General News

In this issue of the Chronicle, we continue with and conclude our look at the first cluster of the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, and peace. Today, I will write a few words about the third fruit, peace, in the context of the blessing we hear on Sundays from Numbers 6:26, “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.” A blessing was one way of asking for God’s divine favour to rest upon others. The blessing in these verses helps us to understand what a blessing was supposed to do. Its five parts conveyed hope that God would:

1) bless and keep them (favour and protect);

2) make his face shine upon them (be pleased);

3) be gracious (merciful and compassionate);

4) turn his face toward them (give his approval);

5) give peace.

When we ask God to bless others or ourselves, we are asking him to do these five things. The blessing we offer will not only help the one receiving it, it will also demonstrate love, encourage others, and provide a model of caring to others. (from the NIV footnote to the verse)

Greetings John Calvin School community as we bring another week of teaching and learning to completion in His service at the school. We could enjoy a week of pleasant, spring weather concluding with the proverbial “April showers bring May flowers”. May the Lord continue to provide students and teachers with all they need for their daily work during the busyness of the third term.

Miss Buist is scheduled to undergo surgery on Wednesday, May 4th. Mrs. Debra Bouwman will be teaching Grade 5 in Miss Buist’s absence.

Construction update: this week a lot of electrical work was completed. Work also continued in the different rooms inside the addition- walls separating the bathrooms, mechanical room, and janitor/supply room were completed; plumbing and electrical were roughed in as well. The classroom floors are being prepared for in-floor heating and pouring the concrete. Preparations are also being made to brick the exterior of the storage room. Once again, we are thankful for all the progress that has been made.

A few items for your attention:

*Next week, Mrs. Katrina Groen, will be starting a four-week practice teaching stint with Mrs. Poort in Grade 3B. She is in the one-year program at the Covenant Canadian Reformed Teachers College. We wish her all the best and the Lord’s blessing during her time at John Calvin School.

*School Evaluation: The visitation team is currently reviewing the questionnaires and documentation that was sent their way. The team will be visiting John Calvin School on Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11.

*Earlier this week, West Lincoln Community Care picked up the non-perishable food items and other goods that you donated. Thanks again to everyone who participated in providing for those who are in need in the region of West Lincoln.

*Grade 3B is planning to travel to Kilean Lodge next week Monday morning. We wish them a good visit with the residents of the lodge. Grade 1 is scheduled to visit Beacon Home next week Monday afternoon, and Grade 3A is planning to visit Anchor Home on Wednesday afternoon. We wish both grades an enjoyable visit with our special needs brothers and sisters.

*On Wednesday afternoon, we had our kick-off assembly for the McNally House community walk fundraiser. Miss Amanda Black, the administrative coordinator for McNally House (who spoke in behalf of Mrs. Pamela Blackwood, the executive director, who was ill), helped us get started on our fundraiser. This year, she focused on the theme of compassion communities. The day before our assembly, the story of the relationship between John Calvin School and McNally House was used as an example of how compassionate communities work together at a meeting of Pallium (Compassionate Communities Community of Practice). As a matter of fact, John Calvin School was one of the original compassionate communities before the term was even coined. Miss Black, assisted by a couple of good questions from the students, gave us important information about the hospice and why it’s a good project to fundraise for. She also provided the school with the pledge forms which went home yesterday or will be going home with the students today. We encourage all participants that the pledge sheet be filled, and don’t hesitate to seek out the support of your neighbours – they are often quite willing to give to such a cause and in this way it doesn’t always come out of the same pockets.

Those who are participating in the walk are encouraged to wear their John Calvin School t-shirt or a McNally House t-shirt received from a previous walk. Parents and grandparents are also welcome to join us, but no pets please. Those who are planning to participate in the walk are requested to write a note in their child’s/grandchild’s agenda to let the teacher know which class they will be walking with that afternoon. The John Calvin School community has raised substantial sums for this cause over the past number of years and hopes to do so again.

*Baseball practices continue on Monday and Thursday afternoon (3:10-4:30) for both teams.

*Little Caesar’s fundraiser: The pizzas must be picked up on Wednesday, April 27 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.

*ASC Spring Meeting: Assisting the Special Child would like to invite you to its spring meeting. This year, we will be continuing the conversation about anxiety and depression with a panel discussion on the topic. Dr. Gary Veenman, Rev. Jack Moesker, and Mrs. Lorraine Post will be the panellists. The meeting is scheduled to take place, D.V., on Thursday, April 28 at Covenant Canadian Reformed Church in Grassie beginning at 7:30 p.m. We hope to see many of you there.

*The students and teachers continue to sing and recite in preparation for our Ascension/ Pentecost concert, Spreading the Good News, which we hope to perform on Friday evening, May 13 in the Smithville church building.

Reminders:

*Due to construction, please do not park in the parking lot by the kitchen during the day.   Thank you for your cooperation.

*The Open House for parents and grandparents/seniors is scheduled to take place on Friday morning, May 6 from 8:15-11:45. There will be a lunch for the grandparents/seniors served by the Ladies Auxiliary. The same afternoon the school will be participating in the community fundraiser walk for McNally House. We are planning to change the route for the walk so that the walkers will not have to walk along Industrial Drive and Springcreek Road which have no sidewalks. The new route will be included in next week’s Chronicle.

Have an enjoyable weekend all, and a peaceful Sunday. Until next week Friday, D.V.       G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

Kindergarten has been enjoying the gorgeous sunshine and warm weather! We are coming to the last few months of curriculum and are almost done the alphabet! We are looking at numbers above 10 and love counting to 100! We continue to practice our singing and try hard to remember that we are glorifying God in our song. The children are doing great! I am sure you hear some of the songs too. Hopefully all the children have the reading program at home and are excited to get going on the list of books! Have a beautiful and blessed weekend. S.L, and M.DBS

Letter of the week: Xx

Word of the week: some

Grade 1

We have had another busy week in Grade One. Our Bible unit will be finished on Thursday with a test to follow on Friday. Please check your child’s bag for their notes. Most of the students have returned their readers but a few still need to come in. Please check your shelves and return them asap. Thanks. We have had a lot of fun mixing colours during Art class and have completed some nice projects which are on display in our hallway. On Wednesday afternoon, Miss Black, from McNally House was invited to tell us a bit of the McNally House. The students will have the pledge forms in their agendas today and are excited to start collecting pledges. What a great cause to support! On Wednesday, we hope to visit the Beacon Home in Dunnville and are looking forward to singing for and interacting with the residents. Keep up the good work of reviewing Spelling and agenda words with your child. It really makes a difference. Thanks again. Have a wonderful weekend and a good Sunday. hb/jvb

Memory Work for Friday, April 29 – Hymn 44:1; Ps. 111:10

Grade 2

This week we completed our Church History unit and began a unit in Bible. We will be learning about the church in Jerusalem after Christ’s death and resurrection. We also completed a unit in our Science class on solids, liquids, and gases. The students are eagerly awaiting our next unit on Investigating Animals. We will be giving the remaining math facts to the students. Testing for the certificates will begin in the near future! That’s all for now. Have a good weekend. RG/ HV

Memory Work: Hy 45:1

Words: Review – see list in agenda

Grade 3

This past week we could visit Janco Steel to see how their factory helps communities; it was really cool and very loud. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Schutten, and all those who helped to make this trip such a success (and thank you for the yummy snacks). Thank you parents for coming along, also Mrs. VanLuik, for driving us there and back. We could hear how care is given at McNally House at our assembly; and now the children will collect for this worthy cause. All the best, boys and girls. In LA we are beginning our last novel, “Stone Fox”, exciting! We will begin a project on different communities; ask your child about it. Thank you, Grade 3b for celebrating my birthday with me last Monday (MP). This coming Monday, Grade 3b will have a student teacher, Mrs. K. Groen; welcome! We hope you will have a wonderful and educational time with us this month. That same day we hope to go singing at Kilean Lodge. Continue to practise time tables and spelling words, boys and girls! We wish you a wonderful weekend. JB/MP

Memory work: Ps 61:1; Text: Ps. 23: 1 – 3

Spelling words: weather, whether, hole, whole

Grade 4A

In French the students are having fun preparing their props for the French play. In the music lessons we review the names and places of the music notes and how long they last. It is not always easy for those students who already know because they already play an instrument. They now practice leadership skills by helping other students. We continue to work on the food items that we have picked to present for our book buffet to review From Anna. Computer skills are also trained and we are adamant that the students use the home row for the placement of their fingers. That is not always fun but in the long run it will help them to type faster and faster! Have an enjoyable weekend, and wishing you God’s blessings. IdV MB

Memory work: Ps 6:6; Matthew 28:18-20

Monday: PE clothes

Tuesday: Bible Quiz

Wednesday: Library

Thursday: PE clothes

Friday: Mission Money; Spelling Dictation; Memory Work

Devotions: T-Melissa, F-Keira

Grade 4B

Hello once again from Grade 4B. In Bible, we continue to look at how God upholds his covenant with his chosen people, reminding them and us constantly of the promise and obligation associated with this covenant. The theme throughout our last number of lessons has been “If God is on our side against us shall be none”. We are nearing the end of our Science unit on Light. There is a test scheduled for this coming Thursday. Duotangs will go home at least a couple of days in advance. Almost all the From Anna Book Buffet creations are completed. We will be having our Book Buffet Smorgasbord as soon as the students who have been unwell get a chance to put the finishing touches on theirs and we can arrange for Miss Bouwman to join us. There will be no Spelling Words this week since I will be testing the students on their ability to spell the 500 High Frequency Spelling Words. Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Sunday. SO

Memory Work: Your Hand, Oh God, has Guided. (in two weeks: The Holy City)

Devotions: M. Stephen, Tu. Eli, W. Alayna, Th. Reuben, Fr. Nevaeh

Grade 5

This week has seen us working on sorting and combining ideas for writing in proper paragraphs, a task that quite a few students have struggled to master. We are working on making sure that we attend carefully to instructions that will help to complete the assignments accurately. Next week, we will continue to work on writing paragraphs that stick to one idea and are supported by relevant details. Students should have taken home their Church History quizzes this week. Please ask to see the results. Lately, a number of students have been bringing lunches that they want to microwave on a day other than the one assigned to them. Please stick to the microwave schedule for lunches. When students don’t stick to the schedule, it can take far too long to heat up the lunches. When students don’t stick to their turns, others, whose turn it is may not get a chance to heat up their lunch. The microwave schedule has been reprinted to remind you of the assigned schedule.

Memory work: Samen in de Naam van Jesus (all stanzas)

Spelling: enough, laughing, building, lightning, through, photography, beautiful, successful, happiness, minute, probably, should, straight, they’re, because, months

Devotions: Jeremy, Leah, Luke, Avery, Tristan

Microwave Schedule:

Monday: Leah, Luke, Avery, Tristan, Weston, Dylan

Tuesday: Ava, Natasha, Kiera, Aidan, Lucas, Jordan

Wednesday: Brody, Clarissa, Elyse, Liam

Thursday: Jordana, Evan, Ilse, Kierra, Myles

Friday: Rachel, Timera, Zach, Kade, Caleb, Jeremy

Grade 6A

We really appreciated the pancake lunch made for us by the ladies and served to us by the grade 8 students. It was nice to enjoy the beautiful weather outside with some different activities at recess. We have started another Church History unit on the prereformers. As we read about Jamie and Awasin with the novel study, the students will be writing newspaper articles to coincide with the facts of the story. In math we have done several questions on ratios, connecting them with fractions and percents. A new art project has been started, namely, a shading picture, adding items that are overlapping, all having to do with one theme. Have a blessed weekend. CV

Devotions: T-Kendra W-Caleb Th-Austin F-Matthew

Ps.145:1-Apr.29 Science Quiz- Fri.Apr.29

Grade 6B

We have come to the end of Numbers and Deuteronomy. On Tuesday we will have our unit test and then on Wednesday we will start our last Church History unit looking at the forerunners of the Reformation. In Literature we continue our journey with Jamie and Awasin as they travel in the northern parts of Canada. In Writing students are finishing their mystery stories and we have begun to write a newspaper for the town from our novel. In Art this week we looked at hatching, cross hatching, stippling, and blending. The students are busy planning a landscape that includes these styles. Have a lovely weekend! MDB

Memory Work: Practice for the concert

Devotions: M. Emily, T. Nathaniel, W. Tara, T. Ryan, F. Sylvanna

Grade 7A

After Adonijah’s revolt, we will read David’s last will and death, including preparations made for the temple. In Language Arts we’ll examine the poetic element of theme using poems by Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson and Shel Silverstein. We’ll wrap up our look at percentages, fractions and decimals in Math and move on to measurement. River patterns, slip off and cut slopes, as well as braided rivers have been the focus in Physical Geography. Our community fundraiser has begun; all the best in collecting donations for McNally House. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

What a beautiful week we’ve been able to enjoy. We continue our study of the kings of Judah as we see both the covenant blessing and curse coming on God’s people for either obedience or disobedience. Through it all we are constantly reminded of God’s faithfulness in directing history to bring the Messiah into the world. In Language Arts we finished up our radio shows today as we now prepare to move into our unit on non-fiction stories. KB

Devotions week of April 25 – Rachel

Devotions week of May 2 – Lukas

Grade 8

It was a good and busy week in Grade 8. The weather outside was fantastic, Baseball practises could commence and the CPR (project) was completed! Next week we will be working on a Church History test as we wrap up our Unit on the Scottish Reformation. Here are some things for next week: C.H. Test (TBD); Regular Quizzes. Devo: BA. MW: ‘Your Hand, O God Has Guided”; 2nd half of the Fruit of the Spirit Poem; Cheers, Mr. J