May Newsletter

MAY NEWSLETTER 2016

Dear Parents,

As I had mentioned in a previous note, Ruth Skinner, our assistant teacher in the MWF class is facing an emotionally and physically challenging chapter in her life. Our staff team will do whatever we can to help and support her and her family during this difficult time.  We will give her all the time that she needs to rest and to be prepared for the upcoming medical procedures.  It helps to know that she is surrounded by an amazing support group of family and friends that will stand by her side over the next few months.

SPRING IS HERE!

Our kids have been having so much fun looking for the first signs of spring. We took them on a “listening walk” through the park and through the neighborhood. In order to sharpen their sense of hearing we asked the children to close their eyes and open their ears wide. We heard birds chirping, a squirrel climbing up a tree and we listened to the branches moving in the wind.

Our classroom turned into a green house last month and the children were so excited to watch their grass seeds and been seeds turning into plants. We did a lot of “body activities”, which support the idea of learning with all your senses. The children pretended to be a seed in the ground and we “watered” our little seeds with a soft  “back rub”. You might want to ask your child to show you how we did it in order to get a back massage. :)

BUGS and BIRDS

Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Our theme for May will be Bugs and Birds. This theme will be used throughout the entire month because the children will be watching caterpillars turn into butterflies. The caterpillars will get mailed directly to us in then larvae stage so that the children will be able to watch the entire life cycle. This process takes about 3 weeks and at the end of the month we will have a picnic in the park and let our butterflies go.

Life Cycle of a Chicken

We are blessed to being invited to another annual spring event. The grade 1 teacher at Brevoort Park School has an incubator with 15 chicken eggs in her classroom. We will stop by every day this week and I hope our children will be there on the day when the eggs crack open and the little chicks are hatching. Ask your child about this amazing miracle that happens in the classroom. This will be one thing that they are going to remember for the rest of their lives! :)

SPF Raffle Fundraiser

Thank you to all the families and friends that participated in the SPF Fundraiser. It was a huge success and all together we raised $1,600!!! $800 will be going towards subsidy support for families that cant afford to pay tuition to send their child to preschool. The other $800 will go into our own preschool and will be used to purchase toys and educational material.

As many of you might know, after 25 years, the Government of Saskatchewan is disconnecting all financial support for heritage language learning programs in Saskatchewan. It does affect Heritage Language Schools, as well as our bilingual preschool program. Even though it will have a significant impact on our budget, we will try to continue to provide a high quality Early Learning Childhood program. Our board has already met and discussed fundraiser options for the upcoming school year.

DATES TO REMEMBER

MAY

Friday, May 6^th :        Kindergarten Sneak Peak 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. (Please let us know if your child is the MWF  pm class and attending the sneak peak that day)

Wed 11, Thurs 12:    Scholastic Book Orders due

Friday, May 20^th:       No school for all students or staff

Monday, May 23^rd:    Victoria Day, no school

JUNE

Thursday, June 2^nd: T-Th class Field Trip to Forestry Farm Zoo

Friday, June 3^rd     :  M-W-F a.m. class Field Trip to Forestry Farm Zoo

Monday, June 6^th  :  M-W-F p.m. class Field Trip to Forestry Farm Zoo

(We will need parent helpers for those days. Please look for a list in the hallway)

Thursday, June 23^rd : Last day for T-Th class

Friday, June 24^th:       Last day for M-W-F class

Parents are invited to join and celebrate with us (a.m. class 10:00 -11:40 a.m.

p.m. class from 1:30 – 3:15 p.m.)

Outside Fun

We will spend as much time outside as we can. If you want your child to wear sunscreen, bug spray etc. Please don’t forget to apply it on your child before class starts. Also, please make sure that your child wears outside shoes, that allow him/her to safely run down the hill.

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

                   “The most precious jewels you’ll ever have around your neck

                    Are the arms of your children”

                 Happy Mothers Day to all of our wonderful moms!!!

Uli Hecker, Ruth Skinner

Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi

Make sure to register!

April Newsletter

                              APRIL NEWSLETTER 2016

Dear Parents,

I hope everybody had a nice Easter Break and enjoyed some special time with their family! It is great to finally see all the snow melting. I can’t wait to see our children running down the hill and playing in the trees again!!

The children enjoyed our nursery rhyme unit and fairy tales that we read to them last month. Our students had so much fun, singing and clapping our rhymes and acting out the stories in the gym.

Thank you to Dr. Finch for visiting our class and teaching our students about the importance of eye exams. The  “Teddy Bear Eye Check” presentation was also a great way to introduce children to what to expect when you go to an optometrist.

APRIL THEMES

SIGNS OF SPRING

For the following weeks we will be emphasizing “changes in nature” during spring. We will explore the season through various hands on activities. We will plant seeds, watch them sprouting and turning into vegetable plants and flowers. Please ask your child to “I spy” for birds that are returning back from warmer places! Check the grass for earthworms, robins and watch for buds on the trees. We will keep our eyes and ears wide open and explore the season with all our senses.

We would like to “dissect” potted spring flowers (tulips, daffodils etc.) and take a closer look at their roots, bulbs etc. If you would like to donate some spring flowers to either brighten up our classroom or for scientific purposes that would be greatly appreciated.  

DENTAL HEALTH

This month is “National Children’s Dental Health Month”.  We will take the opportunity to teach our children about how to keep their teeth healthy, eating tooth friendly foods, flossing and going to the dentist. Our dental health unit will include fun activities such as brushing and flossing “Duplo blocks” and using fly swatters to hit food items that cause “sugar bugs” . 

CHECK YOUR INDOOR SHOES

We realized a big growth spurt in some of our students and noticed that some of our little feet are getting too big for their shoes. Please check your child’s current indoor shoes to ensure that they still fit them.

OUTSIDE PLAY

Depending on weather conditions, we will start taking our children outside again. Please make sure your child comes dressed in layers and wears appropriate shoes for potential outside play. If you don’t find us in the classroom, we will meet you in the boot room for pick up. It might take us a while to get used  to putting on jackets, shoes, etc. again. It certainly helps to practice zipping and buttoning at home. It will save us precious playtime! J

SASKATOON PRESCHOOL FOUNDATION (SPF) SPRING RAFFLE

We are grateful to have an opportunity to participate in the SPF Annual Raffle again. SPF is an organization that subsidizes families who can’t afford to send their children to preschool and provides training and resources for preschools. I will provide you with further information once we have the raffle tickets.

Kind Regards,                                               

Uli Hecker, Ruth Skinner, Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi

Register

MAKE SURE TO REGISTER SOON!!!

2016/17 classes are starting to fill up!

March Newsletter

    MARCH NEWSLETTER 2016

Dear Parents,

March is here and spring seems to be just around the corner! Time is flying, especially when you look at our children. They all have grown so much within the past few months. Our students enjoyed learning about different vehicles last month. After we read the book “This is not a box”, the children used boxes and turned them into cars, trains, rocket ships and boats. We also taught our students the German names for different vehicles and sang a variety of action songs.

Due to the spring break, March will be a relatively short month; however like always, we will be busy exploring the world around us. Depending on the weather, we might even start taking our children outside again (we will let you know beforehand).

MARCH THEME:  NURSERY RHYMES

There is overwhelming evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes, rhythmic poems, songs and chants significantly enhances early reading skills.

Listening to funny poems and searching for patterns and rhymes within poems also provide a fun and active playground for phonetic awareness and the ability to hear the sounds of letters. Our children will listen to a variety of traditional and modern nursery rhymes in English and German and many activities and crafts will evolve around this topic.

TEDDY BEAR “EYE CHECK”: Wednesday, March 9th

On Wednesday, March 9^th we will have an optometrist visit our M-W-F classroom. She will talk about the importance of regular eye exams. The children will have a chance to use doctor tools and practice eye exams on Teddy bears. We hope the children will come home and tell you all about this special visit. Optometrists and doctors highly encourage parents to get their child’s vision checked from an early age on. I am sure the “Teddy Bear eye check” will help your child to get excited about going to his first or next optometrist appointment! J

We will try to schedule an appointment for our Tue-Thu class as well and will let you know about the date.

EASTER ACTIVITIES

We will have a short unit on “Easter traditions”. Feel free to take a look at the booklet that will be sitting on the little table in the hallway. You will also see “Easter activities” on our center table, that include counting, matching and sorting of Easter eggs.  

DATES to REMEMBER

Friday, March 4          PD day, no school

March 9/10              Scholastic book orders due

Friday, March 25       Good Friday, no school         

March 28- April 1      Spring Break

Kind Regards,                                              

Uli Hecker, Ruth Skinner, Susanne Pachal, Samina Roohi