Bears Bears Bears!

Our week felt quick with the early dismissal days, but was rich in culture and play as we began our Bear theme. 

Monday/ Tuesday we read a story called, Sometimes I feel like a Fox. 

Students enjoyed making different animal sounds and actions before creating their own animal mask. 

Mask Time!

Bear Dance!

We had fun dancing like bears on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Storytime 

This week we also read a wonderful book called, Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you See?

Students did a great job observing and retelling all the animals we met in the story as we practiced our colour words. Beyond being a simple animal and colour book, this story has rhythm. It is a fabulous story to read aloud again and again!

A Box or a Cave?

The Pre-K classes transformed a large cardboard box into a bear cave. They painted and sawed, cooperated and crawled, in and out...so much fun!

Calming Tools

Self-regulation is an important skill that, like other skills, needs to be taught. We have looked at the 4 Zones, identified the feelings associated with each zone, and are now introducing different tools we can use to help us stay in, or get back into, the 'green' zone. 

Tools we have practiced so far:

belly breathing, 
going for a walk, 
sitting in the egg chair, 
squeezing a stress ball, 
using a fidget, 
wearing noise-reducing headphones, 
and a new favorite: holding a weighted animal.

In Remembrance

We made poppies in honor of Remembrance Day. There is no school Monday Nov.12.

Upcoming!

Next week we will continue exploring all things Bears! Wednesday and Thursday are our Hibernation days. Students can come dressed in their cozy PJs and bring a bear from home if they like.

Bannock-making: Thank you to the parents/helpers that offered to come make Bannock with us next week! We are excited about this hands-on and tasty cooking experience.

Nov. 12 No School
Nov. 13/14 Bannock-making
Nov. 14/15 Hibernation Day, Wear PJs, Bring a bear or stuffie.

More Pics!

Click this link to see more pics of our week. 

Halloween Fun!

Our week was short, but it was pure Halloween fun!

Our afternoon Halloween parade!

The kids enjoyed a spooky witches brew story on the light table.

We also experimented yet again with vinegar and baking soda.  This time we discovered that you can use vinegar and baking soda to blow up a balloon - it was just like magic!

Thank you

A huge thank you goes out to the volunteers who helped out with our Halloween parties.  Thank you to Ally Reid, Kathy Massia, Katryn Mawson-Dalmer, as well as Hudson and Riley's Grandma for donating your time.  Party days always get a little crazy and we greatly appreciate the extra set of hands that allows us to give the kids special experiences such as pumpkin carving with their friends. 

 

Thank you also to the parents who sent party treats for our snacks.  The food was delicious and the kids were delighted to have a snack together on their special day.

Trick-or-Treat!

We hope you had a great time trick-or-treating with your little ones!  We had fun this week playing Halloween with our kids and pretending to trick-or-treat as one of our imaginative play stations.  This station developed language skills, emphasized turn taking, and encourage imaginary play skills.

Ball Pit!

Yes, the rumors are true - we now have our very own ball pit!  It has been an exciting week filled with turn taking and learning to be gentle with our friends.  Our ball pit will be up all year.  It provides a wonderful sensory experience and will be a valuable asset to our program.  Some of our ball pit rules include: no shoes, three kids at a time, and coming out when the your turn is over.

Click here to see more pictures from our Halloween week.

Christmas Cards

Christmas card orders are due on Thursday, November 8th.  Please check your email to preview the one of a kind artwork that your child has created.  You can order on your child's art on a set of Christmas cards if you wish!

Coming Up

Next week we will be starting our bear unit!  Important upcoming dates:

• November 7th and 8th - Early Dismissal Days
• the morning class will dismiss at 10:36 am
• the afternoon class will dismiss at 2:16 pm
• November 12th - midterm break, no school
• November 14th and 15th - Hibernation Day  
• wear your pajamas to school and we will hibernate like the bears!

Pumpkins, Spiders, and Christmas? Oh my!

Pumpkins

We had a fun week exploring (and exploding!) pumpkins.

Students worked on those important hand-eye coordination skills by hammering golf tees into pumpkins. We were impressed by how well of some them could manipulate a hammer!

During circle time, we build our language skills through stories and songs. The students loved helping us add characters to the felt board story! Here is an action poem we learned; try it at home! 

The Pre-K students loved making fizzy pumpkin art so much last week that we thought we'd try some more sciency fun with real pumpkins! Students learned how to do a step-by-step process and we saw some pretty neat results! Our recipe for pumpkin volcanoes is: 

First, add a squeeze of dish soap.

Next, pour in a cup of baking soda.

Last, pour in a cup of vinegar.

Look what happens!

Spiders

After singing, a familiar spider action song to build our literacy skills, we created some cool spider web art using a marble. Students carefully moved their pan so the marble would roll through the black paint making a web effect wherever it rolled. It was a neat way to see cause and effect in action. Check out our webs below!

Zones of Regulation

We started to introduce the Pre-K class to the 4 zones of regulation. We started off by talking about different feelings we have and the best zone for learning and playing (green). Miss Kayla read us a story about feelings and we created a Feelings Face with food that was also a pretty fun snack! 

Christmas 

Yes, you read that right! We did a bit of Christmas Art this week to prepare for a special fundraiser Robina Baker does each year. The kids create a unique piece of art that is made into Christmas cards. We will post a preview soon and you will have the opportunity to order a set of your child's cards, if you'd like. 

Halloween!

October 31st: Halloween Party!  All students are welcome! Students can dress up. We will be having a school-wide Halloween parade in the gym at 9 am, followed by a party in the Pre-K classroom. Our afternoon class will do their costume parade at 12:45 pm. Thank you to the parents who volunteered to carve pumpkins with us! We have a few parents bringing special snacks, thank you parents! You do not need to send snack on this day unless you think your child would prefer to bring something familiar. 

See more Pics from our week by clicking here. 

Coming Up!

November 1st: PD Day, No School

November 7th and 8th: Early Dismissal

November 12: Mid-term Break, No School

Warm Fall Days

We were loving the beautiful fall weather this past week.  We took the kids outside every opportunity we could!  Spending time outside running, climbing, and exploring nature is a wonderful way to help your children develop body awareness, hand-eye coordination, as well as fine and gross motor skills. 

Scientific Pumpkin Art!

We had fun exploring scientific concepts this week painting pumpkins with baking soda water and dyed vinegar.  The students were thrilled with the bubbly reaction.

We had different fall and Halloween themed stations for the students to enjoy this week during their free play/center time.  Our centers tackle different developmental and social skills including sharing, fine motor development, and hand-eye coordination. 

Halloween Art Exploration

Making Leaf People

Making Leaf Soup

This was a gross motor station of transporting stuffed
animals down the hallway using plasma cars.

You can click here to see more pictures from our week of fall fun.

Coming Up

This week will be all about Halloween!  Important upcoming dates:

• October 23rd, 4:00 - 5:00 pm - Parent Teacher Meetings for our community students (students that only attend school two days per week)
• While parent-teacher meetings are not commonly done at the PK level, we understand that some parents are anxious to hear how their children are settling in to the school routine.  Please let us know if you would like to book an appointment.
• October 22-25th - Book Fair
• We will be taking our students to see the book fair on Monday and Thursday this week. 
• You are also welcome to take your child to the book fair anytime throughout the week if you would like to make any purchases.
• October 31st - Halloween
• All students are welcome to attend during their regular time slot (morning students in the morning, and afternoon students in the afternoon)
• We are looking for volunteers to help with pumpkin carving on this day.  If you are interested in carving pumpkins with us please let us know and we will sign you up!
• We will be asking different families to send party snacks throughout the school year.  This allows each family to have a turn and ensures that we don't end up with more party food than we can eat.  Please watch for the email coming home if it is your turn to send a snack this time!
• November 1st - PD Day - No school
• November 12th - No School - Midterm break 

All the Leaves are Falling Down!

Even though there was snow on the ground, we had a week of fall inside our classroom!  We developed our early literacy skills by singing this cute little song:

ALL THE LEAVES ARE FALLING DOWN

Tune:  “London Bridges Falling Down”

All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down   (Imitate leaves falling down)

All the leaves are falling down, it is fall.

Take the rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up  (Imitate raking leaves)

Take the rake and rake them up, it is fall.

Make a pile and jump in it, jump in it, jump in it,  (Children jump forward)

Make a pile and jump in it, it is fall.

We used bundled up Q-tips to make our own fall trees!

Emergency Evacuation

We practiced what to do if there was an emergency evacuation this week.  The students followed directions very well and we were so proud of how quiet they were when we lined up outside!  The students were thrilled to enjoy some time at the park when we were done our practice drill.

Pictures Pictures Pictures!

I finally have the green light for picture sharing - yay!  Thank you for filling out your verification forms.  

Water Table Fun

Cheese!  Winter dress up fun


Click here to see more pictures from this past week.

October 1-4

Fun in the exercise corner

Stuff the turkey

Who knew Spiderman likes pizza?

Click here to see more pictures from this week

September 24-27

Terry Fox Run

Park time!

Dress Up!

Click here to see more pictures from this week.

September 10-20

Pete's Pizza... Yum!

Pete's sensory walk - so squishy!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures from this week.

My First Day!  Click here to see the rest of these precious snap shots.

Phew!  That's all the pictures we have so far, I hope you have enjoyed a little peek into our PK world!  Stay tuned for new pictures each week as our year of learning unfolds.

Coming Up!

Next week we will be wrapping up our fall unit and begin Halloween!  Important upcoming dates:

• October 16th in the afternoon - Picture Retakes 
• October 31st - Halloween Party - all students are welcome to attend!
• November 1st - PD Day - No School
• November 7th and 8th - Early Dismissal Days
• The morning class will dismiss at 10:36 am
• The afternoon class will dismiss at 2:16 pm
• November 12th - Midterm break - No School

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past week has been all about turkeys and Thanksgiving.  The students enjoyed a cute little Thanksgiving song called "I'm a Little Turkey."  I will include the words to the song in case you want to sing it at home as well:

I'm a Little Turkey 

(sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little turkey, look at me. (point to self)

I'm as chubby as can be. (arms out to side)

You might think I'd be a tasty bite. (rub tummy)

But I'll be hiding on Thanksgiving night. (hide face)

We strengthened our fine motor skills last week by making a turkey craft.  Cutting, gluing, painting, and making crafts all help to strengthen those essential fine motor skills that are needed for being able to hold a pencil and print letters as we get older.  

Stuff the turkey is another fun fine motor activity that we had available to the children this past week.  The challenge here is to create a turkey by poking the feathers into the holes of an upside down colander. 

We also strengthened our gross motor skills this past week by playing turkey bowling.  It was all laughs as the students stacked the turkey bowling pins and tried to knock them down with a fake pumpkin.  

Orange Shirt Day

Thank you to all of our PK families for participating in Orange Shirt Day.  It was nice to see so many of our students wearing orange as a reminder that every child matters.  We took the time on Orange shirt day to chat with our students about feelings, friendship, and being kind to one another.  We ended our lesson by singing along to Raffi's song "The More We Get Together."

Coming Up

Next week we will wrap up our unit on Thanksgiving and begin talking about Fall.  Important upcoming dates:

• October 8th - No School.  Thanksgiving Day.
• October 16th - Picture retakes in the afternoon.
• November 1st - PD Day - No School