May Newsletter

It's hard to believe that the school year is coming to an end! We have watched your children grow and learn and feel blessed that you shared them with us this year!

Graduation Day is Upon us!

Friday, May 11th is our Graduation! The children will attend school as usual at 8:15. We will meet everyone in the Activity Center at 9:30 for a program and cake!

Please enter the building through the same door that you pick your kids up at. This is the single door between the new gym and the Performing Arts Center (previously "small gym" or "activity center") The doors will open around 9:00 for Graduation attendees. You may park along the horseshoe drive and in the new parking lot north of the new gym. Handicapp parking is available on the Secondary side. We have about 70 RSVP's, so please be a courteous as you park.

Backpacks

It is important that you continue to have your child bring their backpacks each day, including Graduation day! We have many important projects and activities to send home each day. We want to make sure it gets safely home!

Fun Day

A BIG THANKS to our Mom's who helped to plan our Outdoor Fun Day this year!! We appreciate your help Amber and Amanda! It a was a great time!

Journals

We will be writing in our journals for the last time soon and and will be sending them home for you to enjoy.
It is amazing to look back and see how their drawings have changed! While doing journals, we would give the children the start of their sentence and then let them draw. We would then write the words they told us. (Those words all came from your child and we cannot be held responsible! :) Towards the middle of the year, they even began writing the "words" themselves. Sometimes they may look like scribbles, but they are words! Many of our kids even got pretty good at writing the sounds for their words.
I hope you enjoy them as much as we did throughout the year!

Pasta Night

Thank you to all of our Board Members and Parents who volunteered to help during our Pasta Night Fundraiser -- we couldn't have done it without you!!

Thank you to the Barilla company for the donation of all of our noodles and Marinara Sauce!

Thank you to Waukee Hy-Vee for the donation of 300 Bakery Cookies, to West Lakes Hy-Vee for the donation of our bread, and the Mills Civic Hy-Vee for the donation of 200 cookies. We appreciate their help in making this a great fundraiser for our program!

Summer Activities

     Even though your child will not be "in school", they will be learning all summer long! One thing you can do to foster their development, is as simple as carrying on a conversation with them. Research says that the longer children stay in conversation, the more practice, feedback and information they get. This in turns builds their language skills. As your child converses with you, be sure to make comments that show you are interested and ask questions that build on what they have said. By simply waiting for their response, you show your child that you are interested and that they are important.
    As I read books to the kids, one of my favorite things to do is ask them why something in the story happened. I am always amazed at the answers. I have heard crazy off the wall answers that don't make sense (but make me laugh) to answers that make me go "Wow, they've really got it!"
   Other things you can do include having them "write" your grocery list, use new vocabulary to describe what you see, point out letters, practice writing their name, play a rhyming game, count, count and then...count! :) There are so many things that you already do everyday that your child learns from. Most importantly -- HAVE FUN!!

THANK YOU!!

A BIG thank you to all of our parents who dedicated their time and talents to serve on our Board of Directors for this year! Our preschool would not exist without you!! These parents attended board meetings each month, as well as working the Pasta Dinners, recording tuition and paying teachers....the list is endless! We appreciate all of the hours they spend away from their families volunteering to help ours!! :)

Abbey Duncan

Dawn Stodola

Amber Prickett

Abby Patterson

Stacey Peterson

Barb Phillips

Abby Tibbetts

Christa McClintock

T-Shirts

Do you want to be a sponsor on our T-shirts for next year? Please fill out the form previously sent home, or print out the one below and mail or email on/before June 1st so we can begin planning. If you need another copy, let us know. We look forward to hearing from you soon!!

Upcoming Events

May 11 - Graduation, 9:30 in the

VM Schools Perfoming Arts

Center

June 11 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

NOLA!!

26 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BERKLEY!!

July 5 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

GUTHRIE!!

6 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CHRISTOPHER!!