RPDS ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER

e-RPDS February 2019

Letter from the Director

Dear Redeemer Community,

I read a lot of research on early childhood education which reinforces that what we are doing at Redeemer and in these formative years of education is on target. While we have a very strong academic curriculum and prepare our students cognitively for life beyond Redeemer, what we are doing to build our students' social and emotional strengths, while not as quantifiable, is of the utmost importance.

Through play and interactions with one another, students learn to engage effectively, respectfully, and compassionately with both their peers and adults. At Redeemer, our young ones are offered opportunity to collaborate, think creatively, and problem solve.

Please take the time to read the article below which demonstrates the incredible role that social and emotional development plays in the future success of our students. At the end of the day, we all do best if we know how to work and play with others. Let's never lose sight of that.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Best regards,

Mary

A 19-Year Study Reveals Kindergarten Students With These 2 Skills Are Twice as Likely to Obtain a College Degree (And They Have Nothing to Do With Reading)

Classroom Updates:

Mrs. Barta's Pre-first:

February has been quite busy for Pre-first so far. We have enjoyed learning about polar bears, Groundhog Day, and celebrating the 100th day of school. We are all 100 days smarter! Pre-first also enjoyed our multi-sensory, cross-curriculum "beach week" in the middle of winter. Next week, we will learn about a few important presidents and we will
finish the month exploring the age of the dinosaurs. Thank you to all the Dads and special guests that came to Donuts in the Day School. The pre-first children were excited to share a little piece of what they do each day with you. They were very proud of the book they wrote, If You Give a Dad a Donut.

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

We are having a fun and busy time growing and learning in Kindergarten. We are continuing to become more independent at school and hopefully at home. Please continue to allow your child to zip their own coat and put on their boots. We will continue to go outside - even in the snow - so please send in winter gear. Our upcoming units are of high interest to the children (dinosaurs and space) and we are excited to work on them. Stay tuned for some more mini homework projects which will allow your child to teacher the other students about something that they have learned.

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

We have had a "Fun February" in the PreK. It was so nice for the children to have their fathers join them for Donuts in the Day School while celebrating and learning about Groundhog's Day. We just wrapped up one of our favorite letters, P. The letter P included pirates, a pirate treasure hunt, pirate booty which coincided perfectly with our Redeemer Beach Week. Next week we will move onto Q and focus on quality work when writing our letters and numbers. Thank you for making sure your children have an extra set of winter clothing in their cubby. We try to get outside each day and with this wet weather, we have had quite a few clothing changes.

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

Letters "O" and "P", Donuts at the Day School, Pirates, and Beach Week! What a busy couple of weeks! This was made all the more special because our classroom was mostly staffed by Allison Knott and Lisa Doherty; two engaged, competent, and very caring teachers! They were sensitive to your children's needs and responsive to a changing dynamic as I was out longer than I had initially thought. Thank you for the caring notes, delicious food, and support from the other Pre-k, as they made sure all was well 'down the hall'! The community of Redeemer is indeed special and I am fortunate to be part of it. As we head into the next few weeks, we will be preparing for conferences, celebrating Valentine's Day, and continuing to work on fine motor skills, letter and corresponding sound recognition, and number sense.

We hope that Punxsutawney Phil was correct and that spring is only a few weeks away!

Mrs. Schroeder & Miss Ball's 3s:

The 5 day 3s had a great week celebrating beach week! They had so much fun using all the sensory boxes! We attended a luau, had a sunbathing party and had a dance party complete with a conga line with the pre-first class. Everyone really enjoyed their onset the sea week. The class had a great time at donuts at the day school. Thanks to all the guests who came to visit. In the middle of all this excitement we have still had time to start a new poem, Jack be nimble, a new shape of heart and new colors of pink and purple!We are also starting out All about me unit, as well as gotten ready for Valentine's Day! We have been busy!

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

"Donuts at The Day School" was great fun for us all! Thank you to our many guests who shared their morning with us. PINK HEARTS are February's color and shape of the month. Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick is our February nursery rhyme and your children are "jumping over" our lit candlesticks ( battery operated) just like Jack! We have been working on our "All About Me" unit, discussing how each of us is unique and special. Your children took home their handmade books today as a Valentine treat; we hope you will cherish them! Thank you to our party Moms for a wonderful Valentine's Day party today. Many new manipulatives and scissors are filling our morning tables as the children enjoy building their hand strength and their small motor skills while "chatting" nonstop to one another....such fun to listen to their joyous conversations. We are discussing opposites and continue to reinforce rhyming, letters, numbers, shapes and colors. Next week, we will start our "Senses" unit. This is always a favorite as we have many fun activities and stories that use our FIVE SENSES. Wishing you all a warm and wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Astley & Mrs. Knott's 2s:

Love is in the air and the Astley's 2/2s are full of love! Our class is so special and a fun class to be with every week. This month we are focusing on Love & Friendship, Valentine's Day, the color pink and the heart shape. We have enjoyed the Groundhog's early predication of Spring with wonderful weather at the beginning of the month. The warm weather came at the perfect time...during our Beach Week! We were treated to a mid-winter multi-sensory themed week with sharks and fish and Starfish! Oh My! We enjoyed a walk around school and looking at all the wonderful murals that were created. Our class added starfish (and ate some Cheerios along the way!). We met up with Mrs. Barta's PreFirst class to test our smells and discovered different beach smells. It was a really fun week! It's been so exciting to watch as your children grow and learn with each other. I just can't say it enough...thank you so much for sharing your children with us!

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

The Wyatt/Zuidema/Yanega Twos are having a fabulous February. We made ice skates for our cubbies and went "ice" skating through the halls. We had a great time during our Beach Week using all of our senses. We loved seeing all of the under water decorations, hearing the beach music as we played freeze dance with the pre-k, identifying the scents in our smelling game with the pre-k, tasting the delicious snack at our all school beach picnic, and touching all of the wonderful shells and water beads in the sensory boxes. Wearing lots of bright colors and summer outfits made February a little more exciting. Throughout the rest of the month, we will continue talking about hearts and the color pink. As always, we thank you for sharing your children with us.

Lunch Bunch:

Lunch Bunch is feeling the love. We have been making some Valentine's day inspired projects and have been flexing our creative muscles by creating projects using an array of materials. We have been using watercolor, paper, tempra sticks, oil pastels, spray bottles and so much more. We have been encouraging the children to create art that comes from their own inspiration and minds. Sometimes this may mean that a picture comes home that looks like scribble, but often this indicates that your child has been experimenting with different mediums, and trying is to create something unique that does not look like their friends pictures! We are working on being kind friends and making sure that the decisions we make are always safe, kind and fun! We have been encouraging the children to use their words to tell their friends when something bothers them. If this does not work they should go get a teacher for help! We also ask that they children say STOP in a firm clear voice with their hand in front of them if they are having trouble. This sends a clear message to their friends and to the teachers that they no longer want to play a game. As Lunch Bunch progresses we are excited to see so much social and emotional growth from the children. Thank you for sharing them with us, they fill our hearts with joy!

Mrs. Blair's Art:

Snowmen, Mice and Love Birds have been spotted in the art room! Our youngest 3's artists read Mouse Paint and created secondary colors after learning the color mixing process of primary colors. Pre-Kindergarten made their own "snow storm" watercolor paper and then painted unique sparkly snowmen complete with hats and scarves! Kindergarten and Pre-first worked very hard on directed drawings of a boy and girl to learn how to draw detailed people. They also made the most gorgeous painted paper love birds just in time for Valentine's Day! Please continue to encourage your artists to keep creating and Enjoy The Process!

Mrs. Craig's Gym:

We were happy to catch the wave of beach week in gym class! The students enjoyed paddling across the gym on a surf board and playing beach ball catch and volleyball. We used all kinds of beach themed motoring: swimming, digging in the sand, rolling like a wave, and flying like a seagull. Class ended with the tropical sounds of a round of limbo!

Miss B's Music:

The students explored some different and unusual instruments while playing ocean sounds this week. Between gourd shakers , marimbas and djembes they made some cool sounds! Next week the K and PreK will be doing the music story Peter and the wolf.

Mrs. Craig's Science:

Pre-K: The letter P had us exploring the spinning planets in our solar system. The students enjoyed creating and playing with their paper and penny spinning planets. Next week we will squish through some sticky gooey quicksand!

Kindergarten: In our weather unit, we had an in class "snow day" enjoying the wonder of insta-snow, melting a jar full of snow to see how much water it held, and eating snow cones! We also have made four types of cotton ball clouds and tornadoes in bottles.

Pre-First: We began our Earth Science unit learning about Pangea and how tectonic plates move and cause the Earth to change using graham crackers. We made a model of the Earth and all its layers out of play dough and explored different types of landforms.

Mrs. Smith's Values:

This is a wonderful book that provides opportunities to

discuss the results of staying with our efforts. Determination

and Responsibility will be values we are discussing the next

two weeks. Demonstrate determination in all you do. Encourage children to finish

projects they begin.How do you feel? Happy? Proud?

Senora Poe's Spanish:

Learning about ropa (clothing) is fun! The children loved walking the runway. We have some natural stars. Last week, we went to la playa and helped decorate for Beach Week. We made pez (fish), tortugas (turtles), pulpos (octopus) and medusas (jelly fish). We even meditated in el sol!

Mrs. Knott's World Cultures:

After spending time in India celebrating Makar Sankrati with a festival of kites, we headed to Beach Week at Redeemer! Students were excited to learn about our five oceans, creating sensory habitats to showcase some of the underwater creatures we studied.

Office Updates

SAVE THE DATE

Line up your babysitters now for our Spring Auction and Social on Friday, April 12th!

UPCOMING CALENDAR EVENTS:

Friday, February 15th- NO SCHOOL -Professional Day

Monday, February 18th- NO SCHOOL- President's Day

Friday, February 22nd- Parent Conferences- 3/2s, 3s, Pre-k, K & P1 **SCHOOL IS NOT IN SESSION

Program Highlights:

Donuts at the Day School

The beginning of February marked one of our favorite RPDS traditions - Donuts at the Day School. Our students were excited to host special guests in their classrooms, while enjoying a morning of donuts and fun!

Beach Week in Winter

Last week the Redeemer halls were full of sensory learning, sunshine, and smiles. Our building was transformed into an underwater adventure. Classes loved collaborating together to explore the beach through a variety of activities. We surfed the waves, danced away, went to a Luau, and enjoyed endless summer fun! Be sure to watch our "Beach Week" slideshow under the Quicklinks section for a small glimpse of the week.

100 Days of School

Pre-first and kindergarten returned from our snow days to mark the 100th day of school. They celebrated by imagining and drawing themselves at 100 years of age, dreaming about what they might do with $100 and so much more. Students showcased unique "100th Day" tee shirts that they created at home. Thank you to our parents for your creativity and support with this activity. It was the highlight of the day!

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!