New Groningen News

You can NOMINATE ZPS Staff and honor them with a Golden Apple Award by clicking HERE.

A special thank you to Countryside Greenhouse and Distinctive Group Inc. for generously supporting New Groningen students for the 2024/2025 school year!

If you know a business owner or are a business owner and would like to support our school this year, please see the flyer below on how you can do that!

MSTEP ELA (3rd) & SS (5th): Week of April 28

1st grade trip Downtown Zeeland: April 30

MSTEP Math (3rd & 5th): Week of May 5

2nd Grade trip to DGI Propagators: May 7

Muffins in the Morning: May 7, 8 & 9 (8am-8:30am)

Tulip Time Early Release Days: May 8 & 9

MSTEP ELA (3rd) & Sci (5th): Week of May 12

Y5 & Kindergarten trip to John Ball Zoo: May 19

5th Grade Camp: May 20-23

Memorial Day, No School: May 26

4th grade trip to N. Beach Park: May 28

5th grade Wax Museum: May 28

1st grade trip to Fredrick Meijer Gardens: May 30

5th grade Bike Hike: May 30

NG Family Fun Night: May 30 (@ ZWHS parking lot)

GOTR 5K: May 31

2nd grade trip to Dutch Village: June 2

FIELD DAY: June 3

Early Release: June 4

Early Release: June 5

Early Release & LAST DAY of SCHOOL: June 6

We will begin our biking unit on Monday, May 5th and end our biking unit on Friday, May 30th.

Over the course of the past few years, we have received a handful of donated bikes from the community, which allows us to have bikes of all sizes to accommodate students; we have a great mix of small bikes, medium size bikes and larger bikes to fit many students. We will also have an arm cycle bike, bikes that have "heavy duty" training wheels and a tri-cycle style bike as options, too. We also have "strider" bikes, which is like a larger sized balance bike for beginning riders. New this year, We also received a grant from VeloKids at the end of last year, so we have 10 brand new bikes available for students to choose from as well.

Each year, we have some students who enjoy bringing their bikes from home. Your child can bring their bike from home. They are encouraged to always lock their bike in the bike racks by the bus loop if they choose to bring it to school and then they will be able to grab it when we head outside during their PE class time. We definitely don't want this option to be a hassle for families, so this option is totally up to each individual family and is NOT mandatory. If you choose to bring your child's bike, they are not allowed to store the bike inside the building overnight, it must remain locked up outside at the bike rack.

Helmets are a must while riding during our PE unit. We have more than enough helmets for students to choose from, but they are more than welcome to bring a helmet from home, too. If you could encourage students to bring their own helmet from home, that would be wonderful. They can store it in their locker and bring it to PE during their class time.

With any questions regarding the biking unit, please reach out to our PE teacher, Biz Geertsma, at egeertsm@zps.org.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Y5's & Kindergarten

Addison

Sofia

Rory

Delylah

1st Grade

Ben

Alex

Emmarie

2nd Grade

Ashton

Bennett N

Colin

Malchiah

CONGRATULATIONS!

3rd Grade

Junior

Tommy

Declan

Maddisyn

4th Grade

Kensie

Ayden R

Oaklie

Bria S

5th Grade

Amelia

Jake V

Ian

Fischer

CONGRATULATIONS, Mrs. Cousins! Thank you for believing in all of our kids and helping them succeed!

Our spring book fair is coming up, May 13-16! We need your help to make our book fair a success! If you are able to volunteer, please sign up at the link below. Please reach out with any questions. ksalisbu@zps.org

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E49AFAE2CA0FFC16-56411612-spring#/

As we prepare for our NG Fun Night in May, we encourage you to take a look at your child's grade level raffle basket Sign Up Genius and consider donating! Items can be dropped off in the main office (be sure to label with your child's name and grade so they earn their raffle basket tickets!) BY MAY 23!

Young Fives

Kindergarten

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

5th Grade

Mrs. Geertsma is gearing up for FIELD DAY! The big day is Tuesday, June 3 at Zeeland Stadium! Students will be bussed over to the stadium after we take care of a few housekeeping things at school. There will be more information sent home regarding ordering a bagged lunch and other reminders, but for now we are looking for VOLUNTEERS! If you are looking for something super fun to do on June 3, you aren't going to find anything more rewarding than hanging out with 520-ish elementary school kids (and the most awesome staff in Zeeland)! The volunteer time includes running and monitoring a station and helping to supervise lunch with a group of students. The slots will go quickly, so get your name on the volunteer list!

Zeeland Rec has a handful of upcoming programs that you don't want to miss! Below are some highlights. Visit THEIR WEBSITE to view more details and to register!

The NGFA is excited for another school year. Here's a little about the NGFA and the amazing things they help put together in order to support NG!

The NGFA is proud to help support our school, many fun activities, field trips and events for New Groningen Elementary free of charge for our families. We hold meetings throughout the year that will be announced in the upcoming weeks, have many fun events and activities planned, fundraisers and there will be many volunteer opportunities as well.

You can join our Facebook group “New Groningen Family Association - NGFA” to stay up to date with NG happenings.

We hope you all had a fun, safe long weekend and look forward to working with you all this year! If you have questions throughout the year you can contact us at ngfainfo@gmail.com.

Kristin Hunderman, President

Nicole Orazem, VP

Meghan Trowbridge, Treasurer

Randi Alferink, Secretary

School-wide: Mrs. Rindfliesch will send New Groningen News to all families via email on Fridays (sometimes earlier depending on holiday breaks)!

Classroom: Each classroom has their own classroom communication site or newsletter and that will be communicated to each family by your child's teacher!

District-wide: ZPS sends emails in the form of Z For Me (click HERE to sign up to receive these emails), uses Facebook (ZPS: Learning for Life), Instagram and Twitter. In addition, you can opt into our district-wide School Messenger, which delivers a text message to your phone to notify you of school closings, safety alerts and more! All you need to do is TEXT "Y" to 67587 to opt in (see flyer below for more information).

Other NG Resources:

• NG Page on ZPS Website

• Facebook: You can also find information from the NG Family Association on our NGFA Facebook page located at New Groningen Family Association - NFGA if you search for us on Facebook. This is ONLY a place parent engagement and sharing. This is NOT where we store information or publish information that must get to parents.

In ZPS, we believe that reading is foundational to the success of our students. Throughout each week, students are regularly provided with opportunities to read independently. Classroom teachers and library staff work hard to provide high-quality, engaging, and relevant texts for students. We respect each parent’s right to provide input on what books would be appropriate for their own child. For more information on this topic, please read this letter to the community.

Please use this PDF in order to get instructions and a code to set up your Parent Portal (access to grades, bussing information, etc.)! Parent Portal, while not used to it's fullest for elementary students, it will become a regular resource to you as your learner moves into middle and high school. As for elementary students, Parent Portal is a great resource to look up bus information and track attendance, too.

If you do not have portal set up, please feel free to set one up!

If your child will need ANY medications given to them during the school year, the correct MEDICAL FORM must be FILLED OUT AND SIGNED by your child's doctor BEFORE we can begin to give meds. Please see Mrs. Boeve or Mrs. Keeler in the main office prior to school starting in order to have medication ready for August. 28!