari for taking care of the monthly Scholastic Book orders. This is another unique way to support literacy skills and to foster your child’s love for reading!

DRESS FOR THE WEATHER

A friendly reminder to from now on wear: (please label all winter clothes items, big & small)

·         warm snow pants or snow suit

·         warm and water repellent mittens (long enough to cover wrist)

·         warm winter jacket, toque, (if necessary, face cover)

·         warm snow boots

Our little ones are getting so good at dressing themselves! Thank you so parents for teaching them how to. It truly does save us precious play time! 

 

DATES TO REMEMBER

NOVEMBER

Nov 18: Annual General Meeting @ 8 p.m. (zoom meeting)

Nov 19: Mom’s Pantry Fundraiser order are due

Nov 22/23: Hibernation Day (wear your PJ’s)

DECEMBER

Dec 6/7: Visit from Nikolaus (I will send out a separate note about this special event) 

We are excited that this year we will be able to have Nikolaus visit our children in person. We will send out a little video to all parents after his visit.

Dec 16/17: Last day of school

Dec 21 – Jan 3: Christmas Break no school

JANUARY

Jan 4/5: School resumes

Jan 4-19: Currently enrolled families can pre- register for the 2022/23 Preschool Year

Jan 17: PD Day (no school)

Jan 20: Registration for 2022/23 will be open to the public, starting at 7:00 p.m.

 

Winter Words in German

Schnee (snow)

Schneemann (snowman)

Schneeflocke (snowflake)

Schnee Engel (snow angel)

Jacke (jacket)

Schneehose (snowpants)

Muetze (touque)

Handschuhe (mitts)

Schal (scarf)

Stiefel (boots)                                                                        

Nikolaus (Nicholas)

 

We will continue to provide you with pictures of our fun activities at preschool and hope that being part of the What’s App group helps you to get an idea of what we are doing. (I am looking forward to the days that we will be able again to invite parents for our last circle time in class)

Uli Hecker will be gone for the last week of school in December and the first week after the break. Larissa Lorenz (306 220-4830) will be lead teaching and assisted by Ruth Skinner and Jocelyne Gareau. 

Please spread the word about the registration night for the 2022/23 school year on your social media!!!

As always, if you should ever have any questions or concerns, please contact us!

Stay safe! Stay warm! Stay happy!

Uli Hecker & Larissa Lorenz

 

October Newsletter

The first month of preschool has flown by! We had a fantastic start into the preschool year. It was so nice to meet our new families at the sneak peek visit. Thank you to all families that attended our Information Night. I hope it helped you to gain a deeper insight and better understanding of our curriculum and teaching philosophy. Due to the (still ongoing) pandemic and for the benefit of our students a lot of play and learning will be happening outside.

We are blessed to be surrounded by beautiful green spaces behind our school. For the second year in a row, the park has turned into our “extended classroom”.  We already see the calming effect of nature play and what an amazing impact it has on the emotional and social well being of children. We truly value the importance of play and the effect it has on a child’s development. Nature play not only shapes the brain, but also opens doors for imagination and fuels the soul of children.  Our goal is to allow children to learn and play in a sensory rich and natural learning environment that helps each child to flourish and grow at their own pace.  

FALL THEMES

The magic month of October is upon us. It is my favourite month of the year and even our children can’t get enough of the amazing and ever changing colours of the leaves.

As I had mentioned at the Information Night, the majority of preschool themes will evolve around the four seasons and specific holidays throughout the year.

Last week we talked about Harvest and how fruits and vegetables grow differently. We “investigated” potato plants and the inside of an apple. Naturally, the majority of children thought that potatoes grow on a tree (just like apples).  You should have seen the excitement when our students pulled potatoes out of the ground.  Some of the potatoes we sent home, turned into hash browns or mashed potatoes!! What a great wrap up of our “natural science project”!

This month will be filled with more Fall related activities. Please start looking for birds in the sky, leaving for warmer places. Pretty soon you will hear our little ones honking in the park!

Thanksgiving is coming up soon and we already started working on turkey crafts.

October is “pumpkin month” and children will get to explore the inside of a pumpkin and carry/roll pumpkins up and down the hill.

A lot of counting, sorting, categorizing by sizes and of course pumpkin stories and rhymes will be part of this fun “Fall Unit”.

Halloween

We will have a Halloween Party for each of our classes on Thursday, October 28^th/Friday October 29^th. Children are welcome to dress up for that day. I will send out more information closer to the date.

NAME RECOGNITION

Part of our daily morning routine is to find your name tag and place it in a box for “Maedchen” (girl) or “Junge” (boy). It helps students to look at the letters in their name and to identify the different “lines” and “curves” in each letter of their name. 

As I had mentioned at our Information Night, we will introduce letters joyfully and letter bunny in the magic hat helps us with that. We mainly focus on letter formation (rather than printing) by using the terms “lines” and “curves”,  e.g letter A has 2 “big lines” and 1 “little line”. Early Childhood research shows that hands of little children are developmentally not ready yet to write small print letters. The main reason is that fine motor muscles are not developed enough yet at that young age.  We provide our children with lots of activities that help them to improve their fine motor skills. Pinching, rolling, squeezing and pressing items such as play dough is a fun way to strengthen small muscle of little hands. Tweezers, tongues, cloth pins etc. are great household tools to help with this at home.

COUNTING

Our preschoolers are counting throughout the day and as we play. This could include counting students, letters in their names, leaves, clouds, dots on lady bugs, etc. We also play “I spy” games in the hallway and outside. Numbers are everywhere!!! We usually count in English and in German.

GERMAN

We are beginning to slowly introduce basic German vocabulary such as colours and numbers to our first- year preschoolers. Returning students are starting to learn new songs and rhymes in German.

As you can imagine, teaching a different language is challenging when wearing a mask. Children have to rely on the sound of the words without seeing and “reading” lips. We might not get as much German as usual under our belt, but it is heart-warming to see all of our children singing their German songs in class. I will record some of the singing and share it with you through our what’s app group.

SICK POLICY

We will continue to follow all public health guidelines and safety protocols related to COVID 19 to ensure that our little ones are as safe as possible.  Thank you for keeping your child at home when they have any cold like symptoms.

We all know that sneezes can sneak up on us sometimes. We would appreciate if you could teach your child how to cover a sneeze or cough with the elbow (elbow/sleeve pushed against the nose).   

In regard to snacks: If you send pre-packaged items (cheese strings, granola bars etc.), it would be helpful to have a corner started/pre- cut so that it is easier for your child to open and doesn’t require extra handling. Thanks for your support!

We would like to also let you know that all staff members (and substitute teachers) in our preschool are double vaccinated.

TEACHER ABSENCE

As you know Larissa Lorenz was absent for the second week of school. I would like to express my deep condolences to her and her family. After a long struggle with cancer her brother passed away in September.  

I will have to fly to Germany unexpectedly this weekend as my mother passed away this Tuesday.  I will be gone from October 4-12.  Larissa Lorenz will be lead teaching. Wendy Schneider (volunteer president of H&G Preschool) will be assisting Larissa during my absence.

Please contact Larissa Lorenz @ 306-220-4830 if you have any questions or concerns while I am gone.  

MOM’S PANTRY FUNDRAISER

As you might know Hansel & Gretel Preschool is a NON -PROFIT ORGANIZATION.  In order to maintain a high quality Early Learning Childhood program and to run our program smoothly we rely on extra funds from organizations as SGC (Saskatchewan German Council) and fundraisers supported by families and friends.

Brianne Semenchuck (Emily’s mom) who coordinates fundraisers for our preschool will send out more information on the MOM’s Pantry Fundraiser soon.

DATES to REMEMBER

SEPTEMBER

Thu 30:          National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (no class)

OCTOBER

Monday 11       Thanksgiving Day (no class)

Thursday 28   Halloween Party

Friday 29        Halloween Party

NOVEMBER

Thursday 4      Picture Day

Friday 5           Picture Day

Monday 8         PD Day (no class)

Thursday 11      Remembrance Day (no class)

Friday 12          no class

OUTDOOR PLAY

We will continue to take our classes outside, ideally, every day. This will help our little ones to strengthen their gross motor muscles but also to build their immune system. Please ensure that your child is always dressed for the weather and wearing shoes that allow them to run and climb.

Hip Hip Hooray again for an amazing and joyful start into the preschool year!

We appreciate all your support and are looking forward to another month of FUN & LEARNING!

Warm Fall wishes,

Uli Hecker

 

Updated Parent Handbook

 Dear Parents,

here is our updated Parent Handbook including Covid protocols!