For the last four weeks, our fourth and sixth graders have stepped away from their normal routine and took on a huge challenge that will benefit the students of ZCS for a long time. The “What If? Innovation Project©” challenged the students to design a nature-based playground that encourages play, worship and learning for…
Nature Rich Initiative at Zeeland Christian School Learn. Worship. Play. pt. 1 of 3 In an age of electronics and screens, there is a movement toward integrating nature back into the classroom. Zeeland Christian School (ZCS) is taking the initiative to enhance students educational experience without the use of a screen through the Nature Rich…
The Hearts They’ll Have Mark Sneller remembers his first-day teaching at Zeeland Christian thirty-nine years ago, watching the joyful little students climb the stairs up to his classroom. He also remembers his first fire drill, carrying each nervous child down the stairs so they would not have to exit by themselves, “It’s what you do,”…
I recently listened to a TED talk about the danger of a single story. The speaker was raised in Africa, but she grew up reading American and British literature. This not only shaped the way that she thought about those countries, but it also shaped how she thought about literature. She attended college in…
Guest post by ZCS Board Member Shanda Sprick, read more of Shanda’s writing. In December ZCS mom Jane Klingenberg was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Jane, mom of Kendal in 2nd grade, reached out to a group of moms in her daughter’s class for support via text messages. While she went through various treatments,…
Once a month the middle schoolers at ZCS head to elementary classrooms to help gather the children in their family groups. On these days it’s common to see piggyback rides and hands being held while the kids chat about their days and find their classrooms. The noise erupting from the halls is both rambunctious…
In 2006 Zeeland Christian School was approached by a group of homeschool moms who had dreams to create a bridge to another culture for their children. Zeeland Christian, inspired by this idea, took a leap of faith and launched a Spanish Immersion program enrolling children in three-school, preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. “The…