November 2015

 

 

From the President

This month (and possibly still reeling from Halloween candy overload) I will keep this short and sweet (see how I snuck that pun in there 😉

Mark your calendars… Queens Park Preschool turns 50 this year and we’re planning the celebration for May 14, 2016.  We are working on a community carnival – lots of fun for the whole family.  Stay tuned for more information. 

Have you checked out the newly refurbished teachers’ chair?  Thanks in part to our City of New Westminster grant last year, the comfy chair and ottoman at the circle carpet has been fixed up and is ready for lots more stories and snuggles in the coming years.  Thanks to Teacher Jenny for making this happen!

Ahem, have you missed a General Meeting…? Please submit your parent education make up assignment within 1 week of the missed meeting. Parent Education is part of the benefit of a parent participation preschool, and it’s also part of our responsibility as membership. If homework is more than 2 weeks late, we are violating our licensing. Please, make life easier on your class rep… it’s never nice having to “nag” another parent about homework! Just a reminder, any member of a family can come to the General Meetings – it does not need to be the duty parent.

Cheers,
Shelley

PPP Partner Newsletter and Parent Ed Session

The PPP Partner Newsletter is published by the Council Office and is available for QPPS parents to read. It is full of great articles, events and upcoming Council information, including information on the November 24 Speaker event with Jessica Wollen, who will be speaking on the “Askable Adult 101: Co-creating Healthy Communities with our Kids”. She has written an article that is up first in the newsletter which has a few testimonials on her workshop with it. Here is the link: PPP Partner November 2015. For information on the upcoming speaker event, you can access the flyer here: November Speaker 2015

 

Fundraising

Our fall family photo weekend is quickly approaching on November 7 and 8. There are 5 spots left. Please email Sarah Gillis sarahgillis8@hotmail.com if you would like a spot! For those families that have reversed a spot, we will be sending out details the night before with location (since its weather-permitting) so please check your email! The remaining $80 is due at the photo shoot and will need to be paid to Sarah from Notting Hill Photography.

Parent Education

For our November meeting, Dawnn Whittaker of Cheeky Chops (www.cheekychops.ca), will be discussing Potty Training.  As some of you may remember, Dawnn spoke at our preschool last year on Sleep; her no-nonsense and practical solutions were welcomed and her experience and humour appreciated.  This time around she will use her wealth of knowledge and experience from nannying and consulting for over 20 years to walk us through the ups and downs of potty training for preschoolers and beyond.  Attached is a link to her blo and her recent article about pull-ups:

http://www.cheekychops.ca/blog/2015/09/why-to-avoid-pull-ups-while-potty-training

For this session, we are making a limited number of tickets available to family, friends or alumni who are not currently QPPS members. Tickets are $10/each and must be reserved ahead of time with Marti (contact info below).

December 1 Parent Education Session

Jessica Pirnak, who you know recognize as she is our feature Nutrition columnist in this newsletter, will be coming to speak about Healthy Snacking for
the Holidays and how to use food to ward off colds and the flu.

Lastly, for those keeners who want extra tools in the parenting toolbelt, I have attached a link to “Bucket Fillers” website (http://bucketfillers101.com/faqs.php) dedicated to all things about Bucket Filling a tool to teach empathy to young children stemming from the 2005 bestseller, Have you Filled a Bucket Today?  A Guide to Daily Hapiness for Kids.  The concept is easy, we all need our bucket filled and it is done so by being kind or by others being kind to you, but you can empty your bucket or those of others by being unkind.  It is a simple metaphor that opens the door to a discussion on kindness with your children.

If you have any questions or comments about parent education, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Marti Longstaff
QPPS Parent Education Coordinator
martilongstaff@gmail.com
phone 604-319 2556

Social Activity

Let’s hear those sleigh bells ringing – yes it’s time for another social. This one is themed appropriately for the holidays! Here is a link to the poster: Heritage Christmas Social Event

Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum
Website: http://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca
Cost: free entry and $2.55 for carousel ride
Date: Saturday, December 5
Time: 1 – 3

Congratulations!

A huge QPPS congrats goes out to the Lutz family on the birth of their baby girl! Sending warm wishes and good sleep vibes your way!!!

Nutrition Column

For the love of squash! Why do we call winter squash ‘winter’ when it’s available a good portion of the year, from August to January? I guess it’s like calling a sweet potato a yam, which is a whole other story. But good news to all you locavores out there – a large variety of winter squash is grown locally across BC, including butternut, banana, acorn, spaghetti and kabocha.

Why should we eat squash?

·         For busy families, squash is low maintenance to prepare. Throw any squash in a preheated oven (at 350 °) and roast for 30-40mins without having to flip or fiddle with it, giving you some time to put the kids to bed. Bonus – roasted squash will keep in your fridge for a week giving you some flexibility on your menu.

·         Winter squash is a healthy carbohydrate. In other words it has a low glycemic index and is full of nutrients. Having a low glycemic index allows us to feel full longer and not have fast energy crashes making us “hangry”.

·         Per cup, BC winter squash counts for 25% of our daily fibre intake and 60% of our vitamin A, which is a potent antioxidant vital for eye health. Plus squash has a ton of vitamin C, which is important for maintaining healthy bones, skin and other tissues.

·         Lastly, the seeds making up the squash are hidden gems of zinc, protein, iron, fibre and magnesium. They also can fight breast and prostate cancer with naturally occurring lignans, so don’t compost so fast – roast and add to salads, baking and yogurt.

See you at the pumpkin patch!

How to Make Galaxy Slime

Okay – just the name of this stuff sounds cool! We have a preschool mom who has actually made this and swears it is a lot of fun – so here you go. To infinity and beyond!

Here is what you will need:

• 1 bottle of Elmer’s Clear School Glue (5 oz)
• 1/2-3/4 cup Sta-Flo Liquid Starch (I found mine at Walmart)
• Liquid watercolors (several squirts until you get the desired color)
• Fine glitter in a variety of colors

And the directions are probably best followed if you read this bloggers advice, so here is the link to help you through it: http://www.two-daloo.com/night-sky-activities-preschool-galaxy-slime-borax-free/

3-Year Old Classroom Information

As we watched the leaves change colours and fall from the trees, the squirrels scamper about across the grass, and the spiders lingering patiently in their webs outside, we all got a little more comfortable in and around the preschool. Exploring the season together has lead to some great conversations and discoveries too.

We discovered a common love for apples and brought some in to share. Some apples we used to make prints, some we juiced, some we rolled around together with chestnuts covered in paints, others we sliced and warmed in a pot on the stove until they turned into sauce.  We hope you enjoyed the apple sauce sent home in jars just in time for the Thanksgiving Day long weekend.  Other apples were eaten just as they were brought in to the preschool.  Something about tasting the thing you are carrying in your hands makes the task just that much more enjoyable! 

We have also observed common interests in hammering and things that move. We have explored these further by hammering golf pegs into styrofoam and pumpkins, and bringing balls and cars from the ramps at the magnet wall inside to the gutters in the play yard outside. From here, Donna and Jenny plan to add a little colour and see what happens with that added splash.  

Some children also talked about the things they had harvested from their gardens at home, so we did a little farm work ourselves, planting sunflower seeds brought in by a family.  An expedited harvest activity, only one week later we were harvesting and eating the sprouts we grew ourselves. At circle time, we told an old folk tale called “The Turnip Story” in which a farmer needs the help of his whole family to uproot an oversized turnip. As Halloween approached, the story’s characters put on their costumes for “Big Pumpkin” by Erica Silverman and S.D. Schindler and worked together to pull a huge pumpkin out of the ground together. 

Also, earlier in the month, we collected vegetables of all sorts from your gardens and kitchens and put them in a big soup pot for Soup Day. Thank you to all families for contributing and joining us for a warm, healthy snack made for you by your children!

Five Little Spiders (a circle time poem) by Teacher Donna

 5 little spiders crawling on the floor
one made a web and then there were four!
4 little spiders hid under some leaves
one scurried away and then there were three!
3 little spiders crept inside a shoe
one ran away and then their were two!
2 little spiders looking for some fun
they made a house beneath a rock
and then there was one!
1 little spider resting in the sun
he found some shade behind a log and then there were none!

Things to look forward to in November:

Nov. 3: Photo day. Individual and class photos will be taken on this day at the beginning of class.
Nov. 10: Celebration of Light!  We will be talking about Diwali and doing a special art project today.
Nov. 17: Pizza Day! Sign up to bring ingredients for individual pizzas. We’ll be reading “Pete’s a Pizza” and creating a list of all the things one can possibly put on a pizza.
Nov. 26: Pajama Day. Wake up in the morning and come as you are!

Quote of the Month:

A boy is using his hand to repeatedly splash water up into the air from an outdoor water source.
Parent: “Are you watering the sunflowers?”
Boy: “No, I am watering the sun!”

From your Teachers,
Jenny and Donna