Tuesday 5 November 2019

St. Nikolaus Celebration on December 6


St. Nikolaus Celebration on December 5


November 2019


                        NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER 2019
Dear Parents,
I hope this letter finds you in a warm place. Winter has arrived and with the colder days now here, we will “hibernate” in our classroom and only go outside on special “winter activity days”. However, we will from now on take our students to the gym for fun filled games and physical activities each day.
We had a very busy October! Each class enjoyed a variety of fall activities, exploring the inside of a pumpkin, letting pumpkins roll down the hill and learning spooky Halloween rhymes!
Our first two field trips of the year were fantastic! We had a fun filled morning at the Children’s Discovery Museum and at Dutch Growers hay maze. Thank you to all parents that joined us for these special events!

NOVEMBER THEMES
November will be a potluck of preparation for cultural events and looking into the winter season.

HOW DO YOU ANIMALS SURVIVE IN WINTER?
We have already started with this umbrella unit. This month our children will learn about how frogs, bears, squirrels, hedge hogs and other animals protect themselves from the cold and how they survive winter.

NURSERY RHYMES
We  will also focus on literacy this month by teaching students different nursery rhymes and nursery songs. Can you think of a better time in the year to sit inside cozy and  warm and listening  to fairy tales and  rhymes with your little one?

CULTURAL EVENTS

ST. MARTIN HOLIDAY (GERMAN LANTERN FEST)

St. Martin is a traditional holiday that people in Germany celebrate on November 11th 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. On Martin’s Day, in Germany 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.

ALPHABET ACTIVITIES

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!!
Our younger students always enjoy tracing individual letters with stickers.
In addition to letter recognition, we are teaching older students how to print letters and how to write their name.
We always encourage children to start each letter from the TOP! It is a great pre-printing skill to have prior to starting Kindergarten. 

OPTIONAL PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Thursday, Nov 28th    3:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Nov 29th         8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. 

We will be offering optional Parent Teacher Conferences for our families. The meetings are a great opportunity to share and exchange information that will help you and us to support your child’s growth. We believe that communication is the key to positive relationships and  we would be happy to discuss our observations and any questions that you have regarding your child. 
I will hang a sign-up list with slots for meeting times in the hallway.


NIKOLAUS VISIT & CELEBRATION WITH OUR FAMILIES
(Dec 5/6 10:30 a.m.  -11.45 a.m.)

On December 5/6,  Nikolaus will visit our class! Our children will select a few songs and rhymes  a that they have learned over the last few months, and perform for Nikolaus. Based on the German cultural tradition, Nikolaus will fill our children’s boots with treats after their performance.
We will send out an invitation and hope that all of you will be able to join us for this special celebration!

DATES TO REMEMBER

November
6/7    Picture Day 9 (class picture/ individual pictures)
          Parents are invited to join us for a short St. Martin lantern parade at 11.30 a.m.
7/8    Scholastic Book Orders due (place your order online at scholastic.ca/canadaclubs)
 8       PD day, no school
11       Remembrance Day Holiday, no school
28      Parent Teacher Conference  3:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
29      Parent Teacher Conference  8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (class will be running that day)

December
5/6     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