RPDS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

e-RPDS 05/03/2018

Letter from the Director

Dear Redeemer Community,

At Redeemer we are blessed with incredible facilities, a playground that promotes a great deal of fun, and a strong curriculum that caters beautifully to pre-school age children. Our greatest resource; however, is the Redeemer faculty. While it would not be hard to replicate the other things, we are the school we are because of our devoted and talented teachers.

Collectively our faculty will finish this school year with 263 years of experience in the field of education, and seven of them have taught at Redeemer for more than ten years. Since September they have completed over 264 hours in continuing education and have spent countless faculty meetings working together to create a stronger and better program for our students. Not only are they creative and dedicated professionals, they are incredibly kind women who care deeply about their students and one another. They listen, guide, smile and laugh. Their interactions with their students and one another are likely the greatest lessons they pass along. With a ripple effect, what they do truly makes our world a better place.

Unfortunately, the end of the school year can mean saying good-bye to some of these wonderful women. As you likely know already, Ruth Faint, after 21 years at Redeemer, will be retiring. We will miss her wisdom, peaceful demeanor and witty sense of humor. We also will be saying good-bye to Marian Yanega, one of our beloved 2s teachers, who has decided to dedicate a hundred percent of her time to being a mother. Marian's love for children, generous laugh and sense of flexibility will be missed at Redeemer. We look forward to keeping Ruth and Marian on our sub list and can't wait to welcome them back next year.

This year also marks an important milestone for Katie Schroeder who will be completing her tenth year as a Redeemer teacher! Katie began her career as a student teacher here, eventually growing into her roles as a Lead 3s teacher, the Lunch Bunch Coordinator and Play & Grow Camp Co-director. Katie's sensitivity and kindness are contagious, and her students adore her. My 13 year old son, Cole, still lists Katie at the top of his "best teachers ever" list. We are grateful for her expertise, organization, creativity, and passion for working with young children. Thank you, Katie! We are lucky to have you!

We are grateful to the Redeemer parents for all they have done this week to show appreciation for the faculty. Be sure to watch our new slideshow, under the Quicklinks section, which is dedicated to these wonderful women. We are fortunate that they choose to teach at Redeemer!

Have a great weekend!

Best regards,

Mary Knott

Classroom Updates:

Mrs. Barta's Pre-first:

The Pre-first students are enjoying our unit on the 50 states. We have been learning about different U.S. symbols and their meanings, capitals, landmarks and various state facts. Our postcard challenge is off to a great start! We are hoping to receive postcards from all 50 states by the end of the year...wish us luck!! Next week, we will dive into learning all about our very own state of Maryland. In Math, we continue learning our concepts of sequencing, adding and subtracting, place value, odd and even numbers, graphing and telling time. Your children have been hard at work writing and illustrating stories. I am so proud of each and every one of them! We look forward to sharing all of their work and successes at the Publishing Party on May 18th. You will not want to miss it!!!

Mrs. Smith's & Mrs. Vandenberg's Kindergartens:

We are topping off our studies of the rainforest with a rainforest tasting party on Friday. We can't wait to show off our very own "Save the Rainforest" t-shirts! We have also been very busy thinking of ideas and writing for our end of the year Publishing Party. This event will be held on May 18th at 9:15. We can't wait to share all of our hard work with you! We have been discussing the resources that the rainforest and Earth provides and how important it is to take good care of our rainforests and Earth. Go for a walk in your neighborhood and look to see how people take care of the Earth in your area. See if your child can tell you some of the ways that we can take care of our Earth. Thank you!

Mrs. Baker & Mrs. Faint's Pre-k:

Hooray for finishing the alphabet! Now we can concentrate on recognizing and writing lower case letters. We have been working on sequencing pictures and counting ordinal numbers so you would hear first, second, third and on, in our room. We are also taking this time to practice writing numbers on the back of some simple counting pages. Our theme this whole month is "Growing and Changing" so we are examining our tadpoles for signs of legs and awaiting the arrival of our caterpillars/butterflies. We also compare and contrast how the children themselves have changed since September. There has been a tremendous amount of growth evident in them! Enjoy outside time with your child.

Mrs. Vahedi & Mrs. Loeb's Pre-k:

There is so much to tell you we hardly know where to begin! The class trip to Irvine was a success! A first bus ride for most of us, and a visit with a turtle that reminded us to use all our senses to check out 'nature'! It was a cool and rainy day but we had a great time; a special thanks to our chaperones who braved soggy woods and a noisy bus! Thank you to all our wonderful parents that made the Auction such a success. The evening was lovely, the food was great, and we enjoyed having fun with all! And Mrs. Loeb won a painting, which is hanging in her bedroom! The 'Pedal for Pediatrics' event was amazing! We all used our good bike manners and really enjoyed the ice cream. Thank you to ALL for the generous donations. It is so good to know we are surrounded by great doctors and nurses and a fabulously supportive and giving community! And a special thanks to Mrs. Hooper who spoke so eloquently at chapel prior to the Friday ride and explained all about the need for more research so all children will get better. The Goldfish swim club was a big success. The teachers taught 'rules of the pool' which made sense to all, even without the water! We have completed "X, Y, and Z"! This year has definitely zoomed by! There is still much to do, as we are getting ready for our caterpillars to arrive, put the finishing touches on our Alphabet book and practice for our June Jamboree. And as Finley reminded us "We really have to work on our numbers!" As you are all aware, spring/summer is upon us. Because the weather is so changeable at this point, we just want to remind you to apply sunscreen and send your children with 'layers' of clothing. It can be chilly in the morning, and hot in the afternoon. And the classroom is frequently very chilly, so a sweater or a sweatshirt goes a long way in making everyone comfortable!

Miss Ball & Mrs. Schroeder's 3s:

The 5 day 3s are growing up quickly! At the end of this month all of our class will be 4 years old! We have been working on perfecting (to the best of our abilities) our cutting skills, sitting during calendar, tracing our names and much more! For our last month of the year we will be studying the ocean and the animals that live there. This unit will culminate with an ocean book. We have finished going through the alphabet and are discussing numbers for the rest of this month. We will also review all those letters that we have learned, our poems and celebrate that everyone is ready to go to Pre-K! Our Nursery Rhyme book that we have been working on all year will go home towards the end of the month, so be on the lookout! We are also finishing up our discussions about community helpers. If you have any pictures of community helpers and your children please send them to us so we can share them with the class! The weather is finally feeling like spring! Please make sure your child has seasonably appropriate clothing in their cubby. If you are not sure, just ask! As always please let us know if you have any concerns or questions, we love to hear from you! Thank you, and happy May!

Mrs. Grieves & Mrs. Hooper's 3s:

We completed our Community Helpers Unit last week as Police Officers, Firemen and Postal Carriers! Now that May has brought sunshine and warm weather, we begin our month long study of the Ocean. The "Under The Sea" Counting Book (#1-10) will take all of May to complete. The children will create several ocean creatures as well as learn a few fun facts about them. Each year the children really enjoy seeing pictures, watching videos and reading books about "who and what" lives under the sea. We will watch dolphins jumping, sea turtles hatching, starfish eating, seahorses swimming and octopi inking! Their faces are sure to "light up" as they create, watch, listen and learn! Today, your children brought home their Nursery Rhyme Book which they have been creating since September! We hope this special keepsake will be enjoyed for years to come! Looking forward to seeing you all at the year end school picnic next Thursday, the 10th. Many thanks for a wonderful week of teacher appreciation treats. We enjoyed it all! An early Happy Mothers Day to ALL of our wonderful 3 Day 3 Moms! Enjoy the sunshine and your sweet little ones!

Mrs. Yanega & Mrs. Arrup's 2s:

First, we want to thank all of the wonderful parents in the Redeemer Community who went above and beyond during Teacher Appreciation week. We feel so fortunate to have such supportive parents! We can not believe we are in the home stretch of school!! Our class was able to take advantage of the few warm days we had and actually had circle time outside. The boys and girls loved listening to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and then playing a game in which they had to act like different insects. During the month of May, we will focus on the color yellow, diamonds and summer fun. Each day is a gift with your children and we are so thankful to have them in our class.

Mrs. Zuidema & Mrs. Wyatt's 2s:

Spring has sprung! We finished our month of April and our spring theme while still wearing our winter coats. Lets hope we can finally put them away for good. One of our most favorite projects was planting grass heads. We have loved watering them and watching them grow; they might need a haircut soon! We also enjoyed celebrating Earth Day and making coffee filter earths. May brings us the themes of Mother's Day, Summer Fun, the color yellow, and diamonds. Our new bulletin board has a beach scene with shells we painted, and our cubbies will display our surfing into the end of the year. Speaking of cubbies, after many of our friends got soaking wet while splashing in mud puddles, we noticed that their cubbies were bare or their changes of clothing were way too small! Please make sure your children's cubbies are stocked with size and seasonally appropriate spare outfits. Last but definitely not least, we thank all of you for a fantastic Teacher Appreciation Week. We loved being spoiled with breakfast, snacks, surprise substitutes, flowers... As always, thank you for sharing your children with us. We adore each and every one of them!!

Lunch Bunch:

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of the year. Lunch bunch is loving having some warm sunny weather! This allows us to play some structured outdoor games. We are playing Mr Fox, Duck Duck goose, hopscotch, and Simon says , as well as some other traditional games . We have been making some fun art projects. We have free painted, made art work with squeegees and experimented with mixing colors on plates. We have been playing great indoor games too. Using fly swatters and balloons we played hockey and tennis. Such great hand eye coordination games! We have also been playing with our new shark game that works on Spanish colors. We had a super hero day where we made lunch bunch super heroes. We traced a friend and decorated our hero and gave him/her powers. We also have been taking care of our garden and making sure the plants and flowers have water. We are looking forward to the last month of lunch bunch fun.

Office Notes

UPCOMING CALENDAR EVENTS:

CLICK HEAR TO VIEW OUR 2018-2019 SCHOOL CALENDAR

Thursday, May 10th 5:30 pm- End of Year Family Picnic (RPDS Playground). Click here for the pizza order form.

Friday, May 18th -9:15 am -Kindergarten & Pre-first Publishing Party (Parish Hall)

Friday, May 25th -11:45 ALL SCHOOL DISMISSAL

Monday, May 28th- NO SCHOOL- Memorial Day

M onday, June 4th- 11:45 ALL SCHOOL DISMISSAL

Tuesday, June 5th 9:15 - June Jamboree

Program Highlights:

Water Safety with Gold Fish Swim School

We are incredibly grateful to Goldfish Swim School for visiting with our students and teaching them about water safety! Unfortunately, accidental drowning is the leading cause of death for children under 5. Click here to review their W.A.T.E.R Safety Program.

Field Trip to Irvine Nature Center

Our pre-k students used all their senses as they explored the woods, meadows and other habitats surrounding the Irvine Nature Center.

Trip to the Maryland Zoo

Lions and penguins and bears, oh my! The kindergarten and pre-first students enjoyed a fun day at the Maryland Zoo. Thank you to our chaperones for joining us on this great adventure.

Pedal for Pediatrics

Congratulations on another very successful year! Our students raised close to $4,800 for pediatric oncology research. We are very grateful to Chrissy Levering, Sophie Coates and Margy Hooper for their organization and help in making this year's event run so smoothly. Thank you for your support again this year!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Thank you parents and students for showering us with kind thoughts, treats, and flowers this week! We are so appreciative. We especially want to thank Mandy Saleh and Nancy Sheridan for their organization and thoughtfulness!

In This Issue

In preschool we recognize the privilege, responsibility and joy of educating our youngest students. Alongside their parents, we work diligently at building the foundation for their ongoing and lifelong learning. Be sure to click on the link below found in every issue to see our wonderful students in action. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR VIDEO

"A Tribute to Teachers!"