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A Letter from the Director... 20

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Happy Birthday

Alia S. 09/03/2017 Madison M. 09/06/2013 Mason B. 09/07/2019 Ruby M. 09/13/2015 Nate G. 09/21/2018 Callie R. 09/21/2013 Vivian S. 09/22/2015 Camden H. 09/23/2013 Jake C. 09/23/2012

Ms. Julie 9/19/?? Ms. Kristin 9/23/??

Park’s Edge Preschool

Put a little PEP in your life!

Ms. Kristin 9/25/00

Dear Park’s Edge Preschool Families: ‘Back to School’ has a whole new meaning this year…virtual or in person? This time of year, we are usually welcoming new families and sadly saying good-bye to our departing families…however this September things are a little different for all of us due to COVID-19. Park’s Edge Preschool is prepared for both bussing children back to school and virtual learning too. PEP recently upgraded our wireless capacity for virtual learning and higher internet security measures have been put into place. Children/ families will be supported however their school district chooses to educate children this year. The PEP staff is prepared to nurture and support children and families through this unusual time in history. As my wise 85-year-old Mother often reminds me, ‘this too shall pass’.

May is the usual time of year that we hold the Park’s Edge Preschool Graduation, however, with COVID-19 this year we postponed it to August 13th. The ceremony was safely held following CDC guidelines in Emanuel Church’s Sanctuary for preschool children attending 5-year-old kindergarten in fall. Seventeen students crossed over the bridge from preschool to elementary school. Afterwards, Granny’s Treats was served outdoors for a safe family celebration and mask-free, social distancing. Everyone was treated to an individually wrapped, ice cream treat, of

their choice. What a happy and memorable occasion for all to appreciate and cherish. Congratulations!

COVID-19 has changed things this summer but did not take the fun out of PEP’s programming for children. Our main goal this summer was to keep children and families safe. All fieldtrips this summer were held ‘on-site’ , and considered safe, educational, economical and above all, fun: A Martial Arts demonstration; lunch from McDonald’s; a musician and entertainer named Mr. Pickles; and David Stokes, with a menagerie of real live animals were a few of the summer highlights. When the mask mandate came through for children 5 years old and older, we gave teachers more flexibility in holding class outdoors, that also included several picnics in our own backyard. We are sad to see summer end, but will cherish the many happy memories made at PEP the summer of

2020� This has been an

exceptional year for decision making for the Park’s Edge Preschool board of directors. A ‘thank you’ and virtual hug goes to all of the 2020 PEP Board of Directors which is made up of Emanuel Church members and Park’s Edge Preschool parents with skill sets that supports the mission of Park’s Edge Preschool: Jennifer Hastings-Meinholdt*, President; Marcia Goecks, Vice President; Matthew Egan*, Treasurer; Rhonda Perry*, Secretary; Adam Johnson*, IT & PEP Building & Grounds; Kim Kozlik*, HR;

Brianna Schroeder, Education; Pastor Dale Stohre, Christian Component; and Christine Van Hulle, HR. (The asterisk highlights PEP parents.) The PEP Board meets monthly, either through conference call or in person on-site. and I thank each board member for their time, talent, and commitment to Park’s Edge Preschool. If you are curious about the Park’s Edge Preschool board happenings or want to know more about PEP, just ask...thank you!

Park’s Edge Preschool’s Annual Open House is scheduled for Thursday, September 10th from 6 to 7 pm. The PEP staff is enthusiastic about the upcoming school year…and this year is no exception. However, to do this safely we are having families’ sign-up for a scheduled time frame to allow for safe social distancing. Granny’s Treats is scheduled to make an appearance too for an opportunity to safely socialize, ‘mask free’, while eating an individually wrapped ice cream treat from a variety of choices. What a ‘cool’ way to say ‘welcome’ to our families at Park’s Edge Preschool this year! An invitation will be in your family’s mailbox soon…watch for it!

Our school bus will be back on the road soon so please drive slowly and watch for children when entering and leaving our premise. Have a happy and safe school year! Thank you! Sincerely, Ellen M. Kvalheim, Director

We will be sending home a sun and we are asking for families to put what they loved best about

their summer as a family. We can’t wait to see what

adventures your family loves in the summer.

Darling Dragonflies are also going to be creating a family board with family pictures and a book with

pictures of family with aunts, uncles, and grandparents-stay

tuned to for our family creations.

Our Child of the Month is Nate. Nate has started to play a lot more in the dramatic play area, his love

Welcome to September! What a crazy fun summer we had! We love that everyone is back, we

missed you all. We adored learning about

dinosaurs, we had fun washing and hunting for dinosaurs both inside

and outside. We created some cotton candy puffy paint that was

a hit and looked amazing. In September we are looking

forward to learning more about our families.

The week of My Family Loves Me ‘This I Know’ will be a great time

to learn even more.

of dinosaurs is shown all of over his face as he plays with them and Nate has begun talking a lot more

and has even started to use his friends names more when they

enter or are playing near him. We are so proud of him!

We can’t wait to see what

September brings us and all the things we will learn!

Happy Labor Day,

Ms. Jennifer

Beautiful Butterflies

Love Bugs

Darling Dragonflies

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Our child of the month Anna is giggling a lot more, likes to “talk” to her friends,

and grasping toys in her hands. She also has begun

jar food. We are so proud of all of

them.

In August we had a lot of fun dancing with streamers to Kidz Bop music and we are looking forward to our September Kidz Bop dance

party. Stay tuned for our favorite song.

What are some of your

favorite family activities your family did this

summer? We would love to hear about them and if you have a picture to share to go with it we would love to see

it and display it in the classroom.

Have a Good Labor Day! Ms. Nicole & Ms. Terri

Hello September! We are excited to get the fall

season started. We will be doing feet painting while in the exersaucer. This will be a fun sensory project for our

babies. The love bugs are growing so fast. Roman is rolling all

around the room, Evan started eating cereal, our newest friends Eliza likes the puppy dogs above the changing table and Isaiah

giggles and likes to tell stories.

Vincent scoots, Mae is enjoying exploring the classroom, Nora

waves hi and blows kisses, Jackson rolls balls, Lucas watches and

observes his friends a lot. We are delighted by all of their progress. Layla and Connor will begin their

transition to the toddler room. We know they will have a lot of fun.

As the season changes, so does the

weather. Please make sure to provide weather appropriate

clothing labeled with your child’s name on it.

Welcome September. Birthstone: sapphire, flower: aster symbolizes

love and magic.

Happy Birthday Mason! Mason will be our child of the month, he

moos and laughs everyday. Mason claps at music and says hi, book

and ball. We are so proud of him. Happy birthday to Ms. Julie as well! We are excited to welcome Vincent and Mae, to our class. We are egar

to watch them grow. Our Butterflies are growing so

much:

Children are learning and growing all the time through play and

interactions. We help this growth with repetition of songs, calming techniques (quiet music-softly

talking), listening to the children and validating their needs. Our dinosaur songs and baby shark

songs were a huge hit in the classroom.

We look forward to helping your

children learn and grow

Happy Fall, God Bless Ms. Julie

Ms. Speshial

Pictures Can Be Sent to Ms. Kristin at Kristin@parksedgepreschool.com

August has flown by and September is upon us. We

enjoyed playing a lot outside this pass month and

especially our water play days.

In August we worked hard on using our gentle hands with our friends and taking turns

with each other. We created a popsicle art project that went everywhere, but we laughed

and smiled throughout it. We did really good.

We will be sending home a

leaf, for you and your family to share a activity you are

most looking forward to doing in the month of

September.

Speaking of leaves we, are really excited to watch the

trees around us change colors and jump in the leaf piles! We will begin reading fall books to learn about this exciting

season!

With the changing weather , our classroom goal for the

month is flipping our coats to practice putting them on

ourselves. September also brings a

exciting time for the school-agers who go back to school and we will be able to wave at Mr. Cody on the bus! We love watching for the bus

outside.

Our child of the month will be Maddox. Maddox loves to play with cars, slide down the slide, and we look forward to seeing his pictures. He always has a giant smile on his when

someone walks in the classroom.

Have a great September!

Ms. Emily & Ms. Gina

Being helpful really was

needed during our August fun

adventures. We painted ice

cream cones, jumped through

the dinosaur sprinkler and ate

yummy Granny treats!

We have been working on

talking to our friends when we

want to use something or if we

don’t like something. Saying

things like “Can I play with

you” and “Please don’t do

that”. These are important

social skills.

Good-bye August!

Hello September!

As we bring in the new school

year we would like to share

some excellent news. The

fantastic frogs have been very

helpful lately! The children

have been helping friends

clean-up, helping when a

friend feels sad and helping

Ms. Caitlin around the room.

I am so proud of them!

We are excited for beautiful

fall weather. We will be

watching the leaves change

and have the opportunity to

jump in the leaves! We will

share stories about our

families, talk about

transportation and continue

to work on number and letter

recognition.

Happy September,

Ms. Caitlin

makes us, who we are. We will be making a all about me

poster that week, details will be given on the information we will need to make these a

part of our classroom. Watch for them posted in the

classroom! During back to school week we will be

working together on a All About the Sunshine Room

class book, look for it by the end of the month on our book

shelf.

We would appreciate help with switching and updating clothes

in your child’s cubbie this month. Pants, socks and long

sleeves would be

appreciated.

We thank you for a great summer and look forward to a

incredible school year.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Ms. Mary & Ms. Emily

Hello September! We can’t believe that summer is over!

We had a lot of fun in the

month of August by growing a dinosaur it turned out to be a

Stegosaurs. The children really enjoyed watching it grow each day. Our fruit

kababs (banana free) made us smile a lot and we ate them all

up.

September we will be learning about the special things that

Busy Bees

Fantastic Frogs

Sunshine Room

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Pictures Can Be Sent to Ms. Kristin at Kristin@parksedgepreschool.com

The purple moons are sad that the summer is over but it’s exciting to be going back to school! It’s been so long since

the children have seen their school friends and teachers! We hope that the school year will be able to continue on

with our new normal! The children have also been doing a great job wearing their masks; they will have no problem

in their new classrooms keeping up with this practice!

This August, we had some very cool visitors! Mr. Pickles is always a favorite with his silly songs and stories that he shares! We also saw David Stokes who brings in turtles, snakes and frogs to touch! This year he also brought in

tiny fish that the children touched and fed to the snapping turtles!

In the classroom the children have been working on writ-ing the alphabet and numbers in order without copying them from another source! During all of our swim days

they have also been working on getting dressed independently and have been doing a fantastic job! They are able to turn socks, shirts and shorts right side out by themselves! Keep up the good work! I can’t wait to see how they learn and grow throughout the school year!

Ms. Tori and the Purple Moons

Shining Stars

Purple Moons

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Wow! Summer flew by! The summer was different, I am sure everyone can agree to

that. We did make our summer super fun though. Our favorite was Mr. David Stokes and Challenge Island

Building Adventure. The children loved everything but you could really see the love on their faces during Mr. Pickles

silly songs and dance and while the dinosaur sprinkler sprayed us.

We have been working very hard with learning to write our names and most of the class has accomplished this and the other’s are really close. We are doing very well with our

letter sounds and recognizing our numbers.

September is the start of a new school year and we will be focusing on details in art, letter recognition and more writing

skills. Please make sure your child’s cubby is restocked with extra weather appropriate clothes and socks. A sweatshirt would

be nice to have in cubby for those chilly afternoons ahead of us.

Hope this school year goes smoothly. A great back to school activity is learning their address. I find it is helpful to make it a part of his/her bedtime routine and break it up like a poem

or a song.

Thank You Ms. Melinda & The Shining Stars

10627 W. Forest Home Ave Hales Corners, WI 53130 Phone: (414) 427-9561 Fax: (414) 427-1220 Email: Elen@parksedgepreschool.com CC: Kristin@parksedgepreschool.com

Change of Schedule Form

If you are making any changes to your regular schedule, please fill out the form located on top of the family mailboxes.

With all the comings and goings with all the children in our program, it is difficult for us to remember something told

verbally. You can also email Ellen ( ellen@parksedgepreschool.com) and Kristin ( kristin@parksedgepreschool.com).

September 2020

Tuesday, September 1st– Back to school for Whitnall Schools Monday, September 7th– P.E.P Closed for Labor Day– Regular rates apply Thursday, September 10th- Park’s Edge Preschool’s annual Open House 6:00pm-7:30pm- *Meet and Greet the P.E.P Staff and grab a delicious ‘Granny’s Treat’ from our infamous ice cream truck* Saturday, September 26th– P.E.P Staff will participate in a AELL (NAC) virtual learning experience.

Important Dates

Well September you sure crept up on us. We were too busy having fun in August to notice, but alas you are here and it is

time to move forward with going back to school. Not before we go down summer

memory lane just for a little. The red snakes had a blast using team work while we fed each other yogurt and berries, we enjoyed David Stokes and his wonderful

reptile friends (so many red snake friends held a real snake for the first time) and our PJ, movie and pizza party was something to be hold! Our classroom really grew in friendship and self care this summer and I

am so proud of all we did together. For September we will be going through

and rearranging our room to accommodate those who are staying for

virtual learning and those who are returning to the before and afterschool

program. I am forever grateful you choose to spend your summer with us at Park’s

Edge and I look forward to our adventures this school year.

Please be sure to turn in any and all paperwork needed to ride the bus and/or

attend the virtual program. We wish you a safe and relaxing

Labor Day! Ms. Jenele & The Red Snakes

Wow! I can’t believe summer is over and the new school year is starting! August was full of new experiences. We had Mr. Pickles

and his silly songs and magic. (How does he do that?) David

Stokes came and we got to hold snakes! We experimented with

different recipes, we couldn’t pick a favorite they were all really good!

We learned how yeast works and made yummy French bread. The

cookie recipe was an experiment of adding marshmallows to traditional

cookie recipe it was so yummy! This summer was a wild ride and

we had a blast! We look forward to seeing what

this school year has in store for us. We look forward to serving you

and helping your child succeed in this ever changing school year.

Have a blessed Labor day!

Ms. Anna & The White Snakes

As we bid farewell to August let us remember the highlights of the

month. We learned some valuable lessons from Willy

Wonka and his Oompa Loompas, we enjoyed a stellar performance

from Mr. Pickles and had a awesome time with the amazing David Stokes and his cold-blooded posse. To top it all off we sat down

to listen to Mr. Ryan and his guitar. We had quite a few

cooking projects that brought special flavor to this month.

Now that September is here and with some of the schools reopening

our classroom will go through some changes, but we will

continue to bring something special each and everyday to the

table. We thank you for putting your trust in us this summer and all

the days moving forward. Yours Truly,

Mr. James & Mr. Cody & The Blue Snakes

Pictures Can Be Sent to Ms. Kristin at Kristin@parksedgepreschool.com

The PEP staff is preparing for our National Accreditation Commission’s Validation Visit sometime between September 8th and October 30th. During the formal visit, the commission observes and

validates curriculum, interactions between teachers and children, and health and safety standards as outlined on the classroom observation tool that staff use to guide and develop their

craft in the classroom. Park’s Edge Preschool promotes five-star quality rated interactions between teachers and children…

One of the commissions main objectives is to observe the positive interactions between the staff

and children as outlined in the NAC Classroom Observation tool. Here is a list of those standards:

1. Children’s development of trust and emotional security is promoted with consistent,

responsive, and nurturing teachers; 2. A positive sense of self is promoted through respectful

teacher-child interactions; 3. Cooperative and positive social behaviors are promoted through

opportunities for learning reciprocity, empathy and social skills; 4. Positive guidance techniques

are used to promote the development of self- control and self-regulation; 5. Age appropriate self

-help skills are encouraged to promote responsibility and autonomy; 6. Children’s overall

emotional well-being is supported by the classroom environment; 7. Snacks and mealtimes are

pleasant learning experiences for children.

Themes w/ Christian Sub Themes

Upstairs & Downstairs Themes

August 31st- Sep. 4th – Just My Family and Me Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so

that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Sep.7th-11th- Wheels on the Bus Go Back to School

Proverbs 22:6 Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Sep. 14th-18th- Transportation Station – Vroom-Vroom

Mark 10: 46 – 11:1 tells us that Jesus traveled from Jericho to Jerusalem on foot. The road that joined the

two cities was a direct horizontal climb.

Sep. 21st-25th- Imagination Creations- Readers are Learners

Chronicles-1 29:18 O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of

the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee.

NAC Nook

Dear Park’s Edge Preschool Families, Emanuel Church’s Board of Christian Education is currently working on a way to safely provide

Sunday School to the children. Emanuel Church has included a family survey to complete and

return to Park’s Edge Preschool for the church’s inquiry. They are interested in ways to connect our families and implement a plan in welcoming

Park’s Edge Preschool families to Emanuel Church…safely.

Park’s Edge Preschool is a mission of Emanuel Church in serving the community with Christian child-care services. Whether virtual or in person, Jesus said, ‘let the little children come unto me’. If your family is interested in attending Emanuel

Church’s Sunday Worship in person, we have included in the survey the ‘Return to Worship

General Guidelines’ for Emanuel Church’s 9:30am Worship Service. Please return the

survey by Thursday, September 10th Thank you.

Sincerely, Emanuel’s Board of Christian Education

Pastor’s Note: