Quality Early Education for Your Children

Christmas excitement is building at Tot Spot! Both the three and four year-old classes will be full of anticipation as we explore the joys of the holiday season. Our special day this month will be Red and Green Day on December 4th/5th. Wear red and/or green to school this day! While the children are excited about the receiving aspect of Christmas, we also like to focus on the joy of giving. With that in mind, we invite you Christmas excitement is building at Tot Spot! Both the three and four year-old classes will be full of anticipation as we explore the joys of the holiday season. Our special day this month will be Red and Green Day on December 4th/5th. Wear red and/or green to school this day! While the children are excited about the receiving aspect of Christmas, we also like to focus on the joy of giving. With that in mind, we invite you and your child to bring in a food or a new unwrapped toy donation during the week of December 1st – 5th. Donations need to be dropped off by 11:30 am on Friday, December 5th. All donations will be forwarded to the Salvation Army for their Food and Toy Drive. During our last day of classes before the break (December 16th for T/Th classes and all afternoon classes, December 17th for MWF classes), you are invited to join us for our Christmas Celebration. Children should be dropped off in their classrooms at the regular time. The program will begin promptly at 9:15 am for the morning classes and 1:15 pmfor the afternoon classes. Children will be dismissed following the celebration, which is approximately 45 minutes in length. We hope you will be able to join us for some songs, a special craft and refreshments on that day. As usual, grandparents and other guests are very welcome to attend! Registration for the 2026/2027 school year is fast approaching! Registration dates are as follows: January 12th – Registration opens for all current and former Tot Spot families. January 19th – Registration opens to the general public. Watch for more details in the January newsletter! To help our program run smoothly, we ask that you take special note of these items: Please ensure your child uses the washroom before coming to school. If someone else is dropping off your child, please ask them to take them to the washroom before class. 😊 Please remind your child to only look at the beautiful decorations in the church, not to touch. Please supervise your children carefully in the foyer. The gym is closed before and after school and children need to use their “walking feet” on the ramp. We are hoping we no longer need to put out the sign by the gym every day and appreciate your help with this! Please remember to bring shoes to change into if your child wears their boots to school. Runners are best for the gym. We also practice regular fire drills and don’t have time to stop for boots on the way out! Important Dates To Remember: December 1st - December 5th – Salvation Army Food and Toy Drive December 4th/5th – Red and Green Days. Wear some red and/or green! December 16th (T/Th am and all pm classes)/17th (am classes only) – Christmas Celebrations. Please note: There are no classes in the afternoon on December 17th. December 18th - January 4th – Christmas Break Monday, January 5th, 2026 ­– Tot Spot reopens. Monday, January 12th, 2026 – Registration for the 2026/2027 school year opens for current and former Tot Spot families. Happy Holidays from all of us at Tot Spot!

November is a month full of learning and fun at Tot Spot. We begin the month exploring the concepts of colours, shapes, numbers, sorting and patterns. Following this, the three year old classes will be focusing on nursery rhymes and the four year old classes will be engaging in many exciting dinosaur activities. Our special day this month will be Blue/Blue Jean Day on November 20th /21st . Wear something blue and/or your blue jeans on this day! We would like to thank you again for being extremely diligent keeping your children at home if they are at all unwell. If, for any reason, your child is going to be absent from Tot Spot, please give us a quick phone call or email to let us know he/she will be absent and the reason for the absence. With the onset of our wintery weather, we remind you that children need to have a pair of appropriate indoor shoes (runners are best) to wear while they are at school as all wet footwear must be removed before entering the classroom (adults too please). Please put wet footwear on the mats provided in the foyer. Also, please put your child’s name in his/her boots and ensure that your child leaves school with the correct boots to avoid mix-ups. We understand the children are very excited about their Halloween treats and may want to have one in their snack. Please ensure that you only include ones that are NUT FREE. We would also appreciate only water in water bottles. They often leak or aren’t closed properly and juice is a much stickier mess to deal with! Volunteers are a vital part of our program. Legally, we are required to have a second adult in any class with more than 12 students present but we really appreciate having a volunteer in all our classes every day. There is much less “standing around” time for the students if we have someone to help clean before moving on to the next room. Paint days are also very tricky without help. More importantly, it’s a very special day for your child when you volunteer! Volunteer signup sheets are beside the clipboards when you sign in and out. If you don’t normally bring your child to school, email your child’s teacher and they will help find you a slot. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, nannies, and other special adults are all welcome to come in and help out! Looking ahead to December, we recognize the children are excited about the receiving aspect of Christmas but we also like to focus on the joy of giving. With that in mind, we invite you and your child to bring in a new unwrapped toy or food donation during the week of December 1st – 5th . All donations will be forwarded to the Salvation Army for their Food and Toy Drive. We would like to remind you that our Program Plan is on the bulletin board outside the doors entering the classroom. You are welcome to read it at any time but it must remain on the premises. Principles and Matters to be Considered as stated in the Early Learning and Child Act are attached. We also welcome feedback about our program and Program Plan. Please forward any comments to Lorrie Crowe at lorrie.crowe@shaw.ca. Important Dates to Remember: November 10th - 12th Fall Break (Tot Spot is closed) November 20th /21st - Blue/Blue Jean Day (wear some blue and/or your blue jeans) December 1st - 5th - Salvation Army Food and Toy Drive December 16th /17th (9:00-10:00 am classes/1:00-2:00 pm classes) Christmas Celebrations – guests welcome! December 18th - January 2nd - Christmas Break. Classes resume January 5th.

October will be a busy and exciting month for the children at Tot Spot! Both the three and four year old classes will be exploring the themes of Thanksgiving and Halloween through crafts, stories, songs and play. We begin the month getting ready for Thanksgiving which includes a special cooking/baking day. Your child will be bringing home a tasty treat to sample for Thanksgiving. In preparation for Halloween, our special day this month will be Orange and Black Day. The children are encouraged to wear something orange and/or black on October 16th/17th. On October 30th and October 31st, you are welcome to stay for the first half hour for our Halloween celebration. We will have a costume parade and sing some “spooky” songs for you before continuing on with our classes. As always, we like to focus on the fun of dressing up and the element of make believe at Halloween. Photograph days are October 27th (M/W/F AM classes) and October 28th (T/Th AM classes and all PM classes). Watch for an email closer to photograph day with suggestions from our photographer, Kate! We would like to thank you for keeping your children at home when they are not feeling well. We REALLY appreciate it! If your child has to miss school for any reason, please phone or email us and let us know the reason for the absence. Thank you for helping us keep Tot Spot healthy and safe for all our families! September is a busy month for families and we realize it is hard to keep up with all the paper. If you haven’t already done so, please take the time to read the information package emailed to you the middle of August. It has a lot of important information that you will find helpful. There are a few items we would like you to take special note of: Please ensure your child has been to the bathroom before coming to school each day. Please ensure that all snacks are NUT FREE including granola bars and spreads (no peanut butter, almond butter, Nutella, etc.), and that all grapes and cherry/grape tomatoes are cut in half LENGTHWISE. Please send water in a water bottle for your child to have with their snack (no juice please). We find TWO ITEMS are plenty for snack time as it is only 15 minutes long. If you include more than two choices, please put in small portions as some children are frustrated if they don’t have time to eat all their snacks. Please place only the child’s snack bag in the snack bins provided. Please put all backpacks, coats, hoodies, etc. in the coat room behind the fireplace. Children do not need a change of clothing at school as we have a large bin of extra clothes for accidents. On rainy or snowy days, please bring a dry pair of shoes (runners are best) to school to change into upon arrival. Wet footwear can be left on the mats in the foyer. Please label all outdoor clothing, boots, snack bags, water bottles and backpacks with your child’s name to prevent mix-ups and help us identify the owner of items left behind. IMPORTANT DATES TO MARK ON YOUR CALENDAR: October 13th - Thanksgiving Day (no classes) October 16th/17th – Orange and Black Days – Wear some orange and/or black! October 27th (MWF AM classes)/October 28th (T/TH AM and all PM classes) - Photograph Days October 30th/31st - Halloween Celebrations. Wear a costume to school!