January 8th, 2025
Principal Corner
When we lived in North Carolina, my oldest son had an opportunity to train with a friend from school at the friend’s father’s gym. The father was a certified trainer for middle school and high school students. At one of the training sessions the father told my son, “You need to go slow in order to, in the end, go fast”. The meaning of what he was saying is you have to learn how to do the motions correctly, so you need to go slow, making sure you are doing the exercise correctly and, in the end, it will allow you to go fast. My life seems to be in a rush a lot of the time, running from one activity to another, one meeting to the next, and at times I have misplaced my keys or some other important item and then had to spend extra time looking for what I lost. Over Christmas break, I decided to slow down, in order to go fast. I have made a conscious effort to take my time to put things where they need to be and do everything I need, before I rush off to the next thing. I have been a little calmer, I have not misplaced as many things, and hopefully my life has not be as chaotic. As we go through our faith journey, I think we can apply this saying as well. As we learn about God and grow our faith, it will not come all at once. We will have moments of lack of faith and giving in to the sinful desires of our flesh. But as we learn about God and grow our relationship with Him, we will want to do the right things more often and live a more Godly life as we try to live like Jesus.
JANUARY CHAPEL
January chapel offering is our yearly classroom competition for Lutheran’s for Life - filling the baby bottles - boys versus girls. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Let the games begin, Heart Heroes! Kids Heart Challenge is here and it’s better than ever! Sign up TODAY to get started on Finn’s Mission - refresh your Hands-Only CPR skills and learn the warning signs of a stroke. Every student who completes Finn’s Mission will earn their very own Heart Hero Cape!
Help Save Lives with These Simple Steps:
Download the FREE AHA Schools App for Apple or Android and click on “Register Now” then scroll down to join your school's team.
Next, click on “send a text today” to easily reach friends & family!
OR click HERE. and choose “Sign Up” to get started.
We have some BONUS incentives for our students this year:
Thank you for being an essential part of the Kids Heart Challenge, supporting our school and the American Heart Association. Every step you take helps save lives. Let’s make a powerful positive impact together!
NEW SECURITY TECH
Some of you have noticed the new keypad we have at the front entrance. We also have one at the gym doors. This allows us to keep the doors secure when children are in school but increases ease of pick up of kids in the preschool program, who have pick up times during the regular school day, and SAC programs while keeping a secure location! The front door will remain locked in the morning until 8:10 am. We have always and will continue to ask all K-8 not enter the front door until 8:10 am. Gym doors will be open from 7 am - 8:20 am for early room drop off for K-8 students. After 8:20 am all students should enter via door bell from the front to report to the office and get signed in as this is the cutoff for when the school day starts. This is not different than previous, just a friendly reminder.
By next week, all SAC families will have a code as well that will get them in during SAC hours and the side door will be locked. Starting Monday, January 13th, all pick up from afterschool care must to enter through the front door using their code.
Codes will be deactivated on days your child is not in care. Please also, when you are given a code, do not share it. We are able to track and see who enters the code and will deactivate it if it is abused. We have the ability to set times and limits on individual codes, so it’s a great asset to us for those who need entry when there isn’t someone monitoring the doorbell. If you have someone that will be picking your child up, that is not a parent, we will give them their own one time use code for when they pick up. Please notify us when someone other than a parent is picking up.
Lost & Found is FULL of hats and mittens and all things winter! Your child is likely missing something. Make sure you take a gander the next time you are in the building. Lost & Found is located down near the soda machine, in the hallway leading to the gym.
ANYONE MISSING A CUP? It was left at the treasure trunk. ———>
LOOKING AHEAD
All HOME games in January - February can be signed up for. We appreciate all of you that have helped so far! This all counts toward parent service hours!
Athletic Calendar is up to date! ALL teams have practices scheduled. CHECK THE CALENDAR HERE . ALL AWAY games will have a bus!
TLS PTL Tournament is right around the corner! PTL is in need of two people to get Thrivent Cards - one for food, one for supplies - for the tournament. Please see Sign Up links down below in PTL Events section or on the website under volunteer, to sign up to get those. Please acquire the Thrivent cards as soon as possible.
AMERICAN HEART CHALLENGE KICKOFF - is today, Wednesday Jan 8th! Challenge goes until the 24th of January.
NO BUSES FRIDAY JANUARY 17TH & MONDAY JANUARY 20TH. PARENT DRIVE DAYS.
NO SCHOOL JANUARY 24TH - we prepare for the tournament that day.
KINDERGARTEN ROUND UP INFORMATION COMING SOON - STAY TUNED!
CHOIR DATES have been added to the Google Calendar and the interactive calendar below. K-2 in Feb, ALL School in March at Lutheran School’s Week Kick Off, 6-8 Choir in April, 3-5 Choir in May.
SILENT AUCTION & PTL BRUNCH - THE KICK OF TO LUTHERAN SCHOOLS WEEK - Sunday, March 2nd - SAVE THE DATE
SAVE THE DATE - TRIBUTE TO TRINITY WILL BE FRIDAY APRIL 4th - Lots of fun and service hours can be attained by being a part of the committee. Anyone interested in joining the committee for Tribute to Trinity should contact the school.
TEACHER FEATURE
Some 3rd GRADE Pre-Break Fun
Calling all FB users. We need your help! You will notice that we are beefing up our Facebook presence (Instagram soon) and while we work hard to put the content up, it’s you that can make the REAL difference. When you see TLS posts, please take a minute to LIKE, COMMENT on, or SHARE the content. Every time you engage with our FB page it spreads our message further and further. We have something so special here at Trinity and we want everyone to know about it.
PARENT CORNER
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YOUR RESOURCE CENTER
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PARENT CORNER +++ YOUR RESOURCE CENTER +++
Great Communication Tool + More
A lot of staff and parents love using Procare. It’s a great communication tool AND it serves multiple purposes for staff and behind the scenes tracking. It is the required sign in and out needed for our Childcare/Preschool and our SAC programs. It is a great way to calculate and bill and get other invoices paid from families! It has helped streamline many processes for us. One this it is not, is an EMERGENT messaging system. Please, and this has always been the case, if you have a last minute change or message to get to your children, try to call the school and do not be afraid to leave a message. A Procare message is not an alert system for last minute changes. We want our teachers teaching, not staring at their phones for notifications constantly. We encourage you to use it for everything else.
Parent Service Hours
Trinity Lutheran School would not run or function without our families and all your hard work! We strive on showing our students a great work ethic and a drive to help and volunteer! Because of this, we ask that each family completes 10 hours of volunteer hours throughout the school year (if you only have a child in the Preschool, we only ask you complete 5 hours). Many events put on by PTL, Athletics and just helping around at the school provide plenty of opportunity to help out! Please don’t hesitate to check out the volunteer page on the website: https://seal-leopard-8yt2.squarespace.com/volunteer
NEED VOLUNTEER HOURS???
CHECK HERE
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOUR CHILDREN
WITHOUT NAGGING
Where do you turn to know if a movie, book or other media is appropriate for my child? One place you can check is Common Sense Media https://www.commonsensemedia.org/, the website lists age levels for books, TV, movies, games podcasts and apps. Check it out at the link.
WEEKLY REMINDERS
When calling the school, please leave a voicemail if we don’t answer. If the phone is not answered, we are on another call or just a few minutes away from the phone. Voicemail is something that gets checked immediately up return to the office.
If you arrive or your children arrive after 8:20, please have them report to the office. We still appreciate them getting signed in with the Procare App but we need a report to the office first. Thankyou.
Please be mindful and help reduce interruptions. If you arrive at the school - go to the office. We will grab the student or deliver an item or message. You may think it’s just a quick visit or you are doing no harm, but a small view of a visitor causes more disruption than you can imagine. Please be respectful and check in with the office, even if the class or teacher, knows you are coming.
Make sure you are notifying the school via Procare or email that your child is leaving early ahead of time or will be absent. We can coordinate best and make the most of your time if we can plan ahead. Middle school schedules are very different than they have been so knowing ahead of time will help reduce delays for everyone.
Jacqie leaves for a break between 11:15 - 12:00 every day. Please try to avoid stopping by at those times if you can help it. If you do, please be patient and wait outside while she answers the doorbell and talks to you via the intercom. Sometimes directions need to be given or information needs to be gathered, so please do not expect other staff to open the door for you. They have their own jobs, caring for their students.
If you are here to pick up your children early or have something to drop off to them, please help minimize interruptions in the classroom by stopping by the office. Same goes with dropping things off for teachers, please stop in the office.
Please wait outside the school until 3:05 pm and have your children come to you EXCEPT for Preschool parents.
Make sure that you are paying Tuition in separate payments from SAC/WAC care. Tuition is reported differently than childcare for taxes. Therefore we ask you do not lump them together when making payments so that we can accurately report your totals at the end of the year. Preschool however, is reportable on taxes as a childcare expense.
Share Your Photos
We are always on the lookout for photos to put in the yearbook and you could’ve captured a great one! Below are the links to add photos to two of our Google Photo Albums! One for the Fun Run and one for everything else! Please don’t hesitate to share! We can always use more photos in the yearbook! This is for staff and parents!
SAC - School Age Care
Welcome back! We are excited to provide care for your kiddos after school this year. SAC hours are from 3:05-5:30pm. Snack and homework help will be provided daily for kids who are here after 4 pm. When picking up, look for the posted sign on the side sac entrance so you can find our location.
What is SAC? SAC is before and after school care for all students, K-8. (Preschool has a separate before and after program, because they have their own childcare license). If you signed up for it during registration, you are all set! You just need to let us know if your child is a regular or not and we have heard from most of you.
If you did not sign up for SAC, here some more information:
AM SAC - just give us a heads up you’ll be using it and show up! AM SAC is from 7:00 am - 7:45 AM. Enter through the gym doors and please sign your child in using the Procare App. ALL students should enter through the gym doors if at school before 8:10 am.
PM SAC - We are available, but because it is after school, with limited staff, we still need to be in a safe student/adult ratio. We request, wherever possible, it be asked about your child getting added to PM SAC a week prior so we can ensure to have enough staff, deadline the Friday before the week you request your child to attend. We do understand that some things happen last minute and we will always try to accommodate. Please check with the school office before you send your child to SAC.
PTL SPONSORED UPCOMING EVENTS
TLS Basketball Tournament is in January. We need to start preparing for it now so we can be ready. Jan 24th & 25th. See signups below!
Please see the Sign-Up Geniuses which are located on the school's website under Parents and then Volunteer.
If you are able to help or have any questions, please contact Tina Schoenfeld.
Email: trinityjanesvilleptl@gmail.com
UPCOMING EVENTS!!! See Calendar below! You can also check out the Google Calendar under Parents > School Calendar to subscribe.
JANESVILLE COMMUNITY
PALMER BUS IS LOOKING FOR DRIVERS
Contact Tim Engel for more information. They need drivers for regular routes and possibilities for more hours with other trips!
Tim Engel
JWP - Site Manager
(o) 507.481.6678
(e) time@palmerbusservice.com
