I hope everyone has had a great start to spring! It seems as though the time has flown by even faster since March 20. As always, we continue to stay busy here at Open Arms.

The month of March was spent learning about dinosaurs, fairy tales, nursery rhymes, rabbits and the story of Easter and what it is really all about. We hatched “dinosaur eggs” as a science experiment and used a very long rope to measure how long various dinosaurs actually were. We also had a dinosaur dig in our sensory bin for the week. After Spring Break we came back to learn about fairy tales and nursery rhymes, which is always a lot of fun for our imaginations.

We headed into Easter week learning about bunnies as well as Peter Rabbit and his antics. Then we had our Easter party, which included learning the true meaning of Easter and dying eggs. The kids were fascinated when we used our “magic crayon” to write their names on the eggs! We also made our own Easter baskets and went outside (in the drizzly rain) for an Easter egg hunt where there was a big golden egg hiding for someone to find! The winner of each class was congratulated by his/her classmates and they all couldn’t wait to see the big prize inside. I have to brag on the kiddos here … we’ve taught them to be happy for their friends when they earn prize box awards or cuddle buddies in the classroom, and it showed up in their behavior with the Golden Egg. It’s pretty fun to see such young kiddos have enthusiasm for their friends rather than get upset because they didn’t win themselves! In normal fashion, as they’ve learned in the classroom, they all shouted “Congratulations!” to the Golden Egg winner!

The first part of April has been spent learning about insects, the ocean and Earth Day. We welcomed our ladybug larvae and caterpillars into the classroom on April 13. We will watch them grow and feed them, then release them into the world. We recently went to the Garbage Garage where we learned about recycling and the landfill, and we got to see the recycling center in action with the big vehicles and conveyor belts that separate and bail the materials that come into the facility.

Now that May is upon us, we will be looking at more fun things! We will have a field trip to the Gardens on Spring Creek. The Rocky Mountain Raptor Program will visit on May 14 and bring a real live owl into the classroom! Please feel free to come see! Join us on May 14 at 9:30 AM. Our St. Jude’s Trike-a-thon will be May 3 and 4. If you are interested in donating, go to < StJude.org/trike > and click the blue button that says "Find your school and sign up." Type in 2018Openarmschristianpreschool (EMTO02862D18) in the new window. When you see our school pop up, click on it, then you can go choose a student and make a donation through their page. May also brings the Mother’s Day Tea, our Spring Program, the Graduation program and the last-day-of-school picnics for both classes. We may even squeeze another field trip to the Morning Fresh Dairy Farm if we can make it work!

As a reminder, please let me or Tom know if you would like to help out with our Mother’s Day Tea event! It blesses the moms so much and it’s a lot of fun for all of us. We can use food items and/or extra sets of hands to help at the event!

Now, the feelings of ambivalence are starting to set in for us as we near the end of the school year. It’s exciting for teachers and kiddos to think about the fun things summer has to offer, but we also struggle with the fact that we will be saying goodbye to friends and families we’ve gotten to know so well this year. The hardest part for me is saying goodbye to the kiddos and families who don’t have younger siblings that would bring them back in the next year or two. Some of these families have had older children come through our doors in recent years, so I’ve gotten to know them well and watch their kids grow up. Even the kiddos talk amongst themselves about how they don’t want to go to Kindergarten because they will miss each other and their teachers. This warms my heart and reminds me why we do this job. There’s just something so awesome about watching these little people learn and grow in so many ways, and developing the close relationships we have with the parents. I guess the next thing we can all look forward to is receiving the high school graduation invitations in the mail in about twelve years!

Kandy Wise is the Director of Open Arms Preschool, a ministry of Saint John’s Lutheran Church. You may reach her at 482-1357 or OpenArms@StJohnsFC.org with any questions about the Preschool.