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!

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!

New Classroom Items

There are always things to purchase for the classroom, whether it be new markers, poster-board, glue, or maybe even tissues, but last week I was able to make a few large purchases for Grovedale Preschool which I am quite excited about!  I am ever thankful to the parents who allow their children into my program, without you and your little ones Grovedale Preschool obviously could not exist!  So thanks a bunch for giving me the opportunity to learn with your tikes Moms and Dads; I absolutely love my job!

 The Home Living Center:

This sweetie-pie crib set is a three in one delight which has been added to our February Home Living Center.  This crib can turn into a changing table and has the perfectly sized high chair for hungry and growing baby dolls.  Our Preschool Moms and Dads show off their parenting skills with this little set-up, and what a great job they do!

For the handy and crafty in the home this purchase has been a real hit.  Fit with tools and hardware for wiggly table legs or a broken chair back, this work bench in the past week has proven we've got hard-working hands to help!

Also purchased for the Home Living Center is a fantastic dome style barbecue set which includes food props and utensils.  This BBQ playset will be brought out during the month of May when we recreate a 'camping out' scene within the center.

Because our topic this month involves friendship and emotions, this Barbie set has been a great asset to our learning through play incentive!  Each Barbie here is a true role-model as they each represent an interesting career; zookeeper, astronaut, magician, and computer technician!

Grovedale Preschool is very lucky to have access to Penson's Kindergarten class and resources.  We are tremendously grateful; thank you Penson School!  But it does feel good to contribute what we can to all they provide us with.

Yay Center Time!

Puppets & Plays

 

Between Centers yesterday, Grovedale Preschool continued its celebration of books for this Week of Literacy by using words to inspire!  When we're being read to we use our listening ears to capture words we know as well as those still new to us, and together the stories they build can be related to real life experiences, give us ideas, educate, and almost always instigate feeling.



Using the familiar story the Gingerbread Man, we used masks to again utilize our acting and memory skills to play out our very own version of the tale. 

Our Gingerbread men were both fast and vain as they taunted our farmers, cows, bears, and wolves.  But the jig was up when our cunning foxes used their smarts to outwit the cookies, and snip, snap that was that!





After play-acting the Gingerbread Man each class had fun giving faces to paper finger-puppets, each a character from the tale.  Some students decided to recreate this story by designing new characters, but in every case there was always a Gingerbread Man!  Colorful and cute these puppets will be traveling home this coming Monday.  Look for them in your child's envelope and ask them to put on a show!

Literacy Day

Literacy Day began with an exclamation point yesterday!  With Mrs. Lavallee dressed as Pippi Longstockings and carrying Mr. Nilsson, how could the day not be filled with amusement?  Mr. Kirby Dean Cudmore pinned it when he said "Mrs. Lavallee, you're funny!"

We began our day with Mr. Who-Bird, as is the regime, but before Center Time began, Mrs. Lavallee tutored the class on the anatomy of a book...

Here are a few things we learned:

• The front of a book, which is different than its inside pages, is called a cover.
• The big words written upon the cover is called a book's title
• The smaller words written upon the cover tell readers who wrote and illustrated the book

"You will get to be authors today!"  Mrs. Lavallee announced, and we were to put our thinking caps on.  "While playing in centers," Mrs. Lavallee said, "start thinking about the story you'd like to put in your very own book!"  And so we did!

Working on our books was lots of fun, and just like us our stories were unique! 



After writing and illustrating our stories, we were visited by three grade three students who read us a few stories of their own.  Thanks Nicholas Lavallee, Hunter Maurice, and Keira Murphey, it was fun listening to you read, and all of your illustrations were great!

After discussing the word Library and what it means, Mrs. Lavallee then read us the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The book was fun to listen to, but what we liked best was being able to act the story out!  Each with a character mask, we had fun re-enacting the classic tale.  It was the perfect end to a fun, literature loving day!

Don't forget...

• The Book Trade is in full swing!  If you have any gently used books at home you'd be willing to part with, bring them to school this Wednesday.  Then on Thursday, January 30th, pop by Penson School to sift through books other students donated to the Trade.  The amount of books you bring from home is the amount of books you can trade for!

Coming Up...

Next week beginning January 27th is Literacy Week, and as a book fanatic I'm ready to celebrate!  Grovedale Preschool will encourage the excitement of literature by participating in Penson's week long Book Trade.  Go through your child's library for any gently used books you'd be willing to part with, bring them to school, and with your child come Friday, January 24th, trade them for tales you and yours haven't yet had opportunity to enjoy.  It's win-win!



Here are some other fun things we'll be doing that week to shout out our book-worm pride...

• On January 27th all students and staff may come to school dressed as a beloved book character; Oh the possibilities!
• Each class will have fun acting out a nursery rhyme on both Monday and Wednesday
• During Literacy Week we will craft homemade picture books, written and illustrated by your savvy little artists

Check out these fun and informative websites to inspire your drive for literacy.  Spread the love and read, read, read!

A Video Message About Family Literacy Day by Robert Munsch!

http://www.starfall.com/

Kids Health: Reading With Preschoolers

Scholastic's Read Every Day, Lead a Better Life

Painting With Ice

After experimenting with ice and observing snow turn to water when warmed, water turn to ice when sufficiently cooled, and ice drip when temperatures rose, our preschoolers used science to create art!


What we did:

 

• Made Ice Sticks
• by partially filling paper cups with water and freezing them with popsicle sticks

• Donned our paint-shirts
• because it was about to get messy

• Gave the Kool-Aid packs a shake

• sprinkling colored powder across blank paper (and it sure smelled great)!

• Turned our sprinkled powder into liquid color
• by sweeping our ice-sticks excitedly across our sheets!

It's true; ice is nice!

Our finished products are fantastic, and all so very unique!  Look for your child's ice-art this Wednesday in their large envelope.

 

Feeding The Birds In January

Our Preschoolers know certain birds fly south for the winter.  They know some do not.  This past week we've discussed the different things animals do when cold weather arrives, and how finding food can often be troublesome.  Because our classroom is a peanut free environment, Mrs. Huber, Mrs. Seymour, and Mrs. Williams allowed access to their speech room which enabled us to produce the most lovely bird feeders you ever did see!  Thank you Jodie for providing us with the many rolls, we were so sad Tory wasn't able to join us!

What We Did:

This is such a simple, messy, smelly, but oh-so-fun craft that does a great deal of good after its making.  With just toilet paper rolls, peanut butter, birdseed, and string, you can make your neighbors of flight quite sing-songy!

Step by Step:

• Smear your paper rolls with peanut butter
• Roll in birdseed
• Tie a loop of string at each roll's base
• Voila; in a tree it goes!