Rockford Campus News

Lost and Found

Take a look at our virtual lost and found items that your student might be missing. 

REMINDER: All Library Books are Due!

ALL library books will be due THIS FRIDAY! Mrs. Hardy will be doing inventory and other end of the year tasks the final two weeks of school. Please help your student locate and return all RCS library books. If you have questions or need to connect with Mrs. Hardy regarding replacing or paying for replacement books, please email her at chardy@grcs.org. Thanks!

It's Prayer Week!

During the week of May 15–19th, our RCS Community will be focusing on prayer. The 6th graders will be setting up a prayer space out front of the school, under the overhang. Feel free to sign up for a time slot to come and pray for our school, our nation, your child, etc. Prayer slots will be available between 8:45–3:15 each school day. More than one person or group can sign up for each time slot. We'll close our prayer week together as a whole school on Friday, May 19, from 2:45–3:00; families are welcome to attend this as well! Last year was our first annual prayer week and we had all sorts of different groups sign up. One morning, the 6th-grade dads met before school; we'd love to encourage you to find some friends and sign up to pray. Sign-up is available here or on the poster boards located in the front lobby of the school. Feel free to reach out to Mrs. Heldman, or any of the 6th graders, if you have any questions!

Mountain Biking Club

The Mountain Biking Club is meeting today and next Tuesday from 4:15–5:15 pm to enjoy some spring biking (weather permitting). 5th-8th Graders may come to ride without an adult chaperone, but we ask that any grades below that bring a parent if there is interest in riding. Middle School groups will be led by Matt Christians and Anna Quist.

If you have interest in joining, fill out this form. 

Today ride is taking place at Luton Trails, and May 23 at Merrell Trails.

2023 Eagle Book Awards

Spring is here, and Eagle Book Awards are going strong!  20 top-notch, highly rated, award-winning picture books written in 2022 have been selected by your 3 GRCS elementary school librarians.  All 3 campuses (Rockford, Evergreen, and Iroquois) will be celebrating together -  reading, enjoying, and evaluating these 20 books in April and May. Then, from May 22-26th students and staff will vote for which picture book is the best for 2022-23.  

Please follow this link to find the full list of 2023 Eagle Award Books, as well as a Parent Letter from our Cultural Competence Coordinator, Juanita Davis. Mrs. Davis will be visiting our 2nd-4th grade library classes on the 10th to share one of the Eagle Books with our students.

All books are now available on Seesaw for your students to view. Students will be reading 11-13 books in library class. Students who read all 20 of the books and rate them can become an Eagle Expert - earning a special reward and recognition!

Happy reading, and stay tuned to the home bulletin for more updates! Email Mrs. DenOuden jdenouden@grcs.org with any questions.

Contest Time: Junior Library Guild

Calling all competitive and artistic readers! Junior Library Guild is having a bookmark contest. Students (elementary and middle school) can submit a drawing based on a Junior Library Guild book to be featured on a bookmark. They will choose four winners from each grade range (nationwide) and the winning bookmark will be professionally printed for all of RCS - AND the library also receives $250 JLG dollars for new books! Here is the link to participate. You can print the bookmark template on your own, or Mrs. Hardy will have copies in the library if students want to pick one up. She will also have a list of all of the JLG titles in our RCS library. Please note: you DO need to submit the bookmark yourself (form found HERE). Bookmarks can be submitted until June 1!

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A Note From Outdoor Education

The middle school has learned to identify 12 different plants that are considered invasive on our school campus. They are not-so-kindly referred to as, "The Dirty Dozen." One of those plants, the common burdock, produces nasty burrs later in the summer. Our fourth graders started eradicating this plant today and discovered the root system to be robust. One small burdock plant had a root that was 15 inches long! Another one we dug up had a root that was a 1 ¾ inch in diameter. Keep your friends close, but know what your enemies are up to! 

Our "Dirty Dozen" include: Japanese barberry, garlic mustard, tree of heaven, common burdock, common privet, oriental bittersweet, common buckthorn, cleavers, phragmites, purple loosestrife, bull thistle, and autumn olive. I encourage you to learn about these plants and get rid of them in your yard too!

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RCS PTO News

Please contact Lindsey Toth if you are interested in joining or have questions about serving. 

Take a moment to review the latest PTO Meeting Notes.

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RCS TRIP Office 

The TRIP Office is available on Tuesday mornings in the RCS Office!

New to TRIP? TRIP allows you to reduce the cost of tuition by purchasing gift cards and gift certificates for things you buy every day from hundreds of national and local vendors.

How does TRIP work? When you purchase gift cards at face value, a percentage of your purchase is credited to your TRIP account. Two times per year (November 1 and May 1), the accumulated TRIP credits are applied as payment to your tuition account, or donated to the tuition account you have designated.

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Parents in Prayer

We have a unique opportunity to gather as moms, dads, and grandparents to pray for our school — little siblings are welcome too!

Parents In Prayer will be meeting on Wednesday mornings after drop-off. We will again be meeting outside and walking around the campus. We will follow the guidelines given by the Moms in Prayer organization. You can find the resources that we will use here.

We look forward to having many parents join us this year!