Keeping you plugged into the exciting things happening at the Lower School
Published October 3, 2021
Volume 100
Sherry Randolph - Early Learning & Lower School Principal
The Principal’s Piece: A Note From Mrs. Randolph
It’s October! It’s hard to believe that we are entering our ninth week of school. This is a short week as we have our two remote learning days, followed by two days of Fall break on the 11th and 12th. We will end our first nine-weeks on October 8th, so please encourage your child to finish strong this week!
Classroom Highlight
Our K4 students have been learning all about our school environment and how it honors God to take care of our school and classrooms. Our students learned about cooperation and kindness and how these characteristics can be displayed to others. Last Friday, our K4 students finished the week with a visit to the Principal’s office. We had a great time together, as I talked to them about my typical day and the role I serve in our amazing school! What an honor it was to host these precious little lions in my office! To top it off, I gave each one their very own stuffed Trinity lion!
Updated Attendance Process
Thank you so much for your patience as we have all been learning together how to navigate the Blackbaud system while also updating and aligning our procedures to create a better flow and process. Recently, we communicated changes in regards to our attendance process in order to help get us caught up on updating records. To do so, we implemented a Google Form to help. I’m pleased to announce that all submissions through the Google Form and older emails have been updated so your child’s attendance should be accurate at this point. We recognize there still may need to be updates made that have not yet been communicated or were somehow misplaced or overlooked in the process. Please be sure to review the guidance and steps listed below based on your child’s grade level on how to make any necessary attendance corrections and to provide absence notifications moving forward:
Pre-K through 8th Grade Process:
The Google Form link for reporting attendance has now been closed and will no longer be used now that all of the records have been updated.
Moving forward, the following steps should be taken for reporting attendance for Pre-K - 8th grade.
We have reopened the attendance@tcslions.org email.
Please send doctor’s notes and excuses for absences to the attendance@tcslions.org email moving forward.
Any questions or issues may be communicated through the attendance@tcslions.org email as well.
*PRE-ABSENCE REQUESTS (family trips, etc.) should be submitted by using the Pre-Absence Form found on Blackbaud. Forms may be printed and given to your child’s teacher at the beginning of the school day.
ALL School COVID Process:
In order to receive advisement regarding COVID, quarantine, and to discuss documented medical needs, please submit inquiries to the TCS Nursing Staff at nurses@tcslions.org.
Fall Pictures are Coming Soon!
Thursday, October 14th and Friday, October 15th
Students should wear uniforms (except for Pre-K). This picture will be in the yearbook! Here is the schedule:
Thursday, October 14 ~
5 day PreK3 class
5 day PreK4 classes
Kindergarten
2nd grade
Friday, October 15~
3 Day PreK3 class
3 Day PreK4 class
1st and 3rd grades
Preschool Thanksgiving Programs
We are approaching a special time of year, when our sweet preschool students are learning all about a spirit of thankfulness, God’s goodness, and the beautiful Fall season. We invite you to join us for our Thanksgiving Preschool Programs! Our programs will be in the evening and each program will be followed by a Thanksgiving celebration. More details soon! Please note that these will be evening programs.
K3 Students - Thursday, November 18th
K4 Students - Thursday, November 18th
This week In Chapel
Pastor Kami continued our series about the Fruit of the Spirit. She taught about Faithfulness - both God’s faithfulness to us and His desire for us to be faithful to Him and to others. We learned about God’s faithfulness through the story of Joseph from Genesis 37-50. Pastor Kami’s husband, Ben Heilman (the Family Life Director at Trinity Church) led the students in a worship song.
Main Focus: Because God is forever faithful to me, He enables me to be faithful to Him.
Bible Verse: “Faithfulness is Your very character.” Psalm 89:8
Whatchagaddaknow: “God wants me to be faithful!”
House System for 1st-3rd Grades
In the elementary and middle school at Trinity, we have implemented a House System to build opportunities for unity, leadership, and peer relationships. This House System connects different grade levels from 1st-8th grade by building positive character traits through fun, friendly activities and competitions throughout the year.
First Grade - Robinson House (blue)
Second Grade - Elliot House (green)
Third Grade - Lewis House (red)
Remote Learning Days, October 7th and 8th
October 7th and 8th will be remote learning days for our students. A hardcopy packet will be sent home with your child on Wednesday, October 6th. This work will need to be completed upon our return on October 13th. Please note that there will not be any virtual classes to attend.
Elementary Clubs
Our students love participating in after school clubs! We will be adding an elementary dance club. Please see the Performing Arts section for more details about this exciting opportunity. If you have any questions, please email Lisa Railey (lisa.railey@tcslions.org) who oversees all of our elementary clubs.
Mondays
Drama Club - 1st - 3rd grades
Wednesdays
Drama Club - 4th-5th grades
Running Club - 1st-3rd grades
Thursdays
Chess Club 1st-5th
Running Club - 4th-5th grades
Blackbaud: Classroom Updates & Information
To stay informed of what’s happening in your child’s classroom, please login into Blackbaud weekly. You will be able to see information such as weekly classroom announcements, upcoming events, weekly academic focus, grades, attendance, etc. This is the key to staying informed and will replace the hardcopy newsletter sent home in the past. I encourage you to login each week. We are excited for this new format! Information will be updated each Sunday at 5pm.
Accessing your child's class information weekly:
Login to your Blackbaud account and select your child's name under "Children".
Find your child's homeroom class under the "Progress" tab by scrolling down to where classes are listed.
After selecting the homeroom class, you will see the teacher's main class page where you will locate upcoming dates, class reminders and news.
Select the "Topics" tab to see specific information for each individual subject. Within each subject folder, you will see a plan for the week and upcoming projects and test information.
The "Topics" pages update each Sunday evening at 5pm and will remain current until the following Sunday evening.