April 11, 2011 Knowing Jesus, Growing in Faith, Serving God’s Children
Dear Parents,
Our few weeks left are going by too quickly! Here is a list of all the special activities coming up, and there are plenty! Hang on to your hats!
• Grades 1 through 5 are having their Spring Concert Friday evening at 7 PM. Since we present our Circus musical we don’t participate in the concert. It helps with crowd size, too!
• Easter vacation goes from Thursday, the 21st, through Monday, the 25th. The Easter egg hunt is Saturday, April 23rd, at 9AM sharp! Bring in eggs and/or candy to the front office to help with this.
• Our Reptile Gardens trip is on Monday, May 2nd. We will leave at 1:00PM so that we can be back by 3PM. This costs $5 for children and $8 for adults. Those who want a season pass can pay $7 for children and $11 for adults. They are much more expensive after the middle of May so this is a good deal. We’ll need drivers, so come join us if you like this trip! I now have a driver’s sheet by the door.
• Kindergarten presents a musical circus, which we will perform on Friday, May 6th, at 2:30PM. We’ll really spend time on it this week! Hopefully you can come, but feel free to invite grandparents or others, too, especially if you can’t leave work. I’ll see if someone can film it so we can make copies for those who can’t come. Some new costumes are lovingly being sewn for us this year!
• Friday, May 13th, will be the Track Meet at O’Harra Stadium on the School of Mine’s campus. This is a whole day activity. The children are brought to the School of Mines Track by 8:30AM and picked up at 2PM. We encourage parents taking time to join us if possible, as it is a fun day. I will have help taking care of those who don’t have a parent in attendance. Each child will be in two races and one field event. This year the boys run in the morning and the girls run after the boys, which means usually right about noon. More on this next week! They should bring a healthy lunch and drinks, but I think they will also have a concession stand. They should have layers of clothes for comfort, sunscreen and a hat. They’ll be spending time with Mrs. Winjue and me getting ready for this! So it is important to have running shoes on every day now rather than sandals or cowboy boots.
• Our kindergarten graduation will take place along with the preschool’s on the last day of school, Wednesday, May 25th, at 8:30AM. The graduation will last until about 9:30, including cake afterwards. Those who want to take their children home after cake may, but I’ll keep the rest until 11:15 AM, when everyone lets out for the summer.
We are learning about Philip and the Ethiopian this week, from Acts 8. We learn that God wants all people to come to faith in Jesus and be saved. He makes us His children as the Holy Spirit works faith in us through His Word and in Baptism. Our Bible verse is Psalm 119:105 “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” We’ve learned this before but it’s a favorite and fits our lessons so well. If your child has a summer birthday please pick a day to celebrate it before school is out. Just let me know! We don’t want to miss anyone’s!
It is amazing how well they are spelling! Phonics or Word Study Time has become so much fun because they really enjoy learning new phonics rules and such! Give them an opportunity to share what they can do. Writing to grandparents or even little postcards to someone is so much fun for them right now. They know they can use their reading and writing knowledge many ways. Our poetry will soon be in a book right outside the door!
I’m adding a 20 bead board in the homework bag, not the math binder, as we use these at school often, too. Always keep it in the bag, in the backpack!! Give them problems to work out on it, both addition and subtraction. We’ve just begun learning to write those symbolically, but they really need to know what it means or looks like! Example: Noah’s hen laid 6 eggs and 2 hatched. How many are left? Try adding 3 numbers, too, using the board. No new game for the binder, so keep that at home. Also check out the game website I attached to my Kindergarten 1 page on Zion’s website. Have fun exploring!!!

Blessings, Roxi