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