Open Arms Christian Child Development Center

We’re excited to have our Half-Day families back at Open Arms this week! Check the schedule below for your day to come meet your child’s teachers and see their classroom. The first day of school is on Thursday and Friday. We will see you this week!

Open Arms is closed today in observance of Labor Day. Hope everyone enjoys a day off!

We are happy and proud to announce that Open Arms has been reaccredited by the National Lutheran School Accreditation team! We were presented with our certificate of accreditation on Sunday by Deaconess Sally Hiller of the Southeastern District LCMS.

The reaccreditation process included a year completing a self-study by gathering data, assessing our staff and curriculum, completing school improvement plans, and hosting site visitors who evaluated our school and staff. We were told that we were highly recommended for reaccreditation, and (with our fantastic staff and children!) we were not surprised. Way to go, Open Arms!

Join us at any service THIS Sunday, August 26th (8:00, 9:30, or 11:00), and bring your backpack for a special blessing. During our children's lesson, children will bring up their backpacks for a prayer and blessing for a good school year. Also, we will be celebrating our school receiving re-accreditation through the National Lutheran Schools Association. We will have a special presentation at the 11:00 service. We hope to see you there!

Our teachers are busy getting their rooms ready for the new school year, and they are so excited about meeting their families tonight. Our Back-to-School night is TONIGHT: Tuesday, August 14th, from 6:30 to 7:30pm. We look forward to seeing everyone and kicking off a wonderful 2018-2019 school year!

Our Back-to-School Night is coming up on Tuesday, August 14th. This is a parent-only event, and it gives parents a chance to meet their child's new teachers and learn more about their new classroom before the new school year officially kicks off on August 20th. We will have two 30-minute sessions, from 6:30-7:00pm and from 7:00-7:30pm. Choose a session if you have one child and attend both if you have children in different classes. Our teachers are so excited about the new school year, and they're looking forward to meeting their new parents and children!

Our Summer Camp theme this week is “Australia,” and we had a visit from the Challenge Island STEAM program. Our campers were encouraged to design, create, and test a project using toothpicks and candies. Each team made a replica of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and saw how many pebbles it could hold while being suspended from two chairs. They learned the importance of reinforcing their bridge using different techniques and shapes. They also created a fun scene around their bridges by coloring Australian animals and attaching flags. It’s was a fun experience being engineers “down under!”

Our summer campers are putting on their snow boots and parkas as they “visit” the continent of Antarctica this week! They’re learning about penguins, creating igloos with sugar cubes, painting winter landscapes with ice cubes, learning about ice, and playing with shaving cream. The rain is keeping us inside this week, but we’re still having a lot of hands-on and creative fun!

Calendars - Open Arms

If you would like a preview of the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, we have published our calendars on our website. You'll see we have some new events coming up that we are very excited about! Along with our regular favorites (Fall-Fest, Book Fair, Christmas Programs, Lutheran Schools Week, Summer Kick-ff, etc.), we are hosting a Back-to-School Pancake Dinner, a Reading Under the Stars event in December, and an Easter Egg Hunt Spring Event in April.

Our first big event is our Back-to-School night on August 14th for our All-Day Program (flower classes) and Owl's Kindergarten class, where you will meet your child's teachers and learn more about their classroom. We will be sending out more information later this month, so stay tuned!

We're loving the summer time, but we're excited about the start of the new school year!

openarms-ccdc.org

Here is something fun to do with the family Saturday night!

Don't forget our "Play Together" Game Night on Saturday from 4-9pm in the Great Room. All ages and families are welcome. We have games for all skill levels. The 4-6 pm hours are ideal for younger family audiences and the 6-9 hours are perfect for the older families and individuals. Come meet some new friends and play some new games. Snacks and drinks will be provided!

This week our Summer Camp students “travelled” to Brazil and learned about different kinds of wild animals. They got to pet some wild animals too!

On Wednesday, the elementary campers got to hike at the Potomac Overlook Regional Park and see animals and bugs in their natural environment. Today we had a visit from the animals with Adventure in Fun. We saw snakes, turtles, frogs, birds, and even an alligator!

You don’t have to go all the way to Brazil to see cool animals when you’re at Open Arms Summer Camp!

The first few weeks of summer have passed by quickly, and we’re enjoying every minute here at Open Arms! Check out these summer bulletin boards and projects our students and teachers have created. They’re sure to brighten an already beautiful summer day!

Happy Sunday! Hope you have a beautiful week!!

Here are some more teacher-created doors to encourage you to sign up for Vacation Bible School this month. Lots of Open Arms kids come to VBS, and we’d love to see your kids here too!

For more information and to register, visit: https://www.oswlc.org/connect/vacation-bible-school

Open Arms is closed today in celebration of Independence Day. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July. God bless America!

Vacation Bible School - Our Savior's Way Lutheran Church

Vacation Bible School is less than a month away, so make sure you sign up soon! Our teachers have decorated their doors to encourage kids to attend VBS, and we'll be sharing those over the next few weeks. It's always fun to see the door-decorating skills of our talented teachers! For more information and to register for VBS, visit http://oswlc.org/connect/vacation-bible-school

oswlc.org

Enjoy the first weekend of summer!

Look at these beautiful Russian onion dome buildings our Kindergarten campers created! They read and learned about the architecture of the buildings in Russia, then they recreated their own cityscapes with paper and crayons. They're as pretty and whimsical as the real thing!

Open Arms Christian Child Development Center's cover photo

Our kindergarten summer campers are having a fun week learning about Russia and practicing their soccer skills. We had a crew from Happy Feet come by to go over soccer basics with the campers, and they had fun playing "green light, red light" out on the lawn. Maybe we have some future World Cup players here at Open Arms!

Our Open Arms Summer Camps are kicking off this week, and our students are learning about Russia and the World Cup soccer tournament!

Check out these pictures from our Preschool Half-Day camp. They’re using passports each day and each week to “visit” the various countries around God’s big world. Their first stop is Russia, so they are dotting the letter R and painting pictures of Russian buildings. They are also enjoying sensory play and various learning centers.

If you would like more information about our half-day camps (or any of our summer camps), visit: www.openarms-ccdc.org/camp-glow

Happy Father’s Day to our Open Arms Dads!

When else can you dunk a pastor? Come try it out! #summertogether

Check out our kindergarten teacher, Ms. Carrianne Dunnett Joback getting dunked! 😊

If you don’t have plans for the afternoon, head over to Open Arms and Our Savior’s Way Lutheran Church for a fun afternoon of games, activities, music, food, and fun! We’re here waiting for you!

Tomorrow, Friday, June 8th, we're officially kicking off summer with our "Summer Together" celebration! From 3:30-7:30, we will have games, activities, service opportunities, food and so much more! We invite you to join us as we experience what it means to be together. Together as church and school. Together as friends and neighbors. Together as children of God. Join us as we see how being together influences who we are as we play, create, worship, pray, serve, love, sing, talk, read, and eat.

The regular school year is almost over, so make sure you have summer activities planned for your children! We are still enrolling for our summer camps here at Open Arms, and we have a limited time offer for our Kindergarten and School Age Camps. If you bring a friend to Session 1 (June 18-22) or Session 5 (July 16-20), the activity fees will be waived. For more information about our camps and to download registration forms, visit our website: http://openarms-ccdc.org/camp-glow

We love seeing Open Arms children at Vacation Bible School during the summer! Click on the link below for more information and to register.

WE are getting ready for our Summer SHIPWRECKED Vacation Bible School adventure! There is Someone BIGGER than all of our struggles! JESUS RESCUES! Registration is open for children and for the volunteer crew that will take us on our Voyage! Go to: http://oswlc.org/connect/vacation-bible-school

It's Promotion and Graduation week here at Open Arms! Check out the schedule below for your class days and times. All ceremonies are in the chapel, and the main doors at the stairs will be open for you to enter. We'll see you at your child's show!

We're happy it's the warm month of June! Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Join us TONIGHT, at the Wegmeyer Farm’s strawberry patch in Hamilton. This is a first for us, and we hope that you join us to pick for our school! Wegmeyer Farms will donate 20% of Open Arms' friends and families PYO (Pick Your Own) sales to the school. The patch will stay open until 8PM, so families can come after school or after work. Join us for a delicious, outdoors experience to raise money for our school. Remember to mention Open Arms at check out!

The Open Arms Pre-K art show was a HUGE success last night, and we wanted everyone to have a chance to see some of the art that was on display. Our Pre-K teachers and students did an amazing job with their modern art projects, and we think we have some future artists in our midst! Fantastic job Azaleas, Magnolias, Orchids, and Violets!!

The Azaleas, Magnolias, Orchids, and Violets classes are excited to present their projects and creations at the Pre-K Art Show tonight at Open Arms! Eat dinner at Parrando's for our Spirit Night, then head down to the Pre-K hallway to enjoy the displays. There will be projects in the classrooms and hallways for you to enjoy. We're excited to show off the talent of our All-Day Pre-K classes, and we hope you enjoy their presentations!

Join us at Parrando's Tex Mex Grill in Goose Creek Village tomorrow, THURSDAY, MAY 24th, from 5-9pm for good food and a chance to contribute to the Open Arms playground fund. Don't forget to mention "Open Arms," and enjoy your dinner!

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We hope you got a chance to stop by our Parent Appreciation Breakfast this morning! If not, we will be hosting another breakfast tomorrow (Friday, May 18th) outside the chapel near the small kitchen. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to grab a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Thank you, parents, for all you do to support our program here at Open Arms. We truly do appreciate you!

Last week was all about appreciating our teachers, and this week we will appreciate our parents! Join us on either Thursday or Friday as you drop off your children for a quick breakfast bite and some coffee. Check the schedule below for the days and locations, and we will see you there!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Open Arms moms! We hope you all had a wonderful day with your little ones! 😊

Today was the last day of our SUPERHERO Teacher Appreciation Week here at Open Arms, and we had so much fun thanks to all the activities and special ways our families and children showed our teachers love and gratitude. We know that our teachers are superheroes throughout the year. (Superman, Batman, or Captain America wouldn’t last a week in their shoes.) Teachers are truly heroes, and we thank you for helping us recognize them this week!

Today we continued celebrating our superhero teachers at Open Arms as families brought in their favorite treats and everyone received their annual staff shirts: “We are teachers. What’s your superpower?”

Tomorrow, children are invited to dress up as superheroes, and they are encouraged to be super sweet and helpful to their teachers. Families are welcome to take photos by the superhero “photo booth” over near our chapel kitchen. Post them on Facebook and tag Open Arms CCDC!

It was “soup”er Wednesday today! Our superhero teachers were pampered with fun things from their students, and our Admin team treated the teachers to a soup and sandwich lunch. We’re having a wonderful week celebrating our teachers and giving them the appreciation they deserve!

Why aren’t there many jokes about popcorn?

Because they are corny!

Here’s something that’s no joke: Today was a popping-fun day as teachers were treated to a “popcorn bar” and received Superhero tools (school supplies) from their students.

Thank you, parents and kids, for your generous donations to our classrooms!

And thank you, teachers, for popping in each day to be the Superheroes of Open Arms! There’s no one “butter” than you!

We’re kicking off Teacher Appreciation Week with a Zap, Pow, Bam! This week we honor and celebrate our SUPERHERO teachers and let them know how thankful we are for the things they do at Open Arms. Our Superheroes were treated to a Super-Charged Oatmeal Bar this morning, and we saw lots of love and appreciation coming in from our families. Parents, thank you for filling out and pasting the “My teacher is SUPER because...” cards. The posters look great! They will be out all week if you didn’t get a chance to do it today. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we recognize that Superheroes need tools, so we ask that you donate school supplies to your child’s classroom. Thank you for helping us make this a special week for our teachers!

We're so excited about our upcoming Teacher Appreciation Week! Make sure to make our teachers feel special this week as we honor them as what they *really* are: SUPERHEROES!

At the beginning of April, all of our classrooms received a cup of tiny caterpillars. During the next four weeks, they grew into great big caterpillars, formed into chrysalises, and then emerged as butterflies! It was a fun and hands-on way for our children to witness the life cycle of a butterfly and the miraculous beauty of God's creations. Now our children are releasing their butterflies out of the nets, and they're sending them out to begin the life cycle once more. We hope they enjoy this beautiful spring week!