General News

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Good Friday morning everyone as we bring to a close another week of instruction at John Calvin School.  We thank our Heavenly Father for once again providing for the needs of students and staff.  We pray for His blessing during the last week of learning, teaching, and performing leading up to the Christmas Break.     

                The students and staff are looking forward to presenting our school concert, The Promise of the King is Fulfilled. After a rehearsal in the Smithville church on Tuesday morning, the school will put on a matinee performance on Wednesday, December 18 beginning at 1:00.  The concert will be completed in time for the students to take the buses home.  For the matinee performance, students will not be required to wear their JCS t-shirt.   The second concert is on Thursday evening, December 19 beginning at 7:30.  May the Lord bless the efforts of the children, director, and the accompanists/musicians as they prepare for the performances.

For the Thursday evening concert, parents are requested to bring their children to the school by 7:20 p.m., and pick them up again from their respective classrooms immediately after the concert.  It would also be good for the students to wear short-sleeved shirts for the evening concert as it will be quite warm at the front of the church.  We also have a request for Grades 6-8 dads to help bring the risers from the church into the school gym after Thursday evening’s concert.  The students will look after putting them away in the storage room on Friday.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation in these matters.

FYI, there will be no KB kindergarten class on Friday morning. 

                Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who need the Lord in a special way, whether they are grieving, dealing with serious illness, or coping with difficult family situations.  In particular we think of those who recently had to bury a loved one, i.e. the DeBoer family.  May our good and gracious God continue to surround them and their families with his love and care.  In this regard, we also think of the Schutten family.  Earlier this week, the Lord called home Mr. Jack Schutten, an early pioneer of Canadian Reformed education for both John Calvin School and Guido de Bres Christian high school.  May our Heavenly Father surround his wife and family with His care and comfort.   

                We thank and praise the Lord that Mrs. Lorna Schulenberg has been hired to teach Grade 2A when Mrs. Gansekoele goes on maternity leave.  Mrs. Schulenberg will be teaching the duration of the second semester, beginning February to end June.  Welcome on board the JCS team, Mrs. Schulenberg!

A few items for your attention:

*The News and Views will be distributed on Sunday.

*Thank you Ladies Auxiliary for the delicious Pizza Lunch and the accompanying treats we could enjoy today.  It was very much appreciated by the students, teachers, and parents.

*The students had lots of fun skating and playing hockey the last number of Wednesday afternoons.  We are thankful for this extra-curricular activity.  We thank the bus drivers for transporting the grades to and from the arena and the parents/grandparents who joined the students and teachers and helped where and when necessary.

*Parents, if your son or daughter is not feeling well, please don’t send him/her to school in the morning even if they have been medicated.  Often times the medication wears off before lunch and he/she is not feeling well again and the home needs to be called.  Please keep your child at home.  It is better for him/her, the whole class, and the teacher.  Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.

*Lost and Found:  Our lost and found box is filled to overflowing but has been reorganized.  If you are at the school at some point and time during the week, please check to see if any of your child(ren)’s missing paraphernalia is in the collection of stuff.  We thank Mrs. Linda Tenhage for organizing the lost and found items on tables and the coat rack hangers.  Much appreciated.  It has made the search a whole lot easier.  What is left on December 20 will be taken to the GBF, Bibles for Mission, or Value Village.

Reminders:

*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.

                 Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday.  We’ll touch base again next week Friday, D.V.       G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

Another week is complete in the kindergarten classroom.  It was a week filled with singing praises to our Lord and Saviour.  The students really enjoyed the whole school concert rehearsal.  We are continuing our focus on Advent in our Bible stories.  This past week we learned about the birth of Jesus.  The students were amazed to learn that Jesus was born in a BARN.  Next week we will continue to learn the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.  Both KA and KB were able to enjoy a pizza lunch this week!  Thanks so much to the Ladies Auxiliary for providing us with this delicious meal.  Next week is a busy week.  Here’s how the week looks for both KA and KB:

Monday: PJ DAY

Tuesday: Green Day and dress rehearsal for the Christmas concert (KA students are not expected to be here for this rehearsal)

Wednesday: KB DAY and Christmas concert matinee performance. KA parents, please have your child at the school no later than 12:35.  The students do not have to wear blue shirts this year!

Thursday:  Green Day

Friday: NO SCHOOL for KB

Grade 1

We have been busy reviewing all of our Christmas program songs and have had a good rehearsal this week. Keep up the good work, Grade One. We have finished up our unit on Famous Canadians this week and could welcome a guest speaker today.  Nicole Gelms, a former student, came in to share her story about living with diabetes, and how insulin has helped her. Thank you, Nicole for sharing your story, we thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. Ask your child who Alexander G Bell, Terry Fox, Sir John A. Macdonald, Roberta Bondar, and Frederick Banting/Charles Best were and why they are famous. We will be finished our Bible unit on Monday with a test to follow on Tuesday.  Look for the notes in your child’s school bag.  Today, we all enjoyed the pizza lunch provided by the Ladies Auxiliary.  Thank you so much!!  Enjoy your weekend and have a blessed Sunday.

Memory Work for Thursday, Dec. 19 – Hymn 16:5

Spelling Words:  her, like, many, some, would (Jan.10)

Grade 2

Grade 2 has been busy learning about the worship service in our Church History unit. The students talked about the order of the worship service, and learned some challenging vocabulary words such as: votum, salutation, and benediction. We will continue with this in the coming week, learning about the sacraments and profession of faith. Your child will bring home a paper that they can bring with them to church on Sunday to follow along with the worship order. Please help them to complete this and return to school on Monday for further discussion. In our Social Studies unit, the students learned about the culture of the Inuit people in Nunavut. They also learned about which animals live in the Arctic. Mathematics brought some fun new challenges to the students as well! We’ve begun some basic multiplication. That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend! BV/RG

Memory work: Hymn 62:1

No spelling words

Grade 3

Thank you Ladies Auxiliary for the delicious pizza lunch; we truly appreciated it. The children are getting excited for the Christmas concert. Wow, they have done a tremendous job in learning the songs. Let your child wear light clothes at the concert as it can get really warm on stage. We wish all musicians, students and director God’s blessings as they perform at the matinee and evening concert. We look forward to seeing you there. In Bible we continue to ‘travel’ with Jacob as he learns his need to trust God. Mr. Popper’s Penguins is a treat to read. In P.E. we focus on dodging the ball. We hope to focus on force in our next Science unit. Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday.

Memory work: Ps. 103:1  Text: Proverbs 3: 9, 10 (two weeks)

Spelling words: terrible, trouble, won’t, wouldn’t

P.E. on Tuesday and Friday  Library on Thursday

Mission $ on Friday

Grade 4

We are already in the last week before holidays. We are on Spelling Unit 13 (words: hunting, learned, heard, climbing, dreamed, reading, stuffed, watching, passed, thinking, watched, talking, started, falling — 4B extra words — rickety, symphony), There is an all school practice on Tuesday, so please have students with violins bring them on Tuesday and Wednesday. Continue to encourage students to read at least 20 minutes daily and please keep practicing the times tables.

Thurs: Math Quiz Geometry (rays, lines, points, line segments, angles, triangles, quadrilaterals)

Fri: Spelling Lesson 13, Psalm 35:1

Memory work for after break: John 1: 1-4 (2nd week after break), Psalm 13:1

Grade 5

We are all ready for the concert and can’t wait for you to hear our presentation! While you’re in the school, be sure to check out our art display outside our classroom doors. The printmaking will be featured in the upcoming News and Views in black and white, however the coloured prints we have made are absolutely stunning! Teaching and learning will continue through the week even as excitement for the holidays rises. We will see how Jesus continued to teach and heal on the earth despite the growing opposition from the leaders. We are also working hard on our division chapter in Math.  We will briefly look at the cells unit in Science and continue in the New Year.

Devotions for Grade 5A: M. – Madden, Tu. – Maraya, W. – Sierra, Th. – Linden.  For Grade 5B M. – Jenna, Tu. – Camrynne, W. – Taylor, Th. – Abigayle.  We wish you a very blessed time celebrating the birth of our Saviour!  RK/KVL  

Grade 6

As we get closer and closer to Christmas break, we are trying to wrap up a number of big projects. This past Wednesday we had our bake/refreshment sale, as a wrap up to our Trade unit in social studies. The students ended the day happy and full of cookies, hot chocolate, and many more delicious treats! :). In the coming week, we also plan to wrap up our novel study “Number the Stars.”  We thoroughly enjoyed our pizza lunch on Friday and are thankful to all the ladies who provided it for us! Grade 6B celebrated with a Secret Santa gift exchange this past Friday as well. We love having these fun celebrations to show appreciation to one another, but we also realize that the ultimate gift was already given to us in our Saviour Jesus Christ! The real reason for the season! We wish you all a wonderful weekend! AF/CV

Grade 7A

This past week we wrapped up our study of structural strength and stability in Science. Our next unit will deal with thermal energy and heat technology. Students have wrapped up their presentations about everyday life in New France; we heard an interview, read a brochure, looked at a model of a seigneury and toured a habitant house. Next week we’ll learn how New France changes into British North America. We’ve worked with area and perimeter in Math as we’ve applied formulas to regular and irregular figures. The plane geometry has been a nice change for the class as it allows for more visual learning and problem solving. As mentioned last week, students will be expected to write a speech after the break; to help with that we’re working on speech organization next week in L.A. Enjoy your weekend. 

Grade 7B

We are coming to the end of a number of units in a number of subjects. In church history we have come to the end of our Martin Luther unit which means a test on Wednesday. We come the end of our geometry unit in math which means a test on Wednesday as well. Independent study also continues to move along as we come to the end of our documentaries. We have also come to the end of our history projects and we will begin chapter 5 starting in the new year. Devotions – Kendra VI. Have a great weekend!

Grade 8A

As we inch closer to the Christmas break, things are hopping in 8A. It was an especially busy week with various assessments concluding chapters and units. We are thankful for the delicious pizza lunch on Friday provided by the Ladies’ Auxiliary. Next week promises to be filled with review and wrap-up and the Christmas concert. Reminder: the Science ‘Organ’ project is due on Monday. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

Bible tests have been returned.  Most students did very well.  Please ask to see the results.  We have worked hard to learn the Christmas program and the students appear to know the songs mostly by heart.  We are looking forward to our concerts on Wednesday and Thursday of the coming week.This week we worked on a Geography assignment where we had to create slides in order to answer some questions about the effects of rising sea levels and other climate disasters.  This will be due on Wednesday of next week. On Friday, we hope to make and enjoy breakfast together in  our class.  Students will have to sign up to bring their contribution to the breakfast.  We will try to make sure that we have our sign-up sheet finalized before they go home for the weekend.  If not the latest it will be ready for Monday. In History this week we looked at political cartoons. The students have been asked to look for a political cartoon to analyze in class. They were instructed to just look for a cartoon for which they are able to figure out the message, and put it on a Google slide. They may need  to enlist the help of their parents. They don’t need to do the analysis yet, as that will be done in class. There will also be a History test on chapter 4 on Thursday.