January 2020
Message from the Chair
Happy New Year to everyone at CLCP! I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday and was able to spend time with friends and family. A big Thank You to all the families that made donations to Kid’s Kottage. Not only is it a wonderful lesson to teach our children during the holidays, but the donations that are collected every year are greatly appreciated by the organization and go a long way to help young families in the Edmonton area.
During the first term our parent committee here at CLCP did a great job doing everything from getting your kiddos registered to planning events, keeping parents in touch and everything in between. I’d like to say thank you to them all for their time in making the school run smoothly day to day. Also let’s not forget the stars of Callingwood Lymburn Community Playschool, the amazing teachers, Cathey and Lisa. Thank you for everything the two of you do for all our children.
Our second mandatory parent meeting of the year will be held January 8th at the Lymburn School music room from 7:00 – 9:00pm. This meeting will be similar to the meeting held in September. Parents will be signing up for their second semester Helper Days and chocolates will be handed out. Please note that only ONE PARENT needs to attend. When signing up please pick approximately one day a month. If you cannot be there for any reason, please advise your class rep and they will assign your helper days from those left after sign up. A friendly reminder that with only one parent required to attend, please leave children at home or find alternate childcare. Space is very limited, and this will ensure everyone can hear and pay attention to the information being presented.
We will also be accepting registration for 2020-2021 registrations for returning families only. In order to secure your spot, you must have a completed registration package. This must include all pages filled out along with a void cheque. Please make sure you bring the 2020-2021 registration package. Please ensure you fill out the proper package, they will be available over the Christmas break. Facebook & the website will have information about when they are available.
For any questions, feel free to email our current registrar, Michelangelo Piano-Rollins at info@callingwoodlymburnplayschool.com. Another wonderful resource to connect with our families is on our Facebook page. If you haven’t already please check it out and follow us to keep up to date at https://www.facebook.com/CLCPlayschool
Call for Volunteers:
At this parent meeting we will discuss that we are looking for a quite a few committee positions to be filled by June 2020 for the 2020-2021 school year. We will discuss further at our January 8th Parent Meeting – 7-9 pm at the Lymburn School music room. Did you know that committee members are exempt from Bingo’s or toy cleanings? Please see the handbook for a description of the positions.
Important dates in January
January 5th – Bingo, West Edmonton Mall January 6th– Toy cleaning 6:00-8:00pm January 6th – first day MWF classes January 7th – first day T/Th classes
January 8th – Combo Meeting – Committee meeting (6-7pm) followed by the Parent Meeting (7- 9pm) – Lymburn School Music Room
January 16th – Alumni family registration 9:00-9:30am outside classroom
January 23rd – CLCP Open House 6:00-7:30pm will accept registration from new families Enjoy the rest of your holidays and see everyone back at class soon!
– Hilary Gordon
Message from the Vice-Chair
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!
It’s hard to believe a new decade is here and that we’re half way through this playschool year already!
This month’s toy clean is on Monday, January 6th from 6:00-8:00pm. The families we have signed up for this clean are:
Conway (3pm) Zabroski (3am) Boehm (3pm) Phan (4pm)
Our last Bingo of this school year is Sunday, January 5th from 5:00-9:30pm. I will be sending out an email reminder with your Bingo details, please ensure you respond back to me with the name of the person attending.
The families we have signed up for this Bingo are:
Kelly (4am) Sperling (4pm) Byquist (4am) Bao (3am) Pagilagan/Eren (4pm) Ahlberg (4am) Kainth (4pm) Fortin (3pm) Greenslade (4am)
Thank you, Courtney Brebner
Roster Coordinator
Hello Playschool Families, and welcome to the Second Semester of our school year.With the upcoming Parent Meeting on January 8th I just wanted to remind everyone of the process for choosing helper days. We will be using the lottery system just like it was in September with each family choosing a number from an envelope on the way in. You will visit the table that belongs to your child’s class (3AM, 3/4PM, 4AM, or 4PM) and fill in the roster days in order based on the number you drew at the door on your arrival. Please start to look at your calendar for dates that you would prefer so you can be ready, but remember that even if you are the last ones to add your name to the calendar you can always send out an email to your class’ families through your class rep to see if some dates can be swapped. As with the first Semester, please be fair to the other parents in your class and spread out your helper days over the course of the rest of the year. It’s a lot easier to commit to being parent helper for one or two days per month rather than 2 or 3 days in back to back classes so please be considerate when choosing dates. As I already mentioned it is fine to be exchanging with other families, I just ask that you please let me and/or your class rep know of the change so we can keep track of it.
Happy New Year! Breanne
Donations Coordinator
I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. Thank you everyone for your support of Kids Kottage. They were very thankful for your generosity!
Upcoming we have some great fundraising events.
January 29: We are partnered with Creators Workshop to have a make a sign event. The event will start at 6:30 on the 29th. Food and drink are available on location. Please stay tuned for a link to purchase tickets.
March 6th: Family Dance and Silent Auction. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and its the most fun for everyone. I would like to ask everyone’s help in supporting our silent auction. We are looking for items to auction off. All donation are appreciated. There is a letter you can hand out attached to the newsletter.
Thank you Jessica
Mon/Wed/Fri News
Happy New Year! I hope your family had a wonderful holiday together. Thank-you so much for the generous, and thoughtful gifts I received at Christmas. It truly is my privilege and joy to be teaching your children!
2020 will start off with lots of fun in our classroom with two really fun themes – dinosaurs and winter. We will also have an in class presentation on Jan. 17th by Glow Yoga. Please send your child in comfortable clothes this day. One other day to note is Jan. 31st – Snow day! Please send your child with their snow pants, gloves, hats and boots. If the weather is below -15 we will not go outside and reschedule.
Please mark Wednesday, January 8th at 7:00pm on your calendar. There is a mandatory parent meeting in the school music room. At this meeting you will have a chance to sign-up for your parent helper days for the second half of the year.
As we work towards readiness for Kindergarten, I am going to start meeting the children at the door and do their hand “squirt” there. Then they will enter the classroom on their own. I will still have a table task/work project for them to do which they will begin to do on their own. For those parents who have helped their children with this task, this will be a change, but rest assured, a good one. Fostering this independence in your child will set them up for success next year.
Our CLCP Library will officially launch for the year this month. You may have noticed books in the hallway shelf with a label saying Callingwood Lymburn Community Playschool. These books are part of our lending library. If you would like to borrow one of these books, please help yourself. There is a sign-in sheet by the shelf. Please sign-in your book once you take it. You may keep the book for 2 nights or a week…whatever works for you. We just ask that you only take one book at a time. Once the book is back, feel free to sign out another one.
Thank-you for all you do to support this program – from toy cleanings, to bingos, to helping in the classroom – you all do so much to make our school such a fantastic place to be!
Happy New Year – may 2020 be wonderful!
So thankful to be your teacher, Teacher Cathey
Mark Your Calendars:
February 5 – Field Trip to John Janzen Nature Centre February 28 – No School – Teacher’s convention
Tuesday/Thursday Tidbits
Wow! It’s the holiday break already! Can you believe that your kids have been in play school for four months already? Our Christmas party was a fun and collaborative event that celebrated the community that we have established over that past four months. Every single student has changed a great deal. They are learning to be creative with their play, which means figuring out how to share and wait when someone has something that they want to play with. When you are here as roster parents, you may notice how busy it is getting in our classroom. Your children have developed relationships with all of their classmates. This means sitting close and making something with play dough, or going “shopping” with the shopping cart, piling it high with food and barbies.
In ALL of these activities we are working on sharing and taking turns. You can help this at home by reinforcing the concept of taking turns when you cook together, play a game together, etc. “Mommy’s turn, Jill’s turn, Simon’s turn” … you get the picture. The beauty of this co-operative play school is that you can be there to experience some amazing social milestones with your kids, as they explore their talents and interests. Sometimes they have to wait when someone is wearing their favour costume, and sometimes they have to ask for a piece of play dough. All of these experiences are teaching your children how to be a part of this world, have their needs met, and help others get what they need.
A little bit of housekeeping:
We have an OFF-SITE field trip at the Telus World of Science on THURSDAY, January 9th. I have booked the field trips to take place in between public school pick-up and drop-off times. We can also accommodate extra parent chaperones. This will be a brand new experience for all of us — it will be fun and exciting! You will get an email reminder at the beginning of the week, but take note that this is the 2nd class back after our Winter break.
There will be an IN-CLASS “Glow Yoga” field trip on Thursday, January 28th. We will get the chance to explore this unique form of movement and instruction in our own classroom. This will take place during our normal class time.
Thank you all for being the most amazing supports of your kids’ early learning experiences! You inspire me as I try to provide an atmosphere of social and emotional learning. I look forward to then next phase for us all (Winter, Valentines Day, etc.).
Teacher Lisa