Happy October! As we move into the second month of the school year, it is such a delight to see and hear all the delightful rhythms and routines returning around campus. The school is alive with students singing in music class, enjoying great literature books together, exploring the world through science experiments, and engaging in House competitions.

It has been such a joy to welcome new and returning families to campus for weekly Chapel, Back to School Night, our First Friday Coffee, the PTL/Room Parent meeting, our 8th Grade Parent meeting, and of course, Oktoberfest! We so missed having so many of these gatherings in person last year, so it has been such a great way to begin the year being able to once again meet and gather face-to-face.

At Immanuel, we truly believe that parents have the primary role in the education of their children. This is why we fundamentally believe that the relationship between home and school is so vital in the education and nurturing of children. It is a joy and a privilege to work so closely together with our families as we share in this important endeavor. Together with you we engage in the work of shaping our culture at school and at home. Each month, we compile a "What we're reading..." blog post with a small selection of articles that our faculty and staff have found recently to be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking. We always love to hear your thoughts on these or other things you’ve been reading as well.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Happy September! Our classrooms and hallways are once again filled with the joyful and delightful sounds of of our students and teachers learning, singing, praying together. We are so excited to begin the 2021-2022 school year with you, and we are praying for each one of our students and their families as the year begins.

Last week, our teachers and staff returned to campus for faculty meetings to plan and prepare for the new year. It has been a blessing to welcome new and returning faculty. You can read more about some of our outstanding new teachers in our “Meet Us Monday” series here on the blog. Together we look forward to opportunities to work alongside our families in the all important work of educating and nurturing our children.

The relationship between home and school is so vital in the education and nurturing of children, and it is a joy and a privilege to work so closely together with our families. Together with you we seek to engage in the work of shaping our culture at school and at home. Each month, we’ll share a "What we're reading..." blog post that we commend to your reading. These are just a few things that our faculty and staff have found recently to be inspiring, intriguing, encouraging, or thought-provoking.

Parents are reminded to join us for Back to School Night this week (Upper School Families meet Wednesday, and Lower School families meet Thursday). Families are also invited to join us for our “First Friday Coffees” each month, which will begin this Friday, September 10th, where we gather to engage in meaningful dialogue about topics related to education, culture, faith, and raising children.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Happy August! We’re counting the days until our classrooms and hallways are once again filled with the joyful and delightful sounds of of our students and teachers learning, singing, praying together. It has been a blessing to see many of you over the summer, especially at some of the class gatherings on the playground. We give thanks for these opportunities to reconnect with old friends and welcome the new students and families who will be joining us in the upcoming year.

At the end of this month, our teachers will gather together for faculty meetings to plan and prepare for the new year. Follow the ILS blog as we introduce some of the new teachers we are excited to have joining our team in the new year. Together we look forward to opportunities to work alongside our families in the all important work of educating and nurturing our children.

As we engage with one another in conversations about how we can together shape our culture at school and at home, check out our "What we're reading..." blog post each month for a variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking, or intriguing. Families are also invited to join us for our “First Friday Coffees” each month where we gather to engage in meaningful dialogue about topics related to education, culture, faith, and raising children.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Happy Summer, Immanuel families! While we miss the joyful sounds of your children filling our classrooms and hallways, we pray that you are enjoying a restful and relaxing summer. We’re looking forward to seeing new and returning faces starting this week as we host summer gatherings on the ILS playground to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones before the new school year begins!

As part of our efforts to encourage and shape ongoing conversations with families, each month, we share a new "What we're reading..." blog post. This includes a variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking, or intriguing, and that we think you might enjoy reading also. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

How can it already be May?! It seems like just yesterday we were all eagerly welcoming the new school year, and now we are just a month away from the end of the year. We hope you are enjoying reading our 8th Grade “Meet Us Monday” interviews as they reflect on their time at ILS as well as look ahead to high school. Check back each week as we share more of these and celebrate our ILS Class of 2021!

As we count down to the end of the year, we are looking forward to the return of many ILS favorite traditions. We join with our Upper School students in their excitement to be returning to camps this year! Jr. Kindergarten will be enjoying their Medieval Feast, while Upper School students will be competing in their annual Oration Showcase. We will all be enjoying the return of Field Day and to celebrating our graduating class with their Graduation Vespers Service.

Please enjoy the May edition of our "What we're reading..." Blog. As always, we hope that you enjoy this variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing, and that these pieces continue to help to shape ongoing conversations. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

We have made it though a snowy February, and marked the beginning of Lent. It was a joy to have the opportunity to meet so many prospective ILS families during the admissions process, which included parent meetings and student assessments throughout the month. As parents ask about the nature of the ILS community, it has been a joy to share with them the numerous blessings of our life together. We are reminded daily of your strong commitment to our mission in the ways you help your children with their homework, engage and encourage teachers, and participate in the daily rhythms of the school, even if remotely. You pray for one another. You show love to your child's classmates and ask how to best care for staff and fellow families. You model Christian friendship and forgiveness. We are excited to welcome new families to our ILS community for the 2021-22 school year!

In February, we also enjoyed welcoming Lower School families virtually for our 2nd Trimester Lower School Showcase. As we kick off March, we look forward to meeting with parents for our Parent Teacher Conferences and beginning our final trimester of the school year. It is hard to believe we’re already at this point in the year! We are also all looking forward to Spring Break in just a few weeks, and some time to rest and recharge for the final months of the school year.

Please enjoy the March edition of our "What we're reading..." Blog. As always, we hope that you enjoy this variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing, and that these pieces continue to help to shape ongoing conversations. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

January saw the return of some favorite ILS annual traditions as we concluded the month with our celebration of National Lutheran Schools Week alongside more than 1900 other LCMS schools from across the country. We loved seeing students and teaches participating in fun competitions, practicing recitations, decorating, sharing fun costumes, and more.

It was a delight to end the week with our 7th Annual ILS Talent Show! Held virtually for the first time, we enjoyed being able to welcome grandparents and friends from across the country to join us for a fun and engaging evening celebrating the many talents within our ILS community.

We were also honored to participate in an all-day virtual hymn sing organized by Our Savior Lutheran School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As part of their effort to sing a stanza from each of the 635 hymns in the Lutheran Service Book, Our Savior Lutheran School invited musical Lutherans from around the country, including Immanuel, to participate. ILS Music Teacher, Mrs. Marie Greenway, directed our 4th grade students in beautifully singing two hymns.

As we kick off February with a snowy start, please enjoy the latest edition of our "What we're reading..." Blog. As always, we hope that you enjoy this variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing, and that these pieces continue to help to shape ongoing conversations. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Happy New Year!

As we kick off the new year, we have compiled a new edition of our "What we're reading..." Blog. As always, we hope that you enjoy this variety of articles that we have found to be inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing, and that these pieces continue to help to shape ongoing conversations. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

Happy New (Church) Year! Although November 30th marked the first day of Trimester 2, Sunday, November 29, marked a more important day in our life together at Immanuel. The Season of Advent, meaning "coming" in Latin, is upon us. Advent wreaths can be found in each classroom helping mark this time of waiting to celebrate the birth of Christ, and our waiting for the final coming of our Jesus, who will bring us into His kingdom.

Integral to the life of Immanuel students is the annual cycle of remembering events in the life of Jesus and marking time with unique celebrations. We give thanks for these intentional rhythms and the opportunity to be united with Christians from times past and in the future. Be sure to ask your child about our Advent traditions and look for a small book that came home today (one per family) called, A Simple Explanation of the Church Year. Here you will find short descriptions of major seasons and festivals of the Church Year along with suggestions for incorporating Church Year traditions into your family life.

If you're looking for Advent resources, these may be helpful:

The Family Read-Aloud Advent Calendar

Latin Advent Calendar

November was a busy time, and we are thankful for the many ways our community showed love and service towards our neighbor. As we expanded our traditional “Day of Service” to a month-long effort from our entire school community to showing love for our neighbors through acts of service, we partnered with Christ House in Old Town to collect food to prepare 50 Thanksgiving Meal Kits, collected hundreds o pounds of food in a month-long food drive, and shared love and service to our neighbors all month long in and out of school. It brought us great joy to see the many ways our students and families participated in these activities.

Once again, we’re sharing our "What we're reading..." Blog , with what we hope is a variety of inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing materials. It is our hope that these pieces continue to help to shape our ongoing conversation about how we create and build our culture together at home and at school. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us in these ongoing conversations and for sharing items you have read that may be inspiring to others in our ILS community! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!

As temperatures have turned fall-like, we have also passed the mid-term of the first trimester of the year. It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with parents to discuss how we are working together to support your children during our first Parent-Teacher Conferences, and we also loved welcoming parents virtually for our first Lower School Showcase of the year. It remains a blessing that we are able to continue to hold many of these events and traditions that are so much a part of life together at ILS, even if we have to adjust and adapt this year.

Looking ahead to November, we have so many things we are looking forward to sharing together with students and families. We’ll be again hosting our Veterans Day “Salute to Veterans,” and we look forward to sharing the stories of many of our family members and friends who have served or continue to serve our nation in our armed forces. We’ll also be expanding our traditional “Day of Service” to a month-long effort from our entire school community to showing love for our neighbors through acts of service. We are partnering with Christ House in Old Town to collect for Thanksgiving Meal Kits, running a month-long food drive, and sharing love and service to our neighbors all month long in and out of school. We hope that all of our ILS families will join us in participating in these activities!

Once again, we’re sharing our "What we're reading..." Blog series, with what we hope is a variety of inspiring, thought-provoking or intriguing materials. It is our hope that these pieces continue to help to shape our ongoing conversation about how we create and build our culture together at home and at school. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below as you read these!

Thank you for your continued partnership, and for engaging with us in these ongoing conversations and for sharing items you have read that may be inspiring to others in our ILS community! Please feel free to share a link in the comments to email us any time!