General News

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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 bring to a close another week of instruction at John Calvin School.  It was great to be back in the school again, even if we had to miss Monday because of the snow day.  The snow did give the students lots to do at recess times as well as some Physical Education classes during the course of the week. 

Thank you again parents for all your work during the week of at-home learning.  It was much appreciated.  Thanks also to those who initiated and participated in the “One Anothering” initiative.  Wonderful evidence of the communion of saints at work.  May our Heavenly Father continue to be gracious to us and bless us as we strive to serve him and one another all day, every day.

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. We especially think of the Bartels and Hack families with the recent, unexpected passing away of David Hack, a young husband and son, at the age of 25. He was married to Taylor Bartels, daughter of Paul and Leslie Bartels who have family and friends in our community.  Also, please continue to pray for Mrs. VanEs who had to go on sick leave for the next several weeks because of her pregnancy.  We are thankful that Mrs. vanBrederode was willing and able to come in and teach Grade 1B.      

A few matters for your attention:

*Just a reminder to please keep your child(ren) home if they are sick. If your child is showing one symptom, please keep him/her home for at least 24 hours and if they develop no further symptoms and are symptom free, they can come back to school.  If your child is showing two or more symptoms, please keep him/her home for five days after which they can return to school.  Once again, here is the link for the most recent online screening tool-   https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/

*Since a number of parents inquired about the availability of rapid tests, we have contacted the PSIE (private and independent schools) branch of the Ministry of Education and applied for our school to receive rapid tests.  At the time of writing, I have yet to receive confirmation whether or not there will be any available for private and independent schools. 

*Bullying Awareness: In our broken and sinful world, bullying continues. 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 (i.e. cyberbullying, a lot of time is currently being spent on Chromebooks, tablets, and other devices), on the bus, on the playground, in the school, or at home.  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, our schoolmates, our family members, our church family.

Reminders:

*On Monday morning, January 24, Mr. R. VanAndel, a vice-principal at Guido de Bres Christian high school plans to speak to the grade eight students about Grade 9 course selection and life at Guido. The students will need to fill in a course selectiont as part of their grade nine registration.  On Monday, February 7 (tentative) Guido is planning to host 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. Grade 8 Day at Guido is tentatively scheduled for Monday, February 14.

*As mentioned previously, three of our PD Days have been cancelled but we are planning to retain the January 31 PD Day, which is a report card writing day for the staff. End of term report cards are scheduled to go home on February 4, D.V. We are still planning to go ahead with our Parent-Teacher conferences which are scheduled for Tuesday, February 8 and Thursday, February 10.  

*Heritage/Flag Day is scheduled for Tuesday, February 15.  An afternoon assembly is planned where we hope to commemorate this special day in our country. 

*For extra-long weekend planning: The annual February CARE Day is scheduled for Friday, February 18 (this is a day off for students), and Monday, February 21 is Family Day. 

*Book Week is planned for the week of February 21-25. The theme of the special week is READ. Stay tuned for more details about the event in a future Chronicle. 

Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy your day of rest.  Until next week Friday, D.V.        G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

This was a very exciting week for kindergarten.  Monday was the first snow for the kindergarten students to enjoy and on Tuesday the KB students loved to share what they did in the snow.  The students, then on Wednesday, celebrated Teddy Bear Picnic Day and PJ day.  As they came down the stairs, they were surprised as the basement was transformed into a cave!  In math we measured our teddy bears and sorted the teddy bears by colours!  We made teddy bear headbands and teddy bear crafts.  In the afternoon, the kindergarten students experienced their first turn on Mount Calvin! So much excitement for one day!  Needless to say, the students as well as the teachers had a “beary” fun and tiring day. Next week in kindergarten we will be reviewing all of the letters that we have learned and will be reading our very first book. I continually am amazed at how well the students are picking up the concept of reading! There will be a number of assessments happening next week in both language arts as well as math but there is nothing that you, as a parent, have to do at home to prepare the students for this! Wednesday will be another fun day as it is BLUE DAY! Students are encouraged to dress in blue, bring in blue snacks for their lunch and to pick one blue item for show and tell.  Have a great week.  JB/SV

Grade 1

Other than the snow day on Monday (Wow…. what a doozy!) We are getting back into the normal rhythm of school again.  In grade 1B, we have welcomed two new people.  Avery Watson is a new student addition to the class and her happy smile is very welcome!  Mrs. VanEs has been feeling quite sick lately and so for the next few weeks Mrs. VanBrederode will be filling in for her while Mrs. VanEs works on feeling better. With the snowy weather, the snow pants need to go home in separate bags from the back pack.  Can you please supply your child with a bag for the wet snow gear?  We do have some plastic bags, but not enough for 38 children every day. We also have a few extra spoons and water bottles at school, for emergency use, but again, better for the students to have their own.

Memory Work:  Psalm 142:1, Matthew 7:12

Spelling/Sight words:  has, his, into, look, time

Grade 2

How beautiful it is to come together again in person! We were very excited to open the doors for our students on Tuesday morning! The students and teachers alike were thrilled to share stories of all the adventures we’ve experienced over the last few weeks. We’ve managed to fall back into the swing of things in our classroom; diving right back into our Bible stories on the ministry of Jesus, traveling across Canada in our studies of Nunavut, and singing joyfully as we begin to learn songs for the Easter program. Next week we hope to continue in these studies. Please check your child’s agenda for any upcoming quizzes as well as the memory work and spelling words. Have a blessed weekend! BV/RG

Grade 3

“Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8. With this confession we end another week. May we continue to pray for the governing authorities, that the Lord may show them and us the way. Thank you, parents and students for all your hard work last week. It is much appreciated. The communion of saints again was seen in action. Praise the LORD, for He is good.  In Math, we continue to work with multiplication and learning our 5 times table facts. We are so enjoying the novel, Stone Fox!  Ask us why the grandfather is sick. Science is all about exploring forces and magnets. If you have any books on these topics, please bring them in. (You may also bring in different types of magnets.) Finally, our condolences to Nadia Schulenberg with the passing away of her dear opa. May the Lord continue to comfort you and your family with His rich promises of eternal life. To conclude, thank you to the grade eight teacher ladies for making the virtual assembly for us. That’s it for now. Have a blessed weekend.

Spelling Words;  new, knew, no, know, myself

Memory Work:  Psalm 64:1; Text:  Psalm 24:4-6 

Library books in the LIBRARY BAG on Thursday.

Spelling Dictation, Memory Work, and Mission $ for Friday

Grade 4

We had a good week back! We have picked up where we left off and the students are working hard. We have started to look at the kings of Israel in Bible class. We are working on multiplication in math, including multiplication drills. In Social Studies, we are working through the Canada unit with plans to begin some projects.

Wednesday: 4B French Quiz

Friday: 4A French Quiz

Friday Spelling Words: goose, flew, songs, saved, shoot, grew, bush, chirp, cuckoo, robins, knew, caught, places, nest

Memory Work: Psalm 3:2/Isaiah 40:30-31

Upcoming Memory Work: Psalm 132:1, 10

Grade 5

It was wonderful to be back in school again this week, and all the snow definitely made recesses much more exciting! We wrapped up our Science unit on nutrition this week with an open book test today. Ask your child what they learned about nutrition and healthy eating! Next week, we will start learning about cells for our next Science unit. We are nearing the end of Bible Unit 3, and next week Thursday both classes will be having a test on the end of that unit, from “Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles” and on. Grade 5B will be having a Chapter 4 Math test on Tuesday, and then we’ll move on to Chapter 5, where we will be learning how to divide 2-digit divisors.

Devotions for next week are as follows:

5A – M. Nolan, Tu. Aubrey, W. Teagen, Th. Jessica, F. Ryley

5B – M. Lilly, Tu. Victoria, W. Izabelle, Th. Mason, F. Tanner

Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday. RK/KV

Grade 6

To see each other again and enjoy learning in person, that was the joy of this week! We regret it that Mrs. VanAndel is still not well enough to come back to school, but we are very thankful that she is doing better. We are also very thankful for Mrs. Oosterhoff…..again she slid into our system, without problem, just like that! Here are some of the topics of  this week: In Science we are studying our immune system. What a great topic! Every time we try to teach a new part of the textbook, the students come up with their stories and experiences with illnesses and how their family looked for a cure. This is so interesting for all of us. Nowadays, we use many instructional videos during teaching. The students are well-informed, even about how Covid is spreading. It is great to learn this way and to discuss it together. We also totally enjoy the Novel Study around the book “Underground to Canada”. What a history we have in North America! We use the many possibilities to talk about how we must grow in gentleness towards everyone of God’s created people. It is easy to see that people who lived before us did things wrong, but we have discovered that we all sometimes sin against God’s rules of love. We must take a critical look at our own behaviour. How wonderful it is that we have this Christian school where we can tell the students that the Lord still loves His people, despite our sinful behaviour personally and as a nation. Have a blessed and healthy weekend! CA VA/ IdeV

Grade 7A

By God’s grace we were allowed to return to class this week; for that we are very thankful. Our “Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany” unit came to an end this past week, culminating with the movie version of his life; ask your child what they thought of it. Next, we’ll transition to Bible History and “King David the Shepherd King”. For the most part, our study of plane geometry in Math is a welcome change especially for our visual learners. Low order cooperative games and peer to peer teaching continues in P.E.; ask your student how their teaching experience went. Enjoy your weekend.  

Grade 7B

It was a blessing to begin again in person this week. We had a short but busy week after Monday’s snow day. In History we continued studying the fallout of the Seven Years War and looked at how the American Revolution dramatically altered Canada’s landscape. In Geography we began researching vegetation regions and to finish out the week in Music we started studying ‘The Moldau’ by Bedrich Smetena. Next week promises to be a busy one again as students will have several projects on the go. We hope to also continue again with our cooperative games presentations after taking this past week off. Have a blessed weekend! Cheers, Mr. J and Mrs. Ludwig

Grade 8

We are so thankful to be back with everyone in the classroom. It is such a blessing to be back to ‘normal’. Count on some tests and quizzes over the next few weeks before reports cards come home. 

Tuesday: History Quiz 

Wednesday: French Quiz Vocabulary Ch. 5, Science Quiz 

Thursday: Math Test, Chapter 3

Memory work for this week: Psalm 32:5, 1 Cor. 13: 1-