Well, here we are at the end of the school year. This is when ambivalent feelings take over for us at Open Arms as we get excited for summer vacations and lazy (hopefully) days of summer, while feeling some sense of loss as we say goodbye to the families who will be going on to Kindergarten.

We have been quite busy during April and now halfway through May with only two weeks left as I write this newsletter.

As we wrapped up April, we talked about the zoo and zoo animals, had parent conferences and held a “Friendship Party” where we celebrated a full Kindness Jar. We have a jar for each classroom that promotes kindness to one another. The idea is that for every act of extra kindness the teachers witness—or if a kiddo comes to tell us about an act of kindness done to them by another person—we put a bead in the jar. Once it’s full, we have a party to celebrate! We had pizza, ice cream sundaes, fun games, a mom who came in to share her art of pottery where the kids made a sunflower and lots of fun playtime! This was the first year of the “Kindness Jar” and I have to say it’s been quite successful. It thrills me to have children come tell me about how one of their classmates did something extra nice for them! The last day of April was spent at The Gardens on Spring Creek and we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day to enjoy it in. We learned about the lifecycle of a plant, planted a bean to take home and had a lot of hands-on activities learning about plants, foods in the gardens and flowers.

These last couple of weeks in May have been busy with the St Jude’s Bike-a-thon and Mother’s Day. The kids learned safety rules about bike riding, gained some understanding about the sick children they were helping and gathered some money to send to St Jude’s. After that, we jumped right into Mother’s Day preparations. The children in both classes made adorable gifts for their moms and the Pre-K kiddos prepared for the Mother’s Day Tea. This was a beautiful event where we honored all the moms, some grandmothers and an aunt (who loved the event so much last year, she wanted to come again this year with her nephew who attends Open Arms.!) In total, we had 42 guests, counting adults and children. On this note, I want to say a HUGE thank you to Lou Anne Yee, Kathi Calvano, Cindy Starck, Barb Trevarton, June Donaldson, Jo Fredin, Mary Hert, Fran Roth, and Joyce Hart for donating the delicious food items and flowers and helping us with set up, serving and clean up. Every morsel of food was eaten and enjoyed tremendously! I simply cannot say thank you enough for your generosity! You all outdid yourselves with the food that was perfect for the Tea. In addition, without Jo, Fran and Mary offering their time to help set up, serve and clean up, we could have never pulled it off so successfully. You all are angels and I appreciate you more than you know! It is such a fun time to serve these young mothers who don’t often get the opportunity to be on the receiving end of such a special day, so thank you, thank you, thank you again so very much! When the moms all tell us this was far above and beyond what they expected, and we see so many tears of happiness (me included), we know we’ve done a good job, and I am thrilled that we all got to share this day.

Now, as we wrap up these last two weeks of school, we will celebrate all summer birthdays with an “un-birthday” party for each class. We have our Spring Program on May 17 at 6:30 PM, then our graduation program on May 25th at 11:00 AM. Both events will be in the Large Fellowship Hall. We would love to see members of Saint John’s there for some comedy relief with nearly thirty three- to five-year-old children on stage! We will also have our little garage sale of kid items alongside the Yard Sale for Saint John’s again this year. The parents will bring items for our sale and the proceeds will go to help the preschool.

As we prepare to launch into summer, we will pull out the tissues and prepare ourselves as best we can to say goodbye to our Pre-K kiddos and their families with whom we’ve become so close. I will just have to be happy that some of these children have siblings that will be bringing them back to our doors next year and subsequent years after.

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.