A parent was gracious enough to lend our class a record player and a few records so the class could experience what the “Weird Watson” family experienced as they drove down to Birmingham, Alabama. Most students have never seen the actual size of vinyl records or how a record player works, skips etc. It was quite enjoyable!!

Pinewood’s student council was recognized by Superintendent Tom TenBrink and the Jenison Public School’s Board of Education last night.  Our student council is made up of 12 students ranging from
grades 4 through 6.  These students were selected by their teachers and classmates to represent their classroom.  Each of these students are in charge of attending meetings and then relaying information back to their own classes.  They also have lower elementary mentor classrooms that they share important information with.
This group of students led Pinewood in an amazing spirit week leading up to the homecoming football game and are currently working on some more spirit days to beat the winter time blues. They run a monthly “hats 4 a cause” day where students can pay $1 to wear a hat to school.  Using funds from this, Pinewood’s student council has been able to support our music program, our 2nd grade post
office, ATCP.org, The Jenison High School Pink Out, our intervention specialists, and we were able to support one of our very own families in need at the holidays.
Their largest project was running the Your Change Can Change Hunger campaign to benefit Hand to Hand Ministries. These students advertised and helped build excitement for the drive throughout our building. They counted the money each day and deposited it into the collection containers in the office.  This was all done on their own time, during their lunch and recess.  As a building, because of their tremendous efforts, we were able to raise $1600 for an amazing cause.  Thank you to these amazing leaders for their hard work and dedication!  Pinewood is proud of you!

Missing from picture: Caden DeWent, Kaden Buccholz, and Abbigail Ruf

The 2014-2015 Student Council Members are:
4th Grade: Abbigail Ruf, Claire Vainavicz, Alanah Vitale, Jeneve Windsor
5th Grade: Tyler Curie, Malina Kothari, Ethan Mate,  Sophie Stoetzner
6th Grade:  Kaden Buchholz, Caden DeWent, Elise Kaanta, Natalie Siler

Global School Play Day was created to raise awareness about the necessity of unstructured play.  February 4, 2015, was the first annual Global School Play Day for students in schools around the world, over 60,000 students from 6 continents participated in the inaugural year!  Peter Gray, a researcher at Boston College, argues the case that today’s kids do not grow up playing and that has impacted them in many ways.  It is time we return the gift of play to this generation.

Learn more about Global School Play Day by visiting their website.

View Peter Gray’s TedEx lecture here.

Pinewood students loved participating in the Global School Play Day!

6th graders enjoy playing Lord of the Rings Chess!

1st Graders enjoy Connect Four!

3rd graders love to play!

5th graders love loom bands!

2nd graders playing checkers!