The monthly theme for the month of January is Intellectual Curiosity. “Those who are intellectually curious earnestly want to know the truth, so they are always asking why. They are not satisfied with the easy and simplistic answers, but have a desire to understand what makes it all work– at the foundational level. For them, learning is not simply a necessary evil (the means of getting a job and buying a house) but a lifelong quest full of mystery and joy. Intellectual indifference is the corresponding vice.” (from Virtuous Minds, Intellectual Character Development by Philip Dow)
Hello again everyone and Happy New Year! Hopefully, you had an enjoyable and refreshing Christmas Break whether you spent it at home or on vacation. May our Heavenly Father guide and bless the students, staff, parents, board, and committees throughout 2016. We do not know what the new year will bring, but as long as we put our hope and trust in Him we can move forward with whatever the Lord puts on our path.
On Monday morning, Mrs. DeBoersap led our “Welcome Back/New Year’s” assembly. She began the assembly with a video showing God’s awesome creation. What a beautiful way to begin the new year praising God in this manner. Mrs. DeBoersap then talked about how God created this world with order, and part of this order is that every four years there is a leap year and 2016 is one of those. She had all the students in the school participate in a contest about this phenomenon. One of the questions she had the students answer was, Why is there a leap year every four years? Mrs. DeBoersap also has all the students participating in making a resolution; in other words, setting for themselves a goal. In her introduction to this activity, she said that we cannot accomplish our goals on our own. Our help comes from God (Psalm 121). The students and their teachers will come back to these resolutions/goals at the end of March and determine how well the students have done with achieving the goal that they set. All the best students and remember where to go when you need help.
We welcome back to John Calvin School the Dethan children– Moses(Grade 7B), Grace (Grade 6B), and Micah(Grade 4A). We look forward to your time at John Calvin and may the Lord bless your stay with us for the next few weeks.
Great excitement rippled through the school on Wednesday morning as the excavator began digging for the addition. Students and teachers regularly had to take a look to see the progress that was being made with the excavation. At the time of writing, Wassenaar Construction was getting ready to pour the foundations for the walls that will be erected up against the existing walls of the school. We are thankful for the mild winter thus far so that construction could begin at this time.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those who need the Lord in a special way. We think especially of the family of Rev. Stam, former minister of the Smithville congregation, who was laid to rest earlier this week.
A few items for your attention:
Reminders:
Have a good weekend everyone and a blessed Sunday. We’ll touch base again next week Friday, the Lord willing.
G. Hofsink
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Kindergarten
We hope you all had a great time with family and loved ones during the holidays. The children are happy to be back in the swing of things and the routines. We are again studying Old Testament bible stories including Moses and the Israelites leaving Egypt. Thursday and Friday are our Teddy Bear picnic days, so please send your child with his/her favorite teddy bear for some activities and games. Please let us know if you can send in something little for our teddy bear snack. SL/MD
Memory Work Due, Thurs/Fri Psalm 100:1
Letter of the week: Gg
Word of the week: Get
Grade 1
Memory Work: Hymn 56:3, 1 Sam.16:7b
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break. It is good to get back into the regular daily routines of school. The students seem refreshed and eager to learn and have worked hard this week. We have spent some time this week learning how to tell time to the hour, half hour and quarter hour. A bit of a challenge for Grade 1, but we are getting there. Please feel free to practise at home. We have finished our Bible unit this week and have written a test today. Check your child’s agenda/school bag for the results. We will begin a Church History unit on Monday. We will learn how God cares for His Church, why we go to church, what is the church and how God uses ministers, elders, and deacons to care for His church. We had a lot of fun with balloons during P.E class this week and will begin a gymnastic unit next week. On Tuesday and Friday, the Grade Eight students spent some time interviewing the Grade One students and tracing their bodies. It was nice to see how much they enjoyed working together. We also had some help from Mrs. Oosterhoff’s class making some very cool snowflakes. Lots of fun! Have a blessed Sunday. Til next week. jvb/hb
Grade 2
Memory Work: Hymn 65:1; Is 53:5
Words: Review – with, snap, to, pull, put
The students have settled in quite nicely to their routines at school once more. They were eager to share many stories about the exciting things that happened on their holiday. We heard about sleepovers, gingerbread house building, skating and so much more! We have begun our first Church History unit on The Worship Service. Today the students will bring home an assignment regarding the order of the church service. Please help your child complete it during the morning service and return it to school on Monday. A lot of students have earned their math fact certificates. Great job! Please keep practicing those facts! Have a great weekend! RG/HV
Grade 3
Memory work: Psalm 135:2,3; Text: Exodus 20:1-6 (two weeks)
Words: know, no, myself, really, probably, then, usually, what
HAPPY NEW YEAR! The LORD has given us another year to serve our God and we are another year closer to the return of our LORD as well. On Monday, Mrs. Deboersap could lead us in an opening assembly. Thank for allowing us to think about our God and see His Power in creation and in our lives. In our Bible classes, we are hearing the stories of Joseph. If you want to follow along at home, the stories can be found in Genesis 37-40. Ask us about Barbara Reid and the art we are doing. Fun, fun, fun!
Qui a peur du mechant loup? Il est grand et il est fou… Our French vocabulary continues to grow and we are even doing some written work too. Keep participating, grade three! In our Science classes we began a new unit exploring forces, magnets, and electricity. If you have any information on these topics, we would love to have it brought in, please. And… the winners for the leap year contest were Madelyn deBoer and Owen Bartels. Congratulations! :)That’s it for now. J.B./M.P.
Grade 4A
Memory work: Psalm 13:1; Text: John3:16-18
Welcome back grade 4. We wish you God’s blessings for 2016! The children are quickly settling into routines again. In our Bible History stories we are learning about Solomon and all the splendor of the temple that he built. In Social Studies, we are working on a scrapbook to show many beautiful places all over Canada. We will know the provinces and their capitals as well as the specifics of every province. The songs about our country are much loved and we have talked about our government and are aware of how important our prayers for them are. What a privilege to live in this country under God’s excellent care. Have a wonderful weekend and blessed Sunday.
Wednesday: Library
Monday & Thursday: PE Clothes
Friday: Spelling dictation Memory work
Devotions: M-Annika, T-Jewel, W-Anjelica, Th-Melissa, F-Keira (prepare a prayer+ Bible reading)
Grade 4B
Memory Work: Psalm 13:1, Isaiah 40: 28,29 (two weeks)
Blessed New year and welcome back to Grade 4B. May God be with you and your families in this year. We have very quickly settled back into our routines here in the classroom, though there are a few students who are struggling with tiredness. There is much excitement here at the school now that the construction has begun. we try to take a moment or two a couple of times in the day to go and check out what is being done. In bible we have begun with the anointing of David as king over first Judah and then all of Israel. We have begun our first social Studies unit on Canada and the students are very excited to learn all about this great country of ours. We are beginning to incorporate cursive writing in our regular seatwork. It is a slow process but most of the students are excited about it. Have a wonderfully relaxing weekend and a blessed Sunday. SO
Grade 5
Memory Work: Psalm 98:4; Romans 1:16, 17
Spelling Words: discovered, instruments, carefully, interested, special, beginning, science, information, dangerous, exploring, geography, pollution, diver, least, locked, treasures
Devotions: Zachary, Kade, Jeremy, Leah, Luke
Spelling Quiz – Thursday
We’ve made a good start again after the Christmas break. Students will make their Roman Structure presentations at the end of this week. In the meantime we have begun our study of Ancient Egypt. Look for returned Math tests (Miss Buist’s class) and Bible tests; both have been marked and returned. Students are required to bring the tests home to show their parents. Ask for them if your child forgets to show you.
Grade 6A
Memory Work: Hy. 29:3 (Jan.15), Text: Ps.42:1-4 (Jan. 14)
It was good to get back into the routines of school once again. The LORD has blessed us with good health so that we may continue to use our talents and gifts to praise Him. We spent some time discussing how to put that into effect in the classroom. In our work we will strive to stay on task and get our work completed during the allotted time. This , of course, will be more easily accomplished in a quiet classroom atmosphere. We could experience that during our seatwork in math class on Thursday and what a difference it made! Caleb continues to recover from his knee surgery. Thankfully he does not have to use crutches any longer, however his doctor is not pleased with how he is walking. We pray that the LORD will continue to give to him a good recovery. The students have been assigned a disease to research and have been using their chrome books to do so. Next week they will be writing their paragraphs and typing them. We will complete our lessons on Genesis next week.
Have a blessed weekend. CV
Devotions: T-Leanne W-Jenna Th-Elora F-Liam
Vocab Test-Jan.14
Bible Test-Jan.14
Grade 6B
Memory Work: Psalm 68:1, Text: Psalm 47:1-4
Happy New Year! We are already back into full swing here in 6B. We welcome Grace Dethan into our classroom for the next few weeks. We hope that she enjoys her time here with us, we are certainly enjoying having her here! In literature we have started our next novel study, Underground to Canada, as we look at a young slave girl’s journey from slavery in the south to freedom in Canada. We discussed what slavery is, how people tried to justify it, and we went over some of the language that the book uses to represent the time period. In science we have moved on from the immune system and are now looking at how the nervous system works, a very fascinating topic! Students are working on a research project researching a disease. They are asked to do research, fill in an information sheet and then create either a booklet or a poster with their information and present it to the class. They are working in partners and will have class time and computer time to do the work at school. In art we have started creating ideas for our beanie’s that we will be making over the next few weeks. Have a lovely weekend! MDB
Vocab Quiz: Friday, January 15
Devotions: M. Caleb, T. Claire, W. Eliana, T. Emmalyne, F. Gabriel
Grade 7A
This past week the Public Speaking and Poetry Recitation contest was introduced to the class. Be sure to ask your child what he/she is doing, the speech or the poem and also ask them what their topic or poem is. In Math, we’ve learned about adding/subtracting integers; next we move on to multiplying and dividing integers. We’ll learn more about Bedrich Smetena in Music before we listen to and discuss his piece, “Ma Vlast”. We’ve wrapped up low order cooperative games in Phys. Ed. and next balances/rotations will have our attention. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Memory Work – Ps 112:5; Col 3:16-17
Happy New Year to everyone. The year has started off with a bang and we are into full swing once again. We are privileged to welcome Moses Dethan into our class for the next number of weeks. In Bible History we have begun studying the reign of King David, examining especially how he was a king who sought to build not his own, but the LORD’s kingdom. In Language Arts we are focussing on public speaking as we prepare for the Speaking competition to be held in a few week’s time. Looking ahead to next week we have the following:
Devotions week of January 11 – Nicklas
Devotions week of January 18 – Benjamin
Wednesday – Vocabulary quiz
Grade 8
Memory Work -Ps. 82:1 & 1 Cor. 13: 1-7
Grade Eight enjoyed a wonderful start to the year 2016. The weather outside was less than frightful and much work inside and outside could be accomplished. We started our investigation into the Fraser River Gold Rush, as well as a discussion on the changes happening in our Human Geography Chapter on connections and consequences; In Science we continued looked at the effects of viscosity on fluids and gases. Here are some things for next week:
Tues – Science Quiz
Wed – Math Test
Thurs – Spelling Q
Friday – Vocab Q
Devo: EH
Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
