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.

Greetings from JCS, school community, on this sunny but cold Friday morning as we bring the first week of learning and teaching in March to a close.  We thank and praise the Lord that the students and staff could go about their daily work without any hindrance or delay during the course of this week.  What a blessing!  Of course with no snow this week, meant that Mount Calvin could only host sleds on Monday.  May our good and gracious God provide the students, teachers and parents with all they need for the duration of March.

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 Mrs. deSchiffart, one of our EAs, who is dealing with multiple occurrences of cancer in her family, i.e. her husband, son, and father.  For this reason she has been given a leave of absence so that she can tend to the needs of her family.  We pray that the Lord will continue to surround the deSchiffart family with his love and grace.

It’s two years ago that the coronavirus made its way into this part of the world and things haven’t been the same since.  Thankfully, we are seeing the end of covid with the lifting of many restrictions.  Unfortunately, the mask mandate still remains in place for indoor settings.  Aside from those students who have a mask exemption, the JCS protocol requires that masks be worn in the school.  Please respect this until such a time as the wearing of masks is no longer a requirement from the government.  Thanks for your cooperation in this matter. 

A few matters for your attention:

*Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary for the delicious soup lunch this past Wednesday. It was very much enjoyed and appreciated by the students, staff, and parents (who did not have to make a lunch🙂).

*This week marks the end of week three of practice teaching for Mr. Darrin Bethlehem.  He will be teaching with Mr. Witten in Grade 7A for two more weeks, book-ending the March Break.   

*The students in Grades 7&8 continue to prepare for the bi-annual Speech and Poetry Recitation contest.  As a result of the in-class contest yesterday, the following students are moving on to the in-school competition scheduled for Monday, March 7: 

Grade 7 Speech:

Daeton H.   “Hockey is the Best Sport”

Madison L  “Coffee is the Worst”

Morgan L  “Mushrooms are Terrible”

Grade 7 Poetry:   

Laura D “Goldilocks has Chicken Pox” by Erin Dealey

Camrynne V  “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest L. Thayer

Taylor V   “Manners” by Elizabeth Bishop

Grade 8 Speech:

Gabby A  “Why Everyone Should Have Pool Access”

RaeAnna B   “Glossophobia aka Fear of Public Speaking”

Morgan D   “Movie Time is Good for You”

Grade 8 Poetry:   

Kelty D  “Never Ask Your Mom” by Judge Howell

Rebekah S  “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by A. Tennyson

Rylee V  “Sick”  by Shel Silverstein

The top 2 speeches and top 2 poetry recitations from Monday’s contest will move on to the regional competition scheduled for Wednesday, March 9 at ACRES.  

*For the next two weeks, basketball practices take place on Mondays and Thursdays from 2:50 – 4:00 and on Wednesdays at lunch recess.  All the best players and coaches as you get ready for the tournament on Friday, March 25.  

*The Toonies for Anchor campaign to raise awareness for the needs of the Anchor Association and to learn more about our Anchor Homes ends next Thursday, March 10.  If your children haven’t already done so, please have them return the little envelopes on or by that date.  Thank you again, children, for participating in this fundraising activity.

Reminders:

*We are extending the Journeying Across Canada reading contest to Thursday, March 10. 

*Tuesday was 100 Day.  It was great seeing all the little centenarians in and around the school. Mrs. Boersema, Miss Buist, and Mrs. vanBrederode also looked the part really well.  See the Grade 1 Classroom News for more information. 

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

*We would like to empty the lost and found box again so, if you get a chance, please look through it to make sure you child’s belongings haven’t taken up residence.  Thankfully, not too much has been collected since the beginning of January. 

*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. 

*The Easter Concert is scheduled for April 13 (matinee performance) and April 14 (evening performance), D.V.

Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday everyone.  We hope to touch base again next week Thursday as Friday is the first day of the March Break.       G. Hofsink

---

Classroom News

---

Kindergarten

The students thoroughly enjoyed Soup Day this past Wednesday.  Thank you so much to the ladies who prepared the soup and served us in the gym.  It was absolutely delicious. Some of the students spent the past week reviewing all of the letters that we have learned so far while other students were busy learning a new letter.  The students have quickly grasped the letter sounds and are enjoying being able to read words. We also are working on a writing program which has the students first draw a setting and then a character.  Using their abilities to sound out words, they have begun to label their drawings.  Parents you will quickly realize that many of the words your child is spelling are not spelt correctly.  The emphasis on this program is to sound out the words phonetically and as their knowledge of the English language grows so also will their ability to spell words.  If you are unable to read a word that your child has written, please ask them to read the word for you rather than correcting their spelling.  In math next week we will be completing our unit on addition and will begin a new unit on identifying and writing teen numbers.  Have a great weekend everyone. JB/SV

Grade 1

Wow! We are planning for the week before the March break! AND…we are not concerned about a possible school closure!  What a blessing!  We will be busy next week.  Both classes will be finishing Social Studies and Bible units.  Grade 1B will be finished their Math unit as well.  Look in the agendas for test days. We have begun to work on learning some of the songs for the Easter program.  Encourage your children to sing these songs in the next few weeks. 

Memory Work: Psalm 93:4, Isaiah 9:2  (due for March 10)

Spelling/Sight words:  come, made, part, good, may  (March 10)

Grade 3

A busy week has passed in grade three.  Here are the events.

Today we finished our Bible unit with a test.  Well done boys and girls!  The Lord was glorified in this. We move on to stories dealing with the ten plagues and we see how the Lord is going to use Moses to save His people Israel. In Math, we started a unit dealing with Financial Literacy.  Ask us to name our currency and the value of each coin.  We also talked about money as a gift from God to help others.  Galations 6:10.  

Who is Barbara Reid?  Ask us all about her artwork!  

What is temperature?  What is heat?  We hope to explore these questions in our new Science unit.Thank you for bringing in the toonies for Anchor! Soup day was a delicious success!  Thanks so much dear ladies!

WORDS:  by, buy, didn’t, doesn’t, general, governor, something, sometimes,

one, unhappiness, winner, won, your, you’re

Memory Work:  Psalm 47:2

O Praise The Name (Easter Program Song)

Text:  Exodus 20:1-6

Library books on Thursday in the library bag.

Mission $ and BIG Spelling Dictation on Friday.

Grade 4

Thursday: Grade 4A – Canada Poster due

Thursday: Grade 4B – Social Studies test (Canada)

Memory Work: Psalm 6:1

Upcoming Memory Work: Hymn 42:2,3

Spelling Words: faced, crash, city, picture, mice, rocket, space, poem, ice, cricket, adventure, police, club, o’clock

Grade 5

Thank you very much to the Ladies’ Auxiliary for the delicious soup lunch on Wednesday! Grade 5B is wrapping up Chapter 6 in Math next week, and we will be having a test either Wednesday or Thursday. Review will be done in class, unless a student needs a little bit of extra practice on a certain concept.

Next Wednesday, both Grade 5 classes will be having a Bible test for all of Unit 4. Duotangs will be sent home Monday and Tuesday nights to study. After that, we will be starting Unit 5, our last Bible unit for the year, about Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. We will be having a Social Studies quest on Thursday for the first four lessons about Ancient Egypt.

Devotions for next week are as follows:

5A – M. Augie, Tu. Gideon, W. Caleb, Th. Timothy

5B – M. Dayna, Tu. Austin, W. Trevin, Th. Jakob

Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Sunday! RK/KV

Grade 6

We have completed a full week of school after many short weeks. This really helped us complete a variety of things. The students have been presenting their slide presentation on a disease that they researched. We are enjoying them and learning a little about many diseases that we didn’t know anything about. At the same time the students are getting practice speaking in front of the class. Grade 6B have done a very good job taking over the recycling from the other class. Have a look at the quilt art from both classes which the students are happy to have finished. The soup lunch was enjoyed and appreciated by all. Have a blessed weekend. IdV/CVA

Grade 7A

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!” This adage summarizes our experience with the Public Speaking and Poetry Declamation Contest. With a limited amount of time, the students did well in writing, memorizing and performing their speeches and poems. Next in L.A. we’ll enjoy a novel study. We’ve decided to extend Bible History to include the reign of King Solomon; the transition from father (David) to son(Solomon) is natural. The War of 1812 is drawing to a close, we’ll learn why it was a war that nobody won. Students will need to think about what battle they would like to learn more about as they get ready for the War of 1812 project. In Science we’ve learned about specific heat capacity, next we’ll look at changes of state. Enjoy your weekend. 

Grade 7B

What a whirlwind of a week! It was wonderful to see students working so hard to prepare for the speech contest this week. Nerves were pretty high, but they all stepped up to the plate and got through it. With in class judging complete it is on the school finals on Monday. Congratulations to our winners! We begin our journey into Middle Earth next as we pick up our novel study on the Hobbit. Next week Tuesday we will have a Bible quiz on the life of David, then continue on in Bible to see the temple built. Have a great weekend! MJ, AL

Grade 8

These past few weeks have flown by with speech preparation and practice. This Monday afternoon at 1 pm we plan to have our JCS Speech and Poetry Contest. Visitors are welcome. On Wednesday, the Speech Contest is at ACRES for the JCS finalists. Parents of contestants, please arrange for rides to and from the ACRES Speech and Poetry Contest. 

Wednesday: Science Notes Quiz on Density and Bouyancy

Thursday: Bible Notes Quiz Jesus’s Ministry