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General News

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Greetings everyone as we wrap-up the first week of learning and teaching in December.  We thank the Lord for His blessing and guidance during this past week and we pray that He will continue to provide for the needs of the students and teachers during the busyness of the next couple of weeks before we break for the Christmas holidays.  May our Heavenly Father provide us with all we need during the final month of the calendar year.  

Practices and rehearsals continue as we prepare for our school concert, The Promise of the King is Fulfilled.  Concert dates are Wednesday, December 18 (matinee beginning at 1:00) and Thursday, December 19 (evening performance beginning at 7:30).  For the matinee performance, students will not be required to wear their JCS t-shirt. 

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.  In particular we think of our office administrator, Mrs. Nancy Elgersma and several students in the school whose father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, Mr. John DeBoer, passed away earlier this week.  Visitation is this afternoon from 2-4 and this evening from 7-9 at Covenant Canadian Reformed Church in Grassie.  The funeral service is on Saturday morning at 11:00 from the same church.  May our God of all comfort surround the DeBoer family with His love and grace.  We also think of the E. Dam family whose father and grandfather passed away last weekend, and Mrs. M. Poort whose uncle passed away in the Netherlands.

After our concert practice on Wednesday morning, all the students and staff were treated to a Beechwood Donut courtesy of Mike and Jojo Baby Boutique in St. Catharines and Mrs. Tamsen Donker who put the Boutique in touch with the school.  Thank you very much.   They were delicious.

Update from the Winterfest committee.  The final, final numbers are in and the $60 000.00 mark was surpassed.  Altogether, $62 252.74 was raised for the school at Winterfest 2019.  Double Wow!  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

A few items for your attention:

*The three JCS teams put in a very good effort at the annual Triple Ball tournament this past Friday.  The coed team lost out in the semi-finals and the boys’ and girls’ teams in the quarter-finals.  All in all it was a great day of fun, fellowship, and competition.  We thank the parents who came out and cheered on the teams, and the coaches (Mrs. Nikki VanBrederode, Miss Linde, Mr. Breukelman, and Mr. Hofsink) for their time and effort in preparing the teams for the tournament.

*Scholastic orders were due today.

*Skating sessions are completed for another year.  Once again it was a lot of fun and this year we are thankful that we could skate and play hockey in the new Smithville arena.  Speaking of hockey and the arena, the JCS hockey team has its first tryout today from 3:00-4:00 at the arena.

*Apparently Sinterklaas paid a visit to the school this past Wednesday much to the delight of a number of students.

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Pizza Lunch (which also includes a drink, fruit, and snack) for this coming Friday, December 13.  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!

*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 20 will be taken to the GBF, Bibles for Mission, or Value Village.

Reminders:

*News and Views materials are due on Monday, December 9.

*Friday, December 20 is a 2/3 day of school.   Students will be dismissed at 12:00 and the buses will be leaving at 12:10.  The Christmas Break is scheduled for December 23 to January 3.  The first day back in the new year is Monday, January 6.

Enjoy your weekend and may the Lord grant you a restful Sunday; hopefully in church.  We’ll touch base again in a week’s time, D.V.

G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

Another week completed in kindergarten.  This week we celebrated both Miss Vanluik’s and Miss Broersma’s birthdays.  We are thankful and appreciative for the thoughtful gifts.  Despite having many children absent because of illness this week, the students continue to learn new concepts in math and language.  We learned the letter Mm and the word is.  Please continue to review the letters learned with your child on a regular basis.  In math we have begun to learn about addition and how to make an addition sentence.  The students have picked up on this concept very well and are eager to show that they can add.  In Bible we are taking a break from the Old Testament stories and are now focusing on the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  This will be our focus for the entire month of December.  Have a great weekend.  JB and NV

Grade 1

This week in Grade 1 we were missing a lot of our friends due to sickness. We will be finishing our Math unit with time and money on Monday. We will be having a test on Tuesday. Our new unit will be teaching about place value to the hundreds. We are busy practising our songs for the Christmas program. Keep up the good work at home practicing Memory Work. On Friday we will enjoy a pizza lunch. Many thanks to the Ladies Auxiliary  for supplying this delicious lunch for us. Remember to get lots of sleep this week. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday.

Hymn 16: 3, 4 for Friday December 13

Spelling words: many, so, them, then, these

Grade 2

This week in Grade 2 we completed another Bible unit. For the next few weeks, we will take a break from our Bible Studies to focus instead on Church History. This first unit will focus on the Worship Service, and the children’s place in the Church. In our Art classes, we have learned about the colours of the rainbow and warm/cool colours.  Art is always a favourite subject in Grade 2! We have completed our Math unit on Investigating Place Value into the 1000s. Next week we will begin with the basics of multiplication and division. That’s all for this week! Have a blessed weekend! BV/RG

Spelling: Review

Memory work: Hymn 58:1,2

Grade 3

We are busy practising for the Christmas Concert.  May the LORD be praised in our songs! Why do we need to take care of our circulatory and respiratory systems?  Stay tuned for a test!!! 

In our Bible lessons, we are hearing about the Lord keeping His covenant with Jacob and His family.  We are so thankful that this same covenant was made with us. We started a new unit in Mathematics!  Ask us about multiplication and test us on the 0 and 1 multiplication tables.  Mr. Popper’s Penguins has us giggling and on the edge of our seats!! This week a lot of students have been sick.  We pray for healing and energy to complete the year of 2019 to His Glory.

That’s it for now. J.B./M.P.

Memory work: King of Kings 

Words:  everything, hidden, write, right, terrible

Gym clothes on Tuesday and Friday. Library books on Thursday.

Mission $ on Friday.

Grade 4

We have a couple of upcoming tests. Please make sure students are studying and reviewing for the tests. Review sheets will be provided ahead of time. Please make sure students are still reviewing their times tables. Spelling Lesson 12 is a review unit, so we have seen these words before (said, know, too, off, because, friend, where, chief, piece, surprise, right, please — 4B extra words — decline, plunge). 

Tues: 4B Geometry Quiz Terms

Wed: 4B Bible Test David Part 2, 

Thurs: Science Test Rocks and Minerals

Fri: Gr. 4A Bible Test David part 2

Memory work: Psalm 52:1 and next week is Psalm 35:1

Grade 5

We are already halfway through Unit 3 in Bible, which means there will be a mid-unit test on Tuesday for 5B and Wednesday for 5A. We also hope to wrap up our Science unit on nutrition by the end of next week, after which we will be moving on to a unit on cells. We look forward to our delicious pizza lunch on Friday! Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday. RK/KV

Devotions: 5A – M. Morgan L., Tu. Sydney, W. Aaron, Th. Morgan S., F. Meghan

5B – M. Olivia, Tu. Nate, W. Russell, Th. Logan, F. Taiya 

Grade 6

This past week we have been working hard at our posters and flyers to prepare for the bake sale we will be having this coming Wednesday. The students are exploring ways to make their product unique and desirable to the consumer. In math we have started our Geometry unit. If you have spare time, see what different types of angles you can find around the house! Grade 6A celebrated secret Santa this past Thursday, sharing kindness and gifts with their peers. 6B will be celebrating this next Friday! 

Have a wonderful weekend! AF/CV

Grade 7A

We visited our neighbours this past week in connection with our latest Science chapter, stability and centre of gravity. We toured the Turkstra Mill and Truss plant as we learned their products add to the principles of stability while providing balance and preventing failures. Our next unit will focus on thermal energy and heat technology. Our study of Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany will soon come to an end; we’ll transition back to Bible History and begin with the reign of the Shepherd King. The next principles in art, movement, rhythm, and pattern, will come together in the application of tessellations; we’ll also have a look at the work of M.C. Escher. Soon each Grade Seven student will have to prepare a speech for presentation at our in class, “Public Speaking and Poetry Declamation Contest”. Please ask your child what their purpose and topic will be. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

In Church History, we are coming to the end of our Martin Luther unit. Students should be expecting a test toward the end of next week. In Math, we are also coming to the end of our Plane Geometry unit so the students should be expecting a test on that as well towards the end of the week. In Language Arts, we have moved into our Public Speaking unit and are working through impromptu speaking, or table talks. We continue on with our documentaries in Independent Study and will be looking at taking notes on them next week. Memory Work – review of Christmas program songs. Have a great weekend.

Devotions – Natasha VA.

Grade 8A

It seems each day another student comes to school with a cold or has to stay home with the flu. Teachers included! Nevertheless we limped along this week and continued to work hard at the various ongoing projects and lessons we have on the go. In L.A., we began to dig into Twain’s true opinion towards organized institutions like church and school. In Science we reviewed how cells work together to form tissues and tissues work together to form organs. We also held our first school concert practice and things are shaping up quite nicely. Next week is one of those classic busy weeks with  a Math Test, a CH Quiz and Bible Test all already scheduled. Have a very restful weekend and hopefully we can begin again in full health on Monday. Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

History projects and presentations have been completed, marked and returned.   For our next art project, students have been asked to take in some clean corrugated cardboard.  Bible tests have also been completed and students should have the marked tests returned next week.  Please ask to see the results of these assessments.  They provide significant information about how well your child has processed what we have been learning.  Many students did a fine job on their dramatic presentation of a soliloquy this week.  In the coming week, we will continue to be busy with Christmas program preparation.  All songs need to be memorized before Wednesday’s rehearsal.  (Most students are well on the way.) We have begun a study in Church History this past week and will spend some weeks looking at the Reformation in England.  A Geography assessment will also happen next week; probably on Wednesday.  Students should have the final details in the agenda near the beginning of next week. Music projects are also due by the end of this week.