General News
Good day readership as we bring to an end another short but busy theme week of learning and teaching at John Calvin School. May the Lord continue to provide the students and staff with what they need for their respective tasks during the next three weeks leading up to the March Break.
Mr. Hofsink is planning to travel to BC next week to visit his father and will be absent from school on Thursday and Friday. The Lord willing, he will be back again on Monday, March 2.
A few items for your attention:
*The annual “Toonies for Anchor” campaign to raise awareness for the needs of the Anchor Association and to learn more about our Anchor Homes, is scheduled for the weeks of February 24-28 and March 2-6. Please note that, this year, the campaign is being held over a two-week period. 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 Friday, March 6 to return their envelopes. Thank you in advance, students, for participating in this fundraising activity.
*Tuesday was 100 Day. It was great seeing all the little centenarians in and around the school. Mrs. vanBrederode and Mrs. VanEs also looked the part really well. See Grade 1 Classroom News for more information.
*We had a great Book Week under the theme of Read Canadian! Throughout the week, students and staff participated in a number of activities, including: celebrating the first ever National I Read Canadian Day on Wednesday (Red and White Day-Part 2), Grades K-4 colouring book marks for a schoolmate of theirs, Grades 5-8 Book Trivia Contest, D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read), buddy reading, and the Guess the Book or Author contest. Thank you, parents, for lending us some of your books by Canadian authors so we could add them to our display, and use them to read to our classes. Much appreciated. It was a busy but very enjoyable week.
The Book Reading Contest continues until Monday, February 24. The class from each division that reads the most pages, on average, will enjoy a pizza lunch. The top reader from each division will also receive a prize.
*Yesterday, four of our Grades 7&8 students (Eli D. and Abigale S. for speeches, and Jewel B. and Susanna H. for poems) participated in the regional speech and poetry recitation competition. The event was hosted by JCS in the Smithville church building. After listening to a total of 16 speeches and poems from the four participating schools (Timothy, Bellstone, ACRES, and John Calvin), the judges deliberated and selected the top two speeches and the top two poetry recitations. Two of our students, Susanna H. and Eli D.V. were selected to move on to the Provincial competition which is scheduled to take place next week Friday evening, February 28 at Bellstone Christian School. Congratulations. The competition begins at 7:30. All the best at the provincials! Jewel and Abigale also did a great job but it was stiff competition so they just missed out on moving on.
*As a result of the preliminary round of the Great Canadian Geography Challenge, the following students will be participating in the championship round: Kathryn H, Janaye J., Carter D., Noah T., Suzanna H., Reuben F., Levi V., Ava W.
*Basketball practices for all three teams continue next week Monday and Thursday afternoons from 2:50-4:00. The boys’ team is planning to play an exhibition game against Robert Land Academy next week Thursday at Robert Land.
*The JCS hockey team participated in the Guido De Bres invitational tournament this past Tuesday. After achieving two wins and a tie in the preliminary round, they moved on to the final game where they were defeated by Trinity Christian School (Burlington). Even though they did not come back to school with any hardware, the boys worked hard, did their best, and had fun. Thank you again coaches (Mr. T. Breukelman/Mrs. A. Folkerts, Mr. D. Nobel, Mr. J. Tenhage, and Mr. R. Tenhage) for your time and expertise in getting the players ready for and guiding them through the tournaments.
Reminders:
*Just a reminder that the school is still collecting can tabs for wheelchairs.
*Gr. 7B is scheduled to visit Beacon Home on Mon., Feb 24
*Gr.4A is scheduled to visit Anchor Home on Wed., Feb 26
*Gr. 5B is scheduled to visit Kilean Lodge on Thurs., Feb. 27
*Gr. KB is scheduled to visit Shalom Manor on Fri., Feb. 28
*March Break is from March 16-20. The first day of the break is Friday, March 13 and the first day back after the break is Monday, March 23.
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
The school week was short but it was jammed full of different activities for Book Week! Great job on the reading kindergarten! Don’t forget to continue to read over the weekend and to bring in the tracking sheets on Monday/Tuesday! Next week looks to be a busy week as well. On Monday/Tuesday we will be celebrating the colour purple! Please send your child dressed in purple and each child can bring in one item that is purple for show and tell. KB will also be going to Shalom on Friday morning to sing songs and play games with the residents living there. What an amazing opportunity that will be for the students to show Christ’s love to our neighbours. We only have 5 more letters to learn in the alphabet! Keep practicing the letters and sounds with your child at home. Have a great weekend! JB/NV
Grade 1
Books, books, and more books! We sure read a lot of books this week and have enjoyed it a lot. We especially enjoyed buddy reading with Grade Four. Thank you! We look forward to seeing how many pages the students have read over the weekend. Keep reading, Grade One! Thank you, parents, for reading with your children and filling in all the tracking sheets. This week we finished our Bible unit with a test. Your child will have taken it home by now. We also wrote a science test and this went home as well. We began our new Science unit, ‘Investigating Changes’ this week. Thanks for filling in your child’s ‘This Was Me Then’ sheets, and returning them promptly to school. Have a great weekend and keep practising your spelling and sight words.
Memory Work – Friday, February 28 – Psalm :10; Psalm 119:105
Spelling Words: day, did, down, get, long
Grade 2
We had a very fun and busy book week in Grade 2! The students have loved reading books written by Canadian authors! They may continue reading for the book contest this weekend yet. Please remember to bring book sheets to school on Monday morning for the final count! In Church History we have started learning about Antioch and John Chrysostom. We are very interested to learn why his name means “Golden Mouth.” Please continue to put extra socks/clothes in student’s bags, with this wet weather we have had a lot of students coming inside with wet feet and pants. If you have extra grocery bags please bring some to school as well so that the students have a bag to bring their wet snow pants home in. Have a great weekend! LS/BV
Memory Work: Psalm 31:1
Spelling Words: quit, use, aunt, uncle
Thursday: Zimbabwe Test
Friday: Church History Quiz
Grade 3
The children were kept busy with Canadian books! It was great fun to make a bookmark for Grade 4, and buddy reading with Grade 6. Looking forward to hearing who the reading contest winner is! Thank you to the organizers for making book week so much fun. We continue to learn about Moses; how he had to learn to be patient, to trust Him, and to wait on the LORD. The children are being introduced to temperature in our new Science unit. In Reading, we are busy learning how to find answers and how we can use expression to make the story come ‘alive’. We are pumped to begin our Barbara Reid tactile texture project; ask us all about it. We are thankful that the library is up and running again! We wish you a great weekend and a blessed Sunday.
Memory work: Ps. 108:1 Text: the Ten Plagues (two weeks)
Spelling words: governor, something, sometimes, one, won ~ Practise, practise!
P.E. clothes on Tuesday and Friday, Library on Thursday, Mission $ on Friday
Grade 4
And we are already looking at the last week of February. Students will be working hard on their province/territory projects, as we are hoping to have them completed and presented before the March Break. Students may be bringing work home for this. Please remember Tuesday is recorder day for 4B, and Friday is recorder day for 4A. Students should be continuing with daily review of their multiplication tables facts. Spelling Lesson 21 words are: Canada, May, Mr., stairs, running, Ms., Mars, church, upstairs, having, Friday, Mrs., remember, stone — Extra words 4A and 4B — habitat and ecosystem
Friday: 4A Bible Test – Kings of Israel Pt. 1, Spelling Test Unit 21
Memory Work: Psalm 30: 1, Isaiah 40: 30-31, Next Memory Work: Psalm 6:1
Grade 5
This past week has been filled with many reading related activities, including a special red and white dress up day to celebrate Canadian authors! The thermometers in the foyer tracking the number of pages read are slowly climbing; keep up the great work, Grade 5!
Grade 5A has made progress on their shoebox dioramas and 5B hopes to begin next week. If you can part with any extra shoeboxes, we would love to have them! Grade 5B is planning a visit to Kilean Lodge on Thursday to meet and interact with some of the residents there. This is an enjoyable time for all involved. Devotions for next week are as follows: 5A: M. – Maraya, Tu. – Sierra, W. – Linden, Th. – Laura, F. – Olivia. And for 5B: M. – Camrynne, Tu. – Taylor, W. – Abigayle, Th. – Reuben, F. – Ryeanne.
Have an enjoyable weekend and a blessed day of worship! RK/KVL
Grade 6
The students in grade 6 have been busy researching different communicable and non-communicable diseases in connection with our immune and nervous system unit. Ask your child about the interesting facts they’ve found out in their research! We are also starting a new unit in music. Ukulele is being pushed to the background for the time being while we focus on the role of music in film, and how each different element of music contributes to making the viewer experience a very directed emotion! The students enjoyed a fun filled read Canadian week. The book trivia contest was a hit, and the students seemed to really enjoy themselves! Wishing everyone an enjoyable weekend! AF/CV
Grade 7A
The past week was a busy one with several out of the ordinary events. The Great Canadian Geography Challenge was held for all Gr.7/8 today; the top students will compete in the school final to be held at a later date. The class was able to take in the Regional Public Speaking and Poetry Declamation Contest this past Thursday afternoon; Abigale did a great job representing us. Reading week also took a prominent role in the week that was. Low order co-operative games will wrap up next week in P.E., as Kendra, Kathryn, Damon and Davis will teach the class, “ultimate basketball”. Specific heat capacity and how much energy is needed to increase the temperature of a set mass of material one degree Celsius has our attention in Science next week. It sounds like a complex idea but we’ll apply the idea to everyday examples; think the beach. In Art we’ll create a portrait. Although not as exciting as the movie, the class is enjoying our study of, “The Hobbit”. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
In Church History, we have started our Swiss Reformation unit and the life of Ulrich Zwingli. We will be looking at how the LORD uses people, events, and circumstances to bring about true reformation for His Church. In Accelerated Math, we will be starting Unit 6 – Equations and Inequalities. In History, we will begin a new chapter as well, looking at the War of 1812. In Independent Study, we continue to look at journal articles. We are currently writing an annotated bibliography to help us understand what is the purpose and usefulness of the articles chosen. We are looking forward to a trip to the Beacon Home on Monday, where we will be playing games with the residents. Devotions – Monday – Damon R, Tuesday – Noah T, Wednesday – Erin T, Thursday – Davis T, Friday – Natasha VA. Memory Work – Ps. 97:5 and Is. 53:8-12 (due next week). Have a great weekend!
Grade 8A
Despite the long weekend, it felt like we had a very long, very full week in Gr. 8. This week, we celebrated book week, completed the regional public speaking contest, participated in the geography challenge, observed a music presention on discernment, continued basketball practices and more! Next week, we will be having a Geography Quiz (Thurs at the earliest) and a Math Test (Wed at the earliest). Students also have an Acrostic Poem due (Wed). Have a great weekend. Cheers, Mr. J
Memory Work: Ps. 91: 1,4; 1 Cor. 13: 8-13
Devotions: SH
Grade 8B
What a lot of reading the students were able to do this week! We have seen some impressive totals of pages read on our board each day. Students were expected to get parents to sign off on their reading and page count. We will see what the grade 8B thermometer reads on Friday afternoon. This morning the Geography Challenge was written by all of the students in grades 7 and 8. Your children will be able to tell you what the results were when they get home. Among all of the other busyness, the students have been encouraged to keep working on learning their new skill for PBL. A lot of this work can be done at school, but a lot also has to be done on the students’ own time at home too. This coming Friday, MPP Sam Oosterhoff will be coming in to speak to the students about the qualities of a good interview. In Language Arts, we are planning on working writing a essay. Hopefully we will have a somewhat uneventful week, so that we can re-focus our attention on our term two work.
Memory work: Psalm 91:1 or 4
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
