School News

On December 6, we got to see both the 7th and 8th graders play in the Northview Performing Arts Center!

With a variety of songs including A Charlie Brown Christmas, Of Distant Peaks, and Northern Lights. This year, the 7th graders did especially well in their performances. Hats off to them!

Along with that, the 8th graders also did great! With the return of Santa The Barbarian in the third installment in the series, Santa the Barbarian, and the Snowpocalypse, the cheery ride of Bobsled Run, and the fast-paced stops of North Face, this concert was great!

As the next concert is 11 weeks away, the band is gearing up for so many new songs!

Even so, the 8th-grade band is short on members, so if you want to sign up, the end of the 1st semester is coming soon so you could fill out that application then!

As a final word, thank you to the Band Boosters who made the performances possible along with Mr. Lago and Ms. Hunsberger for being great band directors.

The spelling bee took place on January 18th during the 6th hour. Madison Toole won the spelling bee, her winning word was altimeter. Ella Atkinson was the runner-up and her final word was Gilgamesh. Lyra McClure got 3rd place in the spelling bee. Ella Atkinson and Madison Toole will attend the Regional Bee on February 22-25. They will have to take the Regional online this year. The winner of the Regional bee will go to Washington D.C. if they win the Greater Grand Rapids bee. Congratulations to Ella Atkinson and Madison Toole!

Mrs. Veen, the 8th grade Spanish 1 teacher, is planning the upcoming trip to Costa Rica in the summer of 2025. 

To get more information and shed light on the trip, I contacted her with various questions.

To begin, there are many benefits of traveling abroad. One reason is that students will be able to experience different cultures and ways of life while going on the trip. As well, students will have the opportunity to engage in Spanish activities while on the trip. These activities will help students gain the confidence to work with others.

 And, while traveling on the Costa Rica trip, students will be able to see the world outside of Northview. 

Other basic information surrounding the trip includes that students will be able to walk near volcanoes, go on night walks, zipline, and experience the food and culture of Costa Rica. 

“Students will be able to experience many things that might not be part of their daily lives here in Grand Rapids,” says Mrs. Veen.

Additionally, any Spanish students can still sign up for the trip. And, if you are looking to sign up, just talk to Mrs. Veen and she will give you the information. 

During conferences, a bake sale was held to fund the trip and in the future, there will be more funding for students and families to participate in.

What if there was a way that students could share their concerns and ideas, without having to communicate with adult authority? What if there was a group of students out there to help with your concerns? Well here we are! Meet the 2023-2024 Student Council.

Student Council is a group of students who are determined to make a difference in our school, led by 8th Grade Language Arts Teacher, Mrs.Moens. Our goal is to make students feel heard and included, all well communicating through their own peers. We have a great group of students this year, and I am so excited to share them with you. These are the students you should talk to if you have a concern or an idea that you need to voice.

Gwen Gilbert (President)

Kara Lynch (Vice President)

Olivia Leonardis (Treasurer)

Oliver Nibbelink (Secretary)

Rianna Alejos

Lexie Borek

Brooklyn Dallas

Lily Gale

Taryn Gerken

Makinna Henriques 

Liam Hogan

Kenton Koch

Maki Kuiper

Olivia Minto

Mia Ortiz

Griselda Perez-Sanchez

Margot Schumaker

Saoirse Snyder

Josiah Wallace

Audrey Warner

If you have any concerns, questions, or ideas, feel free to talk to a member of the Student Council, or shoot these people an email.

mmoens@nvps.net (Mrs.Moens- Supervisor)

gwenythg11@nvps.net (Gwen Gilbert- President)

karal07@nvps.net (Kara Lynch- Vice President)

olivern42@nvps.net (Oliver Nibbelink- Secretary)

olivial34@nvps.net (Olivia Leonardis- Treasurer)

You may ask yourself, “Why would you want to travel If home is so comfortable?”. Well, there’s a multitude of reasons why. Mrs. Buys is leading the Italy trip and strongly believes that traveling can truly open your eyes to this beautiful place called Earth.

 She thinks it helps introduce new ways of doing things, innovative and hands-on skills, it helps get people to look up from their device for more than 2 seconds and interact with the world, and it helps you discover your life passion. I’d take it from her knowing she's traveled worldwide and is very well-rounded. She is partnering with EF Tours. They have 55 years of experience and are the leading international education organization. We will have an EF tour leader from start to finish, showing us all the ins and outs of gorgeous Italy.

On the tour, we will visit 5 places with our first stop being Venice. Venice is home to Morano glass, gondolas, and canals in place of streets. There we will go on a gondola ride, this is where you sit in a boat, riding through the weaving canals as someone sings to you. Also participating is a glass-blowing demonstration. We will be spending two nights in Venice, taking in its beauty till we travel on to the next.

Next, we are headed to Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance. There we are going to see great artworks by DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and many other esteemed artists. We’ll go shopping for gold and leather, and shops on the Arno only sell gold jewelry (my personal favorite), also Italy is known for its leather. Lastly, we will tour the Uffizi Gallery and some churches.

After Florence is Assisi, Assisi is an ancient town where we see Saint Frances’s church. It’s a beautiful church made nearly 800 years ago. Since this will be on our way to Rome that’s really all we’ll do in Assisi.

Bell Roma is our next pretty sight. We were going to see the Colosseum where gladiators used to battle to the death, or ships would battle as they filled the Colosseum with water. Most don’t understand how wild it is that the ancient architect is still in one piece. While we are there we will also see the Roman Forum. So much religious, political, and social history happened here. I’m very excited to take our guided tour of the Vatican city, a whole other country. We’ll see the Sistine Chapel (with the famously painted ceilings), as well as St. Peter's Basilica (also a well-known church). After those churches, we’ll see the famous Trevi fountain.

On our last day, we will simply travel back to Rome and explore with our groups, with a little gladiator experience and cooking class. After all that I’ll be glad to have a day just to recap all the wonderful sites seen and experiences made.

I’m incredibly excited to explore myself and Italy. I’m so happy and grateful for this opportunity and hope you learned something from this article.

On March 22nd, 2024, the 7th grade choir was going to go to Hastings High School. But that day a problem struck. There was a snow day. So sadly the choir didn't go. But the next Monday they got to remake it on Wednesday, March 27th. They had a judge come in to score them. They Started by singing the song Take These Wings. They did amazing. It is a song about a huge loss but it has a beautiful melody. The other song was Bella Ciao. It is a song about a soldier losing his wife. But towards the end, there was a very fast tempo. So on the songs, the choir scored a 1. Last was sight reading which they did amazing and got a perfect score. So that wraps up this section.

It's time for the musical and we are wandering into the wonderful world of Dr. Seuss Seussical this year! This fun musical comedy is based on so many Dr. Seuss stories we loved as children and, for some of us, still do now.

 The story is about Horton the elephant, who hears a dust speck screaming and is shunned by the rest of the jungle ensemble with the exception of Gertrude Mcfuzz. As the story progresses, Horton finds out he was right about the dust speck and that there are Whos on the clover. 

With tons and tons of fun in store, Seussical is a wonderful show about love, hate, acceptance, and friendship all in a tight little package: April 26 at 7 pm, and 27 at 3 pm in the PAC. We would love to see all of you in the audience.