"You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing."
- E.B. White,
Charlotte's Web
e-RPDS                                                                                             02/05/2015
Letter from the Director
Dear Redeemer Community,

It is hard to believe that a week has gone by since we gathered to support our students and school community at our Winter Auction and Social. My heart continues to feel full. It was so incredible to see so many hearts and hands come together to make the event happen, even with the interruption of a record breaking blizzard in Baltimore. 

For our auction co-chairs (Suzanne Fowble, Lexie Mills, Kate Taylor and Katie Weiss) and volunteers, for our Parent Council Co-chairs (Natalie Bissonnette and Ruth Keffer), Redeemer facilities staff (Mark Schroeder, Mr. Vu and Mr. Chuan) and the Church's Youth Group volunteers, Katie Poe, David Ware, Mother P, the Redeemer teachers and parents; I am grateful from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for your ingenuity, resourcefulness and creativity. Your generous spirit and dedication to Redeemer never ceases to amaze me. Last, but certainly not least, thank you to our students who continue to be the reason that brings us together. 

It seems fitting that the Redeemer students and teachers are celebrating a week of friendship on the heels of our Winter Auction and Social. While the gifts from our auction are abundant, the most important is the gift of friendship. "That in itself is a tremendous thing."
 
Best regards,
Mary









Classroom Updates:

Hanna 2s:
January flew by like a shooting star, and February is off to a great start! Mrs. Barta and her Pre First class joined our Twos on Monday for Friendship Week. Mrs. Barta's students did a great job sharing what it means to be a good friend, and they helped your little ones make RPDS friendship necklaces. It was a fun experience for the big and little kids, and for us. Mrs. Doherty and I are excited to continue on with our February units: the color pink, hearts, love, friendships, and Valentine's Day. The children will begin working on a 1-5 Winter Counting Book soon, and we will continue to talk about and demonstrate appropriate clothing for the cold weather. If there is snow on the ground, please ensure you send in snow boots and snow pants, or the children cannot go outside to play! Also, please send in 10 valentines next Monday. The children will be exchanging valentines next Tuesday!

Wyatt 2s: 
It's hard to believe that February is here!  Maybe it's because half of January was a snow day!  This week we celebrated our first annual Friendship Week.  We talked about what it means to be a good friend, and we made friends with students in other classes.  Our classes joined with the Kindergarten to make friendship necklaces with the letters RPDS and red beads.  During the month of February, we will be concentrating on the color pink, heart shapes, love and friendship.  We are also looking forward to our Valentine's Day parties.  Let's hope Punxsutawney Phil was right, and spring is on it's way.

Hooper 3s:
We are thrilled to be back at school with your sweet little cherubs. Our classroom is full of PINK HEARTS (our color and shape of the month.) The children are busy working on their, "All About Me" book which will come home as a Valentine treat next week!  We have been busy sorting and counting different shaped pasta.  We encourage the children to "line up" the sorted pasta and then count each piece from left to right....they all do a great job with this!  Next Wednesday, the children will decorate their own Valentine "mailbags."  Please remember to send in 15 unaddressed Valentines by next Thursday, February 11th.  The cards should be signed but not addressed to individual children.  This allows the children to just drop one card in each "mailbag" for their classmates.  Our Science table is coming alive!  We have just planted some paper-white bulbs and everyone is excited to monitor their progress each day....soon some fragrant white flowers will appear.  Our February nursery rhyme is Jack Be Nimble...which means...we will be having fun jumping over a lit candlestick(battery operated) this month!
Happy Valentines Day to you all xoxo

Libby 3s: 
We are so glad to see the 5 day 3s back in the classroom. We are starting a new color, new shapes, and a new poem. It is also Friendship week at school. We are working on making new friends in the school. This week we will be partnering with a pre K class to make each other friendship necklaces and having a school wide special snack. We are getting geared up for Valentine's Day and our new unit is All about me. Please remember snow clothes and a change of shoes for inside. Sneakers are always best for inside play.

Faint Pre-k:
After that unexpected vacation, we returned to finish letter N with nest day where the children built a big nest out of blocks and  a small nest out of paper. We moved on to letter O, both the short and long sound, while we celebrated Friendship Week with the rest of the school. The next two weeks will be for letter P including popcorn, pancakes, pirates, and parrots as well as some review of letters already presented and Valentine activities. Please note that children will distribute valentines on Thurs Feb 11 and a pink sheet was sent home explaining how the class will do that. Thanks for your help as needed at home with the valentines - have fun! Please keep playing informal alphabet and rhyming games at home on these cold rainy days. Groundhog says early spring....

Loeb Pre-k:
Mrs. Loeb's pre-k is certainly glad to be back in school!  There is chattering everywhere and smiles on all faces!  The snow on the playground just adds to the adventure!  It is a true reflection of our Friendship week when all the children are just happy to be back together! We made NEW friends too - helping the 5 day threes to make friendship necklaces and receiving help from fabulous pre- first friends, Daniel and Madison. We are quickly getting back into the routine and our job helpers this week were great! We're in a new month, so Emily led us into February. Carter and Ella baked really delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies despite the giggling when the eggs smooshed rather than broke! Grace did a great job leading the way as line leader, as did our snack helpers (too many to mention!). We worked on the letter "O" this week, which we have discovered has a lot in common with the blended sound of "Au". So August and Australia are not "O" words - that Alphabet is tricky! We did enjoy learning some interesting facts about the Octopus and Owls. We will enjoy 2 weeks of "P" as each week has a day missing and we have lots of "P" activities planned, as well as getting ready for conferences on the 26th of February. 

Kindergarten:
What a busy month February is for Kindergarteners! We are learning about winter animals and their unique characteristics. The children will become experts on an animal to present to the class, look for the information in their folders Friday regarding this fun activity.  We will also celebrate Valentine's Day and learn about Presidents Day.
In our Math Explorations we will continue teen numbers, weight, capacity and solid shapes. Our game this week is roll and record with dice. 
Language Arts will continue our phonics work with consonants and word families.  We will soon be moving on to blends and vowels later this month.  We have begun an author study of Jan Brett. We are enjoying reading and discussing story elements such as the characters, setting, problem/solution, and sequencing. We shall compare her stories many wonderful stories throughout February. Thank you for reading to your child every day.  

Pre-first:
Friendship Week has been a huge hit with the Pre-first. They have LOVED 
teaching the school what it means to be a good friend. According to the 
Pre-first children, being a good friend means:
Daniel- being nice, George- sharing, Jack- helping others, Madison- 
loving people, Thomas- being generous, Will- being a good listener. We 
have incorporated the friendship theme into our classroom by writing 
stories, letters and journal entries about friendship. We have read 
several books, role modeled and made necklaces with the younger children 
in the school. Pre-first created a "friendship bag." This bag 
represents different situations where I catch a student being a "good 
friend." We will then use these results in Math to count, tally and
graph. Next week, we will celebrate Valentine's Day and learn about 
some U.S. Presidents.

Lunch Bunch: 
Lunch Bunch is happy to be back in school! We have had a super exciting week focusing on friendship and having fun outside in the snow! All of our projects, activities, songs and games have required working with a partner, sharing or participating in the group. We also have had a blast doing snow and ice projects. We partnered with friends to make ice cube sculptures and paint the snow outside! Thank you for sending your children in snow appropriate clothing! It is such a pleasure to watch all of the children enjoy themselves outside in the snow!   
Office Notes

Winter Clothing
We have so much fun outside. Please be sure we are dressed appropriately! Thank you.

Contracts
All contracts and enrollment fees are due February 11. Please let us know if you will not be utilizing the space that has been reserved for your child. 

Boots for Baltimore
Please look in next week's folder for more information on this Outreach program. We are excited to partner with the church to provide boots for homeless men and women.

Auction Items
If you have not picked up your winnings, please pop into the office to retrieve your items. If you have any questions, please contact Katie Poe.

UPCOMING CALENDAR EVENTS:

Thursday, February 11- Pre-K Sneak Peek at 9:00 am in Mary Knott's office. (for 3s parents). Please RSVP to Katie Poe [email protected] by February 10.

Friday, February 12- NO SCHOOL- Professional Day

Monday, February 15- NO SCHOOL- Presidents' Day

Friday, February 26th- Parent Conferences- 5/3s,Pre-K, K, P-1. School will NOT BE IN SESSION for those classes.  The 3 Day 2s and 3 Day WILL be in school. 

Program Highlights:

 
 
Friendship Week

Redeemer students have spent the past week celebrating friendship. Our classes have made posters and murals, read stories and discussed the traits that make a good friend. Most importantly, we have focused on partnering with other classes and doing activities throughout the school to build our community. Among many things, we made RPDS necklaces, shared a school wide snack and gathered today for a group sing-a-long. Be sure to ask your little ones more about this special week. Thank you to the Redeemer teachers for their creativity and extra efforts in planning for this collaborative and fun week. 


 

Redeemer Intern

Redeemer is excited to welcome Colleen DeRoo, a senior at Stevenson University, who will begin interning with us on Mondays. Colleen has previous day care experience and has worked with children from infants to teenagers. She will spend time working in the library with our students, as an assistant in most of our classes and alongside Mrs. Zuidema and her Spanish classes. Please join us in welcoming her warmly to Redeemer.

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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!




Please visit our website


Interested in learning more about our 
Kindergarten 
and 
Pre-first?

Please visit:
to learn more about 
The Church of the Redeemer

RPDS WEEKLY VALUE:
FRIENDSHIP

The following students are being recognized for demonstrating great effort and leadership in the areas of:

Friendship
Wallis Miller
Bruce Sheridan
Brielle Nace
Charlie Smith
Jane Sweeney
Will Masom

Making Good Choices
Charlie Welsh
Vievey Shin
Grace Santarelli
Will Buckley
Sophia Crossley
George McDougall

Community News

The Ark Preschool is the only state-accredited preschool for children whose families are experiencing homelessness in Baltimore City. The Episcopal school serves children ages 3 and 4 years old whose families are homeless and/or in the early stages of addiction recovery. A parent at the Ark is expecting a baby girl in March is in need of the following:
  • car seat
  • crib
  • stroller
  • clothes and personal items for the baby
If you have items you are willing to donate please email Mary Buchanan at [email protected]

Thank you!


Contact Us
Redeemer Parish Day School
5603 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
410-435-9510

Mary Knott, Director