Preschool Fire Drill

Practicing staying safe is an important part of our preschool curriculum. This includes periodic fire/earthquake drills. On Thursday, March 11 the entire preschool took part in a fire drill. Everyone exited the preschool to muster up in the preschool parking lot for a quick headcount. The children did a fantastic job listening to teachers and we had an incredibly smooth drill. Great work everyone!

2021 News and Reminders

Can you believe that it’s already March? We are about to spring into spring and can hardly wait to see what hatches around the preschool.

Dr. Seuss’ Birthday – Tuesday, March 2nd

Dr. Seuss wrote more than 46 children’s books and stories that have shaped and continue to impact the world of early childhood literature. We will be celebrating him at preschool by reading a few of his books this year. Thank you Dr. Seuss for firing our imaginations, our love of rhyme, and introducing us to the worlds inside of books.

Just for your enjoyment, here are links to two famous Dr. Seuss books that Mr. Tim recorded when we went to distance learning a year ago. Enjoy!

Mr. Tim Reads:

The Cat in the Hat

Green Eggs and Ham

Summer Camp Registration – DUE: Friday, March 12th

Will you be joining the “Fun in the Sun” summer camp this year? If so, be sure to turn in your summer camp registration forms ASAP. Spaces are filling up fast and we are still limited by our smaller class sizes. Summer camp is FIRST COME FIRST SERVE so don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of the fun at the preschool this summer.

St. Patrick’s Day – Wednesday, March 17th

With a touch of the blarney, we will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this year with leprechauns, shamrocks, and so much more. The story of St. Patrick is also a wonderful time to talk about God’s commandment for us to spread the gospel with the world.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Chapel – February 2021

February Chapel is always a great time to talk about love and specifically, God’s love.

For this chapel we read 1 John 4:7-13, which discusses how much God loves us and the role we play in sharing God’s love with the world.

Image result for 1 John 4:8

Our focus song was G.O.D. is L.O.V.E. based on 1 John 4:8 & 16 and we learned how to spell it out using American sign language.

We also enjoyed reading the book Because God Loves Me! Below you will find the link to Mr. Tim’s YouTube version of the story.

We concluded chapel by brainstorming how we can show love at the preschool. The most popular answers across all the classrooms were…share, give hugs, say “hi”, and give cards.

We are so grateful for the love of God and the ability to share that love with the world.

2021 News and Reminders

We love the month of love and are looking forward to all the exciting things that will happen over the next four weeks!

Snow Days – Thurs., Feb. 4th & Fri., Feb. 5th

We are so excited to announce that our Snow Days are back on the schedule!

Starting on Thursday, February 4th, we are turning the back end of the preschool parking lot into our very own winter wonderland with actual snow! The snow will be provided by an outside company, Arctic Glacier, who specializes in snow/ice events. Each classroom will have an opportunity to explore the frosty fun as an extension of their classroom’s yard time.

We recommend bundling up your little ones on those days and sending snow appropriate clothes and footwear plus sending extra clothes to change into after the event. Each classroom will have a half hour window of time to play in the snow on both Thursday and Friday.

*This event will be postponed if the forecast calls for rain on either of our planned days.

Valentine’s Day Parties – Wed., Feb. 10th & Thurs., Feb 11th

Each classroom will be celebrating the holiday with special festivities in their classrooms on both Wednesday, February 10th and Thursday, February 11th. Please be sure to keep a look out for classroom specific details about what they’ll be doing. This includes how each classroom will handle Valentine’s Day favors.

Here are a few quick suggestions…

Avoid edible treats. Instead, themed pencils, crayons, erasers, stickers, or other small items would be a great gift idea.

Simple and small is always best.

On the cards, sign – To: My Friend         From: Your Child’s Name

Due to flux schedules, not all the kids know each other but it makes it easier to give to everyone vs. figuring out who comes which day. The classrooms will provide a total head count for each room.

Please avoid the “Boy”/”Girl” Valentine trap. Allow your child to select a Valentine’s they wish to give vs. worrying about who is a boy and who is a girl. The kids get more out of reflected diversity of their peers’ interests rather than specific “gender themed” cards.

There is no obligation to give out Valentine’s card/treats but you are welcome to participate as you see fit.

Teacher In-service Day – Fri., Feb. 12th – PRESCHOOL CLOSED

Teacher In-service Days are crucial and provided us the much needed time for training, planning, preparation, and cleaning that can’t be achieved while the children are on campus. We are grateful for these opportunities to grow and improve all that we do in service of the children and families.

Presidents’ Day – Mon., Feb. 15th – PRESCHOOL CLOSED

While we don’t typically do a deep study of American history or civics as a part of the preschool experience, we are happy to celebrate two of our nation’s most influential leaders and the role presidents play in shaping and guiding our country.

Let us raise standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God. – George Washington

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right. – Abraham Lincoln

Handprint Fundraiser – February

We are excited to share that we still have a few tiles available for this school year’s Handprint fundraiser. 2020 will live large in our memories for many reasons but one of the prime reasons, for the preschool, is marking the 20th anniversary of serving our PCS community. You still have a chance to be a part of the amazing legacy of families that comprise our Handprint wall. Leaving an indelible mark on our preschool during a challenging but also truly remarkable year.

All the proceeds of our Handprints go towards offsetting the costs of special events such as our Farm and Snow Days. If you are interested in adding to our wall, please click the link below to see our flyer and Handprint payment form (hard copies available in the preschool office upon request).

If you already participated in the Handprint fundraiser at the beginning of the school year, we wanted to let you now that those tiles have been created, are in process, and soon to be added to the wall.

Chapel – January 2021

We are so excited to be back together at the preschool and to have our very first Chapel of 2021!

Today we discussed what we remembered about the Christmas Story and the birth of Jesus. Where he was born and who Jesus’ first visitors were. Then we learned about the Wise Men from the East and read Matthew 2:1-12 as well as the Rhyme Bible. We learned how the Wise Men (Magi) followed the star from far away to find the new born king (Messiah). The children had a wonderful time learning the first two verses of We Three Kings and discussing the three gifts that the Wise Men brought. It was a fantastic way to start a new year together.

We three kings | Christmas songs lyrics, We three kings, Christmas carols  lyrics
Those gifts from the three wise men have health, wealth benefits - New York  Daily News
Top: Myrrh Middle: Gold Bottom: Frankincense

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.

John 3:16a

Sand in Your Shoes

Every day at preschool you can find our children excavating, heaping, heaving, sifting, pouring, and learning though the magic of large/fine motor sand exploration and play. Whether it’s digging out a trench to fill with water or heaping a mound for a volcano experiment, the children relish the dusty, dirty, gritty experience of the sand. Over twenty years, our sand has received much love and attention from not only our own children but even the local wild life and a few neighborhood cats. With all that affection and use, it was time for a change and refresh.

Through the help of a grant provided to us by Options for Learning, a free, low cost high quality child care and early learning services program, through the state of California, we were able to completely replace the sand in our large central sandbox together with the sand in our smaller younger pod box. As you can imagine, this was no mean feat in both cost and effort. We are very appreciative of the Options for Learning program and their continued support of early childhood programs, especially during these trying times.

While it might seem like a minor change, sand for sand. In reality it is huge with regards to the health, safety, and wellbeing of our students and staff. We are infinitely grateful for the generosity of the Options for Learning program as well as the hard work of our own Pasadena Christian School Environmental Services team. Mr. Dave Ekstrand and his crew spent three days eliminating the old sand and replacing it with the 36 tons of new sand.

The children were elated to find a fresh sandy landscape awaiting them upon our return from the Christmas break. They have wasted no time fully immersing themselves by digging right in. After all, what would a day at preschool be without some sand in your shoe?