7547 East Brainerd Road

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37421

Phone: 423-855-1011 Fax: 423-899-1083

St. Martin’s Pre-School offers a school year (September through May) program for 1 through 4-year old children of all backgrounds to help them develop emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually and socially. Because children develop and learn in a variety of ways, the preschoolers will be actively involved in a wide range of appropriate educational activities. Each day the 3 and 4-year old preschoolers will attend classes in pre-reading and math, art and music. They will be involved in directed play both inside and outside and in large and small groups. The Beginnings program for toddlers aged 12 months to 3-years features individual and group experiences, at a comfortable pace, designed to promote early learning skills and independence for the toddler. We believe that learning can best be accomplished in a safe and loving atmosphere in which the child’s individual needs are met and in which the child can develop a good self-image. We feel that if learning is fun and rewarding from the beginning, it will continue for a lifetime!

St. Martin’s Episcopal Pre-School also addresses the spiritual needs of the children. The 3 and 4-year olds have a short Chapel service at least once a week in the Church with the Pre-School Chaplain. The Chapel service will not be identified with any one denomination but will be Christian in nature and stress our belief that God is love.

For more information, please contact Jennie Virgin, Director, at 423-855-1011.

Notes to current 2007-2008 Parents

Preschool Notes First

Beginnings Follow

St. Martin’s PreSchool

January 2008

We are looking forward to the preschoolers’ return from the holidays full of energy and chomping at the bit to get on with fun and learning! This is ‘skills month’ and we will really be refining those small motor skills, practicing our writing and our number and letter recognition. I hope that you are working on those skills at home, too. If you have questions about that, ask the Teachers. This month's letters are U, S, B and P. Thanks to you who have been so good to share this experience with your children and send in word pictures. We still need some help with pictures for G, J and Q as they were sort of lost during the Christmas rush. The preschoolers really enjoy adding to the alphabet posters as they become full of word pictures! As each month’s letter posters are filled, they join the previous month’s posters decorating Ms. Rutter’s walls. The posters help the preschoolers make letter to word connections especially when the classes ‘brainstorm’ lists of words that start with the letters.

Have you ever wondered why we do the monthly calendars ‘by hand’ rather than the more efficient way, by computer? The reason is that it is very important for the preschoolers to learn that drawing, coloring, writing ‘by hand’ is good and as important as computer produced documents, even for adults. The more they color, draw and write, the better their small motor skills and therefore their writing skills will be in the future.

Soon, you will receive your application for Fall 2008. We will BEGIN accepting applications on Friday, February 1^st at noon and not before. We want everyone to have an equal opportunity for the openings. Remember that some classes fill up very quickly and in order for you to get your choice you will want to return your application on February 1^st! Later in the month, I will be sending you a detailed explanation of the application procedure that I try to improve each year. If you have questions about classes or the application process, please give me a call or drop by to see me.

If you are employed and report your school fees for child care, our federal tax ID number is 62-0991097 (it is also in our manual). Don’t forget to also report ‘stay and play’ and the application and supply fees. Let me know if you need a receipt.

Your January tuition is due by the 10^th and your Spring supply fee of $75 is due by the 15^th. You may pay both of them on the same check if you would like.

If you have had a change of phone numbers, new cell phones, addresses or contact persons since September, please send a note.

Please put your child’s name in all pieces of clothing including hats, mittens (not gloves), etc. Don’t forget those new clothes, lunch boxes, book bags, etc. On cold days, dress the preschoolers warmly because we will go out for at least a run even when it is quite cold. Have you sent the change of winter clothes, including socks and undies, for us to have at school?

Remember our school closing policy: We close if the Hamilton County schools close but we start on time if they start late. This info is available on all radio and TV stations early in the morning.

School will be closed on Monday, January 21^st in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

St. Martin’s PreSchool

BEGINNINGS

January 2008

Welcome back! We are looking forward to an exciting and fun new year of learning and playing! The Christmas break is that half-way time during the year which is a big mile-marker for maturity. They will seem taller and more mature. The ‘Baby Day’ children really start chatting. The twos will be showing more interest in toilet training and more vocabulary and word use. If they begin to show an interest in the potty, go with it at their pace. Please talk to us if you are venturing into this new territory so that we might mirror what you are doing at home. Please do not send them in pull-ups until they are ‘mostly’ trained. Ms. Lisa and Ms. Cori are experts in this field and can share some great insights with you. They also have the advantage of a peer group for reinforcement! Please also encourage the use of words, sentences and new vocabulary. You can do this by repeating their few word sentences in the form of full sentences with different or expanded vocabulary. And, reading aloud to your children expands vocabulary and listening skills tremendously!

Soon you will receive your application for Fall 2008. We will BEGIN accepting applications on Friday, February 1^st at noon and not before. We want everyone to have an equal opportunity for the openings. Remember that some classes fill up very quickly and in order for you to get your choice you will want to return your application on the 1^st! With the application, I will be sending you a detailed explanation of the application procedure and the classes. If you have questions about classes or the application process, please give me a call or drop by to see me.

On January 15^th and 16^th the 3‘s and 4’s will be reenacting the story of ‘Stone Soup’. This is one of our favorite ‘share’ stories about hungry soldiers who come to a poor town and, after finding no food, decide to make soup out of stones. They talk the townsfolk into giving one small item each and end up with a wonderful soup for all. In Beginnings on Mon, Tues and Wed we won’t actually make soup but we will use the veggies in lots of different ways including vocabulary, sorting, following directions, sequencing, etc. Therefore, please send a veggie or soup ingredient to school on your class day. We will take the sharing concept one step further and donate our extra veggies to the ‘St. Martins’ Cooks’ group to make soup for Ronald McDonald House, an organization that has housed two of our former preschool families in years past.

Your January tuition is due by the 10^th and your Spring supply fee of $75 is due by the 15^th. You may write one check for both fees if you would like.

If you have had a change of any phone numbers, new cell phones, addresses or contact persons, since September, please send me a note.

Please put your child’s name on all pieces of clothing including hats, mittens, etc. Don’t forget those new clothes, book bags, lunch boxes, etc.

Remember our school closing policy: We close if the Hamilton County schools close but we start on time if the County schools start late. This info is available on all radio and TV stations early in the morning.

School will be closed on Monday, January 21^st in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have you ever wondered why we do the monthly calendars ‘by hand’ rather than the more efficient way, by computer? The reason is that it is very important for the children to learn that drawing, coloring, writing ‘by hand’ is good and as important as computer produced documents even for adults. The more they color, draw and write, the better their small motor skills and therefore their writing skills will be in the future.

We were very sad to say good-bye to sweet Koen Waugerman who moved to Florida. We therefore have an opening in the ‘Baby Day’ class for a child who turned 1 by last September 30^th.

Notes on Line: If you have misplaced or already recycled our notes and need the info, never fear, they are on our website at stmartinsec.org. Go to the ‘St Martins’ link on the toolbar and click ‘PreSchool’. Soon I will add more pictures in the ‘Gallery’.

Thanks!