April Newsletter

               APRIL NEWSLETTER 2017

Dear Parents,

We “warmly” welcome spring and hope that from now on the weather will be on our side.

The children enjoyed our unit about senses last month. Our highlight was when we made popcorn in the staff room and listened to the kernels, popping open in the microwave.  As part of our taste unit we had each child try a pieces of lemon. It was so funny to watch the sour expression on their faces. At least, now they also know that most lemonade drinks taste sweet, only because they contain lots of sugar!

APRIL SPRING THEMES

BABY ANIMALS

Spring is the season, when many baby animals are born. Many of our books and table toy activities this month will evolve around the topic “signs of spring” and “baby animals”. We will teach our students some new German words, learn how to sing “Frühling (spring) ist hier” and they will get to listen to the German version of the song  “Mary has a little lamb” (“Mary hat ein kleines Lamm”).  One of our Brevoort Park teachers will have an incubator in her classroom and we will be invited to observe little chicks hatching from eggs.

EXPLORING SPRING

Soon, we will start to take our children outside again to explore the change of seasons.  “Sensory walks” will help our little ones to sharpen their 5 senses. We will be looking out for grass turning green, buds on the trees, listen to the honk of returning geese in the sky, touching melting snow and sticking our noses in the air to sniff the first signs of spring!!

Part of our daily April routine will be sorting, counting and categorizing spring items, such as flowers, eggs, baby animals etc.

LETTER ACTIVITIES

Our Tue-Thur 3 year old class will continue to learn, trace and decorate a new letter of the Alphabet each week.

In our M-W-F 4 year old class (Kindergarten readiness class), the majority of students already recognizes most letters of the alphabet and is now able to print their name without help. We therefore don’t focus too much on individual letters but rather on letter formation and printing activities. Using the terms “long line”, “short line” and “curve” helps to remember and print letters. Here is an example: ”R” is made of a “long line”, ”curve”, and “short line”. We are so proud to see many of our children getting really curious and excited about printing letters and numbers. We hope this excitement will last and help your child with a smooth transition to Kindergarten.

NUMBER ACTIVITIES

Memorizing your phone number is a real and important life skill and might be another way to play around with number recognition. Try to have your child dial the numbers when you make your next phone call. Don’t be surprised, we might even have them call you when we are in class! J

If you would like to support your child’s learning at home, you can play letter games (e.g. putting together letters of their name), go on “I spy” tours around the house or look for letters (and letter sounds) in their favourite books. Try to keep it fun and engaging! We will have a little “sign in” poster in the hallway. This is a fun way to make them recognize and/or print their name on a daily basis before they come into class.

OUTSIDE PLAY

Once the grass has dried a little bit more, we will start taking our children out to the park again. Please make sure that from now on, your child is dressed in layers, and wears weather appropriate shoes for outside play. As much fun as it is, to jump in the puddles, we want those little feed to stay dry. On days that we are going outside, “show and tell” will also be outside.  Final dismissal will be in the boot room on those days.

SCHOOL DOOR ACCESS PROCEDURE

Please remember that all side and back doors will be locked from the outside after 9:15 a.m. If you are entering the building after that time, please use the front door! FYI: For fire safety reasons, students, staff and parents will still be able to leave the building through all doors of the school.

We had to say “ Auf Wiedersehen” to Sherray, Olivia and Joe from our MWF class this month. In return, we are welcoming our new student, Jacob in the MWF pm class!

       DATES and REMINDERS

April

Wed, 5/6         Scholastic Book Orders due

Sat    8            2 - 2:30  p.m. English - German Family Story Time: Saskatoon Public Library, Mayfair                         Branch  (Frau Hecker will be the storyteller that day)

Sun  9             Family Fun Day at German Cultural Center with Easter Activities from 1-3 p.m.

Fri 14              Good Friday (no school)

April 17-21      Spring Break (no school)

April 24           School resumes

May

Wed 17            MWF am/pm class:  Combined Field Trip to Mother Earth Greenhouse

                        (9:15 am – 1:00 p.m.)

Please mark your calendar for this field trip in May. It will be a combined field trip with both classes. Class times will be different that day. Please try to make arrangements for your chid!!   Both classes will be leaving at 9:15 am and returning at 1 p.m. that day. I will send out a separate note later this month.

We will need many parent helpers!!!   A volunteer list will be hanging in the hallway.

Happy Spring!

Uli Hecker, Larissa Lorenz

Suanne Pachal, Samina Roohi