Tiger Talk

Monday, December 16th -

No K-8 Chapel Today (on Friday)

8:15 - 9:00 AM: EC Chapel & Rehearsal led by Mrs. Grillot

1:45 - 2:45 PM: Youth Choir Rehearsal in the Parish Hall (Grades 4-8 Participants)

3:00 - 4:45 PM: VA Boys Basketball Practice

5:00 - 6:30 PM: School Board Meeting

6:00 - 7:00 PM: JV Girls Basketball Game vs Fairview

7:00 - 8:00 PM: JV Boys Basketball Game vs Fairview

Tuesday, December 17th -

12:30 - 2:30 PM: Youth Choir Field Trip to Trinity Church (Advent Service Rehearsal)

3:00 - 4:30 PM: JV Girls Basketball Practice

5:30 - 7:30 PM: Cheer Practice in the Parish Hall

6:00 - 7:00 PM: JV Boys Basketball Game vs St. Agnes

7:00 - 8:00 PM: VA Boys Basketball Game vs TBD

Wednesday, December 18th -

3:00 - 4:00 PM: JV Boys Basketball Practice

4:00 - 5:30 PM: VA Boys Basketball Practice

6:30 - 7:30 PM: Advent Worship Service @ Church Campus

(Youth Choir & Readers from grades 4-8 participate)

Thursday, December 19th -

8:30 - 9:30 AM: Early Childhood's Cookies & Carols

5:30 - 7:30 PM: Cheer Practice

6:00 - 7:00 PM: JV Girls Basketball Game @ Our Savior's

Friday, December 20th -

Spirit Dress-Down Day - Christmas Attire

No Afternoon Extended Care Today

End of 2nd Quarter

4th Grade Field Trip Today

8:15 - 9:00 AM: K-8 Chapel led by Fall Play Elective Students

4:00 - 5:00 PM: JV Boys Home Basketball Game vs Trinity Bloomington

5:00 - 6:00 PM: JV Girls Home Basketball Game vs Trinity Bloomington

6:00 - 7:00 PM: VA 'B' Team Home Basketball Game vs Trinity Bloomington

7:00 - 8:00 PM: VA 'A' Team Home Basketball Game vs Trinity Bloomington

Saturday, December 21st -

5:30 - 6:30 PM: Worship Service @ School Campus

Sunday, December 22nd -

8:00 - 9:00 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

9:30 - 10:15 AM: Bible Study & Sunday School @ School Campus

10:30 - 11:30 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

Monday, December 23rd -

Christmas Break

Tuesday, December 24th -

Christmas Break

5:00 - 6:00 PM: Christmas Eve Worship Service @ Church Campus

7:00 - 8:00 PM: Christmas Eve Worship Service @ Church Campus

11:00 PM - Midnight: Christmas Eve Worship Service @ Church Campus

Wednesday, December 25th -

Christmas Break - Merry Christmas!

10:00 - 11:00 AM: Christmas Worship Service @ Church Campus

Thursday, December 26th -

Christmas Break

Friday, December 27th -

Christmas Break

Saturday, December 28th -

5:30 - 6:30 PM: Worship Service @ School Campus

Sunday, December 29th -

8:00 - 9:00 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

9:30 - 10:15 AM: Bible Study & Sunday School @ School Campus

10:30 - 11:30 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

Monday, December 30th -

Christmas Break

Tuesday, December 31st -

Christmas Break

6:30 - 7:30 PM: New Year's Eve Worship Service @ Church Campus

Wednesday, January 1st -

Christmas Break - Happy New Year!

Thursday, January 2nd -

Christmas Break

Friday, January 3rd -

Christmas Break

Saturday, January 4th -

5:30 - 6:30 PM: Worship Service @ School Campus

Sunday, January 5th -

8:00 - 9:00 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

9:30 - 10:15 AM: Bible Study & Sunday School @ School Campus

10:30 - 11:30 AM: Worship Service @ Church Campus

Monday, January 6th -

School Resumes

Beginning of the 3rd Quarter

Upcoming December Events

18th - Advent Service led by Middle School Students

19th - Early Childhood Cookies & Carols Program @ 8:30 AM

20th - End of the 2nd Quarter; No Afternoon Extended Care

23rd - 31st - Christmas Break (until January 3rd)

There will be no Title 1 tutoring during the week of December 16th. Tutoring will resume on the week of January 6th when school resumes.

The Trinity community is invited to attend the Advent Service of Lessons and Carols on Wednesday, December 18, 6:30 pm, downtown campus. The Youth Choir, Middle School Guitars, and Band & String students will lead this special Advent Service.

Here is important information for our student leaders:
Arrival times
Band, strings, & guitars report to the church balcony at 6:00.
Youth Choir reports to the balcony at 6:10.

All students should leave coats with families sitting downstairs, and wear dressy clothes. Boys are recommended to wear dress pants, shirts, and ties. Girls are to wear nice tops, dress pants, or dresses.
There will be a picture taking opportunity at the conclusion of the service as students will pose at the balcony rail.

We hope the service will be recorded and posted for enjoyment of families. There is no room in the balcony for family members of the student leaders.

*Skate Night Event @ Skateland - Tuesday, January 14th from 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Join us for Skate Night!
A fundraiser hosted by Tiger League for Trinity Lutheran School.
Tuesday, January 14th
5:30 - 7:30 pm
Admission $6 Skate Rental $4
Skateland
1500 Recreation Drive
Springfield, IL 62711
*All are welcome!

*Candy Grams - February 14th

Gram’s cost $1.00 each, TL makes sure all students get at least one so no one is left out. We

take a few volunteers and meet up at Concordia Village to pass out Candy Grams to each of the residents. Sign up genius for volunteers to come closer to event. Concordia delivery will take place Wednesday 2/12/25 at 3:30pm. If there is a 3rd Quarter Love Thy Neighbor elective (middle school), we will see if they can help with assembling Grams for the residents.

*3rd Annual All-School Family Dance - Thursday, March 13th from 6:00pm - 7:30pm

Join us for the 3rd Annual All-School Family Dance - Come dressed in your glow in the dark gear and enjoy some music, dancing, and snacks. Candy, drinks, chips, and pizza will be available for purchase in the concession stand. Admission - $1 per student; parents - free

*Pie Sales - April (for Easter)

*Teacher Appreciation Week @ School - Monday, May 5th - Friday, May 9th

*In addition, Tiger League organizes and runs our school uniform exchange. More information on this coming soon!

Advent is but a few weeks away, and we are issuing am invitation to all middle school students to participate in leading the Advent Service of Lessons and Carols on Wednesday, December 18, 6:30 pm at the downtown campus. Choir singers and readers are needed. Now would be a good time to join the Youth Choir in preparation of this special event. Interested? Contact Laura Fliege, lfliege@trinity-lutheran.com. The Youth Choir practices on Tuesdays, 2:20-3:00.

Friday, Feb 21 Band Solo/Ensemble Festival at O.S

Tuesday, Mar 4 Bandmania! at Trinity Parish Hall
Students from Trinity, Our Savior’s, and the Homeschool Band will have
the opportunity to perform a concert with the Capital Area Community
Band in a mass band concert of 70+ players

Friday, Mar 21 Lutheran Honor Band in Peoria
Our top band students will spend the day with the best Lutheran band
students from all over Illinois!

Tuesday, Apr 8 Instrument Testing Day – Grades 3-7
Discover which instrument is the easiest for you to play. Get a head start on lessons over the summer and join the band in fall 2025

Saturday, Apr 26 Musical Showcase/Fine Arts Night

As you may have noticed on the calendar above, there are several home games coming up this week (Monday, Tuesday, & Friday). If you are willing and able to help out in concessions, admissions, or with the clock or scoreboard, please email our Athletic Director, Reed Gwillim, at athletics@trinity-lutheran.com. Thanks for considering it!

Our Early Childhood parents are invited to come and see their little ones sing some Christmas songs and share a cookie treat together on Thursday, December 19th from 8:30 - 9:30 AM. Early Childhood students are asked to come dressed in their Christmas best. If they are staying for the rest of the school day, parents are asked to bring a change of clothes and change their little one right afterwards. If parents are planning on taking their little ones with them after the program, they are asked to let their child's homeroom teacher know. Students who don't typically attend that day are asked to come for this special event if at all possible.Looking forward to special morning!

Each month, the Early Childhood classrooms use weekly thematic units to support all of the skills they are working on (fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social skills, letters, colors, numbers, shapes, and much more). Please see below for the list of the themes for this month.

September - Apples, Farm, Leaves/Fall, Emotions/Kindness

October - Human Body, Pumpkins, Spiders, Fire Safety, Halloween

November - Friendship, Bears, Thanksgiving

December - Gingerbread Friends, Advent, Christmas

January - Winter/Snow, Polar Animals, Transportation, Nursery Rhymes

February - Dental Health, Valentine's Day, Community Helpers

March - Space, Dr. Seuss, St. Patrick's Day

April - Insects, Holy Week, Easter, Earth Day/Recycling, Spring

May - Bodies of Water, Dinosaurs, Family, End of the Year Fun

• Please send a reusable water bottle (labeled with your child's name) to school. The teachers will send it home with your child on their last day of each school week to be deep cleaned.
• Please make sure your little one wears tennis shoes each day.
• If your child attends full days, they can either bring a sack lunch or purchase a hot lunch. Hot lunches cost $3.50 a day. You can put money on your child's lunch account in the school office at any time.
• If your child attends full day, please be sure to send a blanket, a pillow, and a stuffed buddy. That will all come home in your child's nap bag on Fridays to be washed and returned to school the following week.
• Please send at least one-two changes of clothes with your child. Please label them with your child's name.
• If your child is in Two-Year-Old Town and not fully potty-trained, please send a package of diapers and baby wipes labeled with their first and last name.

Thursday, December 19th - Early Childhood Cookies & Carols from 8:30 - 9:30 AM

Thursday, May 1st - Early Childhood Parents' Night from 6:00 - 7:00 PM

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Some of our middle school students present the daily announcements every morning through live video. There is a private YouTube channel that both classes and parents can view. Please see below for a link to that. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ZRNvDToKF_exZflbfVRDQ

Each month we learn about a "c" word and we celebrate students who are showing what they have learned. Please see below for the entire list of these elements of success.

Monthly Elements

September - Compassion

October - Composure

November - Citizenship

December - Communication

January - Creativity

February - Collaboration

March - Clear Thinking

April - Curiosity

May - Review All Elements

Please visit click on this link: https://trinity-lutheran.com/school/about-our-school/ to learn more about our Elements of Success.

Office Side - Tucker, Liam, Bella (Subs: Emma, Oliver)

Parish Hall Side - Eli, Suzi, Ryane (Subs: Lydia, LaDaja)

Additional Entree for Hot Lunch

Students can purchase an additional entree for 75 cents. Please make sure if your child wants to do this that they tell their homeroom teacher when they take lunch count, so the teacher can enter it properly in the computer. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Cold Lunch Info

If your child is cold lunch, please do not pack them soda or candy. Also, please try to include something substantial like a sandwich and fruit. A well-balanced meal will help them have energy and focus for the rest of the school day. Please do not bring them fast food unless it is a special occasion like a birthday. Thanks so much for your cooperation with this!

• If your child is in tutoring, their siblings will not be free of charge.
• If your child has tutoring from 3:15 - 3:45 PM, a ten minute pick up window will be allowed before a charge is assessed.
• Please make sure your child is aware of their tutoring schedule.
• If your child has basketball or cheer practice that doesn't start until 4:00 PM, a short stay fee of $6.00 will be assessed.
• Please make sure your child knows their practice schedule.
• The late fee will now be $2.00 (as opposed to $1.00).
• Please make sure your child has the appropriate clothing for winter. We go outside when temperatures permit even if it is only for 10-15 minutes.
• Thanks for taking note of these things!

Friday, December 20th

Friday, May 23rd

We need more volunteers to do slides for our Worship Services. This does go toward service hours for parents and students of Trinity Lutheran School and LuHi. Please consider volunteering to be a slides operator. It really isn’t that difficult and it doesn’t take long to learn. You can shadow anyone who is doing slides to see how easy it is. Please contact Jill Peddycoart at the church office at 217-787-2323 ext 2 or church@trinity-lutheran.com, if you are interested.

All women are invited to join Deaconess Sharp for a Christmas carols and lessons in the Parish Hall on Wednesday, December 18 at 9:30 am or Thursday, December 19 at 6:30 pm. There will be drinks, treats, and a hymn sing! Bring your holiday spirit and invite a friend to spend some time in God's Word with other women of Trinity.

Volunteer choristers from grades 3-8 are needed to sing at the Family Worship Services on Christmas Eve, December 24, 5:00 & 7:00 pm. It is always a joy to hear children's voices raised in song at Christmas. Choristers are asked to volunteer to sing at one of these services, or they may sing at both. The rehearsal will be during the school day. If your child is interested in being a chorister, please email Mrs, Fliege, lfliege@trinity-lutheran.com
by Tuesday, December 17.

All men of Trinity-congregation members and school dads--are invited to join us on the third Saturday of each month in the narthex of the church for a time of fellowship and study of God's Word. On December 21st, we will continue with our study of "A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm" (Chapters 9 & 10). Books and study guides are available for a $5.00 donation. Please contact Bill Denham at 217.720.0339. Even if you haven't attended before, feel free to join us.

Please be sure to complete and submit your “Talent Survey” as soon as possible. The Board of Stewardship will be gathering all the results soon.

Why are we having you complete this survey? God has gifted each of us differently with talents and skills. We should use those God given gifts to support the mission of the Church in sharing Christ and Meeting Needs both within our congregation and our community. Something we can all benefit from. Once we know what gifts, talents, and interests are for each of you we can seek to provide you with opportunities to use them for His purposes (Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11.) We have not collected this type of information for nearly 20 years, so we need your help in updating our data.

Thank you to those who have already submitted your survey! If you haven't completed it yet, click this link to fill it out online. https://shorturl.at/vV2tH

January Food Pantry Reminder- The next Food Pantry collection will be on January 4th and 5th. We are currently serving 7 households, a total of 24 individuals. Please drop off your donations to the bins in the narthex of the church on 2nd street or the Parish Hall lobby at the school. We especially need canned meat/fish, dry pasta, no glass pasta sauce, and toilet cleaner.

Money donations or gift cards are also welcome, please mark "Food Pantry" on the envelope. If you would like to be added to the food pantry emailing list, please follow this link. https://forms.gle/2SuLtoMDv4rs3pLE7

Please email Carrie Coon at ccoon@trinity-lutheran.com for questions regarding the food pantry.

What memories do you treasure from the holidays of your youth?

Here I sit trying to remember the cool gifts I received and the spectacularly entertaining things we did as a family. I don’t remember much about the stuff, or the entertainment. I do remember the people.

I vividly remember Christmas when I was four. Grandma Marie was there. By the following year, cancer had taken her away. How thankful I am that we had time together, sweet time where we were quiet and still and just enjoyed being with each other. Isn’t it sad that it sometimes requires a great illness for us to still ourselves and truly connect with the people we love?

Be with the people you love… not just under the same roof.

The greatest holiday gifts we can give our kids are healthy limits—especially limits on ourselves and the other adults in our lives.

The limits we set with ourselves mostly involve curbing the natural inclination to do the impossible, such as doing our best to make the holidays a perfect experience for everyone. We all know what happens when we attempt to make everyone happy.

The limits that we set with other adults in our lives should involve taking good care of ourselves and our kids. Caution! Some of these may cause severe shock:

We can’t wait to see you guys. We’ll need to leave by six so we can spend some quiet time with the kids before bedtime.

We love you and want to spend time with you. We are trying to help the kids be more relaxed and rested, so we’ll need to do this on another day.

We want to spend relaxed time with everyone, so we’ll be ordering pizza.

This holiday season comes at the end of a tumultuous year. Spending quiet time with your kids is a gift that they will remember for the rest of their lives. The Love and Logic team wishes you and your family a peaceful holiday season.

Thanks for reading!

Dr. Charles Fay

• Faculty and Staff Directory: https://trinity-lutheran.com/school/faculty-staff/
• School Spirit Day Schedule: https://trinity-lutheran.com/school/calendars/
• Weekly Church eNewsletter: https://trinity-lutheran.com/news-events/
• Elements of Success: https://trinity-lutheran.com/school/
• School Year Music Schedule: https://trinity-lutheran.com/school/calendars/