General News

This coming week, we continue with the second cluster of the Fruit of the Spirit: patience, kindness and goodness. Today, the focus is on the second fruit in this cluster, kindness.   “Kindness is an active fruit; it treats others with care. The love of Jesus is the root that spreads it everywhere.” (from the poem to be recited at the concert). The more we become like Jesus Christ, the more love (and kindness) we will show to others.

Greetings parents, grandparents, seniors, and other supporters of our school community on this beautiful, summer-like day as we bring another busy week (the first week of a new month) of learning, teaching, and other activities to a close at John Calvin School. We are looking forward to an exciting day as many of you are planning to visit the students and teachers this morning and, then, this afternoon a number of you will be joining them on the fundraiser walk in support of McNally House.

Thank you PTA for providing coffee and snacks and the Ladies Auxiliary for the delicious lunch that the grandparents and seniors could enjoy. We thank the Lord for His blessing on this special day and may He continue to provide us with all we need for our daily task during this busy time of year.

Miss Buist came through her surgery well and is now in recovery mode in the hospital. We thank the Lord for this and we pray for His blessing on Miss Buist’s time of convalescence.

Construction update: This week the exterior wall of the storage room was bricked, making a continuous line with the existing brick of the kitchen. It looks great! Inside the addition, work continues as walls inside and between classrooms are framed. Work also continues on the HVAC system, electrical, and plumbing. May the Lord continue to bless the work being done and the progress made.

A few items for your attention:

*Thanks again for participating in the walk to raise money for McNally House. You may return the money collected at anytime next week. Thank you. Please see the note elsewhere in the Chronicle for the return procedure for the money collected.

*Mission Theme Week: Next week, we will focus our attention on mission. Rev. A. DeGraaf, missionary in Brazil, will be speaking at an assembly on Monday afternoon, May 9, beginning at 1:00. You are invited to join us for his presentation about the mission work being done in Maceio. We have designated Thursday, May 12 as Mission Day where the teachers and students will be paying attention to various Canadian Reformed mission fields and mission projects. And, of course, Friday, May 13 is concert day when we hope to perform, Spreading the Good News, at 7:30 p.m. in the Smithville church building. In connection with that, next week Friday afternoon will be early dismissal at 2:00 p.m.   This will allow for a bit more time for people to get ready for the concert.

*School Evaluation: The evaluation team (Mr. Hans VanDooren and Mr. Kevin Hutchinson) will be visiting John Calvin School next week Tuesday, May 10 and Wednesday, May 11.

*The students in Grades 7&8 will be writing the annual Gauss Math Contest next week Wednesday, May 11.

*Please note that the date of the Spring Membership meeting has been changed. It will take place on Wednesday, May 25 at 8:00 p.m. in the school gym.

Reminders:

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

*With the onset of warmer, sunny weather comes the spring and summer wardrobe for students. We would like to remind parents and students of the dress code regarding shorts and tops as found in pp 11-13 in the Policies and Procedures section of the Parent Handbook.

*Included with this edition of the Chronicle is the annual reminder from Niagara Public Health to be wary of ticks (Lyme Disease) and mosquitoes (West Nile Virus).

*Baseball practices continue after school for the boys’ and girls’ baseball teams on Monday and Thursday of next week. The tournament is scheduled for Saturday, May 28 in Dorchester, the same venue as last year.

*Victoria Day on Monday, May 23.

Enjoy your weekend everyone and have a wonderful Mother’s Day and blessed day of worship. We’ll touch base again in a week’s time, D.V.       G. Hofsink

McNally House Walk

*Please collect all pledged money before handing in the forms

*Please fill in correct names and addresses (not Opa and Oma)

*Please fill in the T-shirt order form ($50 in pledges for T-shirt)

*Do not return pledge forms and money until after the walk!

Classroom News

Kindergarten

As I write this, I am anticipating that we had a fun and successful Open House and McNally walk. Since the upcoming practice on Tuesday again falls on a KB day, we will be having both KA and KB on Tuesday. So KA has NO school on Monday, please send all Kindergarten students on Tuesday for the whole day! KB will have early dismissal on Friday for the concert; the children will be dismissed for the day at 2 pm. Also we ask that the children are here in our classroom by 7:15pm on Friday and that they have gone to the bathroom. We hope you have a lovely weekend. S.L./M.D.

Grade 1

Memory work Hymn 57:1

We have come to the end of another busy and exciting week. By the time you read this we will have enjoyed many visitors in our room and also participated in the hike for McNally hospice. Thank you to all the visitors for sharing the day with us and with all the people who accompanied us on our hike. We have heard many exciting stories about Martin Luther and are now learning about Guido de Bres. We have learned to work with calculators in math- that was a lot of fun. Happy Mothers Day to all our wonderful moms. Thanks for all the wonderful things you do for us. Have a blessed weekend. HB & JvB

Grade 2

This has been a very exciting week in grade 2. A box arrived in the mail containing 50 tiny caterpillars. We are looking forward to observing the life cycle of these tiny creatures. Friday was full of further excitement with Open House and our McNally Walk. We were very happy to perform our plays on The Drinking Gourd and will be completing this novel study next week. Next week, we will have Bible test on Thursday and we look forward to performing our concert for you on Friday night. HV/RG

Memory Work: Psalm 111:5; John 14:6

Spelling: two, those, write, won’t, which

Grade 3

Hello, and welcome back. Thank you all for coming to the Open House. We hope you enjoyed your stay with us. We have a busy week coming up. School evaluation, whole school concert practice, Bible test, assembly, and concert! Yep, we will have a great week together! Of course our regular material goes on. The students enjoy working in teams for their Community project. Thank you parents, for looking over the green sheets with your child and giving help (pictures, books) for this project. The play “Les Trois Petits Cochons” is coming along quite nicely. The students are putting a lot of expression into their part; c’est fantastique! We have come to the end of our spelling word list. We will continue to review some of the words and add some new ones, like Israelites. Please continue to practise the timetable facts diligently, boys and girls! This will be of great help to you in years to come. We could have another wonderful concert practice. We wish Miss B. and all involved, the Lord’s blessing as we will perform our Ascension and Pentecost concert this coming Friday. Please dress your child in light material, as it will be hot up front with 300 children. The children will meet us in the classroom before going to the church. Mrs. Groen has completed her second week with us and has taken on a lot of teaching. What a blessing to have her with us this time. Ww wish you God’s blessings this weekend. MP/JB

Memory work: Ps 77:5; Text: Ps 23:4-6

Bible test

Spelling: Israelites, because, community, communities, rural, urban

Grade 4A

What a fun day we had today! It was so nice to that so many parents, etc. could come to visit us and also join us on our walk. We have begun our unit on the Middle Ages. I am not sure who is more excited about this; the students or myself! I am sure your child has come home to tell you who they are going to portray at our festival which will be happening at the end of the month. Your child will receive ample information in the coming weeks about what their character wore. Have fun! I will be sending a note home very soon about all other arrangements for this much anticipated festival. In French we are in full practice mode for our play. We hope to have a presentation of this play for parents sometime in the next two weeks. Look in the agenda soon for further details. As a class we have been practicing our concert songs. The students are doing a fantastic job. We are so looking forward to the concert. As of next week we will be going back to our normal memory work schedule. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday. SO

Memory Work: Psalm 79:1; No text

Devotions: M. Justin, Tu. Leah, W. Julia, Th. Avery, Fr. Levi

Grade 4B

It is an exciting time with the concert coming up. Students have memorized many of the psalms and hymns already. This week it we worked on “Your Hand O God Has Guided” and all students sang the three stanzas from memory. This coming week will be reserved for the exact words of “The Holy City” and we will try to keep the message alive. In science we have started the project about Medieval Times, which we will intertwine through a few subjects. If this is the first time that you go through this process with your children, do not hesitate to ask us for information. It is our goal that every student enjoys this time and that nobody is afraid about the unknown (as we have noticed). In math we have new and old concepts and it is still fun to work with our mental-math activities. We are almost ready with the food we are preparing for the Book Buffet, and the students are looking forward to presenting this as well. After such a beautiful Friday, have a great weekend.

Monday/Thursday: Phys. Ed. clothes

Wednesday: library

Friday: Mission money, Memory Work, Spelling Dictation

Devotions: T: Arie, F: Kyara

Grade 5

We give thanks that Miss Buist’s surgery went well and we continue to commit her recovery and health to the Lord. I think the students and I have been adjusting well to our new situation. I am grateful for the words of support and encouragement from many of you. I’m grateful too, for the excellent support of Mrs. Boersema in the classroom 🙂 We hope to celebrate her birthday on Tuesday!! We would like to begin playing baseball in phys ed so if your child is able to bring a glove next week that would be great. Please be sure to label it with your name! We hope to have a Church History test next Friday on the attacks on the early church. We will have a review and notes will be sent home for studying. Thank you to all who came to the open house, we hope you enjoyed the peek into our life here in school. > Thanks, moms for all you do – Have a happy Mothers’ Day on Sunday! DB & SB

Spelling words: prehistoric, disappear, enormous, mammals, natural, middle, age, their, there, where, longer, reached, fights, eaters, brain, turtle

Devotions: M-Kiera, T-Aidan, W-Lucas, T-Jordan, F-Brody

Grade 6A

The Church History Quiz on Waldo had a class average of 80%. Well done grade 6. The next quiz will be on Wycliffe and how he brought the light to those living in darkness through translating the Bible into English and with his many writings and clear preaching to the common people. The students should bring in their baseball gloves and bats so that we can play baseball during Phys Ed. We look forward to presenting our concert next week. Thanks to all those who are helping to make this a special performance. A special thanks to Miss B for her encouragement, assistance, and taking on the directing of the whole school along with her regular classroom work. Have a blessed weekend. CV

Devotions: T-Elora W-Liam Th-Simon   F-Malachi

Hy.12:1-May 13   Church History Quiz-May 13

Grade 6B

We had a very busy week here in 6B! In Church History we looked at the life of Peter Waldo and his followers. In Literature we continue to follow Jamie and Awasin as they journey through the barren lands in Northern Canada, hide from Eskimos, discover a Viking tomb, and try to find their way home! In Writing, students are busy putting together a newspaper to go along with our novel. This week’s task included making a comic strip! Today we welcomed parents and grandparents into our classroom for our open house. Thank you so much for joining us for a time! In the afternoon, students took part in our annual McNally walk fundraiser! Next week will be a busy week as we have our Ascension Day assembly and continue to practice for the concert! Have a lovely weekend! MDB

Memory Work Song: The Holy City (May 13)

Memory Work Text: Joshua 1:6-9 (May 26)

Devotions: M. Eliana, T. Emmalyne, W. Gabriel, T. Norah, F. Marissa

Grade 7A

Students have studied art through the ages and created slides researching Egyptian, Greek and Oriental art. They now have a choice to create a piece of Egyptian art or a relief sculpture; ask your child what they have chosen to do. In Science we are going to try and change the solubility of alum and examine how underground mixtures are processed. Students have had the opportunity to sign up for events they would like to compete in for Track and Field. They’ll spend the next two week’s at lunch recess practicing for those events. Our comparison of the imperial and metric systems of measurement will continue in Math, with problem solving wrapping up the unit. In Church History we’ll learn what fickle Francis finally decides to do with the Reformation in France that his sister Margaret supports. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Another week has flown by and we are thankful for the things we have been able to accomplish. We have completed our Bible History unit on the kings of Judah, and are now moving into our Church History unit on John Calvin. In Language Arts we are finishing our unit on non-fiction before we begin our novel study unit on The Hobbit. KB

Devotions week of May 9 – Nicklas

Devotions week of May 16 – Benjamin

Grade 8

Another busy week has come and gone as we begin the last ‘full’ month of Grade 8. We have a lot of ‘irons in the fire’ if you will, with concert and baseball practises dominating our schedule. Also on our mind are preparations for the Ottawa trip. Aside from all this, we were able to complete several quizzes this week and by the looks of things, we have beautiful weather today for our open house and McNally walk. Memory work is suspended due to the concert next week. Cheers, Mr. J