General News

Celebrate1517: Solus Christus. During the months of November and December, we are focusing our attention on the second pillar of the Reformation: In Christ Alone. “…he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)

Like all ancient peoples, the Israelites practised blood sacrifice. The Old Testament provides detailed instructions for a variety of animal sacrifices. Making those sacrifices was a strict requirement of the Old Testament law, in which God said, “It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” (Leviticus 17:11). In short, without blood sacrifice, there could be no forgiveness of sins.

Through the lens of the New Testament, we now know that Old Testament sacrifices were temporary and provisional. They pointed to the true and complete sacrifice provided by God Himself. Today’s verse shows that Jesus, unblemished by sin, was the perfect sacrifice. We know that the sacrifice of a lamb won’t atone for our sins. Only the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, can do that. His sacrifice for us is “once for all.” No other sacrifice is necessary.

Based on their reading of the Bible, the Reformers rediscovered the truth that Christ’s sacrifice has been credited to sinners who could never save themselves. That includes all of us. Now we are called to offer our lives daily, as Paul says in Romans 12:1, as a “living sacrifice” to God, glorifying Him and serving others. What are we going to do today to show our gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice? How will we strive to please God and show love to our neighbour?

Greetings from the school on this first day of December as we bring to a close another week of instruction at John Calvin School. Yes, it’s already December and with it we enter the time of Advent, during which we celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth more than 2000 years ago. May our Heavenly Father provide us with all we need during the final month of the calendar year.

We congratulate Peter and Denise Ravensbergen with the birth of their second daughter, Davina Noelle. Davina is a little sister to her siblings at JCS: Elias, Ezra, Kaden, and Kierra. All is well with mom and daughter, and the rest of the family too. (“Our children all are gifts of God, our sons and daughters his reward—each one a blessing from the LORD, as heritage on us bestowed.” Psalm 127:3, BoP) May the Lord provide Peter and Denise with all they need as they raise their children in the fear of His Name.

May our Heavenly God and Father continue to surround the Gansekoele family with His grace and comfort after the recent, unexpected passing away of Mrs. Gansekoele’s mother-in-law and grandmother to Eliana, Caiden, and Judah Gansekoele at our school. May He also comfort the family of Mrs. B. Kingma who passed away earlier this week at the age of 102. She was the great-grandmother of Russell and Geneva Stel, and Logan, Tyson, and Holden Kingma at our school.

A few items for your attention:

*The three JCS volleyball teams put in a very good effort at the annual tournament yesterday. The girls’ team and the co-ed team lost out in the semi-finals while the boys’ team did not make the playoffs but played in a couple of very close games that could have gone either way. All in all it was a great day of fun, fellowship, and competition. We thank all the parents who came out and cheered on the teams, and the coaches (Mrs. Eleanor Schulenberg, Mrs. Nikki VanBrederode, and Mr. Breukelman) for their time and effort in preparing the teams for the tournament.

*For the Dutch folk in our community—Happy Sinterklaas on Tuesday of next week.

*The next skating session at the Smithville arena is scheduled for Wednesday, December 6. Grade 2 will skate from 12:15-1:15, and Grade 7 will skate from 1:15-2:15. In the interest of safety and concussion prevention, students in Grades K-3 must wear helmets when on the ice. They can be either hockey helmets or bicycle helmets. Students in Grades 4-8 are encouraged to wear them. Those playing hockey must wear them.

*Lost and Found: Our lost and found box is pretty much filled to the top. If you are in the school at some point and time during the next three weeks, please check through the bin to see if any of your child (ren)’s missing paraphernalia is in there. Whatever is left in the box on December 22 will be taken to the GBF or Bibles for Mission.

Reminders:

*Scholastic orders for December are due on December 6th so that the order can be received before the Christmas holidays. Please make sure your cheques are payable to John Calvin School.

*News & Views material is due on Monday, December 11.

*Grades 3 and 6 are scheduled to go skating on Wednesday, December 13. Grade 8 is scheduled to go skating on Wednesday, December 20.

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Pizza Lunch (which will also include a drink, fruit, and a snack) for Friday, December 15. Hurray! No lunches to make. For those children who have allergies, the Ladies Auxiliary will look after heating up/preparing the food that they bring for lunch that day. Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary!

Have an enjoyable weekend and a blessed Sunday. The Lord willing we’ll touch base again in a week’s time.

G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

As we jump into December, our Bible stories will turn to Christmas and the reason we will be celebrating. Next week we will learn about the visits of the angel Gabriel, and then the birth of John the Baptist. Our letter of the week will be Dd, and our sight words will be “can” and “white”. Please continue to review the letter names and sounds at home. In Math, we will move from 0-5 and begin our unit on 6-10. Please help your child get very comfortable with understanding and printing these numbers. Our social studies unit will turn to Transportation and the many different ways of getting from place to place. Our memory due next week is Psalm 100:1. NR & FVI

Grade 1

We had fun skating on Wednesday afternoon. It was quite a highlight for Grade 1B this week. Thanks so much to the Grade 8 and parent helpers. We have heard stories about the construction of the tabernacle this week in Bible. It is amazing to see how the LORD used the tabernacle to show his people that he would always be with them. Students should have taken home their Math tests. Check how they are progressing in their adding and subtracting. We have begun a unit on calendars and telling time. In Science, we are investigating living things. Find out from your children what all living things do. With the colder weather, we have been making sure that students are wearing hats and mitts when they go outside. Please send some (labelled) to school with your children. Congratulations to Elias and his family with the birth of his sister, Davina.

Memory Work: Psalm 12:4 (John 3;16 next Friday)

Spelling words: an, each, use, there, which

Grade 2

Another week has flown by! It was a busy one, and once again the students worked hard! We finished off our Science unit about Health and Safety, and we are looking forward to starting our first Social Studies unit next week about Nunavut. We extend our condolences to the Gansekoele family, whose mother (in-law) and grandmother passed away last Friday afternoon. We pray that the Lord may be near to them in this time of bereavement. We were happy to hear that Kensi’s surgery went well, and we hope that she continues to recover well! Looking ahead to next week, Grade 2 is looking forward to going skating on Wednesday! We would love to see some volunteers come out to help — please write a note in your child’s agenda if you plan to come. Students must wear a helmet! Have a blessed weekend!

Spelling words: found, stop, after, some, they Memory Work: Hymn 51:1

Grade 3

Our thoughts and prayers are with Russell Stel and his family as they mourn the loss of their beppe. Congratulations to Ezra Ravensbergen and family with the birth of a healthy baby girl! The children could learn about the many ways we can keep our heart and lungs healthy. Ask your child about it. We finished the Science unit with a quiz and a video about the circulatory and respiratory system. Next week we hope to begin with our unit on forces. In Bible we finished the stories telling about Abraham and God’s continued faithfulness. It was good to see and hear how many children studied with their parents. Thank you so much parents for the extra help given at home. We review the material on a regular basis in the classroom, as well as doing an extensive review the day before a test or quiz. The children have learned a lot about penguins; what a great way to introduce our next novel study, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”. In Art, Grade 3B has started looking at another artist, Henri Matisse. The children are making ‘snow flowers’ with complimentary colours using scissors to paint. Ask us about it. With all the colds, we are running out of Kleenex boxes. Please send along a Kleenex box with your child. We wish you a wonderful and restful weekend. MP/JB

Memory work: Hymn 17:1, 3; Text: Ps. 23:1-3

Spelling review words: their, there, they’re (try to practise these in a sentence), when, went, beautiful, before, discover, enough, first, hopeless, journal, let’s, recycle

Grade 4

Bible Test: Grade 4A: Wednesday December 6 (David unit)

Grade 4B: Thursday December 7 (Solomon unit)

Social Studies: We have become a unit on Canada!!!! Math: We continue with Geometry 🙂 French: Tout le monde est fantastic!

Spelling: hunting, learned, heard, climbing, dreamed, reading, stuffed, watching, passed, thinking, watched, talking, started, falling

Memory Work: Psalm 54:1 (Dec 8) Psalm 52:1 (Dec 15) John 1:1-4 (Dec 8)

Grade 5

BAM…we’ve entered into December. Whether it is the warmer weather or just life, but time sure has flown by quickly and here we are in the last month of the year already! Life in the classrooms is always busy as well. A big thanks to the parents that came out and helped us tie skates on Wednesday (and special thanks to Mr. Nobel for being our hockey coach/referee) Our Rome unit has finally come to an end and while the students were sad to see it end, we are enjoying discussing Nutrition which is our new Science unit. Please make sure to help your child fill in their Menu Chart so they can have it ready for next Wednesday’s Nutrition class. With the writing of the Math test last week we have now come to our unit on multiplication. The students have spent time in class making flash cards for all the multiplication tables and they will be required to study certain math facts each evening until they have mastered them. Please help them by quizzing them for a few minutes each night. We are almost at the end of our second unit in Bible and that means there will be a test on Wednesday. Duotangs will go home by Monday at the latest. Please encourage your child to spend more than one evening studying. We have spent time in class teaching them what proper studying looks like and we highly encourage you to ask them plenty of questions to help them see where they need to study more. Thanks for your support and have a wonderful weekend. SO/KV

Memory Work: Psalm 63:2; Text: Matthew 22:37-40

Bible Test: Wednesday

Devotions: 5A — M. Madelyn, Tu. Carter, W. Dane, Th. Josiah, Fr. Aiden

5B — M. Noah, Tu. Beth, W. Wesley, Th. Kathryn, Fr. Janaye

Grade 6

This week was a very exciting week. On Wednesday 3 Guido students came to our class and gave us a wonderful presentation about South Sudan and told us about some challenges the people there face and how we can help them. Just a reminder to the parents, Grade 6 has skating on December 13 at 1:15-2:15. Parents/grandparents are welcome to join us! Have a blessed weekend!

Grade 7A

The students are midway through the construction of their popsicle stick bridges. They’ve completed a mid-point group evaluation and are using their designs from earlier in the project. Ask your child who they chose as the greatest asset to their group work and why. Before building a model of a habitant home, seigneurial system, or writing a play involving a habitant and a seigneur, the students are required to research their topic. They’ll present their learned material next week and find out if they have permission to start based on what they found out. As part of our independent study, the students have to make contact with their proposed expert/professional and schedule an interview. Please have a look at your child’s draft telephone/email request; next we’ll formulate questions and book the actual interview date. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Another busy week has come and gone in Grade 7B! We continue in Church History talking about how the LORD in His providence allowed the Reformation to continue despite the best efforts of the political forces of the time to stop it. We have begun a History project which is going very well and we look forward to the production phase of the project next week. In our Independent Study projects, we have come to how to contact somebody to schedule an interview, either on the phone or by email. Devotions – Timera T. Have a great weekend!!

Grade 8A

November has come to a close and we face several busy weeks leading into the Christmas break. Yesterday the students were able to enjoy a Volleyball tournament and if they weren’t at the tournament they had several opportunities for service around the school. Ask them about it! Today we are discussing the Interview process as part of our Independent Career Research. Spend some time helping your child brainstorm/network who they can interview in relation to their career study. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

Thursday was a very quiet day in Grade 8 due to the volleyball tournament; making us miss the rambunctiousness of having all the students at school. This coming Thursday both Grade 8 classes have a Science Unit 1 Test. We have started a new novel study Tom Sawyer and are enjoying it immensely. If you are in the school be sure to come out the art project we have recently finished which is based on Georgia O’Keefe’s close up works. Have a blessed weekend. KG