Forest School Newsletter – January 2022

Dear Forest Families,

It’s 2022! It’s been so wonderful to fill our hallways and learning spaces with the sights and sounds of students learning, laughing and loving again. We have enjoyed hearing about both the non-snowy and snowy adventures your family embarked upon over Christmas break. As we stand together at the cusp of this new year, we together give God all that we are and all that will be. Looking out into 2022 we also see the new 2022-2023 school year! This means enrollment season is upon us. We continually pray for our families at Holland Christian. It is at this time of year that we pray too for our prospective families. We love to have new people asking questions, enjoying tours and considering joining the family at Holland Christian. Please note that Forest Kindergarten enrollment will begin at 7 am on Tuesday, February 1 on our Apply Page. Please don’t hesitate to call school if you have any questions in that regard. And? Enjoy the newly fallen snow this weekend! It’s beautiful out there!

Yours in Christ’s service,

Miska

/ ANNOUNCEMENTS

FIRST GRADE LEARNING HUT

A big “thank you” and Forest Kid “yawp!” for this beautiful, small-group learning hut! This new hut sits proudly in our first grade area of the Forest ready to welcome eager learners and loving teachers with a wagon full of materials!

Look at all of the eager hands willing to help two generous Forest dads, Mr. Bill and Mr. Harig! I don’t know what they would have done had they not had the eager help of all of these kindergarteners! Thank you to ALL for the gift of time, skill and resources to pull off this special surprise for the first graders whom we love! Merry Christmas and happy learning together!

THANK YOU, PARENT TEAM

If there was a sound bite to go along with this picture, I would need to caution you to turn the volume down. Oh my! Aren’t we so grateful for this team of hard working, faithful friends?! We are so grateful to many parents who helped pull off this lovely lunch for our Forest team! They ate and made merry! Thank you, parents, for your grace, support, prayers and love. Your Forest team appreciates you deeply!

WELCOME MRS. ESSENBURG

We have a new Forest School Educational Support Services Assistant joining us in this new year! Mrs. Sarah Essenburg will be working alongside teachers in the Forest supporting the varied needs of our children in Forest School. Mrs. Essenburg is eager to get to know our children and create modification and accommodations in order that ALL children will grow successfully. Welcome to the Forest Family, Mrs. Essenburg! We hope you brought your mittens! 😉

TULIP TIME CHOICES

In 2018, Tulip Time reframed their mission statement to read “Mission Statement: To celebrate Holland’s tulips, Dutch heritage and community.” To better align ourselves with their mission statement as well as with the goals here at Holland Christian our Rose Park and Forest School students will be given two options for dressing up and walking in the the 2022 Kinderparade. More details will be forthcoming as we get closer to Tulip Time but we want you to be aware of the options well in advance of the Tulip Time season. Our students from Rose Park and Forest School will be given the option of walking in either our new “tulip” section of the parade or our “Dutch heritage” section. The whole of our two groups walking together will be a celebration of our “community.”

• If your first or second grade Forest student chooses to opt into the “tulip” section of our parade, your child will design and construct his or her own tulip to carry and then dress as a gardener based around our “Rooted” t-shirt. This gardener costume might include gardening boots and gloves, overalls, a wide-brimmed hat, etc. Anything you have handy at home that helps your child look like a busy gardener tilling the tulips will fit the part perfectly!
• Students who opt into the “Dutch heritage” portion of our student body will wear their own dutch costume and carry fun parade props.

All of our students from Rose Park and Forest School will be walking together as one big community in the aforementioned subsets. More details about logistics, costumes and timing will be coming soon. Don’t hesitate to email Miska with questions or wonderings at mrynsburger@hollandchristian.org.

JANUARY HOT LUNCH MENU

/ CALENDAR

View the full Holland Christian Calendar

JANUARY

• 14: End of 2nd quarter/semester
• 17: No school MLK day
• 21: Report cards available

FEBRUARY

• 21: No school Presidents Day