December Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We are quickly approaching the end of the year, and it shows how time has flown by! It seems like yesterday that we had started our school year in September. At the same time we have seen so much growth and exciting changes in all of our children.

LOOKING BACK

The highlight was a visit from Nikolaus. He was very impressed by how many songs and rhymes the students had learned. In return, our preschoolers were very excited to get their boots filled with some special treats. Thank you to all the parents and family members that had joined us for this very special event! Thank You for all the treats and special baking that you brought to share with us!

FUNDRAISER

Thank you to the families that participated in the Tupperware Fundraiser or made a (tax deductible) monetary donation. The total raised for our Non- Profit preschool was $1,540! We are very grateful for your support. This will help us to maintain a high quality Early Childhood Learning program for our students.

DECEMBER ACTIVITIES

We have only two more weeks left before the Christmas break starts and have decided to wrap up the year with some fun activities for our little ones.

HIBERNATION CELEBRATION DAY

Thu Dec13 / Fri Dec 14

As the winter months get colder, some of us like to hibernate.

We have talked about animals protecting themselves from the cold and how some of them migrate to warmer places, while others stay and find shelter in places like dens and caves. 

We would like to wrap up this topic with our annual  ‘Hibernation Day’.

Children are invited to wear their PJ’s to school.  You may notice many caves in our

classroom where our ‘little bears’ can hibernate and play.

Some students might even like to bring their favourite stuffy or teddy bear!

CARE PARTNER WINTER FUN

Tue Dec 18/Wed Dec 19

During our last week before the Holidays, we will have a special winter fun day with our care partners. The plan (weather permitting) is to go sledding and enjoying some hot chocolate afterwards. Please find a note with more information in your child’s mailbox.

PRE - REGISTRATION  for 2019/20  SCHOOL YEAR

(January 10^th  – January 17^th)

We ask all of our families to let us know if your child will be returning next school year. Students, currently enrolled in our program have the opportunity to pre-register between Jan 10^th  - January 17^th.

As of Tuesday Night, January 22^nd   2019 registration will be open to the general public and we will take registrations at our Open House & Registration Night on a first come first served basis.

DATES to REMEMBER:

Thursday 13, Friday 14             Hibernation Celebration (PJ’s day, bring your stuffy)

Tuesday 18 / Wednesday 19     Winter Fun (sledding) with care partners. Dress warm!!

Friday, Dec 21                          Last day of school before Christmas Break

Monday/Tuesday, Jan 7/8        Classes resume

Thursday Jan 10                       Pre-registration for 2019 starts

                                                 Pre-registration for 2019 ends

Tuesday, Jan 22                        Open House for 2019/20 school year @ 6:30 – 8 p.m.    

 I am excited to ‘migrate’ to Germany and celebrating Christmas with family and friends. My last day of teaching will be Friday, December 14^th.

Frau Lorenz (phone 220-4830) will fill in for me and teach from Dec 17 –Dec 21. Ruth Skinner who used to teach in our preschool for many years will be assisting that week.

                       We wish you all the best during this busy time of the year.

       Whatever winter celebration your family celebrates, embrace it wholeheartedly!

                Merry Christmas, “Frohe Weihnachten”  & Best of Wishes for 2019!

                                              Uli Hecker & Larissa Lorenz

Open House for 2019/2020

November Newsletter

NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER 2018

Dear Parents,

I hope this letter finds you in a warm place. Winter has arrived and with the colder days now here, we will no longer take our little ones outside (unless we give you notice). Instead, we will take our students to the gym for fun filled games and physical activities.

We had a very busy October and our classes enjoyed the variety of fall activities, especially exploring the sticky inside of a pumpkin, letting pumpkins roll down the hill and learning spooky Halloween  songs and rhymes!

NOVEMBER THEMES

November will be a pot luck of different activities. In December will be  celebrating  “St. Nikolaus”. Therefore, the  main focus in November will be to review and  practice songs and rhymes that our children have learnt since September. Our students  are looking forward to meet Nikolaus on December 4^th and 5^th and are excited to to share their songs with him.

On November 27^th/28^th students will make  lanterns for the lantern parade  when we celebrate  “Martin’s Fest”.

ST. MARTIN HOLIDAY (GERMAN LANTERN FEST)

St. Martin is a traditional holiday that people in Germany celebrate on November 11^th every year. It is based on the legend of a soldier named Martin who lived in Hungry around 316 B.C. One cold winter night, Martin was riding his horse and saw an old beggar, shivering in the snow. The old man had no warm clothes on. Martin stopped his horse, lifted his sword and cut his own red cape in two halves. Martin kept one hand and shared the other one with the old man. Years later Martin became a bishop. On Martin’s Day, children parade through the streets at night, singing Martin songs and carrying their lanterns with lit candles in honour of St. Martin. Often times the parade is accompanied by a rider on horseback in a red coat. At the end of the night, people are gathering around a big bonfire and warm up with hot chocolate and other warm beverages. St. Martin is a festival of sharing and bringing light into the dark.

ABC

We have noticed that our little ones are getting really excited to learn a new letter every week!

Realizing that every letter has a sound makes it even more fun to look for words that start with the letter of the week. The word “Daddy” has even 3 “D” s in it!!

Tue-Thu students continue to trace individual letters with stickers, paint etc.

M-W-F student are also learning how to print and form letters and how to print their own name.

We always encourage our students to start each letter from the TOP! Making this a habit from early on will help your child and make it easier to adjust in Kindergarten. 

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

We will be offering optional Parent Teacher Interviews on November 29/30. This will provide an opportunity to share information about your child’s individual progress and to celebrate milestones of  their growth!  Communication is the key for positive and strong relationships. Please contact us at any time if there is anything that needs to be addressed, suggested or discussed in regards to your child.

A sign up list with time slots for Parent Teacher Interviews is hanging in the hallway.

TUPPERWARE FUNDRAISER (Deadline for orders, Nov. 16th)

Thank you to all families who decide to take part in this fundraiser to support our Non Profit Preschool. We would also like to thank families that have decided to contribute through monetary donations (tax receipts available). Your efforts will help us to maintain a high quality Early Childhood Learning Program for our children.

A friendly reminder that all order forms are due back no later than November 16^th.

DATES TO REMEMBER

November

6/7     Picture Day 9 (class picture/ individual pictures)

7/8     Scholastic Book Orders due

8        Annual General Meeting 6:30 p.m.

9        STA Convention, no school

12      Remembrance Day Holiday, no school

16      Return Order Forms Tupper Ware Fund Raiser

23      M-W-F class Field Trip to Marian Gymnastics (we are in need of I more parent chaperone)

27/28 St. Martin Celebration: Parents are invited to join the lantern parade at 11. 20 a.m.

29      Parent Teacher Interviews (4:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m.)

30      Parent Teacher Interviews (8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.)

December

3        no class

4/5     Nikolaus Celebration:  10:30 a.m.  – 11:45 a.m.     

          All  Families are invited to join us for this special event!

·         Visit from Nikolaus

·         Children’s performance

·         Christmas cookies and traditional German mulled punch

If you are interested in special events of various groups within the German Community, please  check out www.saskgermancouncil.org.

WINTER WORDS:

Winter (vin’tah)  – winter

Schnee (schnay) –  snow, Schneeflocke (schnay flaw’ken) – snowflake

Schneeball (schnay’bahl) – snowball

Jacke yak’eh - jacket , Mütze (mut’tzeh) -  touque

Schal ( schahl) – scarf, Handschuhe (hahnd shoo’heh) – mittens, Stiefel (schtee’fehl – boots

Kalt (kalt) – cold Eis (ice) – ice, Schneemann (schnay’mahn) – snowman

Kind Regards,

Uli Hecker & Larissa Lorenz

October Newsletter

HANSEL & GRETEL PRESCHOOL

OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents,                                                                                       

What a great first month of preschool we have had! We were lucky enough to play outside most days, and explore the changing of the season. We gathered leaves, listened to the wind, the sound of crows and crunching leaves. Our children experienced that using our senses allows us to see, feel, hear and even smell fall. Many of you have heard us singing our song “Herbst ist hier” at the park.

October Theme: Fall and Thanks giving

Many of our October activities will revolve around “FALL” and “Harvest”. Our students will learn about the changes in season and harvest. Thanksgiving Holiday is coming soon and we will take the opportunity to think about what we are thankful for.

We will cut open pumpkins and apples to explore the inside. Often times of our fall activities will include counting, sorting and classifying of different nature items such as pine cones, sticks, leaves etc.

The kids really enjoy our “nature walks”. It so fun to see them using their imagination when they pretend to be squirrels that are hiding acorns or migrating geese that fly to warmer places.  Hopefully we will have a few more days to play outside. Please make sure your child is dressed warm enough!

Letter Bunny and Introduction to the Alphabet

Throughout the year we will introduce our students to the letters of the alphabet. This will happen very playfully (especially with the younger ones). The most exciting activity for each child is to identify the letters of his own name. Many of the children already recognize some letters in their name and can find their mailboxes by looking for their name.  

“LINES” and “CURVES”

We will introduce all of our children to the terms “lines” and “curves” as all letters of the alphabet are made of “curves” and “lines”! One way to get excited about letters is having your child look at his name and spy for letters that have “long lines”, “short lines”, “big curves”, “little curves”.

“Hase” our bunny in the magic hat, will pull wooden lines and curves out of his magic hat every week.  He shows the children how to form the letters and also introduce the sound of it. Don’t be surprised if your child is having snack at home and starts to stutter  “b-b-b anana”! Banana starts with a “B”. Yippie!

 

Bathroom

Thank you for taking your child to the bathroom before class starts. We have had way more playtime and less bathroom traffic lately. Please remind your child to let us know if he/she needs to go the bathroom.

Care Partners

We are very fortunate to be included in the Brevoort Park School care partner program. Each of our pre-schoolers will have a care partner from grade 3/4. Our care partner friends will come and visit us once a month and  help making special crafts, read a book or  have fun in the gym with our preschool children.

Show and Tell: 11:35 a.m.  – 11:40 a.m.

We will start with Show & Tell this month. Each day one designated student will get to bring one item from home and share it with the class at the end of the day. It could be a special toy, a picture, a souvenir or simply something from nature. You can support your child by helping him/her to say a few sentences about their “special item”.

The parent/care giver of the show &tell student of the day is invited to stay and listen to their child’s show & tell.

Last Circle: 11:40 A.M. – 11.45 A.M.

ALL parents/care givers are invited to come into the classroom and join us!

We will provide you with information about your child’s day and upcoming events and activities for the week.

Thank You’s

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

Thank you for teaching your child how to cover their sneeze and coughs with their sleeve (not with their hands).

Thank you for always checking your mailbox after class.

Thank you for taking off your (and your child’s) wet footwear when you enter  the school.

Allergy Alert

We have one student in our preschool that is severely allergic to nuts (and eggs)!

Like all schools Brevoort Park School is a nut free school. We ask you to NOT bring any food items that contain nuts or traces of nuts! Some families like to share a little birthday treat with the class. This is optional but if you decide to do so, please ensure that treats are nut free and ideally non sticky as we don’t have a proper sink in the classroom. We always sing “Happy Birthday” in German at the end of class to celebrate our birthday child.

October “German Heritage Month”

In December 2016, the Canadian Parliament officially declared October “German Heritage Month” in order to “recognize the contributions that German-Canadians have made to Canadian Society”.

Please go on the website of SGC (Saskatchewan German Council): www.saskgermancouncil.org

On this website you will find many important dates and special events that are happening within the German-Canadian Community throughout the year. You can also sign up to receive the SGC monthly newsletter.

One special event that you might want to join in October is the German “Ernte Dank Fest” (Harvest Festival) at the Farmers Market on Saturday, October 6^th (10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.). There will be a traditional Harvest display (Harvest Crown), German Folk Dance and Singing. You can also purchase German cake and enjoy a cup of coffee!

Dates to Remember (please mark your calendar!)

Our school follows the Public School calendar. All statutory holidays, professional Development Days (PD days) and breaks are observed.

October

Mon/Tue Oct 2/3           Scholastic book orders are due

Fri, Oct 5                         PD Day -  no school

Saturday, Oct 6               “Ernte Dank Fest” (German Harvest Festival) at Farmers Market from 10 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.             

Mon Oct 8                       Thanksgiving Day Holiday (no class)

Tue, Oct 30                      T-Th class Field Trip to Dutch Growers Hay Maze (wear your costume)

Wed, Oct 31                    M-W-F class Halloween Party (wear your costume)

November

Fri, Nov 6/7                     Picture Day (school photos)              

Fri Nov 10                        STA Convention – no school

Monday, Nov 12              Stat. Holiday (Remembrance Day) – no school

Tue/Wed Nov 13/14        Traditional St.Martin Celebration. Please join us for a short play and   lantern parade  at    11.30 a.m.  

Thu Nov 29                      Optional Parent Teacher Interviews (4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)

Fri   Nov 30                      Optional Parent Teacher Interviews (8:30 a.m.  – 1:00 p.m.)            (M-W-F Class will be running that day)

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

Sincerely,

Uli Hecker, Larissa Lorenz