new january 2017 newsletter - st. james...
TRANSCRIPT
WELCOME BACK!!! Hope you all enjoyed
your holidays! I know our family did, but
we are also glad to get back into our
routines. I just wanted to send a huge
thank you to Whitney Burse and Rebecca Pallister
for planning and running our Christmas party. It
was a lot of fun and you ladies did an amazing job! I
also wanted to thank Pam Crichton for offering her
services for our Christmas Mini's fundraiser, I loved
our pictures as I'm sure you all did, she is an
amazing photographer! Thanks Pam!
We have some exciting things happening in January
and early February with our annual fundraisers:
Fun Fair and VIVA LAS VEGAS! Be sure to check
them both out!!
Just a couple reminders: First we have our General
Meeting on January 18th, 7pm in the church gym.
This meeting is mandatory for all full member
families, this means all Kids Club and all Superstar
families. Secondly, please remember to check your
messages daily for any school closures due to
weather.
Lindsay Blanche
President
St. James Co-opPreschool Newsletter
January 2017
Happy New Year St. James Families!
The Fundraising news for this time of year is all about Viva Las Vegas!!!
Our event is quickly approaching, so book your babysitter for Friday, February 3rd.
Each family is required to contribute to this event by donating a prize. The MINIMUM total
value is $40 - made up of a $20 Gift Card plus item of your choice, or a Gift Card of $40 or
more. This will be explained in detail at the General Meeting (Jan. 18th). The last date for
bringing these items to the school is Friday, January 27th. If you choose not to donate a gift
card / item, your "Viva" cheque will be cashed on the evening of January 27th (and prizes will
be purchased by the committee).
Each family is also asked to donate a bottle of wine for "The Ultimate Wine Basket" prize. The
executive members are donating craft beer for "The Ultimate Beer Basket" prize, so if you have
any stray brew you're not consuming, feel free to send it our way! There will a box in the Office
for these items.
Each family is required to sign up for ONE EVENT TASK or ONE FOOD COMMITMENT. Help
is required with setup, clean up, and providing amazing snacks for the event. Sign up sheets will
be available at the General Meeting, and afterwards, in the foyer at the Preschool.
Tickets are $10 each, and will be going on sale the General Meeting. $5 from each ticket you
sell will go towards your fundraising commitment for the year. With families often purchasing a
full table of 8, tickets sell out quickly. Get them ASAP so you are not disappointed! We have
unprecedented prizes - this is going to be the best event yet!!
Can't wait to see you there!
Pam and Becky
Two of Mrs. Franks favourite things are happening on the same day this year - FUNFAIR and her birthday. This year she is not going to wish for snow in case it turnsinto a snow day and that would ruin the fun fair instead she's going to wish forBaskin's & Robbins to bring back their Winter White Chocolate ice cream withchocolate covered cherry pieces and a cherry ribbon in it. After the fun fair I'll stop inand see if they did.
Our Fun Fair is a special event created for kids as if kids ran the world "Every kidwould be a Winner!With a little help and support from adults, this is an opportunity for kids to share, joinin and celebrate being a kid.
To make this day a success we need your support.
This is an opportunity to declutter at your house. We need-used children's books for the book sale.
-McDonald type toys for the grab it game-pez containers for the sucker pull.
-stuffed toys in good condition, especially medium and large size ones, for the PetShop game
-new unwanted children's birthday gifts for the Penny Table-older siblings over 10 to help run the games
Come out, bring siblings (it's a PD day for both boards)This is also a community event so invite your friends and their kids, the more themerrier.The event is held in the church's upstairs gym.Between 11:30 to 12:40 Games, pizza lunch ($2), used book sale and penny raffletable12:40 to 1:15ish Paul Fralick, the Lone Rhubardian from Turkey Rhubarb will behelping sing our cares away.1:20 -1:30 Penny Table Raffle Winners announced.1:30 Clean up
Admission is $2 which includes 5 games tickets. Extra tickets are 25 cents eachPizza slice and a drink is $2 Penny Table Raffle and Used Book Sale are extra.
Happy New Year and welcomeback!
I hope everyone had a greatholiday and enjoyed time spentwith family.We had a very fun and relaxing
holiday. My kids both found a new sportthey fell in love with....Skiing!
Not to say I am not happy with this sport,I don't ski, I am afraid to ski as I think Iwill break something and we all know theolder we get the slower we recover.
They had so much fun and they can't waitto get back to the hills.
I am looking forward to getting back intoa regular routine at home and at schooland if I don't see food for another monththat would be great too.Mrs. Hood
It was so exciting to get back to school and see all my friends again after the holidays.Although I enjoy the break I always miss my little ones.
As I expected they all grew.
By all accounts everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year’s festivities as did I with myfamily. I want to take the opportunity to thank all my friends for the lovely Christmas gifts
received. I enjoyed them all thoroughly. Some I shared and some I put in a safe place to enjoy selfishly.
We have been embracing the winter months and embracing the cold and the fleeting snow. We arelearning songs about the season, the animals friends and fun activities we associate with the season aswell. The Imagination Station is fantastic and the kids are really loving all the activities. Well done ladies.
On we will be having a pajama party to celebrate Winnie the Pooh’s birthdayas part of the “Snuggle Up and Read” activities planned throughout the city.Have your children come to school in their pajamas and bring any Winnie the Pooh or friends stuffiesand or books.
Mrs. WalkerRECE
Teachers’ Corner
Enjoying our cookies after our Amica
visit and walk downtown last month!
Teachers’ CornerRain, above zero temp, no snow on the ground outside..... Where's winter? Why, it's hidinginside St James Preschool.
In the Creative room, our bristol board ice rink is super slick for the hockey players with ourplaymobil zamboni ready to clean into action at a moment's notice. At the Expression Table,there’s a new product called Floof that is super amazing. Looks like marshmallows, super light
and soft and sticks together like playdough but doesn't dry out if left out. It comes with molding equipmentto shape into a snowman. The Imagination Station has been turned into a winter wonderland with lots ofwinter activities to test out. And down in the superstar gym, the sandbox if filled with white stuff. Perfectfor sifting or plowing or sprinkling because it's salt. Help add to our winter fun in the sandbox by sendingin a box of table salt for your child to add to the mix and Let it Snow!
I am also looking for used Christmas cards for our print center.
In Alphabet Soup on Thursday afternoons, we are almost to the middle of the alphabet. K, L, and M (oneof Mrs. Franks favourites)are ready to play. We will be trying to extend our concentration time whilecompleting our alphabet tasks. Remember to bring something each week for that week's letter so we canguess what it is during Show & Share.
And what is it that we do on Tuesday afternoons, you ask. We use our concentration powers to completetasks (Last week, we followed the directions to assemble the playmobil zamboni and hockey equipment inthe playmobil advent calendar) and we put our imaginations into high gear. For January, because it's thedark days of winter, we created a road course in the cubby room, pulled out a plasma car for each child,did a few loops of the circuit then added a flashlight to the plasma cars and turned out all the lights. Wowwas it dark but we could still see with our flashlights on. There is lots of shadows. The boys were amazedto see their headlight jump the walls as they followed the circuit around the room. Afterwards we wereready for some quiet time: snack and some winter stories. Maybe that one about the bear who snoresthrough winter might lead us somewhere in our imaginative play next week.
By month’s end we will be starting our vowel unit with the help of our paper mache monsters.Understanding the sound and role of vowels is the key to figuring out new words that cross your pathwhen you are learning to read. We will certainly be putting our imagination to work as we create our ownunique monsters and give them their own personality. And to ensure their transition home to your houseis easier, we will be creating a monster manner manual. Keep an eye out for the monsters’ debut in frontof the creative room window when they are completed.
Snow! Snow! Snow! There are lots of books about winter to explore and Jan Brett is just the author to helpus recreate hers and write a couple of our own. We all managed to squeeze inside The Mitten. I wonderwhat kind of clothing we can create for our animal friends in The Hat. Even Snowflake Bentley might popin with some ideas to share if we use Apple TV to explore winter words. We are gearing up for our puppetunit where we will put our imaginations and talents on centre stage.
Imagination Station Set Up (Emotions) on with the Clark,
Abdel Ghaffar and Gordon Families.
on with the Salitra and Charland Families and
with the Maloney, Gordon, Leja/Hines and Smith families.
Buckles Family to reach out to teachers at end of January (last week of school) to arrange for
the toys to be cleaned.
Dear Parents
Things are continuing to go smoothly
with all of our committees, cleans and
imagination station set ups and we
really appreciate all of your hard work in making
this happen.
Below is the schedule for playdough, laundry, toy
cleaning, school clean and imagination station for
the rest of January and February.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any
questions at all concerning any of this and thanks
you so much for your commitment to the school -
we couldn't do it without you!
Elizabeth Hutchison
416.388.6589 (cell)
Playdough - Smith Family
Laundry - Strecker Family
Playdough - Koop Family
Laundry - Abdel Ghaffar Family
Playdough - Beaudoin Family
Laundry - Verhey Family
Playdough - Leja/Hines Family
Laundry - Strecker Family
Playdough - Smith Family
Laundry - Abdel Ghaffar Family
Playdough - Koop Family
Laundry - Verhey Family
Position Name Email Address
President Lindsay Blanche [email protected]
Past-President Krista Campure [email protected]
Vice President &
Membership Co-ordinator
Aaron Vanderwal [email protected]
Treasurer Maggie Gallagher [email protected]
Secretary Becky Costigan [email protected]
Committees, Cleans, and
Schedules
Elizabeth Hutchison [email protected]
Fundraising Pam Crichton [email protected]
Viva Las Vegas Pam Crichton
Becky Costigan
Trips & Vistors Lindsay Birchard [email protected]
Newsletter & Publicity Christa Clark [email protected]
Scholastic Whitney Burse [email protected]
Website Aaron Vanderwal [email protected]
Teachers
Supervisor/Teacher Michelle Franks [email protected]
Teacher Sandra Walker [email protected]
Teacher Trish Hood [email protected]
Assistant Teacher Liz Hunter [email protected]