• 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Saturna Capital & YMCA Bellingham Windows on State Street www.alliedarts.org

• Happy Mother's Day!

• PALS Weekly Zoom - 8:30 a.m. - https://palsinfo.com/pals-virtual-coffee-and-check-in-tuesday-october-13/
• Middle School - Library Book Check Out 1:00-1:25
• Middle School - Western Dress Day
  

• Middle School - Library Book Check Out 1:00-1:25

• Middle School - Library Book Check Out 1:00-1:25 p.m.
• PALS 101 - Introduction to PALS Webinar - 7:00 p.m. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c45a8ab2da5fa7-pals3

• May 1-15 - PALS Officer and Operating Committee Nominations
• May 28th: Free Dress Day
  
• May 31st: Memorial Day (No School)
• June 15th: 3rd Trimester ends
• June 16th: Last day of School - Half Day

Art Teacher Specialist, Miss Rachel Simpson shares the making of the angel wings. This video can show others the process of putting the students feathers into a set of giant Angel Wings, glued onto large butcher paper. This is a temporary mural installation for the Franklin Academy students, in the 21st Children's Art Walk, in Bellingham WA, on May 7th, 5-8pm. The Angel Wings mural will be located at the YMCA lobby and many of our student's art work will be at Saturna Capital, in downtown Bellingham.

Be Kind, Let's Shine!

Sincerely,

Miss Rachel Simpson

Art Teacher - K-8th

High School Class of 2021!

Join us in celebrating these students who started their education at the Franklin Academy and are now graduating from high school.

We are so Proud of You!

Marissa Douglas attended St. Paul's Academy (now The Franklin Academy) from the toddler program through 1st grade. She is now graduating from Sehome High School.

Marissa will be attending Harvey Mudd College of Engineering in Claremont, CA in the fall.

Cameron began his school career at St. Paul's (now The Franklin Academy) attending kindergarten through 5th grade. He is now graduating from Sehome High School where he enjoyed theater and was on the wrestling team.

Cameron will attend California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo next year.

Jacob started at St. Paul's (now the Franklin Academy) in the toddler program & stayed through 8th grade. He’s graduating from Sehome High School & going to Washington State University in the fall.

Hello fellow Franklin Academy parents,

Can you believe we're heading into the last few weeks of the school year? Normally we'd be busy prepping for Family Fun Night, the Jr. Ski to Sea Parade, and the end of the year picnic. This year hasn't gone to the "normal" plan, but we're still here and running and PALS is determined to help end the school year with style!

Please read on for important updates and links to PALS and school event sign-ups.

Let's finish the year TFA strong! Go Force!

PALS Virtual Family Fun Events

Coming soon to your living room - the last of our series of fun events planned just for Franklin families! Connect with fellow students, families, and parents through this series of fun events custom planned especially for each group. We've partnered with Aireekah of Glitt3rLyfe to be our guest emcee and bring the fun to a whole new level. Just $5 per household to sign up!

Saturday, May 15 7:30 - 9:00 - Parent's Game Show Night - SIGN UP NOW

Saturday, May 22 3:00 - 5:00 - K-4th Grade Trivia and Dance Party - SIGN UP NOW

PALS 101 - Introduction to PALS Webinar

What is PALS? Who is a member of PALS? What role does PALS play within the school structure? How can I get involved with PALS? Get all your questions and more answered during this live Webinar and Q&A session

Thursday, May 13 - 7:00 pm live via ZOOM - Sign up Here

PALS 2021-2022 Officers & Operating Committee Nominations

Parents - we need you to make next year amazing!

PALS is now accepting nominations for all elected and volunteer coordinator positions for the 2021-2022 school year.

Print and fill out the attached form or fill out the online version HERE by Friday, May 21, 2021.

All-School Field Day June 16, 2021

To all the COVID vaccinated parents and family members, we need your help to man a booth at the End of Year Field Day,

As our school year is coming to a close we mean to end strong and celebrate a fabulous group of kids, teachers, staff and volunteers that have helped to make this year possible. This year we will have to miss our annual end of year picnic. Instead we are going to celebrate with an end of year field day! There will be an assortment of activities and play stations for all to enjoy at each school location.

We need parent volunteers to help our teachers and staff run the stations and enjoy the fun!

Please RSVP with a sign up to help and let us know you'll be available to help us celebrate the end of one crazy but highly successful school year!

As always, feel free to connect directly with your PALS presidents at pals@thefranklin.academy or catch up with PALS on our website, palsinfo.com

Attachments area

Heather Carter & Amanda Younger

PALS co-Presidents, 2020-2021

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

Hart Hodges & Dr. Denise Dudley

Daughter's Graduated from 8th Grade

Mia (Graduated from Davidson and starts med school in July) and Cam (Studies at Pomona College)

Our kids went through 8th grade at The Franklin Academy (previously St. Paul's Academy). Looking back, it is easy to see what they gained. For example, our youngest daughter shared that high school was a lot easier for her than for some of her friends because of what she learned at The Franklin Academy. She said she learned how to manage her time and was comfortable interacting with her teachers. In short, our kids got the academic foundation we expected (being on track for multiple AP classes, comfortable in Spanish II as a freshman, good grades, etc.).

But the most important thing they gained by going to The Franklin Academy may be the confidence they developed. The diversity of students at the school, the way the teachers interacted with the kids, and the opportunities for personal growth all helped our girls develop a strong sense of self. And it is that sense - a poise - that we appreciate most looking back at their years at The Franklin Academy.

THANK YOU to everyone who went to Village Books in person or online on Tuesday. May 4th! We both went to the Fairhaven location for a while after school and it was such a thrill to see so many people! Parents were able to chat (man, we have missed that this year), students were able to look at books together, and a number of families ended out on the Village Green eating ice cream!

Thank you for coming out to support our school’s libraries and a local, beloved bookstore. As soon as we have the total sales numbers, we will let you know.

Believe it or not, the time has come to start wrapping up library check out for the school year. The last day for check out will be Friday, May 28th. After that, we need to focus on collecting books and working on inventory (but we will still have library time and do some other fun activities to wrap up the year!).

All library books need to be returned by Monday, June 7th. After that date, we will assume any books still out are lost books and we will start sending out notices to have lost copies replaced. Please make sure your students know that they will need to buy replacement copies if they do not get their books back by June 7th! (And also please let them know that we aren’t meanies! Lost and damaged library books happen all the time, we just want them replaced. We’re not mad, and we won’t be grumpy librarians like they show on TV! Promise!)

As always, email us if you have any questions or concerns.

Robin Hall - jsnyder@thefranklin.academy

Markell Hall - tsamuel@thefranklin.academy

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Samuel and Mrs. Snyder

Why didn't anyone want the biologist's new book?

It was a hard cell.

For Science, we reviewed the Parts of a Flower as we planted our Mother's Day Flowers and discussed what plants need to live, soil, water, air and light.

Makerspace students have been working on lino carvings over the past couple of weeks, learning how to use carving tools and practicing the art of negative space.

Lino printmaking is a method of relief printing, which involves carving a drawing into a soft linoleum block, rolling a thin layer of ink over it, and pressing paper on top to transfer the image. Lino prints look bold and powerful, with hard lines, flat areas of color, and high contrast between the paper and ink.

As I was in the Markell Hall Library with the visiting first grade classes this week, I came across something I had not noticed before. There are plants in the library windows. This in an of itself is not so strange, but upon closer inspection I realized they have names!

I thought I would share this with you and let you know that not only has Mrs. Samuel named the plants, she talks to them. I believe she must have interesting conversations with them, and quite possibly the plants enjoy the stories that she reads aloud each day to the students. They seem to be healthy, happy plants.

I hope all the students enjoy them as much as I did this week.

Heather Black

After a summer without a summer math program, the math teachers are pleased to provide a program this summer. This optional opportunity helps students who need individual help to strengthen weak areas as well as students who want to advance their skills in mathematics.

All students who have registered for next year may attend at no cost.

We will be meeting on the following Saturdays:

June 26

July 10, 17, 24

August 7, 14

Class Hours:

10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Students will be able to play in the gym during break time.

Pick and choose what sessions work with your schedule.

For more details please email Ole Hedahl - Middle School Math Specialist: ohedahl@thefrankln.academy

First grade students had the opportunity to visit Markell Hall on Wednesday. As you might know, Robin Hall hosts students from 2.5 years old preschool to 1st grade. In 2nd grade you begin the year at Markell Hall where the "big" kids attend.

The students were able to visit Mrs. Samuel in the library and one student said, "Wow! we don't even go to school here yet and she is letting us check out a library book!" After library, the class walked over to Mrs. Lyzwinski's 2nd grade classroom. She welcomed the 1st graders in and gave them a quick tour. Everyone then checked out the huge art room, lunch room, chapel, music room, and peaked in at the middle schoolers in gym class.

Everyone left Markell Hall, excited about 2nd grade next year!

The School Rewards program at Lands' End sends a check to our school each year. This check is a contribution from qualifying purchases our parents made on school uniform and dress code apparel.

This year the contribution check came to us in the amount of $1,426.50! Wow!

Thank you to everyone who bought uniforms this year, you may not have know it, but you were shopping and raising money for our school at the same time!

You might recall that we offered this fun opportunity to bid on this items during our online auction last January.

"Enjoy an afternoon sewing a Cute Childs Apron with Franklin Alumni Parent Liz Walker. Liz has been sewing since the age of 5 and has created many of the banners and fabric projects seen at The Franklin Academy over the last 10 years."

The winning bidders were able to schedule with Liz, and check out the cute aprons they created! Liz said, "We had an amazing afternoon sewing aprons. I hope the girls had as much fun as I did!" From the looks on their faces it is clear that they did!

Thank you again Liz for your donation, and thank you for everyone who bid on the auction items making the event such a huge success!

Heather Black - Auction Coordinator

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.

A supportive community with STEM focused education in a safe, small class environment for all grades.

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

Gretchen Bucsko, Head of School: gbucsko@thefranklin.academy

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