SCHOOL NEWS from Free Christian Upper Room
Pictured: The students, teachers, and some family members at opening exercises, which were held at the Protestant Reformed Church.
Who knew what to expect when we began this year? Only our heavenly Father who holds all things in His hands knew what would happen. As a school we could just forge ahead trying to accomplish business as usual. For the most part that is what we have done in the upper room in Free Christian School.
The students at Free Christian held part of their opening exercises for the school year around the flag pole
Isaiah Brands and Brandon Boverhof enjoy a game of chess on a rainy day
In Bible we are working our way through the historical part of the New Testament. We have finished the first two years of Jesus’s ministry. In math each grade is plowing through some beginning review materials as well as learning some new things. The seventh graders have cracked the door on some algebra. In English we focus on both grammar and writing. As we work through the parts of speech we work on our parsing skill. The seventh grade can now conjugate a verb in its twelve tenses. Can you? Reading and literature consists of work from different genres as well as the comprehension and vocabulary skills that go with the written work. We still have a spelling book and hope to be able to help the spell checker get the correct word.
The fourth and fifth graders started in the middle of the country geographically and are working their way west. The seventh graders are studying Asia. Both classes work on map skills as well as memorizing the capitals and map locations of the various states or countries. In history the sixth and seventh graders began at the beginning of US history. They have just finished a study of the thirteen original colonies and are preparing a PowerPoint presentation for each one. In science we class started out with a tree unit. The sixth and seventh graders made a leaf collection as a culminating activity for that unit. The fourth-sixth graders are now studying weather while the seventh graders are working on the force and motion part of their physical science study which is the focus for the year. We also make time for music, PE, and art.
As I write this we are a month away from our Christmas program. We have some work to do on the music and speeches.
The students’ portion of the school news is some work they did with the topic of Thanksgiving. The seventh graders wrote essays. You can see they took somewhat of a different tack, and some of them were influenced by their history study. The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders wrote acrostic poems. Enjoy!
Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving tradition was started by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians in 1621. Their feast was to show thankfulness for a good harvest after a long and hard winter. This is known as the first Thanksgiving.
After the “First Thanksgiving,” many presidents and governors observed days as a Day of Thanksgiving. Many people worked to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Finally, in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday. In 1939 President Franklin Roosevelt moved the date of Thanksgiving one week earlier. However, not all the states made this change, and it was changed back two years later.
Today we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, and the second Monday of October in Canada. On Thanksgiving Day, many people gather with their families and have a feast to show their true thankfulness to God for providing for them. Churches often have Thanksgiving Day services on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a day set aside to thank God for providing for us. We need to use this to thank God for bringing us through another season safely. Even though they may not have known it, the Pilgrims started a tradition that has been passed on for nearly four hundred years. Even after many years of changes to the way it is celebrated, we still honor the day of Thanksgiving.
-Emily Boverhof
What is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks to God for what He has given to us. We have Thanksgiving after harvest to thank God for the crops that we harvested during the harvest. We also commemorate the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims came to America in 1620. The only reason I am sitting at this desk writing this essay is because the Pilgrims settled America. That is something to be thankful for. Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving the last Thursday of the month of November during his presidency. After that Andrew Johnson said it was the first Thursday of November. Ulysses S. Grant made it the third Thursday of November. Finally, Franklin Roosevelt made it the fourth Thursday of November. I am thankful that our Presidents set aside a day for us to give thanks to God.
-Casey Ver Hey
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is about giving thanks and gathering with friends and family. We give thanks to God for everything He had given us in all of our daily needs. God has sent a Savior to save us from our sins. At Thanksgiving my family goes to my grandparent’s house. For Thanksgiving dinner my family has turkey, ham, some different vegetables, stuffing, and some other foods. We play many different games and talk a lot about many different events and family business like butchering. The guys go pheasant hunting sometimes and do trap shooting. Some of the women make aprons at my grandma’s house.
Giving thanks is very important because God has sent a Savior to save us from our sins, so we shall be thankful for everything He has given us. We give thanks to God for giving us church, school, and catechism.
-Abbie Gunnink
Thanksgiving
The time of the year when we meet at Grandma’s House
Hoping there will be some turkey
And other things, like special stuffing
Never forgetting what God has given us
Kindness we bring
Sadness is not there
Grandma serves most of the food
I like Thanksgiving, mostly for the food
Violet grapes taste so good
I play basketball if there is no snow on the ground
New stories to share
Giving, sharing, and thanking are the main things to do
-Isaiah Brands
What is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is a day in which we thank God for giving us what we need.
This year Thanksgiving is on November 26. Usually on Thanksgiving, people are with their family eating turkey, stuffing, and potatoes. Sometimes people go around and say what they are thankful for, and why they are thankful for it. The main thing Thanksgiving is for is to be thankful for what God has done for us, and to thank God for giving us our needs. God gives us plenty of food and a home or shelter. We should be truly thankful for what we have and should not just show we are thankful on the outside. Another thing that farmers are usually thankful for is if the crops are coming in. We should give thanks and praise God for what He has given us.
-Alyvia Brands
Thanksgiving
Thank you God for our food.
Happy for my family.
Apple pie for desert.
Now let us sing Thy praises.
Kind to us for giving.
Singing Thy praises.
Giving us Thy love.
Ingredients so we can make our food.
Violins playing music playing Thy praises.
I want nothing but love.
Nothing to do but just love Thee.
Go to church on Sunday.
-Anna Gunnink
Thanksgiving
Thanks for a good harvest
Have fun with friends
Apple pies come this time of year
Nibble on pumpkin pie
Killing turkeys
Selling corn
Giving thanks
In the Crockpot goes the turkey
Violins are playing
In the forest the fox is hiding
Nights are shorter
Going home
-Brandon Boverhof
The History of Thanksgiving
In September 1620, the Pilgrims, a small group of religious Separatists from the Anglican Church, in their small ship called the Mayflower, left the city of Leiden, Holland, for religious freedom. After sixty-six days of treacherous sailing, the Pilgrims dropped anchor in Massachusetts Bay. After about a month they crossed the bay and started working on their colony, Plymouth.
After a long cold winter and after up to half the people had died, Abenaki Native Americans come to visit. Some of Native Americans spoke in English which surprised the Pilgrims. There was a Native American named Squanto from the tribe. Squanto helped the Pilgrims grow crops, fish, hunt, and take sap from the maple trees to make maple syrup.
In November of 1621, and after a good harvest, the Pilgrims had the Native Americans for the first Thanksgiving. Even though people had Thanksgiving throughout the years; it was not made a national holiday until President Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday in 1863, to give God praise, and to bring people together as the nation was split by the Civil War.
Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday in November. We might have traditions on Thanksgiving. We go to church, might eat a good dinner, might play some games, or might take a nap. Whatever we, do we must give thanks to God for anything that is given to us, even if it is not what we want.
-Jaron Brands
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is about eating together with friends and family, having fellowship, and being thankful. We should be thankful for the food God gives us, and that it will replenish our bodies. Why are we to have friends and family over to thank God together? If we have friend that don’t go to church we should show them the way of God.
On Thanksgiving, my family plays games like Apples to Apples, Uno, Ticket to Ride and football.
But that is not why it is called Thanksgiving. We should be thankful to God for sending the Pilgrims. We should be thankful to God for the Indians that helped the Pilgrims, and that the Pilgrims had the Indians over for the first Thanksgiving. We must be thankful for the churches and schools, where we can worship, sing, and do catechism.
We should thank God for having Thanksgiving and for having the Pilgrims come to the New World. Without God we would maybe be in Europe! Obvioulsy, we would not be here at all if it wasn’t for God.
-Levi Fennema
