Poster - Worship Slides

Poster - Front-and-Center Slides

Poster - Event Slides

Happy summer everyone! That sure happened fast! We have been so busy these last few weeks that it has been a real whirlwind!

I left off at parent/teacher conferences in my last newsletter. Those went very well. It is always nice to have that one-on-one time with parents to show them their child’s portfolio and discuss their growth during the year. The first days of preschool, some of the thee-year-old children make confetti when they attempt to use scissors, but by the end of the year, they can cut with more precision. The older children leave equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to head into kindergarten with confidence. Conferences are the benchmark that we know we are on the fast road to the end of the year.

After conferences, the focus switched to our year-end activities, although we did still have some time learning about habitats, farm and gardens sprinkled in there. We tied the farm unit into our field trip to the Morning Fresh Dairy Farm. If you have never been on one of their tours, we highly recommend it. It is beautiful there and quite interesting. Of course, a favorite highlight is the sampling of their milks and the Noosa yogurt! The Howling Café is adorable too.

We also had our Friendship/Kindness party for all classes. We have “Kindness Jars” in the classroom. Children get to put a bead in the jar when they exhibit an extra act of kindness that we see or another child reports. Of course, kindness is expected all the time and is acknowledged, but when those “extra” acts of kindness happen, we take a moment to point it out and tell others about it. It is a great positive reinforcement tool that works well for us. Once the jar is full, we have a party to celebrate.

Next up was the Mother’s Day tea. We were thrilled to be back to normal this year. The children presented their moms with a gift package they made that included an adorable photo frame complete with a handprint and special photo, a flower they planted in a pot they decorated and a super cute card. One of our moms has her own small business of making skin care products, so we used a small amount of our grant money so she could make a special item for each of the mothers. It had its own special name and label just for our Mother’s Day Tea. Thank you so much to the ladies of Saint John’s who made and donated food items, flowers and other items for the event! It is so much more appreciated than you know! We also enlisted the moms from the younger class to bring food items and help on the day of the event which was a huge help. We cannot do this event without all the extra hands that are there to help. Please know how much I appreciate all of you! We released our butterflies as usual on this beautiful spring day, which is always so much fun for everyone.

The following week brought the Spring Program, which was adorable, as always. You never know what you are going to get when you put a bunch of preschoolers on a big stage! The kids did a wonderful job and had a blast of fun in the process. It is good to let them have this opportunity to be on a stage early in their life. Thank you, Sharlene Haas, for organizing the refreshments for the program, and cleaning up after it was over! On that note, thank you again, Sharlene, for organizing and supervising our bake sale fund raiser back in April!

The following week was our summer birthday party. We celebrate birthdays throughout the year, but we do not want the summer kiddos left out, so we have a special day for them. The very next day was our Pre-K graduation and picnic. We were thrilled to have this back to normal too! The children gave a brief demonstration of what our morning circle time routine looks like by performing our daily welcome song and the Pledge of Allegiance. They chose a couple of their favorite songs/dances to do, as well, before I handed out certificates and their books. We give each of them a copy of Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr Seuss. We, the teachers, write a personal note in the book to each child with instructions to parents to have every teacher throughout the child’s life sign the book so they have a sweet keepsake when they graduate high school. I make a memory slideshow each year for the students, so I was happy that we could watch it alt together once again at the graduation ceremony.

These events really do take a village to be successful and I am so grateful for our Open Arms village. I want to say a special thank you to Cindy Starck and Whitney Starck for providing the food and decorations for the graduation. They worked so hard setting up and decorating the fellowship hall, making the lunch for everyone and sticking around to clean it all up! I am so incredibly grateful for your help and could not have done it without you. My own daughter graduated from high school two days later, so I was a crazy person with family coming in and planning my daughter’s graduation events. I truly do not know what I would have done without these ladies stepping in to oversee this! Pre-Kindergarten graduation is always bittersweet for me, just as it is for parents. The hardest part is saying goodbye to the families who are on their last child to attend Open Arms. I do tell them to visit anytime, and I expect a high school graduation invitation in thirteen years!

Our very last day with our three-year-old class was on the 19th, complete with a picnic. This is a less-difficult goodbye since they will all be back in the fall. A few of them were not happy knowing it was their last day until fall—that is a good problem to have!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped and supported the preschool program this year. I love the community we have here and cannot thank everyone enough! You all are a blessing to me! Have a safe and fun summer!

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.