November Parent Education
There will be no GM in November. You have the choice of four different options to fulfill your parent education requirements for the month of November:
1) Christopher Burt (seminar) – FAMILY SYSTEMS
Topic: “The Family System”
Location: Marlborough Elementary, 6060 Marlborough Ave., parking lot off Dover Street
Date: Thursday 15th November, 2012, 7pm-9pm
Cost: Please note – There is a block of tickets for QPP members only. Let them know you
are from QPP and you can go in. If you bring a non-QPP member, they must pay
for their ticket. Open to the Public – $10.00 at the door.
The Family System Seminar
The Family System seminar explores not only what to expect from your preschooler, but also looks at tension in the parenting couple and extended family as a result of role changes, the emergence of sibling rivalry, and how (and why) parents inadvertently begin to actually ignore wanted behaviour in their children. When looking at the developmental stage of preschoolers parents often ignore their own developmental stages – both as an individual parent and as a family – and there are many ‘typical’ challenges to this stage of family development. www.christopherburt.net
2) Barry MacDonald (seminar)- BOY SMARTS
Location: Massey Theatre, New Westminster
Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Cost: $10 (until Nov. 20) and $12 at the door
Tickets: available online at www.masseytheatre.com or by phone at 604-521-5050
More info: http://kidsnewwest.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/NewWestBoySmartNov21_PRINT.pdf
3) Wonder Of Learning Exhibit (exhibit)- view at your leisure
Location: River Market (upper floor), New Westminster
Date: Tuesday- Sunday (until Dec. 8th)
Time: 10am-6pm
Cost: free (donations welcome)
More info: http://www.wonderoflearningvancouver.com
4) Homework
If you are unable to attend one of the above options, you can choose to do “homework” for the month of November and submit a completed “Parent Ed Make Up” form to your class rep.
PLEASE NOTE: All families are allowed to miss two GMs during the year and complete the required homework for that month. THIS MONTH WILL NOT COUNT AS A MISSED MEETING.
ADITTIONALLY: You must submit the November Parent Education Form to your class rep, indicating the parent ed option that you completed for the month of November. “Homework” is only required for Option 4.
If you have any questions at all, please contact your class representatives.
Important Reminders
As you may remember from the last general meeting, all parents need to bring in their criminal record checks, doctor’s notes and character references in accordance with the “new parent regulations”. Deadline to bring them in is December 19. If you would like more information about the new parent regulations, please visit http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/12_332_2007
Don’t forget that class and individual photos are quickly approaching. Both classes will be photographed during class time, the 4s on November 5, and the 3s on November 6. Please ensure that the order envelopes are completed and returned on those days with full payment (all orders MUST be prepaid on photo day). Extra envelopes are available at the preschool.
Also, if you have not yet completed your “comfy kits”, please remember to do so, and don’t forget to check off your name at the preschool. If you have any questions about the kits or need details on what needs to be included, please contact your class representatives.
Congratulations!
Congratulations are in order to proud mama and papa, Lauren and David, and big brothers Finn (in the 3am class) and Owen on the birth of baby sister Isla! We are excited for you and hope your family is enjoying this special time together.
What is the CPPPBC and How Does it Relate to Queen’s Park Preschool?
At the October general meeting we had a presentation about the Council of Parent Participation Preschools of British Columbia (CPPPBC) outlining a little about how our preschool is governed. For those parents who were not able to make the meeting, here is a brief summary on the CPPPBC (this cleared a few things up for me!), including a current fundraising opportunity they are offering.
Founded over 60 years ago, the CPPPBC supports parent participation preschools – their children, parents, teachers and executives – by providing a medium of exchange and mutual assistance. They help with school operation issues and facilitating continuing education for parents and teachers, including informing the preschool of any new legislation, discounts on insurance, and a directory of parent education speakers. For a list of the benefits the CPPPBC provides, or for more information, visit http://www.cpppreschools.bc.ca/
The CPPPBC Fundraising Raffle
Each year many PPP preschools take part in this very special fundraiser, Queens Park Preschool included. Our preschool receives 40% cash back on all the tickets that you sell and CPPPBC pays for all the prizes, license and printing costs. The draw date is January 14th, 2013
Grand Prize -“Travel Anywhere” Dream Trip, worth $2,000.00
2nd Prize – 2-night stay at Delta Whistler Village Suites, worth $800.00
3rd Prize – Indigo Books and The Bay Gift Certificates, combined worth $350.00
4th Prize – Lady’s Watch worth $250.00
5th Prize – Man’s Watch worth $250.00
6th Prize – Entertainment Package worth over $200. 00
Total prize value over $3650.00
Help us reach our fundraising goal of selling two raffle books per preschool family. For example, selling just 50 books of tickets will net your preschool $400.00.
Collect Pennies-Make Change
Pennies for Change Drive
This year Free the Children, an international charity, is having a penny drive and the preschool is signed up to help. The goal of the penny drive is to provide a sustainable source of clean water to 100,000 people. The pennies go towards helping to bring clean fresh water to people in need around the world.
Every 2500 pennies ($25) = clean water for 1 person
We will have a container at the door for the months of November and December for you to drop off your pennies. For more information, please visit: freethechildren.com/wecreatechange
A Night of Education, Wine and Shopping
For those parents that had the pleasure of listening to Margery Healey at the October general meeting, you will know that she is full of ideas to enrich us as parents (remember boredom is a good thing!). She will be attending an upcoming event series if you wanted to hear a little more from Margery, or if you missed her the first time.
It will be held at Nestings Kids Store in Vancouver. She promises a great night out with wine, sweets and 10% off in the store. Margery will speak for about 40 minutes, and then will be available to take on questions for the next hour. This is a terrific way for parents to seek support and have fun.
For more information about this event, visit: http://www.modernmama.com/vancouver-west/2012/09/21/parenting-seminar-series-with-margery-healey/
Playdough Recipe
By popular demand, here is Donna’s homemade playdough recipe!
4 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups salt
6 Tbsp cream of tartar
4 1/2 Tbsp oil
4 1/2 cups water
2 tsp colour (or more)
Add color to oil. In large pot, mix all wet ingredients and then add dry. Cook over medium heat until stiff (about 5-10 minutes) stirring constantly (or it will burn). When dry to touch, turn onto wax paper (or clean counter) and knead. Cool thoroughly. Store in large zip lock bag in fridge 4-6 weeks.
**NOTE: You can also just add boiling water to the ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until too stiff to manage. Then, with thick rubber gloves on, knead.
For best colours use cake decorating colour (paste) instead of the liquid food colour. Or use 2 pkgs Kool-aid for both colour and scent. Also, add sparkles, spices, essential oils or flavourings at the end when cooked. You may need a bit more flour to make it less sticky. (Hint: Galloway’s is the cheaper way to buy cream of tartar.)
3-Year Old Class Information
What a wonderful month we have had! The children are really starting to explore the whole room now. They continue to enjoy building large train tracks together (lots of cooperation here!) as well as going down the fire pole and slide. At the art area, we have been exploring colour mixing with the paint. Watching the process that the children take to create their own colour and then paint with it has been amazing… one child was so excited when she mixed the colour purple… not once but twice!
Many of the children have also continued to enjoy cooking and making recipes at the playdough area as well as with water. We brought out many “ingredients” that the children could add to the water, such as sand, sparkles, beads and marbles. Many wonderful pretend soups and cakes have been made. This was a great lead into the “Friendship Soup Day” that we had. At the start of the day we mixed all the chopped vegetables in a HUGE pot. The children were very excited to have their turn to put their vegetable in and stir. Thank you to everyone for all your contributions to this day. We hope you enjoyed the soup.
We have really enjoyed singing together. One of the songs that we have learned this month goes like this:
There’s a spider on the floor…on the floor
There’s a spider on the floor…on the floor
There’s a spider on the floor…but he isn’t there anymore (or another rhyming word)
There’s a spider on the floor…on the floor.
There’s a spider on my knee, arm, belly button….
At preschool we use plastic spiders, but at home you could just pretend that your hand is a spider.
During November, we have planned to do a few activities with apples (as so many of the children seem to enjoy working with food). Please bring an apple (or two) to preschool on Thursday, November 1 (If you have any apple tree and would like to donate some apples please let us know). We also plan to go out into our own Queen’s Park Forest and do some exploring. On Thursday, November 22 we plan to go on a Forest Walk (with cookies and hot chocolate when we come back!).
We want to give you some notice about our class party in December. It will be on Thursday, December 20 and there will not be a regular preschool class that day. The 3am class party is from 10-11am and the 3pm class party is from 1-2pm. As there are no duty parents scheduled, all the preschool children must come with a parent/grandparent/nanny to enjoy the festive activities with. Closer to the time we will have a sign up for food. Siblings are more than welcome to join!
Things To Remember:
- Please bring an Apple – Thursday, November 1
- Class Photo Day – Tuesday, November 6 (we won’t have a messy art that day)
- Please bring in your comfy kits
- Monday Nov. 12 – Preschool Closed in lieu of Remembrance Day
- Forest Walk – Thursday, November 22
4-Year Old Class Information
We had a fabulous October digging for pirate treasures, doing yoga with a gorilla, putting on puppet shows and exploring our park on our first nature walk of the year! This month, we will be branching out beyond the park to explore our community. We will be talking about cities and neighborhoods and what makes them great. Community helpers, significant buildings, vehicles, stores and parks will all be examined and explored in the weeks to come.
We imagine we will be singing countless rounds of “The Wheels on the Bus!” If you have any contributions to embellish this favorite melody, feel free to chime in! These are the words to our snack song for those of you who would like to practice at home:
Hungry, hungry, I’m so hungry…
Table, table here I come!
I could eat a moose-goose burger,
15 pickles and a purple plum!
Some of the planned activities for November include:
- Converting the upstairs of the playhouse into a bus (or skytrain, perhaps?)
- Uniforms of all styles out for dramatic play
- Turning our block area into a construction zone as we build our own miniature city together
- Installing a can and string phone system
- Making ice cream
We will also be venturing down to the Fire Hall for a guided tour of the station, more information on that to follow. Also, we have invited a police officer or two in to visit us at the preschool.
Starting this month, we have two characters, Oscar the Sock Monkey and Stickybeak the Stuffy, who will be gong to each of your houses to sleepover. We will be drawing names out of a hat to see where each of them will be going next. They will take with them the “All About Me” books for you to look through together at home as well as a journal. In the journal feel free to record a brief memory that your child can share with us when you’ve brought Oscar or Stickybeak back the following class. Any questions, just ask your teachers!
Quote of the Month:
Teacher Jenny to a child: “What’s your favorite color today?”
Child: “Brown.”
TJ: “Brown is a favorite for me too. Peanut butter is brown and I love peanut butter. Why do you like brown?”
Child: “Because I love brown new things. I love my brown new socks and my brown new shirt!”
Things to Remember:
- Photo Day – Monday, November 5
- Preschool Closed for the Statutory Holiday – Monday, November 12
- Fire Hall fieldtrip – TBA
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