April 26 Update

Camp Roger
The 7th grade students will be going to Camp Roger tomorrow in the afternoon with Miss Dahm. There is a chance that it will be muddy and/or rainy. We still go to camp even when the weather is not "perfect." It would be great if you could help make sure that your child wears and brings appropriate clothing for the day. Layers, a rain coat, and boots or shoes that can get muddy are a good idea. There is no hot lunch on Camp Roger days.

30 Hour Famine
30 Hour Famine is taking place this Friday. Thanks to many of you who volunteered to send in food for the breakfast on Saturday. We will be spending the day downtown at a few different ministries on Friday. Mrs. Oren will be facilitating activities after school and for the sleepover portion of the evening. Please contact her if you have questions about this. Thanks for praying for the students and staff as we serve and reflect on Friday.

End-of-the-Year Activities
Look for a paper coming home towards the end of this week or early next week with information about end-of-the-year activities. I am still working on solidifying some of the information and details for it, and will send home information as soon as I can.

Even though we are in fourth quarter and talking about end-of-the-year activities, there is still plenty of learning we hope to accomplish before the end of the year. Can you join us in helping remind your children that it is not summer vacation yet, and that we still expect appropriate behavior at school as well as excellent work? :)

Good Friday Service
I have received countless compliments from others about the 7th graders participation in the Good Friday service. They did an excellent job sharing their cardboard testimonies, and it was encouraging to see their honesty and boldness in sharing about how God has worked in their lives! Mel Solle took video of it on her phone and passed it on to me. I attempted to load the video on the blog today, but the network is slow this afternoon, and it is having trouble loading. I will try again later this week and let you know if I'm successful.

April 19 Update

30 Hour Famine
Mrs. Oren has been preparing the students for their participation with 30 Hour Famine on Friday, April 29. Consent forms need to be handed in no later than next Monday. Mrs. Oren has organized different places for the 7th and 8th grade students to serve at in the Heartside area of Grand Rapids. This day is a wonderful opportunity for students to reflect and serve. Mrs. Oren is still looking for help with a few things. She is in need of some more parent volunteers for our service projects during the day on Friday. She is also still looking for a few volunteers to send in food for breakfast on Saturday morning. Please email her (soren@grcs.org) if you are able to help with either.

Good Friday Remembrance Service
Please feel free to join us for a Good Friday Remembrance Service on Friday from 2:40-3:05 in the Worship Center. The 7th grade students will participate in service through cardboard testimonies/sharing ways that God has worked in their lives. Please see the email I sent yesterday with more information if you have questions, or feel free to contact me.

Camp Roger
7th grade students will go to Camp Roger next week on Wednesday afternoon. Please remember that there is no hot lunch on days when students go to Camp Roger. Students need to be prepared for spending the afternoon outside. It is important that they are dressed for the weather and wear appropriate foot wear. Thank you for checking with your child to make sure that he or she brings a lunch to school that day and is properly dressed.

Miscellaneous
*Mark your calendars for a school-wide celebration on Thursday, May 19. Check the home bulletin for more details.
*May 27: 7th grade class retreat
*June 8: 7th grade to MI Adventure
*June 9: 8th grade graduation (7th grade student participate in the choir at graduation)
*June 10: Last Day of School (Full Day)

April 12 Update

Choir Concert

The 7th and 8th grade students will present a short choir concert this Thursday (April 14). They should arrive at 6:45 in the choir room. The concert will begin at 7 p.m. in the RCS Worship Center. Students should wear "nice" clothes.

Language Arts-Parts of Speech

We are beginning a unit in language arts dealing with parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The students will be learning how to identify the different parts of speech and what their functions are. They will then have to put their identifying skills to work labeling parts of speech in sentences. I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past few months brainstorming ideas on how to make the students most successful learning this topic that can sometimes be difficult for middle school students. Each student was given the beginning of a "Parts of Speech Notebook" yesterday in class. I am color coding each part of speech (ie: information with nouns will be on red papers) and they will slowly be adding lots of colored papers to their notebooks. It will be very important that students do not loose their notebooks, and that they bring them to class everyday! The students will have quizzes throughout the unit and a test at the end. We'll also be doing some fun different activities to asses what they are understanding. These skills will be important for 8th grade language arts as well.

Already today several students did not have their homework completed and/or forgot their notebooks. As a teacher, I want to do everything I can to set up the unit so your children can be successful. However, they are still going to have to complete their homework, study, practice, and bring the correct materials to class in order to succeed.

Junior Achievement

The students will begin their first week of Junior Achievement this Wednesday. It will run for 6 weeks. Thanks again to Dave Stockdale who has volunteered to lead this time. JA will take place for the 7th grade students on Wednesday mornings during first hour.

Good Friday Service

Please feel free to join us for our Good Friday remembrance service from 2:40-3:05 on Friday, April 22. We will meet in the Worship Center. We will still have our normal Family Time on Monday of next week.

Miscellaneous

*Report cards for 3rd quarter were posted just before Spring Break. Hopefully you have had a chance to log onto Net Classroom and look at your child's report card with him or her. Please email me if you need your Net Classroom log-in information, if you are unsure of where to find the report card, or if you need a paper copy sent home with your child.

*Thanks for sending in treats for our Perfect "P" Poetry Party. We had a great time hearing poetry and enjoying all the "p" snacks.

*Mr. Dave wants you to know that he's updated his blog http://mrdavescorner.blogspot.com