General News

The monthly theme for February is Intellectual Honesty.   Honest thinking habits inevitably build the trust between people that is at the core of healthy personal relationships, healthy communities, and healthy cultures. Although it is increasingly rare, when we see it, honest thinking habits in our political leadership also go a long way toward restoring the public confidence in the political system that is essential to enthusiastic and widespread participation in the political process. Honest thinking at all levels of society is what produces the necessary true foundation upon which knowledge and progress can advance. (from Virtuous Minds, p. 69)  Greetings from the school, readers, as we bring to a close a short, three day week because of Family Day and the unexpected snow day on Tuesday; which I am sure was enjoyed by all. May the Lord continue to bless the learning and teaching at John Calvin School as we come nearer to the end of the second term of the school year. Report cards will be coming home on Friday, March 11 (three weeks from today). Parent-Teacher conferences (by request, teacher or parents) are scheduled for after the March Break on Wednesday, March 30.

Work continues to progress nicely in the construction zone. This week, the brick layers have begun construction on the interior walls for the hallways in the addition. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those in our community who grieve or who must deal with serious if not terminal illness. May our Heavenly Father continue to sustain them.

A few items for your attention:

*The “Toonies for Anchor” campaign to raise awareness for the needs of the Anchor Association and to learn more about our Anchor Homes, is scheduled for next week. The little envelopes will be coming home on Monday and we encourage all the students to donate their toonie (or more) in support of our special needs brothers and sisters.

*Miss Janita Bouwman, who is in third and final year at the CCRTC, has begun her practicum with Mrs. Oosterhoff in Grade 4B. We wish her all the best and the Lord’s blessing during her four-week practice teaching session at John Calvin.

*Last week Thursday, at the Regional Public Speaking and Poetry Recitation competition, Benjamin Alkema finished in the top two for poetry recitation with his recitation of the poem, “The Dentist and the Crocodile” by Roald Dahl. Rachel VanEgmond finished in the top two for public speaking with her speech, “Scary Speeches”. Congratulations! Even though they did not place in the top two, Andréa D’Addazio and Matthew Stel did a good job in presenting their poem and speech. Rachel and Benjamin now move on to the Provincial Competition which will take place next week Friday, February 26 in the Fellowship Hall of Ebenezer Canadian Reformed Church in Burlington beginning at 7:30 p.m.

*The Grade One classes (and their visitors) celebrated 100 Day on Wednesday. What a fun event that was! For more details read the Grade 1 contribution in the Classroom News.

*Basketball practices continue next week Monday, February 22 (both boys’ teams) and Thursday, February 25 (Mr. Hofsink’s boys’ team and the girls’ team).

*Included with today’s Chronicle is the most recent issue of the ASC (Assisting the Special Child) newsletter. Please take the time to read about the work that the committee is busy with.

Reminders:

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

*The News and Views magazine will be distributed on Sunday.

*Grade 2B is planning to visit Kilean Lodge on Monday, February 29th.

*Grade KB is planning to visit Beacon Home on Tuesday, March 1st.

*Grade 7A is planning to visit Anchor Home on Wednesday, March 2nd.

Have a good weekend everyone and we hope to touch base again in a week’s time.     G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

Don’t forget that Mon/Tues is Purple day for Kindergarten! Dress in Purple and/or bring your favorite purple toy! Snacks for Purple Day will be brought by Melanie Mans on Monday and Elsa DeVries on Tuesday. Our rescheduled trip to Grandview Animal Hospital has been booked. KA plans to go on Thursday, March 3rd and KB on Friday, March 4th. Thursday/Friday is occupation dress-up day! What do you want to be when you grow up? A farmer, doctor, teacher, or even an astronaut or a princess? The choice is yours! Dress up in whatever you wish to be. Have a lovely weekend! SL/MD

Memory work Due Thurs/Fri; Ps.134:1, Text; Ps.103:1

Thurs/Fri- Please bring Library books to school, as well as Mission Money!

Grade 1

Memory Work for Friday, Feb. 26: Psalm 87:2; Ps. 8:1

Congratulations to Silas Jonker and his parents with the birth of another brother/son, Gavin. We hope you enjoyed our first snow day as much as we did. Even though it was a short week, it was filled with a lot of activity and excitement. Grade One had a great time on 100 Day. A lot of very ‘old’ students entered our classrooms on Wednesday morning. Nice job, parents. They looked amazing! We did a lot of 100 things such as: showing our 100 things, making a necklace with 100 fruit loops, working on our 100 day poster etc. Thank-you to Mrs. J. VanSydenborgh for taking our pictures and turning us into very old people; the students will be taking the pics home this week. Thank-you, Mrs. C. Jonker (+Torey) for baking 100 cupcakes for us to enjoy – delicious! Thanks, Mrs. J. Heemskerk for hanging 100 balloons in our hallway – what a nice surprise! This week we have started our new unit on ‘Famous Canadians’ and are learning a lot. We continue to practise our Spelling and agenda words and have shown a lot of growth in this area. If you have any extra plastic bags at home could you please send some to school – Thanks. Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Sunday. Til next week. jvb/hb

Grade 2

The students were very excited to have such a long weekend due to the snow day on Tuesday. While it was enjoyed by all it did change our schedule somewhat. We have decided to focus on the spelling review words for one more week. We will also be having our Social Studies test this coming Tuesday rather than this past Thursday. In Art we have been learning about rhythm and movement. To that end, the students made a project this week in which they imagined themselves swimming in a pool. They drew the picture with oil pastels and painted over it with a water colour wash. Come check out our hallway to see our art! Have a good weekend. RG/HV

Memory work: Psalm 110:4; Luke 9:23,24

Words: Review (see agenda)

Grade 3

A short and wintery week has passed. We thank the Lord for his protection and care. We finished the stories of Rev. deCock with a quiz and now move on to Bible stories again. If you want to follow along at home, they can be found in Exodus 1 and the following chapters. Snow Treasure continues to be a ‘favourite’ novel study. Ask your child about the plot and characters. What is conduction, convection, and radiation? Ask your child about the ‘cool’ scientific demonstrations we saw this week. Just a reminder to continue to practise those spelling words and multiplication facts to five. Thanks. Have a blessed weekend. Miss B. would like to thank you all for your cards and words of encouragement concerning her brother Henry’s operation. The LORD has been so good and his operation was successful. Pray for patience and healing. J.B./M.P

Psalm 84:1; Text: Deut. 18:18 (two weeks)

Words: by, buy, your, you’re, didn’t, doesn’t, general, governor, something, sometimes, unhappiness, winner, one, won

Grade 4A

After an extra long weekend we could get back to the classroom again. In Social Studies we are looking at the many lakes (including the 5 Great Lakes) and rivers of Canada. In Math we are working on our time tables, as well problem solving, long division and long multiplication. We are nearing the end of the kings of Israel, and will soon be having a test. In Music we are learning songs for the upcoming program. Our noses keep ‘running’, yet we are out of Kleenex. Please send along a box or two for us. Have a wonderful weekend and blessed Sunday.

M&T- PE clothes W-library F-Mission$

Memory Work Text Psalm 121:1-4 Song: Psalm 9:4&5

Devotions- T – Arie F – Kyara

Grade 4B

Hello from Grade 4B. Last week, after our very long weekend off, we welcomed Miss Bouwman into our class. She will be with us for the next 3 weeks for her practicum. I am sure the students are excited about having her teach them. Mrs. Madelaine Poort was in our class on Friday as I took the day off to prepare for my youngest son’s wedding. Even so, the Bible test could be written on Friday though we did have to postpone the Math test until Monday. I do not usually administer tests on Mondays but sometimes this just happens. The students have had a couple days of review in class (some still need to finish before Monday) but it might be beneficial for most to review their 8 & 9 math facts, long division, 3 digit by 1 digit multiplication and rounding to the nearest 10s or 100s. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday. SO

Memory Work: Psalm 9:4,5

Text: Psalm 121:1-4

Monday: Math Test

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

Grade 5

What a short week we had! The snow day played a bit of havoc with our Spelling schedule this week. We ended up doing our quiz on Friday instead of Thursday. On Tuesday, students will need to demonstrate weeks worth of effort in memorizing and working with a French story. Each of the four groups will be presenting their play on Tuesday for a final evaluation. No papers/scripts allowed. We have begun to work with fractions and equivalents in Math and we will be discussing the religious practices of the Ancient Egyptians in Social Studies. We also hope to begin working with the songs and recitations of the Ascension/Pentecost program next week. In the last couple of weeks, Mrs. Boersema and I have found that a number of the students have been bringing watches to school that have alarms set for various times. They don’t seem to know how to turn these alarms off and they can cause disruption in the classroom. If your child needs to have an alarm on his/her watch for any reason, can you please make sure that he/she also knows how to turn off the alarm so that our classroom isn’t disrupted.

Memory Work: Psalm 127:1, 2; Psalm 103:1-5

French play – Tuesday

Math Quiz – Wednesday

Spelling Quiz – Thursday

Spelling Words: clothing, unfinished, suit, except, unusual, pair, appear, unpacked, loose, pieces, reaches, unidentified, size, pants, making, right

Lunch Devotions: Timera, Zachary, Caleb, Kade, Jeremy

Grade 6A

After a restful break, we continued with our various tasks. In Bible we saw that as Pharaoh planned to suppress God’s nation, the LORD called on them to rely in faith on Him and His promises. We, too, as a class will along with Caleb and his family, need to rely in faith on the LORD with the difficult news of another surgery planned during the March break. We pray that this surgery will allow Caleb to walk properly again. A story was read to the class this week that ties in with the Underground Railroad. This book by Patricia Polacco called, “January’s Sparrow” gave us insight to more devastating details of the lives of the black people during this time. We also read a story about a group of people fleeing their country during the war of Vietnam. Kien’s outward journey of escape also involved an inward journey of learning to love. Have a blessed weekend. CV

Devotions: T-Simon W-Malachi Th-Kaitlyn Fr-Meah

Ps.74:1,12-Feb.26; Num.24:17-19-Feb.25

Vocab Quiz-Feb.25 Ch.H. Quiz-Feb.26

Grade 6B

After having an extra-long weekend, we are back in the swing of things. In Bible we have started looking at the book of Exodus and the early life of Moses. In Literature we continue to look at the theme of journeys. In Social Studies we have been comparing the life of a wheat famer in the USA and a rice farmer in China. Students continue to work on their research projects, which will be due the Friday before the March break. Next week Tuesday we look forward to joining Grade 3 to help them with their pebble art! We have begun to sew our bean bags together and hope to stuff them next week. Please remember to sign your children’s agendas! Have a lovely weekend! MDB

Memory Work Text: Numbers 24:17-19 (February 25)

Memory Work Song: Psalm 78: 1, 12 (February 26)

Vocab Quiz (February 26)

Devotions: M. Tara, T. Ryan, W. Sylvanna, T. Shaelan, F. Cameron

Grade 7A

All things being equal, we’ll carry on next week with inequalities in Math and conclude the chapter with a test. We’ve learned what climate factors are in Physical Geography, and next, we’ll divide them into global and local factors. The Marburg colloquy will receive our attention as Philip of Hesse tries to unite the Lutherans and Zwinglians in Church History. Our new unit in Science has begun: Mixtures and Pure Substances. We started with homogenous and heterogeneous and will carry on to mixtures. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

It was only a short week in school, but in the time we were given we were able to continue our studies on the work of the great reformation through Zwingli. We even learned that because of his teaching, city council decided to remove all organs from the churches! In History we are wrapping up our unit on the War of 1812, while in L.A. we continue our work with poetry.

Devotions week of February 22 – Dylan

Devotions week of February 29 – Sam

Wednesday – Vocabulary quiz

Friday – MW – Psalm 10:7 & Isaiah 53:9-12

Grade 8

It was a short but busy week for Gr. 8. On Wednesday we completed the in-class Geography Challenge. It was done under a new format, and despite some glitches it was an enjoyable contest. Congratulations goes to the several finalists from Gr. 8: (Elliott H., Matthew S., Benjamin A., Stephen R., Lorissa V., Andrea D., and Bailey H. In both Math and Geography we are geared up and ready for next week’s Test and a quiz (both on Tuesday). We also started our Basketball practices for our tournament in April. MW: Ps. 94: 1,11, Eph. 2: 1-5; Devo: LDG; Cheers, Mr. J