OCTOBER 2025
đ Happy October, Preschool Families! đ
Fall has fluttered in with crunchy leaves, pumpkin smiles, and a little extra magic in the air! This month, weâll be diving into all things Autumnâcozy crafts, outdoor adventures, and plenty of playful learning sprinkled with seasonal fun. Get ready for giggles, discoveries, and maybe even a few pumpkin-spiced surprises along the way!
Our ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING is on Wed. Oct. 8th from 6:30pm-7:30pm.
We would like to remind all families about our upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held as a hybrid meeting, allowing for both in-person and ZOOM attendance.
It is essential for all families to participate, as we are a non-profit organization required to adhere to specific regulations, including reaching a quorum for the meeting to proceed. Your involvement is crucial for the continued success and governance of St. Catherine's Childcare Society.
All families must PRE-REGISTER with the preschool office to let us know if you will be attending in-person or online. If you are attending online, you will be sent the link and the financial package the day before the meeting.
We may be able to provide childminding if you cannot find childcare to attend the meeting in person.
If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to call or email the office: 604-980-1326, stcpre@telus.net
St. Catherine's Preschool is excited to announce two upcoming fundraisers: Purdys Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser and our Samosas and More Fundraiser.
The Samosa Fundraising Company: Started September 24th. Order deadline: October 5th.
Purdy's Christmas Chocolate Fundraiser: Starting October 20th. Order deadline: November 17th
https://fundraising.purdys.com/1822236-130045
As a non-profit organisation, we rely on these initiatives to support the maintenance and upgrades of our play yard, ensuring a safe and enjoyable environment for our children. Your participation in these fundraisers directly contributes to enhancing our facilities and enriching the preschool experience for all our little learners. Please forward these links to your family and friends!
Thank you for your continued support!
Kindergarten Registration & Info Session
Kindergarten Information Session
Children born in 2021 will be entering Kindergarten next September and you will need to register them ahead of time. Please click on the link below for more information on the registration process.
You may wish to attend the Kindergarten information session to gain a deeper understanding of the school district, including what you can expect as your child enters the school system. Representatives of school programs and community resources will be available to speak with you.
Information session details:
Date: Monday, October 6, 2025
Doors open: 6:30 p.m.
Presentation: 7 p.m.
Location: Carson Graham Secondary, 2145 Jones Avenue.
Please click the link below for all the information on Kindergarten Registration for the 2026/27 school year.
https://www.sd44.ca/ProgramsServices/earlylearning/kindergarten/Pages/default.aspx#/=
FOOD DONATIONS NEEDED
As the Thanksgiving season approaches, we invite St. Catherine's families to join us in supporting those in need within our community. We are collecting food donations for those who may require extra assistance during the holidays.
Items of great need include:
Pasta sauce
Cereal
Jam
Noodles
Juice boxes
Please bring your donations to the baskets located at the pick-up / drop-off doors. Your generosity will make a meaningful difference in the lives of many families this Thanksgiving.
Thank you for your kind contributions.
SCHOOL CLOSURES & UPCOMING EVENTS
Please check out the important events and school closures that are coming up. . Click on the Event Day on the Calendar for more detailed information.
Check out here what happened in the Classrooms!!
RAINBOW ROOM
Hello Rainbow Room families,
Welcome back to another exciting year in the Rainbow Room! Whether you are joining us for the first time or are a returning family, we are so thrilled to have you here as part of our community. The new school year brings fresh beginnings, new friendships, and endless opportunities for your children to learn and grow.
During the first week of preschool, we learned about our preschool rule, âNo one Gets Hurt,â and were introduced to our new friends. We played lots of name games and sang fun songs to help us learn each otherâs names. The children created a âGentle Handsâ poster by adding their own handprints, reminding us to be kind and gentle with each other.
We also explored the game Stop and Go, as it related to our classroom rules; for instance, running in the classroom = stop, being helpful to our friends = go. This made for a fun circle game.
We read books at circle time to help us understand how to be kind and share with our friends. Some of the books were Hands Are Not for Hitting, If Youâre Angry and You Know It, and I Am a Dingle-Dangle Scarecrow, which had the children shaking their hands and feet with this beautiful book. A few popular action songs we love to sing at circle time are Head & Shoulders and Shake Your Sillies Out.
We then moved on to learning the theme of âAll About Meâ by talking about ourselves, our families, and our homes. Children painted pictures of themselves, trying to be accurate about the color of their hair and eyes, as well as what clothes they are wearing. Some of our books this week were I Like Myself, No, David!, and My Messy Room.
During the last week of the month, we continued the Friends and Family theme. For art, we used Q-tips and handprints to decorate our houses and stamped people shapes onto paper to make our family. We read the books We Are All Alike But Different, Families, and How to Grow a Friend. We talked about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by discussing kindness, acceptance, and celebrating everyoneâs uniqueness. We danced and listened to the music The Dream Catcher in a circle and read With Our Orange Hearts. For art, we stamped hearts onto orange shirts to represent uniqueness and love.
Our classroom has engaging play areas for many different types of toys, which are usually changed weekly. We have a house corner, a train table, a science, water, and sand table, plus areas for building and construction play, and puzzles and games on the tables.
Please remember to send your child with appropriate outdoor and indoor shoes, as we play outside if it's not raining. Also, please bring a spare set of clothes in your childâs backpack in case they get wet, messy, or covered in paint, as they prefer to wear their own clothes.
In October, weâll be talking about the changing seasons, Thanksgiving, enjoying the colours of Fall, Diwali, and having fun with Halloween.
The Rainbow Room Teachers
Danielle, Vibha and Marjan
TREEHOUSE ROOM
Hello Treehouse Families,
As September settled in, Iâm sure we all felt some noticeable shiftsâand I donât just mean the temperature changes. It was time to adjust bedtime routines, spend more time shopping and prepping food, and get used to waking up and heading out to start a new day, maybe at a new school or workplace. All of that can be both exciting and stressful at the same time, especially if youâre preschool-aged.
I have to compliment you, lovely parents: your children started this school year with such maturity, readiness, energy, and enthusiasm that it made our first few weeks with them a joy! Itâs wonderful for both the students and us, their teachers, that so many of them were with us last year. That really helped with the transition from coming over from the âbaby roomââas the children like to call their younger peers.
Our new students are just as capable, and their joining the group was seamless. It already feels as if theyâve always been a part of our school. We began our first weeks together by learning all about one anotherâour families, friends, and our special place in our closest circles as well as in our wider communities. The children have even added new topics to circle time by making special requests.
Their favourite activities so far have been those centred around themselves. Theyâve loved sharing stories and ideas about their lives and family members (yes, we now know more about you than a Google search! đ). We especially enjoyed some painting activities, our first art project using a ridiculous amount of sparkles, and a fun science experiment predicting whether different objects would sink or float.
The weather has been fantastic, and your children loved spending time outsideâespecially when the little ones from the other class joined us in the afternoons. Speaking of weather and little people, please remember to pack extra clothes in your childâs backpack and make sure theyâre dressed appropriately for the dayâs activities. We love messy art, sand play, and water fun!
Please also pack a healthy snack for the afternoon. If you have a preference for the order in which your child eats their snacks, please label them. We always encourage the children to start with fruits and vegetables before moving on to less nutritious items.
As always, please feel free to talk to any of us if you have any questions or concerns!
Gabi, Mary, Catriona
The Resource Room - Marion
Welcome to all our families, both new and returning ones. I hope everyone had a relaxing, fun Summer. Our philosophy is "Children Learn Best Through Play" and this will be our focus for the next nine months. The children will learn about sharing with peers, problem solving, letters and numbers, all through play activities. We encourage the children to be independent with hanging up their backpacks, getting their snack/lunches out and return them back to the cubbies when they are done and going up and down the stairs, holding the railing. Self help skills, such a toileting, washing hands and getting coats on are all important skills to develop.
My role as Developmental Resource Educator is to be a resource for the teachers and be a support in the classrooms if necessary. Families may have community support professionals involved with their children and they may want to observe them in the classroom. Please contact the office if you wish someone to come in and do an observation. The teachers are trained to identify developmental milestones and monitor gross/fine motors skills as well as listen for speech and language development.
Please speak with your teachers if you have any questions or concerns. You can always email me in the office. If there are any topics you would like me to talk about in the my blogs, please let me know.
Marion
Thank you for reading our Blog. If at any time you have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to bring it to our attention.
We acknowledge, with gratitude, that our preschool is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Squamish Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation. We are thankful for the opportunity to learn, play, and grow together on this beautiful land.
We say thank you to the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people for taking care of the land where we learn and play every day.