T 712-737-2274 / F 712-737-8608 / office@occhristian.pvt.k12.ia.us / www.orangecitychristian.net

BE THOU OUR VISIONOrange City Christian provides academically sound, Scripturally-directed instruction to assist Christian parents in teaching their children to know God and His world, to develop godly character as Christ’s image bearers, and to acquire knowledge, skills, and values to fulfill their calling as His servants.

APR/MAY 2017

GRADUATION CLASS OF 2017

OCCS held it’s 8th grade graduation on Friday, May 26 at First Christian Reformed Church. The twenty-four students that made up the graduating class of 2017 chose the motto “Trust in You” as the theme for the ceremony. The verse they chose was Proverbs 3:5-6, which reads “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Speaking on behalf of the class were Kerri Kroeze, who walked the class through the memories made over their years attending OCCS, and Laura Beltman, who thanked a variety of people for the time and work they dedicated towards the growth of the 8th grade class. The students also selected Mrs. Nicki Kuiper, math teacher at OCCS, as their class speaker. Her speech centered on the first word of the class motto and verse, the word “Trust”. She spoke on the importance of knowing God in able to develop trust in him. Her speech included a visit from a shady character, helping the class and audience understand what it truly means to know someone. After receiving their diplomas, Bibles, and Psalter Hymnals, the class closed the ceremony by singing “Trust in You” together before departing to an all-class graduation party at Unity Christian High School. This wraps up the time for this group of students at OCCS and we thank them for their contributions and leadership over the past year as “lead” Tigers. We wish them God’s blessings as they begin a new chapter of their lives next fall as Knights. Matt Van Schepen, middle school teacher

Thriving Our theme for this school year was Thrive, Rooted and Reaching. We studied Psalm 1 and organized this theme around the 10 Commandments. That Psalm talks about delighting and meditating on the law of the Lord. When you do that, you will be like a tree planted by water. You will thrive. At Orange City Christian School we get the opportunity to teach the students to meditate on God’s law. It is such a blessing to be able to incorporate God’s word in every subject every day. We get to partner with wonderful Christian parents to help students grow in the Lord. Just like the promise given in Psalm 1, we get to see our students thrive. We took the opportunity as a staff to look back over the school year and see ways we have thrived as a school. These are a handful of examples.

• Preschool - Students became so empathetic. If someone was having a hard day, others would know that student’s specific interest - for example, make them a picture of their favorite color or animal to cheer them up.

• Kindergarten - Kindergarteners learned all of our life verses. Kindergarteners learned to pray with and for each other.

• 1st Grade - New friendships were formed. A student wrote a note on the last day of school thanking her teacher for encouraging two students to play together and had that not happened she said she never would have been friends with the other girl. Those two girls then reached out to another student who didn’t have anyone to play with. The student wrote a story to their teacher about their friendship.

• 2nd Grade - Students worked really hard at using other resources to get them up to grade level in reading. They also worked very hard at adjusting to the new math curriculum and their end of the year scores reflected how hard they worked.

• 3rd Grade - Seeing my students grow in their leading of classroom prayers. Entering my classroom after a year absence due to my treatments, allowed me to share the greatness of God with my students.

• 4th Grade - Students worked hard to support each other in many areas. They took a new student under their wing and accepted him fully. They were strong prayer warriors for each other and for family and friends.

• 5th Grade - Students adjusted to being a part of the middle school even though it was very overwhelming for many of them at the beginning of the year. They came together and were great leaders during the Color Wars with their 4th grade teammates. They took a new student and made her feel welcome, included her in their friendships.

• 6th Grade - Students shared prayer requests often. They had some great conversations around the book of Sounder, showing empathy for the character yet also grappling with the graphic images he imagined about those he hated. What is the Christ-like way for us to live toward those whom we dislike? They were again a blessing to the residents of Prairie Ridge. They were also blessed by their interactions with the residents.

• 7th Grade - Students proved themselves to be Christ-like leaders; they stepped up and helped each other with duties around the classroom. “Out of school” experiences that affirmed our kids and our mission-Chocolate chip cookies and blessing a random couple with $5 at Mac Donald’s.

• 8th Grade – Students know the Shema in Hebrew and English, having it written on their hearts. Seeing much growth in maturity from 6th-8th grade. Continuing to support and encourage each other especially the new students.

• Music - 7th and 8th graders really came together well to put on the “Shrek” musical. Reading through the “Hymn Packets” that the 5th-8th graders do in music was encouraging-especially the 8th graders! It was neat to see what hymns were really meaningful to the students. Several 4th grade students helped a new student to really find his place in the musical and helped to make a new role for that boy!

• Art - I saw growth in student’s behavior and interest develop throughout the year. As the students grow, I was able to witness God working in their lives. This is one of the rewarding parts of teaching students from 1st - 8th grade!

• Counseling – 4th grade girls appreciated the time spent forming friendship groups. All the 4th graders appreciated the time given to prepare them for 5th grade. Exciting to see students use the healthy coping and interaction skills they learn.

• PE - Growth in the way they participate in activities and showing respect to their opponents. • Resource - Seeing small steps made by students that struggle with understanding and need extra practice and

review, and having those students be positive in their efforts. • Enrichment - Excellent preparation for the math bee teams and for the dedication given to reading groups. The Lord has certainly blessed Orange City Christian School this year and allowed us to Thrive. It is fun to look back and see those blessings. May you have a safe and blessed summer with your families. Shalom, Jason Alons

Strings Night Strings Night 2017 was a fun evening of music, instrumentalists and a cast of characters. "Stringing Along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" included some oldies but goodies and some new pop songs! The Seven Dwarfs were "strongly encouraged" by Snow White to find new jobs after the mine closed unexpectedly. No more "Heigh Ho" for these guys! After trying a stint at being "house dwarfs" and even trying to hire Cinderella for a little "light cleaning", the dwarfs were not excited about "putting on their big boy pants" and finding new work for themselves. Snow White persevered throughout the night, even while holding down a day job. She encouraged the men to "whistle while they worked" and even found them a musical gig...playing the triangle at Strings Night. At Strings Night, the 8th graders were recognized for all their years in orchestra with flowers and candy and good byes were said to Shayla Altemeier, Laura Beltman, Summer Bousema, Kerri Kroeze, Levi Moreau, Caleb Rosenboom, AJ Schrock, Andrea Westra and Marissa Wielenga! After Snow White was tricked into eating a bite of apple and fell into a deep sleep, the dwarfs used their time wisely and found new jobs! The first to come up with a plan was Bashful. He saw the curtains hanging in their little "cottage in the...gym" and took them right to Stitch Fix and Jenny Vogel who taught him how to sew those curtains into fine shirts for the 7th grade boys who then wore them to play a song from "Sound of Music!" Next was Sleepy. His brilliant plan of being a substitute teacher worked out well until the students changed his coffee to decaf! But all was good; the kids were happy and the teacher got a nap Sneezy was hired by Ken Fry and Centrum Photo to film a cold medicine commercial. Sneezy was very happy to make his mark in the filming industry and did a great job of portraying himself and his new cold medicine gave him a new lease on life…no more sneezing! Happy and Grumpy went out as a team to apply at Don’s Food Center. Betty Root was more than happy to show them the ropes. Unfortunately, Grumpy could not agree with the “customer is always right” plan and so found himself advertising a milk sale on the corner. But, a job’s a job! Happy was very happy to do whatever job Betty showed him, in the happiest way possible. From facing the shelves to helping customers, Happy gave it his all and was rewarded with a Don’s apron and a new job! With a name like Doc, Doc thought he was a shoe in for a doctor job. After being turned down at the OC Hospital, The Vet Clinic AND Northwestern College, Doc found his niche right at OCCS under the tutelage of Pat Ahrenholz as the school nurse! Doc helped the 8th graders take care of a lot of tricky medical situations and fit in nicely in the office.

Last, but not least, was Dopey, who sent for a motorcycle course and became very handy at fixing and riding bikes. Everyone was surprised at this mild dwarf when he came riding into the gym on his very own motorcycle! And Snow White? Did she sleep forever? Of course not! Her Prince Charming came on to the scene just in time, kissed her awake and then took her out of the gym on his motorcycle! A happily ever after ending if there ever was one. Special thanks to… …the orchestra students for working hard this year to learn lots of new music, performing at lots of different venues and being a blessing ….Andrew Wolgen…for bringing his great drumming talents to our show …Ruth Greving and Greving Graphics for making all the dwarf shirts ( for the seven dwarfs AND 38 students) …Betty Root, Ken Fry, Jenny Vogel, and Pat Ahrenholz for being willing to give the guys new jobs …Our motorcycle drivers …Cinderella…Karlyn Brunst AND…..Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs…and Prince Charming (Kim and Aaron Huizenga, Travis De Jong, Rob Hofmeyer, Matt Van Schepen, Jason Alons, Peter De Jong, Randy Hilbelink, and Darrel Kroese) Dixie Wielenga, music teacher

Labels for Learning Thank you to all who turned in labels this school year. Can you believe that we collected more than 25,000 labels this school year? We appreciate all who helped us collect these labels! Mrs. Witt's 4th graders brought in the most labels this year. They were rewarded with donuts and a party during the last week of school. The 6th graders and Mrs. Juhl's 2nd graders also brought in many labels and were able to enjoy donuts also.

During the 2017-2018 school year we will continue to collect Boxtops, Loaves 4 Learning, Tyson Project A+, and Pizza Ranch wagons. We no longer will collect Labels for Education which were found on Campbells soups among other things. This program is being discontinued by the company. Thank you for your continued support! Jen Wielenga

Goodbye to Staff At the end of this school year we have two staff members who are moving on from our school. We appreciate their service to our school and our students. They will be missed.

Samantha Winn has been a classroom aide for three years. She helped out in kindergarten, first grade, middle school, as well as many other classrooms as needed. She was always willing to help where she could. She is moving on to take the role of regional director of Moms in Prayer. Paula Ribbens has been at our school for 31 years. She is retiring after 35 years in education. Her first year at OCCS was teaching in the 5th grade. She then moved into teaching Enrichment and being in charge of our technology department. There she taught computer classes to students and how to use technology in the classroom to teachers. She helped increase our technology footprint at the school and helped keep it running smoothly. Thank you to both of them for all their work at our school!

K-4 Musical The K-4 musical, Acorns to Oaks, was a fun 'farm life" story that taught us to "Thrive!" Mr. and Mrs. McDonald and their Granny Grams were planting the crop as quickly as possible because of a "big, bad weather situation" forecast on KFRM radio news. With the help of the neighbor kids and the farm hands, as well as some friendly animals and some clever "inventors," the crop got planted (no thanks to the birds and the weeds!) and the kids learned how to "thrive" as they were reminded how to grow in their faith… … from little acorns to oaks!

A Gift in Our Design Imagine. Imagine a world without color. Imagine an animal that has never been seen before. Imagine designing a tree house castle. Imagine life without the ability to imagine. Our imagination is a special gift that God included into our design. As far as we know, no other creature has been blessed with this special gift. “The imaginative child will grow up to become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, invent, and therefore to foster civilization,” L. Frank Baum. This quote emphasizes the importance of developing imaginative skills. Art class is one of the experiences at OCCS that allows for the opportunity to imagine. Many artistic ideas must be imagined before they can become “real” with paint or clay or any material for that matter. A reward for a hard working imagination is the opportunity to share the visual result with others. A number of opportunities have surfaced for students this year. At the beginning of school year, the OCCS Parent Directory cover is designed by a 3-8 grade student. This year’s cover exhibits the work of Raeleigh Raines, Madelyn Huizenga, Courtney Joiner, and Carson Noteboom. Two OCCS student’s artwork were accepted into the Youth Art Month Exhibit at the Sioux City Art Center. Katelyn Huizenga and Aubrey De Groot’s abstract paintings were selected. Aubrey’s painting was awarded Director’s Choice. Lastly, 2nd and 3rd grade students created Eric Carle style collages that were displayed at the Orange City Public Library and Unity Knight Center to accompany the performance of the Little Mermaid Theatre. Additional opportunities for students is Interscholastic Art. Two students each in grades 3-8 grade enter artwork along with other Christian schools during April at the Sioux Center Mall and Sioux Center Christian School. The exhibit opportunity that ends the school year is the Tulip Festival Art Exhibit. Being able to share God given artistic talents in the community is a valuable part of the imaginative process. Sharing our talents so others can see them provides real life experience that artists often enjoy.

Sue Siemonsma, art teacher

Preschool report It is difficult to believe that the 2016-17 school year has ended. Once again the preschool year sped by. It was a blessing to watch all 47 preschool students grow and mature throughout the year. In addition to learning “ABCs and 123s” we were blessed to learn many things about being part of a class - things like sharing, taking turns, walking quietly through the halls (halls are really not made for walking when you are full of energy and 4/5 years old), listening to others speak, and waiting for your turn to talk. Most importantly we learned more about the God who made us and filled His world with wonderful things to learn about, the God who loves us and who wants us to love Him and others. According to the preschoolers, some of the best things in preschool were snack, playing in the gym and outside, Mr. Bones (the school skeleton we used when we studied the body), playing games, making things, riding the bus to the fire station and having the firemen visit us, learning about wheels at Kingston’s dad’s “store” (aka Keizer Wheels), hatching butterflies, making worm farms, playing with our 4th grade friends, having our dads come for play time, making a craft with our grandpas and grandmas, having a program for our moms, doing the “New Chicken Dance”, and singing “Lord of the Universe." You can probably tell that there is never a dull moment in preschool. We are thankful to God for a wonderful year and ask that He continues to bless this class of preschoolers in the future. May He always be not only the Lord of the universe, but also the Lord of each preschool student’s heart.

Kim Starkenburg, preschool teacher

Sports Report As we wrap up another school year, we also wrap up our final sports season of the year. Our Junior High students had a very busy spring with less than ideal weather. We had a total of 41 boys and girls participating in soccer and 35 students from 6th-8th grade participating in track and many of them participated in both. Weather conditions were not ideal for our spring athletes. We had soccer games in rain, snow and occasional sunshine. We had 3 scheduled track meets this year and only one ran as scheduled. One meet was rescheduled twice before finally being cancelled and one was postponed! Even with less than ideal conditions, our student athletes had great seasons. Our boys’ and girls’ soccer players combined for a record of 9-5-2 with many great games! Our track students also had a successful season as we saw meet records tied or broken. We had an 8th grade girl break the school discus record that has stood since 1990! Congratulations to all of our soccer and track participants on a great year! I would like to thank our coaches this spring. We had Jason Alons coaching both soccer teams and Karlyn Brunst and Melanie Witt coaching track. Thank you for taking the time to invest in our Junior High students and coaching them this spring. Your work did not go unnoticed!

One final thank you goes out to our parents! I’m thankful to work in a school with great parent support. You have helped our Athletic program in many ways this year whether it was driving the kids around, helping with scorebook or scoreboard, or just supporting from the stand, we appreciate the help! Travis De Jong, Athletic Director

Monica update The many hands, hearts, and heads of OCCS parents have proven once again that when people work together as a team and for one purpose, great things get done. It was a cold and rainy Tulip Festival but our soup was hot and our hospitality warm; because of this we were blessed with a successful year! Even though we increased our quantities we still ran out of some items. Thank you to all who came out and supported the tent. Thank you to all the associates who were generous with their time and baking skills. Thank you to all who worked many hours preparing the food, worked their shifts and helped clean up. It is all greatly appreciated! Summer is upon us and it is easy to get out of “Monica mode” but please be mindful to check your email for the pop can trailer schedule. This fund raiser costs us very little and is quite profitable for Monica. Please show respect to other parents by taking your turn when you have been assigned to sort the cans. Also, please show respect to Tonya at OC Redemption Center by bringing the cans when she is open and not just dropping off the trailer. Lastly, show respect to each other by making sure the cans you are dropping off are refundable, does not include dog feces and isn’t garbage; five cent redeemable items only please! If you have any suggestions for changes in Monica’s fundraisers next year, please contact me or another Monica board member. Melanie Van Grouw, Monica Board President

IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER

June 6 Pick up report cards from OCCS office July 3 & 4 Office closed, holiday weekend July 5-7 Office open, TRIP available for purchase July 10-28 School closed, no TRIP sales August 8 & 14 Registration for 2017-18 school year, OCCS gym, 6:30 - 8:00 August 22 6:30-8:00 p.m. Back-to-School Night August 23 First day of school for 2017-18 school year 8:45 Dedication Service at First CRC September 4 Labor Day - No School September 5 Preschool begins

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION UNITS Requested Contribution Balance Church Unit for 2016-17 2016-17 Remaining Calvary CRC 74,400.00 74,400.00 0.00 First CRC 55,800.00 51,902.76 3,897.24 Hospers CRC 3,100.00 3,100.00 0.00 Immanuel CRC 99,200.00 99,003.20 196.80 Living Water 40,971.38 37,988.50 2,982.88 Redeemer URC 48,050.00 48,050.00 0.00 Other Supporting Churches 5,425.00 5,425.00 0.00 Partner Society 56,998.27 48,888.27 8,110.00

Board Report – June 2017 • May balance sheet - $589,536.68 • The board continues to research and discuss building needs and possible expansion ideas. While focus group meeting

dates have not been set, the board does plan to hold them in the future. • Congratulations to the 8th grade graduating class. May God bless your high school years! • Thanks to Samantha Winn and Paula Ribbens for their years of service at OCCS. We pray God’s continued blessings

for you in your future endeavors! • Jo Ellen Harvey has been hired as a 6th grade teacher for 2017-2018 year. Welcome Jo Ellen! She is filling Kim

Philipsen’s position as Kim is moving to our TAG (talented and gifted) program. • The board approved using OCCS grounds as a family-friendly camping area for RAGBRAI. Plans are being made to

serve a meal Saturday evening. • Registration dates for the 2017-2018 school year have been set for Tuesday, August 8 and Monday, August 14 from

6:30-8:00 p.m. • The fall Society meeting will be Monday, September 18 at 7:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Anita Nykamp, board secretary

TRIP News Summer hours for TRIP are Monday through Thursday from 7:30am to 12:30pm. The TRIP office will be closed July 3 and 4 for the holiday, but it will be open Wednesday through Friday that week to accommodate orders before the shutdown. The shutdown will be from July 10 through July 30.

You can now purchase a gift card for your Amazon prime membership. The rebate percentage is 8%. Remember to use your De Zoete Winkel cards before they close their doors in July. Kim Vande Zande, TRIP Coordinator