The Franklin Academy
The Franklin Academy Weekly Update Newsletter June 7 - 11
Monday, June 7th
Tuesday, June 8th
- PALS Weekly Zoom - 8:30 a.m. - https://palsinfo.com/pals-virtual-coffee-and-check-in-tuesday-october-13/
Wednesday, June 9th
Thursday, June 10th
Friday, June 11th
- 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony - By Invitation Only - Congratulations!!!
Upcoming Dates
- June 15th- Progress reports come home- check your child's backpack!
- June 14-16 - Last Week of School - All School Free Dress - Wash & Donate Used Uniforms
- June 15th: 3rd Trimester ends
- June 15th: Board Meeting 4:00
- June 16th: Last day of School - Half Day - Field Day
Last Day of School Pick Up Times:
11:35 AM Release all Pre-k 4's and 3rd Grade
11:40 AM Release all K and 4th Grade
11:45 AM Release all 1st and 5th -8th Grade
Herb's Cider - a TFA Family Owned Business - Grand Opening Friday, June 4th!
TFA Parent Kristin Beck's Just Published Her First Novel!
ABOUT COURAGE, MY LOVE
When the Nazi occupation of Rome begins, two courageous young women are plunged deep into the Italian Resistance to fight for their freedom in this captivating debut novel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristin Beck first learned about World War II from her grandmother, who served as a Canadian army nurse, fell in love with an American soldier in Belgium, and married him shortly after VE Day. Kristin thus grew up hearing stories about the war, and has been captivated by the often unsung roles of women in history ever since. A former teacher, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Washington and a Master’s in Teaching from Western Washington University. Kristin lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and children. This is her first novel.
"Courage, My Love," and was published by Berkley/Penguin Random House on April 13th! Visit Kristin's Publisher's Page for more information about the novel: https://bit.ly/2OGHvAv
Used Uniform Collection
We will be happy to collect them at drop off. They will be organized, and we will have a used uniform sale toward the beginning of next year. Thank you!
Students Donate Their Pony Tails to Locks of Love!
Locks of Love's mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children free of charge.
Wow! What a wonderful gift to give to other children. You all look great, love the new hairdo's!!
WE HAVE OVER 300 STUDENTS ENROLLED FOR NEXT YEAR!
Our school's growth has a lot to do with our families' positive promotion. Please keep encouraging your friends to join for the 2021-2022 School Year. Several of our sections are filling up quickly. If you know someone interested in learning more about our program or interested in a customized, virtual tour, please encourage them to reach out to:
Admissions Director, Natalie Bennett:
nbennett@thefranklin.academy
360.733.1750.ext 1509
What Our Parents Have to Say
Barbara and Leighton Overson
Children in 1st, 5th, and 7th Grade
We have had a wonderful experience at The Franklin Academy over the eight years our kiddos have been enrolled. We started when our oldest began kindergarten, and it's hard to believe he will be graduating next year!
The small class sizes have made a big impact for each of our children. It enables the teachers to truly attend to each student's individual needs and learning styles, and allows the students to build relationships and community with each other. The teachers provide a welcoming and engaging environment, where Socratic thinking skills are developed from a young age, and reflection and growth mindset are an integrated part of the learning process.
We have watched our children gain awareness of the four core commitments (create, reflect, care, and engage) and apply them at school and in other aspects of life. They have been encouraged to reflect on their values and to consider ways they can contribute to the community.
We appreciate the solid and diverse learning foundation they are receiving from Franklin!
The Reading Corner - With Mrs. Samuel and Mrs. Snyder
I can’t believe it is June! I am so proud of our entire school community for the fact that we have been in person all year.
We are officially done with library book check out for the school year! It is so odd to not put books on display for students anymore.
Our book return bins are overflowing already—THANK YOU! Keep up those library book returns! The deadline to have books back is Monday, June 7th! After that, we will start contacting parents to have copies returned or replaced ASAP!
Markell Hall has a library book return countdown posted in the hall, with each grade getting a daily update on how many books they still have out. And the first class to have all their library books returned at Robin Hall will earn a special reward!
This summer, while your students are missing the school library, be sure to take them to the finally reopened public library! WCLS buildings are open and the remodeled BPL downtown building reopens on June 7th. Both library systems have summer reading programs your whole family can participate in!
Happy SUMMER reading,
Mrs. Samuel
Mrs. Samuel's Joke of the Week
Why does a seagull fly over the sea?
Because if it flew over the bay, it would be a baygull.
Spirit Week Photos! Skater Day, Tropical Day, and Dress to Unimpressive Dress Day!
We have nearly reached out goal for the Annual Fund!
Each year tuition only covers about 65% of the cost to educate each student. We make up for that shortfall with the Auction and Annual Fund. It helps cover teacher's salaries, supplies, building upkeep and so much more.
This year we have a donor who agreed to match all donations up to $100,000! We are at $88,240! This is our final chance to reach the goal and match all the donations. The Franklin Academy is a 501(c)3 non-profit and your donation is tax deductible.
Please consider giving to the Annual Fund Today!
Thank you! Heather Black - Development Director
Kindergarten Balancing Act!
Ms. Olivia Dizon's kindergarten class shared this:
Students built structures out of recycled materials as part of identifying and studying geometric shapes (3-D). The goal was to make the tallest freestanding “building” possible.
Great Job!
Sign Up for Rachel Simpson our Wonderful Art Specialist's Summer Camps!
Enchanted & Magical Art!
Art & Dance Camp – July 5th – 9th, Ages 6-12 years, 11:30-3:30pm, $200.00
Students create their own piece of art in mixed-media to take home. Enchanted & Magical Art includes Forests, Gnomes, Fairies, Wizards, Mermaids, Dragons, Unicorns, & more magical creatures! Artists will make a variety of colorful art using layers of paintings, drawings, clay, & more created in art camp. We’ll experiment with marbling paper, painting, textures, explore drawing such as oil pastels, soft pastels, markers, & printing. Let’s have fun making fairy or gnome doors in clay, do playful art, & use a variety of crafts, felt, & even glue guns!
· Dance Routines
· Dance Games
· Art Projects
· Enchanted & Magical Art with Creatures
· Fairy Doors & Gnomes in Clay
· Painting & Drawing
· Clay & Mixed Media
Teen Artist Camp: Make Paints & En Plein Air Painting
July 14th – 17th, Ages 12-18 years, 11:00am - 1:00pm, $180.00
Join Miss Rachel Simpson in a Teen Artist Camp! Students will learn from an Artist & Art Educator of various ways in which artists create their own brushes, quills, inks, & paints such as: tempera, watercolors, pigments, items found in nature, and things that can be found in the kitchen! We will do art experimentation, drawing/painting both on paper & canvas. Art subjects will be found with observation of still life, landscapes, & looking at nature. This is a 3 day online art class, with the 4th day on the 17th, to have a fun meeting at a local park in Bellingham - Cornwall Park, to paint in the style of en Plein Air with our paints, and art materials in nature together.
Price includes instruction, 3 sessions of online art classes via Zoom, 1-day in-person at a park, & the following art supplies: pigments, essential oils, paint, metallic colors, medium base, wooden dowel, string, paint brush, feather, mixed-media paper, canvas, aluminum tin, half-pans, pallet knife, stir stick, cups with lids, (Optional: Pallet of Watercolors, Bamboo Brush, & various size Paint Brushes). Students need to provide the following supplies: a pencil, erasure, scissors, Elmer’s glue, paper towels, a large glass plate or a glass from a picture frame, a glass cup with a flat bottom, eggs, fork/spoon/small bowl for mixing paints, things found in nature like flowers & leaves, (Optional: items in the kitchen pantry like food coloring and/or spices).
Register: http://www.rachelswhimsicalart.com/art-classes.html
Be Kind, Let's Shine!
Sincerely,
Miss Rachel Simpson
Art Teacher - K-8th
Ms. Camay's Class Loves to Read!
Sophia Camaya shared:
"Our class is loving the book reading headphones, they want to do it all the time! It’s awesome. To have a voice read to you while you follow along is great."
Constellations in Mixed Media Art with Observatories by 7th Grade!
Each student chose which kind of Observatory building photo to draw in pencil & extra-fine-point sharpie, then added patterns of lines, and their constellations. We splattered & painted in white acrylics of stars on top of India Ink for the sky. Lastly, we added the element of texture, with embroidery thread for the constellations.
The results are spectacular in this dramatic black & white art.
~ Miss Rachel Simpson
#BeKindLetsShine #RachelsWhimsicalArt
Mrs. Pickerill's Class is Counting Down Each Day Until Summer!
Mrs. Owen's Pre-Kindergarten Class Brushed Elephant Teeth this Week!
"For Science, we performed an experiment called Elephant Toothpaste! This Fantastic Foamy Fountain uses yeast as a catalyst to produce an exothermic reaction that always impresses. Each foamy bubble is filled with oxygen, and because the reaction happens so quickly it produces heat. WOW! "
Why Is It Called The "Solar" System?
There are many planetary systems like ours in the universe, with planets orbiting a host star. Our planetary system is named the "solar" system because our Sun is named Sol, after the Latin word for Sun, "solis," and anything related to the Sun we call "solar."
Our planetary system is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity — the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, dwarf planets such as Pluto, dozens of moons and millions of asteroids, comets and meteoroids. Beyond our own solar system, we have discovered thousands of planetary systems orbiting other stars in the Milky Way.*
The 5th grade students shared some of their 3D Solar System Projects! Great Work!
*Source NASA - see link below for more information.
4th Grade Creates Wacky Machines - Energy Transfer Project - Rube Goldberg Style!
What is the Wacky Machine Energy Transfer Project?
It is a project where the students utilize all the knowledge the they have gained, during our electrifying ENERGY unit, to build their own crazy machine. The goal being the machine should complete a simple everyday task such as starting a blender.
The students each made a Wacky Machine plan, and drew a blueprint or sketch of their “machine”. They described what types of energy they used and explained what “work” their machine carried out.
Were the student's machines able to accomplish the everyday task they set out to do? You will have to watch the videos below to find out!
Some of the 4th grade students were excited to share their machines with us! Enjoy!
Fantastic work 4th grade students!
Mrs. Misday & Mrs. Dudley
A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way. Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.*
Check out the link below for more information about Rube Goldberg.
*source: Wikipedia
Amazon Smile
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:
- Go to Amazon Smile
- In the “pick your own charitable organization” box type in Franklin Preschool
- Click on the Bellingham Franklin Academy (may still be listed under St. Paul’s Episcopal School through the summer)
- 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.
The Franklin Academy
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
The Franklin Academy Points of Contact
Katie den Hartog, Associate Head of School, kdenhartog@thefranklin.academy
Dawn Regier, Administrative Assistant, dregier@thefranklin.academy
Rachel Lee, Administrative Assistant, rlee@thefranklin.academy
Natalie Bennett, Admissions Director, nbennett@thefranklin.academy