Sukkot

Dear 1st Grade Parents,

We are excited to tell you that we are preparing for a very special formative faith experience. 

Around the world people are preparing to celebrate the biblical festival of Sukkot. During the week of October 6-13 we will join them, and your child will learn more about the ancient Hebrew festival and practice of Sukkot. Sukkot is often referred to as a "The Time of our Rejoicing."  Sukkot was a special time of thanksgiving to God for the harvest, and a time of acknowledging utter and complete dependence upon God for all good things which He provides. It was also a time where the Hebrew people remembered the days of old - the days when they first left Egypt, and lived in tents in the desert - recalling God's protection and provision over them.

God gives His people the details for how to celebrate Sukkot in the Old Testament. Your first graders will study this festival and the way in which the Hebrew people participated, and, in so doing, we trust our hearts will be drawn to God in a true and biblical spirit of gratitude.

As part of our learning the first graders will be building and decorating their own Sukkah (booth) similar to what was commanded by God in the Old Testament. One of the special requirements God gave His people in making the Sukkah is that it had to be beautiful. We have some great plans for this work! One way we plan to decorate our Sukkah beautifully is with photographs of family members from our students - would you be willing to find a family photograph that your child can bring to class? Please send it to school in your child’s homework folder on Monday, October 6.  This picture will be hanging outside and WILL NOT be returned to you.

We hope the learning comes home! We will certainly be taking and sharing photos and videos capturing our learning. We also want to invite you to come to South Side after school and in the evenings to spend some time in our sukkah. You are invited to visit our Sukkahs anytime after Friday, October 10. You will find our Sukkah located on the North Side of our building.  Still today there are observed practices during Sukkot. One is to eat meals in the sukkah. Perhaps your family would like to have a picnic dinner there? Or perhaps you would like to hold family devotions in the Sukkah? Or have a bedtime snack? Please know YOU are welcome! Another practice that is both ancient and modern is to welcome in the stranger, foreigner or visitor. We encourage you and your family to consider extending an invitation to a neighbor and welcoming them into your home or backyard for a meal or after dinner dessert. Maybe at that time your first grader could share what they learned about Sukkot. Sukkot is all about community and remembering God’s character in living an invitational life - showing the world who HE is by the way we live. 

We have a very special invitation for you. Would you please join our class chapel where we will teach you about Sukkot. Please pack a beach chair blanket to sit on (we will be sitting outdoors weather permitting) and join us Thursday, October 9 from 10:40-11:10 to hear about all we have learned. You are also invited to stay and enjoy a picnic lunch with us in our Sukkahs. We hope that you can make it!

Also, I am wondering if you can help! One of the important ideas of Sukkot is Community. I am wondering if you would like to come and help us paint! We will be painting posters for our Sukkahs next week Tuesday, October 7 from 2:15-3:05. If you are able to come and help us paint, please sign up HERE.

Grateful for our partnership,

Michelle Engbers

An Apple Dandy Week

On Wednesday schools all over the country met at their flagpoles to pray for our schools, communities, country and world! What a special time it was  to join in prayer with all of South Side and join our hearts together in prayer! We praised God that He is mighty, faithful, BIG, and powerful. We thanked God for all of the blessings He has given us like our friends, parents and grandparents. We prayed God's protection and care for those we love! What a joy and privilege it is to be able to talk with our God!

Apple Week~

This week we spent time learning about the life cycle of an apple tree. We created some pretty amazing collages on our ipads that showed the changes in the apple tree all the way until it produces fruit. We also celebrated apple week by making applesauce. Our applesauce was delicious using the various varieties the kids brought in on Monday. Thank you for your help with this! 

We did some social studies learning this week with the help of Johnny Appleseed! We read about how Johnny was a good man, taking care of animals, planting apple tress, and even sharing Bible stories with kids! He loved the world he lived in and worked hard to take care of it. We talked about what it means  for us to be a citizen. We learned some of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and we talked about what it means for us to be a good citizen. The kids were VERY quick to point out that we are citizens of God's kingdom and our discipleship practices are amazing ways to live as citizens in God's kingdom. We are GOD GLORIFYING-WORD ROOTED-WISDOM SEEKING-CREATION KEEPING-SERVANT LIVING-GRACE BREATHING-KINGDOM BUILDING-BEAUTY CREATING-IMAGE REFLECTING-DISCIPLE MAKING citizens of God's kingdom.

We made apple boats today. Our class is fortunate to have a scholastic classroom magazine that we can read each week. This week was all about apples. We learned in this magazine that apples float and we just had to give it a try with our own apple boats!

Walk-A-Thon~

Thank you, Thank you for your amazing support of the walk-a-thon this year. We had a beautiful afternoon on Wednesday to be outside at the High School! What a great day and a great way to support our schools. I wanted to thank each of you for your encouragement and support in raising money for Holland Christian! We are so blessed because of you all. 

PLEASE keep this Holland Christian shirt for the remainder of the school year! We will use them through out the year for field trips, etc. Sometimes it is really helpful to have a "sea of Maroon HC" to easily spot! Thank you!

Additional Notes and Reminders~

We celebrated our amazing custodian Mrs. Lambert this week! She does such an amazing job keeping our school sparkling clean. It feels SO good to thank those in our community who work so hard for us! 

And how about our resident lunch clean up crew! These boys have shown amazing servant hearts in making sure our classroom is nice and clean after lunch.

• Grandparent's Day is coming!
  

• Our class Library Day is Wednesday.

• As always, more pictures are loaded to our class gallery. Press the "Joy of the Lord" picture to be directed to our album!

• Please if you have not already done so, send a full change of clothes with your child (including socks and underwear) that they can keep in their locker. Spills, mud, paint, you name it can happen. Having a quick change of clothes is very helpful.

Looking Ahead~

~TODAY, Friday, Septmeber 26- Holland Christian Homecoming events! More information can be found HERE!!

~Wednesday, October 8- Bible and outdoor play with first grade forest school

~Thursday, October 9- OUR CLASS LEADS CHAPEL. 10:40-11:10. You are also invited to pack a picnic lunch and join us for lunch after chapel on this day! We will be sharing about the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Our class will be learning all about Sukkot. Look for a special blog post on Monday with more details. 

~Monday, October 13- South Side and Pine Ridge Grandparents Day.

~Tuesday, October 21- Outdoor learning at Wolter's Woods

~October 22-24- No School. CEA Convention for teachers

~Wednesday, October 29- Pumpkin Day. Sign up genius coming soon 

~Thursday, November 6- Scarecrow Day. Please be thinking of how you can dress your child like a scarecrow for a fun day of fall learning. Sign up genius coming!

Super Scientists!

A BIG welcome to Eloah and her family to 1st grade! It has been wonderful to get to know her this week! I am looking forward to all that is to come as a new class of 20 amazing firsties!

Bible~

This week we continued to learn about God's promises and how God always keeps His promises. We serve a faithful God indeed. We spent some time outdoors pretending to look at the skies and the millions of stars we can imagine and we filled our hands with sand while we heard of God's promises to Abraham and Sarah that he would make them into a great nation. They would be given as many children as stars in the sky and sand at the seashore. GOD IS FAITHFUL but Abraham and Sarah had to be so patient in waiting for the fulfillment of these promises. Such good conversations were had about patience and believing God's words are true! 

God said to Abraham "I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore." Genesis 22:17

Science~

We studied the milkweed pod on Monday and were amazed at how incredible this seed pod actually is! The floss that is attached to each seed helps it to be able to travel in the wind - similar to a dandelion seed.The kids had a BLAST "flying" their seeds all around the room! 

However, we talked about how seeds need soil, sunlight, and water to grow in! So, we took our seeds outside, and planted them in the ground pretending that the wind naturally did this! It was fun to plant them in the ground, and see them with our magnifying glasses! Our hope is that the milkweed grows and we'll attract a bunch of monarchs to our grounds.

Today we had a special visitor come! She is a flower and seed expert (and also happens to be my sister in law). It was a little bit of a head scratcher for some to have 2 Mrs. Engbers in the same room! She brought in different kinds flowers and their seeds. The kids were able to explore the seeds that come from each of these flowers. We also played a fun game where we tried to guess which seed came from which flower. Some were easier to guess than others! :) Each of the kids is coming home with a baggie of the seeds they collected. A shameless plug... if you ever need an amazing bouquet or want to attend a garden party, check out 3 Flowers Farm! 

Writing~ 

We have been making such good progress on our very first stories in first grade! The kids have been diligently crafting a small moment story with a strong beginning, middle, and end. They have added sketches and it was so fun to share our in progress stories with a friend this week. Next week we will add more details, add speech bubbles and having a close to the moment ending. Our first stories will be published before you know it! 

Additional Notes and Reminders~

• We will be celebrating Apple Week in 1st grade next week. Please send your child to school with 2 apples on Monday (any variety is fine!). Also see this SIGN UP GENIUS for ways to help!

• Grandparent's Day is coming!
  

• Our class Library Day is Wednesday.

• As always, more pictures are loaded to our class gallery. Press the "Joy of the Lord" picture to be directed to our album!

• Please if you have not already done so, send a full change of clothes with your child that they can keep in their locker. Spills, mud, paint, you name it can happen. Having a quick change of clothes is very helpful.

Looking Ahead~

~Week of September 22-September 26- Apple Week! We will do many apple themed activities at school! 

~Monday, September 22- The beginning of apple week. Please bring 2 apples to school!

~Wednesday, September 25- Walk-a-Thon

~Friday, Septmeber 26- Holland Christian Homecoming events! More information can be found HERE!!

~Thursday, October 9- OUR CLASS LEADS CHAPEL. 10:40-11:10. You are also invited to pack a picnic lunch and join us for lunch after chapel on this day! More details coming!

~Monday, October 13- South Side and Pine Ridge Grandparents Day. Stay tuned for more details.

~October 22-24- No School. CEA Convention for teachers

First FULL week!

Bible~

This week in our Bible time we read the story of Noah's Ark and talked about how Noah was faithful and listened to God even when the people around him thought he was foolish. We talked about how God's plans are always the best plans! We created a rainbow that declares "God Keeps His promises". This is a theme we will visit over and over again this year. 

We also heard the story of the Tower of Babel. We made a standing stone unlike Babel. We want people to know that in our classroom we are putting GOD on display!

Reading~

We continue to work on our Reader's Workshop lessons and it has been great to see how the students have grown in their stamina for independent reading. While the students are reading I have been able to confer with students, listening to them read and talking to them about their books. This week we learned about book shopping and filled our book boxes with new books! It was a little like Christmas! ;)

Math~

During math instruction we are working closely with number partners. We started with partners of numbers five through ten (Partners of 6 example: 1+5, 2+4, 3+3. 4+2, 5+1). We are learning different ways to represent addition problems, including math mountains and equation trains. Look over your child's papers to better understand this math language and to grasp understanding on your child's progress.  

Math games always make learning fun!

Be sure to take a look at the back side of our morning Math Remembering pages. We have begun to include a blessing on the back of each page. It is so good to begin our day in gratitude. Praise changes hearts... 

Additional Notes and Reminders~

• Our class Library Day is Wednesday. We had a great first visit to the Library this week! Please return all borrowed books on or before Wednesday.

• School Picture Day is coming! PICTURE IS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. Picture order forms came home earlier this week. If you have multiple children at HC, please note that these forms are STUDENT SPECIFIC. Every student needs to return the order form, even if you are not ordering pictures, or if you order pictures online. If you're planning to order a yearbook, now is the perfect time to place your order. Please return this form to your child's teacher by Monday, September 15. Picture day for Preschool 3's through 2nd grade is Wednesday, Sept. 17.  

• Pastor Appreciation Breakfast - Thursday, September 18, 7:30 - 8:30 am Invite your pastor to our upcoming event! This event is our way of saying thank you for the incredible impact they have on the lives of our students and their families. Invitations can be picked up in the office.
• What is Walkathon? Walkathon is an HC-wide fundraiser where elementary students walk to raise money for their school. The funds raised by South Side students go directly to South Side needs. These needs include classroom supplies, educational outings, and other resources. Parents are welcome to watch the event from the bleachers, while the track is reserved for teachers and students. Your child's walk a thon packet went home with them earlier this week!

• As always, more pictures are loaded to our class gallery. Press the "Joy of the Lord" picture to be directed to our album!

•  The office is continuing to update our South Side Lost and Found Album as items come into the gray tub in the office. Please check it out to see if any of these items belong to your child. Feel free to email Rachel Steen, to claim your item(s), and we will be sure to get it into your child’s backpack.

Looking Ahead~

 

~ Wednesday, September 17- School Pictures

~Monday, September 22- The beginning of apple week. Please bring 2 apples to school!

~Wednesday, September 25- Walk-a-Thon

~Friday, Septmeber 26- Holland Christian Homecoming events! More information can be found HERE!!

~Thursday, October 9- OUR CLASS LEADS CHAPEL. 10:40-11:10. You are also invited to pack a picnic lunch and join us for lunch after chapel on this day! More details coming!

~Monday, October 13- South Side and Pine Ridge Grandparents Day. Stay tuned for more details.

~October 22-24- No School. CEA Convention for teachers

God's Youngest Naturalists

We Bless You God!

How good it is to praise and worship our heavenly father together! Sharing God's word and praying with your children is a true joy and the highlight of my days here at school. Every Friday morning we do a circle prayer and the children take turns petitioning and praising God. You have amazing kiddos- and I have THE BEST job!

Sassafras Ridge~

Our trip to Sassafras Ridge today was the perfect place to learn and explore some of the different habitats found in God's world. We were able to see a meadow, forest, and 2 ponds. We discovered what all habitats need and even found some of the animals that live there. Our naturalists were hard at work! We saw a toad, a turkey (running for it's life!!!) a fish and a mushroom that a couple kids thought was from Super Mario Brothers! 😁 

The kids did an amazing job learning outdoors today. Learning in an outdoor space requires a different style of learning and another set of rules to learn and remember. They did an amazing job! I was very proud of them.

Homework Folders~

Homework folders are coming home again today. Inside you will find a purple reading minutes paper. Please use the paper to record the number of minutes read on the dates listed. 1st graders should read for 15 minutes (or more!!!) 4 days a week. Kindergarten and first grade red words are listed on the back of the sheet. Any practice reading or spelling these words can be counted towards reading minutes. Please send the homework folder back to school on Monday (with the blue sheet from last week). Please return ALL homework folders on Monday. Thank you!!!

Additional Notes and Reminders~

• Pastor Appreciation Breakfast - Thursday, September 18, 7:30 - 8:30 am Invite your pastor to our upcoming event! This event is our way of saying thank you for the incredible impact they have on the lives of our students and their families. Invitations can be picked up in the office.
• What is Walkathon? Walkathon is an HC-wide fundraiser where elementary students walk to raise money for their school. The funds raised by South Side students go directly to South Side needs. These needs include classroom supplies, educational outings, and other resources. Parents are welcome to watch the event from the bleachers, while the track is reserved for teachers and students. Your child's walk a thon packet went home with them earlier this week! 

Looking Ahead~

~ Wednesday, September 17- School Pictures

~Monday, September 22- The beginning of apple week. Please bring 2 apples to school!

~Wednesday, September 25- Walk-a-Thon

~Friday, Septmeber 26- Holland Christian Homecoming events! More information coming soon!

~Thursday, October 9- OUR CLASS LEADS CHAPEL. 10:40-11:10. You are also invited to pack a picnic lunch and join us for lunch after chapel on this day! More details coming!

~Monday, October 13- South Side and Pine Ridge Grandparents Day. Stay tuned for more details.

~October 22-24- No School. CEA Convention for teachers