Kindergarten

Kindergarten is “SNOW” much fun this time of year! We have painted snowmen, decorated snowmen, and painted “melted snowmen.” We made a tiny snowman, took him inside, and observed him in our classroom to see how long it took for him to melt. He didn’t last long!

In science we have been learning about snow. Did you know that every snowflake is different? All snowflakes have six points, but each one is unique; just like us! God made each of us unique and we are created according to His exact plan. Amazing!

Word families, OWL (sight) words, and writing sentences make our brains work hard each day. We are so proud of our reading abilities and we keep adding words to our vocabulary. Listening to stories is one of our favorite things to do and now we can read stories to each other!

Recess is our favorite time of the day. We like to play in the snow and we like going down the slides in our snow pants because it goes super fast! Library is another favorite activity. Mrs. Fey makes library time fun.

Kindergarten is a great place to be and we have learned so much since the beginning of the year. Mrs. Raak and Mrs. Sjaarda think we are “SNOW” much fun!

Lacy and Cooper reading a magazine together.

Kindergartners Jaelyn and Kayla finding just the right book.

Kindergartners enjoying a beautiful winter day on the merry-go-round.

First Grade

Welcome to 2021!  The first grade classroom has been busy since 2021 began.

In writing, we wrote about our Christmas break.  Some of us had more exciting things than others but we all realized that no matter where we were and what we were doing that we were with family and that mattered the most along with celebrating the real reason for the season..Jesus’ birth.

Math class has been a rocketing experience. The students are learning their math addition problems and working on writing the answers to the problems in rocket (fast) time.

In reading class we are becoming more independent readers and now putting together lots of reading rules to read and write more words.  Ask any of these students and they will tell you that our English language is quite confusing!  I get asked many times, “Why don’t we just spell the word the way it sounds?  That would be so much easier.”

We have enjoyed reading through the Tacky the Penguin books this past week.  For art each of the students made their own Tacky out of a recycled water bottle.  They turned out so neat and each expressed the students own personality, just like Tacky’s uniqueness.

First grade wishes each of you a warm and blessed winter season!

First grade students holding their Tacky the Penguins. Back row (left to right): Sienna Krosschell, Sierra Van Dyke, Kais De Kam, Naomi Christoffels, Katelyn Binford, Reuben Vander Pol, Chapter Meksavanh; middle row: Sadie Fenske, Aliyah Post, Jaycee Kroeze, Brooklyn Hulstein, Carsten Schuld, Kolton Hoheisel; front row: Mikah Fritz, Brystol Kooiker, Jonathan Vos, Tayton Kooiker, Luke Busker, and Tyler Fick.

Second Grade

The second grade class is exploring The Amazon Rainforest!  We have decorated our whole classroom as a rainforest, with lots of leaves, monkeys, toucans, and snakes.   It is a beautiful place that is full of unique animals, millions of miles of trees, and many plants, bugs and beautiful birds of so many colors!  What a beautiful world God created!

The trees in the rainforest are so thick, the floor of the Amazon is always in complete darkness. How eerie! That’s so hard to imagine!  The top layer of trees is so thick, it acts like an umbrella!   In fact, when it rains, it takes 10 minutes for the water to go through the leaves and hit the ground. It is fun to play with a rainstick and hear what the rain might sound like there.

How awesome that God created the world with such beauty!  It’s our job to take care of it:

• Genesis 2:15  “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

• Psalm 24:1: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it”

The second grade class in the rainforest that they made.

Second grade students front row:-Lilyana Masselink, Carson Vis, Tyson Rylaarsdam; back:-Jack De Jongh, Carter Van Dam, Keagan Steck, Logan Van Dyke, and Raelyn Stoel.