eRPDS - Redeemer Parish Day School Newsletter

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eRPDS April 2021

"Wherever I go, the sun always follows me."

-Makayla PDS 3s Student

Letter from the Director

Dear Redeemer Community,

I recently was asked what I have learned most from my time as an early childhood educator. Prior to teaching at Redeemer, my classroom experience was solely in the elementary years. I started my journey at Redeemer excited about the opportunity to teach kindergarten but with the idea that it would be a short pit stop on my way back to being an elementary school educator. That was 12 years ago, before I knew what I know now.

What probably surprised me most about an early childhood school environment was the incredible amount of learning that takes place in the first years of schooling. Ninety percent of brain development happens. Watching children explore and investigate in a multi-sensory, engaging way really opened my eyes. The way we teach and learn in preschool is not just how young children learn best, it is how people learn best. Makayla in our 3s perfectly articulated the wisdom gained in a preschool environment when she said, “Wherever I go, the sun always follows me.” That statement says so much!

As educators we truly relish the opportunity to be lifelong learners through what we gain from interactions with our students and colleagues and through professional development. Even with the challenges of COVID, our faculty has still managed to complete over 250 hours of professional development this year alone. Please click here to see a list of the courses taken by our faculty and staff.

Redeemer will always be a place of immense learning, not just for our students, but for our faculty too, and our time at Redeemer during COVID has provided us with an incredible opportunity to learn through change. For that, we will be forever grateful!

Best Regards,

Mary

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Office Notes & Reminders

Reminders and Updates:

Pedal for Pediatrics:

Our Trike Ride today was a huge success. We appreciate your support as we raise funds to fight childhood cancers - and a very special thank you to our parent volunteers and WMAR. Please be sure to watch WMAR Channel 2 tonight to catch a glimpse of our students in action and click here to make a secure, tax-deductible donation.

Piezzetta Fund Raiser:

RPDS is so grateful to Chris Illardo and Piezzetta for partnering with us to raise funds for our school. We raised $3,440!! That is a lot of pizza!!!! Thank you also to Parent Council Co-chairs, Chrissy Levering and Helena Illardo, as well as their volunteers!

Kindergarten/Pre-first Publishing Party - PLEASE NOTE THE DATE CHANGES:

Our budding authors and illustrators are excited to share their work and all they have learned about the writing process this year. Kindergarten and Pre-first parents, please mark your calendars with the following dates. Additional information will be forthcoming.

Smith Kindergarten: Tuesday, May 18 - 9:15-9:45

Vandenberg Kindergarten: Wednesday, May 19 - 9:15-9:45

Barta Pre-first: Thursday, May 20 - 9:15-9:45

June Jamboree:

Please mark your calendars for June 4 and our June Jamboree. Similar to the Christmas pageants, we will offer three small performances approximately 15-20 minutes each. Additional information will be emailed in the next few weeks. School will dismiss that day at 11:45.

Important Calendar Information:

Friday, May 28 - 11:45 Dismissal

Monday, May 31 - No School; Memorial Day

Thursday, June 3 - 11:45 Dismissal; Faculty Meeting

Friday, June 4 - 11:45 Dismissal; June Jamboree and Last Day of School

Click Here for Upcoming Events

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Click Here to View Our Student Slideshow

What a Wonderful World!

PDS Monthly Value

Taking Care of the Earth

A Fly on the wall...

What's happening in the classrooms?

PE with Mrs. Craig

We have been working on body motion and spatial awareness with some fun PE activities. We have played Stick Figure Statue Freeze dance where I held up a picture of a stick figure when the music stopped, and the children had to imitate the pose. For Earth Day, PE class featured a Yoga Flow to celebrate our beautiful world with mountain, tree, and other challenging poses. The children have also enjoyed using sensory scarves to take turns leading the class in movements and positions. The scarves are great for the little ones who are learning to catch and throw. When the scarves are thrown into the air, they float down slowly enough for the children to track and catch!

Find out what is going on in all of our classes.

Click here!

Program Highlights

April has been fun-filled and busy! We celebrated Mrs. Poe and her role as our Administrative Coordinator by surprising her with a Purple for Poe Day, flowers from our gardens, hand-made notes and lots of love and hugs. On Earth Day we learned more about being stewards of the world around us. Team Marvel taught our student body to reuse, reduce and recycle. We planted seeds, created recycled art, worked in the gardens, and collected trash around our campus. Thank you to Mrs. Baker for leading the way with our Earth Day efforts! We also enjoyed the beautiful creations of our 3 year old artists in their show, "The Earth Laughs in Flowers!" Our bellies were full and our hearts were happy after making our own homemade pizzas. Thank you to Piezzetta and parent volunteers for partnering with us in this fun and engaging fund raiser. Finally, we ended the month riding our bikes during Pedal for Pediatrics @ Redeemer to support Johns Hopkins Pediatric Oncology. Thank you to our parents and community for all the support! Way to go, PDS!

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