June 2015

 

From the President

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you.

Thank you for a wonderful year at preschool. Sure… yes… we started off with a little bit of poop and a fire alarm – but it was blue sky & sunshine from there on in! As we come to a close for another year, I want to take a moment to thank our fabulous teachers. Thank you to Teacher Donna for joining us… we hope you are having as much fun playing as we are! Congratulations again to Teacher Jenny for finishing her first year as Supervisor! Thank you to Teacher Eleanor & Teacher Barb to taking on the challenge of the 4-year old classes and introducing such amazing projects to our kids.

And thank you to our amazing executive team this year! For those brave souls who volunteer knowing it means extra meetings and more work – please know you are appreciated so very much. If you have an executive member in your class, please take a moment to say thanks… without them our school would not function as amazingly as it does.
If it feels like it’s all ending too soon, then check out what is still to come:

Sapperton Days & Canada Day at Queen’s Park
Come Join Us! The preschool will have a display at both Sapperton Days (June 14) and Canada Day in Queen’s Park (July 1). Sapperton Days we’ll be painting faces and Canada Day we’ll be blowing bubbles… so there will be lots of fun for everyone. Thank you to everyone who has offered to help out… we’ll be recruiting a few more volunteers over the next few weeks. Whether you stop by to help, or just for a visit… we look forward to seeing you there!

Summer Garden Watering Schedule – Volunteers Needed
Our amazing outdoor space doesn’t stop growing over the summer, so of course it needs watering! Last summer we created a weekly schedule with families passing a key along to the next family each week. This worked very well and we’ll be doing it again this summer. The sign up sheet will be circulated at the June GM… so if your kids will be begging to go “back to preschool” this summer – sign up for a week of watering and your kids will be thrilled. (sorry… only outside playing, not inside!).

Preschool Feedback Survey
To all those who have already taken the time to complete the survey – thank you! Your feedback will help make our preschool even better for future families. For those who haven’t had a chance to complete the survey yet, it should only take you between 5-15 minutes (based on the respondents thus far). Here’s the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VSPBX2J

For Returning Families – 2015/2016 dates
For those families who are returning, here are a few dates to mark on your calendars. More information about all these events will be in the Summer Newsletter which is sent out in August.

– Preschool Set Up (for incoming 4 year class families): Monday, August 31
– 1st Executive Meeting for the next school year: Tuesday, September 1
– September General Meeting: Tuesday, September 8
– New and Returning Family Orientation Night: Wednesday, September 9

And last but not least – for more news from the Council, check out the PPP Newsletter for May/June PPP Partner May June 2015

Attention 3am and 3pm Parents

So, who among us doesn’t like lifting heavy things and getting a little grimey (3 year old boys are exempt)?Not everybody at once. Well 4-year old parents, luckily you are off the hook. 3-year old parents, you will have the pleasure of getting the preschool ready for summer closure and cleaning. The date and time is June 23 at 6:30 PM at the preschool. Don’t worry parents, it goes quick and it’s not that bad because everyone pitches in. So all that is required is for one parent to attend, gloves (maybe), and a get ‘er done attitude. Teachers will be there to direct traffic on where to place those heavy things.

Social Activities

It’s your last chance to catch up with your favourite families before summer!

Potluck Picnic & Games Night
Queens Park,
Rainbow Playground Area
Saturday, June 13
5pm to 7pm

Join QPPS families for our final social event of the year – a potluck picnic in Queens Park and outdoor games. Bring a dish to share, your own beverages and a chair! Plates, cutlery and napkins will be supplied. Please sign up with your potluck item at the preschool or email amberorchard@gmail.com.

Parent Education

Enhance Your Resume Duty Parents!
Having completed a total of 20 hours of parent education during the school year (including orientation and monthly parent education hours), all duty parents have satisfied the Responsible Adult Status of Section 29 of the Child Care Licensing Regulation of the Community Care and Assisted Living Act. What does that mean? Duty parents are eligible to receive a Responsible Adult Status certificate. Whether you are looking for a job, work in early childhood education, or want something to show for the education and experience you have gained as an assistant in the preschool classroom, you may want this certificate for your portfolio.

To request your certificate, please sign-up at the June 2 General Meeting or send Tasha an e-mail by June 5, 2015 (tashamurray@outlook.com). Only duty parents who are up-to-date with their parent education hours (that is, don’t have any outstanding homework) are eligible for a certificate. Certificates are issued by the Council of Parent Participation Preschools in BC and will be distributed via your child’s box before the end of the school year.

In addition to the certificate, I encourage you to add your volunteer experience at the preschool to your resume. If you would like suggestions for wording you could use on your resume to describe responsibilities of a duty parent or your specific job at the preschool, please contact Tasha.

Have an overdue book?
While we don’t actually have due dates for resources borrowed from the QPPS parent education library, we do request that all materials be returned by the end of the school year.

Are You Practicing Your Purposefulness?
Last month, Kathy Flood came to speak to us about encouraging virtues in our children. Kathy is a Master Facilitator with the Virtues Project, a global grassroots initiative to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life. It empowers individuals to live more authentic meaningful lives, families to raise children of compassion and integrity, and educators to create safe, caring and high performing learning communities. For more information on the Virtues Project visit www.virtuesproject.com.

Click here for the list of children’s books Kathy brought with her, as well as additional pages of suggested resources on virtues. One suggestion Kathy had was to focus on a small list of virtues at one time – families can choose a few that are meaningful for them. She recommends the following virtues for preschoolers: caring, cleanliness, courage, courtesy, determination, enthusiasm, friendliness, gentleness, honesty, kindness, love, obedience, peacefulness, and patience.

What’s Up for June?
At the June 2nd General Meeting, Tricia Edgar, Program Director at Fresh Air Learning will join us to talk about their overly successful forest school, the value of outdoor play and what she has learned about keeping kids and parents happy and engaged in the outdoors. Fresh Air Learning (http://freshairlearning.org/) is a registered charity whose goal is to connect children to nature through play. Children in the Fresh Air Learning program explore forests and farms in the Metro Vancouver area, playing and learning with early childhood educators, community members, and parent volunteers.

Tricia is passionate about connecting people with natural places. For nearly 20 years, she has worked as a nature educator, developing programs that explore the streams, forests, plants and animals of the temperate rainforest. She is a permaculture teacher and a volunteer with several sustainable food-related organizations, including the North Shore’s Edible Garden Project. Tricia is also a writer who focuses on science and sustainability. When she is not working and learning and writing about the outdoors, you can find her hanging out with her daughter, hiking, running, gardening, or caring for her menagerie of pets. She enjoys traveling to amazing natural places and sharing them with her young daughter. She also loves stomping in the mud!

Fundraising

We are having a pub night get together at The Hub on June 5th at 7:30pm! Come out, have a drink and some yummy food!

Nutrition Column – Is Honey Really Healthy?

When it comes to nutrition the colour brown usually wins against the colour white – think about brown bread and brown rice, so can the same be said about brown sugar? Or should we just forget about sugar and start eating honey?

The main argument for brown sugar being healthier is that it’s less processed and therefore, more natural; unfortunately in most cases this just isn’t true. To be cheeky, I can go so far as to make the argument that brown sugar is actually more processed because it requires additional steps to make the sugar brown…but we won’t go there. Sugar (white OR brown), is made from the same source either sugar cane or sugar beets. The refining process removes the molasses from the sugar cane leaving behind crystals. Most commercial brown sugars have this molasses added back into the refined white sugar for colouring and flavor…same product just different colour and different flavour…interesting.

Now going back to honey – is it the best choice? From a processing standpoint yes! Honey is the least refined sweetener plus we can purchase honey from local companies who have very high purity standards reducing our carbon footprint significantly. Manuka honey is known for its enzymatic and antioxidant status but we would need be eat a lot of honey to get the benefits from it.

Take home message – variety is always key! Use sugar in your coffee, honey in your tea and next time try some coconut sugar in your baking. Coconut sugar is a less refined, low glycemic sweetener, which is sustainably harvested from coconut blossoms.

Jessica Pirnak is a private practice dietician working in New Westminster. She is passionate about education, prevention and creating a healthy community. In her spare time she updates her personal food blog ( http://www.foodyourself.com) where she discusses hot topics in nutrition.

3-Year Old Class Information

Ah sunshine, ah inside outside days, ah bubbles and chalk and worms and snails and bees and flowers and planting seeds, ah musical instruments and dancing, ah jumparoo, ah books and stories and babies and animals! May was a fantastic month filled with all of these things and so much more!
Our bee keeper visitor Jenny was wonderfully warm, informative, friendly and gentle with us.
We loved dressing up like beekeepers, learning about bees, seeing the busy hive and tasting honeycomb as well as different kinds of honey! In June we will be exploring papier mache and together with the 4 year old classes we will create a mountain and a volcano.

We are following up on the childrens curiosity about dinosaurs. Lets see what happens as each day passes!
Our class room has also been spending some time talking about gardens and flowers and how things grow. We learned about the life cycle of a bee! Last month we planted sunflower seeds and observed them beginning to grow! Don’t be suprised if this month we plant some beans!

SUNFLOWER by Miela Ford and Sally Noll
I hold a seed in my hand
It is white with dark stripes
Carefully I place it in the ground
Every day I water it
Every day I watch and wait
Then little green leaves up to my knees
Up to my nose
Over my head
Big yellow petals face the sun
Seeds in the centre
Treat for butterflies, treat for birds, treats for me.

DINOSAURS By Meish Goldish (to the tune of “Pussycat, Pussycat”)
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs,
Where have you been?
I’ve only seen you
In books that you’re in.
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs,
Why aren’t you here?
I want to know what
Made you all diasappear!

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs,
How you would roam!
Forests and beaches
Were your private home.
Dinosaurs, dinosaurs,
How you could eat!
Dining on plant life
Or dining on meat.

Dinosaurs, dinosaurs,
Where did you go?
Once you were giants,
And how you did grow!
Dinosarus, dinosaurs,
What made you die?
So many guesses,
But no one’s sure why.

OWL (Orphaned Wildlife) will be visiting us on Thursday, June 4. Our guest will bring with them a few feathered friends to visit our classroom.

Our last day of preschool is June 18. We will be celebrating in the bandshell up in the park, the same space we all first met and got to know each other! You child will go home with their Year-End Book and other belongings on June 16. Preschool class on Thursday, June 18 will be held during your regular class time. Please stay with your child(ren) for the duration of class time. Feel free to venture into the water park and petting farm. Snack will be potluck style: everyone please bring a plate of a favourite snack item to share. We will have a farewell Circle just before class time usually ends and wish you all an amazing summer!

4-Year Old Class Information

It is June ALREADY!! We had a wonderful month of May that included creating our paper mache mountain (complete with hideouts and tunnels), exploding volcanoes, hunting for gems and jewels in the sand mine, and exploring different kinds of rocks. The snails were enjoyed by many, and the children cheered on many snails as the raced. Some children even created bridge areas and playgrounds for the snails to creep over! Thank you to all the families that joined us at our family tea party. We hope you enjoyed it…..a HUGE thank you to alumni mom Christi for making all the scones!! We finished off the month with a visit from OWL Bird Refuge….it was wonderful to see the beautiful birds.

This month we will finish off the year with two special events:
“Preschool and Picnic in the Park” on June 12 – both the morning and afternoon class will meet at the Band Shell in Queen’s Park for a special morning of outdoor activities. We will have activities planned from 10-12 am, and then plan to have a picnic afterwards. There will be no duty parents so all preschoolers must attend with a parent/grandparent/nanny (siblings are welcome too!). Please bring along your picnic lunch and a blanket to sit on

“Last Day Party” on June 19 – at this party we will have some special activities, a preschool “photo booth”, and an ice cream bar, and then we will finish with a sing-a-long and a presentation of preschool certificates and the children’s portfolio binders. All the children and their parents/grandparents/nannies and siblings are invited to attend. (Please note that there will not be a regular preschool class that day – just the party.) As there will be no duty parents we ask that each child come and stay with a parent/grandparent/nanny. We will have a sign up for the ice cream bar at the general meeting.

The party times are:
4am class: 10am – 11am
4pm class: 1pm-2pm

We would like to thank you all for being part of our preschool year. It has been wonderful to see your children grow and develop. We have loved getting to know you, your children and your families. We appreciate all the effort and time that you’ve spent on duty and doing other preschool jobs. Thank you for the kindness and support that you have shared with both of us and how you have cared for each other. We wish you a safe and fun summer……and then an incredible Kindergarten year!

From Teacher Barb and Teacher Eleanor