General News
The purpose of John Calvin School is to assist and
support parents in the education of their covenant children to the glory of
God. In accomplishing this mission, the
vision of John Calvin School is to provide excellent Christ-centered education
in service to God and our neighbour.
Hello again school community as we wrap another week
of instruction at JCS, and in a couple of days’ time bring February to a
close. When we get back to school again
on Monday, it will already be March.
Hope you enjoyed Monday’s surprise snow day. The students still have some snow to play in
but it is quickly disappearing thanks to some milder temperatures the last few
days. May our Heavenly Father provide
the students, staff, and parents with all they need as they go about their
activities for the month of March.
Final reminder regarding March Break: Last week, in conjunction with Guido de Bres
Christian high school and the other Feeder Schools (as well as being consistent
with what other schools are doing), the board of JCS made the decision to move
the March Break (March 12-19) to April 12-16.
Also, the day off planned for Friday, March 12 has been moved to Monday,
March 15, thus creating a long weekend in the middle of March. This, also, is in alignment with the high
school and the feeder schools.
Parent-teacher conferences: It was good to get
together as teachers and parents this week (albeit by telephone or Zoom) to
discuss the progress of your child(ren) to the end of the first term. It was good to speak about matters that may
help us to teach your son or daughter more effectively and for you, as parents,
to continue to support the teachers on the home front. May our Heavenly Father continue to bless
this important communication between home and school as together we instruct
His covenant children in the fear of His Name. We have one more set of parent-teacher
conferences planned (by request, teacher or parent) for the end of April.
May the Lord continue to provide for those in our
community who need Him in a special way; be it those who are sick, who are
impacted by the virus, who are dealing with difficult family situations, or
those who are grieving the death of a loved one. In particular, we think of Dr. Ted VanRaalte,
uncle of Miss VanderLaan, as he recovers from a traumatic brain injury as the
result of a snowmobile accident.
We are thankful that Miss Hoeksema could return to
her teaching task this week after being away because of mono. May the Lord continue to provide her with
health and strength for her work. We
thank Mrs. Annette Tenhage for filling in admirably in Grade 4A during Miss
Hoeksema’s absence.
We congratulate Jason and Becky DeBoer with the birth
of their son, Joshua Cornelius. He is a
brother to Taryn (KA). All is well with
the baby, mom, and the rest of the of the family too. (Our children all are gifts of God, our sons
and daughters his reward—each one a blessing from the LORD, as heritage on us
bestowed. Psalm 127:3, BoP). May the Lord provide Jason and Becky with
everything they need as they raise their covenant children in the fear of his
name.
A few matters for your attention:
*A message to students (and parents): Please be respectful to those who do or do
not wear a mask. There have been a few
reported incidents of students being bullied for wearing a mask or for not
wearing a mask. It is the decision of
parents for their child(ren) to wear or not wear a mask so please speak to your
children to be considerate of others and to keep their comments to
themselves. Thank-you.
*Book Week, originally scheduled for February 16-19,
has been rescheduled to April 19-23.
*Just a reminder that the school is still collecting
can tabs for wheelchairs.
*The JCS Easter concert has been postponed to April
13 & 14, 2022, D.V.
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
Grade
1
We
are getting very close to having done 100 days of school and we hope to
celebrate that event on Monday. We hope
that the Grade 1 students will dress up as 100 year old people. Everyone will have an opportunity for Show
and Tell that day. We asked them to
bring a collection of 100 things (not food please). They could be legos, socks, cotton balls,
stuffies, etc. We will read stories
about 100 day and we will do some 100 day activities in Math. Please make sure
that whatever the students wear, that it is still possible for them to wear
snow pants and boots, etc. so that they can enjoy their recess breaks outdoors.
With the melting snow, many of the children come inside with wet socks and
sometimes pants. Can you please put an emergency pair of pants in their
backpacks and some extra socks? We hope to have a Math test on Thursday or
Friday of next week.
Memory
Work: Psalm 87:2 (March 5), Text: Psalm 111:10 (March 12)
Spelling
words: fun, here, new, off, old
sight
words: water, were, earth, nothing, also
Grade
2
Greetings
at the end of another week in Grade 2! We have had a productive week of
learning. In Church History, we finished learning about John Chrysostom
and will write a brief quiz on Monday. We will prepare for the quiz in class
and so, we will not be sending notes home for studying purposes. In
Science class, we began to investigate Matter: Solids, Liquids and Gases. In
learning the difference between solids and liquids, we used the words shatter
and splatter. Ask your child about what we did with eggs! It was
certainly egg-citing! As the weather begins to change, it is very
apparent that spare socks are important! Please check your child’s backpack to
see if they have their spare pair. Have a wonderful weekend! BV/RG
Memory
work: Psalm 110:4
Text:
Luke 9: 23, 24
Spelling:
Review
Quiz:
Church History – Monday
Grade
3
Bonjour! Welcome back after another short week. We
finished our Church History unit with a quiz on Rev. de Cock and look forward
to hearing Bible stories dealing with the book of Exodus. In our Science
classes, we continue to explore heat and temperature. Ask us to define: evaporation, condensation, melting, freezing,
heat, and thermal energy. Math is all about division and sharing things in
EQUAL groups. Continue to practice your
multiplication facts too, girls and boys. Thank you, parents, for your
continued support and prayers in this term.
May the LORD continue to bless our efforts of covenantal education for
His glory. J.B./M.P.
WORDS: by,
buy, one, won, winner
Hymn 2:1; Text:
10 plagues
Memory Work on Friday.
Mission $$ on Friday.
Library Books in a BAG on Thursday.
Grade
4
We
are so thankful that Mrs. Tenhage was able to fill in for Miss Hoeksema while
she was home recovering from mono. We look forward to Miss Hoeksema being back in
the classroom full time soon as well. Keep working on the times table practice
(4A, 6 times table and 4B, 7 times table). Students should also still be
reading at least 20 minutes daily at home.
Spelling
Unit 23: she’s, you’re, wore, someone, we’re, born, won’t, storm, everyone,
fort, nothing, forgot, twelve, doesn’t
Thursday:
Science Test Living Things
Friday:
Spelling Test Unit 23
Memory
work: Psalm 121: 5-8, Psalm 9: 4, 5 (next week Psalm 30:1)
Grade
5
We
were able to fully wrap up our work with “The Lion, the Witch, and the
Wardrobe” this week.The students presented their dioramas, which were very
well done, and we watched the movie today. We are almost finished Unit 4 in
Bible, and we will be having a test on that on Thursday. After that, we will
begin Unit 5, our last Bible unit, where we will study Christ’s suffering,
death, resurrection, and ascension. Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday.
RK/KV
Devotions:
5A – M. AJ, Tu. Jackson, W. Katie, Th. Jacob, F. Charlotte
5B
– M. Kingston, Tu. Sarina, W. Gavin, Th. Lucas, F. Jenna
Grade
6
We are going to complete our study of Genesis soon.
This week, we discussed how it would have been a challenge for Joseph to remain
faithful to the LORD while he was in Egypt. We also discussed the change that
happened between the brothers over the 20 years since Joseph had been sold.
This would make the way for unity through confession of sin and forgiveness. As
we study more about the brain, we are again amazed at our amazing Creator. Ask
the students which side of their brain is the dominate one and also what
activities they would be interested in as a result. Have a blessed weekend.
AW/CV
Grade
7A
After taking a pause to compare our novel study,
“The Hobbit” with the screen adaptation, we’ll delve back into the
story next week with hills and riddles. In Church History, Ulrich Zwingli has
joined the Reformation in Zurich and next week he will join Luther for a
colloquy at Marburg; will the Swiss and German Protestants come to an agreement
and join forces against Roman Catholic persecution? We’ll wrap up rates, ratios
and percents in Math next week and move on to measurement, both imperial and
metric. Be sure to ask your child what battle they are researching from the War
of 1812, also ask them what their Independent Study journal article is about.
Enjoy your weekend.
Grade
7B
In Church History, we have seen how the LORD prepared Zwingli
to become a Reformer throughout his early life, and next week we will see how
this preparation helps him in reforming Zurich. In History, we have started our
large War of 1812 project, and will continue that next week as well. In
Language Arts, we continue working our way through the novel, “The Hobbit”. In
Math, we will begin Chapter 8 next week, looking at Measurement and converting
measurements to different units. Independent Study has moved to the next stage
of the process, looking at journal articles. We have selected our journal
articles and next week we will create an annotated bibliography with those
articles! Have a great weekend!
Grade
8
What a difference five days can
make! From a surprise snow day on Monday to a steady melt the rest of the week.
In Accelerated Math we continued to work our way through unit 7 and will have a
mid-unit test on Tuesday. In History we continue through Ch.9 and our writing
unit, ‘Introduction to Essay writing.’ This week we worked on our thesis and
points and students have their rough drafts due on Monday. This week we also
began our unit on the Reformation in Scotland. We spent time learning about the
situation in Scotland in the 16 century and also covered the story of Patrick
Hamilton. Finally, on Friday we wrapped up our mini ball hockey unit and hope
to begin Basketball next week. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J & Ms.
P
