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General News

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Good Friday morning everyone as we bring to a close another week of learning and teaching at John Calvin School.  We thank the Lord for the many blessings He has graciously provided during the course of this past week.  May He continue to provide students and teachers alike with what they need for their respective tasks.  According to the weather forecast, it looks like we will need to get out our snow shovels this weekend.       

                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 the Bijlsma family whose spent the week at McMaster Hospital with baby Esmee. We also think of the extended family in this area of Mrs. Louise Strating who passed away earlier this week.  We also think of Darren Bartels and his family (including relatives in our school community) who is in hospital in critical condition with liver failure.  We pray that our Heavenly Father will surround him and his family with His love and grace and, if it is His will, grant restoration of health.

A few items for your attention:

*Bullying Awareness:  In our broken and sinful world, bullying continues to happen.  That’s why it is good to be reminded from time to time about how we are to treat one another as Christian brothers and sisters, whether it’s on social media, on the bus, on the playground, or in the school.  All of us are created in God’s image and we need to remember that when we interact with our neighbour, i.e. our classmates and our schoolmates.

*The students in Grades 7&8 are participating in the bi-annual Public Speaking and Poetry Recitation contest.  Parent/Grandparent volunteers are needed to judge the classroom finals on Thursday, February 6 and the school final on Tuesday, February 11. Please contact Mr. M. Joosse at mike.joosse@johncalvinschool.com if you would like to be involved in serving as a judge for either or both of these events.  Thank you in advance for your consideration and/or participation.  John Calvin School is also hosting the Regional competition on Thursday, February 20 after the school originally scheduled to host was unable to do so. 

*On Monday, January 20, Mr. R. VanAndel, a vice-principal at Guido De Bres Christian high school will be speaking to the grade eight students about grade nine course selection and life at Guido.  The students will need to fill in a course selection sheet as part of their grade nine registration.

*On Monday, February 3, Guido De Bres Christian high school will be hosting a parent information evening for parents with children in Grades 6-8.  This meeting is especially helpful for parents whose oldest child will be entering Grade 9.

*Thank you Mrs. Michelle Schulenberg (Grassie) for volunteering to coach the girls’ basketball team.

*Hockey practices/exhibition games continue for the JCS hockey team as they get ready to participate in two tournaments in February (the Cairn Christian Schools tournament and the Guido De Bres Invitational).  The team has an exhibition game against Cairn Christian School this afternoon from 3:00-4:00 at the Smithville arena.

*Included with today’s Chronicle is the latest edition of, The Link, the LCRSS newsletter.  

Reminders:.

*January 27th and 28th are PD Days for the staff.  The students (and their parents) may enjoy an extra long weekend.

*End of term report cards are scheduled to come home on Friday, January 31st with Parent-Teacher conferences for all parents to follow on Tuesday, February 4 and Thursday, February 6. 

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Soup Day for Friday, February 7.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, especially your day of rest.  Until next week Friday, D.V.     G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

This week we continued to learn about 2D and 3D shapes.  The students learned about faces, bases, and sides of each of the shapes.  In Bible we continued to learn about the 10 plagues and the power of our God.  The God who looked after the Israelites at the Red Sea is the same God who watches over us.  Next week we will learn about the journey of the Israelites to the promised and.  On Monday and Tuesday we are having PJ and teddy bear celebration.  Please do not send your child in onesie pjs because they do not work with boots.  Looking forward to having a super fun day with the students on Monday and Tuesday.  Have a grat week.  JB and NV

Grade 1

We have come to the end of our Church History unit and we have enjoyed the stories. On Thursday, Rev. DenHollander came to our classroom to speak to us about the duties of a minister.  Thank you for an enjoyable presentation.  We will switch back to our Bible stories and see how Joshua leads the Israelites into the promised land. Our Math unit will be finished this week and you should see the results of the test next week. Our next unit in Math will be dealing with measurement.  We are really enjoying our Mapping unit and have learned a lot.  Next week we should be finished this unit as well, with a test to follow.  A lot of students have been coming to school without proper winter attire (mitts, hats, etc.).  This makes it difficult for them to enjoy their recess.  Enjoy your weekend and have a blessed Sunday.

Memory Work for Friday,  Jan. 31 – Hymn 56: 2,3; 1 Sam. 16:7b

Spelling Words:  ask, go, more, see, two (Jan. 24)

Grade 2

This week we completed our Social Studies unit on Life in Nunavut. We will turn our attention to the second half of this unit in which we compare and contrast what we’ve studied with life in a warm climate.  For this, we will be learning about Zimbabwe. In our Art lessons,  we’ve completed a number of art projects that focus on colour. The students learned about the colours of the rainbow and warm/cool colours. Today they learned about tints and shades. We look forward to also learning about Ted Harrison, a Canadian artist who based much of his artwork on the colours of the Arctic. Keep practicing those math facts! It’s been exciting to start handing out certificates for those who know their math facts in 5 minutes or less. In Language Arts this week,  we read about firefighters and the work that they do. On Friday, Mr.Harold Kelly came to talk to the students about his job as a firefighter in Hamilton. Thank you for such a great presentation Mr.Kelly! This coming week, Grade 2A will welcome Mrs. L.Schulenberg to our classroom. She will be observing and preparing for taking up her task in our classroom on February 3. That’s all for now! Have a wonderful weekend! BV/RG

Memory work: Psalm 62:1; Text: Prov 3:5,6

Spelling: there,  their,  they’re,  didn’t

Friday: Bible test

Grade 3

Grade three has been busy exploring the force of magnetism.  Ask us what we all discovered!!!  We continue to hear how the LORD uses Joseph to be the leader by restoring communion between the brothers.  Stay tuned for a test next week.  Math is all about division.  Continue to practise those multiplication facts, boys and girls!!

“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” has entertained us for the last month or so and we sadly finished chapter 20.  :((((

That’s it for now.  Have a blessed weekend.  J.B./M.P.

Memory Work: Psalm 64:1 Text:  Gen. 49:10

Words:  knew, new, know, no, myself

Gym clothes on Tuesday and Friday.

Library books on Thursday.

Mission $ on Friday.

Grade 4

No major tests or quizzes, however, we have begun a new unit in math and students are expected to be familiar with their times tables. Please continue practicing at home. Spelling words for this week are from Lesson 16 — donkey, stole, anybody, beautiful, busy, hotel, hockey, anymore, coffee, weeks, money, nobody, finally, holiday (4B extra words — massive, capable). 

Also, for any students who have purchased school recorders, please send along $10 for payment to Miss Hoeksema. If you have already done so, thank you! 

Wed: 4B Canada Map Quiz

Fri: 4A Canada Map Quiz

Memory work is Psalm 3:2, next week is John 3: 16 – 18 and Psalm 132: 1, 10

Grade 5

We’ve been working hard on our Cell projects this week, and they’re turning out really well! After we wrap up this unit, we will be starting a Social Studies unit on Ancient Egypt. Both classes are now studying The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and we are thoroughly enjoying it. We’ve also started Unit 4 in Bible, our second last unit on Jesus’ life and ministry. Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Sunday. RK/KV

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

5B – M. Russell, Tu. Logan, W. Taiya, Th. Jenna, F. Camrynne

Grade 6

The students are learning how to draw various items for their one point perspective bedrooms which they will start designing next week. We have finished the grape experiment where we could compare what happened to the cut grape to a cut on our skin. We also found out that bacteria rapidly doubles in our bodies and that sometimes the antibodies cannot keep up so that we also need to take antibiotics. Last week I asked for volunteers to cut out a pattern out of material. Thankfully one person volunteered. If you would still like to help I would appreciate it. Keep in mind that I teach both Gr. 6 classes. Have a blessed weekend. AF/CV

Grade 7

n Bible History, we continue with David, the Shepherd King. We have seen how the LORD has blessed him in the early part of his reign but sin continues to be, even for a king after the LORD’s heart. In Math, we continue to work through expressions and equations, and will look at functions next week. In Language Arts, we are working on speeches for the Public Speaking contest. There will also be students memorizing poems over the next couple weeks. Independent Study has been on a stand still over the last couple weeks, and we look forward to beginning our next stage in the process, Journal Articles. Students will now be in charge of leading morning devotions. I do encourage parents to help your children in this task! Monday – Owen, Tuesday – Thomas, Wednesday – Madelyn, Thursday – Carter, Friday – Dane. Memory Work – Ps. 130:1. Have a great weekend!

Grade 8A

After a mostly ‘wifi-free’ week, when it finally did return we worked with fervour to get caught up on our speeches and poems and our PBL proposals. All in all the students worked very hard to close out the week and much was completed. Well done! On Friday afternoon, we welcomed two members of a local toastmasters club and enjoyed a workshop to help us practice some of our public speaking skills. Next week we will be working on the delivery of our speeches and poems and fine tuning the messages we hope to deliver. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J

Grade 8B

We are in the midst of a flurry of assessment and extra activities in Grade 8.  Students should be working on their speeches both at school AND at home.  By the time you read this, we will probably have listened to and participated in a presentation by the Beamsville Toastmasters.  Students should be completing their project proposals for PBL. In them, they need to convince both parents and teachers that the skill they would like to learn is a valuable and doable one.  Students should have researched, written and discussed this proposal with parents and should be prepared to present it to their teachers on Monday.  Students should also be taking home a number of marked assessment activities.  We hope to have a Math test on Tuesday and a History test on Wednesday.  We have been working on forming the passe compose in French and will have a quiz on Tuesday. 

Memory work:  Psalm 35:2