From the Desk of Someone: School Choice

In West Michigan, families are blessed with a variety of school options for their children. Opportunities include public, private, charter, homeschool, and more!

This is an important decision for parents and there are many factors to consider. This article below from the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education (CACE) is a helpful resource for reflection!

If you want to learn more about why BCCS may be a great option, contact us today!

Andrew Reidsma

Director of Operations and Family Relations

Third Grade Pen Pals

All year long, the third graders have been pen pals with a senior friend or relative. It ties in with their writing curriculum and their desire to serve God. The students love getting mail from their pen pals and the senior pen pals often mention how much they appreciate it. 

Recently, the third graders invited their pen pals to a time of worship, fellowship, and making a craft. The afternoon was enjoyed by both the young and not quite as young. Several of the seniors mentioned how much they enjoyed getting the mail, the students’ beautiful singing, and the bonds that were created or strengthened. 

One senior pen pal shared her special story. She explained that her walking mailman would hold up her letter and bring it to the door. She would then show it to him in excitement (they even plan to keep writing after third grade)! 

Not only are the third graders practicing letter-writing skills, but they are also learning how God can use that skill for reaching others as they grow in His kingdom.

From the Desk of Someone: Kindergarten Science

In kindergarten, our teachers work to develop confidence, independence, and a love of learning as children grow. Recently in science, our students learned about weather, living things, seasons, and the sun. Within these topics they studied how animals and people protect themselves from the sun. 

As summer approaches, the teacher, who recently had skin cancer, wanted students to consider a real need and understand the importance of sun protection. To make this learning meaningful, she invited one of our parents, a true expert in skin cancer research at Pfeifer Laboratory– Van Andel Institute, into her kindergarten classroom. She was able to share her knowledge and deepen student learning. 

Following their learning, students wrote lists comparing the sun and God's Son. They were reminded that the sun has positives and negatives, but God’s Son has all positives. They attached these lists and an informational sheet about how to protect yourself from the sun to a pair of sunglasses. They each took one pair home and also got to hand one out to other people  with the attached lists and helpful information. Our students were able to share what they learned as a way to meet the needs of those around them. This fit in with their class Storyline “Let Your Light Shine,” as students were able to help people protect their skin and share the good news that Jesus is the light of the world.

This is a great example of how we connect learning (science, seasons, the sun, and living things) to real people (bringing in an expert and sharing the information with others). This is one way we deepen learning at BCCS. Not only will this help students remember what they learn, but they will also see why it is important!

Andrew Reidsma

Director of Operations and Family Relationships

Community Building in First Grade

Recently, our first grade teachers read The Girl in the Yellow Dress to their students to go along with their devotion theme of kindness. This book is about a child who fills her dress pockets with food in order to feed her family. Students were quite bothered by this story and the concept of hungry children. After talking with their teachers, they were eager to take action and help hungry kids right in our own community. Teachers invited a representative from Hand2Hand to share about their ministry of feeding hungry kids in Byron Center. The first graders were inspired to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

To deepen learning, our first grade teachers paired this opportunity with curricular standards. They reframed their informational writing lessons and had their students compose a letter to their parents explaining the ministry, sharing their desire to help, and requesting specific food items.  These writing lessons hit the learning target of clearly communicating using writing. Families read the letter and were excited to respond with mac and cheese, cracker packs, meat sticks, and Ziploc bags.  After the items were collected, students further practiced writing skills by adding jokes to be placed in the goodie bags. (Our first graders love to tell silly jokes!) Next, the first graders visited Hand2Hand, learned more details about the ministry, determined what food needed to go in each bag, and packed the items themselves. 

The teachers later commented, “We found purpose in writing, rather than just learning isolated skills. This experience will also be helpful to reflect on when we study needs and wants in social studies soon.” Thinking about the children who would receive the food packs, the students reflected, “They will feel God in their hearts!” “They’ll think people care about them.” “The kids are going to smile.”

The long-term goal was to empower young learners to make a difference in God’s world. Students were community builders by meeting the needs of hungry children and by using their words to encourage those around them. To connect learning to that goal, they used their new writing skills to make it happen!

From the Desk of Someone: Writing and Bible

Are Christian schools different simply because we offer Bible classes, prayer, chapel, and other faith-related practices during the day? While those are vital aspects of helping our students be deeply rooted in God’s Word, our goal is to ensure learning not only helps students see God’s story but also helps them discover ways to live it. 

For example, in 4th grade, teachers recently worked through a writing unit. Short-term goals centered on effective writing using the elements of poetry such as feelings, similes, rhythm, haikus, etc. However, the long-term target for the unit was “I can use my words to discuss and celebrate God’s story” which is also connected to a Bible learning target of “I can use poetry to express my thoughts and feelings about God.” The class was given the opportunity to share their work during chapel so that they engaged with a real audience. Ultimately, we wanted them to practice expressing their faith through writing.


We want our students to be effective writers and gracious communicators. We want them to be able to discuss and articulate their faith to those around them. The above excerpt is just one example of how we design learning so that we are intentionally working to be excellent, rooted, and prepared at Byron Center Christian. That is why we are here.

Andrew Reidsma

Director of Operations and Family Relationships

Bringing Learning to Life

How do our fourth grade teachers take geography lessons and bring them to life? They design lessons that include experienced people, a challenging simulation, and a thoughtful reflection. Our 4th grade teachers explain: 

In our learning about human geography, our students discover why and how people come into the United States and the effect that has on culture. We are excited to teach our students the importance of this topic through the lens of Christian Kingdom building. We know that it is highly influential to hear from someone who experienced this journey first hand, so we invited a Byron Center couple who immigrated from the Netherlands to speak with us. They shared their experiences, including their reasons for wanting to move and the challenges they faced. Students examined their visa paperwork and green card, and asked them all sorts of thought-filled questions. We then invited the students to listen to and reflect on stories of young immigrants as well as the history of immigrants through Ellis Island. The intent was for students to put themselves into the shoes of an immigrant to learn more about God’s people. Our long-term target for students was: I can recognize how I am to respond as a Christian to the beauty in diversity and challenges that may occur. 

As we thought about immigration throughout the history of the United States, students recognized that being an immigrant has many challenges. One of those challenges is packing essential  belongings to permanently move to a new country. 

To gain empathy for this particular challenge, students engaged in a suitcase simulation. During this simulation, students practiced empathy by living out of a suitcase for a day. They pondered what it would be like to put what they have in such a small case. What would they pack? What would get left behind? Students carried their carefully packed suitcases for a full school day. They ended the day saying, “That was a lot harder than I thought!” 

This immigration experience allowed our students to wonder, explore, and discern. We are excited our 4th grade teachers and students found ways to develop genuine empathy for God’s people.

Authors and Masons

Learning abounds in our preschool classrooms, where our teachers design play-based environments to promote learning which focuses on the whole child. Throughout their day, students participate in a variety of activities including centers and small groups where they receive targeted instruction. Teachers continually track progress and modify instruction to nurture learning for each child. Our curriculum integrates 36 learning objectives ranging from academic skills such as early literacy, mathematics, and science, to emotional awareness and social skills. We offer a wide variety of preschool programs, but all options use the researched-based The Creative Curriculum. 

In addition, the Teaching for Transformation framework ensures that students engage with real people and do real work within the context of God’s story. Children are invited to be part of God’s redemptive work. Recent examples of this include authors and masons!

During their unit on trees, our preschoolers created a book full of information and pictures and published it on Amazon so others could enjoy trees as part of God’s creation. Proceeds from the book sales will be used to purchase more trees for our West Campus. 

In another classroom, preschoolers were learning about buildings. To deepen learning, teachers invited a local mason to demonstrate his work. Students learned all about masonry, helped him mix and lay mortar, and even built a wall with their own bricks! 

The development and learning that occurs at the ages of three, four, and five is foundational, and the joy found in our preschool rooms as children count, read, play, and sing is fantastic. Most importantly, we invite our students into God’s story by connecting their learning to His plan as soon as they begin their journey at BCCS.

Campus Planning

It is with great excitement that we embark on the next phase of the BCCS Capital Campaign titled “With Faith.” This slogan embraces our unwavering belief that God is leading us to embark on a journey to expand and renovate our West Campus to accommodate our growing enrollment and to upgrade learning spaces for our children.

This year, our West Campus celebrates 75 years of serving the Christian school community in Byron Center. In 1948, the day the school building opened its doors for the first time, students carried their books two blocks from the old school to the new school, which then consisted of 220 students in kindergarten through 10th grade.

Currently, the West Campus serves 240 students in preschool, junior kindergarten, and kindergarten alone, with kindergarten projected to be our largest grade next year. With better-utilized spaces and flexible programming to meet the needs of our families, we are seeing our growth align with that of the Byron Center area over the last decade. The beautiful building and campus is the gateway to our school, and it is in need of investment to better serve our children and families as well as fulfill our mission of providing an excellent, Christ-centered education. We look forward to preserving the legacy of this building for generations to come.

Since BCCS has experienced consistent growth over the last 5 years and has implemented the necessary programming to transition from two homerooms to three homerooms moving forward, additional space and balance between the two campuses is much needed. To accomplish this task and prepare for needed classroom space in a few short years, we plan to add four new preschool classrooms, three additional classrooms, a dedicated media center, and a secure main entry to the existing facility. This will double the size of the current building, allowing us to balance both campuses with 350-400 students each by bringing 1st and 2nd grades back to the West Campus upon the project’s completion.

More detailed information will be shared soon, along with a public launch event, as we continue to work with CarbonSix Construction, The Architectural Group (TAG), and the many contractors that support our school and mission in the coming months. 

As we prayerfully move forward “With Faith,” the generous support from our Christian school community is necessary. If you would like to see a more detailed plan of the project and how you could significantly bless what God is doing at BCCS, please contact Ron Fles, Director of Development, at fles@bccs.org or James Onderlinde, Administrator, at onderlinde@bccs.org for additional information.

As we stated in our last Perspective article, “With Faith,” all things are possible. “With Faith,” we have hope. “With Faith,” God will provide the funds necessary for the Byron Center Christian community to continue to carry out our mission. 

Blessings,

James Onderlinde - Administrator

Mike Wolf - BCCS Board President

From the Desk of Someone

From the Desk of Someone is purposed as a monthly blog post shared by a BCCS staff member. It will include general school information and updates as well as quotes and other thoughts to spark reflection.

What did I Hear?

Last week, as devotions began in the middle school hallway, a staff member and I heard a trendy pop song from one of the nation’s most popular artists blaring from one of our classrooms. After identifying the artist incorrectly and being corrected by my more hip and musically-informed colleague, my curiosity remained and I paused in the doorway to listen. 
Stepping back, I am often asked what type of school BCCS is, and part of my answer always includes that we strive to provide an authentic, reformed Christian education. While that is a larger topic and conversation, what I observed that morning is a great example of what it means to be reformed as we prepare students for life in God’s Kingdom. 

Now let's get back to my classroom observation from the doorway. At the conclusion of the song, the teacher asked students to think about the message they heard from the artist (it was not a positive one about who she felt she was). Looking at the lyrics, you can almost hear and feel the pain. Maybe you cannot relate to this, but I know I am guilty of the same feelings when looking at my own struggles and failures. However, immediately following that conversation, the class listened to “Love Me Like I Am” by For King and Country. The message is a stark contrast to what is heard in the first song. It talks about pain and brokenness, but also how God meets us there. The pop song leaves the listener with that pain. It does not offer a solution to or remedy for it, compared to the For King and Country song, which leaves the listener with hope and love. 

This message is so important for middle school students who are continuing to ask and discover who they are. The message of God’s provision of grace and love amidst our own brokenness is vastly different from the worldly message of value found in one’s own self. Our value comes from our God. He claims us as His own. He gave his life for us regardless of our brokenness. He is the source of our hope and love. These are important and freeing truths. These are truths we must remember and rely on despite the messages found in pop (or any other) culture.

The Christian education we are blessed to provide includes excellent learning rooted in God’s Word, but it also includes preparing our students for what lies ahead. Having real, honest conversations about false narratives contrasted with the messages of Christ is just one small example of this. Teachers can even use a trendy song to spark a discussion about God and His story for us. Through the lens of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, we can walk through real and difficult topics with students to help them develop discernment amidst brokenness. We believe it is incredibly important to practice seeking AND living in God’s truth now in order to truly prepare our children for the future. We do not expect (or allow) master electricians to enter the field without having completed years of practice as an apprentice. Here at BCCS, it is no different for training disciples of Christ. 

A morning devotional is a great example of Christian teachers sharing their own faith stories! The best part is that is only a small part of the work they are doing each day to help our students. Want to know more about what that looks like on a daily basis? Click here!

Andrew Reidsma

Director of Operations and Family Relations