Geneva Day School

Director’s Letter

Dear Geneva Parents, Staff and Friends!

Marvelous May is here with wonderful sun, flowers, birds, spring rains, and new plant growth!  Your children are thrilled with their daily discoveries, especially of creepy crawlers and insects.  Our Butterfly Garden is waking up, too, so we will be working in there this month to prepare it for the return of the Monarchs in June.  Your children have enjoyed spending more time outside, including having snacks, creating art, and reading stories throughout the grounds.  Their enthusiasm is very contagious!

New life abounds inside, too. All classes are watching Painted Lady Butterfly Caterpillars; some also have ants or ladybugs.  The Open Classroom has tadpoles and Kindergarten has four new ducklings!  Your scientists are observing, drawing, writing, and learning about these amazing creatures.

During our last month together, there will be lots of exciting events to celebrate the school year and the beginning of summer.  Kay Dee Puppets were here today on Friday, May 4, for two performances featuring The Little Red Hen and Bunny Tales.  Ask your child about it!

May 15 and 16 are the Annual Field Days and Bike-a-ton for St. Jude’s Hospital, with all activities planned for the outside.  Parent volunteers are always invited and welcomed to join the fun! Geneva’s amazing 32^nd Annual Art Exhibition is scheduled for Friday evening, May 18 from 5:30–7:30 p.m., with at least two creative works artistically displayed for every student.  Afternoon classes are cancelled that day, so that staff can transform the school into an art gallery and museums.  The Pre-Kindergarten Classroom will be featured as a Native American Museum, and the carpool hall and Ms. Landres’ Class will be featured as the Kindergarten Art History Museum.  Take a peek into the new Kindergarten Learning Cottage while you are here to visit the ducklings and see wonderful student space science projects.

Classes will celebrate the end-of-the year with parties or picnics.  Watch for news and details in your child’s teacher newsletter this month.   A number of field trips are also planned to Locust Grove Nature Center, the National Art Gallery, a farm, and to Hadley’s Park.

Please join us for the Kindergarten Program and Graduation on Thursday, May 24, at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary.  This is a wonderful program of fun international songs.  And please be sure to return the next day on Friday, May 25 for the 11:30 a.m.  School-wide celebration in the sanctuary and for the all-school End-of-Year Picnic from 12:00 –2:00 p.m. This is a great way to begin the summer!

As exciting as the end-of-the year is for our students, it is also a sad for our staff.  During the course of a school year, we develop strong personal relationships with your youngsters and with you, their parents.  Some teachers, as in the Open or All Day Classes, have the privilege of having students enrolled for longer than one year.   For other teachers, however, they realize that their children must move on.

We hope that you remember, however, that once your child is a Geneva Day School student, your child is always a Geneva Friend!  Please keep in touch, have your children visit on half days off and come back for school events.  The annual Welcome Back Social in September, for example, attracts many alumni who return and say “hello.”  We hope that you will include this night on your calendar, too, which this is planned for September 7, 2012, from 5:30–7:00 p.m.  We love to see how graduates have matured and what their future plans are.

Do you remember when you brought your children to school for the first days last fall?  Many of you wondered what the year would be like.  Would your children separate easily?  Would they miss you?  Would they make friends?    Would they have fun?

We can state “Yes!” to all of these questions!  At Geneva, we love playing, studying, learning and having fun thinking and growing with your children!  Each of us has been enriched by their lives and personalities, for we know how special and truly precious they are.  Please take care of them and enjoy them over the summer…and join us for a fabulous fun Summer Camp!  We hope to see everyone in the fall, certainly for the Welcome Back Social!

Warm regards and happy summer!

Suzanne Funk

Director

Consider sharing some of the summer with us at Geneva Summer Camp!

A fun recreational camp for 2s–6s includes cooking, water play, arts and crafts, flannel board and others stories, My Gym, and more surprise events!

Pick up a brochure and register your children for whenever they are available!

Mr. Bullis is in charge, so you know it will be fun!