TOPSIDER PARENT ORGANIZATION NEWS

Dear FCS Families,

Evidence of spring is all around us and we are astounded by the grace of a God who continuously

renews our surroundings and our souls. Topsiders Parent Organization is also astounded by the

generosity of the parents of FCS who have volunteered their time and money to help with our

events again this year.

Our calendar is full of events leading up to the end of the school year. We look forward to

Academic Banquet, Talent Show, Teacher Appreciation Week, Elementary Field Day and skate

week. Also wrapping up the year will be HS Graduation, 8th grade Crossing and Kindergarten

Graduation. If you have not had an opportunity to help out Topsiders yet this year, as you can

see there are still plenty of opportunities to join a great group of Moms and Dads, have some fun.

Topsiders would like to express our thanks for the dedication of two wonderful women, Cathy

Wright, our High School Vice President and Jennifer Rose, our Secretary / Co-facilitator. Cathy

has been active in Topsiders since its inception and as her daughter graduates in May, Cathy will

no longer be serving as High School Vice President. Cathy has filled this role for 4 years and has

done a wonderful job. She is a joy to work with and we will all miss her very much. Jennifer has

served as Topsider Secretary for 5 years. This year she has filled that role as well as helping

direct the organization as co-facilitator. Her commitment to Topsiders has been unfailing and

although she will no longer hold an officer position with Topsiders next year, she plans to

continue her support of our parent organization.

We hope everyone has a wonderful summer and enjoys their time off to the fullest. We look

forward to seeing some of you at the consignment sale in July and we invite all of you to stop by

to visit us during registration.

Sincerely,

Wendy Hailey, Treasurer/Co-Facilitator

April 2010

More Information Follows

PRINCIPAL NOTES:

While we believe ALL of our teachers are outstanding and are so

thankful for everything they do, we would like to congratulate the

following Teachers of the Year: Rhiannon Brazzell – Elementary

School, Lisa Leftwich – Middle School, Greg Armstrong – High

School. Mr. Armstrong will represent FCS at the Wilson County

Teacher of the Year Ceremony.

Please remember the Stanford Achievement Test will be May 10-14.

Attendance is extremely important so keep these dates in mind when

scheduling appointments.

News from the Elementary Library

News from the High School Library

Parents, be sure to check out the middle and high school library website http://sites.google.com/site/fcslibrarysite From it a person can get to the library catalog, library blog, lots of reference sources and the web pages our kids use to do their class project research.

More Information Follows

FCS Balloon Gram

Make your child feel special on their birthday or any day and send them a balloon gram! You can also send a special day/kid gram if their birthday has already passed or you just want them to have a great day! An email will be sent to you prior to your child’s birthday. Order forms are available on www.fcstopsiders.com and RenWeb. Chairperson: Wendy Hailey

It has been a fast and great year in our new library in the Elementary Hall.

Thanks to the support of the Birthday Books Drive and the Book Fair, along with the donation from Topsiders, we have been able to add many new fantastic books and AR tests to our collection. Our students love reading and it shows! They have kept me very busy checking out books all year long. I would like to thank you for encouraging your children to read and become life long learners.

Please continue to support their reading habits over the summer by visiting your local public library. Each town library has special events and activities planned to get children excited about reading and going to the library. I hope each of you will take advantage of these opportunities. As Dr. Seuss put it, “The more that you read, the more you will know. The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Kulas

Happy Reading!

GOT CASH???? SCRIP HELPS YOU EARN CASH!

It’s not too late to start earning some extra cash! I’m using my

rebate check in May towards summer vacation! Simply purchase

gift cards at face value and the retailer donates a percentage to

Topsiders, which we split with YOU! You will get a rebate check

at the end of May for what you earned during the year. We have

one family that has earned almost $300.00 by shopping with

Scrip cards instead of their debit or credit card!

Try DOUBLE DIPPING - Buy Scrip Visa cards and load your

FCS Kroger Card using the Scrip Visa cards – earn a total of 5%

for FCS (1% to of the Visa card purchase to Topsiders, 1% of the

Visa card purchase to YOU, and 4% of the loaded Kroger Card

value to the FCS Annual Fund).

Order forms will be sent home with elementary students and are

available in the high school and middle school offices. If you

have any questions or need an order form, please contact Madelon

DelFratte-Hale (mhdelfratte@aol.com). The sooner you join, the

sooner you can start earning money!

More Information Follows

KINDERGARTEN NEWS Kindergarten is gearing up for the last 9 weeks. We will be hatching ducks, growing tadpoles and watching caterpillars turn to butterflies! Mrs. Kring will be coming back after her maternity leave the second week of April. We welcome her back and pray for blessings on baby Caden! We will end our year with a study of the ocean. We are looking forward to our field trip to the zoo, which is always a huge success! We want to welcome a new student to Kindergarten, his name is Colton Siewart. He comes to us from Gladeville Elementary. We are excited to have him as a part of our Kindergarten family. Kindergarten will be practicing for graduation which is a very exciting time for us all!

FIRST GRADE NEWS

It’s hard to believe the last 9 weeks are here! We had

lots of fun with “read me” day to celebrate Dr. Suess’

birthday and enjoyed our many guest readers throughout

the day. First grade had a fabulous time under the big

top for their Spring musical. The first graders are now

all authors!! Each student has written and illustrated

his/her very own book. They were all fantastic and were

used to choose a student from each class to represent us

at Cumberland University’s Young Author’s Conference.

Congratulations to our winners Kayla Donnell and Jack

Martin. In science, we will be studying weather and

plants. In math, we will be working on measuring,

fractions and continuing with adding money, reading a

clock and important math facts with the sum of 10 and

subtracting from 10. We will be taking the Stanford Test

in May, which is a new experience for first grade!

Although it’s a lot of work we plan on making it a fun

week with lots of extra activities. Of course we are

always continuing to work on our reading skills and we

get better every day! Congratulations to Landen

Thompson who passed 24 AR tests in the third nine

weeks to be the top first grade reader. Joshua Sailer

came in a close second with 23 AR tests passed, and

Emma Bastin came in third with 22 AR tests passed!

WOW! First grade is FABULOUS!

Don’t forget to cut out your Tyson Project A+

Labels and turn them in to your child’s

teacher or high school or middle school office.

Each label is worth $0.24!!!! We could earn

up to $12,000 a year! So far this year we’ve

collected 30 labels – we need 100 labels

before we can turn them in for cash. Be sure

to keep collecting these over the summer and

turn them in when school begins in August!

Spring/Summer Consignment Sale Topsiders would like to thank all of the volunteers who helped make this huge

endeavor a big success!! We took in approximately $29,665.25 in total sales. After

paying consignors their money and advertising we made approximately $8,513.41 in

profit for Topsiders. Look for the Fall/Winter Consignment Sale in July. Specific

information will be posted on our website www.fcstopsiders.com. Chairperson: Wendy

Hailey and Carrie Luckas.

SECOND GRADE NEWS We are “Up, Up, and Away!” with intellectual curiosity and active participation. We have taken off with hot air balloons. Students began the nine weeks by writing paragraphs about a place they would love to go in a hot air balloon. We will overlap this skill by comparing and contrasting communities we might see on our journey. Our focus in social studies is urban, rural and suburban areas and the natural resources all around us. Next, we will delve into famous people who have shaped our world. In math, we are telling time to the nearest minute, writing and using mixed numbers, identifying parallel and perpendicular lines, making change for $1.00, completing 100 subtraction facts in 6 minutes or less, and locating and graphing points on a coordinate graph. In Bible, we are learning about Bible time foods. We are consciously making applications of our memory verses in our normal school day routine. The Bible is our guide for making wise choices. In language, we are continuing with pen-pal letters, troublesome words, and using outlines to write beginning research reports. Towards the end of April, we will extend our classroom to the Wilson County Fairgrounds for 2nd Grade Farm Day. What fun it is

to be in 2nd Grade!

THIRD GRADE NEWS

Third grade is preparing for a strong finish! The students are excited to showcase their

singing and acting talents in our 3rd and 4th grade spring musical, “A Kid’s Life”, which will

be presented on Thursday, April 8th, at 7:00 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center. The 3rd

grade will be playing songs they have learned on their harmonicas, as well. We are doing

all our work in cursive, gearing up for achievement testing, and preparing for the

Presidential Physical Fitness program in PE class. In science we will explore changes in

the earth’s surface, the solar system, and weather. In Social Studies our studies will

include the different levels of our country’s government and citizenship. Both classes will

be going a field trip in May to Music Row, where we will be visiting the historic Studio B

and another recording studio as special guests.

More Information Follows

CASH FOR TRASH!

A great big thank you to

everyone for participating in the

paper recycling program!! We

have collected 18,000 pounds

of paper products since we

started the program! We have

not only saved our environment

all of that “trash,” we’ve also

earned over $56.00 for our

efforts! Please remember to

participate during the summer –

the more paper products we

collect, the more money

Topsiders can earn and most

importantly it means less trash

for our environment!

Chairperson: Madelon DelFratte-

Hale.

Treasurer’s Report

Income: Expenses: $8,513.41 – Profit from consignment sale $100 –Elementary Accelerated reader prizes $70.00 – Balloon grams $72.00 – High School Library books $1,000.00 – Box Tops $435.00 – Chorus Competition Fee $217.00 – Maggie Moo Spirit Night $160.00 – Mrs. Armstrong for endorsement exam $12.00 – Paper Recycling $90.00 – Mrs. Smith, dominos and trays for math $40.00 – Art supplies It is only through your generosity during our fundraising events that we are able to meet the needs of the principals, teachers and school in general, which ultimately meets the needs of our children! For this we are truly GRATEFUL!

Wendy Hailey, Treasurer/Co-Facilitator

My Coke Rewards

Topsiders is excited to bring you yet another way to earn

FREE school merchandise for FCS! Coke Rewards is

similar to Campbell labels – we earn points and then turn

those points in to get merchandise such as art supplies, PE

equipment, etc.

Collect your coke product bottle tops and either turn them

in to the collection bin in the coffee shop or log onto

www.mycokerewards.com/schools and enter the codes

from inside the bottle tops for Friendship. Chairperson:

Madelon DelFratte-Hale (mhdelfratte@aol.com)

Science Olympiad is an academic competition where 15-person teams compete in small groups in 23 different events covering a wide variety of science disciplines. There are lab events such as Science Crime Busters, building events such as Junkyard Challenge and topical events such as Anatomy. In the 2009-2010 school year, we have three Middle School teams, one Upper Elementary team and one High School team. Middle and High School teams compete from November through March, and this year competed in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama and Ohio. The Elementary School team has a single competition in Murfreesboro on April 24. Our Middle and High School teams this year were both REGIONAL CHAMPIONS! The High School team finished 9th in the State and Middle School team finished 2nd in the state and has been in the top five all seven years of competition!

More Information Follows

FOURTH GRADE NEWS The last nine weeks are full of exciting events!

What a great performance by 3rd

and 4th

graders

in their musical – we’ve definitely got talent at

FCS! Fourth grade is looking forward to seeing

Charlotte’s Web at the Nashville Children’s

Theater in April and the 4th

Grade 4-H field trip

will be May 17-18. We are learning about

Tennessee History and are working on creating

Tennessee Notebooks. Part of our studies

include a visit to the Capital, Carter House and

Carrington Plantation! The fourth grade is also

working on multiplication and division in math.

We would like to congratulate Anna Cate Kulas

and Marti Taylor for having their books selected

to be shown at the Young Author’s Conference

at Cumberland University.

We hope everyone has a wonderful summer!

FIFTH GRADE NEWS

Congratulations to the following students chosen for Elementary Science Olympiad: Sixth grade: Jared Luckas, Braden Miller, Madisen Strickland, Gracey Hailey, Lauren Cole Fifth Grade: Sam Burris, Katie-Scarlett Chastain, Chris Roach, Kendall Kelsh, Rebecca Petross, Julia Jane Eskew, Patrick McDermott, Sydney Dixner Fourth Grade: Callie Chaffin, Caleb Ross, Camryn Gwynne, Virginia Campbell, Marti Taylor, Hailey Wolters, Jackson Cherry Parents please help children be well rested and have a good breakfast during Stanford testing May 10-14. It is very important for students to be present and on

time every day that week.

DATES TO REMEMBER

4/11-4/15 – 8th Grade Trip to Washington

4/12 – Scrip Orders Due

4/14-4/16 – 6th Grade Land Between Lake

4/16 – CIA Day

4/18 – 8th Grade High School Orientation Meeting

4/19 –High School Academic Banquet

4/20 – Middle School Academic Banquet; Kindergarten

Graduation Pictures

4/22 – Maggie Moo Spirit Night

4/23 – Maggie Moo Fundraiser Kits Home

4/26 – Scrip Orders Due

4/30 – First Maggie Moo $ Turn In; School Tool Box

Orders Due

4/30 -5/2 – Spring Play

5/3-5/7 – Teacher Appreciation Week

5/4 – Senior Night

5/6 – 6th Grade Movie Premier

5/7 – Second Maggie Moo $ Turn In; Talent Show

(PreK – 6th)

5/8 – Talent Show (7th – 12th)

5/10-14 – Achievement Tests

5/14 – Topsider Meeting; Last Maggie Moo $ Turn In

5/23 – High School Graduation

5/24-5/26 – Middle and High School Exams

5/25 – Kindergarten Graduation

5/27 – 8th Grade Crossing; Teacher In Service

More Information Follows

To help kick off our Maggie Moo Sweet Escape Fundraiser, we will have spirit night at Maggie Moo’s on April

22 starring celebrity scoopers MRS. CHAFFIN, MRS. BENDER and MRS. ESKEW (4-6:30pm) and to be

announced scoopers from 6:30-9pm!!!! Maggie Moo’s will donate 50% of the sales that night to Topsiders.

On April 23 your kids will bring home a packet of information explaining the Maggie Moo’s Sweet Escape

Fundraiser. The kids will be selling gift cards to Maggie Moo’s and vouchers for ice cream cakes and pints of

ice cream. Maggie Moo’s will donate 20% of the sales to Topsiders.

PRIZES: The top selling student in Elementary, Middle and High School will win WII GAME

CONSOLE!!!!!!!!!!!! The top selling class in Elementary, Middle and High School (homerooms)

will win a pizza and ice cream party. There will also be tiered incentives based on the

dollar amount sold.

There will be three money turn in dates: April 30, May 7 and May 14.

Coordinator: Madelon DelFratte-Hale

MAGGIE MOO’S SWEET

ESCAPE FUNDRAISER

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

The Fifth and Sixth Grade class had a blast at Biztown in March! Biztown is a Junior

Achievement program that helps students understand the concepts of running a business and

how economics affect the community. Students who were interested in running for Mayor gave

speeches and we voted on actual electronic voting machines! Mackey Bentley was elected as

our Biztown Mayor.

The Sixth Grade class is filming the story of “Daniel and the Lions Den” under the direction of

Kim Sherrill, their Bible teacher. During April the sixth grade will be going on their class trip

to Land Between the Lakes. This is a two night and three day adventure. They will experience

the Nature Station, learn how to canoe, experience a stream study, how to build an outdoor

shelter, orienteering (reading a map and compass to find their way out of the woods) and then

they will work together as a group to complete a task. This is a wonderful experience to bond

together as a group, renew old friendships and make new ones!!!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun summer!

More Information Follows

HAVE WE GOT NEWS FOR YOU!!!!

TOPSIDERS HAS PUT THE

FINISHING TOUCHES ON OUR

BRAND NEW, FUN, USER FRIENDLY

WEBSITE!!! It’s full of useful

information about Topsiders and what’s

going on at school! There are links to

other useful websites as well. Please

check it out – we would love to hear

your comments: www.fcstopsiders.com.

Please email your comments to

mhdelfratte@aol.com.

CONGRATULATIONS to Mrs. Carey and Mrs. Vanatta’s classes for turning in the most box tops during the third nine weeks of school! The two classes were so close we decided to do two parties this time. We have earned $750.00 since August! Way to go FCS families! Don’t forget to look for these pink labels on your merchandise – they add up quickly. Log onto www.boxtops4education to find local promotions, coupons, recipes, etc. Tell your family, friends and co-workers to start cutting and don’t forget to collect them over the summer! Chairperson: Joretta Rickaway (jrickaway@friendshipchristian.org)

HIGH SCHOOL NEWS Eighteen of our students from The Missions Class just returned from a trip to Honduras. They installed three water filtration systems, designed and prepared food supplements for the kids in schools and clinics, and prepared lessons as they taught the children Bible and hygiene.

We’d love to hear your

comments and suggestions –

you can email us at

fcstopsiders@yahoo.com or

drop an anonymous note in the

Topsider mailbox in the High

School Office.

We have collected approximately 2000

points from Campbells Labels for Education

this year! With these points we are able to

get free merchandise for the school such as

art supplies, PE equipment, etc. Log onto

www.labelsforeducation.com to get a

complete list of participating products.

Don’t forget to collect these labels over the

summer and turn them in at the beginning of

next school year! Chairperson: Joretta

Rickaway

(jrickaway@friendshipchristian.org)