Remembering Kim
Last month, we all lost a very dear friend. Kimberly Clark; artist,
teacher and friend was taken from us suddenly in a car crash. She was a
beautiful young woman who touched the lives of many of us here at Zion,
through her incredible artistic talent and kind and selfless heart.
Kim’s first experience with Zion was as a student. Little Kimberly brought that beautiful
smile with her every morning to school. Then she was “the teacher’s daughter” as her mother
Nancy joined the teaching staff for many years. Kim followed in mother’s footsteps years
later, and became a teacher as well. She worked with several teachers and because of her
gentle spirit and generous nature, was a favorite among children and adults.
When I was looking for a way to create something beautiful for our hallways, I turned to
Kim to design and create a mural for our entrance wall. It was her inspiration and her talent
that grace that once long, beige wall today. In between her own personal art work, and business
murals, Kim was working on a new school sign which included our new mascot that she created,
Zeec the Zebra. God had given Kim a special gift that she shared with her portraits, murals and
personal artistic creations that can be seen everywhere.
As I enter the halls of Zion Early Education Center for another day, I think of Kim. I
see her in the beautiful face of the little girl sitting on the rock like so many children have done
over the years. I see her smile reflected in the little boy waving to the train that blows steam
in the school’s name. I see her in the inspired design she made to tell the story of our school,
and her laughter as she added the little child bending over to expose his diaper. I see her in
the beautiful colors of the mural that brings happiness to all who enter our doors. And I see her
love for her craft and her pure heart in every brush stroke she made to create this for us.
Kim may be gone from this world but with her mural she will be with us forever, for we
will always find her in the beauty of her art.
May all of you take a moment to remember Kim and to connect with her generous spirit
the next time you come to Zion.
Saralee Hawk
Zion Early Education Center
April, 2014
Page 2
School News
Snow Days
This winter has been especially harsh and that was more than evident in the
amount of snow days that we had. Every year extra days are built into our calendar
to account for snow days and this is the first year we have used all these days. In
previous years, these days were merely extra days.
Thank You!
Mrs. and Mrs.
Veasey and True
Value Hardware
for their generous
donation of seeds
and paints!
Mrs. McBride for
all her work on the
Box Tops for
Education!
It is a requirement that students in Kindergarten have a certain number of
hours of school every year and if those hours are not met, it is necessary to make up
this time. Unfortunately, our last snow day was over our extra days and we were
going to make it up. Because Governor Markell and the Department of Education
“forgave” five of the snow days, they made it unnecessary to make them up, and
students will not be penalized.
I am quite confident that our students are not being shortchanged in their
educational instruction because of these days missed. Our small class sizes ensure
that our students receive more instruction than the average preschool student, and
our teachers are dedicated to providing the best education possible.
Please refer to our calendar for all our scheduled days.
Summer Camp
It’s not too late to sign up for our summer camp. This year we are offering
three weeks packed with fun and excitement. Four dismissal times are available.
You can choose 1, 2,or 3 weeks. The camp will run May 27th through May 30th, June
2nd through June 6th, and June 9th through June 13th. Please contact the office if you
are interested.
Week of the Young Child
Sam Burdett
Christopher Cerasari
Bryce Cross
Gideon Keen
Ellie Koontz
Leo Loeb
Sofia McLane
Charlie Old
Logan Rice
Every year, the National Association for the Education of Young Children sets
aside a week to honor those wonderful people in our lives, preschool children. This
year week is April 6th . At ZEEC we try to make that week special for our students.
This year we will have something special planned for each day to celebrate. A letter
will be coming home with more information.
Sick Children
If your child is sick, he/she needs to stay home and rest. If your child
contracts anything contagious, please contact the school as soon as possible so
that we can alert other parents to be on the lookout for symptoms. Names are
never mentioned on these notices.
Classroom News
Newsletter
Page 3
Two Year Old’s News
Mrs. Terranova and Ms. Murphy
Baseball has started! Trees are starting to bud! My crocus is starting to bloom. Is it true? Spring is in the air and the
snow is gone? As much fun it is to dress our weather bear in our warm winter clothes, we can’t wait to dress him in warmer
clothes.
Even though we missed a few more days this month because of bad weather, we still had fun learning, fun creating, and
fun exploring! We continued our lesson on shapes and colors. We talked about the color gray! We made gray elephants. I loved
watching the children place the pieces on the paper to create their elephant. They also explored with different colored pom
poms.
We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day! We made a handprint rainbow coming from the cloud to the pot of gold. As we made
our handprints, we discussed the color and how the paint felt on our hands. We also made shamrocks out of green hearts. Next
we made our pot of gold. We finished our St. Patrick’s Day lesson with a party! We feasted on cupcakes, green cookies, and
yummy fruit.
In class, we have been working on our fine motor skills. We use our eye and hand coordination as we put puzzles
together. The children love to place the pipe cleaners into the holes of our colander. As the children look for that puzzles piece
they learn to develop skills in visual perception and shape recognition. We introduced playdoh this month. What a great way to
use fine motor skills plus sensory development. They children use rollers to smooth out playdoh plus they use cookie cutters.
One of our key areas in our classroom is our sensory table. When they pour the sand from one container to another
without spilling they are working on their eye-hand coordination plus use their small muscles skills to assist in self-help skills.
They all love to explore in our sensory table. We also placed construction vehicles in there to create a new scene and to explore
in a different way.
Over the next month, we will discuss Easter and how it is the holiest time in our church. We will make lots of Easter
crafts! Then finish with another party!!
Three Year Olds
Mrs. Jack and Mrs. Robertson
March came in like a lion and went out like a lion! We say goodbye to yet another winter and hope to welcome the warmer
spring days! We are looking forward to playing outside!
March was a busy month! The classes began the month with our parent/teacher conferences! Thanks to all who attended!
Your children are doing a fabulous job!
Getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day kept us busy! GREEN, GREEN, and more
GREEN! The children made shamrock stencils with real green peppers cut in half and dipped in paint! Rainbows painted using
the wheels of small toy cars could be found hanging on our walls…we hope that sneaky leprechaun doesn’t steal them all!
Thanks to Mrs. Hoopes and Clara for all of the delicious and healthy treats sent in for our St. Patrick’s Day party…yummy!!
We also celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday by reading many of his awesome books! Green Eggs and Ham is always a favorite! !
We cooked and ate Green Eggs and Ham in class and everyone agreed, “ I like Green Eggs and Ham, Sam I Am! Put Me in the
Zoo had everyone seeing spots! One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish! The Dr. Seuss books gave us lots of practice with
rhyming and opposite words! Reading daily to your children is a great way to build their language art skills and introduce them
to the wonderful world of books! Next we celebrated the books of the author Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and
The Very Busy Spider were the two favorites! The classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do I See is always a hit! Look for
the caterpillars and spiders your child made in the hallway!
It is so hard to believe that it is already April! We will celebrate the arrival of spring by learning the life cycle of a
butterfly and what makes the flowers reappear this time of year! April will be a joyous month with the arrival of Easter and
the story of how Jesus has risen again! We look forward to dyeing some Easter eggs! We like to wish each and every one of
you a happy and restful Easter break. We are having so much fun playing and learning at school! Happy Easter!
Classroom News
Newsletter
Page 4
Three Year Olds
Mrs. Del Grosso and Mrs. Flachier
Well it seems that March came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. The warmer
days of spring have finally arrived! We can see robins searching for worms and flowers with
small buds, just outside our class room windows.
We started out the month of March with our “Everyday Math” unit. We measured,
counted, weighed and sorted everything in sight! We had our own store, where we used
cash and coins to purchase items from our grocery lists. The children were very surprised to
see just how important numbers are in our lives every day. Mid March, we had a visit from
that pesky leprechaun who stops by Zion every year to look for his pot of gold! He left us
little magic eggs! Then spring arrived and we got right into the spirit of the season with kites,
rainbows and life on a farm.
We will spend the month of April preparing for Easter. The children will be working
on strengthening their fine motor skills using scissors and pencils. We will continue
exploring the alphabet and learning about numbers and shapes. Our window sills will be
filled with buds and sprouts as we learn about how plants grow. Best of all, we will be
going outside to enjoy the warm sunny days of spring
Pre-K
Mrs. Burdett
March come in like a lion. Let’s hope Mother Nature is kinder to us in April! Despite the weather we had
a great time in our classroom in March
We were determined to catch that pesky leprechaun. The children were so excited to make and set
their traps in school. In the time approaching St. Patrick’s Day we made many crafts to entice the leprechaun
to come into Zion. He visited our room and made his mark each time he came in leaving chairs on the table and
posters upside down! We thought for sure with our awesome traps we would catch him and his gold.
Unfortunately, we weren’t as lucky as the leprechaun. He got away!
The human body was a lot of fun to learn about in our room. We learned our brain was “the boss” of our
body and tells everything in our body what to do and when to do it! The kids enjoyed learning about the
different jobs our organs have to keep our bodies working like a machine. We also learned about our skeleton
and made a mock skeleton out of Q-tips. I found it helpful for the children to understand how the body works
by talking about the importance of nutrition and the food pyramid. They know how important it is to eat
healthy to make our bodies work at its best capacity. Like I said the human body unit takes a long time but
worth it as it is very in depth topic which needs great explanation. Thank you for your patience as I am sure
you were asked many questions at home.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents for attending their child’s conference in
the beginning of March. It is always a wonderful feeling to discuss the progress of the students with their
parents.
In April we will do all things Spring. We will learn about new life in both animals and flowers. We will
learn about a butterfly life cycle. Baseball and other outdoor activities will be visited. Ending the Month, we
worked on fun Eater Crafts.
We are fortunate enough to be invited to the Mary Campbell Center for an Easter egg hunt. Miss Arms
and the other residents work very hard on making everything perfect for our kids. It is always an amazing time
for all of us! More information will follow.
The children have done a wonderful job with their flash cards/sight words so far. Please encourage
them to practice every night. Practice makes perfect.
Please remember to bring in your juice if April is your juice month.
Classroom News
chool Newsletter
School Newsletter
Pre-K
School Newsletter
Newsletter
Mrs. Hawk, Mrs. Zabielski and Miss Arms
Page 5
S Page 3 of 4
Page 3 of 4
So I guess I should cancel that trip to Hawaii. I really thought we were going to catch that
leprechaun this year. It wasn’t because we didn’t try. There were some traps that were out of this world!
It did get a little ugly when our parents started challenging each other, but unfortunately, he was just too
tricky for us again! Oh well! There’s always next year.
This year has been going by so fast! It’s already Spring. At least we hope so. There will be no
more snow magic in our class! It worked too well!
Our students are good at whatever they do. Letters, numbers, addresses and phone numbers are
being mastered every day! It was such a pleasure telling you how wonderful your children are at
conference time. I hope I was able to convey how special each one of them is to us.
We are learning how special our bodies are in class now. We started with the brain, then went to
the skeletal system. We learned the difference between arteries and veins and studied how our hearts
work so hard to pump our blood all over our bodies. Then we made our lungs in a bottle with a special
diaphragm that put air in and out of our lungs. We went on to learn how our bodies process food through
our digestive system. It’s amazing to learn about all the parts that make up our bodies and make them
work. It has been a fascinating journey for us all. It was wonderful to hear our students say, “what body
part are we going to learn about today?” when they came to school. Enthusiastic learners make teaching
so much fun.
We are definitely going to have fun at the Mary Campbell Center. Each year, Miss Arms invites us
to her residence for a fun filled day. We go on a tour of the Center, play on the playground and have a
wonderful Easter Egg hunt and story time. It is so nice to visit Miss Arms ‘ “house” and we always have a
great time!
That trip will be just the kick off we need for the Easter Season. We talked about Lent and how
we are getting ready for Easter by remembering Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We learned that some people
honor Jesus by giving something up during the Lenten season.
As Easter approaches, it is important to explain the significance of Jesus and the sacrifice he
made for us. He gave his life for us and after His death; he emerged into a new life, just like a caterpillar
becomes a butterfly from its chrysalis.
With that in mind we watch the rebirth of our world all around us. As the buds start to bloom on
the trees and the flowers sprout from their previously frozen ground, we are reminded of God’s love and
kindness to us. We will learn about this process by studying our water table, and growth cycles of plants
and animals.
Keep working with your envelope games! Those prizes are going fast! Don’t forget that they don’t
have to get everything correct to have a sticker. It’s a sticker for each time they practice. Practice
makes perfect!
We hope you all have a very special Easter!
Classroom News
Page 6
Kindergarten
Mrs. Roehm
Greetings again from room 6! We have been working really hard during the month of March. We celebrated our one
hundredth day of school with the theme 100 days smarter. The children were excited about this party and seemed to really enjoy
themselves. We started the day coloring in 100 dots. Then, we made funny hats where the children had to draw ten dots onto ten
different strips that we stapled onto sentence strips to create our hats. This activity allowed the children to count to one hundred by
ones and tens. I must say they all looked adorable in their hats. I also blew up 100 balloons to give the children the perspective of how
much one hundred looks like. The children really enjoyed seeing the balloons and seeking the 100th balloon I had labeled. I think they
enjoyed counting to one hundred by popping one balloon at a time the most!
In April, we will continue to creative write and discuss what makes a good writer. The children are doing a fantastic job
getting their ideas on paper and their illustrations are becoming more and more colorful. We will continue to talk about punctuation,
capitalization, finger spacing, and adding details as a reminder of what is expected when they write. In reading, the children are
noticing that they can read most of the books in our classroom library! I must say I am so proud of each of my students. Each of them
are using the skills taught and applying them to his/her reading. It truly is amazing hearing the children sound out words and/or
recognize sight words instantly. If you have not done so yet, I strongly encourage you to allow your children to read to you once a day.
He/She will amaze you with his/her skills. In addition, I encourage you to order/reorder from scholastic. Allowing your child to
choose his/her own books helps build confidence and a love of reading.
In math, the children have done a fabulous job with subtraction. Each student has seemed to grasp the idea of "taking away"
and prefer it more over addition. You may have noticed more homework in math lately and this is due to the children needing the
extra practice. Within the next few weeks before Spring Break, we will begin our unit on money. As a reminder, money is a fun unit
for the children. We will learn values of coins and will even create a classroom store to practice adding and subtracting money. Before
the break, I will be creating a packet of work for the children to complete during the break to ensure practice/review. This will help the
children for when they return to school. I am so proud of each of my students. It is hard to believe we only have a month and a half
left of school!
Extended Care
Mrs. Hultberg, Ms. Murphy and Mrs. Sadowski
Humpty Dumpty fell into 4 pieces but we managed to get him back together
again. Mary Mary’s garden grew a few more flowers and Hickory Dickory Dock’s mouse
ran up the clock. Jack flew over the candle stick and so did we. All of our names were
in all of the Nursery Rhymes even Mrs. H. We even picked what Nursery Rhyme we
wanted to be in.
We will be planting spring flowers and starting with our Easter crafts soon.
Discussing what the celebration of Easter means will help bring the season into our
lives. Watch out for our beautiful Easter eggs.
Our gingerbread man is running around all of the farm animals we’ll be making in
between all of our other projects. We are very busy in Extended Care and having a lot
of fun playing our games.
Rest time is very successful. Great stories help to relax all the children and
before you know it, they are fast asleep.
Special Classes
Page 7
Espanol
Senora Robertson
Hola amigos! Primavera is here! It is time to say adios to invierno and nieve! Let’s hope abril is warmer and that los
flores start to bloom and los parejos start to sing!
All of the children did a wonderful job learning the partes del cuerpo-parts of the body! We listened to three
different songs and did dances pointing to our body parts! Cara, cabeza, manos, pies, boca y dientes , ojos y orejas
y la nariz! Excelente!
Kindergarten is doing an awesome job learning how to answer common Spanish phrases. Como estas? Cuantos tienes
anos? y Como te llamas? Excelente! They are completing their homework assignments and eager leaneres! Muy bien!
The Kindergarten, 3 and 4 year olds played Simon Dice-Simon Says-all in espanol!
It wasn’t easy tricking them-they are so inteligente! Simon dice toca la nariz-Simon says touch your nose! Muy bien
ninos!
The 4 year olds are moving on to playing Bingo in espanol! We are learning all kinds of new words in espanol! They
are great listeners and fast learners! The 3 and 4 year olds started working on the names of the special people in
our familia! Madre, padre, hermano , hermana y abuelos!
The 2 year olds are perfecting los numerous, los colores y las formas! We have been reading a lot of bilingual books
featuring Dora and Boots! Dora y La Estrella (the star)and Dora Saves Prince Ramon! We also read about Elmo’s
first day of escuela-school!!!
Everyone is dancing, singing and shaking the maracas to our new favorite song- La Cucaracha-the cockroach. It is a
traditional Spanish folk song made popular during the Mexican Revolution. We all watched the DVD ! FIESTA!
There were many Spanish songs and the children could sing along to many of the words!
Abril we will continue hearing the names of the people in our families, learn some words for clothes, and food-la
comida!
! Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter to all!
Music and Movement
Mrs. Jack
We have had a wonderful time this past month in our Music and Movement classes! The kids are progressing very well in all
of our physical skills as well as our ability to work together as groups. One of our favorite games is Amoeba Tag. In this
game, it is imperative that the group works together as our “tag” line gets longer and longer. It is a difficult concept for
the kids but they are doing a wonderful job!
During the month of March, we have worked on our striking skills by hitting a ball off the tee with our hands. The kids did a
great job with this and I can’t wait to see how they do with a bat – Baseball anyone? We have also been reviewing many of
our skills through the use of an obstacle course. The children showed how well they could balance, throw, jump, crawl and
run. They have come a long way this year! We also had a lot of fun with our “Musical Trampoline” game.
April is looking like an equally busy month! We will review and progress our ball handling and jumping skills. We will also
continue to work on our throwing skills and our body control while running, walking and galloping.
April also brings us to our Spring Break. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a joyous Easter Season! Enjoy the
time off together with your family and I look forward to seeing you back at Zion as we enter the home stretch of our
school year.
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!
Fun Fitness Fact:
What is the biggest organ in the body?
Answer: the skin!