News and Announcements

Something fishy happens every year in Curt Wissink's Page Elementary classroom and students say it's a lesson they'll never forget. As the salmon Page Elementary fifth-graders raised for months were released into the waters of the Grand River near Lowell, students paid special attention watching the fish swam into the river for the first time and wondering how many would come back to the same river for spawning some day.

This year’s Page Elementary Battle of the Books champion is fourth-grader Lucy Teunessen with the runner-up, fourth-grader Elise DeBoer. Students read books during March’s reading month celebration, then had classroom competitions where they answered questions about the books. The winner from each classroom the competed in the school-wide finals competition.
The battle encourages students to not only read, but also encourages retention of facts and information from the books.
The 16 finalists took turns answering questions about the books they read, taking 13 rounds before the winner was crowned.
Other finalists were Emma Reil, Aaron VanderWalt, Colton Wieringa, Grace Rabley, Devon Barnill, Aveline Jordan, Abigal Dumond, Tyler Voss, Caleb Summerhays, Hudson Thomas, Cohen Hautau, Kaylee Green, Hailie Zahl, Evelyn Callahan.

Ellie Baranek rubbed her hands quickly together until she felt the heat building up in her palms. The fourth-grader quickly realized her action created friction that in turn created heat. "It's motion energy to heat energy," she deduced.
Her classmates rotated around the room to six different stations where they tried to answer the question "How do we know energy is present and moving in a system?" They also gained an understanding of how energy is transferable.

Imagination and creativity got a boost in Stacy Sikkema's fourth-grade class with 3Doodle Pens. With the help of a Donor's Choose grant, Sikkema purchased 12 pens and supplies to be shared with the 28 students in her class.

Two Odyssey of the Mind teams from Page Elementary will advance to the state finals March 17 hosted at TK Schools. In all, Thornapple Kellogg Schools will send eight Odyssey of the Mind teams to the state finals - two from Page, four from the Middle School and two from the high school.

At STARBASE Battle Creek, located on the Air National Guard Base, the four-girl team of Page Elementary fifth-graders knew the landing was a one-shot event. Survival with bruises, bumps and cracks was okay, but oozing any kind of liquid -- not so much.

Kenzee Knight is the Page Elementary School spelling bee champion and Andres Ruiz is the runner-up after a hotly-contested spell-off. The two will represent Page at the regional spelling bee in Caledonia Feb. 27.

Kenzee Knight was covered with stickers labeling her eyes, ears, mouth, hair, chin, face in Spanish. "I like Spanish and I wanted to learn more," said Knight one of the 17 students who completed a four-week community enrichment Spanish course.

Thornapple Kellogg fifth-grader Shannon Szukala filled his hand-made ceramic bowl with scoops of ice cream, covered with toppings, sprinkles and whipped cream.