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Hello QPP families! Happy fall! I love this time of year. The falling leaves, the crispness in the air, a new harvest of pumpkins, squashes and apples, and dishes like warm soups and stews with crusty bread. There’s something so cozy about a warm hearty meal that sticks to your ribs on a cool day…and if we’re dreaming here, pumpkin pie is always my autumnal dessert. And while I’m dreaming of the culinary treasures of the season, my kids are dreaming about an entirely different culinary experience! You guessed it, Halloween! Halloween is so much fun for our kids – carving pumpkins, dressing up and trick-or-treating. I love watching the joy on their faces. It is truly a magical time of childhood. But ghosts and goblins aside, some of us struggle with the pillowcases of candy and the sugar overload after the trick-or-treating has come to an end for another year. Is there a way to preserve the joy of the season while teaching self-regulation and control? More on that, as well as my favourite pumpkin pie recipe after an important message from our teachers and executive! Message from our Executive Board What a fun first month at preschool! Big […]
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Hello Queens Park Preschool Families! I thought I would send out the first newsletter and introduce myself as we soak up the last bit of summer and prepare for September and the start of a new school year. Whether you are a returning family or new to the preschool, welcome! My name is Angie and I will be the newsletter editor this year. We are a returning family with our son Ioan (pronounced ‘Yo-ahn’) going into the 3 AM class. I am currently home with my three kids, but another hat that I used to wear was in the medical field. I have a special interest in nutrition, so aside from passing on important messages from our teachers and executive, I will also contribute with pieces on nutrition and recipes, along with other articles that may be of interest to parents with young families. Currently however, I am an expert in toddler-ease (not to be confused with an expert in parenting) and diffusing situations such as fist fights between a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old over who has the bigger slice of cake despite using my fail-proof-cake-measuring-tape to cut exact share replicas. Sometimes I win, sometimes I don’t. But if parenting […]
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We can’t have a year-end newsletter without giving thanks. So bear with us, here we go! We want to send the HUGEST thanks to Ms. Donna and Ms. Jana for all of their hard work this year! The executive would also like to welcome Mr. Kelly to our team and thank him for joining us! We would also like to send a giant thank you to all of the parents for volunteering throughout the year and stepping up to help run the preschool! And now in other news, we are moving the AGM financials to November instead of having them in May – an email went out about that earlier this month. We want to wish everyone a happy summer and we can’t wait to see everyone next year! Your Executive Team Risky Play Our June speaker is Dr. Ian Pike – https://bcchr.ca/ipike. he will be speaking on “the importance of outdoor risky play.” It used to be normal for children to spend long hours outdoors and away from watchful adults. Today’s children spend more time indoors, supervised, in structured activities, and in front of screens. The evidence is clear that children need regular and repeated access to outdoor play […]
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Happy May! We are looking forward to seeing all of our current and new families at the May Annual General Meeting. In May, we will be approving the financials for the preschool and voting in our new Executive members. We are still looking for a Treasurer to join the board as well as Class Reps for next year, if you have an interest in joining the Executive Committee please reach out to us at president@qpps.ca. Our April Silent Auction was a great success. Thank you to everyone who participated and came out to enjoy a fun evening! Making Sense of Challenging Behaviour No one is more susceptible to being misunderstood than the preschooler. Many of their most challenging behaviours would qualify them for any number of personality and behaviour disorders. Unlike infants and toddlers, preschoolers actually bear a resemblance to grown ups and therefore fool us into thinking that they are much more like us than they really are. Projecting our psychology onto them is a typical mistake. This month’s presentation will address commonly misunderstood preschooler behaviour including resistance, frustration, attachment, and impulsiveness. We will meet Christie Mackie, MA, RCC. She works as a Registered Clinical Counsellor in private practice, supporting […]
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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 […]
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Auction Deadlines you Need to Know Our Auction is just around the corner, April 6 from 7-11PM at the Hive on Front St. Family donations are due by March 5. If you have not already done so, confirm your tickets via the link. Last chance to get tickets is March 15 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/qpps-silent-auction-tickets-56000688567?aff=utm_source%3Deb_email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_campaign%3Dnew_event_email&utm_term=eventurl_text We have some incredible items to bid on, fabulous beer and wine to sip on and delicious food to nibble on. Hope to see everyone. Tax Time Update Tax receipts for tuition and donations will be emailed to parents by the end of February. Receipts will include all tuition and donation amounts received by QPPS in the calendar year (January 2018 – December 2018). Tuition Receipts will be issued for all current students (2018-2019 school year) and past students (2017-2018 school year). Donation receipts will be issued for gifts of cash and or items over $100. Books books books! Parents sometimes ask our teachers for some suggestions of their favourite children’s book authors. Ms. Donna and Ms. Lyn love Eric Carle, Oliver Jeffers, Denise Fleming, Leo Leoni, Byron Barton, John Burningham, and Kevin Henkes to name a few. Did you know that the librarians at the New Westminster Public […]
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From the Executive It’s that time of year again! Registration dates are coming up for the 2019/2020 school year at the preschool. February 5th, 6:30pm – current families February 6th, 7pm – alumni families February 9th, 4pm – new families And looking to April, Silent Auction donations are now being accepted. Please return your donation along with the donation form by March 15. This year we are also accepting cash donations in lieu of a tangible item. Any cash donation over $100 will be given a donation receipt. Items can be left in the “auction” box outside the teachers office at the preschool, cash or cheques can be left in either Colby’s (4AM) or Ella’s (3AM) mailbox. We are all looking forward to a fun event! Introducing Mindfulness to the Early Years How do we as parents create an environment that not only engages young children but creates a culture of peace? How do we encourage ‘slowing-down’ without turning it into another behaviour to police? Learn strategies on how to build skills in stress-reduction, explore ways to transform routine into ritual, and foster compassionate ways of being that empower the whole family. Josephine Chan is our presenter for the February […]
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Welcome back to preschool! Hoping everyone had a special time with their families over the holiday’s. The structure of the Queens Park Preschool executive has shifted since we voted in the new bylaws in November. Please welcome the following members into their new roles: Mike Daws – President Nina Priddle- Vice President Leanne Steel – Secretary Monica Hoover – Treasurer Yolanda Lavorata – Outreach Director (oversees Fundraising, Parent Education, Special Events, and Marketing) Allie Sayles – Member Services Director (oversees Orientation, Enrollment, Class Reps) Tina Jhingan – Staffing Director (oversees Teachers, Jobs Coordinator, Personnel) You may be hearing from the director or executive member assigned to oversee your job in the preschool this year as we work on completing handbooks and policies for the preschool as well as expanding all job descriptions. A friendly reminder that attendance at the General Meetings is mandatory for one family member, as per Queen’s Park Preschool’s policies. Attendance will continue to be taken and absences followed up on. We have incredible speakers lined up for 2019 and we look forward to seeing you all there! SAVE THE DATE! The Queen’s Park Preschool Silent Auction is scheduled for April 6th at The Hive on Front Street. We will […]
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Big news for the month! Ms. Queenie will be starting her maternity leave after the December 4th General Meeting. We are all sending her love and warm wishes as she embarks on this new journey with her family! My child pretends to shoot guns – what do I do? For our parent education session this month, we welcome Sarah McCarthy. Sarah created ECE Connect in 2015 with the idea of connecting early childhood educators together, and offering workshops that she feels are needed in the field. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science in Education and Training, a diploma in Early Childhood Education and Montessori (0-12 years) and a certificate for Children with Special Needs. She has worked in play based centres, Reggio inspired centres, Montessori schools, and Forest schools. She’s been in the educational field for over 16 years; currently teaches in the Native Education College and Vancouver Community College, and is a board member of the ECEBC Vancouver branch. Our presentation at the general meeting will be about Superhero Play. All children have a right to play. This includes superhero play, sometimes weapon play and shocking themes like shooting storm troopers! Objectives for this workshop: Understand what children mean […]
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Welcome our Practicum Student Ling! Ling was born in Taiwan, and moved to North America when she was 20 years old. She lived in Florida for over 5 years. During that time she completed her Bachelor degree in Fine Arts, got married, and started her own family. She and her family moved and settled in Vancouver since 1997. Ling has been working as an ECE for over 10 years, and has had many wonderful experience with children aged from 0-6 in different group settings. Ling was a stayed at home mom for over 10 years. She was involved with her children’s learning, and volunteered both in and out school activities, such as teacher’s helper, PAC member and involved with school council planning, and one of the Cub Scout Leader from Scout Canada. She loves to learn with children through their play, curiosity, and creativity every day. She is grateful to be able to have this opportunity to walk along aside with each child for a short period of time in their life and share countless great moments with their family with trace of their children’s growth in every developmental areas. She has her ECE Basic Certification and Infant Toddler Certification, and […]
