May Newsletter

MAY NEWSLETTER 2017

SPRING IS HERE!

Finally we are all able to see, smell, touch and listen to the sounds of spring again! Looking at the current temperatures we might move straight to summer. Our school year is coming to an end soon and it is hard to believe how much all of our children have grown! Many of our little ones are going into Kindergarten and start a new adventure in their life this fall. We are happy to keep at least some of our precious children for another year of “FUN and LEARNING”.

Sun Protection

From now on we will spend as much time outside as possible and even take our snack outside to have a picnic under a tree (the kids just love it).

We ask parents to please apply sunscreen on your child before they come to class. (We have extra sun screen at school in case that you forgot). If your child has a sun hat/sunglasses etc., please remind them to take it out of their back pack before we play outside.

Our children like to run down the hill and climb the low branches of trees.  Therefore, we ask your child to not wear flip flops and only wear outside shoes that allow him/her to run safely.

MAY THEME

LIFE CYCLE OF A CHICKEN

We had been blessed enough to be invited to another annual spring event. The grade 1 teacher at Brevoort Park School had an incubator with 15 chicken eggs in her classroom. We stopped by every day last week to watch the miracle of a chick, hatching from an egg. The highlight was when each of our students had the opportunity to pet one of the newly born chicks!

LIFE CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY

Our caterpillar larvae arrived last week and we now get to watch another wonder of nature! We will study and observe the life cycle of a butterfly, happening right in front of our eyes. Feel free to come into our classroom to take a look at our butterfly cage to see the different stages.  The life cycle process usually takes about 3 weeks and at the end of the month we will have a picnic in the park and say “Auf Wiedersehen” to our butterflies.

Brevoort Park School safety drills

Our preschool participates in all school safety drills, along with all of Brevoort Park School students. There will be a fire and evacuation drill this Monday morning at 10.15 a.m.  Once all classes of the school have gathered outside after the fire drill, the school will walk to St. Mathew School (across the park) and go to the gym there. The drill is expected to take 30 minutes. There will be appropriate signage on the doors indicating where we are in case you are picking up your child earlier that day.

      You can find more information on safety drills at  www.saskatoonpublicschools.ca.

The principal of Brevoort Park School, Gwyn Fournier will send out a note after each safety drill and inform teachers and parents on how the drill went. I will forward this information to you. So far, all drills that the school and our preschoolers have had were mastered very well and we are very proud of our little ones.

Treasure and Bake Sale, Friday May 12 (Brevoort Park GCC Garage Sale Saturday, May 13)

I had sent home a previous note about these special Brevoort Park fundraiser events.

Part of the proceeds from these events will go the Entwistle family. Brooklyn is a student at Brevoort Park School and one of our former care partners. Last summer, Brooklyn was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) at the age of 10. Brooklyn has had 3 surgeries including a recent rotationplasty, a partial amputation of her leg.

Proceeds of the treasure and bake sale will go to Brooklyn and her family to help pay bills, buy food and cover medical and other expenses while Brooklyn is healing and continuing her journey of therapies and rehabilitation.

The school is still taking items for the treasure sale (gently used items like toys, ornaments, giftware, board games, toys, sports equipment, jewelry, craft kids, picture frames ect). Please bring any sales donations to the front office this week.

We will be getting together with our grade 4 care partners this Friday.  They have offered to take our students to the treasure sale in the large gym, in case our children want to buy some toys etc. Our teachers will join them and guide them through the sales tables. If you would like to bring some money   (prices will start at 25 cents) for the treasure sale on Friday, please put the money in a labeled zip loc bag or envelope for your child. The treasure and bake sale will take place throughout the day. Feel free to donate or buy your own treasures and baking when you come for pick up or drop off on Friday.

     DATES and REMINDERS

MAY

Monday 8/Tuesday 9   Scholastic Book orders are due

Friday 12                     Care Partner activities

                                    Brevoort Park School Treasure and Bake Sale

Saturday 13                 Brevoort Park GCC garage sale

Tuesday, May 16         Brevoort Park Kindergarten Sneak Peek Afternoon (1-3pm)

Wednesday, May 17 MWF classes:  COMBINED Fieldtrip to Mother Earth Greenhouse           

·       The bus will be leaving at 9:15 am and both classes will be back at 1:00 p.m.

·       Please bring your own lunch and a water bottle for the picnic at 12:00-12:30 p.m.

·        NO afternoon class on this day!!! (Please let us know if you/we need to make special arrangements for your child after dismissal).

      Thank you to all the parents that have offered to volunteer that day!!!

Friday, May 19               No School 

Monday, May 22            Victoria Day, No School

JUNE

Friday 9                     No School

Thursday 15             Last Day for Tue-Thu class: Year End Celebration with families

Friday 16                  Last Day for MWF classes: Year End Celebration with families

Please check your May event calendar for the specific time!  We will have a short children’s performance, year slide show and a snack buffet outside at the end of the day.    

(Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook!)

Enjoy the beautiful spring!

Kind Regards,

Uli Hecker, Larissa Lorenz, Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi

       

                      

Library Storytime

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

Sneak Peak

                           

Preschool Sneak Peek Afternoon:

Tuesday, May 16^th 2017

1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Dear Parents,

We are looking forward to welcoming your child to our preschool in the fall.

In order to ease the transition for your child into this new chapter in their lives, we are inviting our newly joining children and their parent(s) to a “sneak peek” afternoon. The children will have the opportunity to explore our classroom environment, meet our staff and become comfortable with their new ‘stage’ that they will be entering this fall.

We will also provide you with a handbook and  information on the starting date of the 2017-18 school year.

We are looking forward to meeting you at our sneak peek afternoon!

Please RSVP by May 1^st : coordinator.hanselandgretel@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Uli Hecker

(Coordinator Hansel & Gretel Preschool)

February Newsletter

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER 2017

Dear Parents,

I hope you all enjoyed the unusual “heat wave” that we experienced last month. The weather has taken us on real roller coaster ride this winter.  

The children had a real blast with our dinosaur unit! They learned all about how dinosaurs lived. We did a lot of hands on activities with our children, that helped them to grasp the complex concept of extinction, excavating and bones turning into fossils. Even the gym turned into a “Jurassic Park”!  We turned off the lights, pretending that a meteorite hit the earth and all the dust and lava was blocking the sunlight. Some of our little paleontologists made their own play dough fossils, while others were baking dinosaur  cookies and ate their  “sweet” fossils. Even during snack time carrots turned into pointy T-Rex teeth, peppers into “sharp claws” etc. Thank you so much parents for all the yummy and healthy choices that you pack every day!!

FEBRUARY THEME

February will be another short month, as we will have the week of Feb. 20 -24 off.  However, we have a lot of things on our “fun to do” list.

SHAPES and OPPOSITES

This month many of our daily activities will evolve around shapes and opposites. We will go on I spy tours through the building and spy for shapes, make shapes with our bodies, shape crafts etc. It was funny to listen to some children as they were looking at their snack and realized that many of their snack containers, lids and even their fruits and veggies reminded them of different shapes.

May be you want to take your child on a “looking for shapes” tour at home. Once you start looking, you will see them everywhere! J

FASCHING (Carnival) – German Holiday

We will be celebrating a very special and fun German holiday, called  Fasching this month. Fasching is a traditional German holiday season, often associated with festivals of the Christian church (letting loose before Lent and fasting begins). However, it goes back to pagan times, and was a way of driving out the spirits of winter and encouraging the coming of spring and good crops. In Germany, at this time of the year, many people in different areas of the country dress up in costumes and join floats Fasching/Karneval parades that are happening all over the country.

The most exciting part is the candy toss throughout the parade. You will see hundreds of people on the sidewalks, shouting “Helau” or “Alarf” and trying to catch Fasching candies.

There will be a poster hanging in the hallway, with more information on this holiday.

FASCHING PARTY: Wednesday, February 15^th / Thursday 16^th

We will have a Fasching Party in our classroom. Children are invited to wear a costume that day.

Parents are invited to join us for the last 20 minutes and be part of the candy toss parade. We will also serve you traditional German “Fasching Krapfen” (doughnuts) at the end of class.

VALENTINES: Sledding with our Care Partners, Monday  February 13th

We will touch the theme “Valentines“ and friendship” this month by inviting our “Big friends”, the care partners from grade 4 to join us for a fun winter time outside.  They will take our little ones tobogganing and have hot chocolate with us afterwards.

(If your child would like to give Valentine cards as a sign of friendship, we ask you to send a card to every class member, to ensure that nobody feels left out. I will send home a class list on Monday.)

Registration for 2017/18 school year is open!

Thank you to all the board members who helped us at our Open House in January! Two classes have almost filled up. However, we still have openings left. We would appreciate if you could help us to fill these spots by spreading the word through face book etc. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Facebook : Please don’t forget to visit us on Facebook!

SGC (Saskatchewan German Council) monthly newsletter

If you are interested in events that are related to Germany (cooking classes, language classes, dance, choir, German-English story time at the library, celebrations and events at the German Cultural Center etc), please go on the SGC website www.saskgermancouncil.org.

Mark your Calendar

Feb. 6/7         Scholastic book orders due

Feb 13^th        Sledding with care partners (dress for the weather: snow pants, snow boots, hats, mittens)

Children are welcome to bring their own sled!

Feb. 15/16^th FASCHING PARTY

Ø  Children are invited to dress up and wear a costume.

Ø  Parents, please join our candy toss parade and “Krapfen” for the last 20 minutes of class time!

Ø  Students don’t have to bring snack that day!

February 21^th – 24^th :  February Break / No School

School resumes on Monday, February 27^th!

Frau Hecker will be at a Conference for Early Childhood Educators this Friday (classes will still be running).

Frau Lorenz will be leaving next week for a family vacation and will be gone for 2 weeks. Frau Roohi will be filling in and assisting Frau Hecker in the M-W-F classes.

We are looking forward to another month of Fun & Learning with our children!

Kind Regards,

Uli Hecker, Larissa Lorenz

Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi