West Ottawa Public Schools
Pine Creek Elementary April 18, 2025
Important dates to remember
Tuesday April 22: 5th grade MSTEP testing day: ELA
Wednesday April 23: Half day of school for students (dismissal at 11:52 AM) staff PD 12:45-3:45 PM
Thursday April 24: 5th grade MSTEP testing day: social studies
Thursday April 24: Family Reading Night from 5:30-7:00 PM
Friday April 25: Kindergarten field trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center 9:00 AM-2:00 PM
Friday April 25: 4th grade field trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center 9:00-2:00 PM
Pine Creek Families,
Welcome back, Pine Creek families! We hope you had a relaxing and refreshing spring break. As we return for the final stretch of the school year, we’re excited to continue learning, growing, and celebrating all the progress our students have made. Thank you for your continued support—we’re looking forward to a strong and positive finish to the year together!
MSTEP: MSTEP testing will officially start this week for our 5th grade students! Our 3rd and 4th grade students will begin testing next week. This important test is given to measure student progress in the areas of ELA, math, for 3rd-5th grade students, and for 5th grade students, science and social studies as well. Please encourage your students to try their best and get plenty of rest the night before tests.
Panther Pathways: Our final session of Panther Pathways started this week. Our 4th and 5th grade students will be participating in boys flag football, girls soccer, and craft club. Thank you to our awesome staff members for helping coach and lead these extra curricular opportunities for our students. We give a special shoutout to Mrs. Fairfield, Mrs. Panse, Miss Jarzambowski, Mr. Kegan, Miss Dee, and Mrs. Vriesema for helping with session 5 of Pathways!
Reading Night: Our Pine Creek reading night will be on Thursday April 24 from 5:30-7:00 PM. We will be doing a Blast Off Into Reading theme this year complete with Bingo, a book walk, book giveaways, a special galaxy snack, and so much more! Flyers for Reading Night will go home with students this week with more information.
Tulip Time Parade: Permission slips to march in this year’s Tulip Time parade went home with students earlier this month. If you would like your child to participate in the parade this year, please return the permission slip right away. All students must wear a Dutch costume to participate, and we have costumes available for students who need them. If you have any questions regarding the parade, please contact the Pine Creek office at 616-786-1600.
Half Days: We have another half day of school coming up on Wednesday April 23. This is due to teachers and certified staff members having professional development. Dismissal is at 11:52 AM on half days of school. Thank you for picking up your students on time!
Enjoy your weekend!
Mrs. Rios
Music Notes
Welcome back to all of you! We are in the final stretch for the year. We have 8 weeks yet
together for this school year, however, in your special classes that means we are together only 8
more days. So, we have lots of ground to cover in our last 8 visits together this year. In 4th and
5th grade we continue to work on our recorders. 4th grade classes are going to do centers in
the next few weeks with their recorder curriculum and perform in small groups for me. They
have really progressed with their tone and breath control on their recorders. I look forward to a
week of centers soon and performances. In 5th grade we have learned 7 notes and have only 2
left to learn. They are truly hard workers and play absolutely beautifully. We continue to work
on our recorder packets as well which is helping them learn basic music theory as we prepare
them for band, choir or orchestra next year in the 6th grade. Kindergarten is working on some
fun spring songs about bees. We are beginning to introduce long and short sounds as we
prepare for 1st grade when we start reading notes on the staff. In 1st grade we are playing
steady beats on our big bass xylophones. They are also playing on our alto xylophones while
singing. They enjoy playing the bigger instruments and want to keep taking several turns. It is
great to see them so excited about music! 2nd grade is also getting time on the bass
xylophones and the glockenspiels. We are singing a “do, mi, so” song about a mouse in the
house. They have several opportunities to play during this song and like our 1st graders want
several repeated turns. Finally, 3rd grade is finishing learning about our 4 families of
instruments in the orchestra. It has been fun for them to see how the instruments are played
and to hear the individual voices of each instrument. They are beginning to understand how the
families have similarities and differences that carry over to each other. They ask such wonderful
questions, it has been a delight to watch them learn about the instruments.
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Mungia
