2014-2015's First Week of Junior K

Dr. Lavallee showed everyone what to expect during a doctor's visit,
she even gave out shots and stickers!  Then everyone got to be a
doctor or patient too.

Wow, what a fabulous new group of kiddies!  Parents, you should be very proud of your little ones, as they were so independent, polite, and sweet this first week of Junior Kindergarten.  It was super watching them quickly become friends, and a pleasure getting to know their individual personalities.

Here our class is playing Blue Bird, a game where we sing
as a small bird flies in and out of windows. 

This week our classes were introduced to the programs's routine, they discussed the inner workings of Junior K and Penson, and got to know the names and whereabouts of our classroom Centers. Ask your little one about them.  Which did they like best?  Which haven't they yet visited?





Our Centers...

This is our Art Center, where children can draw, color, paste,
cut, trace, stamp, use stickers, or paint with Bingo dabbers.

• Blocks
• Puzzles
• Science
• Letters
• Numbers
• Art
• Home Living
• Community
• Sensory Table
• Computer

Each month our centers change to suit our month's topic and simply to keep busy minds from growing bored. This month, being our first inside Penson, our centers compliment learning both independently and through cooperation, all with a classroom theme.

Great job Junior Kers, you guys are so much fun!  

Have you heard the big news!?

There's big news afoot... Have you heard?
Our program is no longer titled Grovedale Preschool!  Taken under Peace Wapiti's wing, this Early Childhood program is now called Junior Kindergarten.  We are officially no longer private, but part of School District 76!


What does this mean to you?  It means this program no longer requires monthly fees for Registration.  All that's required is payment of the standard Penson School fee (see the office for details), and your child's participation in a simple assessment titled 48 month Ages and Stages.  If you missed Mrs. Lavallee's scheduled evaluation days, no worries.  Just email her at jmlavarnt@gmail.com or jessicabuffitt@pwsd76.ab.ca to request your copy.  You can then go through Ages and Stages with your child at home, and hand the results in on this year's first day of classes; September 8th.

Though our name has changed, our great program has not, so please take a look around and see what fun your little one has to look forward to!

I'm very much looking forward to getting to know your child!  We'll have lots of fun this 2014-2015 school year!

Taking Care of Our Home

During the month of March we at Grovedale Preschool learned about our many wonderful homes. We call our house a home, but the town our house was built in is also considered our home.  In fact, we have many homes!

           1.  House
           2.  Town
           3.  Province
           4.  Country
           5.  Continent
           6.  Planet




Because we love our homes so much we realized the importance of caring for them, just as we care for the people we love.  One way to do that is through the three R's...

Reduce     Reuse     Recycle

With the help of our peek-a-boo box we learned how to check whether or not items can be recycled by looking for the recycle symbol.  When things cannot be recycled, we discussed other options for getting rid of things around our homes such as composting, donating to charity, or crafting things into something new!

Thanks for being Earth Friendly everyone!

St. Patrick's Day Rainbows

On St. Patrick's Day the preschoolers painted rainbows by fingertip!  Look at these beauties, fit to put smiles on our faces.  While we can't find Spring past our windows, we can certainly find it in Penson's hallway on the preschool bulletin board!

Mailing Our Far-Away Friend Letters

We finally did it!  Today our preschoolers walked to the Grovedale Post Office and mailed their letters to far-away friends!  The weather was on our side as we enjoyed the trek, and each little one had a great time stamping and seeing their work off.  Each letter was equipped with a return address to Grovedale Preschool, so who knows, just maybe we'll be receiving our own mail sometime soon.

Here is the afternoon class just leaving Penson school.  Mr. Graycen was a fantastic leader, he kept us out of mud and looked both ways before crossing the street.  And Mr. Kirby was our 'safety tail'.  He was very good at making sure no one got left behind.

Once inside the Grovedale Post Office every preschooler received a stamp, a 'ticket' which allows letters to travel.

Their stamps were placed in the top right corners of their envelopes, which was tricky to do with mittens and gloves on!

And then each envelope was dropped in the big red mail box (That was the best part of all!).

Today we learned that in order to travel letters need...

• an address, the words which read where it wants to go
• a ticket which is called a 'stamp'
• a postal clerk (the mail man or woman)
• and a postal service (a post office)

Thanks guys, for making this day super fun!

Mrs. Lavallee Signs a Book Contract!

On March 10th I signed my first book contract with Morning Rain Publishing, an Independent Canadian Book Publisher, for middle grade fiction the Wishing Stone and Other Myths (Lessons Learned on Gull Cliff Island).  I'm very excited about this development and hope you do not mind my taking this space to share my enthusiasm!  This read will be launched sometime in August and will then move to print later in the Fall.

If you're interested in finding out more about this work, please visit my author (Oh my God, author!) blog at jmlavallee.blogspot.ca, or find me on Facebook as J.M. Lavallee.  You can also browse my Publisher's website to find information about my book as well as many other great reads!

I love books!

Our Far-Away Friends

Today our preschoolers worked on their cut-and-paste letters for their far-away friends!  The kiddies worked hard experimenting with scissors and absolutely impressed.  When their clippings were ready to reassemble they were done so by number. Each little one enjoyed the challenge of finding, ordering, and gluing numbers 1-7, and needed little help from myself or Mrs. Hansen.  Titled and signed, our lovely friendship letters required just one more touch to complete!

On the backside of each letter our preschoolers finished their projects by drawing thoughtful pictures for the friends from afar.  Because the weather proved frigid this morning we decided to post-pone our walk to the post-office, but we'll be sure to have these priceless letters posted sometime next week.

Did you notice, these girls are sporting the color pink in support of anti-bullying campaigne Pink Shirt Day!

After Snack, Centers, and singing and dancing, both morning and afternoon classes closed our month of friendship by crafting special 'friendship bracelets'.  

Here's what we did...

• Before each class I snipped napkin-holder sized rings from paper towel rolls
• A cut into the ring width wise creates the band's opening
• Every child decorated a ring with foam stickers and markers and then gifted it to their friend sitting at their right!

Spread the Word...

Grovedale Preschool is readying for its third year of production!  If your child is four years of age as of December 2014, be sure to visit us on

Registration Night!

REGISTRATION

Tuesday, March 11th, at 6:30 pm at Penson School in the ECS classroom.

This year the Kindergarten and Preschool programs are conveniently holding registration together!  For more information, email Mrs. Jessica Lavallee at jmlavarnt@gmail.com, or check out the Up&Up at…

grovedalepreschoolup.blogspot.com

Thank You Silas!

Thank You to the Genis Family!

On behalf of Mrs. Opal Hansen and myself, I'd like to take this moment to thank Mr. Silas Genis and his family for donating two beautiful art tables (with matching chairs) to the Kindergarten and Preschool classroom!  Side by side they will make a fantastic addition to our Art Center.  Great picture Silas!

Family Trees

This week we continued our discussion on family and friends by putting our hands to work creating beautiful family trees which portray a small scale family structure.  Using traced hand cut-outs as our tree's leaves and brown paint to fill in an oak's outline, our tree branches come to life tipped with green and accented by our love in the shape of a heart!

Look for your child's family tree the end of February and help them fill-in the names of their grandparents.  You can even add aunts, uncles, and cousins by tracing and gluing new handprints onto your tree!

 Have fun!

 

 

 

 

The Triple P Program

 

 Peace Wapiti School District is bringing the Triple P Program to Penson School and everyone is welcome to attend! 

Classes will take place Wednesdays from 9:00 - 11:30 am starting February 26th in the Penson School Library.  Check out the pamphlet below for more info...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Everyone looked festive today in their pinks, reds, and purples, but their smiles of anticipation was most certainly their sweetest accessory. I'd say the best part of my day was witnessing the kiddies' excitement in knowing they'd brought their friends Valentine cards!  Our pink basket filled quickly as the preschoolers filed into class, and the next obvious step to take was to prepare personalized mail-bags for the moment of Valentine delivery...



Using paint filled brushes, bingo dabbers, feathers, paper hearts, stickers, foamies, and other crafting bits, each child had fun transforming paper lunch bags into fine mail carriers.

We even had a visitor today; Mrs. Stephanie Clarke, Lucy's mom, stayed with us throughout our mail-bag craft and even enjoyed a round of alphabet Bingo with us!  Thanks so much for coming Mrs. Clarke, it was nice having you as a part of our class:)

After a Valentine read and some Center Time, our preschoolers enjoyed a lovely, hearty (get it... hearty!? haha) snack.  Thanks to all who brought treats and drinks, it was greatly appreciated.

Next up was crafting Valentine surprises for each child's family.  As a pasting and printing project inspired by hearts, this craft brought the puppy love out in all of us!

It really was a special day of friendship enjoyed by everyone, and it was topped off with the giving and receiving of our Valentine cards.  Each child felt warm and cozy inside knowing they were thought of by their school pals outside of the classroom.

And of course, what would a great party be without a little dancing!  Mrs. Hansen and Kayden kicked up their heels this afternoon while our background music played, and we were quite impressed with their fancy footwork!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!