October Newsletter

HANSEL & GRETEL PRESCHOOL

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER 2016

Dear Parents,                    

What a great first month of preschool we have had!

Last month we read books about “How To Fill a Bucket” with our students and we talked about how important it is to be kind and respectful to each other. We are so excited to see our students, already filling our buckets every day!

Cleaning up toys, taking turns, sharing with your friends, using our gentle and helping hands and kind words help to fill our preschool buckets. We also teach our little friends that sometimes people forget to fill buckets or don’t realize when they “scoop” out of a bucket. It is never to late to say “Sorry”, another concept that we encourage and model in our class.  

Outdoor Learning: Herbst ist hier! Fall is here!

We feel blessed that we are still able take our students to the park almost every day. Last month, a lot of “outdoor learning” took place through exploration. The children were sorting leaves by colours and shapes, counting sticks, looking for ladybugs in the grass, making piles of leaves and touching the bark of different trees.

Did your child tell you about the “nature alphabet”? We showed our students how to form letters with sticks and asked them to look for letters and shapes in nature. One little boy came and showed us a twig that had the shape of a “Y”. We watched another student bending a little twig, holding it up and realizing: “It has the shape of a circle!”                                                                                         

Learning with all our senses happened, when we had snack outside and the children sat quietly under a tree, listening to the wind while watching the leaves falling, one by one.

We will now keep an eye out for geese flying in a V shape, and leaving for warmer places.

I am sure some of you might have heard your child singing our German colour song or  “Herbst ist hier” song that we have learned this month.    

OCTOBER THEME: HARVEST and THANKSGIVING, Many of our October activities will revolve around “Harvest”. Our students will learn about different seasonal vegetables.

·         The children will cut open pumpkins and look at the inside; counting seeds (and getting their hands sticky). J

·          Many of our centre activities will include counting, sorting and classifying different fall items.

·         Learning fruit and veggie songs

·         Naming fruit and veggies in German

·         Thanksgiving Holiday is coming up this weekend and we will take the opportunity to think about what we are all thankful for.

FIELD TRIP to DUTCH GROWERS HAY MAZE

All of our classes will be going on a chartered field trip to Dutch Growers Greenhouse Hay Maze. We need 6 parent helpers/chaperones for each class!! There is a sign up list hanging in the hallway.

T-TH a.m. class: Thursday: October 27

The bus will be leaving at 9:10 a.m. and the class will be back at 11 a.m.

M-W- F a.m. class: Friday October 28

The bus will be leaving at 9:10 a.m. and the class will  be back at the school at 11 a.m.

M-W-F p.m. class: Friday October 28

The bus will be leaving at 12: 35 p.m. and we will be back at 2:30 p.m.

·       Children will be dismissed at their regular end of class time. Please inform your teacher if you are picking up or taking home your child earlier that day.

·       We invite children to wear their favourite costume on our field trip day. We can’t wait to watch our little goblins running through the maze.

·       Snacks will be provided on our field trip day.

LETTER RECOGNITION

We will introduce our students to the letters of the alphabet throughout the year. The most exciting activity for each child is to identify the letters of their own name. Many of the children already recognize letters in their name, and often choose to sit on the first letter of their name on our circle/centre carpet.

The children will explore letters through many hands on activities that will support letter formation, and letter sounds.  Our letter bunny “Hase” will pull wooden lines (big line, little line) and curves out of his magic hat which our students will use to form letters!  We also have a variety of songs that make learning about letters really fun.

THANK YOU

·           Thank you for taking your child to the bathroom before class starts. We have had way more playtime and less bathroom traffic lately.

·           Thank you for teaching your child how to cover sneezes and coughs with their    sleeve  (not with their hands). Please (if necessary) remind your child that “picking noses” can also spread germs and colds! J

·           Thank you for teaching your child how to get dressed. We see many of your children trying really hard to do it “all by myself”. 

·           Thank you for always checking your mailbox after class.

·           Thank you for taking off your (and your child’s) wet footwear when you walk inside the building.

·           Thank you to Svetlana Gutfreund for making new play dough for our classes.

·           Thank you to Kristy Werner for taking care of all the Scholastic Book orders!

FIRE DRILLS/ LOCKDOWN

As all Public Schools in Saskatoon, our staff and students will practice different types of drills (fire drill, lockdowns) throughout the year. If you have any specific questions about emergency procedures, please contact us. Our preschool follows the Brevoort Park School emergency guidelines. One of our classes already joined a fire drill and the kids did an amazing job, following our instructions on how to leave the building!

CIRCLE TIME: COME AND JOIN US!

Starting in October, parents and/or the designated pick up person of the day are invited to join us for the last 10 minutes of class at the end of each preschool day.

That is when our children will be either sitting in the boot room (after outside play) or will be in the classroom and sitting on the carpet for our last circle time. Our teachers will let you know what activities we did, what books we read and sometimes share “funny moments” or “quotes” of our day. J

Show and Tell will start in November and we will let your child know when it is their day to share and talk about their “special thing” with the class.

Volunteers needed

Class Contact List

We would like to compile a class telephone/contact list for parents. It is a great way to get in touch with other families, have play dates etc.

·         Would someone be willing to create a class directory and update the list when needed?

Room Parent

We are looking for one or two parents that are willing to

support us with:

·         organizing of classroom parties/special events

(invitations, sign up lists etc.)

DATES TO REMEMBER (please mark your calendar!!!!)

October

Wed/ Thurs Oct. 5/6                       Scholastic Book Orders are due

Friday Oct 7                                      PD Day (no class)

Monday Oct 10                                  Thanksgiving Day Holiday (no class)

Thursday Oct 27                               Field Trip to Dutch Growers Hay Maze

Friday Oct 28                                    Field Trip to Dutch Growers Hay Maze

Monday Oct 31                                Pumpkin carving and Halloween activities

                                                        (feel  free to wear your costume again)

The Saskatoon Public Library is offering “German-English Family Story Time” once a month. The next story time will be on Saturday, October 8, 2:00 pm - 2:30pm. at Mayfair Library.

 Picture Day

Picture Day (class photos) for our preschool will be NOVEMBER 2/3.

As always, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Uli Hecker, Larissa Lorenz   (MWF class)   

Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi (T-Th class)