General News

The monthly theme for the month of October is Intellectual Tenacity. “The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly they seek it while conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.” (C.S. Lewis, “Learning in War Time”)        Hello again everyone as we bring to an end another week of learning and instruction at John Calvin. Our Heavenly Father has richly blessed us in that we could, once again educate His covenant children in our Reformed, Christian school to learn more about Him, His Word, and His world; freedom that we are so very thankful for and can reflect upon at this time of year.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those in our community who are dealing with serious illness or difficult family situations. May the Lord continue to provide guidance, strength, and encouragement.

A few items for your attention:

• Included with the Chronicle is the fall edition of the ASC (Assisting the Special Child) newsletter.
• Earlier this week, we could welcome two student teachers from the Covenant Canadian Reformed Teachers College. Mr. Tim Breukelman (in the one-year Diploma of Education program), a former students at JCS, will be teaching for four weeks with Mr. Bergsma in Grade 7B; and Mrs. Rhonda Kelly (in her first year of the three-year program) will be teaching for three weeks with Miss VanLuik in Grade 2A. We hope that they had a good first week and wish them all the best and the Lord’s blessing for the duration of their practicum at John Calvin.
• Volleyball practices continue after school every Monday and Thursday for the next three weeks leading up to the tournament, hosted by Guido De Bres high school, on Thursday, November 26.
• The annual ANCHOR WORK DAY is an event of the past. The students in Grades 7&8 are encouraged to bring in the money as soon as possible; if they haven’t already done so. Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.
• The submissions for the annual Royal Canadian Legion Poster, Poetry, and Essay contest were dropped off at the Legion office earlier this week.
• For a small donation to the Royal Canadian Legion poppy fund, students will be able to receive a poppy to help in remembering why we pay attention to this event.
• Parents, grandparents, and other interested members of our community are invited to join Grades K-4 at the Remembrance Day assembly to be held on Wednesday, November 11 beginning at 10:45 a.m. in the school gym. Mrs. Oosterhoff will be leading the assembly.
• The students in Grades 5-8 are planning to attend the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Smithville cenotaph at the Royal Canadian Legion on November 11. Two students will be laying a wreath in behalf of the school and we have been invited to sing a couple of hymns as well. We plan to sing Abide With Me and a few stanzas of Hymn 54, O God Our Help In Ages Past. Both of these are traditional Remembrance Day hymns. The students have also been invited to enjoy a pizza lunch on behalf of the Legion.

Reminders:

• Picture retakes are scheduled for Monday, November 9.
• Scholastic orders are due on the 15th of every month. Please make your cheques payable to John Calvin School.
• Grades 6A and 8 are planning to visit Shalom Manor on Friday, November 13 to sing for and visit with the seniors at the residence. Keep your eye out for seniors on motorcycles☺.
• Winterfest on Saturday, November 14. We are looking forward to a fun and festive day. We thank the organizing committee and the plethora of volunteers for the enormous amount of work that they have put into making this even happen.
• The first skating session at the Smithville arena is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18. Grade 4 will skate from 12:30-1:30 and Grades KA and 1A will skate from 1:30-2:30. In the interest of safety and concussion prevention, students in Grades K-3 must wear helmets while on the ice. They can be either hockey helmets or bicycle helmets. Students in Grades 4-8 are also encouraged to wear them. Those playing hockey must wear them.
• Fall membership meeting on Wednesday, November 25. The membership packages will be going out next week.

Enjoy your weekend and have a blessed Lord’s Day. We hope to touch base again next week Friday.   G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

What Beautiful weather we were blessed with this week, a reason to be thankful! We are learning our new Memory work, Hymn 5:4, and Genesis 8:22; please continue to practice at home. We have now taught the letters S,A,T,I,P,N,C, and K. We will be going over some review of the letters and words we have learnt so far. The children love the Jolly Phonics songs and its great practice to sing them. We have even been putting the letters and sounds together to begin sounding out and reading, the children are loving being able to “read”.

Have a great weekend. S.L, M.D.

Grade 1

Memory Work – Hymn 54:1 and Ex. 20:2,3

After a nice long weekend for the children, we were ready to go back to work again this week. We have almost finished another Bible unit and hope to have a test on Wednesday. We are also nearing the end of our Math unit and hope to have a test in that early in the week. Please remember to take a few minutes every night to review the words in the Agendas- it really does help. Our work on the Senses is almost finished and we look forward to learning about how living things differ from non-living things. We have noticed that the children often appear to be quite tired on Monday morning- could you please try to send them to bed on time? Have a blessed and restful weekend. HB and JvB

Grade 2

Memory work: Psalm 92:!

Words: has, crashes, of, when, played

This week in Grade 2 we have learned about composite foods and eating a balanced diet. We are looking forward to our pizza lunch on Tuesday. If you haven’t sent your $2 yet please do so as soon possible. We’re still in need of a few volunteers. It’s a yummy job! We will be testing the students on the Math facts that are in their bag thus far. We will then add a few new facts to the bag. We can really tell when you practice at home, keep up the good work! In our Bible lessons we have seen the amazing power that Jesus displayed over sin, sickness, and death. What a wonderful Saviour we have! HV/RG

Grade 3

Memory work: Ps 34:3 Text: Gen 12:1-3

Spelling words: beautiful, before, discover, enough

Tuesday: Bible test

Welcome back to news from Grade 3. Last week we had a wonderful time at the Jordan Pioneer School house. The children were dressed for the year 1908, and learned what it was like to be a student in that time. Thank you Mrs. Sophie Dam, Mrs. Carrie DeVries and Mrs. Wilma Vis for your help, photography and busdriving. Mrs. Sophia Dam has prepared a CD. If you wish to get one about Pioneer day, please contact her at sophia.dam@gmail.com. Last Wednesday, Grade 3B could sing songs to their special brothers and sisters at Anchor Home; always an enjoyable event. Grace was able to direct us, and Rob was humming along, it was great. Thank you Mrs. LeeAnna VanIperen, for driving us. The teachers convention was very interesting and we learned so much again. Read about it in the next News and Views. Just a friendly reminder; please practise spelling words with your child on a regular basis. Next week, we will have a Bible review on Monday and Bible test on Tuesday, please take the time to review with your child as well. For our next Church History unit we need bulletins, church directories, and church year books. Would you be willing to send some along with your child, with your family name on it? We will take care of them and return them to you when we are done! Thank you Mrs. Roze Ravensbergen for teaching us a new song and playing the guitar for and with us. The children just loved it (so did the teachers). That’s it for now. Have a blessed weekend. MP/JB

Grade 4A

Memory Work – Psalm 20:1 & Text – Psalm 100:1-5

The classes had a great time learning through their visit to the Teachers College, and the Theological Seminary. We are coming to the end of our Bible classes of learning about our Church Federation, and The Members in Household of Faith. This week we have also been focusing on church members that are elderly, or have special needs, and we will take time next week to write a letter to them. We will have a test on Wednesday to cover this unit. In LA we are really enjoying the novel “Owls in the family”, and the students are loving the time to work on their lap books for this. In Science we are learning about the brain, and other organs and their functions. We are thankful that we could celebrate Mrs. DeVisser’s birthday this past week. Blessings.

Monday & Thursday: PE clothes

Wednesday: Library, Bible Unit Test

Friday: Spelling Dictation, MM,

Grade 4B

Memory Work: Psalm 21:1,2 and Text: Psalm 100:4,5

What a beautiful and unusually warm week we have had. What a gift from our heavenly Father. With the Math and Science tests written and handed back (don’t forget to sign and return them) we will now be moving on to new units. In Science we will be looking at and learning about 2 of our organ systems and Math will see us looking at metric measurement. We are wrapping up our unit on the Household of Faith, in Church History, as so will be writing our test on Wednesday. The students and I are thoroughly enjoying reading our novel, Owls in the Family, and I think that they are enjoying making their lapbooks as well. Grade 4B is responsible for leading the Remembrance Day assembly this year and the students will be reciting a couple of poems and one of them is even going to accompany us as we sing. Please feel free to join us on Wednesday morning beginning around 10:45 am. Have a blessed and restful weekend.

Wednesday: Church History Test

Grade 5

Memory Work: Psalm 48:1 and Mark 12:29-31

Spelling Words: ahead, already, death, wearing, instead, complete, supreme, athlete, journey, hockey, carry, everywhere, especially, finally, suddenly, body

Bible Test – Tuesday

Spelling Quiz – Thursday

It was good to have a regular week of work again after the short week last week. Teachers enjoyed a really wonderful convention. It was an opportunity, again, to be inspired and spurred on to think in new ways, as well as, to enjoy affirmation of current practices. I am sure the children enjoyed their days off as well. One thing that we have noticed in the grade 5 classroom on more than one Monday is that quite a number of children come to school tired. Many of them confess to having stayed up quite late the night before. It is difficult for them to stay focussed on their tasks and on learning if they have not had enough sleep. It also makes it more difficult for them to remain tolerant of one another’s weaknesses and shortcomings. A good night’s sleep, as well as a healthy diet cannot be underestimated as important tools for good learning and healthy social relationships; something to consider. We are well into our novel, Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry and often have interesting conversations about how to define courage. In the next week, we hope to discuss a Social Studies project in which we will build a model and make a presentation about something we have learned in our study of Ancient Rome.

Grade 6A

Memory Work – Ps.102:11

In our studies this week we have followed Abram’s journey from Ur to Canaan. We read about the faith he had which also faltered when he went to Egypt. We compared Melchizedek with Jesus Christ. Our novel will soon come to an end but has kept our interest all the way through. We have discussed tenacity as this month’s character trait that we should aim for. Many of the students are trying to put this into practise especially during their math seatwork. The students participated in a trade activity in groups and discussed what strategies worked in order to get the required items. They have started to research information about the bird of their choice. The work for this mini project will be completed at school. We continue to pray for Caleb. We are thankful that the LORD has blessed his operation. May He also give a good recovery to Caleb. We look forward to the time when he can again join us. Next week we will be going to the cenotaph on Wednesday and to Shalom on Friday. Have a blessed weekend.

Devotions: T-Lydia W-Amy Th-Quinton F-Abby

Bible Quiz-Nov.12

Grade 6B

Memory Work Song : Psalm 102 :11 (Nov. 13) and Text: Genesis 22: 15-18 (Nov. 12)

This week in 6B we have been working on adding more countries and capitals to our world map in Social Studies. In Literature we have been discussing how an author uses cliff-hangers to keep the reader enthralled. We are coming to the end of our novel and are excited to see how it ends! The students have started making their own summary of the novel using pictures. On November 11 we will be heading to the cenotaph to join our fellow students, members of the community, and veterans in remembering those who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom and continue to fight for our country. Please remind your children to wear appropriate clothing for the weather that day! The Grade 8 students will be handing out poppies in the morning, the price for a poppy is a donation. Picture re-takes will be on Monday, please write a note in your child’s agenda if you would like to have them get retakes. Please also remember to sign agendas and tests! Have a lovely weekend. MDB

Social Studies Quiz: Nov. 10

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

Grade 7A

We’ve started our Phys. Ed. unit on volleyball; it’s a unique team game where communication and strategy are key. It’s also a difficult sport with proper techniques and form. Our unit covering fractions and decimals will wrap up soon in Math; look for a test next week. Next, we’ll work with expressions and equations. We’ll look at the four spheres next in Physical Geography as well as the nitrogen cycle as we start our next theme of geographic inquiry; environment. Requested interviews went well and the Term One reports will be coming out soon. Be sure to ask your child how they are doing in Grade Seven “A” both academically and socially. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Memory Work – Psalm 7:1

Hello again from grade 7B. This month we are able to welcome Mr. Breukelman as a student teacher, into our classroom. We have learned alot this week about the work of Martin Luther in the Great Reformation. In History we have begun a new unit dealing with daily life in New France. This unit is being taught by Mr. Breukelman. KB

Devotions week of November 9 – Ashley Ludwig

Devotions week of November 16 – Leah J. Ludwig

Friday – Church History test – Martin Luther

Grade 8

Memory Work – Psalm 41:4 and John 14: 6-7.

A busy week in Gr. 8 has quickly come and gone. What a blessing it was to enjoy a few days of beautiful warm weather outside. This week we looked at coordinate graphing and the properties of exponents in math while in science we measured the effect of osmosis in eggs! Here are some things for next week: Wed: cenotaph, Friday: visit shalom. Devotions: SR;  Cheers, Mr. J

From the Winterfest Committee

Please review the map for this year we have made some changes. Be sure to get your tickets upstairs in the kids games hallway and use them for the games, petting zoo and pony rides. On your way to visit the voucher committee, who will be tucked right inside the gym this year, you will see a new specialty coffee bar located across from the fresh Farmers Market outside. Also note that the books will have their very own room this year instead of lining the hallway.