• Herb's Cider Gathering - CANCELLED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER - The new date for the event is Friday, Sept 24th 4-8 pm

• Cross Country Practice 3:15-4:45

• PALS Meet Up Coffee & Used Uniform Sale 8am - Markell Hall - Outside if not raining
• Cross Country Practice 3:15-4:45
• Board Meeting 4:00 - Markell Hall

• Middle School - Electives Schedule
• MS Cross Country Meet - Pipeline 4:15
  

• Picture Day - Grades 2-8 Markell Hall
• Cross Country Practice 3:15-4:45
• PALS Meet UP Coffee 3:00pm Robin Hall - PALS office

• Picture Day - PS-Grade 1 - Robin Hall
• Free Dress - Markell Hall Only (Robin Hall Free Dress will Be Sept. 30th)
• Cross Country Practice 3:15-4:45

• Herbs Gathering 4-8 pm

  
  

• Robin Hall Free Dress Day - September 30th (due to picture day on the 24th)
  
• TFA Parents Golf - Bellingham Golf and Country Club - October 1st 2:00
• Book Fair - October 4-8
• Read-A-Thon - October 8-22
• No School Teacher In Service Day - October 25th
• Girls Basketball Begins - October 26th

The last Friday of each month is usually our free dress day (non-uniform attire).

This month we will have Markell Hall free dress on Friday, Sept. 24th.

Robin Hall free dress will be Thursday, Sept. 30th because of picture day on the 24th. We want everyone to look sharp in their uniforms for picture day.

Free Dress Guidelines from the Dress Code:

• Clothes must be tasteful, clean and non-distracting. No hats, sunglasses, costumes or inappropriate garments (as determined by school personnel)
• You may wear your uniform on free dress day, if you prefer.

Individual student picture day is coming up quickly. Below are the guidelines for ordering individual student picture packets.

Date(s):

Thursday, September 23rd, students who are in Markell Hall Grades 2 through 8 are scheduled.

Friday, September 24th, students in Robin Hall Preschool through Grade 1 are scheduled.

How to Order Student Picture Packets: Orders will be placed online. The pre-pay order for The Franklin Academy Original Day is now live! Click the link to order now: View Event Use, Event Code: 71LQ7

Must pre-order by: 09/27/2021 - We are excited to announce that photo packages will be mailed directly to your home address this year! If you have any questions regarding photos please contact Professional School Imaging directly, not the school office. Thank you!

All Franklin Academy students and staff will have their individual pictures taken whether or not a packet is purchased, this is for our student files.

Retakes will be at Markell Hall on Thursday, October 14th.

Studio Contact Information

Professional School Imaging

sales@professionalschoolimaging.com

(360) 815-3202

Wow! Amazing to have such a terrific bunch of volunteers to help with drop off.

The extra hands have helped speed up the process tremendously. Thank You! Thank You!

A big thank you to all the parents and grandparents for preparing kiddos to be ready to jump out of the car and start the day. The volunteers have decided that saying good morning and helping the happy, excited students make it from their car to the building is a fantastic start to the day!

We really appreciate your help!

Middle School Cross Country had their first race of the season at Bellewood Farms. One of our lovely parents shared, "I love seeing how happy the kids were with themselves and the support amongst the team!"

The boys placed 1st and the girls placed 4th.

Coach Segebart shared, "I am so extremely proud and happy for them."

Stephanie Fox our Athletic Director is looking for coaches. She said, " I would love to find an interested parent/relative who might fit the job for the following Head or Assistant Coaching positions."

Girls Basketball- Oct. 25th- Dec. 10th

Boys Basketball- Nov. 29th- Jan. 28th

Girls Volleyball- Jan. 31st- Mar. 18th

If you are interested, please contact Stephanie directly: sfox@thefranklin.academy

Robin Hall - Preschool - 1st Grade

Markell Hall - 2nd Grade - 8th Grade

The school parking lot is busier than ever! Spaces are scarce during peak times, so secure your front row parking spot for the 2021-2022 school year now! No more worries about rain ruining homework projects or kids running into traffic.

Your package includes:

• One VIP parking space in front of the Franklin Academy's Robin Hall or Markell Hall for the 2020-2021 school year
• "Reserved Parking" sign customized with your name to mark your space.

The special auction is two weeks away to register click on the box below:

What is Chapel Service Guild (CSG)?

Community Service Projects

CSG is a group of parent volunteers that leads each grade in a community service project. Traditionally, some of our projects include delivering apple baskets to TFA neighbors, Christmas caroling at Woodway Inn Retirement Home or creating pre-made soup kits for the Salvation Army food bank. The eighth graders complete our most ambitious project which is preparing a Stone Soup meal complete with salad, brownies and biscuits for the residents at the Lighthouse Mission. Last year, our projects were completely suspended due to COVID restrictions. This year we will be modifying our activities as necessary to ensure our students and community stay safe and healthy.

Loaves and Fishes

Loaves and Fishes is a group of volunteers who provide homemade meals for Franklin families during times of illness, hospitalization, new babies, etc. Over the past few years, we have provided over 40 meals to Franklin families.

Special Chapel Services

CSG also assists Chaplain Aaron on special chapel days. Volunteers can be found secretly filling students' empty shoes with treats on St. Nicholas Day or waving huge palm leaves around during the Palm Sunday chapel.

How Can You Help?

We are always looking for parents to help plan and carry out our projects. You can join us at our next meeting this Wednesday at 9:30 in the Markell Hall chapel.

You can also volunteer to prepare meals for our Loaves and Fishes program. Any time spent helping with CSG, including meetings and meal preparation, all count as volunteer hours.

If you have any questions about CSG, please contact Christy Fankhauser at christyfank@gmail.com.

We are still working on the final details, but we are excited to have a link to sign up next week. If you have questions, or would like to help with facilitating meal delivery during the week, please contact us.

Thanks,

Sara & Nneka

pals@thefranklin.academy

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We wanted to provide some clarification on the COVID testing we are providing here at school.

In order to be tested at the Franklin Academy, you must have a pre-scheduled appointment.

We cannot accommodate Drop-Ins.

Due to demand, we are not providing same-day appointments. If a student presents with symptoms while at school, with parental consent, we can test them before sending them home.

We understand that testing is limited in our community, but we are not replacing your healthcare provider.

We will NOT TEST students who have Class A COVID Symptoms:

• Fever, chills

• Cough

• Loss of sense of taste and/or smell

• Shortness of breath

We WILL TEST students who have 1 or 2 of the following Class B Symptoms:

• Congestion or runny nose

• Headache

• Fatigue

• Minor sore throat (no fever, no redness/white patches in throat as these are signs you may need to call your healthcare provider.)

We WILL continue to provide “Test to Stay” for asymptomatic individuals who are required to quarantine, such as those who have traveled out of state and close-contacts.

You will need to complete both the online consent form and schedule an appointment to participate in testing.

Best,

Teresa

--

Teresa Hubbell, BSN, RN

The Franklin Academy

Please click on the link below to fill out the 2021-2022 Parent Registration Form ASAP!

This form replaces our previous use of Skyward registration and includes:

• Contact Information
• Emergency Contact Information
• Medical Information including Medications and Allergies and Health Concerns
• Off-Campus Activities Permission
• Media Permission
• Emergency Preparedness

This form is mandatory for all Franklin Academy students and due prior to the first day of school (Sept. 1st).

If you have any questions, please contact thubbell@thefranklin.academy

Congratulations Sophia Chahine!

Sophia graduated from the University of Washington and was accepted into the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Sophia attended St. Paul's Academy, now the Franklin Academy from preschool through 8th grade.

We are so proud of you and all of your accomplishments!

The students created "Mini-Me" scientists this week! We reviewed the scientific process and wrote about how scientists measure and observe carefully.

We also read the book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes and used it as an opportunity to think carefully about how our words impact others. In the book, the main character Chrysanthemum's classmates are unkind to her about her name. As we read the story, each time a classmate used unkind words with Chrysanthemum we took turns crinkling up a big paper heart. Then at the end we tried to smooth out the heart and found that it was hard to make it look like it did before. So then we made a pledge to think before we speak and signed it.

Great job first graders!

(Next week I will attempt to capture more photos haha)

The beginning of the school year has the third grade community learning more about each other by completing various get-to-know-you activities, which help build relationships with each other. One of the activities had us graph information about ourselves, showing our commonalities and differences.

Donald's 3rd Grade Class Worked on an All About Me Graph!

A great way to share with your classmates and practice graphing skills at the same time! The students placed the following information on a graph:

• Number of letters in your First Name
• Number of letters in your Last Name
• Age
• Birth Month
• How Many Brothers
• How Many Sisters
• How Many Pets

Did you know Donald has two brothers and four sisters? Wow, it is fun to get to know our teachers and classmates!

This week our theme is all about apples and we will work with the letter A. We will taste test red, green, and yellow apples. We will then decide which color apple is our favorite and graph our results.

Last week we talked about some of our favorite things, drew our self portraits and our families. We also used watercolors to paint our name mats to help us learn to spell and recognize the letters in our names.

On Friday, we met and had music with Mrs. Snyder. She brought her guitar and shaker eggs and taught the children some fun and silly songs. They had a great time!

Thank you for sharing Pre-K students!

Ms. Dizon shared this:

"For apple Science, the class did an investigation using the apples they brought from home.

Included is one photo from yesterday's experiment which we left out overnight. The students were surprised to see the cut apples turned brown except for the one soaked in

lemon juice."

They also were busy with other apple activities:

-counted apple manipulatives and wrote how many.

-worked on their apple ten-frame worksheet.

Great job Kindergarten Scientists!

Mrs. Killian and Ms. TeVelde shared this:

Literacy

This week we began our writing curriculum, Handwriting Without Tears. Our goal is to introduce correct techniques early, like proper pencil grip, and letter formation. We are working on writing our names. The preschoolers learned a fun song about starting their letters at the top.

Math

We are working on counting and continuing patterns. This week we played a game called Robot Race. The preschoolers rolled dice to add parts to their robot. This introduces one-to-one correspondence, and counting.

Science

Our science focus this week was on magnets. We made predictions on what our magnets would pick up, and then carried out our experiment. We also tested our magnets in ice, and in water.

Music

This week the preschoolers met our music teacher, Mrs. Snyder. She introduced shakers to the class. Music is a fun learning activity, but also teaches self-regulation.

Welcome back, everyone! What a joy to see returning and new (masked) faces this school year. We are thrilled to not have to quarantine library books this year and it is allowing books to circulate much faster.

Please make a note of what day your student has library so you can put their books into their backpacks. Students need to return their books in order to check out new ones!

Kindergarten—Tuesdays

First grade—Thursdays

Second grade—Thursdays

Third grade—Tuesdays

Fourth grade—Tuesday for Ms. Dudley, Thursday for Mrs. Misday

Fifth-Eight grade—Wednesdays

This week we started having a set time for middle schoolers to check out library books on Wednesdays. It was busy! We have some nearly empty shelves because of it, what a wonderful problem.

We are able to accept donations of books (yay!), so if you have some books in good condition that you no longer need, please contact either librarian. Thank you!

tsamuel@thefranklin.academy or jsnyder@thefranklin.academy

Happy Reading,

Mrs. Samuel and Mrs. Snyder

A family of fall leaves were trying to change a light bulb. A squirrel walked by and asked why the bulb wasn’t changed yet. The red leaf said, “Because we keep falling.”

"All about me week" was full of fun packed activities. We started the week by learning the Letter "A" and what sound it makes and the number "0".

The children drew themselves, painted a portrait of themselves, I helped them make a life size drawing of themselves (which you will see when I get them all cut out and hung), and they are learning to write their name.

We sang songs, danced and went on an acorn hunt. We talked about all kinds of things that start with the letter "A" and they got to touch and examine all the items.

On Friday the children made sugar cookies of themselves. How cute. Turns out your children are becoming master chefs!"

Mrs. Owen shared this:

"For Math, we measured our school shoes using unifix cubes. After our measuring, we compared the results and used the cubes to make color patterns. We have also been having a lot of fun getting to know all of our Specialists; music, Spanish, P.E."

For STEM this week, we've been working on building structures out of cups and sticks, and it's been a joy to see them put their heads together and build some truly impressive structures!

We also worked on a color sort activity today with Fruit Loops! They've really been enjoying doing hands-on activities (especially ones with treats they can eat after!)

Brekke Bull is offering this fun elective for middle school. Each Wednesday the students explore new interests by signing up for a wide range of subjects. Here is what Ms. Bull shared:

"Students in our Mindful Arts elective have started their first project. We will be creating a piece of art using recycled magazines as our palette. This method is really fun for students and earth-friendly. Students are currently building a resource of colored papers that, as a group, they will share to build their art pieces. The sound of cutting and paper ripping is apparently "so satisfying" to students. They really had a blast! Any magazine donations would be appreciated as we continue to create our art over the next few Wednesdays" :)

Now is the time!

What information does the Directory contain?

Student Name, Guardians Names, Cell Phones, Home Phone (if anyone still has one haha) and email addresses.

Who gets a copy of the Directory?

Families, Board Members and Staff

What do I do if I want some or all of my information removed?

Email Laura Cabrera: lauracabrera74@gmail.com

Can I still place an advertisement in the Directory?

Yes, please see the attached ad flyer, and send your at to lauracabrera74@gmail.com

Thank you!

Join TFA dads Tom Jentz and Blaise Bucsko for a fun day on the links!

October 1st starting at 2:30 PM through dinner you will get a chance to play at Bellingham Golf and Country Club with other parents of Franklin Academy students! Club members and non members are welcome!

The cost is free to members and $50 for non members.

Space is limited to 16 golfers to sign up by clicking below today!

After you finish your round of golf head to the clubhouse for a bite to eat.

Bruce Reid, our Network Administrator, asked for volunteers for some specific IT needs:

IT Volunteers Needed

Bruce Reid our Network Administrator asked for volunteers for some specific IT needs:

IPad Support at Robin Hall

Updating the iPad's and assisting with the applications. A parent with iPad experience who could work one on one with teachers at Robin Hall on their application needs would be very helpful. Contact Bruce Reid to Volunteer and for more information: breid@thefranklin.academy

IPad Monthly Cleaning at Robin Hall

The iPads are shared, I'd like someone who could spend about 10 minutes every week to a month cleaning them. Contact Bruce Reid to Volunteer and for more information: breid@thefranklin.academy

Laptop Hardware Repair

I have a couple dozen Chromebooks that need some hardware repairs, such as trackpad or battery and/or new keyboard. When ready, these will replace some older Chromebooks currently in use on some of the computer carts. Contact Bruce Reid to Volunteer and for more information: breid@thefranklin.academy

Summer 2022 Volunteers

Next June and summer I need someone(s) with some IT experience but nothing specific. I will provide training on the Chromebook and MacBook laptop conversions for outgoing and income students. You'd be shocked at how much time it takes to update all the laptops in all the carts at Markell Hall. Contact Bruce Reid to Volunteer and for more information: breid@thefranklin.academy

WordPress Expertise and Webmaster

Our current school website uses WordPress. There are some technical issues to sort out that assistance would be appreciated. Basic web design help would also be welcome. Also, if you have a recommendation for a company that can help with web design or development, then please reach out to Admissions Director Natalie Bennett nbennett@thefranklin.academy

We actually do have several volunteer opportunities for those who are fully vaccinated. We will need to have you show us your covid vaccine card.

• Morning Greeters at both Markell and Robin Hall - Thank you to those who signed up!

• Markell Hall from 7:45 to 8:15 am (arrive and be ready by 7:40)

• Robin Hall from 8:00 to 8:30 am (arrive and be ready by 7:55)

• Gardening opportunities

• Watering (we have hose and sprayers)

• Weeding and trimming of shrubs

• Landscaping adding more color to our flower beds

• Spreading the mulch in the front flower beds

• Pressure washing cement slabs in the lunchroom “courtyard”

• Cleaning up the fishpond and surrounding area

• Subs for Lunch/Recess Duty

• Classroom Parent(s)

• Help by sending communications to fellow class parents about celebrations and special events

• Classroom Volunteers

• Speak to your child’s teacher about taking home things to cut out

Contact rlee@thefranklin.academy

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

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

Dawn Regier, Administrative Assistant, dregier@thefranklin.academy

Rachel Lee, Administrative Assistant, rlee@thefranklin.academy

Natalie Bennett, Admissions Director, nbennett@thefranklin.academy

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