March 1

70 degrees on Feb. 27...that means we NEED to eat our lunches outside.

Kelly Baptist came to speak at our school on Monday.

She is a follower of Jesus, an author, writer, and mother.

She spoke truth to our kids and encouraged them to recognize and see the gifts God has given them to use.

Lansing Trip Information

The big day is right around the corner!  On Wednesday, March 20, 2024 all fourth graders will travel to Lansing to tour the state capitol building and the Impressions 5 Science Museum.  The following is information that will be helpful for you.

1. Students must be at school by 7:00am.  If your child is sick that day, please let me know by e-mail by 6:30am that morning.  We plan to return back to school in time for students to catch the bus home at the end of the school day.

2. Each person attending needs a completely disposable bag lunch with a beverage (labeled with their name).  Also pack two extra snacks in their backpack that we will eat mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

3. Students may bring a backpack with quiet entertainment (books, drawing, etc. – NO electronics, phones, or smart watches of any type per Holland Christian policy) for the bus ride. Backpacks and their contents will be left on the bus during the tours of the museum and the capitol building.  Teachers are not responsible for any student items that are lost or left behind.  No pillows or blankets as the bus will be FULL of students. 

We are looking forward to a fun and informative day.  Please keep us in your prayers as we plan for and travel there!

Sincerely,

Mrs. VanderZwaag

Miss Snoeyink

Miss Damsteegt

Sharing Our Gifts: Park Township approached Rose Park several weeks ago requesting HELP from the creative thinking our students are becoming well known for! Park Township is in the brainstorming stage of designing a community center near the property of the Park Township office. Our Rose Park kids, at their request, have been engaging in a design thinking process developing a community center that children and families might get excited about visiting! You are invited to the township open house with your child if you’d like to share in the process. Details of this event can be found HERE! 

Disinfectant Wipes: We are in need of some cleaning/disinfectant wipes for the classroom. If you have room on your grocery budget, we would love to have some more wipes in the classroom! Thank you :)

PT Conference Meal: Our gracious parent board is organizing meals for our teachers during parent/teacher conference evenings. If you’re able and willing to contribute to the yummies, THANK YOU and please check this link! 

Reading Blizzard - Our readers are rocketing! We're celebrating the blossoming growth we are tracking in our readers! Thank you for supporting these efforts at home! On March 14 we'll be celebrating reading throughout our building. We'll be setting up reading/learning forts for a special fun event on March 14th. Please send a spare sheet or towel with your child on the 14th and we'll take care of the rest!

Girls Running Club for 3rd-5th grade girls is back this spring. We will meet Tuesday and Thursday after school from about 3:20- 4:45.  Practices will start March 5, and we will run the Tulip Time 5K as our final event. To sign up please email Kim Hekman at hekmanfamily2006@gmail.com including your daughter's Name, Teacher, a contact email address and phone number to reach you. Coaches are Kim Hekman and Tim Diekema, but we would love to have more join us. We would prefer for each coach to be responsible for no more than 10 girls as we will take the girls off school campus to run. 

Kinderparade: It’s time to think about Tulip Time! First through fourth grade families, please complete this form to indicate your family’s preference for costumes during our Kinderparade on Thursday, May 9. 

TTQ: It’s almost springtime and your boys might LOVE training and running together with the support of a coach team! OR! Would you be interested in joining the coach team? First hand, it’s a BLAST if you’re curious and available to join the fun!

Feb. 23

We're looking forward to a 5-day week again next week!  Word Work and Math and Reading Minutes will resume as normal. We will begin exploring units of investigating how the government of the US is organized, writing our first paragraphs in our personal expertise books, and seeing how the kingdom of Israel split as a result of Solomon's disobedience, and studying biographies and the characters in them. We even hope to plant our first plants for the upcoming 4th grade plant sale in May.  It's going to be a great week!

TTQ: It’s almost springtime and your boys might LOVE training and running together with the support of a coach team! OR! Would you be interested in joining the coach team? First hand, it’s a BLAST if you’re curious and available to join the fun! 

Kinderparade: It’s time to think about Tulip Time! First through fourth grade families, please complete this form to indicate your family’s preference for costumes during our Kinderparade on Thursday, May 9.

Wet Wipes: We are in need of some cleaning/disinfectant wipes for the classroom. If you have room on your grocery budget, we would love to have some more wipes in the classroom! Thank you :)

Feb. 15

Swimming Lessons were a HUGE success!

tie-dye and camo

Enjoying a performance from the High School Orchestra

I introduced the kids to "Silly Songs with Larry".

A 60 min Youtube video has been our lunch time entertainment.

Who doesn't want to pie their principal!?! What fun!

Ellie and Leah were able to pie Mrs. Rynsburger and Ms. Roskamp!

On Thursday, we spent the afternoon creating and playing with our kindergarten buddies. We made marble roller coasters, domino trains, played with Legos, and drew pictures from "Art For Kids Hub" youtube videos. I was a full and busy afternoon, but they did great!

A Thursday afternoon with our Kindergarten buddies.

"Happy Birthday, Ms. Snoeyink!"

What are we learning:

Bible: We are finishing up a little unit on King Solomon.

Math: Starting our story problem unit!

Social Studies: We will begin our History unit and learn about the different movements of people throughout our country's history.

Reading: We are learning about the different text structures in informational text.

Writing: We have begun our personal expertise unit. The students will be picking a topic they know a lot about and writing their very own information chapter book.

Chapel: Our class will be leading chapel on Thursday, Feb. 22. You are welcome to join us at 8:30 in the carpeted gym and worship with us.

WORD WORK - Your child will working on the same words from last week. If you need another copy of the spelling words list, let me know!

Carpool: In an effort to be smooth and efficient in the carpool line, please take a look at these expectations: First, at morning drop off please pull as far forward as possible, and coach your children on exiting the car quickly, this allows us to get all students into the building and to their classrooms as soon as possible. If we can avoid adults getting out of the car this allows the line to move quickly, and we can get our school day started right at 8:15.  Additionally, after school - please make sure to give the three carpool lanes the right of way. As soon as we release the carpool lanes we need to those to continue moving. Once the first round is over, you may then exit the parking area. Additionally please do not use the bus loop as that is legally only for bus use!

Little League: If your child is interested in a season of Little League, please find the necessary info here! 

TTQ: It’s almost springtime and your boys might LOVE training and running together with the support of a coach team! OR! Would you be interested in joining the coach team? First hand, it’s a BLAST if you’re curious and available to join the fun! 

 

Feb. 11

SWIMMING LESSONS - We will continue swimming lessons this coming week, with our final day of lessons being on Thursday.  Feel free to come to the pool to watch lessons, if you desire.  There's a lot of swimming growth happening these two weeks so it might be fun to see the progress!  Our lessons begin around 11:00 and usually wrap up about 11:45 at the Holland Aquatic Center.  You may be asked to remove your street shoes as you cross the deck to get to the seating area of the instructional pool, so feel free to bring flip flops along if you don't like go barefoot.

VALENTINE EXCHANGE - On Wednesday we will be exchanging Valentines with our classmates.  A pink class list came home last week so your child can be sure to create one valentine for each of their classmates.  Thanks for your help with this!

WORD WORK - Your child will be receiving a new word work list on Monday as usual, but due to the days off on Friday and Monday, this list will last for two weeks, with the test being on Friday, Feb. 23. 

READING AND MATH MINUTES HOMEWORK - This will continue as normal, with the one exception being that since there isn't school on Monday the 19th, students will have to turn in their homework on Tuesday instead, and the new recording sheets will also come home that same Tuesday.

Spirit Week is  February 12-15:

• Monday 12th : Pajama Day.

• Tuesday 13th: Camo/Tie-Dye Day

• Wednesday 14th:  Heart/Red Day

• Thursday 15th: Maroon & White Day

• Friday 16th: NO SCHOOL

Carpool: In an effort to be smooth and efficient in the carpool line, please take a look at these expectations: First, at morning drop off please pull as far forward as possible, and coach your children on exiting the car quickly, this allows us to get all students into the building and to their classrooms as soon as possible. If we can avoid adults getting out of the car this allows the line to move quickly, and we can get our school day started right at 8:15.  Additionally, after school -  please make sure to give the three carpool lanes the right of way. As soon as we release the carpool lanes we need to those to continue moving, avoiding stops from people walking through the parking lot or parking lot vehicles  trying to exit. Once the first round of carpool is released then you may continue to exit the parking lot or cross from the sidewalk!

NO SCHOOL - Both Friday Feb. 16 and Monday Feb. 19 are days off for the students.  Enjoy the extra time together!

CONFERENCES - This Spring the 4th graders will be doing student-led conferences.  This will be a special time for just you, your 4th grader, and me to reflect on their growth in person (no siblings please).  More details will fall into place later, but since the conference sign up email will soon come out from Holland Christian, keep that in mind as you choose your time for your conference.  Please plan for an in-person conference.  Thanks so much! 

I love seeing their positive attitudes towards swimming lessons.

These teams successfully escaped the room in 40 minutes!

We had a fantastic afternoon at Hemlock Crossing. The sunshine and animal skulls were a highlight of the afternoon.