General News
Hello again school community as we wrap up another week of instruction at JCS, and in one day’s time bring the leap month of February to a close; and then it will be March. Hope you enjoyed Wednesday’s snow day. May our Heavenly Father provide the students, teachers, and parents with what they need as they go about their activities for the month of March. Just a reminder, that the March Break begins on Friday, March 13.
May the Lord continue to provide for those in our community who need Him in a special way; be it those who are sick, are dealing with difficult family situations, or those who are grieving the recent death of a loved one. We think especially of the family of Mr. Don Bos, great-grandfather and great-uncle to a number of students in the school and a relative to many in the community, who passed away earlier this week. May our Heavenly Father surround the Bos family with His love and grace. We also think of Mrs. Tesfaye, our Grade 4B teacher, whose grandmother passed away in the Netherlands this week as well. May our good and gracious God be near to her and her family as well.
Just a reminder that Mr. Hofsink is in BC visiting his father. The Lord willing, he will be back again on Monday.
A few items for your attention:
*Royal Canadian Legion Poster, Poem, and Essay Contest: We congratulate Alanah R. who achieved 2nd place in the junior colour poster contest and Jenna V.B. who achieved 3rd place in the same colour poster contest. Well done girls!
*The annual “Toonies for Anchor” campaign to raise awareness for the needs of the Anchor Association and to learn more about our Anchor Homes continues for one more week. We encourage all the students to donate their toonie (or more) in support of our special needs brothers and sisters. The children have until Friday, March 6 to return their envelopes. Thank you in advance, students, for participating in this fundraising activity.
*Congratulations to Team Coffee who came out on top at the Book Trivia Contest last week Friday. Like last year, the contest had to go to a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker, Team Coffee defeated The Ravens. The following classes read the most pages in their respective divisions and will be treated to a pizza lunch: Primary Division (K-2) – Grade 2B; Junior Division (3-5) – Grade 5B; and the Intermediate Division – Grade 8A. Congratulations! The following students read the most pages in their respective divisions and received a book prize for their efforts: Liam H. (1B); Taylor V. (5B); and Kyara D. (8A).
*This week Monday, Grade 7B visited Beacon Home. It was good that the students could spend some time visiting, playing games, and singing with our special needs brothers and sisters. On Thursday and Friday, Grade 5B visited Kilean Lodge and Grade KB visited Shalom Manor. We are thankful that the children in these grades were able to participate in this service opportunity of visiting the elderly in our broader community.
*This evening, two of our students, Susanna H. (poetry) and Eli D.V. (speech), will be participating in the LCRSS Provincial Public Speaking and Poetry Recitation competition. It is scheduled to take place at Bellstone Christian School beginning at 7:30. All the best!
*Basketball practices for all three teams continue next week Monday after school (Girls’ and Coed teams), Wednesday at lunch recess (Boys’ team) and Thursday after school (Girls’ and Coed teams). The boys’ team has an exhibition game against Cairn Christian School on Tuesday after school in our gym. The tournament is scheduled for Friday, March 27 at the Dofasco/Arcelor-Mittal Center in Stoney Creek.
Reminders:
*Just a reminder that the school is still collecting can tabs for wheelchairs.
*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.
Enjoy your weekend everyone and we’ll touch base again next week Friday, D.V. May the Word of God strengthen you once again on Sunday. G. Hofsink
Classroom News
Kindergarten
This past week in kindergarten we celebrated the colour purple. We enjoyed eating our purple day snacks and sharing our purple toys with our friends. We learned all about the letter Zz and the sound that the letter makes! Next week we will be focusing on the name and sound of Ww. Kindergarten continues to make much progress in their ability to blend letters into words. Keep up the great work, kindergarten! Parents, thanks so much for reading daily with your child. The work that you are doing at home is evident in the classroom. We learned all about the life of Samson this past week and how the Lord uses sinful people to His work. Next week we will be learning about the life of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi. Have a great weekend everyone. JB/NV
Grade 1
We are already at the last day of February, how time flies. Even though it was a short week we completed a lot of work. We started a new unit in Math dealing with fractions. We are almost at the end of the long vowels and are currently working on the long vowel ‘e’. We are covering the stories of how Samuel prepares God’s people for a king. On Thursday, March 5, we are planning to go to visit the Agape Valley Sugar Bush. Please dress your child accordingly. We will not need any volunteers for this trip. Please pack an extra pair of socks in your child’s bag. Please encourage your child to wear snow pants and boots when there is snow on the ground. Extra bags would be appreciated. Have an enjoyable weekend and a blessed Sunday.
Memory Work for Friday, March 6 – Psalm 132:6; Psalm 119:105
Spelling Words: come, good, made, may, part
Grade 2
We have finished our Social Studies unit on Zimbabwe! The students thoroughly enjoyed learning about this country. A special thanks to Mr. Hofsink for coming this week to show us pictures and talk about his experiences from his trip to Africa. We will be switching back to Science next with a unit on solids and liquids. Due to the snow day our Church History quiz on John Chrysostom will be moved to Monday. We will review with the students so there is no need to study over the weekend. Next week in Math students will be given new math facts! Please return addition facts and start practicing the new subtraction ones! Have a great weekend! LS/BV
Memory Work: Psalm 24:5 and Luke 2:8,9
Spelling Words: Review (see agenda for list)
Grade 3
Another week was completed in service to our God. We thank the LORD for the freedom to teach His covenant children. We are hearing the stories of Moses and how the Lord uses him to lead His people out of Egypt. Ask us to list the 10 plagues. Toonies for Anchor has begun. Thanks to all of those who contributed to this worthy cause. We finished our fairy tales and wow did we ever do a good job! In our Math classes we are having fun exploring geometry. Ask us to define the following terms: line, line segment, polygon, intersecting lines, parallel lines, congruent figures, and solid figures. What is heat and temperature? What is the difference between the two? That’s it for now! Congratulations to Kaylee VanBrederode and Dylan Tenhage for reading the most pages in grade three! Thank you, parents, for adding up all the pages for the book reading contest. Our sincere condolences to the Bos, Visser, Post, and Bartels families with the passing away of Mr. Don Bos. We are comforted to know that He is with His Saviour in Heavenly Glory. J.B./M.P.
Words: unhappiness, winner, you’re, your
Psalm 47:2; Text: The Ten Plagues
Gym clothes on Tuesday and Friday.
Library books on Thursday.
Mission $ on Friday.
Grade 4
Looking ahead, this week will be a busy one. We are busily working on our Canada projects and may have some extra work to do at home for this. Please make sure your child is consistently practicing their times tables and reading at least 20 minutes daily. Spelling List 22: grandfather, popcorn, thank, cupboard, grandmother, playground, third, being, newspaper, cowhands, thirty, doing, these, think).
Tues: Bible Test Kings of Israel 4A
Fri: Spelling Unit 22
Memory Work: Psalm 6:1, Next week- Psalm 121:1-4, Hymn 42:2-3
Grade 5
We are wrapping up our unit on Ancient Egypt, and we will be having our third and final Quest for that on Thursday. After, that, we will move on to our unit on Space. On Wednesday, Grades 4-6 will be doing an in-class Geography Challenge. The top 2 students from each class will go on to the finals. Those will take place in the gym on Wednesday, March 11, starting at 1:00, and parents are welcome to come and watch! Have a wonderful weekend! RK/KV
Devotions: 5A – M. Angelina, Tu. Silas, W. Logan, Th. Brooke, F. Brianna,
5B – M. Ryeanne, Tu. Daeton, W. Ella, Th. Torey, F. Alyvia
Grade 6
In grade 6, the students have been working hard on their one point perspective artwork. A number of impressive finished products are being seen in the hallway. Great job grade 6! In music this week, we were able to take away what the function of music is in film. We compared background and in the action music, and discussed their uses. We also got to watch some clips from our favorite movies that utilize these two forms! The snow day this week was appreciated by the students’ and although sledding in the snow that finally came was in the fore front of their mind, they still continued to work hard in their school work. Great job grade 6, enjoy the snow this weekend! AF/CV
Grade 7A
Next week the students are encouraged to exercise their giving muscle and donate their own money to the Anchor Association. We’ve learned the causes of the War of 1812; next we’ll briefly review the events. After learning more about specific heat capacity in Science, we’ll examine the changes of state, the particle theory and phase changes. We’ll follow the group of fourteen in L.A. as they go over hills and under hills as well as exchange riddles in the dark. In Art we’ll carry on with portrait drawings and capturing mood. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
In Church History, we will see over the next week how the LORD works in Ulrich Zwingli to bring about a reformation in Switzerland, beginning in the city of Zurich. We have come to the end of our peer to peer instruction in Phys. Ed., and will be moving into basketball. In Geography, we will be finishing off our vegetation projects and we look forward to presentations next week. In History, we will be looking at the War of 1812 with a rather large final project at the end. Devotions – Mon – JK, Tue – DG, Weds – KVI, Thurs – DVW, Fri – DT. Memory Work – Ps. 85:4 and Isaiah 53:5-8. Have a good weekend!
Grade 8A
It was a nice change of pace to return to our regular routines this week, until Wednesday at least. J On Thursday we concluded our Geography Challenge, congratulations to Susanna and Reuben who represented 8A in the final. On Friday we welcomed MPP Oosterhoff to talk to us about his work in relation to our PBL about interviewing. Despite the snow day we managed to complete an accelerated Math test on Friday. The Geography quiz we intended to have this week has been pushed to next week. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J
Devotions: TH
MW: Hymn 71: 1
Grade 8B
What a lovely break we had on Wednesday. After pushing hard to get all of our work done, as well as read many, many pages of novels, etc. last week as part of book week, some of the students (and teachers) were ready for the mental health break that the snow day afforded. The students did, indeed, come back to school on Thursday in a better frame of mind. We are currently wrapping up our study of Tom Sawyer by writing an essay on one of five assigned questions. The first drafts of these essays should be completed by Monday. The final typed essay is due on Wednesday. The Math class should expect to write a test on chapter 8 by Thursday. e were host to Sam Oosterhoff this Friday morning. We asked him to speak to us about what makes a good interview. Students should be in full swing of learning their new skill for their PBL project. Please encourage your child to spend time on this task. (Information on this project is available in a google classroom (code is cu776ky). On Monday, students should expect to be prepared to complete a culminating History task for chapter 8. They need to be prepared, but they may use their books. Geography Challenge wrapped up this afternoon. Susanna H, Carter D. and Arie D. were the finalists in a very tense final challenge held on Thursday afternoon.
Memory Work: Hymn 26
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
