March 15 Pizza day! HS grades sent home

Registration is postponed to March 15 and 22 for returning families. Friday Addition will have registration through Gradelink for the first time this year. Shannon Tyler will be available at the beginning and end of the day on these dates to assist anyone who would like to have her walk you through registration for the 2013/2014 school year. She will be located upstairs, just outside the office, with a computer available to you.

There will be an end of the year Open House on March 22 immediately following classes for the elementary and middle school students and their families. Students will travel around to their classrooms, participate in an activity or answer a question a teacher has for them, get a card hole punched and collect a prize in the fellowship room! There will also be refreshments to enjoy!

March 29 and April 5 are Spring Break for high school students.

The pictures throughout the newsletter were con-tributed by Kim Staal. Thank you, Kim!!

News from the Board MARCH 2013

BARBARA BOERSEN-Kindergarten

FRIDAY

Can you believe that this is our last month of school this year! We have just four more weeks

of Friday Addition. The kids have been such a blessing to me this year. I want to say thank

you to all the parental support that our class has received. We often make messes in the

afternoon and the parents have been very helpful in assisting me in our creative fun.

Our theme for March will be favorite Authors. Each week we will focus on a different au-

thor. Using stories from Dr. Suess, Eric Carle, Patricia Polacco and Robert Munsch we will

explore:

Art color, texture, line

Science Our senses, living vs. non-living, forces and motion

Math Time and Measurement

Word Families -en/-ell/-es(s), -op/-ob/-ow, -uck/-ug/-us,

-all/-ack/-am

Sight Words can/make, that/come, no/what, came cont. p. 2

In March our sharing will be as follows:

Mar. 1: Anything they want!

Mar. 8: Birthday gift

Mar. 15: Item measuring between 2 and 12 inches.

Mar. 22: Baby memento

On the 22, I would like have the parents come one-half hour early to

enjoy a short awards celebration that I will do with the kids. This is al-

ways a fun time. Following the awards you may join the rest of the

families for our Friday Addition Open House.

BARBARA BOERSEN-Kindergarten (cont.)

PATTY BUEHLER-1st/2nd Grades

Wow, is it seriously March?! This FA school year has gone by so

quickly! I will seriously miss all of the 1st/2nd graders-- what blessings

they are!

We will be switching gears a bit in science and studying plants and work-

ing that in with our art lessons which will include corn husk dolls and a

garden collage. Then we can move on to the universe and how God has

fashioned all of it in such an amazing way! Art will include work on mo-

saics and an early elementary version of Vincent VanGogh's "Starry

Night" painting!

Spanish will be lots of review of greetings, parts of the face, numbers,

colors, and days of the week. We will be playing some games to rein-

force these words.

We still have a few more states and a lot of land to cover in our US tour

starting with Nevada, Utah, and Colorado (because we didn't get to that

last Friday--oops!), then on to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and

Texas. After that we move to New Mexico, Arizona, and Califor-

nia, ending up in Alaska and Hawaii! (I thought Hawaii was a pretty

awesome place to end in!) It will be a quick tour, but I hope a good

way to reinforce just how interesting this great land God has

blessed us with is!

I hope you all have a wonderful FA break this spring/summer!

Page 2 FRIDAY ADDITION

Well we are getting close again. All the martial arts classes will be testing

for belt advancement once again. We will begin the preliminary testing

on March 15 and perform the breaking and belt/certificates on

March 22. We will be performing a belt test March 1 for the Self-

defense class and be able to get one more in before school closing.

Jaci and I have been overly blessed this year from all the kids. All their

earnest attempts to do well, their attitudes and their friendship make

Friday our favorite day. Our hearts are in this school and we look for-

ward to finishing strong for God. All students are urged to sign up for

next year. They will be able to continue on all the belts earned and in-

crease as they learn. Be blessed

Dojunim Bill and Huimjanim Jaci-Self Defense

MARK SOOY-Elementary Music

Well -- we would have finished the Romantic Era by now, but

with the weird weather and a substitute teacher in February, the

Romantic Era will sweep us into March! The likes of Beethoven,

Brahms, Dvorak, Wagner and many other familiar names inhabit

the Romantic Era. It is during this time period (about 1825 to

1900) that music became focused upon the feelings and expres-

sion of the composers. In fact, we "feel" music today because of

the Romantic Composers influence. The idea that "beauty is in

the eye (or ear) of the beholder" comes out of the Romantic Era

(although this sentiment is not biblical!), and it has influenced

popular entertainment significantly. So, we will spend 3 weeks

on the Romantic and the remaining in the Modern Era as we

wind down the year!

Page 3 FRIDAY ADDITION

Wow! Can it be March already? How I’ve seen the students grow in

their artistry in a year’s time! It is such fun to see the progress! As I

wrap up my last year of teaching at Friday Addition (after 13 years!), I

want to thank you parents for all of your encouragement and kind

words and especially to the parent helpers for all of your much needed

help! I want to thank the students for all of your hard work! It is so

wonderful to work with such a kind, respectful group of great kids!

I hope you have been visiting www.artsonia.com to view the wonderful

artwork that your students have been creating. There are many new

projects there that have just been added. It is really fun to read the

comments that students, parents, and grandparents make, and it is a

fabulous way for kids to feel encouraged and supported in their art

throughout the year. Thanks for sharing this website with loved ones!

March has lots of fun projects yet to be created, so read on to see what

each grade level will be working on!

1st/2nd grade - We will be finishing up our bead sculptures that we

started last week, then we hope to do a painting project with cherry

blossoms. We will end the year with a paper collage of lovely and colorful

spring banners.

3rd/4th grade - We will be looking at the Japanese artist Katsushika

Hokusai and making our own “Great Wave” paintings. If there is time,

we will also use mixed media to make some colorful “funky birds.”

5th/6th grade - While the other grades have already finished their

sculptures, we are just getting started on ours! We will be working on

our sculptures most of the month. We may have time for one short

project at year’s end, but we will wait and see how much time we need

on our sculptures.

Middle School - We are going to be working on two watercolor

projects in March. For the first project, we will be learning the

style of pointillism; in the second, we will be working on blending

colors and using other watercolor techniques.

KATHLEEN VEENSTRA-Art

Page 4 FRIDAY ADDITION

Students have really been working up a sweat in the gym lately! Our

warm-up walking and jogging laps have really been adding up to some

major mileage. Our totals for the month of February were –

1st/2nd grade class – 15.25 miles!

3rd/4th grade class – 21.12 miles!

5th/6th grade class – 22.7 miles!

After finishing up our football unit, we started discussing and practicing

3 different types of fitness exercises – cardiovascular exercise, strength

exercise, and flexibility exercise. Ask your student to give you an example

of each… they are really getting a good grasp of each type of exercise! J

What is to come in March?

Continue our gymnastics tumbling unit with the kindergarten – 2nd

grades

Finish fitness unit for 3rd – 6th grade

3rd – 6th grade will work on team building skills by creating a game

All classes will finish out the year with some review stations and some

games!!

Due to our unexpected snow day, we spent some more time working on

the basics of CSS in the month of February. The students got to practice

their new skills by giving one of their old projects a makeover. They took

their plain black and white site and added various fonts, colors, and styl-

ings to take their sites to the next level. The students will start the

month of March getting even more hands-on experience styling with

CSS. This time they are creating a web site that is all about themselves.

We will continue to build on the foundation of CSS and add working

with padding, margins, and borders. The students will learn how to style

and control these features and learn how they interact with other ele-

ments on the page.

CARRIE ZEILSTRA-Physical Education

SARAH ASH-WebDesign

Page 5 FRIDAY ADDITION

Middle School: We are finishing a literature unit which introduced us to several “Men and Women

of Genius.” I encouraged the students to read complete biographies of those people they found in-

teresting. We finish the year reading of sportsmen (real and imagined) and finally legendary he-

roes. Our writing will now involve response to literature and comparison/contrast essays.

American Literature: We have finally entered the Modern Era of literature. This month covers

experimentalist writings in prose and poetry. The moral and religious attitude underlying modern

literature is rebellion. It is very interesting to notice the changes in the various eras of writing as

society changed.

High School Writing: March will be spent in writing responses to various types of literature. We

then end the month beginning research for a term paper due in May.

LINDA LAKE-Language Arts

LYNDA LEUSCHNER-Anatomy

March finds us learning about the lymphatic system

& immunity, as well as the digestive system. We'll be

pulling out the microscopes again to study the histol-

ogy of a lymph node, the stomach, & the liver. While

it may seem like a mellow month after the dissec-

tions in February, I hope students will still find the

material fascinating, nevertheless.

Page 6 FRIDAY ADDITION

Our class has been trudging through the details of how we, as modern Westerners, have learned

to think in the way that we do. The history of Western Civilization is complex and varied, and

Glenn Sunshine's book Why You Think the Way You Do has been leading us on this interesting

journey. Our purpose has not been to master all the details of developing Western thought but

to be aware that our own thinking today has a unique history. We think -- as Americans and

Christians -- and often do not know the basis for assumptions that we make about life, truth,

and our role in the world. It is in understanding some of the background of our thinking that

we can shed the light of God's Word into our minds and allow it to re-shape our thoughts to a

biblical model. This is not easy, but it is vital to think well as Christians so that we might also

live well for Christ!!

MARK SOOY-Christian Worldview

SHANNON TYLER-Biology

This month we are beginning to study the invertebrates. We will be observing some

organisms under the microscope and also complete our first dissection, the earthworm.

The goal is for students to learn and appreciate the body systems in each organism. Keep

up the great work! The next few months will involve a lot of memorization as we try to

organize the different phyla, class, and orders based on their characteristics.

Page 7 FRIDAY ADDITION

The students have grown a lot in their understanding of worship and hopefully have grown

closer to the One who is worthy of our worship! It has been great to see them lead worship

for the elementary and middle school students and take an active role in introducing the

songs as well! Great job, students! We hope to lead worship one more time in March before

March is going to be a busy month for the Difference Class! We will be kicking off this month with

a trip to Providence Nursing Home where we will be planning and hosting an activity for the resi-

dents there. As a class we will continue to work on our fundraising event, so make sure you keep

looking for the announcement! This is something you won't want to miss! We have also started

working on our next article, which will be a How-to article where the students will write an article

about how to do something.

KATHLEEN VEENSTRA-Worship

ERIKA WHITTEBERRY-Difference

Page 8 FRIDAY ADDITION

We finished "Demonstrative" speeches and I have to say I think these were my favorite and many of the

kids’ favorite speeches as well. It shows when they are able to share something they love with the rest of

the class, and I think we all learned a lot.

We are getting ready for our final presentations, and I hope that the kids are excited to present their best

and favorite speeches one final time.

I am in need of "judges" for the last few weeks of class to listen to speeches and score them. I would love to

have 2 people per class so that the kids get feedback from other listeners. If you are willing to help listen

to speeches please let me know!

The final presentations will take place March 8th, 15th and 22nd.

JESSICAN FOX-Speech

FRIDAY ADDITION PAGE 9

Spanish 1 classes have been busy working on chapter 6 materials in their textbook. Chapter 6 focuses on the house and

the items and rooms in the house. Students can describe the contents of the various rooms of their houses with details

including size and color. The students also learned how to make comparisons, using "more + adjective+ than" and "less

+ adjective + than" and "older than" and "younger than". They can describe family members with detail of hair color

and height as well as overall looks and age. They also learned a number of household chores and with that how to com-

mand a younger family member to "make your bed" or "set the table." Along with commands, the students also learned

several new stem-changing verbs in the present tense and reviewed how to say where something is located using the

verb ESTAR and a preposition of location. Another grammar topic was the present progressive, similar to our verbs

ending in -ing. This allows the speaker to say what is currently going on. Right now the students in Spanish 1 have this

week off of daily work to prepare for the Chapter 6B exam coming up on Friday, March 1. They should all be saying,

"Estoy estudiando." Looking ahead to Chapter 7, the Spanish 1 class will be learning how to shop in a Spanish-speaking

culture. They will be learning some large numbers to practice purchasing in pesos and they will learn lots of different

words for clothing and gifts. We will encounter some more stem-changing verbs in the present tense along with demon-

strative adjectives. The 7B lessons introduce the preterite tense for the first time along with direct object pro-

nouns. These are two very challenging chapters in grammar, so please encourage your students to stay on top of their

work this month so they will not miss out on all the important lessons ahead. I am proud of how all the students are do-

ing and how hard they are working! They have come so far this year and I am so excited to be able to see them read,

write, and speak in Spanish!

Spanish 2 classes have just finished up Chapter 5 which talked about natural disasters and accidents. Students were able

to use the past tenses to describe a scene and what happened. They reviewed body parts and could tell you what hurt or

was broken or sprained. They also learned lots of important vocabulary to use if they ever have to visit a doctor or hos-

pital in a Spanish-speaking country. Very useful to know, but I sure hope they never have to use it! We continued to

work on the preterite and imperfect verb tenses, adding in more irregular preterite verb forms with each lesson. Students

also learned the imperfect progressive to say what was going on when an event happened. They were "eye-witnesses" to

hurricanes, fires, floods, storms, earthquakes, and multi-car pile-ups! (Not really, but those were the scenarios we were

working with in our lessons!) We are now out of the danger zon,e and in Chapter 6 we are discussing the television

shows we watch. Students have learned vocabulary to discuss all sorts of television programming and sporting

events. We continue to practice the preterite, adding in reflexive verbs again and stem-changing verbs. We are heading

in to Chapter 6B as I write this, where we will be discussing movies and working with indirect object pronouns and the

present perfect verb tense. The Spanish 2 class did not take a week off between chapters this time as we had some

catching up to do with the snow day. We are not quite on our syllabus, but hopefully we will be back in a regular rou-

tine as we head into March. Students have finished up the materials on Chapter 6A and will be bringing home another

take-home exam this Friday. They will be finishing up 6B this week and next. I want to make sure we are at a good

point before our Spring Break at the end of March. Just to let you know, we have been working extensively on the

preterite and imperfect usage in our lessons. This is one of the major lessons of the entire Spanish 2 curriculum. It is

NOT an easy thing to grasp and so I know that the students have been feeling very challenged and are sometimes disap-

pointed by those parts of their exams. I think they are doing better than average on this material and that it takes lots and

lots of practice to start to see how to use these tenses correctly. I am working on some extra practice activities and mate-

rials to give the students more opportunities to see these tenses in context. Please don't focus too much on grades at this

point, but do encourage your students to work hard, do their best, and focus on the learning at hand. Often times the

best learning is from our mistakes, so we are making lots of mistakes in our learning process, but the light bulbs are

starting to "flicker" more and more each week, so I know we are making progress in the right direction! Please feel free

to contact me if you have questions or concerns on how your student is doing. I am so proud of them all! They are such

a great group of kids, and I so enjoy getting to share my love of Spanish with them!

Sra. Yu

Sra. YU- SPANISH