As we welcome February, a month known for celebrating love, kindness, friendship and diversity we have the perfect opportunity to focus on these values we hold dear at Pilgrim Community Preschool. Especially in these recent months, cultivating neighborly love, strength in community and support systems feels more important than ever. These themes are essential in our mission to provide a loving, welcoming, inclusive and joyful educational home for every child; one that not only nurtures who our children are today, but who they will be in the future. When you spend time in our classrooms, you will frequently observe teachers guiding children by encouraging kindness, sharing, inclusion, and empathy for each other. By creating an environment where we all “use kind words and gentle hands”, take turns, make space for others when we play, ask how we can help when a friend is feeling down, or how we can help when we make a mistake, we lay the foundations for creating a lifetime of meaningful connections and respect for one another.

It is important to note, at this stage in development, preschoolers are beginning to notice and understand our differences. Part of our work as educators is to help children learn that our differences are not to be judged negatively or feared, our differences are what makes us the lovely unique humans we each are. We see and respect our human diversity as a strength to be celebrated and honored and are committed to creating a safe and welcoming space for each family and child to bring their own experiences, culture, and perspective into our Pilgrim space, ultimately making our community richer and more vibrant. How you can help support our mission at home:

• Model kindness: Show your child what kindness looks like in your daily interactions with others. These can be as simple as smiling at a person as you walk by each other on the sidewalk, or saying thank you to the cashier at the grocery store. A little kindness creates big ripples in our world!

• Read together on topics such as kindness and diversity: There are many books that teach about friendship, empathy, and celebrating differences. Doing Good Together has curated a few extensive lists of children’s books on Kindness and Diversity

This February, we also recognize, the escalation of events in our country may be increasing feelings of stress and trauma for our community members, including our children. Young children are deeply attuned to the environment around them, absorbing information even while seemingly deep in play, and are sensitive to the feelings of their caregivers. As the adults in our children’s lives process and cope together, there are many things we can do to help our children in the process:

• Monitor media and conversations in your child’s environment. We recommend limiting news and screen scrolling when your child is present to reduce exposure to information they are not developmentally ready to process.

• Recognize how stress affects preschoolers. As children are still mastering communication strategies for coping with stress, it’s important to recognize how children may show they are experiencing stress: Supporting Young Children after Crisis Events

• Take care of their caregivers: We hear it on every plane ride, we must put our own oxygen mask on before we can help others. Remember to take care of your needs too, Self-care comes in all shapes and sizes!

• Reach out for more support if needed. We are here to support our families if you need us, our door is always open. If you are looking for additional resources for coping with stress and trauma, NAEYC has compiled an extensive guide.

Warmly,

Emily Norman - Director

We will be celebrating our 60th anniversary of Pilgrim Community Preschool in the 2026-27 School Year. In addition to honoring and celebrating our history, this event will be a fundraiser for our future: Raising money for a sprinkler system needed for PCPS to extend to full day preschool. Help us plan what type of event you would like to attend by completing the form below by February 23rd. Every question has multiple choices, choose any and all that sound fun to you!

Thank you! The Cheers Planning Committee

We are so excited for our 4th annual Pizza Party on Friday February 6th! This FREE family event is a celebration for our entire Pilgrim Community Preschool community with pizza tasting and voting on our favorites from local pizza parlors, music & dancing and fun activities, crafts and games too! Volunteers are NEEDED: Families are asked to RSVP and sign up to help if you can!

This FUNdraiser supports our Ruth Prescott Scholarship Fund. Families can purchase raffle tickets for Teacher & Child outings or bid in the Silent Auction for one of a kind collaborative artworks created by each classroom and on a collection of amazing baskets assembled by our Room Parents. New this year: All raffles and Silent Auction will be ONLINE, opening Friday at Noon, closing at 6:30 PM. Families do not need to present to bid or win.

2026 Summer Camp Priority Registration is now open!

Pilgrim Community Preschool Summer Camp is a celebration of Summer and all its fun! Our qualified teaching staff provide a safe, fun and engaging place for your child to observe, explore, experiment and celebrate the joys of the season. Each 2-week session is scheduled Monday - Friday 9 AM to Noon. All children will be invited to explore planned activities and projects within each session’s theme enjoying extended outside adventures, daily water play and 100% juice popsicle breaks.

Summer Camp enrollment is open to all potty trained children 3.5 to 7 years old entering 2nd grade, max 16 children per class. Mini-Camp enrollment is open to currently enrolled (25/26) Star & Circle Room children only, max 12 children per class. Needing a little longer day at camp? Add on Extended Day to your Summer Camp registration for 30 minutes before or after camp for more outdoor play and fun! Registration opens to the public 2/6, enroll today to secure your child’s spot!

2026 Summer Camp Schedule

Session 1: June 1-12 A Great Big Mess! Tuition $375

Session 2: June 15-26 Building & Tinkering! Tuition $350 *no camp June 19

Session 3: July 6-17 Bugs & Blooms! Tuition $375

Session 4: July 20-31 Under The Sea! Tuition $375

Extended Day:

Early Day 8:30-9 AM Daily $50 per session *Session 2 $45 no camp June 19

Stay & Play 12-12:30 PM Daily (does not include lunch) $50 per session *Session 2 $45 no camp June 19

Registration Fee and 50% of Summer Camp Tuition due upon enrollment. Remaining 50% Summer Camp Tuition due April 1.

A few friendly reminders:

With the recent cold snap, we’ve seen a big increase in families parking in spaces, double parked in the driving lanes. This creates a hazardous situation for families and teachers leaving school and blocks OPRF & Pilgrim Teachers entering or exiting their reserved parking spaces. Please remember, unless needing the reserved handicapped parking spaces, families and caregivers are not allowed to park in the parking lot for drop off OR pickup. Parking passes are available in our foyer for families, please remind all caregivers of this policy.

If you are leaving the building when the interior Preschool Door is closed, and administration is not present (after 8:45 am or 10 minutes after pickups) please exit using the main Church entrance upstairs. This keeps all our exit secure, ensuring all children and staff safer while at Pilgrim.

Is your child home due to illness? Alert us in brightwheel and fill out the illness reporting form to receive return to school guidance and help us monitor illness in our classrooms. Illness Reporting Form

ASQ Developmental Screening

The ASQ developmental screenings are completed by families twice a year and provide valuable insight into your child’s development. Completed ASQs enable teachers to plan activities to support YOUR child’s development and will be be discussed in upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences in March. Please complete both ASQ screening questionnaires, ASQ 3 and ASQ SE2, using the link below by March 1st.

Classroom Corner: Hexagon Room

The Nature Preschool class was busy learning about outer space this past month!  The first week of our study we focused on understanding orbit, learning about the planets (and their moons) in our solar system, and understanding that the Sun is a star.  We like to use dramatic play and movement in many of our studies so acting out planets orbiting our sun was lots of fun.

We learned about Tardigrades, also known as Moss Piglets or Water Bears.  They are microscopic creatures that can withstand extreme temperatures.  They can even survive in the vacuum of space! These tiny beings can be found in moss and lichen so our daily nature walks were focused on finding samples to take back to the class to prepare for the microscope.

Learning about the differences between comets, asteroids, and meteors was an adventure!  We made comet-inspired art, played with “asteroids” at the sensory bin, and viewed the magic of meteors (shooting stars) in a video.  Having a variety of fun activities available helps our students understand new concepts.

Wonderful books help enrich learning as well and for this study we had some great ones.  On the Space Station (Shine-a-light) by Carron Brown and Bee Johnson, Eight Spinning Planets by Brian James, illustrated by Russell Benfanti and Sun! One in a Billion by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Stevie Lewis were just a few of our favorites.

After noticing geographical features of our amazing planet while viewing the live stream of Earth from the space station, the students are excited to do a geographical features study next!

Photos: Noticing bodies of water and mountains while viewing the space station live-stream. Collecting Moss and lichen samples on our nature walk, in hopes of finding tardigrades. Playing with rocket ships! Marveling at the shine-a-light book.

Pilgrim Community Church Events

Oak Park Community Family Information & Events