Hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and got some sun and fun in. We are looking forward to an evening out with you all this month at the Silent Auction.
Dress is cocktail or semi-formal so break out those party clothes. We will be serving dessert and small nibbles. Remember to bring cash for the bar and 50/50 draw. In order to expedite the Auction checkout, we will be pre-registering credit cards during April’s General Meeting, so make those handy on April 2. See you there!
Duty days: In conjunction with the teachers the executive have decided to push the start time of duty days to 15 minutes before class begins.
- AM classes – 9:00 start
- PM classes – 12:00 start
This will allow the teachers time to prep for class and a lunch break. If you are on snack duty please be sure to have your snack prepped in a nut free zone before you come to the school eg. fruit and veggies cut up, cheese cut up.
Thank you for all the families that participated in the survey sent out during spring break. Your responses will help guide the decision making of the executive. If you have any more comments or considerations you would like to make heard, please contact us, we would love to hear from you! president@qpps.ca
Silent Auction Last Minute News
Also, we would like to acknowledge our sponsors for the Auction!
As we mentioned, our auction is round around the corner, Saturday, April 6th 7-11pm @ the HIVE.
We are so excited to celebrate all things QPPS and our children. There a few tickets left, so if you haven’t already done so, grab some today!
A HUGE thank you to our local community and beyond for stepping up and supporting our fundraising efforts. There are fabulous items to bid on.
An even BIGGER THANK YOU goes out to our GOLD MEDAL sponsors who donated over $250 worth of products or service.
- TAG Liquor store – $250 Gift Certificate
- New West Wellness – $250 Wellness services
- Inn @ the Quay – $300 One free Night and 2 plush pillows
- Key West Ford- $400 Gold Star Detail Package
Speech for your Preschooler
Our April speaker is a Registered Speech-Language Pathologist!
Meet Sarah Castell, with SpeechEase Therapy Services Inc. She will speak to us about ‘child speech and language development’ and will cover developmental milestones, when to seek help and from whom, parental strategies to encourage language development.
Here is a little info about Sarah: “I graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008 with a BSc (hons) in Speech Pathology and Therapy, I spent three years working in the National Health Service in England before moving to Canada in 2011.
Since my arrival in Canada I have worked in both public health and private settings, with both adult and paediatric clients. I consider this variation excellent experience and it has provided me with invaluable insights into the workings of the healthcare and school systems.
I have maintained passion for both adult and paediatric caseloads with particular interest in autism, child language disorders, articulation disorders and adult neurological disorders.”
3-Year-Old Classroom Information
Spring has sprung! The change in weather from the recent snow and ice to sunny days has led to some ongoing investigations in the threes class about temperature and different states of water (solid, liquid, gas) …
Our rain barrel is no longer frozen and the water flow is plentiful which has led to some interesting projects in the sandbox and beyond.
In March we opened our “Veterinary Clinic”, an intentional extension to our dramatic play – there has been so much love and care given to all the sick and injured animals.
Fuzzy Kitty continues to be out and about on many adventures! If Fuzzy Kitty hasn’t visited your household yet – she will be soon!
Our classroom flourished of green this month, inspired by Mother Nature as well as St. Patricks Day: green playdough, green floam in the sensory table, green translucent blocks on the light table and varying shades of green paint at the easel.
In addition, we have been busy creating some very special art projects for the upcoming silent auction and for our annual art show.
Mr. Potato Head made an appearance to support our language around whole body listening and was such a hit that he stayed and the children made many fun and wacky creations for the days to come.
Another highlight in the classroom this month was the barn and farm animals play scape.
Possibilities for March:
- Growing grass in our sensory table.
- Exploring our forest yard
- Frog, turtle and other pond creature Play Provocations
- Colour mixing
With warmth and appreciation, Donna and Lyn
4-Year-Old Classroom Information
Starting in March, our 4-year-old classes began our Kindness Curriculum beginning with breath and following up with growing seeds. The curriculum starts with focusing on mindfulness. Mindfulness simply meaning paying attention in a special way. We explored what it feels like to breathe on the outside and on the inside. Creating and exploring pinwheels helped make the concept of noticing breath on the inside more concrete while the introduction of a percussion chime helped the children understand the concept of listening on the outside. Paying attention in a special way and focusing our attention allows all of us to learn to listen to our bodies and notice our feelings. Three key words to talk with your children about are: mindfulness, attention and breath. While we will continue to talk about and experience mindful listening and paying attention we connected the concept further by discussing what plants need to grow, sharing ideas, waiting for turn taking to share our ideas, talking about plant care and then having the opportunity to plant and water our own bean seeds. Our curriculum is ongoing with each lesson building on the one before. Next we will explore growing friendship with kindness! Stay tuned!
Our bookshelf is being revamped and because parents have been making inquiries about teacher’s suggestions and our personal favorites we decided to share a few titles that we are reading with the children or you might find in our library! Verdi by Janell Cannon is one favorite, as well as, Breathe and Be: A Book of Mindfulness Poems by Katie Coombs.
March was a celebration of green, the joy of movement (tunnel, steps and many rounds of the statue game). We spent time painting platters and paintings for the silent auction. Outdoors, our water table has become a home for ducks, our rain barrel has helped us make our water wheel move and catching wind in our pinwheels has been satisfying indeed.
In the month ahead, we will continue with our Kindness Curriculum, explore gardening, give our attention to farm life and insects in anticipation for the arrival of our chicken eggs and springtime explorations!
With warmth and appreciation, Donna and Lyn
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