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 readership, on another blustery and snowy Friday morning, as we wrap up the final week of instruction for the month of February at John Calvin School. Thankfully we could have school today. Next week Monday brings us to the end of February and then we spring into March. May our Heavenly Father provide the students, teachers and parents with what they need as they go about their activities during the month of March.  Just a reminder that the March Break begins on Friday, March 11.      

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. In particular, we think of the Buist family.  Mr. Marc Buist, an uncle of Miss Buist and grandfather to Darrin Bethlehem, who is student teaching with Mr. Witten, passed away last weekend.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the family.  

With thanks to the Lord, we can report that two more of our staffing vacancies have been filled.  Miss Esther Vandenberg has been hired to teach one of our Grade 1 classes.  She has 13 years of teaching experience at the Grades 1 and 2 levels.  Currently, she is the SERT and teaches Grades 1&2 at Cornerstone Christian School in Guelph.  Miss Sarah Bontekoe has been hired for the part-time EA position from March to June.  She is currently completing her EA diploma at Mohawk College in Hamilton.  She will begin her EA task on Monday, February 28.  We thank and praise the Lord for this great news regarding staffing at JCS.  At the time of writing, we are still in need of one more grade one teacher and a full-time EA for the 2022-2023 school year.  We pray that the Lord will provide for our remaining staffing needs at JCS in due time.

A few matters for your attention:

*The paper copy of the News and Views magazine is scheduled for distribution on Sunday.

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Soup Day for Wednesday, March 2 (it was originally planned for February 2).  We are looking forward to a hot bowl of soup on a cold, winter’s day. Students are reminded to bring a bowl/mug and spoon that day.  Drinks will not be provided. Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary for this treat at this time of year.    

*The students in Grades 7&8 continue to prepare for the bi-annual Speech and Poetry Recitation contest. The in-school competition is scheduled for the week of February 28 with the finals planned for Monday, March 7.  The regional competition is scheduled for Wednesday, March 9.  All the best students, whether you are delivering a speech or reciting a poem.

*Next week Monday is the final tryout for the JCS basketball teams.  Thereafter, practices take place on Mondays and Thursdays from 2:50 – 4:00 and on Wednesdays at lunch recess.  All the best players as you get ready for the tournament on Friday, March 25.  This year the coaches are:  Miss Vis (girls), Mr. Joosse and Mr. Witten (boys), and Mr. Hofsink (co-ed).   

*The 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 28 – March 4 and March 7 – 10.  The little envelopes will be sent home on Monday and all students are encouraged to donate a toonie (or more) in support of our special needs brothers and sisters.  They will have until Thursday, March 10 to return their envelopes.  Thank you in advance, children, for participating in this fundraising activity.

Reminders:

*We had a great Book Week under the theme READ!  Throughout the week, students and staff participated in a number of activities, including:  the Journeying Across Canada reading contest (which actually continues for another week and wraps up next week Friday), D.E.A.R., Book Character Day, K-4 Book Bingo (which has been extended to next week as well), and the 5-8 Book Trivia contest.   It was a very busy but enjoyable week. 

*We hope to celebrate (along with Grade 1) 100 Day on Tuesday, March 1st.  We look forward to seeing all the little centenarians in and around the school.   

*Just a reminder that the school is still collecting can tabs for wheelchairs.

*March Break is from March 14 to March 18.  The first day of the break is actually Friday, March 11 and the first day back after the break is March 21. 

     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

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

This week the kindergarten students celebrated the colour purple by wearing the colour purple, eating purple day snacks and sharing their purple day show and tell.  Thank you to Mrs. Poort and Mrs. Bosscher for bringing in a purple day snack and drink!  The students absolutely loved it.  The KA class also was able to participate in Book Character Day.  We welcomed Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, Bob the builder, Fox, Lloyd, Elsa, and Anna. Thanks to the book week planners for organizing this day!  Next week Wednesday we will be having soup day.  Please pack a mug and a spoon for your child to enjoy this day!  If your child does not like soup, please pack a different lunch for them to enjoy.  I will be sending a schedule of the week events on Google classroom this weekend. Have a great weekend. JB/SV

Grade 1

We are almost finished our second reader.  We will be working on some assessment activities where the children will demonstrate their ability to read and write with independence.  We are working on recognizing consonant blends in our Phonics lessons.  The highlight of the coming week will be 100 day which will be on Tuesday!  We are hoping that the children will dress up as if they are 100 years old and they should bring a Show and Tell of 100 things.  Everyone will have Show and Tell on Tuesday.  There were some pretty fantastic  book character day costumes in our hallway on Thursday.  (At least three Cat in the Hats and three or four Fancy Nancy’s and all kinds of princesses.)  Some pictures have been posted in the Google Classroom.

Memory Work:  Psalm 87:2  (March 4)  Isaiah 9:2 (March 10)

Spelling/Sight Words:  day, did, down, get, long

Grade 2

Today wraps up another fun week at school! The students really enjoyed book week! We learned about graphic novels, non-fiction books, fantasy stories, and special books that have received medals! The students loved dressing up as book characters on Thursday too.  Please continue to read this weekend and to bring the sheets back and forth to school.  We started our Nate the Great novel study this week! We’re having lots of fun discussing things like mysteries, clues, and detectives! Please remind your children that it is still cold out and they should continue to bring snow pants, hats, and mittens to school. Have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday! Happy reading! RG & BV

Grade 3

After an extra long weekend it was good to be back in class again. In Bible History, we can see how God uses weak and sinful people to bring about His plan of salvation by bringing Jacob and his family to Egypt. Next week, the children can expect a test to finish up this unit. In Science we could finish up the unit about Forces with a test. We hope to begin our next Science, unit about heat and temperature next week. Mrs. Lorna Schulenberg made custard for Grade 3 as part of the story of Alice in Wonderland in Reading class. Thank you so much for introducing to most of the children what custard is and tastes like, Mrs. Schulenberg. Creating visual texture was a lot of fun. Our ‘wild things’ are hanging in the hallway. Next, we will learn about tactile texture. In gym class, we worked in teams to make routines using low, medium and high impact activities. It was a lot of fun to see their creativity and synchronous routines. Great job, boys and girls. Book week was A LOT OF FUN! Thanks, organizers!! Wishing you a wonderful weekend and blessed Sunday.

Memory work: Ps. 108:1    Text: Ex. 20:1-6 (two weeks)

Spelling words: unhappiness, winner, your, you’re

Thursday: Library books in bag

Friday: Mission $ and spelling test

Grade 4

Grade 4B will be moving on from multiplication to working on division. It’s a great idea to continue practicing math facts at home. Grade 4B will be having a Bible Test on Friday on the second half of the Kings of Israel, from when Elisha begins his work to Israel taken into exile.

Spelling Words (review week): caught, everyone, people, having, houses, doesn’t, knew, nothing, cherries, remember, cupboard, think

Memory Work: Psalm 30:1/Psalm 121:5-8

Upcoming Memory Work: Psalm 6:1

Grade 5

We have wrapped up our dioramas featuring a scene from The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe!  This has been enjoyed by all the students and the projects look amazing!  We will begin Theme 5 – Growing and Changing in our World of Literature textbook.  The Bible stories this coming week will be focussed on Jesus’ final teachings before His death.  The students are learning about Ancient Egyptian civilization and this will keep us busy for a few weeks.  The devotions for the week are as follows: 5A Jessica (M), Ryley (Tu), Charlize (W), Cedric (Th), Georgia (F) and 5B: Izabelle (M), Mason (Tu), Tanner (W), Joshua (Th), Grayden (F).  Have a great weekend! RK/KVL 

Grade 6

The students are busy with a number of items. They are putting the final touches to their slides about the disease they researched so that they can be presented to the class. We continue to read through our novel study while also watching videos at lunchtime that give us more information about slavery and also about the racial treatment after the Civil War. In Math, we are working with fractions. We enjoyed the extra activities for Book Week. Thanks to those who organized this week. At this time we still look forward to the trivia contest scheduled for Friday afternoon for grades 5-8. Have a blessed weekend. IdV/CVA

Grade 7A

The LORD has delivered King David from all his enemies, both foreign and domestic, and now the transfer of his kingdom to Solomon has taken place. At this time we leave Bible History and move back over to Church History and continue with the Reformation in Europe. We’ll focus next on Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Confederation. We are learning about the War of 1812 in History with an eye on the chapter’s final project. In Science we’ll carry on with thermal energy and heat technology as we move on to thermal effects on matter. Be sure to ask your child how their speech writing or poem recitation is coming along. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Another snowy Friday (seriously, it’s like every Thursday night for the last month a storm has rolled through!). Regardless, we are happy to be at school (at least some of us are) instead of losing yet another day. Students have spent a lot of time this week preparing and memorizing for the upcoming Speech and Poetry contest next week. Excitement is building and there will certainly be a lot of practice during the next couple days. Meaning in other subjects…in P.E., the Gr. 7 students have transitioned to our Basketball unit. In History we have wrapped up our study of Upper Canada and are set to dig into the history of the War of 1812. Finally, in Bible History students have studied the conclusion of David’s life and his final instructions. HAve a blessed weekend! Cheers, Mr. J and Mrs. Ludwig

Grade 8

What a wonderful and busy short week that we have had in Grade 8. We are going full force preparing for speech and poem recitation, which will be happening in our classrooms on March 3. March 7 will be the John Calvin contest, and March 9 the regional contest at ACRES (details will follow in email). Memory Work continues to be recited in class, but will not be tested next week, in preparation for the contest. Basketball tryouts continue on Monday, with the team to be determined soon after. We should have no issues with being ready to go! Both of our math classes are preparing for an end of chapter test on Chapter 7 next week – Accelerated Math on Tuesday, Regular Math on Wednesday. We are also planning a Geography Chapter 5 test on Friday. Have a blessed weekend.

Mrs. Tesfaye & Mrs. VanAmerongen