As May is quickly flying by, so is our Preschool year! We are always amazed at this time of the year to look back and see how much the children have grown and changed physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually. We remember what a slow, gentle start we had in September and marvel at how quick and competent the children are now. The Easter Services certainly were evidence of this. The children were remarkable remembering all their songs and poems, and didn’t you just love their little Vegetable Garden Story play? The Easter Service is something that we look forward to each year. It really is incredible to see how far the children have come since the Christmas Services! We hope you enjoyed the service and the tea afterwards. It is a pleasure to serve you a cup of tea and sit just for a few minutes and have a chat with you as a family. We thank Cheryl for composing the whole program, and helping the children to learn their parts. We thank Phyllis and Chris for helping make the tea.

This will be our last Newsletter for this Preschool year, so we would like to say a huge Thank You to Seth Immell who has been our Publisher for the past 3 years. Seth has been very innovative in changing the layout of our newsletter and it is something that we proudly put on line, hand out to parents who come to the Preschool for a tour, and send by email for all our parents to enjoy. Seth’s oldest son Sean is a graduate of St. Catherine’s, and now, second son Ian will graduate Preschool this year, so we say Goodbye, and Thank you to the Immell family. We so appreciate Seth’s commitment to the Newsletter. He never missed a month in three years, and even emailed the final copies when he was on holidays!

We would like to thank all our Parents who came into the classroom over the past year to help out, or sent goodies in for the various parties. The parties wouldn’t be near as much fun without all these treats, and you can be sure they were enjoyed by the children, and the teachers alike! Also, a special Thank You to the Parents who helped out on the Board this year. Your contributions and support are greatly appreciated. On that note, we would just like to mention that there are a few places on the Board that need to be filled in September. Our Board is made up of two Co Chair people, church representatives, community representative and four parent members. Two of our existing Parent Members have agreed to sit on the Board for another year, so we have two vacancies

Dates to Remember

June 15/16 Wednesday/Thursday

4’s Graduation:

Invitations to follow

June 17

Friday

Last day of classes

June 20/21 Monday/Tuesday

Picnics

Learning Through Play

PRESCHOOL PRINTS - MAY, 2011

From The Office

Doris & Tina

St. Catherine's

Childcare Society

1058 Ridgewood Drive

North Vancouver, BC

V7R 1H8

(604) 980-1326 stcpre@telus.net

At St. Catherine’s Preschool,

we are fortunate enough to be

able to offer financial support

to families that may need as-

sistance with fees at certain

times in their lives.

This fund was set up by the

guild at St. Catherine’s Angli-

can Church approximately six

years ago. If are interested in

contributing to this fund and

sponsoring a child, please

either phone the office or

come in and talk to Doris or

Tina.

The Guild Fund

PAGE 2 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

that need to be filled in September. If more than two people step forward and volunteer we will have an election at the September AGM. If this is something you may be interested in doing, please contact Tina or Doris in the office.

The Teachers at St. Catherine’s would like to Thank the Board for their kindness and support throughout this past year. It has been good to work with you, and get to know you a little better as the year goes by.

For the next few weeks we will be very busy with yearend celebrations, so make sure you keep an eye on the bulletin boards outside your classroom door. We will keep you posted on upcoming events via email, and this newsletter under the Dates to Remember column. During the month of May you are invited to come spend some time in the classroom with your child if you wish. You can sign up for a morning or afternoon on the bulletin board outside your child’s room.

Next year we will celebrate the 21st

Anniversary of St. Catherine’s Preschool with a huge outdoor party in our car park on May 5

th. We are so excited about this, and the planning is already underway. We will be looking for about 4 or 5

more parents to join the committee to make this day a success, so if you would like to help out, please call Doris or Tina in the office at 604-980-1326.

We say Good Bye to families whose children are moving on to kindergarten and wish you all the best! Please be sure to join us in our Anniversary Celebration next year. We say have a great summer to families who will be back in the Fall, and look forward to seeing you then!

Thanks for another wonderful year!

Doris & Tina

Even More From The Office

Doris & Tina

SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM

This summer the children

while be blasting off to Outer

Space! There are still a few

spaces available in the

afternoon program. It runs

Monday to Thursday, from 1

to 4 pm and the cost is $85.

This program is open to

children 3 to 6 years old

whether they have been

students at St. Catherine’s

Preschool or not. Please call

Marion if you would like to

reserve a spot at

604-980-1326.

PAGE 3 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

It has been a great year with lots of laughter and learning through play. All the children have demonstrated that they are ready for new challenges.

The 2’s have begun to make connections with their peers and we can now hear some conversations emerging that are absolutely delightful to listen to. Many of them have been successful with toilet training while others are working on being ready for the 3’s.

The 3’s have learnt so much this year about sharing, using their words and developing their listening skills, especially at circle time. For some of the children, going to the 4’s will mean an extra day of preschool. In the 4’s the children will learn to become more independent with dressing and self help skills. There will be lots of opportunities for the chil-dren to develop their kindergarten readiness skills.

The 4’s are moving onto Kindergarten. Parents can help with this transition by:

Talking with your child about the impending changes

Helping your child acquire many self help skills

Encouraging your child to ask for help when needed

Allowing your child to practice working independently

Teaching your child to follow directions

Helping your child learn his/her full name, address and phone number

Teaching your child about rules and how important they are

I want to wish everyone a great, sunny summer and as

usual I never say good-bye, but see you in the Village.

Resource Office

Marion

PAGE 4 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

Staff News:

Congratulations to Brita who delivered

a beautiful baby boy on May 5th! His

name is Harrison, a baby brother for

Isabella. Mom and baby are doing just

fine! Brita will be on Maternity leave for

the rest of this year, and the best part

of next year.

Welcome to Arsi, who has joined our

staff to do Brita’s Maternity leave. Arsi

graduated Capilano University with her

ECE and post basic Infant/Toddler

qualifications. She brings with her

many years of experience from Lons-

dale Creek. Arsi is already a valued

member of our Teaching Team in 302

and 403.

Jean’s Week Results:

Thank you for your donations to the

BC Children’s Hospital during our

Jeans Week. We will be able to send a

cheque for $175 directly to them as a

result of your donations.

Notice from the Church:

This September the Church would like

to start a Children’s Choir. It would

included boys and girls ages 5 and up,

and meet for practice on Monday from

3:30 to 4:15. We would sing occasion-

ally at church and other community

events. Please contact Siiri, at

604-341-6984, or email at

rebanesiiri@gmail.com or call the

church office at 604-985-0666.

Housekeeping

What a pleasure it was to present the Easter Services with your children. I saw such a difference in them since Christ-mas. Not only were they able to learn their words and ac-tions, but they could play their instrument, then sing while keeping their instrument quiet. My favourite was the vege-table garden scene. I think we have some budding stage actors in our presence.

I asked the children what their favourite part of the Service was, and here are some responses:

Singing all the songs and Mommy was there and watching me and I was a great singer and Mommy was happy at me!

I liked Alleluia

I liked Dig a Little Dig a Lot

Talking into the microphone

Seeing Nana and Papa

When they took pictures of me

Sitting down playing the drum

I didn’t have any fun at the Service …cause I was in Palm Springs!

CREATIVE MUSIC

Cheryl

PAGE 5 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

From The 2s

Danielle, Estelle, Vibha, Joanna & Barb

Spring is just sailing along or should I say raining along. Easter was a big hit with the children. The children enjoyed making their Easter decorations such as painting and gluing with different materials on the cutout Easter baskets, eggs and bunny rabbits.

In the home corner the children really enjoyed playing with the different baskets, bowls and plastic eggs. They had a great time filling and emptying the containers as well as hiding the eggs in the home corner furniture. The also enjoyed the other activities set up around the room, such as puzzles, bugs and plastic eggs in the water table. The children have been enjoying playing a Guess the Sound game, discerning different animal and transportation sounds. They especially enjoy calling out what they are hearing.

In preparation for Mother's day, everyone was very busy working on their gift and learning their special song. It's to the tune of Frere Jacques. Here's the song if you'd like to sing it with your child:

We love Mothers We love Mothers,

Yes, we do Yes we do

Mothers are for hugging

Mothers are for kissing

We love you, Yes, we do!

We are continuing our spring theme with the focus being on farm animals and hopefully we will also get some spring like weather.

Toilet learning is going well and just a reminder; if you are starting at home, we are more than happy to continue the process at school.

Our two year olds are becoming more and more like three year olds and are ready for the next step. They are talking more and say the funniest and cutest things and come in looking for their special friend(s).

Hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day!

PAGE 6 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

From The 3s Rainbow Room 301/303

Jen and Permjit

In the rainbow room, we cannot believe that we are into May already and it’s not long to go before summer. It’s that time of year when you realize Preschool is coming to an end. The year has flown past and we cannot believe how much the children have grown, matured and become so independent.

The other day, there was sand on the floor. We could see the red handle of the broom going backwards and forwards. Underneath, a little person was sweeping away and had the dustpan in his other hand. It was priceless; they just take it on themselves to tidy up. They usually get the smaller dustpan and brush out and clean up by themselves. To watch them try to maneuver the big one was quite amazing. The children are really expressing themselves about what they like or do not agree on. If something isn’t working out or a conflict arises, they sort it out themselves; we are on hand only if needs be. These skills are important to develop because as they get older, they will stand their ground on things they feel are not right and it makes them more confidant to speak up.

In the gym, throwing and catching the ball has been a big hit. We have great baseball players in our pre-school.

Each of the children have their own unique personality. It’s been a real pleasure to see them maturing as individuals and seeing the difference from September. A day does not go by without some sort of laughter or some funny comment that makes us realize why we enjoy working with children. They are so honest and open and tell you as it is, no beating around the bush.

The children worked hard to get ready for the Easter Services. It helped that they adore Cheryl and love going to music. Rehearsing in the church was like an adventure. You as parents got to see the end result; the children did a fantastic job. We felt all the hard work paid off. We loved seeing everyone at the Easter Tea afterwards. Thank you to Doris, Tina and Marion for getting it ready for us.

The children loved making Easter baskets and then we had an Easter Egg hunt. They had to find five eggs each and put them in their baskets. Once they found theirs, they helped the other children to look. A lot of cooperation and fairness went on.

We explored the world of worms. We brought in a tank full of worms and called it “Wormanaryium”. The children loved looking at them. We continued on with our spring theme and went on to do a week of mixing colours. What happens when you mix two colours together? It becomes a secondary colour. How do we get green? Etc., etc!

For jeans week, we decorated our jeans using pastels. Children wondered whether they could wear them and if they would fit. It was a lot of laughter and fun making them. We talked about how the money in the umbrella was going to help children at BC hospital. Thank you to Marion for kindly cutting the jeans out for us.

We made a surprise Mother’s Day gift and the teachers enjoyed hearing about what they love about mummy. It was nice to hear that you appreciated the bookmarkers and would be using them for years to come.

Our theme for the next month is Pirates; you may have noticed the pirate flags. The children enjoy listening to stories about pirates. We have built a pirate ship in our home corner. We will have a Pirate Party at the end of the month.

PAGE 7 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

Finally, since it is our last newsletter for 301/303, we would like to thank every one of you for letting us have the privilege of looking after your children. We have had an amazing year! Have a safe and wonderful summer and see you in the fours.

We would also like to thank the people behind the scenes that make our job easier and run like clockwork. They are Doris, Tina and Marion. That’s why we can give the children 100% because of the support from the three lovely people we have mentioned.

We would like to say Welcome to the new baby

brothers & sisters:

Alexander: a new little sister: Isabella

Laila: a new little brother: Omari

From The 3s Rainbow Room 301/303

Jen and Permjit

PAGE 8 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

From The 3s Treehouse 302

Stephanie, Shelley, and Arsi

We have been keeping very busy with the Easter Service rehearsals, the Easter Service and the Tea. The children had so much fun being up there and singing their songs. They all learnt the songs so quickly, thanks to Cheryl, who put so much effort into the services. It was wonderfully put together and it was great hearing the children’s lovely singing voices. We hope you enjoyed the treats that were up in the gym for our tea after the services. It was a pleasure seeing the children and their families sitting together.

It was such a nice surprise to have the Easter Bunny hide chocolate eggs all over our classroom. The children were so excited that they each got to find five eggs and put them into the Easter basket they made.

We hope all of you enjoyed the Mother’s Day gifts. It’s always such a nice keepsake to have a picture of your child’s handprints as we all know they grow so quickly! The children enjoyed having their hands painted to make a special gift for their moms.

The children were all curious about the upside down umbrella we had in the classroom. At circle we explained to them that it was Jeans week and we were raising money for Children’s Hospital to help all of the sick children get better. The children had the chance to decorate their own pair of jeans with glitter glue. Thank you for all of the donations during this week.

It has been wonderful having the parents come and spend the day in the classroom with us. The children always get so excited when their parents get to stay and play, and see what they do during the day at school. We always enjoy this time as it gives us a chance to get to know you better.

For the next few weeks we will be talking about all of the different things that live in the sea.

With summer on its way we would like to say it has been a wonderful year full of fun and exciting experiences with your children. They have grown so much over the year and have learned so many skills that they will be able to take away with them. They have also built many relationships with the children and the teachers in the classroom. Thank you to all of the parents and the children for such a lovely year. Hope to see you all next year.

Have a great summer!

PAGE 9 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

From The 4s Treehouse 401 and 403

Stephanie, Shelley, Barb, Jackie and Arsi

Wow what a busy month we had with Easter Service rehearsals, and then our wonderful Easter Service and Tea! All of the children did an amazing job at the services. They all sang the songs beautifully. We would like to thank Cheryl for all the time and hard work she put into the services. They were a huge success! It was nice to see all of the families at the tea in the gym. We hope you had a good time, and enjoyed sharing that time with your children.

It was a very exciting day when the Easter Bunny came to visit our classroom and left chocolate eggs all over for us to find. When the children found five eggs, they put them into the Easter basket that they had made.

With flowers blooming all around us, we talked about the many different things we see during Spring time. We splattered painted butterflies, made handprint and footprint flowers, and collaged honeycombs.

The children really had fun decorating bags for their Mother’s Day gift. They were all very special because the children drew their own picture and then added stamps to them afterwards. They were proud of what the bags looked like when they had finished. Hope you all enjoyed the bags and the cards. It must have been interesting to see how your child answered each one of the questions about you.

We would like to thank everyone for their donations for Jeans week. At circle time we talked about how all the money was going to Children’s Hospital to help sick children by using it to buy new equipment and doing more research and tests. The children decorated their own pair of jeans, cut out of denim, with paint and glitter. Then we hung them up in the classroom on a clothesline.

It has been a pleasure having the parents coming in to spend a day in the classroom. The children love having their parents stay and it is a great opportunity for us to get to know you better.

For the next couple of weeks we will be talking about the alphabet (recognition of upper case and lower case letters) and then we move on to Hawaii for the end the year!

With the end of the year coming up, please be on the look out for graduation notices. We have had an amazing year with your children. The children made many strong relationships with the other children as well as the teachers during the year. It has been a pleasure getting to know each and every one of them. We would like to wish them the best of luck in kindergarten and would like to thank the parents as well for such a wonderful year. We are going to miss seeing all of your faces at the

Preschool. Have a great summer!

PAGE 10 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

From The 4s Downunder

Libby, Joanna and Stella

We really enjoyed the Easter Service. The

children had such a great time learning all their

songs and words. The vegetable garden looked

so great. Thank you to all the parents that

helped their children learn their special words.

The children did such a great job and felt so

proud to say them in front of everyone.

When the children had recovered from the

excitement of the service and the tea, they

worked hard to pack their Mother’s a bag a bath

salts. They put their bags in nice blue baskets

and wrapped them themselves. Each child

worked hard to write their own name on their

card for their Mother. It is so nice to see the

pride the children take in what they made for a

Mother’s Day present.

We spent two weeks learning all about

Canadian Artist Tom Thomson. We talked

about Tom’s mysterious death and took turns

speculating about what might have happened. When then decided to become artists! The children sketched drawings

with pencils, and then painted over their sketches with water colours. The next day they were given a canvas to test their

new abilities. They sketched a drawing on their canvas then painted over with acrylic, just like Tom did. It was fun to see

the pride in the children as they showed off their work at the St. Catherine’s Art gallery. Thank you to everyone who

came for the viewing!

Then it was on to Pirates! The children had lots of fun learning about all the real life famous pirates. Long John Silver

Libby and Joanna made the house keeping corner into a Pirate ship. It was a favourite place to play for everyone.

With the Preschool year coming to an end, it is time to think about the children and their graduation ceremony. What a

great time this will be; exciting for the children to be moving on to great things at Kindergarten, but sad that the children

are leaving Joanna and Libby. Thank you to all the children for the great memories this year. Congratulations and good

luck in Kindergarten!

PAGE 11 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

Of Interest

1895 8th grade final exam

Take this test and pass it on to your more literate friends..

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file

at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895

Grammar (Time 1 hour) 1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters. 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications. 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,' 'play,' and 'run.' 5. Define case; illustrate each case. 6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation. 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time 1 hour 15 minutes) 1.Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare? 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton. 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. 7. What is the cost of 40 boards at 12 inches wide and 16 ft long at $20 per meter? 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent. 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods? 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

PAGE 12 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

Of Interest

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes) 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe? 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time 1 hour) [Do we even know what this is??] 1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication 2. What are elementary sounds? How classified? 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?) 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup. 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last. 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, 1 hour) 1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ? 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? 4. Describe the mountains of North America 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.. 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

(Continued from page 11)

PAGE 13 PRESCHOOL PRINTS

Pizza Night & Cake Walk

April 14th was our Pizza Night and Cake walk! The turnout was fantastic, and everyone had such a good time. We had

three kinds of pizza to choose from, the staff made all the wonderful salads, and the Board took care of all the

deserts…..so many choices. But the best part of the evening was the Calk Walk! Thank you to all the parents who made

and donated all the cakes. Some were so creative, and all were totally delicious, for sure. The children love to play this

game, and if they should win a cake, it makes it even more exciting. It was fun to see people sharing the cakes they had

won. Thank you to everyone who so thoughtfully helped us clean up the gym; we really appreciated that. Although we

call this a fund raiser, it really is more of a time for our families to get together with the staff and board members, and

have some fun. We did raise just over $400, and that money will go toward new toys and equipment for the classrooms.