General News

Greetings everyone on this Thursday morning at the end of a very short week of instruction; as many days in school as at home and then a PD tomorrow to boot.  This brings our total of inclement weather days to four which is still quite a bit less than some of our sister schools who have had as many as seven or nine. I guess what makes our number stand out is that they happened so close together. We have had winters where we’ve seen similar snow day numbers but they were more spread out.  Hopefully this is the end of them but you never know. May our Heavenly Father continue to bless the efforts of parents and teachers as together we instruct His children in the fear of His Name.

Earlier this week, Mrs. deVisser visited the school in order that she could bid her farewell to her students and the staff before she begins her chemotherapy treatment.  We pray for the Lord’s blessing on the treatment so that if there are any wayward cancer cells they can be killed off.  We are thankful that Mrs. Oosterhoff is willing and able to continue teaching Grade 6B to the end of the school year.  We thank Mrs. Deb Bouwman for stepping in and teaching Grade 6B when Mrs. Oosterhoff and her husband go on vacation later this month.

A few items for your attention:

*The News and Views which was scheduled for distribution on Sunday, February 17 has been re-scheduled for Sunday, February 24.

*The Special Education Parent-Teacher Conferences have been re-scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, February 19 from 1:00-4:00.

*It was great to see a sea of red and white this morning as we celebrated the 54th birthday of Canada’s flag and Heritage Day.  If you have opportunity, please join us for the afternoon assembly beginning at 1:30.

*As you know, tomorrow is a PD Day. The teachers will be heading to Cornerstone Christian School in Guelph for their professional development day. The day is organized by CARE (Curriculum Assistance for Reformed Education).  The topic for the day is Physical Education. During the morning session, participants will be involved in a review of the CARE Physical Education conceptual framework followed by a presentation, Physical Literacy by Design, by Mr. Tim Wildeboer (P.E. teacher at Guido de Bres Christian high school). For the afternoon session, Mr. Wildeboer will springboard a sharing session on Assessment and Evaluation practices for Physical Education.  For this session, teachers will be working in small groups determined by grade or divisions. The students (and their parents) may enjoy an extra-long weekend as Family Day occurs on the following Monday, February 18.

*On Tuesday of next week, three student teachers from the three-year program at the CCRTC will be practice teaching at John Calvin School.  Miss Michaela Vis (third year student) will be teaching with Miss Hoeksema in Grade 4A, Miss Natalie Breukelman (second year student) will be teaching with Miss Buist and Mrs. DeBoer in Grade 8B, and Mrs. Alanna Folkerts (third year student) will be teaching with Mr. Joosse and Mrs. Holtvlüwer in Grade 8A.  We wish the student teachers all the best and the Lord’s blessing during their practicum at JCS.

*Next for the JCS hockey team is the Guido De Bres invitational tournament which was originally scheduled for this week Tuesday at the Mohawk Quad Pad in Hamilton but has been rescheduled (snow day) for next week Tuesday, February 19 at the same venue.  The schedule is as follows:

7:45 – John Calvin vs Calvin Christian, Hamilton

10:45 – John Calvin vs Brantford Christian

1:45-  John Calvin vs Timothy Christian, Hamilton

If the team makes it to the final, it is scheduled for 3:00.  We wish the players and their coaches a good day of fun, sportsmanship, and competition at the tournament.

*Basketball practices continue next week Thursday afternoon from 2:45-4:00.

*We hope to celebrate 100 Day during the week of February 18.  Due to the two snow/ice days this week, it looks like next week Friday will be 100 Day.   See Grade 1 Classroom News for more information.

*Book Week is planned for the week of February 18-22.  The theme for the special week is Family.  Parents and grandparents are invited to join us for the Book Week opening assembly on Tuesday morning (9:15-10:15) at which Mrs. Amanda DeBoer, a local author who wrote a Children’s Bible, will be giving a presentation about being an author and will also give a reading from her Children’s Bible.  You are also invited to join the students and staff at the closing assembly on Friday afternoon from 1:30-2:30.  Highlights of that assembly will be the Grades K-4 display of favourite story parts and the Grades 5-8 Book Trivia Contest.

Some of the activities planned for the week include:  book reading contest (a two week event that began on Monday, February 11), designing a colourful page of a favourite book (Grades K-4), Book Trivia Contest (Grades 5-8), D.E.A.R.(Drop Everything And Read), buddy reading, Guess the Book or Author contest, book character day, and writing a class story.  Parents and grandparents are invited to come to the school at anytime during the week to read a story to one or more classes.

Please note:  Since some students and parents have asked, students need to dress up as a character from a book; not a movie, or a Netflix show, or a video game.  The students need to take in the book as proof of character.

Reminders:

*Please continue to collect tabs for cans for Jude VanVeen so he and his family can get a wheelchair for his sister Anna.

*On Monday, February 25 Grade 2B is scheduled to visit Beacon Home.

*On Wednesday, February 27 Grade 7A is scheduled to visit Anchor Home.

*On Thursday, February 28 Grade 5A is scheduled to visit Kilean Lodge.

*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 the week of February 25-March 1.

Enjoy the long, Family Day weekend everyone and may our Heavenly Father grant you a blessed Sunday.  We’ll touch base again next week Friday, D.V.        G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

This past week was a little bit slower paced for kindergarten considering that we only had school on Monday and Thursday. KB, we missed you! Next week looks like it’s going to be a busier one. We look forward to book character day next week Thursday. This is a combined day for KA and KB which means there will be no school for KB on Friday. Next week we will begin a new unit in Math that focuses on numbers larger than 10. This can be a challenging unit for some children so please remember to practice at home what was taught at school. Our bible stories will be about God’s strength in Samson and the story of Ruth. We wish you a lovely long weekend! Enjoy your day off on Monday with your families! NR & JB

Letter of the week: Bb

Words of the week: for, purple, seven, eight

Memory work: Psalm 136:1 and Hymn 39:5

Grade 1

We have come to the end of a very short school week and are all ready to get back to the daily routines of school. Since it has been a short week we have not tested the Spelling words today, but will carry them on until next Friday. This week we will focus on Book week and plan to do a lot of reading. Please take the time to read with your child at home as well. Thanks. We invite any parent or grandparents into our class to read a story on Wednesday, from 1:30 to 2:00. If you are able to join us please give us a call or jot a note in your child’s agenda. Book character day is on Thursday, so we ask that you choose a character in a book and dress up like that character. Please take the book to school as well. On Friday, Grade One hopes to celebrate 100 Day (finally). We do realize this puts extra pressure on you to dress up two days in a row, but hopefully we have given you plenty of notice. Don’t forget to bring 100 things for Show + Tell.  Enjoy the long weekend and keep reading! Have a blessed Sunday.

Memory Work for Friday, February 23 – Ps. 132:6; Ps.119:105

Spelling Words:  big, boy, could, no, way

Grade 3

Our God continues to show His power and glory in the weather this week! “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling His Word!”  Psalm 148:7-8. The Lord uses weak and sinful people from all times and places in His work of gathering a church for Himself by His Word and Spirit. This is the theme we are working with as we hear stories of Thomas Cranmer and Rev. DeCock next week. The quiz on Cranmer has been moved up to Wednesday. Next week is Family Book Week!

Read, read, read! The reading competition has begun!  Help your child fill in the sheet that records the number of pages he/she has read! Please check Mr. Hofsink’s report in the Chronicle for all the details. Book character dress up day is on Thursday! We can’t wait to see the students in their costumes! That’s it for now. Have a blessed long weekend! J.B,/M.P.

Words:  doesn’t, didn’t, general, by, buy, governor, one, won

Psalm 84:1; Text: Psalm 24:1-3

Gym clothes on Monday and Thursday.

Library books on Tuesday.

Mission $ and Dictation on Friday.

Grade 5

Despite the fact that we only had two school days this week, we did manage to get some work done! Hopefully you all enjoyed the extra days off! Next week, we continue with our unit on Jesus’ ministry, and we are getting closer to the end of His time on earth. We’re still working our way through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and our pyramids are starting to look like something in Social Studies. We also look forward to the activities of Book Week. Keep on reading! Have a wonderful long weekend and a blessed Sunday. RK/KV

Memory Work: Ps. 127:1,2; Text (for March 1): Matthew 28:18-20

Devotions: 5A – Tu. Maddy, W. RaeAnna, Th. Teagen, F. Merrit

5B – Tu. Joel, W. Eden, Th. Mason, F. Reuben

Grade 6

We come to the end of another short school week. I am sure everyone enjoyed the unscheduled time off and I hope you were busy reading plenty of books. Today we celebrated Flag Day. It was nice to see all the red and white throughout the school. Our study of Underground to Canada continues. We are in a most exciting part of our story. It is so fortuitous that our study could happen during Black History Month. We are also busy in Math, working with fractions…not always the easiest concept but oh so important. We will be ending this week with an assembly and we will begin next week with one as well to kick off our Book Reading Week. Have a wonderful extra long weekend…maybe spending time working on your book character costume when you’re not reading!😁 CV/SO

Grade 7A

It was another good week in Grade 7A..Today we joined together as intermediate grades and worked cooperatively, building our sense of community and teamwork. We heard about the Marburg colloquy in Church History and  learned where Zwingli and Luther had differences about the Lord’s Supper. Next we’ll learn about R.C.C. canton vs Reformed canton and the ensuing civil war in the Swiss Confederation. We’re working with inequalities in Math and two step equations. We’ll wrap up badminton next week in P.E. and move on to basketball. In History we’ll learn about, “the war that nobody won”, and move on to our battle research project. Enjoy your long weekend.

Grade 7B

In Church History, we continue with Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Confederation specifically looking at the opposition to the Reformation by the Anabaptists. In Language Arts, we continue with our Short Story Unit looking at themes. In History, we are beginning with a brief overview of the War of 1812 and why it happened. Devotions – Kyle DH. Have a great Family Day weekend!

Grade 8A

Here we are, the last day of this shortened week and only about to complete the second instructional day! Except for 7&8 this day is full of excitement! It is team building day! Lord willing it promises to be a challenging and enriching day full of energy and emotion. Stay tuned! Have a blessed long weekend.Cheers, Mr.J

Grade 8B

Well this has certainly been less than a regular school week.  Hopefully we will get back into a more regular schedule of activities in the next week. Please note that Math tests have been marked and returned. Please make a point of asking to see the returned tests. It is a really good way of checking on how well students are progressing. Next week we hope to welcome Miss Breukelman, a second year student at CCRTC into our class to begin a practice teaching session for the next number of weeks.  We are beginning to work on memorizing songs for our spring program.  We will continue to practise the songs from our MW list as well, but students will not be tested on those. Due to the many inclement weather days this week and last, as well as PD days and holidays, the History test that was scheduled for last Wednesday will be rescheduled for this coming Wednesday. The students certainly have been given a lot of time to be well prepared! By the time you read this, we will have completed our team building activitiy. It looks like it will be a great day.