Tote Bag Project Symbolizes Much More for St. John Vianney K4 students

Students entering K4 at celebrate the start of the school year by decorating canvas totes they’ll use as book bags. But the material serves as far more than just a surface for whimsical ballerinas and growling dinosaurs. The bag-decorating project introduces the students to the concepts of community, sharing, creating and learning.

The children work together, many of them for the first time in a classroom setting, and paint scenes on their book bags. As they work, they talk with each other, the teacher and the parents who volunteer to help. Each child shares his or her completed bag with the class.

It’s all part of K4 teacher Kathy Andreucci’s commitment to introducing the children to a faith-based education. The four-year-old kindergarten at St. John Vianney is a "warm and inviting environment where children are encouraged to explore and learn," according to Mrs. Andreucci, who adds that daily hands-on activities include God and prepare the children for K5.

Throughout the year, the bags shuttle important news and projects to and from school but the bags have a message well beyond the K4 year. My son’s bag still hangs in his closet, a warm reminder of his first school days, even though he has left the K4 classroom far behind. I suspect I’ll keep that bag long after he’s left home to make his own way in the world, to remind me of the simple innocence of that first day of kindergarten and all the hope and joy that goes with it.

For more information or to schedule a classroom visit and tour of the school, please call Principal Pamela Pyzyk at (262)796-3942 or email her assistant, Janelle Peterson, at janellep@sjv.org.  You can learn more about St. John Vianney School and Parish by visiting our website, at www.stjohnv.org/school.asp .