News from the Principal
May | April | March | February
This school year is rapidly coming to a close. It is hard to believe that we are in our last quarter. Our school year may be winding down, but we are busy gearing up with a fantastic summer program. Our summer child care program, Summer Adventures, will begin on Monday, June 16. Mrs. Riley, Child Care Director, and Mrs. Scherrer, Grades Program Coordinator, have been busy planning and scheduling events and activities so that our children will experience an action packed summer.
Our program is open to children ages three to twelve years of age.
(A child must turn three by December 31 of 2008 and must be potty trained.) We open at 6:00 am and close at 6:00 pm. Your child may participate on a full-time basis, 20 hours per week, or on an hourly basis. Pick for the month, the program that best meets your child’s needs. Children may also enter the program at any time during the summer. So as the summer progresses and boredom sets in, let your child be busily involved with friends and activities.
Various projects and activities will correlate with weekly themes such as: Send in the Clowns, Time Travels, American Pride, Character Clubhouse, Wild, Wild, West, Polar Plunge, Island Adventures, Astronomical Adventures, Sweet Creations, and Jungle Fever. During the week, children will also enjoy weekly field trips, music, arts & crafts projects, computer games and instruction, organized games and physical activities, Chapel, and special presentations. Our older children love swimming, the game room, and Fabulous Fridays. Our younger children enjoy the Tumble Bus, Jelly Bean the Clown, and Balloon Creatures. Rainbow Productions will also present three puppet shows.
For more details or information, you may stop by our school offices or call us at 851-6292. Come join us!
God Bless,
Linda K. Robinson
Principal
Ways You Can Help Our School!!!!
Listed below are several ways you can help support our school.
· Farm Fresh ABC Incentive Program – When you shop at Farm Fresh, send your cash register receipts to school. Farm Fresh will contribute a portion of the sales to our school for the purchase of books, audiovisual equipment, computer programs, etc. The receipts have a new look. There is a special printout at the end of your receipt for school use.
· Campbell’s Labels for Education Program – When you buy Campbell’s products, save and send in the labels. Labels can be redeemed for needed school supplies.
· General Mills Box Tops for Education – Buy General Mills cereals, cut out the “Box Tops for Education” coupons, and send them into school. We receive 10¢ for each coupon.
· Target School Program – If you have a Target charge card, you can designate Gloria Dei as your sponsored school. Gloria Dei will receive a percentage of each sale.
· The Funding Factory – Gloria Dei participates in the Funding Factory Cartridge and Cell Phone Recycling Programs. These programs are FREE and easy but will not work without your support. Simply donate your empty printer cartridges and used cell phones to Gloria Dei Lutheran School, and we will take it from there. We will recycle the cartridges and cell phones through The Funding Factory to earn points which we can exchange for new technological and/or recreational equipment. Did you know that over 300 million printer cartridges were thrown away last year alone? We also replaced or threw away over 30,000,000 cell phones! Help us turn this waste into valuable school equipment. Donate your used cell phones and empty laser and inkjet printer cartridges by placing them in the collection boxes found at each school office. For additional information, please visit the Funding Factory web site at http://www.FundingFactory.com .
· Office Depot – Gloria Dei can get credits for FREE SUPPLIES through Office Depot’s “5% Back to Schools” Program all year long. Just use the Program ID number 70103897 when purchasing school supplies at any Office Depot location, online at www.officedepot.com, or by calling 1-800-GO-DEPOT and our school will receive credits equal to 5% of the qualifying purchases to use for free supplies.
· CiCi’s Pizza – First Tuesday of each month is Gloria Dei Family Night at CiCi’s on Mercury Blvd. Our school receives 10% of sales with the proceeds going towards our playground fund.
· Capri Pizza – Third Tuesday of each month is Gloria Dei Night at Capri Italian Restaurant in Willow Oaks Shopping Center. Our school receives 15% of sales for Gloria Dei.
Thanks for your help and support!
Linda K. Robinson
It’s March and we are busy anticipating spring, Easter, and believe it or not our 08-09 school year. We are excited about the plans and activities planned for our 36th school year.
By now you should have received your registration packet for next year. If you have not received registration information, please call our school office at 851-6292 to request one. I would like to remind you that all students who are returning to Gloria Dei for the 08-09 school year need to re-register, as this is a yearly process. Registration for current school students and our congregation members begins on Saturday, March 8, 2008. Open registration begins on Monday, March 17.
Each year’s program builds a foundation to enable students to grow with sequential skill development to the next grade level. As a child moves from one grade level to another, the programs expand to offer a broader base of activities and enriching experiences.
Students moving from preschool to prekindergarten experience pre-reading activities with Beginning Readiness activities by Lippincott; Mortimer Moose, an alphabet and beginning phonics program; and The Getting Ready to Read with Mother Goose program by Sadlier-Oxford. Along with many classroom activities, they enjoy weekly P.E, music, Chapel, and library. Every other week, prekindergarten students learn about nutrition with Chef Combo, visit the computer lab to work with educational software, and participate in a hands-on science experience in their science class.
Students at the kindergarten level have the choice of a half-day or full-day program. We are one of the few schools on the peninsula who still offer a half-day program as an option for parents. All kindergarten classes learn reading with a phonetic program, Beginning to Read, Write and Listen by Macmillan/McGraw-Hill. What an exciting time when your kindergartener reads to you for the first time. Students enjoy the weekly resource classes they enjoyed in prekindergarten with science and computers becoming weekly classes. Students in the full-day classes will also have a weekly Spanish program.
Our first – fifth grade levels are located at our Harris Creek Campus. This campus has all the essentials needed for elementary age students - computer lab, library, art/music room, science room, P.E. area, playground, infirmary, and offices. The grades’ program builds strong academic skills in phonetics and reading comprehension, spelling, math, and writing while offering an enriching resource schedule - weekly art classes, extended computer time, P.E. twice a week, Spanish, along with weekly Chapel services, Bible devotions class, library, music, chorus, and science lab.
It is amazing what our students can accomplish with a strong academic curriculum, enriching resource classes, a spiritual foundation which reinforces values and morals, and a nurturing, caring environment.
This is an abbreviated summary of what is offered for our students as they progress from one level to the next. As you prepare to register for next year, if you have questions about our curriculum, need more information, or want a tour of the campus, (especially if your child is moving to the Harris Creek Campus) please call, and I will be glad to talk with you. We are excited and appreciative of the opportunity to work in partnership with you in educating your child.
God Bless,
Linda K. Robinson
Principal
It is hard to believe that we are a month into our New Year. Last week I had the opportunity to review some of the New Year’s resolutions that our fifth graders wrote the first week of January. They varied from those for self improvement – eat better, exercise more, be kinder, behave better; to goal orientated – earn 600 SRC points, attain Honor Roll, achieve straight A’s, accomplish Level 6 in gymnastics; to task orientated – make reading more interesting, write in my journal daily, play the guitar, block more soccer goals, play video games, feed my dog, feed my fish. One student wrote that he wanted to dream more dreams and let his imagination expand.
Like many of these fifth graders, we all start the New Year with goals, expectations, and the resolve to make changes. Often by February, we find that it is easier said than done.
Change can be difficult, and we often fall back into our familiar routines, habits, and ruts.
After all, change takes time, energy, and effort – things we never seem to have enough of.
As I read the resolutions of our fifth graders, I contemplated the resolutions I had made for the New Year. Try as I might, I usually find I have not lived up to the expectations I have set for myself. Too often when I have fallen short of what I had vowed to achieve, do, or change, I abandon my goal, give up, or cross it off my list.
Due to our human nature, we often give up. There is however one who never gives up on us - Our God. What assurance! For when we miss the mark or fall short of goals, He still loves us, cares for us, and never gives up. He is always there with open arms, grace, and love. Our God is an awesome God.
This weekend I saw the movie, The Bucket List. As two men contemplated their lives and the impact they had made, two questions were considered. Did you bring joy to others? Did you have joy in your life? As Christians, we know that true joy comes from our relationship with our Lord, Jesus Christ. Joy comes in knowing that we have everlasting life with our God because we believe and trust in God’s promises and because of God’s abundant grace.
So as we continue with this year, rather than dwelling on resolutions, I pray that we will grow in joy and peace from our relationship with our Lord and that we will spread His joy and peace to others.
God Bless,
Linda K. Robinson
Principal