General News

Greetings as we bring another week of instruction to a close at John Calvin School. This edition of the weekly newsletter will serve as a two-week Chronicle since next week is a three day, in-school week because of the annual CRTA Teachers’ Convention on Thursday and Friday. This year the teachers will be travelling to Fergus for the convention.

On Tuesday of this week, the students and staff participated in a very enjoyable and interactive mini-concert with the Greijdanus Student Choir. We could sing along with a couple of numbers, including Siyahamba, one of our spring concert songs. Three students were also invited to serve as guest conductors: Chelsea Bosscher, Tristan Bartels, and Brody Hordyk. What a beautiful way to begin a new day of teaching and learning! Thank you choir! On Monday of this week, the Greijdanus choir sang some songs for Grade KA because they were not going to be at school on Tuesday. One of the songs they sang was “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in Dutch. After school that day, one of the students told her mom that some Indians came to her class and they were singing in French.

Parents are invited to join students and staff for the Reformation Day assembly planned for Monday, October 31 beginning at 8:15 a.m. Miss Homan will be leading the assembly.

A few items for your attention:

*Today is Veggie, Chop, Chop Day; the annual fundraiser for the Grade 8 year end trip. A record number of orders are being processed by the students. The students and teachers thank everyone who participated in this event; whether purchasing veggie bags, donating food/supplies, or volunteering to help out.

*We congratulate the following students who were selected the winners of the Fruit of the Vine colouring contest: Augie Jagt, Victoria Schulenberg, Ella Bartels, Kingston Donker, Meghan Schuller, Jenna VanBrederode, Trinity Jansen, Declan Mans, Kara Nordeman, Julia Ravensbergen, Isaac Helder, Selena VandenOever, Rachel Tenhage, Ilse Ravensbergen, Jenna Dekker, Emily Schulenberg, Madeleine Ravensbergen, and Paige VanSydenborgh.

*Next week Monday, Grade 1 is planning to make a visit to Beacon Home. What a blessing it is that we have the opportunity to sing songs, play games, and interact with our Special Needs brothers and sisters.

*The annual ANCHOR WORK DAY is coming up next week. Students are reminded that the confirmation slip is due on Monday, October 24. It is good for the students in Grades 7&8 to be involved in this community service for one or our Reformed organizations.

*On Monday, October 31 our school is planning to welcome two student teachers from the Covenant Canadian Reformed Teachers College. Miss Brandi Boersema will be teaching with Miss VanderZwaag in the Special Education department, and Miss Rachelle VanLuik will be teaching with Miss Breukelman in Grade 3A. We wish these prospective teachers all the best and the Lord’s blessing during their practicum at John Calvin School.

*Picture retakes are scheduled for Tuesday, November 1.

*With Remembrance Day not being too far off, the students continue to work on the Royal Canadian Legion Poster, Poem, and Essay contest. Entries need to be in by Tuesday, November 1. This is earlier than in the past because the Legion would like to display all the entries as part of their 70th anniversary celebrations on Saturday, November 5th. Once again, D.V., the students from Grades 5-8 will be participating in the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Smithville cenotaph. Two students will be laying a wreath in behalf of the school and we have been invited to sing O God Our Help in Ages Past and Amazing Grace by the organizers of the event. They enjoyed the school singing these hymns at previous gatherings so much so that they requested we sing them again. While those grades are at the cenotaph, Grades K-4 will have a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday morning, November 11, beginning at 10:45 a.m.. Mrs. VanIperen will be leading the assembly. Parents and grandparents are invited to join us at both events.

*Attached to this week’s Chronicle is the fall edition of the ASC (Assisting the Special Child) newsletter and an update from ARPA relating to education. With the addition of Mr. Harry Moes (retired principal of Credo Christian High in Langley, BC) to the ARPA Canada team as a part-time education policy consultant, ARPA hopes to keep our Reformed schools better informed about policy changes and political updates and their impact on independent Christian education. The attached update is the first of its kind, but they hope to utilize this means of communication more in the future (ideally, five times a year).

Reminders:

*Scholastic orders are due on the 15th of every month. Please make your cheques payable to John Calvin School.

*Grades 6A and 8A are planning to visit Shalom on Monday, November 14.

*Winterfest is on Saturday, November 19.

Have a great weekend everyone and a blessed Sunday. We will touch base again in a fortnight’s time, D.V.. Enjoy your extra long weekend at the end of next week, whether you are spending it at home or taking a few days’ vacation.     G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

We will begin next week with Yellow Day! You can dress in yellow, bring in your favourite yellow toy, or even bring yellow food in your lunch. A class mom will also bring a yellow snack for all of us at snack time. Yellow fits in very nicely with our Fall theme for the month. In our Bible stories, we will learn more about Jacob. It is a good idea to read these stories at home too, to help students remember the details. In Language, we will learn the letter Cc next week, and then Kk the week after. We will continue matching and counting in Math. October sure has flown by! Enjoy the extra days off with your children! MD & FV

Grade 1

What a pleasure to have another ordinary work week in grade 1. We only had one special event and that was to welcome a new student to grade 1B, Kensi Vanderhoeven. She is already beginning to find her place among us. We will be completing another Bible unit by the first of November, so we are planning a Bible test for Thursday, November 3. Notes will go home the day before. Look for completed packages of Reading worksheets and marked Science quizzes in your child’s backpack. Mrs. VanBrederode and Miss Buist and Mrs. Boersema were excited to read sentences that most students wrote all by themselves in their phonics books. It’s great to see evidence of such learning. Some students need to work on recognizing their numbers, though. Now that the weather is turning cooler, please remember to make sure that your child is taking a jacket to school.

Memory Work: Psalm 24:1, Exodus 20:2 & 3 (Nov. 4)

Spelling Words: at, be, from, have, this

Math: Please practise counting by 2s, 5s, 10s.

Grade 2

The Bible test this week was very well written. Keep up the good work, Grade 2! We are continuing our study of the Lord Jesus’ work on earth. Ask your child the meaning of the word parable. Our first Science unit will be wrapped up next week. We will write our test on Wednesday. After the long weekend we will begin a new unit entitled, Investigating Health and Safety. That’s all for now! JB/HV

Memory Work: Psalm 95:3

Spelling: Review (see agenda)

Grade 3

First of all, a BIG, WARM welcome to our new student, Rylee Vanderhoeven!

We hope and pray that you will soon feel at home in our family at John Calvin School! We had a fantastic trip to the Jordan Pioneer School on Monday. We were blessed with beautiful, warm weather and the colouring of leaves was at its best! What a day! We travelled back in time to 1908 and our teacher was Miss Welstead. The students acted out pupils in that year. We did arithmetic on a slate, we wrote our spelling words with quill pens, we had a spelling bee and much, much more. Ask your child all about it. Thanks to the moms and dads and other family members who helped to make our pupils look so ‘pioneerish.’ Thanks also to Mrs. Leslie Hofsink, and Mrs. Kim VanEgmond for coming along and to our bus driver, Mrs. VanLuik for driving us safely! In our Social Studies classes we are doing group projects on pioneer topics such as school time, hunting, fishing, trapping, the general store and pioneer children. We can’t wait to see the finished posters, grade three! Soccer skills are being taught in our gym classes. Lots of trapping and kicking and FUN of course! Just a reminder that library is on Tuesday and to bring your gym clothes on Monday and Thursday! That’s it for now. J.B./M.P.

Hymn 52:1; Psalm 23:1 (two weeks); Text: Genesis 12:1-3 (two weeks)

Words: city, community, country, exciting, getting, laughed, pretty, prettier, prettiest, schools, to, two, too, was

Grade 4A

In science we started the new unit about body systems and there is a lot to discover. Sometimes the students get a bit nervous about the fact that we call all our body parts with their real names. Together we decided that it is important to identify our body parts and organs by their appropriate names. We read Psalm 139; we are unbelievably, marvellously and wonderfully made. We will enjoy this study and learn lots about our Creator. We read one verse of Psalm 104 every day and talk about the meaning for a minute. That is great. I wish you were there to hear their comments! They already understand so much! In two weeks we hope to know the first 4 verses of Psalm 100 by heart! What a basis for the rest of our lives! In Language we have started our lap books, and the novel ‘Owls in the Family’. The students are excited about working with this novel. They did well on their Bible Tests, and they will be getting them back next week. In Math we start a new chapter next week. We are happy for the students that they will have a few days off so that they can relax!

Memory Work: Hymn 60:1&4 Psalm 100:1-3

Grade 4B

We have started a new science unit on Investigating Organ Systems. It is amazing to see how God created the organ systems to work together so beautifully! We have also started a new unit in Reading on the book Owls in the Family! We are very curious as to how the owls will become part of the family! Miss H

Spelling: Lesson 8 cry, close, surprise, off, spy, too, nineteen, closer, smile, bigger, lying, write, stranger, trying (quiz on October 26)

Lesson 9: art, master, smart, sisters, bar, finger, bark, paper, part, barrel, sand, says, matter, because (quiz November 4th)

Memory work: Hymn 60:1,4 (October 26)   Psalm 20:1 (November 4th) Text: Psalm 100:4-5

Grade 5

I will not be in the classroom on Friday or Monday so that I can spend some time with Brandon, our oldest, before he returns to Kuwait. Mr. DeBruin has graciously agreed to step in for me once again. Thanks so much, kind sir. We have come to the end of our first Bible unit and I’m sure that you have noticed the blue duotangs coming home already. I have a test scheduled for Tuesday (please make sure they go back to school each day as we are reviewing in class as well). Please encourage your child to study a little each night. I am trying to impress upon them that quickly studying the night before is not a good habit and does not usually give good results. In Social Studies we are now at the point in our Rome unit that the children get to do some hands on building to show their learning. Please chat with your child about what kind of supplies they need for their project so that their time in class is well spent. Since next week is a short week there will be no spelling dictation this week, though memory work is still due on Wednesday. Please remember mission money on Wednesday as well. Have a great weekend and blessed Sunday. SO

Memory Work: Oct 26 –Ps 41:1; Nov 4 — Ps 46:2

Text: Oct 26 — John 3:14-16

Tuesday Oct 25: Bible Unit 1 Test

Spelling Dictation: Lesson 8 Nov 4

Devotions: Oct 24-26 M. Reuben, Tu. Nevaeh, W. Susanna

Oct 31- Nov 4 M. Jordan, Tu. Justin, W. Julia, Th. John, Fr. Tristan

Grade 6A

We really enjoyed the visit from the Dutch choir. The director had us involved with the warmup exercises and even let a few students try their hand at directing including two grade 6 students, namely, Tristan and Brody. As an introduction to our topic of trade, the students looked at where items were made in the classroom and at home. The challenge was to find as many different countries as possible. The students wrote 3 different items from 3 different countries on a small label and hung it up on the world map. We have begun our lessons on Genesis and have discussed a variety of things, such as God is a God of order, the pattern of creation, how man was created differently than the creatures, the first covenant, and God’s grace given to us freely. We enjoyed saying the poem, ‘Honeybees’ as a duet and had a look at the many examples of personification used by this author to get the feeling that the bees were people. We are excited about our new art project drawing different patterns on an oak template. The project will be finished by using oil pastels as well as paint. Have a blessed weekend. MdB/CV

Devotions: week of Oct.24-26:

6A – T-Liam, W-Jordana, Oct.31-Nov.4, T-Angelina, W-Rachel, Th-Timera,  F-Kade

6B – M-Zach T-Caleb W-Avery, M-Denver, T-Dylan, W-Ava, Th-Kiera, F-Lucas

Memory work: Ps.23:2-Oct.26   Ps.25:4-Nov.4

Gen.22:15-18-Oct.26

Quizzes: Bible -Oct.26   Vocab -Oct.26, Map and terms-Nov.4

Grade 7A

Students are applying what they have learned in Science about strength, forces and efficiency to the construction of a table made out of cardboard. Ask your child how their table is coming along. On the home front, plans have been made regarding Anchor work day. We also discussed the idea and purpose at school, its all God’s money and we’re duty bound to use our gifts for the benefit of others. After our look at number theory and a test next week, we’ll move on to fractions and decimals in Math. In Language Arts we had a great discussion about inference; next week it’ll be all about major and minor characters before we move on to setting. In our upcoming Bible History classes we’ll see how David relies on his own craftiness to avoid Saul, but ultimately it is God who directs him. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

We are continuing our Bible History Unit on how Saul is decreasing and David is increasing. We started a History project on the Jesuit missionaries and Fur traders in New France that the students will be presenting Tuesday. In LA, we will be wrapping up our unit on Defining Character. In Math, we are learning about Number Theory, in particular Greatest Common Factors and Least Common Multiples. Geography we are beginning the chapter on climate change and how it affects us. For devotions, we will be beginning after the long weekend where students do devotions for a week at a time. Grade 7 students are strongly encouraged to partake in the Anchor Work Days that are coming up! You should have received an information sheet from your child! Have a great couple weekends!

Grade 8A

Today is Veggie Day! It was a busy day in the kitchen as Grade Eight worked tirelessly to fill out all of the Soup Veggie orders! A big thanks goes out to those who ordered packages; we hope you are satisfied. This day is a major fundraiser for our Ottawa trip and it goes a long way to funding our expenses. Thank-you! In other news, we were busy with our Confederation Investigated projects this week and they are due at the end of day Monday. Next week is a short week and here is your reminder that memory work is still due on Wednesday (that would be: Ps. 33:1 and Joel 2: 28-32). Please have you Anchor forms returned to the school asap. Have a blessed weekend! Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

By the time you read this, no doubt the school will smell like chopped onions. Grade 8 students are helping out with this event for the entire day today. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped to make this day a success. Next week is only a short week in school. We hope to wrap up our Bible unit with a test on Wednesday.

Devotions week of October 24 – Noah

Devotions week of October 31 – Nathan

Wednesday – BH test – Christ’s early ministry

Wednesday – MW – Psalm 34:4,5/Joel 2:28-32