General News

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Good Friday morning supporting community as we bring another week of instruction to a close at John Calvin School.  Yes, you read that correctly on the calendar; Sunday ushers in the month of December and with it we enter the time of Advent during which we celebrate the coming to earth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  As school, we plan to celebrate His coming with our school concert, The Promise of the King is Fulfilled.  Concert dates are Wednesday, December 18 (matinee) and Thursday, December 19 (evening performance).  May our Heavenly Father provide us with all we need during the final month of the calendar year.

Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with all who need the Lord in a special way, whether they are grieving the recent death of a loved one, coping with serious illness or are dealing with difficult family circumstances.  

We congratulate Geoff and Chelsea Bartels with the birth of their daughter, Lynoah Praise.  She is a sister to RaeAnna (6B), MacKenna (4A), Grayden (3B), and Helayna (KB).  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 Geoff and Chelsea with all they need as they raise their children in the fear of His Name.

It was good to see many of you at the fall membership meeting this past Wednesday evening.  The membership was able to give approval to the Mission, Vision, Pillars, and Foundational Statements document, listen to various updates and reports, get an update from Mr. Bernie Kottelenberg as well as a cheque for $7900 from the Harvest Foundation to bring the total received from Harvest for 2019 to $20 088 (for which we are very grateful), and vote in new board members.  We thank the outgoing board members (Mr. Andrew DeBoer, Mr. Roy Hummel, Mr. Anthony Ouwersloot, and Mr. Marty Schulenberg) for all the work they have done during their four year tour of duty.  We welcome on board Mr. Nick VandenOever (Spring Creek) as vice-chairman and Mrs. Grace VanderVelde (Grassie) and Mr. Bart DeVries (Grassie).  May our Heavenly Father give the new directors the strength necessary for their task in representing the school community on the Board of Directors.

Dear students, parents and staff

Thank you for your participation in the Anchor Work Days.  Once again we received your generous contributions from the 2019 Anchor Work Day.  This year we received a total of $3,027.00.  We would love to use this money towards a pergola for our new patio at Anchor Home. I know we are heading for the winter season, but spring is around the corner.  On behalf of staff and residents, our heartfelt thanks!Mr. B. VanGoolen

A few items for your attention:

*Earlier this week, Grade 5A was able to visit Kilean Lodge, and Grade 1B is planning to visit Shalom Manor this morning.  It is good that our students had this opportunity to participate in this act of service for the seniors in our community.

*Today, the three JCS teams are at the Triple Ball tournament hosted by Guido De Bres Christian high school.  The tournament is taking place at the Arcelor-Mittal Dofasco Center located on First Road East in Stoney Creek.  A bus brought the athletes to the tournament but parents will need to pick up their children from the venue at the end of the tournament which will be determined by the success of the teams. An email was sent home earlier this week with the schedule and other pertinent information for the parents of the participating athletes.  All the best at the tournament athletes and coaches (Mrs. Nikki VanBrederode, Miss Linde, Mr. Breukelman, and Mr. Hofsink).

*The fifth and final skating session at the Smithville arena is scheduled for Wednesday, December 4.  Grade 8 will skate from 12:15-1:15, and Grade 8 will skate from 1:15-2:15. In the interest of safety and concussion prevention, students in Grades K-4 must wear helmets when on the ice. They can be either hockey or bicycle helmets.  Students in Grades 5-8 are encouraged to wear them.  Those playing hockey must wear them.

*Lost and Found:  Our lost and found box is pretty much filled up.  If you are at 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 it.  What is left in the box on December 21 will be taken to the GBF, Bibles for Mission, or Value Village.

Reminders:

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

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

*An EA and TA conference is scheduled for Friday, December 6th. Several staff members will be attending the conference taking place at our Teachers College.

*News and Views material is due on Monday, December 9.

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Pizza Lunch (which also includes a drink, fruit, and snack) for Friday, December 13.  Yippee!  No lunches to make.  For those children with 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

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

This week we celebrated the colour blue on Monday and Tuesday.  It was fun to see all the students dressed in blue as well as seeing all the different blue items during show and tell.  In our Bible stories this week, we learned about Moses and how God is using Moses to free his people in the land of Egypt.  Next week we will be shifting our focus from the Old Testament stories to the New Testament stories as we begin to learn about the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  The students have been working very hard on learning all of the Christmas concert selections.  Keep up the great work, kindergarten! In Math we have started to learn about addition.  The students are learning how to write an addition sentence as well as how to read an addition sentence.  Please continue to practice the letter names and sounds at home.  Have a great weekend!  JB and NV 

Grade 1

We have finished an eventful week in Grade 1. On Wednesday Gr.1A had an enjoyable time skating at the arena. Thanks to all the volunteers who came out to help with skating and tying skates. On Friday Gr.1B visited Shalom. We sang and coloured pictures with the residents. We continue to practice our Christmas concert songs. In Math we are working with time and money. Ask your child how much a nickel, dime, or penny is worth. We have started our Famous Canadians unit in Social Studies. We have learned who invented the telephone. We hope to learn about more famous Canadians in the coming week. Please keep practicing spelling and sight words on a daily basis.

Psalm 132: 5, 10 and John 3:16 (Friday, Dec. 6)

Spelling words: about, other, out, up, will

Grade 2

This week, we began our Social Studies unit on comparing communities around the world. We will be focusing on life in Nunavut for the first part of this unit.  The students have already enjoyed talking about their own local community, and looking at maps of Ontario and Canada. Our math unit is proving to be a challenge for the students. The students have learned to count by 100s and 10s with 3-digit numbers.  They’ve compared large numbers, telling which is greater than the other and have identified which number comes before and after a large number. We will continue to work with these concepts in the next week. Have a blessed weekend! BV/RG

Memory work: Hymn 51:1

Spelling: found, stop, after, some, they

Bible test: Friday

Grade 3

Congratulations to Grayden and his family with the birth of little Lynoah Praise. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. We will switch from Church History to Bible History by telling the stories about Isaac and Jacob. The penguin posters are done and hanging on the wall! Come and see; the boys and girls did an amazing job! We have begun to read Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and we are loving it. In Math we continue to subtract with regrouping; a hard concept for some. Continue to hand in your Math drill the next day, boys and girls! Thank you for helping your child sing the songs for the concert. YouTube is a handy tool. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Memory work: Joy Has Dawned(now);Joy to the World (2 weeks)

Spelling words: anyone, are, our, can’t, don’t, everybody

Library on Thursday, P.E. clothes on Tuesday and Friday, Mission $$$ on Friday

Grade 4

This week we have our first Christmas program practice on Wednesday. We have just started our geometry unit in Math. In Science, we are working hard on learning about rocks and minerals. In Writing, we are learning how to form a proper compare/contrast paragraph. Spelling lesson 11 (garbage, became, jail, beside, orange, plane, job, broken, change, drove, jungle, where, cage, across — 4B extra words — massive, plunge)

Memory work — Psalm 54:1, next week is Psalm 52:1

Grade 5

Another week of learning has wrapped up in Grade 5.  We completed our math tests and will be starting a unit on division!  Please keep practicing your math facts to make this easier.  We are hearing more of Jesus’ teachings in the parables and are discussing how they apply to our lives as well.  In the coming week we are looking forward to a whole school concert practice.  The students are making good progress learning the songs.  Grade 5B is reminded that they are required to know the B-I-B-L-E on the recorder for Monday.  Devotions for 5A: M: Silas, T: Logan, W: Brooke, Th: Brianna, F: Madison.  And for 5B: M: Ella, T: Torey, W: Alyvia, Th: Mattheus, F: Carson.  Have a good weekend! RK/KVL

Grade 6

The students have begun a research project about a bird of their choice. They are using the chromebooks to fill in information which in turn they will formulate paragraphs for. Once all the material is typed it will be displayed with a variety of drawn and printed pictures. They may bring pictures from home but the rest of the work is to be done at school. We continue to practice for the upcoming concert. Have a blessed weekend. AF/CV

Grade 7

Hello again from Grade 7! Luther’s been hiding in the Wartburg Castle busy translating, while back in Wittenberg radical Anabaptists are not happy with the slow pace of changes in the worship services and liturgy. Will Luther risk coming back to Wittenberg to calm things down? The production work continues in History class as groups build their seigneurial system models, habitant homes and brochures inviting people in France to move to New France. The interview with the Seigneur and the Habitant is coming along nicely as well. Concave, convex, equidistant, chord and pi are all terms we’ll be introduced to next week in Math; be sure not to miss it! At this point in the Independent Study process most students have received permission from their teacher and parent to watch a documentary about the topic they chose; happy reviewing! Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 8A

As we close out November we find ourselves in a constant act of juggling. Between tournaments, projects, concert practices and the like, daily plans are quickly edited and re-edited. Nevertheless we are making headway in our Novel study, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, and began a discussion on how Mark Twain approaches the topic of church and school. In History we took some time to peer assess eachother’s projects. In Science we learned about Active Transport and can expect a quiz on the functions of the cell next week. In Bible we discussed the birth of Jesus and took some time to debate and discuss where Christ was actually born. Tomorrow most 8’s are travelling to the Triple Ball Tournament. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers,

Grade 8B

We wrote our Science test last week and it has been returned.  Please ask your child to show you the result. I often find marked tests in the recycle box and ask students to please take it home.  It helps if you ask to see it. There were some really good results…. worthy of a pat on the back. Some students have been offered an opportunity to make up for a poorer test result with an activity that will need to be handed in on Monday. Students have been working all week on preparing a soliloquy that they will have to perform on Monday. (The written version should have been completed on Thursday morning.) We are coming to the end of the Bible unit about the Middle of Christ’s ministry.  Students should prepare to write a Bible test on Tuesday or Wednesday. Many students are off playing volleyball on Friday together with Mr. Hofsink, Mr. Breukelman, Miss Linde and the parent coaches. The remaining students will be completing various activities with Mr. Joosse, while Mr. Witten and I fill in for missing staff members.