Donuts & Baptism?!

We kicked off Christmas tonight with an amazing message of Gods loving
provision, His Son Jesus Christ! The birth of Christ, His life, sacrificial death, and His resurrection, mean we can be free from guilt. When we pray, believing in faith, that Christ has forgiven our sins, God sees us as holy. We are covered by the sacrifice of Jesus!
Over 200 people prayed to receive the ultimate gift of forgiveness and salvation. Over 200 people have been freed from guilt, made new in Christ! Immediately following service, many took their next step of baptism. These people did not come to church planning to be baptized, but God stirred in their hearts. We had the clothes and the water, they were obedient, and hundreds celebrated together!
Christiana and a friend from FRCA, took in every moment; clapping and celebrating each time someone went under the water! I love being part of a church that so strongly believes in chasing after those hurting and lost in our communities around the world! What an awesome example my little girl has in her church. I am confident that soon, she too will take her first steps in her journey as a Christ follower.
Oh yes....the donuts! We bought 4 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts. The box had a sticker on it, inviting people to church. We were encourages to give the boxes away to a stranger and wish them a Merry Christmas. I don't know who received the greatest joy; the person receiving the donuts, my little girl as she gave them away, or Christia and I as we watched Christiana give them away!
Where are you on your journey with Christ? What is your next step?
Who are you inviting to church this Christmas?
Have a merry Christmas, and invite family, friends and neighbors to be part of it all!

Preschool Nativity - Take 1, Part 2

Preschool Nativity - Take 1, Part 1

Enjoy this first performance of the Nativity Story. Great job once again Ms. Sandy and preschool students!

Feed My Starving Children Promo Video

1.6 Million Meals For Haiti

Thanks For Giving

Wednesday we wrapped up our Thanksgiving Food Drive. We enjoyed a special Dream Factory chapel service outside in the beautiful weather. How wonderful to see our students taking great joy in helping others in need. Collected food was given to Sheridan House Family Ministries. Single moms and families in need will have a Thanksgiving meal this year because students got involved!

What 'Egg'sactly Is Going On?

Madison, from Mrs. Rodriguez's 4th Grade, prepares to put her creation to the test. 4th Grade teams designed carriers to keep their eggs from breaking when dropped from the second floor. Most were successful at protecting the egg, and received great cheers. But it was the couple that broke and splattered yellow goo all over the sidewalk that drew the loudest response.
Throughout the project, students learned about gravity, kinetic energy and force. This hands-on project really added to the learning opportunity. Each student has a real understanding of the concepts and memories that will last forever.

1st & 4th Grade Reading Buddies

Each week, students from 4th Grade match up with 1st Grade students for Reading Buddies. The 4th Grade students get great enjoyment from reading to the younger schoolmates. The 1st Graders think it's cool to hang out with some big kids, and it is a nice change from teachers reading all the time.

The weather today has been absolutely amazing. These students and their friends spread out across the courtyard and enjoyed reading in the refreshing air!

Little do both groups of students realize; but in all the fun, they are really learn a lot. 4th Graders reading out loud and 1st Graders listening, helps each develop skills important to the learning process.

David vs Goliath, Preschool Style

M&M's + Excel + Math = Yum!

Let it be known that Mrs. Iglesias loves M&M's, and it was only a matter of time before she worked them into a lesson plan! Mrs. Lopez' class enjoyed a creative, and tasty way of learning how to graph using Microsoft Excel in computer class today. Using our new interactive computer board and projector, Mrs. Iglesias was able to expand student learning by illustrating the project for the entire class to view. Students were then able to sort and count their M&M's by color, enter data points into Excel spreadsheets, and create pie graphs to show results! Way to go 3rd Grade and Mrs. Iglesias!

New technology has allowed teachers to bring lessons to life in fresh ways. In addition to weekly computer classes, grade level teachers are able to bring students into the Computer Lab for learning in every subject area. We would like to see all grade-level classrooms outfitted with similar technology tools that will allow for continued excellence in the classroom. Fundraising events like Fall Festival, help us move toward this reality. You may email Mr. Hewlett at bj.hewlett@ilovefrca.com to find out how you may participate in this endeavor.

Mrs. Hewlett's Readers!

Accelerated Reader is a big deal at FRCA. Our students love to compete
against each other, and together against other classes. This reading
competition encourages students to set goals and read toward them.
In Mrs. Hewlett's class, each student has individual reading goals.
Students that met their goal for the first 9 weeks, were rewarded by
having lunch and rootbeer floats with Mrs. Hewlett!
Lucky for Mr. Hewlett, he was walking by and was able to get a
rootbeer float of his own. Mmmm yummy!
Top Accelerated Readers and classes will be announced at Awards Chapel Wednesday, November 4th. Awards Chapel starts at 1:45pm. See you there.

Fall Festival Is Here!

Fall Festival was a fantastic time for FRCA family and friends. Over
300 children and parents enjoyed the bounce houses, movies and more.

Stories are being told about Mr. Hewlett challenging Mrs. Balgobin to
a duel on the Ultimate Obstacle Race. Mr. Hewlett was close to winning
but has trouble squeezing out of the final obstacle, allowing Mrs.
Balgobin to catch up and tie him at the finish line!

Mr. C and Mr. S were cajoled into a challenge race as well . Mr. C got
off to a quick start and never relinquishes his lead. Round 1 to Mr.
C. Better luck next time Mr. S!

The rains held off so all could enjoy It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie
Brown, and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. All in all, a wonderful
tome together.

A big thank you to the FRCA Parents Club for putting so much work into
making Fall Festival a success.

Thank you to Countryside Shops Publix manager, Ursula, for bringing
out her team and Plato. The children loved it, and we all enjoyed the
food! You were a great community partner.

Keep up to date on current news and future events through:
ilovefrca.com, email, ilovefrca.blogspot.com, and @ilovefrca on Twitter!

100 Preschoolers?!

Here is a sneak peak of "Let's Pretend Day". No matter if your child
is preschool or elementary, you will love this special All-school
Chapel. We hope to see you Wednesday at 9:00am!

Book Fair is Here!

Mrs. Varona, Gilbreath, and a team of volunteer moms did a great job
setting up this years book fair! And Mrs. Lopez' 3rd grade is seen
here getting the first crack at the vast selection. Dinosaurs, Star
Wars, and Boys are Dogs, are all poular this morning. It us great to
see our students so excited about picking books to read.

Part of picking out books even helps students learn about math. How?
Well, they have to calculate the cost of the books, subtract that from
how much money they have and walla, a fun math learning activity!

So, come on out and support reading and math. In doing so, you will
also be supporting our library and computer lab expansion. We look
forward to seeing you at the Book Fair!

Story Time At The Pumpkin Patch

Each year around this time, the air cools, the leaves change color,
birds fly away; all in preparation for the snowy winter! And here in
South Florida, with temperatures in the high 80's, we make our annual
visit to the pumpkin patch. Mr. Pumpkin Patch Man read "Pumpkin Soup", and other Fall selections for our 1st Grade students.

Classes have been using pumpkins to study math, science and reading
over the last week. Visiting the pumpkin patch is a great way to bring
it all to life.

Thanks to all the parent that make the visit with our classes. Having
parents along reallyakes it a fun and memorable experience for all!
Mom, dad, your child is sure to want to make pumpkin pie or carve
faces...take time to enjoy the moment and share conversation. It will
really mean the world to your child.

God We Trust In You...

...and we follow you! Lord may we honor you, and live out loud for you!
Today, chapel was worship "full". Seeing our students raise up voices and hands toward heaven as they cried out the name of God, was a powerful example for each of us to follow!
Our desire is to have as many parents and grandparents worshipping
together with our students and staff as possible. We have had great attendance and support from families already this year, and have been thinking of ways for even more of our families to join us. In this effort to increase families attending, we have decided to move chapel from 8:15am to 1:30pm! Holding chapel at 1:30pm will allow for even more families to join us in worship together! Mark your calendars for each Wednesday at 1:30pm, starting November 4th for Awards Chapel!

We look forward to seeing you in chapel soon.

1st Grade Spelling Test

OK...so my little girl brings home the word list for only the 5th or
6th spelling test of her 1st grade career. Some easy ones, with the
'ck' sound, but wow! Chech out: pumpkin, tricky not following the 'ck'
pattern. Then: thorax, abdomen and metamorphosis! Thank goodness
iPhone has predictive text and spellcheck! For good measure, she is
responsible for reciting the 10 commandments as well! Do you remember these words in 1st grade?!
So here we are on a Monday night, studying hard so we can show
ourselves approved unto God!
Christiana loves a challenge and we actually have fun with these
assignments.....most days.

Bible Alive

Ephesians 6:4 ....do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them
up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
The Bible is real and living, and guides how we do what we do. Our
teachers do a fantastic job of instructing our children in a way that
they love learning.
Here, one of our K3 classes acts out the story of Joseph!

Get Involved!

We have the best parents supporting our school! They lift the school
up in prayer and invest time planning great events! Thank you to all
our parents.

Call the school office to ind out how you may get involved today.

Moms at FRCA

We love our parents. Mrs. Hugh and Murphy joined the FRCA family over 2 years ago. They have both jumped into our school community and been important supporters of FRCA.  With daughters in 5th grade, these moms are looking forward to FRCA Middle School next year.  They are excited about what we have started in the Computer Lab and Library already, and dreaming up ideas for our Science Lab.

Thank you parents for taking time to invest in your children and FRCA!

Working hard at the work of a student

Leaders are readers.

Spirit shirts are here!

Our theme for 2009-2010 is DREAM. And our Spirit shirt design is based on our encouragement to students to seek God and the plans He has for them. They can be anything they want to be!

We encourage our students to have big dreams and to chase after them!
God has prepared huge things for each of our lives...things we can not
even imagine. 1 Corinthians 2:9 tells us "...no eye has seen, mo ear
has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him."

Spirit shirts may be purchased now in the FRCA office for $14.

Mrs Hewlett

In response to the question by Mr. Hewlett, "So, what are you making us for dinner tonight?"

Unforgiveness = Bitterness & Anger

If we do not forgive others, we will live in bitterness and anger.
Whenever we hear the person(s) name, that we have not forgiven, we
will become angry. Why live with this anger?! Call the person and set
it straight. Then, you will be able to live in joy.

Blog updates

Testing of mobile blog updates while in chapel. Pretty cool to have it working! Enjoy this shot of our great chapel today!

Off and running

With week 3 under our belts, we are off and running at a rapid pace!  We are very excited for what God has in store during this "Dream" year. 

Open House was buzzing with children full of energy; ready to reconnect with old friends, and excited to meet new friends.  Parents shared smiles, stories and hugs as they caught up on summer family news.  We have already had 3 amazing chapel services, with great worship and teaching.  Teachers are full of new ideas; engaging students in projects that making learning fun, and bring new concepts to life! Soon we will have the official opening of our new Tech Lab & Library.  These advances will allow our teachers greater opportunity to bring learning alive.  Current students will benefit from expanded technology, including interactive smart boards; while the overall expansion will lead the way for our growth into middle school next year!

Preschoolers are comfortable and confident in their routines, thanks to Mrs. Osman and her wonderful team.  We barely saw a tear from our preschoolers....the parents tears, now that's another story!  And boy, how these little ones have grown over the summer! We have hosted 2 amazing "Fun Factory" events.  The Fun Factory is a monthly outreach event designed to give non-FRCA preschoolers an introduction to our program. In just these 2 events, we introduced 100 parents and preschoolers to FRCA!

Last night we had a back-to-school celebration at Coldstone. Children and parents alike had a fantastic time cooling off with ice cream, only to get hot again chasing each other around the fountain! Which brings us to today, Super Hero day at FRCA.  We are getting excited about the "Heroes and Villains" series kicking off at FRC this weekend.  So teachers and student's donned shirts of their favorite super hero.  3 great weeks into the year, and many incredible weeks ahead! Grab hold for an exciting year, as we pursue God's Dream for our generation!