General News
The purpose of John Calvin School is to assist and support parents in the education of their covenant children to the glory of God. In accomplishing this mission, the vision of John Calvin School is to provide excellent Christ-centered education in service to God and our neighbour.
Greetings from the school everyone as we bring to a close the final week of teaching and learning for the month of January. Next week Tuesday marks the first day of February already. Tempus fugit! May our Heavenly Father continue to be gracious to us and bless us as we strive to serve him all day, every day in our respective tasks, whether they be at home or at school.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who need the Lord in a special way, whether they are grieving, dealing with serious illness, or coping with difficult family situations. We especially think of staff and students who have been away for an extended period of time. On that note, we thank the Lord that Mrs. VanAndel is planning to return to school in a limited capacity next week.
We congratulate Mike and Hannah Joosse with the birth of their second son, Cameron Floyd. All is well with the baby, mom, dad and the rest of the family too. Cameron is a brother for John (Grade 3A), Abigail (Grade 2A), Meredith (Grade KA), and the twins (Natalie and Norah). (Our children all are gifts of God, our sons and daughters his reward—each one a blessing from the LORD, as heritage on us bestowed. Psalm 127:3, BoP). May the Lord provide Mike and Hannah with everything they need as they raise Cameron and the rest of their covenant children in the fear of his name.
A few matters for your attention:
*Thank you parents for keeping your children home if they are not well. Consequently, our absence rates for the last week or so have ranged from 8% to 13%. As necessary, here is the link for the most recent online screening tool- https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/
*FYI, at the time of writing, we are still waiting for word from the PSIE (Private and Independent Schools) unit of the Ministry of Education about the availability of rapid tests.
Reminders:
*Just a reminder that next week Monday, January 31, is a report card writing and reading PD Day for the staff and a day off for the students. The end of term report cards are scheduled to go home on Friday, February 4. We are still planning to go ahead with our Parent-Teacher conferences which are scheduled for Tuesday, February 8 and Thursday, February 10.
*Reminder to the Grade 8 students and their parents to complete the Grade 9 registration form and send it to the office at Guido. Here is the link to the form: https://forms.gle/HgnVUDnoikJsRv728 On Monday, February 7 (tentative) Guido is planning to host a parent information evening for parents with children in Grades 6-8. This meeting is especially helpful for parents whose oldest child will be entering Grade 9. The Grade 8 Day at Guido, originally scheduled for Monday, February 14, has been rescheduled for sometime after the March break, probably in April.
*The Ladies Auxiliary Soup Day, originally scheduled for Wednesday, February 2, has been rescheduled to Wednesday, March 2. Thanks again, Ladies Auxiliary, for organizing this.
*Heritage/Flag Day is scheduled for Tuesday, February 15. An afternoon assembly is planned where we hope to commemorate this special day in our country.
*The annual February CARE Day, scheduled for February 18, has been cancelled because of restrictions that are still in place for larger gatherings.
*Book Week is planned for the week of February 21 – 25. The theme of the special week is READ. Stay tuned for more details about the event in next week’s Chronicle.
Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy your day of rest. Until next week Friday, D.V. G. Hofsink
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Praise God for another week of learning in the kindergarten classroom. This past week, we celebrated the colour blue. It was a sea of blue in the basement! The students enjoyed making a blue day craft and absolutely loved the blue day snacks from our volunteer moms! In language arts, we have been reviewing the letters that we learned and have done a number of assessments to gauge the learning the students have done! In math we are concluding our lessons on shapes. On Tuesday and Wednesday next week, we will have our final assessment on shapes and will begin our new unit on addition! This is one of my favourite units to teach the students so I can’t wait to begin this unit! Have a great weekend everyone. JB/SV
Grade 1
We have come to the end of the stories about the Judges in our Bible unit. Tests were written and should be returned with the children in the next few days. Both in our Reading lessons and Phonics lessons, we are learning all about how to read words with long vowel sounds and to recognize how they are spelled. Soon we will send home packets of work that has been completed at school. Please take some time to review the work the children have done. In the packets are copies of the Gran stories we have covered so far. Please don’t throw these away until you have asked your child to read the stories to you. Repeated reading is an excellent way to build reading fluency. There are also some fun at-home activities included in the package. The children are really enjoying playing in the snow during recess breaks. If you have an extra pair of mitts for them, please send them along so that they have some dry ones to put on at the lunch recess break.
Memory Work: Psalm 42:1 (Feb. 4) text: Psalm 8:1 (Feb. 11)
Spelling/Sight words: ask, go, more, two, see
Grade 2
We finished a cold week at school! The students enjoyed playing outside at recess in their snow forts and on the huge snow hills. Please double check to make sure your child has mittens, hats, and snow pants, we had a few without them this week. We have finished up our Social Studies unit on Nunavut, and will be moving to a much warmer country… Zimbabwe! Please continue to practice math facts; it will make our unit on double digit addition and subtraction a lot easier. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday! RG & BV
Grade 3
In our Church History unit about Church Life, we learned about joys (marriage), sorrow (a death in the family), and troubles (a wayward child). Ask your child about the stories they have heard this past week. Magnets, magnets and more magnets. The students had so much fun exploring what is and isn’t magnetic. Thank you for bringing in magnets! Practise those spelling words and math facts, boys and girls! We were introduced to locomotive movements in gym class. A nasty cough and cold has entered Grade 3. Thank you for keeping your child at home if they have symptoms. We are praying for health for all who are under the weather. Congratulations go to John (3A), with the birth of his baby brother, Cameron. What a blessing from above. Have a restful weekend and a blessed Sunday.
Memory work: Ps. 95:1 Text: Ps.32:1,2 (two weeks)
Spelling words: really, probably, then, usually, what
Thursday: bring library books to school in our new bags
Friday: Mission $
Grade 4
The students are encouraged to continue practicing their times tables, Canada’s map and the province and territory capitals at home.
Spelling Words: buttons, roses, mothers, houses, people, tanks, bushes, cherries, colours, steps, wishes, brothers, pony, star
Memory Work: S: Psalm 132:1, 10/T: Isaiah 40:30-31
Upcoming Memory Work: Psalm 107:1
Grade 5
This coming week, Grade 5 will begin our fourth Bible History unit in which we will continue to learn about Jesus’ teachings in parables, as well as several events leading up to His death. We are very much enjoying our novel study of The Lion, the Witch, and the wardrobe and are moving through the material quickly. In our science lessons we have begun to learn about the microscopic world of the cell and stand amazed at God’s creation!
Devotions for the coming week are as follows: 5A – Cedric (Tu), Georgia (W), Augie (Th), and Gideon (F). For 5B – Grayden (Tu), Dayna (W), Austin (Th), Trevin (F). Wishing you all a great long weekend! RK/KVL
Grade 6
There was a lot of activity in our classes this week. Tests, quizzes, talks about health. The time was well used. One of the major tasks the students now have is putting a presentation together about one of the many diseases that exist among people. They have to present their study in 5 slides and use PowerPoint. We are looking forward to the results. It would be great if you would give your child lots of support by talking about the topic and answering their questions. For some it is quite impressive to study the illness that their grandparents have. In language arts, we continue to study our novel and sing the songs that the slaves made to encourage each other. If you have interesting books to read about this topic, please encourage your children to read more. This coming Monday is a PD Day and will provide a great opportunity….Of course ….there should be out-door-play as well as you will hear from your child that this is good for our health! Long live the study of our Immune System. Next week, we will learn more about our Nervous System. Amazing how we grow in knowledge about Psalm 139 as we discover how we are created in a wonderful way.
May you have a blessed long weekend.
CvA/ IdV
Grade 7A
We continue with King David the Shepherd King; we have learned of his conquests and next we will learn of his family troubles brought about as a result of his sins. We will act out a portion of the short story, “Home on the Range”, involving props and another student. In History we are writing a Loyalist letter outlining the hardships and challenges they experienced; we hope to record the student reading the letter with angst and emotion, and listen to them. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Hard to believe that we only just completed our first full week of school in the new year and January is over! Last Friday, we wrote our chapter 5 math test, so those should have found their way home to be signed this week. We were able to wrap up our Martin Luther unit as well, so this week we have jumped back into the story of David, as he becomes King over all of Israel. What a blessing to see the Lord’s guiding hand throughout the history of Church! In Language Arts, we are getting close to the end of our short story unit and students are trying their hand at writing their own story. I look forward to reading through their finished work!
Have a great extra long weekend! MJ, AL
Grade 8
We are continuing on with our studies on the Scottish Presbyterian Reformation and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. We are also beginning a new unit in Math, and will be coming back to expressions with variables. In Science, we are working on experimenting with viscosity in the food industry (mayonnaise, ice cream, dulce de leche etc). For students, please arrange for one group member to bring in a whisk for Wednesday’s class.
Wednesday: French Quiz Mapping
Friday: Science Quiz 4.3 and Experiments
Memory work: I Corinthians 13: 8 – 13 (2 Fridays from now) and Psalm 85:4 (Friday)
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
