The most wonderful time of the year!

Today, as the Unicorn 4 year old class was walking through the community centre hallway, they heard the choir singing.  The children commented to the teachers on what they were hearing, and everyone gathered near the doorway to listen.  The choir members noticed the children and invited them in to join along!  The students were thrilled and performed two holidays songs for the choir, who in turn, joined in for Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and then treated the students to a choral round.  The choir invited the students back to join them anytime!

Here is a sample of the musical fun!

Classroom Activities

 

November was a busy month!  We ended it off with the letter 'D' and pyjama day, complete with short movies and popcorn snacks.

Letter D day.

 

 

 

Diving Ducks!

 

Dotting Dogs!

 

 

 

 

PJ Day.  Cereal Box Puzzles 

 

 

 

Winter Wonderland Classroom Transformation!!

 

Welcome to our Gingerbread House and Santa's Workshop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do Your Hear?

 

Animal matching while we listen to the story on CD.

 

 

Our mitten making project

 

Geometric seasonal picture making

 

 

Watercolour snowflake making

 

Building igloos from sugar cubes

 

 

Winter playdough

 

 

 

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Animal matching

 

 

 

Classroom Happenings.... Orca Room!

Transportation continues, along with the Letter B!!

Bugs and Black Bean sensory bin.

Bubble Blowing Art

Bears on B

December Newsletter

Happy December, Douglas Park Families!

It seems like we blinked and September turned into chilly, snowy December.  We have a busy month ahead of us, so please read on for important dates and reminders....

Winter Celebration- December 19th 12:30pm- 2:30pm 

If you haven't already, mark your calendars for our year end celebration!  There will be performances from the students, food and socialising time and a wonderful, family friendly entertainer.  Extended family and friends are welcome!  Please note:  There will be no regular classes in session this day. 

Holiday Fundraiser

 

Samples of the finished product are on display in the cubby rooms now!  (Note: The sample shows just one class, but each class will have a calendar of its own)  Order forms are available by the sign in books.  Please make cheques payable to Douglas Park Community Centre.


Salvation Army Donations

Just a reminder that we are still collecting food, toy and essential items for the Salvation Army Assistance Program.  Toys and essential items will be collected until Monday, December 8th and food donations until Friday, December 19th.  Donation boxes are in the cubby room areas of the class.

Winter Break Dates

Last day of class:  Friday, December 19th.
First day of class: Monday, January 5th. 
Letter G Day:  Friday, January 9th.

 

 

 

 

Orca 3's This Thursday November 27th

 

Unicorn 3am, 4pm and Orca 4's This Friday November 28th

 

 

 

 

Children are encouraged to wear their pajamas to class. Classes will be going to the Gym and then enjoying snacks and a Movie.

Orca Transportation!

 In the Orca room this month, the children have been busy exploring the theme of Transportation!!  Everything from trains, planes and automobiles.... all the way to ferry boats, city buses, bicycles and everything in between!

Driving over letters! 

 Fine motor skills, pre-writing (letter tracing) and pre-reading (letter recognition)

 

Airplane sensory bins!

 

 

Transportation memory game that turns into an airplane runway!

 

 

 

 

Lots of play with the car garage! 

Excellent opportunities to practice turn taking skills (negotiation/reasoning; impulse control).  The teachers have observed some wonderful co-operative play that involves imagination and maturing socialization.

 

Train cutting and colouring

 

Group play in the dramatic area. 

 We've transformed this area into a garage, complete with tires!

 

Vehicle wash station!

 

 

Stay tuned for more, as well as pictures from the Four-Year-Old field trip to the Translink Depot!

A is for Apple!

Our "Letter of the Week" curriculum kicked off with a bang!  The students were activiely engaged in exploring a variety of "A"- themed activities.  Show and Tell with "A" objects was a hit and each class came up with fantastic "A" words at group circle time!

 

Friday, November 14th: Letter B

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building a Capital A

 

 

Alligator Art! 

Ripping and gluing is great fine motor practice for little fingers.

In class this week.....October 27th-30th

 

 

Helping Hands!

Some of our 3 year olds had a wonderful time exploring some cooperative play!  The slide became a space for a group of the students to take turns working together to pull their friends up.  Great teamwork, Unicorns!

 

Halloween Prep

Some students working together to help construct our Monster Bean Bag Toss boards

Monster Eye Bags on the light table.

(Filled with sparkly gel, coloured gel and google eyes)

The children used fine motor skills to manipulate the bags and roll the eyes to the surface.  They all enjoyed this sensory activity!

Halloween Shapes.

Categorizing and counting.

Literacy (letter and word recognition), fine motor writing activity.

Light table pumpkin exploration!

 

 

This week in the classroom

It has been a very busy week for all! With the pumpkin patches and Diwali our little preschool has been buzzing. 

This week, the 3's and 4's in the Unicorn room came into a house corner that did not look like a house corner anymore. With straw, pumpkins, tombstones, spiders and fabric for texture the children have been creating their own "Spooky" environments.

On Monday, they also came into see that the corn they had added to water the Friday before had begun to sprout!  By Friday this week the sprouts are turning green and some are wondering what might happen next! Questions pondered were:   How did this happen?  What do they think the sprouts were called?  Should one touch them?  When questioned, "What helps a plant grow?"  the students concluded that it was due to all the sun we had over the weekend.  Also, that it should be left alone because they might break, and  it takes water, light and Love to make a plant grow.  We are definitely giving the corn lots of these 3 things to help our sprouts out.

Pumpkin Dissection took place on Friday. Children were able to touch and feel the seeds, as well as pulp. Some words that were used by the 3's were; "Squishy", and "slimy," to describe the guts. The 4's started to separate the seeds from the pulp so that next week they can roast the seeds and taste in class. A few spent most of class sorting through the slippery pulp with their fingers, pulling out the seeds and placing them in another bowl.  A lot of work and fine motor skills were used to fill our bowl with just seeds.

The classroom was also up to their elbows in bubbles while washing pumpkins! The great thing about this activity is that not only does it teach life skills, but it also gets the children involved in the process. It shows them what goes into life requires concentration and caring for the environment.