March 2017

March 2, 2017

Don't pinch me!

From the President

Enrollment

Enrollment for the 2017-2018 school year is now open. So if you know anybody interested in our preschool please have them call the school 604-526-1153 or email enroll@qpps.ca

Teacher

As you may have heard we have a new teacher joining the preschool.  Lynda Joshi will be joining Donna in the 3-year-old classes starting May 2017.

Lynda is a fully licensed Early Childhood Educator who has over 15 years of experience providing care and support to children and their families. She joins us after working with the Burnaby School District in a variety of programs including StrongStart. Lynda is currently working at Westcoast Child care resource center in New Westminster.

Lynda lives in New Westminster with her three children. Her interests include yoga, meditation, literature, fashion, film and fitness. She loves getting out into nature, as well as enjoying great food.

Please help us in welcoming Lynda to Queen’s Park Preschool!

Thanks

Julie

 

MC900237778Silent Auction

Can’t wait to see you all at the Silent Auction this Saturday, March 4th!  The Silent Auction Team is very excited and all ready to go!  Here is a little preview of some of the Live Auction items:

 

 

  1. Three nights in San Jose del Cabo in a 2 bed/2 bath ground floor condo (airfare not included) – value $500. Time to start planning a holiday!!
  1. Trilogy Landscaping certificate for 4 hours of service – value $300.
  1. Five hour Photo Booth rental (includes delivery/set up, instant prints, props, backdrop and online gallery – value $1,000. Perfect for weddings, birthday parties and workplace/corporate events!  So don’t forget to ask the social coordinator or boss at your workplace if this is something they are interested in!
  1. 20″ child’s bike – value $370.
  1. Personal chef services – value $325.

Reminder: the First Pick Raffle tickets will be sold from 7pm to 8pm with a winner drawn shortly thereafter.  Arrive early so you can get your ticket! **$20 each **

See you then!

Kelly Thomson

 

Enrollment Update

Job forms and sibling registration packages are due March 31st.

Any questions contact the enrollment team at enroll@qpps.ca.

 

 

Preschool Closed

The preschool will be closed for one week in March for Spring break. The dates are March 13-17.

 

 

Fundraising Update

Remember to bring your coolers to pack up your meat pie orders at our next meeting on Tuesday, March 7th.

 

 

Coming Up in Parent Education

March 7th, 2017 Parent Education Session

This month we will host Jessica Wollen from Askable Adult (http://shift-education.com) on how to foster meaningful conversations with children on relationships, safety and sexuality. Have you ever wondered how to talk about sexuality and reproduction with your children, struggling to find the right words to address tough questions surrounding sexual health, or worried about what was appropriate to share at what age?

This session will be 90 minutes as opposed to 60 minutes in order for Jessica to give enough time to talk about the following points in a clear and understandable way and leave enough time for questions:

  • What kind of sexual health information is needed at various ages
  • Strategies to handle questions
  • What kinds of words to use
  • How to discuss feelings, emotions, and family values
  • How to explore your own personal beliefs around sensitive topics

Jessica Wollen is a teacher, Certified Sexual Health Educator and founder and CEO of Shift Education. She has over 16 years of experience teaching both typical and diverse learners and has become known for her sense of humour and ability to stimulate much-needed conversation surrounding body-science, sexual health and healthy relationships. Tickets will be available to the public for $10.

April 4th, 2017 Parent Education Session

Next month we will welcome Karen Begley, an early childhood educator and kindergarten teacher on how writing develops and how to support this development at home, as well as preparing for the kindergarten year. Tickets will be available to the public for $10.

If you have any questions or comments about parent education, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Angie Stephens (qpps.parenteducation@gmail.com)

 

Nutrition Column

Breakfast Balance

We have all heard the saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and with good reason. Research shows that children who eat breakfast concentrate better, have better problem solving skills, better hand-eye coordination, and better performance in school and on the playground. Breakfast eaters also have better school attendance and have healthier body weights into adolescence and adulthood.

But not all breakfasts are created equal. A healthy breakfast needs to have a balance of carbohydrates, protein and fat to keep energy levels steady all morning. A combination of foods from at least 3 of the 4 food groups makes for good balance. Here is an example of a week full of well balanced breakfasts for the whole family:

Weekly Breakfast Meal Plan

  • Monday: whole grain toast, nut butter (or no-nut butter) and banana sandwich
  • Tuesday: whole grain cereal, milk, fruit and cashews (or other nut/seed of choice)
  • Wednesday: overnight oats (recipe below) and fruit
  • Thursday: whole grain tortilla wrapped around scrambled egg and cheese with fruit and/or veggies on the side
  • Friday: hard boiled egg, whole grain bagel with cream cheese and fruit or vegetable of choice
  • Saturday: 2% plain yogurt, granola and fruit parfait
  • Sunday: Red lentil waffles with plain 2% Greek yogurt, berries and real maple syrup http://www.lentils.org/recipe/red-lentil-waffles/

Feeling pressed for time in the morning? Try getting breakfast ready the night before: overnight oats are a great make-ahead or pre-make the yogurt parfait. You could prep breakfast ingredients in bulk, hard boil a few days’ worth of eggs or double or triple the waffle recipe and freeze leftovers to pop in the toaster. Find a routine that works best for your family and make breakfast the most important meal in your house.

Overnight Oats: (makes 2 servings)

1 cup old fashioned oats

¼ cup chia seeds

1.5 cups of milk

1 ripe banana mashed

Cinnamon to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl, put the lid on and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning serve with your choice of fruit and nuts or sunflower seeds. Sweeten with a bit of maple syrup or honey if needed.

Enjoy!

Rolande

 

3-Year Old Class Information

Lately much of our play time has been inspired by the winter weather and every changing temperatures! Ice and snow, wind and rain exploration is ongoing. Comparing wet and dry, warm and cold, the simplest moments such as watching our warm breath expand in the cool winter air and catching raindrops and snowflakes on our tongues feels magical! The hard work of putting on gloves and pulling on snow pants takes so much hard work and perseverance!

 

 

 

Our three year old classes have been very busy getting messy in so many different ways! Goop (a mixture of water and cornstarch) is a weird and wonderful tactile phenomenon we have been manipulating… cool and slippery, wet and dry, runny and gooey, dry and solid all at once! Fantastic and messy! We scoop and pour and squeeze and drip and pour and measure together!

 

 

Rainbow rice (colourful dyed rice) has given us much opportunity to blend, sort, measure, scoop, pour, and funnel the full spectrum of colours of the rainbow! Discovering red, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet individually and then all mixed up! Helping to sweep up the grains is a big part of the learning and fun too!

 

 

 

Our artistic endeavors are expanding as we explore creating with crayons, sharpies, oil pastels, watercolour, liquid tempra paint and block tempra paints! At the easel we have been using sponges and stencils, rollers and stamps!

 

 

As you can imagine we love washing baby dolls at preschool, but did you know we also give dinosaurs bubble baths?  Our dinos have never been so sparkly clean! Bubbly soap, warm water and soft sponges and cloths feel really wonderful and we love to splish and splash, rant and roar!

 

 

Indoors, simple yoga stretches have helped us relax our bodies and feel comfortable with personal space. Our balance beam, bean bags give us the opportunity to steady ourselves and move with purpose, and of course our Jumparoo help us get our bodies moving! We have been shaking our sillies out and doing the hokey pokey too! We love to dance at QPP!  Outside we are working together to catch and throw our bumpy balls, jump on stumps and balance on driftwood! We love our beautiful yard! Outside we drum on drums and make music on our metal instrument wall! Loud and noisy is the best!

Stay warm! your 3’s teacher Miss Donna

 

4-Year Old Class Information

February continued to be a busy month in the classroom.  Our time has been spent sharing with each other and our families as we explored Valentines, cookie decorating and sharing Friendship salad.  Thank you to our bakers and the donations of cookies.

We saw the Queens Park Preschool restaurant open in the house corner; the menu featured Sushi and salad, they appeared to be a hit as they were booked every day! Staying with the restaurant theme the current favorite circle time song is “Aikendrum” did you know his hair was made of Spaghetti?

Miss Donna did a wonderful experiment with food color and milk….it made a rainbow!  We are continuing to explore rainbows and color mixing in the room.

We are looking forward to March and eating some favorite treats and the wearing of the green as St. Patrick’s Day arrives.

 

 

SOME DATES TO REMEMBER

Monday March 6th            Making Jello

Wednesday March 8th      Eating Jello

Wednesday March 8th      Making Ice Cream

Friday March 10th              Green Day

Monday March 13th           Start of Spring Break

Monday March 20th          First day back

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