• For Your Eyes Only Gala & Auction!
  

• Port of Subs Lunch for those who pre-ordered
  
• Middle School Track - Practice 3:15

• PALS AM Meeting - Markell Hall 8:10am
  
• Pizza Lunch for those who pre-ordered
• Middle School Track - Practice 3:15
  

• Middle School Electives Schedule
• Port of Subs Lunch for those who pre-ordered
• STEM FAIR
• Middle School Track - Practice 3:15

• Pizza Lunch for those who pre-ordered

• Extended After School Chess Club - Grades 2-8 - Markell Hall Cafeteria 3:15 – 4:15pm

• Middle School Track - Practice 3:15

• Port of Subs Lunch for those who pre-ordered
  
• Middle School Track - Practice 3:15

• House Color Day - April 13th
  
• Chess Tournament at TFA - Saturday, April 16th approximately 8:30-3:00pm
• Family Ice-skating event April 24 from 4 to 6 PM
• Middle School Dance - April 29 from 6-9pm
• Jog-a-thon for K-8 - Friday, May 13th in the afternoon - details to come
  
• Family Fun Night is back June 3rd! More info to come Mark your calendars.
  

Winter Adventure to the Northern Lights.

This trip is the trip of a lifetime! Travel by train from Anchorage to Fairbanks and see Alaska in all of its winter majesty.

Your adventure starts with a night at the famed 5-star Alyeska Resort in Anchorage. Take a snowmobile tour on the glacier and head up the Alyeska Aerial Tram for fantastic views.

Then hop on the Alaska Railroad for your trip to Fairbanks. You will stop for a night in Talkeetna, stay at a cozy lodge, and explore the area via a dog sled tour.

The next day, continue your Gold Star train journey to Fairbanks. Once in Fairbanks, you will stay for two nights at the Chena Hot Springs Spa and go on a glacier hike, have a massage, and see the Northern Lights in all their glory.

Airfare not included, itinerary dependent on dates selected. Travel planning assistance included.

This package includes:

• Gold Star train fare for 2 between Anchorage and Fairbanks
• Lodging at exceptional resorts and lodges along the way
• Activities included: a snowmobile tour, dog sledding, ice climbing, massages for 2, and fantastic Northern Lights viewing in winter

Robin Foote and Tom Little

This all-encompassing car care kit includes everything from a car detail, new tires, premium unleaded gasoline as well as other top-of-the-line automotive accessories.

• This package includes:
• Two $250 Vouchers for Automotive Detailing
• Two $450 Vouchers for gasoline from Chevron Techron
• One $750 Voucher from Discount Tire
• Automotive accessories valued at a total of $500
• 
  

DONATED BY:
Joe Boulos
Northwest Fleet & Commercial LLC

Please download the application below.

Have Questions? Please contact Violet Lord, vlord@thefranklin.academy

House Council is excited to announce that there will be a middle school dance on April 29 from 6-9pm! All middle schoolers are invited to attend this semi-formal event.

At this event, there will be an opportunity to hang out and dance with your friends as well as plenty of themed activities for everyone! Japanese snacks will be available to all hungry students, though we do recommend eating dinner first.

Tickets will go on sale March 23rd at the student store for $5 per student. Arigato gozaimasu!

Thank you!

Grace Schmidt, MAT

5th Grade/Middle School Math Teacher

March Morning Greeters

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c45a8ab2da5fa7-morning3

April 9, 9am-12pm Clean up day

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c45a8ab2da5fa7-pals6

April Morning Greeters

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0C45A8AB2DA5FA7-morning4

Chess Club Helper

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c45a8ab2da5fa7-chess

Track and Field practices have begun! Daily 3:15-4:45 @ Markell Hall.

Head Coach Danialle Segebart is a former Track standout Franklin College, an NCAA Div. III school in Franklin, Indiana. She is excited to lead an eager group of Athletes on their Track journey.

Participants need to dress for the weather

Schedule: TBD

Extra Chess Sessions and State Qualifying Tournament Registration

We have added 3 extra Sessions of Chess Club: Thursday March 31st and April 14th. Open to current Chess Club members. Cost:$30

Link to the Annual Franklin Academy State Qualifier Chess Tournament: Saturday, April 16th

https://www.6crickets.com/providerDirectory/US/WA/Bellingham/The-Franklin-Academy-1397386b7a150753/programs/y6vx-m7q2-kmxu/Annual-Franklin-Academy-State-Qualifier-Chess-Tournament?refer=&school=7021

Participants must pre-register. No On Site registration

Cost: $15

Thanks

Stephanie

Nneka London-Browne & Deran Browne

Students in Kindergarten and 3rd Grade

Our family relocated to Bellingham in 2016, we discovered The Franklin Academy, shortly after that. Franklin has helped both our kids come out of their shells. Being from Trinidad and Tobago, education is very important to our family and the school has allowed the kids to grow socially and academically while constantly pushing them forward.

We appreciate the small class sizes, the caring teachers, and the diversity at the school. These past two years have been challenging for everyone, but the teachers and staff at the school provided a bit of stability with our children and they have loved being able to see their friends, teachers, and the staff.

Note: Neaka is Co-President of Parents Actively Lending Support (PALS).

Know a Family Interested in Our School?

Our school grows with parents/guardians enthusiastically sharing about our school program and community. If you know someone interested in learning more about our program or wanting to set up a virtual tour, please encourage them to reach out to:

Admission Director, Natalie Bennett

nbennett@thefranklin.academy

360.733.1750

I have been meditating on, processing, digesting, etc., this quote and I wanted to share it with you all. That’s it. Just the quote for this week. It’s so lovely and moving.

“At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.”

~Albert Manguel, A History of Reading

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Samuel

Why is the letter A like a flower?

A bee comes after it!

Preschool is a fun and exciting place to play and learn. We had a great week preparing for St. Patrick's Day and participating in all the activities of the week. In art the children made a Dancing Shamrock, a rainbow with a pot of gold and for literacy the children all answered the question "I am a tiny Leprechaun, and I am going to hide my pot of gold under?"

This is what the children said.

Brooks "Under my dog!

Cameron "Under my treasure box!"

Clara "Under my pillow!"

Demir "Under my car!"

Emmett "Under bricks!"

Juniper "Under my bed!"

Kellen "Under the water!"

Lua "Under my blanket in my room!"

Lukas "Under a rainbow!"

Lyla "Under my house!"

For Math the children had an activity that taught sorting, color recognition and counting.

When the children arrived at school on St. Patrick's Day they were so excited to see that the Leprechaun had visited our classroom. The leprechaun had turned on Irish music and pushed over Mrs. Ho's rocking chair. The music was so enticing that the children began to dance.

then the children noticed their name tags were upside down.

And that the leprechaun left clues for them to find his pots of gold, but when they found the clues they had to do an activity before they could find the next one. The last clue they found the pots of gold!

But the highlight of their day was when they noticed the Leprechaun had used the potty and didn't flush it. They finished the day eating green popsicles.

To end the week Clara bought items that started with the letter "C" to share with her friends.

For science Mr. Gooey came and taught the children how to make a rainbow with milk, food coloring and dish soap. Preschool is a lot of fun.

In social studies/science we wrapped up Thomas Edison by making play dough circuits. It was really neat, but the little LED lights could be a little tricky. If you'd like to recreate our experiment at home, here is a link to see what we did. https://teachbesideme.com/easy-play-dough-circuits/. Since the LED lights were a little finicky, we borrowed Anaya's circuit kit and practiced making circuits. We also learned what conducts electricity (metal) and what insulates electricity (plastic) by using regular paper clips and plastic coated paper clips. So neat!!!

For the rest of the month we will be focusing on social studies to finish up our unit on famous people. We will celebrate women's history month by learning about some amazing women! These ladies include: Mae Jemison (an astronaut), Eleanor Roosevelt (a voice for human rights), Malala Yousafzai (youngest winner of the Nobel Peace prize), and Susan B. Anthony (fought for women's right to vote). I'm SO excited!

In math we are finishing up unit 10 on equations with teen numbers. We will be taking our test on Monday. We will start unit 11 - counting larger numbers up to 100.

In literature we are going to be focusing on digraphs (sh, th, ch, wh), more sentence writing, and reading comprehension. This will be a big focus through the end of the year.

What a fun week we have had together! The students have been doing a fantastic job with leading their conferences and sharing their academic progress and learning goals with you! I am so impressed with their hard work and excitement for learning.

This week was also very productive in class. Here is what we have been studying in second grade:

Math:

We reviewed subtraction using regrouping and used addition to check subtraction. We reviewed using bar diagrams as a model to solve subtraction equations. We practiced subtracting using open number lines and breaking apart numbers. Students have also been using hundred charts to double-check their answers.

We are coming to the end of Topic 6: "Fluently Subtract Within 100." A math unit review packet is coming home in red folders today. These are due on Wednesday, March 23.

Writer's Workshop:

Students completed their published "Lucky Clover" stories and illustrated them. They did a terrific job of typing these up by themselves using google docs! Students used our March writing menu to select writing topics for their writer's workshop notebooks.

Literacy:

Students practiced reading with expression and retelling the story in sequence as they read in their groups.

Science:

Students reviewed their Balance and Motion Science Journals to prepare for conferences. Students also selected an investigation to share during conferences.

STEM:

Students worked in groups to design and build leprechaun traps! Many students brought items from home to contribute to the construction of these amazing traps! Although the traps were very well designed and built, the leprechaun, Darby O'Gill was too clever for us. He snuck in our classroom before school on St. Patrick's Day and created quite a mess! Gold glitter was scattered everywhere and our chairs and morning work were upside down! What a trickster! Please see our attached photos of our traps and of the teeny tiny note that Darby O'Gill left for our class.

Happy First Day (and a half-ish) of Spring! We came in like a bunch of Spring flowers ourselves, with plenty of pink and pale blues and greens, and even a soft rainbow of colors! Our local weather celebrated with a round of rain, so we will take our Spring Walk another day. We usually use clipboards, pencils and papers as we walk, and those aren't easy to use in the rain!

Hans was our line leader and calendar fixer today. He updated our numbers to show this week's dates, and moved the arrows to show which week is which. Thanks, Hans! Good work! Friday will be an optional Free Dress Friday...

Hans led us to Music and steered us around the puddles and rivers on the way. Mrs. Snyder greeted us with the slide whistle, and we forgot all about the rain as we matched the up and down swoops of the whistle with our arms and selves.Then we tried to match the sound and level change with our voices. We were pretty good at this! In spite of all the giggling! Next we sang the Rattlin' Bog, which we really enjoy. Mrs. Snyder says that "rattlin' means "splendid" which is a very good word, but we like to say "rattlin' " better. She added a very funny line today. Guess what was on that flea? Kindergarteners! Rare, rattlin' kindergarteners! Ho, we did laugh at that!

Our new song today was about Ten Little Bunnies. We happened to have ten students here today, so we each had a solo part. As the music went along, it came to a line that counted down the bunnies, and we needed to jump forward when our number was called. The beat is pretty steady for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, and then it pauses and quickly adds 4-3-2-1! Those last four bunnies had to be fast hoppers, and they did a good job of it! We finished today with the Ally Bally Bee game. Some of us guessed all 3 of our teammates, and some guessed 2 out of 3. We really know our classmates' voices!

This week we will welcome the spring season and learn about flower and plant life cycles. We will also work with the letter U.

Last week we had a lot of fun celebrating St. Patrick's day. Lucky, the leprechaun, stopped by our classroom and left a sweet surprise and some green handprints for the children to find. We also talked about the colors of the rainbow and how they are formed.

In art and math we used Froot Loops cereal to sort, count, and glue onto a rainbow craft.

For science we did an experiment called "walking rainbow." The rainbow paper towel experiment teaches a few basic scientific concepts. When the paper towels are rolled up and placed between two jars, they exemplify capillary action, which is how liquid can move up something, rather than follow the usual pull of gravity and pull down.

We have been having a very festive week enjoying all of the shenanigans that St. Patrick's Day can bring! We were visited by a leprechaun named Fizz! He made a really big mess in our classroom. He left a trail of green glitter, green handprints, misplaced our toys, knocked over chairs, and left behind clues to find a pot of gold hidden in the classroom. Fizz even lost a shoe while doing a little jig. We worked so hard to find it! The kiddos are very good detectives! Thanks for making our party so much fun! We really enjoyed exploring different types of green food!

Here's what else we have been up to:

-Intro to the sh- blend as in shamrock, shiny, shimmer, shenanigans,shoe, and so on.

-Super Sight Word green, blue, purple, look for these color words anywhere while on the go

-All About Number 14, handwriting, tallies, number lines, and base ten+, and number words

-St. Patrick's Day Addition Unit, counting gold coins, and shamrocks addition

-Created big pots of sparkly gold, personalized leprechaun face crafts, and painted St. Patrick's Day hats

-Performed a Shimmering Fizzy Shamrock Science Experiment. Most of the kids worked in pairs to paint shamrocks with green paint that I secretly put baking soda in :) Then the kids added little pinches of green glitter to make them shine. Finally, the kids used droppers to apply vinegar to the shimmering shamrocks to create our favorite acid base reaction.

-We got jiggy with Jack Hartman for a fun St. Patrick's Day Dance and Freeze, worked on a breathing technique called Your Favorite Color, and calmed our bodies by doing St. Patrick's Day Yoga moves like shamrock, pot of gold, and rainbow...

This week was a week full of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with many fun activities. Leon the Leprechaun made a visit to our classroom, although we did not see him in person.

Math

How much gold does it take to sink a pot of gold? This was the question we needed to figure out on Monday. The preschoolers filled out two ten-frames with 20 pennies. They then added coins until their pots sank.

Patterns are an important part of gaining math skills. On Wednesday we enjoyed a fun game of Shamrock patterns.

Thursday was St. Patrick’s Day and we were sent on a treasure hunt. Our class looked for number clues in our school. We enjoyed the treasure we found at the end.

STEM

Each morning this week we have found leprechaun footprints in our classroom, so we decided to design leprechaun traps to catch him, using gold coins as bait. Our Tuesday challenge was to create a trap to catch him.

Gross Motor

We are enjoying many fun movement activities in class. Friday is a wonderful time to work on crawling, tossing, and hitting.

Today we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by wearing green and sharing green snacks. (Thank you for the green snacks that were brought for the class.) It was a half day and we weren’t able to do all our regular learning activities in full but we were able to enjoy St. Patrick’s activities.

The afternoon included student led conferences. Each meeting went very well, the students were amazing at telling what they have learned and showing their work.

Here is our Daily News:

The best part of St. Patrick’s Day was…”

Caden: “I got to get a pot of gold at the chapel.”

Yarinka: “I got to see that everyone had a pot of gold.”

Savitri: “I was happy to see Kellan back.”

Kellan: “I was successful at something I tried today.”

Owen: I got to play with my friends.”

Lola: “I got to wear green at school.”

Toby: “I got to eat green grapes.”

Jena: “I know that Kellan was gonna be here.”

Samara: “I ate my green stuff.”

Xia: “I got to see Yarinka.”

We wanted to send a reminder that all PE shirts and uniform sales are made via the link below through PALS, with all payments being made online rather than through either front desk at Robin or Markell.

https://tfa-pals-store.square.site

Anything purchased will be delivered to your child's classroom. As a reminder, the used uniforms can vary in size due to wear and shrinkage, so it's best to come in and try them on. We are working to add more uniform store availability for working families, hopefully in the evenings (by appointment).

If you shop at Amazon.com, this is a great opportunity to raise money for Franklin Academy. Sign up at Amazon Smile and 0.5% of your purchase price will go towards the FA Annual Fund. Here’s how:

1. Go to Amazon Smile

2. In the “pick your own charitable organization” box type in Franklin Preschool

3. Click on the Bellingham Franklin Academy (may still be listed under St. Paul’s Episcopal School through the summer)

4. Very Important! Please make sure whenever you shop on Amazon you go to the Amazon Smile webpage. If you shop on Amazon.com we won’t receive the donation.

Website: https://thefranklin.academy/
Location: 1509 East Victor Street, Bellingham, WA, USA
Phone: (360) 733-1750
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FranklinAcademyBellingham/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARBJZqnuWM2fzJSJOXO6X6qVO60w_ijnQdCgtmUFYZCSwnd0NO7wI_Jgq5_odVo2A3bLV76Yg91UH5TB

Melanie Hurley, Associate Head of School, mhurley@thefranklin.academy

Dawn Regier, Administrative Assistant Markell Hall, dregier@thefranklin.academy

Rachel Lee, Administrative Assistant Robin Hall, rlee@thefranklin.academy

Natalie Bennett, Admissions Director, nbennett@thefranklin.academy

PALS (Parents Actively Lending Support) pals@thefranklin.academy

After School Care Supervisor Violet Lord vlord@thefranklin.academy