UPCOMING EVENTS AND REMINDERS
UPCOMING DATES!
Wednesday, May 27 - Mrs. DeZwaan's Forest Program 5th Grade Showcase at Sassafras Ridge. Our Forest Program class of 5th graders will be spending the day at Sassafras Ridge. The day is meant to showcase their learning, celebrate and share stories from their experiences in the forest program, and enjoy a meal as a class. You are invited to join us for part of that day from 12:30 - 2:15.
Due to lack of parking and township requirements, we are asking that no more than 2 adults per student come out for the afternoon. Parents will need to park at Pine Ridge and load a bus to enjoy a ride out to Sassafras Ridge. The bus will be parked in the bus lane (south side of the building) and is scheduled to leave at 12:15. It will return to Pine Ridge around 2:30. Please plan on spending the entire time at Sassafras Ridge with your child.
As eager as students will be to share some of their survival skills and stories with you, I would love you to share a verse or short scripture passage with them. A verse that you would like them to highlight in their Bible and take with them. Parents who volunteer will have a spot along the trail at Sassafras Ridge, students will gather around you and you will have the opportunity to share a verse and why you are giving that verse to them. This is not meant to be anything more than reading the verse and taking a moment to speak into them. No more than a couple of minutes.
If you would like to share a verse, please sign up and include in the comments what verse you will be sharing by May 20.
Tuesday, June 2 - 5th Grade Celebration at Pine Ridge at 2:00. This will be our end of the year chapel celebrating our 5th graders.
MS Visit Day
The Middle School staff is excited for another chance to welcome your child to Middle School! Coming up on Thursday, April 30, they will be hosting all of the Holland Christian 5th graders from every campus! Your child will be given the opportunity to eat lunch with other 5th graders at the middle school. Students are given the opportunity to bring a home lunch or order school lunch (Pizza Hut). More information about lunch below.
During the visit, your child will get to hear from current 6th graders about some of their most common questions about navigating middle school. Your child will also get to meet the current 6th grade team of teachers, as well as receive a tour of the building to help them feel a little more familiar with the space before the start of next year. We look forward to having them visit!
LUNCH at the Middle School on April 30:
Students will be eating lunch at the Middle School on Thursday, April 30. Students may choose to bring a lunch from home, or they may choose to get school lunch. The MS has Pizza Hut pizza every Thursday, so that is what we will have. If a student chooses school lunch, the cost will come out of their lunch account.
At the middle school, students are given the choice to order either cheese pizza or pepperoni pizza. Additionally, they may order a second slice for $1.75 more. This second slice must be the same as the first. For example, a student may order 1 pepperoni, 2 pepperoni, 1 cheese or 2 cheese. They may not order 1 pepperoni and 1 cheese.
I will be taking their hot lunch order on Monday. Please have a conversation with your child about what they plan to do for lunch that day. Thanks!
Pine Ridge Market Day is Friday, April 24. 5th graders will have the opportunity to shope the 4th grade stores. Students who plan to buy items should bring money to spend and a bag to carry their purchases.
Library notice:
The week of May 4-8 is the last week for students to borrow books from Pine Ridge Library.
All student library materials are due by May 15.
Curriculum Highlights
We celebrated our risen Savior as a whole school on Wednesday! What a blessing!
ART: Today we started masks!
BIBLE: We have been looking at Jesus' resurrection and the events following his resurrection.
MATH: We have started a new unit on word problems that requires us to combined everything we have learning about whole numbers, fractions and decimals, using all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).
READING: This week we started our historical fiction book clubs unit. Students selected the book they wanted to spend some time reading and made a reading plan with their book club.
SERVICE WORK: Pine Ridge applied our discipleship practice of SERVANT LIVING by collecting over $600 in change (THANK YOU for your donations!). That change allowed us to purchase items for "Breakfast Bags," "Lunch Bags," and "Hygiene/Self Care Bags" for Gateway Missions. Pine Ridge students were able to pack over 240 total bags!
SCIENCE: Students will be spending several weeks engaging in an astronomy science unit. They will learn about gravity, planets, stars, moon phases, and see how God created our world so perfectly and intentionally.
WRITING: We started our week talking about what a memoir is. Once we understood what a memoir is we drafted and published our Six-Word Memoir. We then spent some time recording memories that we have of school.
OUTDOOR LEARNING SCHEDULE FOR NEXT WEEK
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| Waiting for boats that the other class sent down stream. |
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| Floating logs down stream to make a dam. |
Ticks
Frogs will soon be calling, snakes are waking from brumation, songbirds are singing and the ticks are out and about! That's right, I said ticks! We do not need to be fearful of ticks but instead be mindful of daily tick checks when you spend time outdoors. Below is a link to more information on what ticks look like in this area. At Forest School, we check our children when we come inside the best we can. Please check your child(ren) for ticks daily.
DNR Information
If we remove a tick from your child's skin: we will save the tick in a baggy, write the location removed with the date and notify you with an email. You can choose to connect with your child's pediatrician about any further actions needed and what symptoms to watch for. We have tick keys to aid in tick removal. If I do not feel I can remove the entire tick then I will call you promptly and encourage you to connect with your child's pediatrician for removal. It is important to remove the ENTIRE tick!
*CHANGE in our outdoor learning schedule due to transportation demands.
Monday: Holland State Park
Tuesday: on campus
Wednesday: on campus
Thursday: on campus
Friday: Saugatuck Dunes
