General News

Greetings readership as we bring to an end another short week (at least no snow/inclement weather days) of learning and teaching at John Calvin School.  May the Lord continue to provide the students and teachers with what they need for their respective tasks during the next two weeks leading up to the March Break.

We congratulate Mike and Miriam Bosma with the birth of their son, Miles; Jesse and Danielle Gabel with the birth of their son, Owen; and Ryan and Kristen Schulenberg with the birth of their daughter, Adeline.  Miles is a brother to Norah (KA), Owen is a brother to Liam (KA), and Adeline is a sister to Joseph (KB).  All is well with moms and babies and, as far as I know, everyone else as well.  (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 all three sets of parents with what they need as they raise their children in the fear of His Name.

May our Heavenly Father continue to provide for those in our school community who need Him in a special way; be it those who are sick, those who are in mourning or those who are dealing with difficult family situations.  We think especially of the VanLuik family who earlier this week laid to rest Mr. Hein VanLuik.  He was the father-in-law to one of our bus drivers, grand-father to a couple of bus drivers, and great-grandfather to several students in the school.  We also remember Mrs. deVisser who is scheduled to undergo her first chemotherapy treatment next week Monday.

On Monday, Mrs. Debra Bouwman will be taking up her teaching task in Grade 6B.  Welcome and enjoy your time with us.  Mrs. Oosterhoff and her husband are on vacation for the next two weeks.  She will return to teach Grade 6B again after the March Break.

A few items for your attention:

* The News and Views will be distributed on Sunday.

*The annual “Toonies For Anchor” campaign to raise awareness for the needs of the Anchor Association and to learn more about the Anchor Homes is scheduled for next week. The little envelopes will be coming home on Monday and we encourage all the students to donate their toonie (or more) in support of our special needs brothers and sisters. The children will have until Monday, March 4 to return their envelopes. Thank you in advance students for participating in this fundraising activity.

*Today was 100 Day. It was great seeing all the little centenarians in and around the school.  Mrs. vanBrederode, Mrs. VanEs, and Mrs. Boersema also looked the part really well.  See Grade 1 Classroom News for more information.

*We had a great Book Week. The week kicked off with an assembly on the Tuesday morning and featured a presentation and reading by a local author, Mrs. Amanda DeBoer, who has written a story Bible for young children, Show Them Your Way, O Lord, which some of you may have on your shelf at home, especially if you have young children.  Throughout the week, students and staff participated in a number of different activities including:  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, parents or grandparents reading to a class, and writing a class story.

What a great variety of characters we saw in and around the school on Thursday. It was great to see all the staff and pretty much all the students dressed up as book characters from one of their favourite books. The theme week concluded with an assembly on Friday afternoon that featured a parent reading the school a story, a display of the Grades K-4 art work, and the Book Trivia Contest.  It was a busy but very enjoyable week.

The Book Reading Contest continues until Monday, February 25.  The class that reads the most pages will enjoy a pizza lunch.

*The JCS hockey team participated in the Guido de Bres invitational elementary tournament this past Tuesday (re-scheduled from February 12 because of a snow day).  They made it to the semi-finals where they were eliminated from the competition.  Even though they didn’t come back to school with any hardware, the players worked hard, did their best, and had fun.  Thank you again coaches (Mr. T. Breukelman, Mr. K. Bos, Mr. B. Hofsink, Mr. J. Tenhage, and Mr. R. Tenhage) for your time and expertise in getting the players ready for and guiding them through the tournaments.

*Basketball practices for the boys’ and girls’ teams continue next week Monday and Thursday afternoons from 2:45-4:00.

*The three student teachers have completed week one of their practicum at JCS.  We wish them all the best and the Lord’s blessing during the remainder of their four or five week teaching session at our school.

*Included with today’s Chronicle are two documents regarding volunteering from the Board of Directors.  Below is a note from the board secretary regarding the Volunteering memorandum and policy.

Dear parents, guardians and members, The Board of Directors continues to work diligently through our Policy Director with regards to updating and drafting policies applicable to school administration and management. Please see attached for a recently completed policy for Volunteering at John Calvin School. On behalf of the board, M. Schulenberg, Secretary – JCS Board of Directors

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.

*On Friday, March 1 Grade 3B is scheduled to visit Shalom Manor.

*March Break is from March 8 – March 15.  The first day of the break is Friday, March 8 and the first day back after the break is Monday, March 18.

*Please note the following change to the school calendar:  The Spring Membership meeting originally scheduled for May 22 has

been re-scheduled for Wednesday, April 24.

Have a good weekend everyone and a blessed Sunday.  We hope to touch base again in a week’s time.    G. Hofsink

Classroom News

Kindergarten

Book Character day was a success! In kindergarten we had princesses, construction workers, cowboys and so much more. On Thursday we had a special visitor come and read 3 stories to the class. This was enjoyed by everyone! Kindergarten thoroughly enjoyed buddy reading with Grade 3 on Wednesday and with Grade 7 & 8 on Thursday. Next week we are back into our regular routine. In Math class we will start our unit on numbers 10-20. During Bible class we will finish up the story of Ruth and begin learning about Hannah. On Monday and Tuesday we have purple day! Please send your child to school wearing purple. They are also encouraged to bring in one purple toy. We wish you all a lovely weekend! NR&JB

Letter of the week: Zz

Words of the week: play, purple, eight, nine

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

Grade 1

We have had a busy, but very fun week in Grade One. We have read a lot of books and dressed up as a book character.  We had a lot of very neat costumes in our classrooms – well done, parents! We did a Bible test on Thursday; look for these in your child’s school bag today.  We started our new unit in Bible, titled ‘Samuel Prepares God’s People for a King’.  If all went according to plan we will have celebrated ‘100 days of school’ today. We will fill you in on how the day went in next week’s chronicle.  Have a blessed weekend.

Memory Work for Friday, March 2 – Ps. 87:2;  Isaiah 9: 2 (March)

Spelling Words:  been, eat, girl, my, than

Grade 2

What an adventurous week; writing a class story, drawing illustrations, reading books, dressing as favorite book characters and learning about an author. The students have been immersed in activities about reading. Thanks for all your help in making it fun! We have come to the end of our studies on addition facts, and would like to begin learning about subtraction facts. To that end, we will be collecting the flashcards. Please send them along as soon as possible. Soon they will come home with new facts to practise! In our Social Studies, we have learned about various animals living in Zimbabwe. Ask your child if they can tell you some neat facts about giraffes, kudus, warthogs,  and so many more! Have a blessed weekend! BV/RG

Spelling: quit, use, aunt, uncle

Memory work: Psalm 31:1

Grade 3

Books, books, books. What a great reading week we had! Ask us all about the activities we’ve done; and we learned so much at the same time. Super cool! Thank you, Mrs. T. Dekker (Reuben’s grandma), dressed up as Mrs. Lopez, for reading the the story “100 Days of Cool”. Thank you also to Mrs. J. Feenstra, for telling us all about her time as a child. One thing stays the same;  the Lord continues to rule the world and we may sing of His glories every day. In Church History we are focusing on Rev. Hendrik DeCock. In Math, we are learning about lines and shapes. We are nearing the end of  Mr. Popper’s Penguins 😞. The children loved the antics of the penguins; we laughed a lot. In French, we continue to focus on the play and knowing the numbers 1-20. Continue to practise the spelling words and math facts on a daily basis! Thank you for your help so far. Greetings, and have a wonderful weekend. JB/MP

Memory work: Ps. 108:1  Text: Ps. 24:4-6

Spelling words: something, sometimes, unhappiness, winner, your, you’re

PE on Monday and Thursday ,  Library on Tuesday

Mission $ on Friday

Grade 4

We are already at the last week of February. Now it is full speed ahead until March Break. Please continue to practice your times tables daily. Count on a cumulative Canada test over everything before we go on break. We are beginning new math units next week (4A – Multiplication, 4B – Long Division). Even though the reading contest is finished Monday, Feb. 25, please continue to encourage your children to read at least 20 minutes daily.

Tues: Bible Test Lessons 1 – 13 gr 4A

Wed: Landforms Quiz and Capital Cities 4A + 4B

Thurs: French Quiz Descriptive Paragraph

Fri: Psalm 30:1, Spelling Lesson 22 (grandfather, popcorn, thank, cupboard, grandmother, playgrounds, third, being, newspaper, cowhands, thirty, doing, these, think (4B extra words – unique, candidate, numerous, exact)

New Memory work for March 7 (Matthew 6: 19-21, Hymn 6:1)

Grade 5

We have had an enjoyable week celebrating our love of reading! It was great to see so many students involved in our book character dress up day!  Next week we will continue learning about the parables and events leading up to Jesus’ death.  We are studying Life in Ancient Egypt and students can expect a small test on Thursday.  Devotions for 5A: M. RaeAnna, T. Landon, W. Teagen, Th. Hannah, F. Caiden. 5B: M. Reuben, T. Trinity, W. Parker, Th. Amanda, F. Declan.  Have an enjoyable weekend! RK/KVL

Grade 6

Hello again from Grade 6. Wow, what an amazing week we’ve had. Book week has been a lot of fun and has kept us, oh so busy, this week. We’ve had so many interesting things to do and books to read. The highlight for most, I suspect, was Book Character Day. If you have not done so yet, go check out some of the really cool pictures posted to the JCS instagram page @johncalvinschool.  In the midst of all this fun, we have been getting our daily work done as well and we continue with our Church History stories, working with fractions, reading Underground to Canada and so much more. For the next two weeks, Mrs Debra Bouwman will be stepping in for me (SO )in Grade 6B as I am heading to the sunny south (a trip I had already booked before I came back to school). We welcome her and I’m sure she and the Grade 6B class will have a great two weeks. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday. CV/SO

Grade 7A

It has been a while since we had a full week of school, uninterrupted by snow, ice, P.D., books, flu and tournaments. We look forward to a more “normal” week next week. We’re working with inequalities in math and will wrap up the equations and inequalities chapter next week. We learned about the Marburg colloquy in Church History and how Zwingli and Luther agree on most Protestant points except the Lord’s Supper; figurative or literal? We’ll come back to independent study next week as we learn about how to network and interview. We’ll move quickly through the War of 1812 before studying a battle from the war in detail. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

In Church History, we near the end of our look at the Swiss Confederation and Ulrich Zwingli, finishing with where Zwingli was right and why we would not call ourselves “Zwinglians”. In Math, we are moving into our rates/proportions/percent unit. In History, we are looking at the War of 1812, and should  begin our extensive project later on in the week. In Language Arts, we continue with our short story unit, specifically focusing on discovering the themes of the stories. Devotions – Arie DV. Have a great weekend!

Grade 8A

Normally I would remark on how nice it was to have a calm, normal week after some weather disruptions over the past two weeks. However, if you were walking around the building on Thursday you would realize that it was anything but normal! Indeed it was a great book week here at JCS. 8A also participated in book character day as well as buddy reading, book trivia and a whole slew of other activities. This week we also welcomed Mrs. Folkerts to our classroom. She is on a 5 week practicum placement and will be teaching several different units over the coming weeks. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

Again, an unusual week! We certainly saw some inventive costumes on Thursday. Students should look forward to a Geography test next Wednesday. We’ve welcomed Miss Breukelman into our class. She will be teaching some of the classes in the next four weeks or so.

Memory Work:  Lion of Judah

Devotions:  Elyse, Liam, Evan, Ilse, Kierra