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.
Good Friday morning everyone as we bring to an end the second week of instruction at John Calvin School, and another good one it was. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! May our Heavenly Father continue to bless the teaching and learning that takes place at school and at home on a daily basis, and that we may continue to be a support for one another in teaching his covenant children about his world and his Word.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those in our community who need the Lord in a special way, whether they are grieving the recent death of a loved one, coping with serious illness or are dealing with difficult or challenging family circumstances. In particular we think of the family of Mrs. Ann Witten who passed away last weekend. She was the grandmother to three of our students (Sawyer Witten in 4B, Hayden Witten in 2B, and Reid Vis in 1B) as well as an aunt to Mr. T. Witten (Grade 7A) and his family, and the B. Helder and M. DeBoer families. May our gracious God continue to surround the family with his love and care.
Mr. Hofsink is planning to attend the National Principals’ Conference scheduled for September 29 – October 1 at the Muskoka Bible Center, which is located about fifteen minutes south of Huntsville on Mary Lake. In his absence, the vice-principals (Miss Buist and Mr. Joosse), and the office administrators (Mrs. Elgersma and Mrs. D’Addazio) will look after administrative matters.
A few items for your attention:
*The JCS Service Leadership Teams will once again be going about various tasks in and around the school during the 2021-2022 school year. The goals of the service leadership teams are as follows: a) we are to live a life of service, thus fulfilling the goal of the Composite of a John Calvin School graduate; b) create a culture/climate of service in the school, cf. John Calvin School’s Mission, Vision and Pillars. The admin team and four divisional teacher coordinators look after brainstorming service ideas, meting them out, and coordinating the service tasks. They are the “go-to” people. For the next few weeks in the Chronicle, I will write about some of the service tasks in which the students are involved. This week it is the school grounds crew (Grades K-2). They are responsible for cleaning up the school grounds once a week or every other week. The classroom teacher serves in a supervisory capacity. Proper safety precautions are also taken, e.g. wearing gloves. The principal covers for the classroom teacher while she accompanies several students on their grounds cleaning duty. It is great that the younger students can be involved in these service opportunities in and around the school.
While on the topic of service leadership teams, here is an announcement from the School Spirit Team: John Calvin School is hoping to reschedule 80’s dress-up day for October 28th. Pull out your old neon shirts, bandana hair ties, tease the hair (i.e. Big Hair), and join in our fun!
*The government’s return-to-school policy allows for the resumption of field trips. The JCS policy includes the same. Several grades are planning field trips to various locations. One of the stipulations at many field trip destinations is that students and adults need to wear a face mask. Even though many students are exempt from wearing a mask at school, they will have to wear one at the field trip venue (if it is required). If they are exempt for a medical reason, then a note explaining the reason needs to accompany the student to the field trip venue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
*The annual food drive for the West Lincoln Community Care Food bank is scheduled to begin next week Monday and continue until Friday, October 8. At that time, the goods will be delivered to, or picked up by, Community Care located on Industrial Drive in Smithville. Currently, the shelves at the bank are in need of replenishing, indicating that there is a need in this community. Baskets have been set up in different locations in the school to collect non-perishable food items and other goods, e.g. disposable diapers, baby formula. Thank you very much in advance everyone for your consideration and participation in this act of service for the broader community.
*Wow! After just one week and a bit of selling, all 192 boxes of chocolate are out of the school and much of the money has been brought in. Great job, students! Just a reminder to get the money in as soon as possible.
*We would like to remind everyone that when you come to school to pick-up or drop-off your child(ren) that you use the north driveway and then make your way to the church parking lot to drop them off. Please do not drop them off along the driveway. You are also reminded that there is no parking by the kitchen and the storage room during the day. Thank you for your cooperation.
*Also, with respect to drop-offs and pick-ups, we would like to remind parents to come to the office so that office staff can inform the classroom teacher via intercom of a pick-up or drop-off during the day.
*As mentioned previously, the annual soccer tournament has been cancelled. In lieu of the cancelled tournament, a mini-tourney has been organized with three other schools (ACRES, Bellstone and Hope). On October 4, the boys’ teams from the four schools will be playing on the two fields at JCS, and the girls’ teams will be playing on the two fields at ACRES. It is great that we were able to pull something together for the students in the intermediated grades.
*Due to the busyness of September and adjusting to the routines of school after being away for five months, we decided to move Book Week from September back to its original time of year, February. Book Week is scheduled for February 22-25, 2022. Our October theme week (October 13-15): Horse Farming is still a go. More details to follow in the next edition(s)of the Chronicle.
Reminders:
*Please note that class mom/volunteer forms needed to be returned today. Class moms/volunteers are required to get a Vulnerable Sector Check, cost covered by the school board. These can be done online.
*If your child has music lessons in the school, please ensure that they are aware of when the lesson takes place. Even though they may have written a permanent note on the board, it is not the teacher’s responsibility to remind the student of their lesson.
*Just a clothing reminder about the appropriateness of shorts that some students are wearing. Please note that they need to be of an appropriate length. Teachers have noticed that some are of a questionable length. See the dress code on p. 11 in Part 3 of the Parent Handbook. Thanks for your attention to this matter.
*Once again, we are participating in the Scholastic Reading Club. This year, because of COVID-19, orders will be placed the same as last year. Everything will be done online, including payment, and the books that you order will be delivered to your home or to the school. The Teacher Class Code is RC242039. If parents do not wish for the flyer(s) to be sent home, please let the school know and we will take your name off the list.
*We would like to remind parents that if they have any questions or concerns about the procedures and routines of the school to please contact the school either by telephone or by email as opposed to discussing questions and concerns via other means of communication, e.g. social media. In this way, we can keep each other better informed about what is happening in and around the school.
*All medication, e.g. puffers, epi-pens, needs to be properly labelled. For those students who require oral prescription medication, Tylenol or Aspirin, the school has a form that parents will need to fill out so that the medication can be administered by the classroom teacher.
*Picture Day is scheduled for Tuesday, September 21. If your child(ren) is absent on Tuesday, a retake day is planned for early November. KA parents are requested to bring their son or daughter to the Kindergarten time slot scheduled for 8:15 a.m. You are requested to remain outside while your child’s picture is being taken. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
*The first Fire Drill is planned for Wednesday, September 22.
*The annual Guido De Bres invitational cross-country meet for LCRSS elementary schools is tentatively scheduled for Friday, October 8.
Have a good weekend everyone and a blessed day of rest and, the Lord willing, we’ll touch base again in a week’s time.
G. Hofsink
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Our second week is complete in kindergarten. This week was the first week that both kindergarten classes were at school on Wednesday. The students did great adjusting to all the new people in the classroom and were very friendly to each other. It was amazing to see how quickly the students adapt to the new rules and routines. In Bible we learned how Adam and Eve fell into sin and how God promised to send His Son to conquer sin! In math the students are learning positional words like above, below, in between, left and right. Next week we will be working on the concept of sorting. Next week Tuesday is PICTURE DAY! Parents of KA students please bring your child to the gym on Tuesday morning at 8:00AM for the picture! We also will be having a fire drill on Wednesday. We have practiced this together as a class and we will practice one more time before Wednesday.
Memory work the month of September will be Psalm 124: 1.
Grade 1
We are beginning to fall into the routines of grade one. It continues to be hard work for both the students and the teachers, but we are making good progress. We are marching right along in our Phonics book, having reviewed many of the consonant sounds and practised writing many of the letters, orienting them properly between the top, mid and bottom lines. When writing their names, children will be expected to only use a capital letter for the first letter of their name and use lower case letters for the others. Both with numbers and letters, we have been busy trying to slay the ‘Backwards Monster’ in our classrooms. Students will also write their first Social Studies test about Safety. Look in the agendas for the date. Soon we hope to go on our first field trip to the Safety Village. Please be advised that JCS masking exemptions will be superceded by the protocols of the Safety Village. Please provide your child with a mask on the day of the trip (October 8). The class will be accompanied by Miss Buist, Mrs. VanEs, and probably Mrs. deBoer as well as by our bus driver. No additional parent supervisors will be needed. (We will take some pictures to share in our Google Classrooms.)
Memory Work Psalm 105:3
Grade 2
Week 2 of school has come and gone! We’ve had another fun-filled week! We completed our first Bible quiz and plan to have another quiz sometime next week (see agendas). We’re enjoying our Reading unit on The Green Fern Zoo! Please take the time to complete the Reading and Spelling papers that have been sent home for extra practice. The students are excited to read to you what we’ve read so far in class! Please continue to practice math facts at home as well, we’re hoping to add some new ones soon! Check agendas for Spelling words and Memory Work for next week. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday! RG & BV
Grade 3
We’re so happy to be back into our routines again. We continue to work on proper listening skills. We finished our first unit of Bible with a test on Friday. Well done grade three. We hope to begin a unit in Church History dealing with a man named John Eliot. In our Math classes we are working with place value and number patterns. Ask us to tell you the odd, even, and ordinal numbers. Art is all about lines and shapes. Ask us about the different lines and shapes that are all around us. Who is Joan Miro? Just a reminder to practice your spelling words and memory work every night. This demonstrates responsibility and we honour the Lord in this way too. Tuesday is picture day! Don’t forget your smiles, boys and girls! And…a pioneer class trip is coming up at the end of October. More details to come in due time. And yes…we will be dressing up as pioneers! Stay tuned! Have a blessed weekend.
Psalm 17:3; Text: Genesis 3:15
Words: have, into, off, people, said
Mission Money on Friday.
Grade 4
Things have been going well in Grade 4. Students are settling back in with the routines and procedures. In Bible, we have been looking at the years leading up to Israel’s first king. In Science, we’ve been looking at types of energy, especially in connection to sound and light. We’ve done some interesting science experiments/demonstrations to illustrate some of these concepts. In Math, we continued with place value review and rounding. In French, we’ve been working through some basic expressions and number and letter review. A few things to keep in mind for next week:
Friday: Grade 4A/4B Bible Quiz (stay tuned for more information next week)
Friday: Spelling Test : late, nails, paint, safe, saying, takes, wait, were, guns, past, hate, stayed, crayon, holes
Friday: Psalm 66:1
Upcoming Memory Work: S: Hymn 25:1 T: Psalm 32:1-2
We wish you a blessed weekend. YF/KO
Grade 5
We are continuing to settle into our classes and routines as we reach the end of the second week. The students have been adjusting well and working hard! We will be going to the library for the first time next week! On that note, please send in any outstanding books from last year as soon as possible. In Math, we have been reviewing our multiplication tables. While we have been seeing some progress, there is still a lot of work to be done on them, and we would appreciate it if the students could practice them at home as well! We will need to know them for a unit coming up on multiplication (including multi-digit multiplication). We will be needing recorders soon in Grade 5. If your child does not have one, please send in an order form for one as soon as possible (it’s part of the Phys. Ed. clothes order forms that went home at the beginning of the year. Thank you!
Lunch devotions continue for Grade 5B: M. Jasmine, Tu. Ryder, W. Brooke, Th. Benjamin, F. Reanne
Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday. RK/KV
Grade 6
We have been very busy with a variety of different things this week. The students followed the design process used by engineers to solve the problem of ‘Harry’ being in a safe environment and capable of seeing a large area of the class. We were amazed to hear that Pope Leo I dared to go to Attila without an army and armour. We are planning our T-shirt art which will show many things about us. The students are encouraged to bring in seeds and leaves for our Science activity next week. Have a blessed weekend. IDV/CVA
Grade 7A
This past week, we were able to visit the St. Catharines Public Library Central Branch in connection with our Independent Study. In the next week(s), students will need to secure a book about their topic of study. These books can be borrowed through local libraries and even purchased and delivered on line. Be sure to ask your child what their topic of study is and which book they will be reading. Number sense continues in Math with the classification of numbers and inverse operations. The two Math class format in Gr. 7 seems to be working and the student’s progress in closely monitored. Next week, we’ll be introduced to a king after the people’s own heart in the book of 1 Samuel; tall, dark and handsome. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Our first full week of Gr. 7 has gone by and it was a busy one! The highlight was the opportunity to travel to St. Catharines Central Public Library to learn about researching and how to use a Library properly. Students also had the opportunity to spend some time looking up books for their specific Independent Study topics. Afterwards we enjoyed a beautiful hike at Short Hills Provincial Park, a particular highlight being the beautiful Swayze Falls. In Geography and Science students spent some time learning about 9/11 and the terrible events of that day and how it still is relevant in current events today. In light of all this it is good to remind ourselves of the comfort we have in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the providential hand of our Heavenly Father. May we rest in that as we look forward to a day of rest this Sunday. Cheers, Mrs. Ludwig and Mr. J
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
