Welcome to Sunshine Fit Kids!
We will be with your preschooler from September to June. We will have an awesome 10 months together! Communication is KEY between YOU and US. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns right away. Let us know of what is happening in your family so that we can understand out of sorts behavior from your child. Let us know immediately if you have an issue about something that happened at preschool. Let us know if you are going on a trip. Please talk to us and let us know when we did something awesome or something not so awesome. Do you need clarification on how we do things? Please ask. Let there be open communication between teachers and your family.
Preschool Classes/Times/Teachers: Know your class! Check back to your first email confirmation with your class. Teachers in our preschool are addressed as Miss “name” and not “teacher.” Please help your child get to know the names of their teachers. If you are needing to discuss any issue pertaining to your child or our preschool, please talk to Director (Miss Tracy) or Lead Teacher. Thank you.
Orientation Day: Come see and play at the preschool before the first day of school. Check out the gym and classroom. Find out what number your coat hook is. Bring your indoor shoes when you come! This is also a day where parents can check information on registration form is correct and hand in or set up payment options. If your child has an EpiPen or other medication, you will need to fill out a medical form prior to starting. If you have an extra medication to leave at preschool, you can bring it to leave on this day.
Staggered Entry: All classes will stagger into class meaning half the kids come on one day and the other half will come the following day. A separate email will be sent with your day to come.
Parking: There are lots of parking spots on both sides of the building (north and south) and you can enter the lower level from either side.
Drop off info:
- Outside shoes will be taken off and be placed in the hallway along the white wall where black mats are. Please do not take off or leave your shoes in front of the main doors or the emergency exit door. While you are waiting for the main doors to open, please help your child put on their indoor shoes.
- Please do not let your kids run around in the hallways and make noise. Other businesses are operating and we do not want to disturb them.
- Outside sliding doors to Sunshine Park will open 5min prior to class time for sign in. Drop off and dismissal will now be from the hallway.
- Doors are locked during class. If you need to pick up your child early or you are dropping off late, please call or text to be let in.
Separation anxiety and crying: Dropping your child off may be a hard task at the start. There will be crying, however, your job as a parent/guardian during this transition is just to leave quickly after your goodbye. All of the teachers are ready for this tough transition and are there to comfort your child. This transition and new routine takes a few weeks to a month to get over and is completely normal for children to have tears. PLEASE do not stay and hang out in the hallway or peek around the corner. This makes it worse if they happen to see you. They will be fine and are in safe hands. Leaving out of sight is the best for everyone.
LATE PICK UP FEE: Please give yourself enough time to arrive on time to pick up your child. Being late creates anxiety in your child if you are not there at dismissal. There will be a late pick up fee charged if child is not picked up on time. ($1 per minute) Please notify a teacher via phone 780-467-2661 BEFORE the end of class if you will be late. Fees are due upon pick up. Getting a friend in the class to wait with your child while you are late coming will not be allowed.
PRESCHOOL Fees: Please see registration form
Dress code: Children are to wear comfortable clothing to school so that they can participate in our gym activities. Easy pull up/down pants are best. No belts. Please DO NOT send girls in dresses or skirts. They cannot participate properly in these types of clothes. Clean, indoor, non-marking running shoes are needed for gym time.
What to bring to school each day in your backpack: LABEL ALL ITEMS WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME
- Clean non-marking indoor shoes – Velcro shoes are best at this age for them to learn how to put on their shoes by themselves successfully. Please do not send fancy dress shoes, crocs, or flip-flops.
- Change of clothes in a Ziploc Bag – socks, underwear, pants and a t-shirt. Spills and accidents happen. Please have all items in Ziploc bag.
Snack Time: Please send a healthy snack with 2 food options in a LUNCH KIT and a spill proof water bottle (filled with WATER only). All snacks must be nut-free, small servings (this is not a lunch), and easy for them to open and eat on their own. We would prefer snacks that do not require utensils like applesauce or fruit cups. These can be hard for them to eat and messy. Please use a Sharpie and label lunch kit and water bottle, somewhere visible that teachers can see.
- The NO LIST – NO NUTS, NO JUICE BOXES and NO WET DAIRY PRODUCTS – yogurt cups/tubes or yogurt drinks, pudding, milk and cottage cheese. Yogurt and juice boxes can be put in their lunches.
Medications: If your child has an allergy/medical disorder and needs to take medication in the case of an emergency, you will need to fill out medication form. Medication should be placed in a labelled Ziploc bag and be brought to school everyday. Medication is to be placed in our medication basket upon arrival to school.
Parent/Teacher Talk:
If at any time we need to talk to you after class, we will make an announcement right before we dismiss the kids. Talking after class doesn’t always mean something bad happened. It can be something good or just simply a question we need to ask.
- We will talk to you after class if:
o Your child was upset or cried during class
o Your child hit or bit another child
o Your child was injured by tripping, falling, bumping heads with another or got hit/bit by another student
o Your child had an accident – pee or poo; or simply spilled on clothes and we changed them. More to let you know to wash the clothes.
o Your backpack doesn’t have a change of clothes
o Your snack contained nuts or another NO item
o Concerns about your child’s behaviour, hearing or speech delays.
o Payment is due or your cheque was NSF
o The good stuff – let you know something awesome your child did at preschool. Maybe it was a story or a block sculpture they built. Maybe to show their awesome painting the story behind it.
Discipline: Our preschool does not use any disciplinary actions like yelling, scolding or time outs. We will have a discussion at eye level with your child about their behaviour using more of a questioning approach to understanding what happened and allow them to come up with a solution to the problem. If something happened to a friend, we will ask them to apologize to them. For the friend who they apologized to, we will ask them to thank them for their apology instead of saying “that’s ok” because it is not “ok” they got hit and simply thanking them for their apology is asked. If a behaviour continues, the child will be re-directed to a different centre to play or to find new friends to play with. We will never use time outs as an option to discipline your child.
Behaviour Issues: If your child continues to hit and misbehave in our program over an extended period of time, we will have a long discussion with parents to implement an action plan to help the behaviour. If the behaviour does not improve within a month of our plan in action, unfortunately we will give you notice to leave our preschool. Our first goal is to solve and help the issue at hand but if we do not have the resources to help your child’s behaviour, we will help you find a place with resources that can.
Manners: We love PLEASE and THANK YOU. Saying good morning or good bye. Using a teacher’s name instead of “teacher”.
Potty trained: Children should be fully potty trained however if children need to wear pull-ups to avoid an unexpected accident, they are encouraged to do so. Please be aware that we will change pee accidents in clothing, however we will call parents to come change a poop. We are not equipped to change these types of accidents.
Parent volunteers: There are no mandatory volunteer days throughout the year. We will ask for 2 parent volunteers on special event days or presentation. Sign up sheet for volunteers will be on the fridge in the coat room/snack room. If you sign up for one event, please give others a chance to sign up before signing up again. Most events we will need two parent volunteers.
Sickness: Please help stop the spread of illness in our classroom – please keep your child at home if your child is sick – yellow/green mucus, vomiting, fever, diarrhea. Please phone or text the school 780-467-2661 before the start of class if your child is staying at home sick. Your child needs to be SYMPTOM FREE for 24hours before they can return to school. You will be contacted immediately to pick up your child if your child develops or has any of the above symptoms.
Extreme Weather Conditions: Our preschool will close if EIPS or EICS close their schools. If schools are open but busses are not running, we will still be open for preschool. If we need to close for extreme weather conditions, an email and a Remind Text will be sent out.
Yearly Calendar: Sunshine Fit Kids preschool runs from September to June inclusive. The preschool calendar follows both the Elk Island Public and Catholic school calendars with days off of school. Number of instructional days will remain the same despite the number of holidays and days off. Tuesday/Thursday Programs – instructional days between 70-75 days per school year. Monday/Wednesday/Friday Programs – instructional days between 95-100 days per school year. Monthly Calendars will be emailed out and posted on the website www.sunshineparkpreschool.com. It will also be posted on the bulletin board.
Questions/concerns: If you have any questions/concerns about preschool or your preschooler, please address Mrs From or the lead teacher BEFORE class starts. After class is not a great time for the teachers as we need to have our lunch break or pick up our own children from school. You are also welcome to email or call the preschool during non-class hours to discuss any issues. If it requires a more in depth discussion, an appointment will be set up outside of classroom hours for the teachers/parents to meet.
If there is anything we can do to help with or improve your preschool experience, please let us know. Looking forward to a great year!
Tracy Bossio – Teacher & Director
