Nursery News February 2015 St. John’s Christian Nursery School 22 Willow St. Waterloo, On 519.746.4202 stjohn2@bellnet.ca www.stjohnsnurseryschool.ca Valentine’s Day To celebrate Valentine’s Day at St. John’s, we will be having small special Valentine’s Day parties in our individual classrooms. We will celebrate in the morning and afternoon on Thursday, February 12th, and in the morning on Friday, February 13th. Please come to school on these two days dressed in red and/or pink! These small group parties will include special Valentine crafts, a special Valentine snack, and the children will have a chance to hand out any special Valentine’s Day cards they have for friends. Please have your child print only their name on the card, not who the card is for. This allows the children to be successful in delivering their own cards to their friends. Each preschool/JK group has sixteen children per class/group, and the toddlers have ten children per group. Family Day Fill a Jar! It was such a success last year, we have decided to bring back our “Fill-a-Jar” fundraiser! It’s really easy and a lot of fun! Step 1: Find an empty jar. The jar can be any size, a pickle jar, baby food jar, applesauce jar, etc. Step 2: Fill your jar(s) with small items...some examples are; candies, hair clips, small toys, dog treats, gum, craft items, soup mix, etc. Be creative!!! Step 3: Bring your filled jars to the school office by Friday, February 13th so that we can organize the sale for the week of February 17th-20th. The jars will be set at nominal prices, and displayed outside the office. Families will have a chance to buy jars throughout the week. Here are some examples of jars we’ve had in the past. The more families who participate, the more fun to be had!! Tax Receipts Tax receipts for 2014 are ready and will be handed to you by your child’s teacher at the beginning of February. If you have not received your receipt by the end of February, or if there is an error or any other concern, please speak to Christine. Upcoming February Concepts We kicked up February with our Book Landing Library in the hallway. Lots of children have been enjoying it. We would love to continue on this literacy theme for the next few weeks. Some ideas, have your child bring in their favourite story or book from home, talk to your child’s teachers about coming into our classroom to read a story with your child’s group. Donate a copy of your favourite book( child or adult) to our school library for others to enjoy. From the Operating Committee Sometime in the month of February you will receive a link to our ‘Parent Survey’. We greatly appreciate your input and time taken to complete this survey as your feedback is vital in creating and maintaining a positive learning experience for all children. All information will be compiled by the online survey program, forwarded to a member of the Operating Committee, and summarized in a report. This report will be shared with the rest of the Committee, the Director, and all teachers. We will then share a summary with you in an upcoming newsletter. Thanks again for your time, we value your comments. Pancake Tuesday and Lent Easter is on it’s way. On Tuesday February 17th we will kick off the Easter Season with a special pancake snack that the children will be making. Also throughout Lent Hillia (Intern Pastor from St. John’s) will be coming to visit the children to read stories and make Easter crafts with them. CTV Commercial On Monday January 26th CTV Kitchener was here to film a commercial for KW Habilitation. Our Monday AM Monkey group participated and had fun with the camera crew. Commercials will be starting to air the week of February 2nd. Hope some of you catch them on T.V. New Faces Around the School We would like to extend a warm welcome to this semester’s Conestoga College ECE students. Welcome to Anne, Jessica, Kayla, Puneet, Lian, Lejla, Tejmah, Yan. These students are here to train to be an Early Childhood Educator. They will be here until April. Welcome! 2 The Upcoming 2015/2016 School Year St. John’s registration for the upcoming 2015-2016 school year will begin in March. In our March newsletter you will receive information about our new fees as well as a link for our online registration for 2015-2016. All families who are returning to St. John’s in the fall must complete the online registration and pay the registration fee to ensure a spot is reserved for your child. Registration will be open to the public March 23rd (after March Break). Children born in 2011 will qualify for all day junior kindergarten in the school board. If your child is off to school in the fall, please be sure to contact your local school to register your child. JK Registration for the school board is happening in February in Waterloo Region. If you are unsure which school is your local school, ask Christine she can help you figure that out. Are you thinking all day JK is not for your child? Then maybe St. John’s for another year is your option. We continue to offer our Kindergarten program here at St. John’s Nursery School. Our Kindergarten program continues to operate as a half-day program either in the mornings or in the afternoons, (excluding Friday afternoons). Our program meets the curriculum requirements for Kindergarten as set by the Ministry of Education. As well, we offer a “Lunch Bunch” program for families who need some extended hours of care. Welcome Board We recognize here that St. John’s family is made up of many other cultures. We want to make sure everyone who comes here is represented. To do that the teachers want to do a center wide project and hang flags of all the heritages in the stairwell. We have started by hanging flags of the heritages we are aware of. If you don’t see your family’s flag on the board email us your country of origin and we will get yours posted. Christine’s Tidbit In the winter months I see many children come to school with very red chapped lips. The more chapped their lips are the more they lick, the more they lick, the more red they get. To help with soreness and reduce redness, apply lanolin to your child’s lips and redness. Even applying once can take the redness away. It has amazing healing qualities, and it always helped my children. 3 You Asked We Responded Many of you have asked about preauthorized payments instead of cheques. The Board of Directors have looked into it, and unfortunately it is not cost effective for our non-profit program. So cheques are here to stay. Many of you have told us that the documentation boards for toddler and monkey groups are not easily accessible at 11:30. We are currently looking to hang new boards in the hallway and make them for accessible for parents to see. Now… We Ask, You Respond. Our 1st new Kitchen Set arrived and is set up in the Owl Room. The children love playing in the kitchen but really enjoy when they get to use “real” things in our kitchen area. Real plates, mugs, glasses, pots, pans, teapots, utensils, wooden bowls etc. As you can imagine these items break quite easily and need replacing, therefore we are looking for donations of kitchen items that are fun and interesting to add to our kitchen sets. We know adding this to the newsletter we could be bombarded with donations, so before you bring your items in please talk to your child’s teachers. Thank you. Does anyone have one of these office caddies kicking around their house? If so we want it. Ours is in poor repair. Thank You… Thank you to Vet Jessica for coming in to visit our morning group. The children enjoyed meeting Peggy. Thank you to Manulife who donated $500 to our school. We used the money to cut 3 more classroom doors into Dutch Doors. Thank you to many generous Chartable donations from families in December. Your donation will be used for new toys and books for our classrooms. Thank you to St. John Teachers who will be attending a workshop on Saturday Feb 21st. They will be joining four other childcare centers to explore the new Ministry of Ed Preschool document “ How does learning Happen?” It will be a day of community, questioning, sharing and reflective discussions. On the Playground We are enjoying the days we can get out. The Christmas trees and ice sculptures have added great play value outside. Keep bringing your ice sculptures in for the children to enjoy. 4 St. John’s Christian Nursery School 22 Willow St. Waterloo 519.746.4202 stjohn2@bellnet.ca Newsletter at: www.stjohnsnurseryschool.ca February Sunday Monday 1 8 Tuesday 2015 Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 2 3 Groundhog Day! 4 5 6 7 9 11 13 14 19 20 Scholastic Book Orders Due 21 KW Hab Mom’s coffee hour. 9:30-10:30 10 12 Valentine Party Wear Red/ Pink Bring in jars this week 15 22 16 Family Day School Closed today 17 Pancake Tuesday 23 24 18 Valentine Party Wear Red/ Pink "Fill -a -jar” Fundraiser this week 25 26 27 Registration starts in March 5 Staff attending “How does Learning Happen?” 28