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.

Greetings and salutations from the school everyone on this first week back from the Spring Break, the first time I can say that since 2019. The last couple of years schools were closed immediately after the spring break whether it was in March (2020) or April (2021). Hopefully everyone had a good, relaxing and refreshing March Break. We thank and praise the Lord for all that he has once again done for us during this past week, and we pray for his continued blessing and guidance as we go about our respective tasks from day-to-day and week-to-week for the duration of a very busy final one-third of the school year. 

Staffing news:  Welcome back Mrs. VanEs!  It is great to see you back in Grade 1B again.  Once again, thank you very much Mrs. vanBrederode for teaching Grade 1B in her absence. Just before the March Break, Mrs. Fledderus shared with us that she is pregnant. She and her husband are expecting a baby in September, D.V. That means we are in need of another teacher.  Mrs. VanAmerongen will be making the switch to Grade 4A for next year so that means we need a Grade 8 teacher and a Grade 1 teacher. An ad has been placed in the local bulletins to that effect both in the Canadian Reformed and United Reformed churches. 

It was great to begin the week on Monday morning with nary a mask to be found in the school, at least on people’s faces.  It was also nice to be able to remove the blue tape and distancing stickers from the hall floors. We hope and pray this will remain that way, moving forward. Just a reminder that if your child(ren) is not well, please keep them at home until they are well enough to return. One final note: there are still a number of rapid test kits at the school. If you would like a box or a partial box, please contact the school and arrange to pick one up.

May the Lord continue to provide for those in our community who need him in a special way; be it those who are sick, are dealing with difficult family situations, or those who are grieving the recent death of a loved one. One of our students, William DeBoer (KB), required surgery on his injured hands after an incident involving a tread mill. The surgery was to take place today. We pray for the Lord’s blessing on the hands of the surgeon so that the desired results will be achieved, and that there will be a good and speedy recovery for the young fellow.

We congratulate Wes and Rachel Vis with the birth of their son, Isaac Peter.  He is a brother to Caroline in Grade KB. All is well with mom and baby, and dad and the rest of this siblings as well.  (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 Wes and Rachel with all they need as they raise their children in the fear of his Name.

A few matters for your attention:

*Mr. Darrin Bethlehem wrapped us his practicum with Mr. Witten this week.  We understand that he had a very good teaching and learning experience in Grade 7A at JCS. We wish him all the best and the Lord’s blessing as he returns to his studies at our Teachers College.

*Now that restrictions have been lifted, we have changed some of the entrances/exits for the students.  The Grade 1 students no longer exit and enter the school through the west doors. They will be exiting through the south doors (the same doors as Grades 2&3, like they did pre-pandemic). This will affect parent pick-up and drop-off as pylons will no longer be placed along the driveway between the school and church. They will continue to be placed along the walkway so as to prevent vehicles from entering the children’s play area on the pavement during the day. 

*The Journey Across Canada reading contest wrapped up on the Thursday prior to the break. The school successfully made their way across Canada and completed the 5,515 book reading journey; in fact, they exceeded it by about 1,500 books.  Great job readers! We will wait until it’s nicer weather to reward the students with the extended recess for achieving the goal. 

*The annual Spring Food Drive for West Lincoln Community Care began on Monday of this week and continues until Thursday, April 14.  Please consider making a donation to the drive at some point and time during the next three weeks.  Thanks for your participation. 

*Today the girls’, boys’, and co-ed teams are participating in the Guido de Bres Invitational basketball tournament at Guido de Bres Christian high school. We wish the three teams and their coaches (Miss Vis, Ms. Stoffels, Mr. Joosse, Mr. Witten, and Mr. Hofsink) a great day of fun, fellowship, and competition at the tournament. Stay tuned for next week’s Chronicle when the results will be shared.  

*The final for the Grades 4-6 Geography Challenge will be held on Wednesday afternoon, March 30 at 1:00 in the gym.  Parents are welcome!  The following students qualified for the final:

4A: Sophia W. and Arli V.

4B: Geneva S. and Claire H.

5A: Timothy L. and Audrey S.

5B: Joshua V. and Austin D.

6A: Dylan O. and Tyson K.

6B: Chloe R. and Keagan S.

*For your reading pleasure, the ASC (Assisting the Special Child) spring newsletter is included with today’s edition of the Chronicle.

*Included with today’s Chronicle is the Protocol for Class Re-Distribution. Class lists will be developed in June from the considerations, criteria, and procedures included in the document. Please add it as an appendix to your copy of the Parent Handbook. FYI, it remains unchanged from the one that was sent last year around this time. The protocol has been reviewed by the education committee and the board. 

Reminders:

*The Ladies Auxiliary is planning a Pancake Lunch for Wednesday, April 6.  Hurray!  No lunches to make for a day.  Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary for organizing this delicious event.

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

*Good Friday is on April 15 and Easter Monday on April 18. 

Have a good weekend and a blessed Sunday, and we’ll touch base again next week Friday, D.V.

                                                                G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

The students were very excited to be back in school after the March Break.  On Monday and Tuesday we talked about the changing of the seasons and how we have entered a new season called spring. We reflected on the care that the Lord displays for his creation as well as us, his people.  We needed to be reminded that just because the calendar says that it is spring doesn’t mean that the weather always reflects that!  We may still get snow and cold weather during the season of spring.  In math this week we worked on learning teen numbers.  The students made paper chains to show how teen numbers are made of 1 group of teens and leftover ones.  We also spent time showing what each teen number looks like using M&Ms.  Check out google classroom for some pictures of these events! Here are the events planned for next week:

Monday: special helper – Addisyn

Tuesday: special helper – Andrew

Wednesday: Pink day

Thursday: special helper – Laura

Friday: special helper – Caroline

Have a great weekend!  JB/SV

Grade 1

We have begun the very exciting activity of writing a story in our Language Arts lessons.  Hopefully the children will be bringing home their very own fables some time soon.  Our first reader story required some class discussion to properly frame how we read with discernment.  The first story in our fables reader dealt with a story about frogs asking the ‘gods’ for a king.  We had a very nice opportunity to discuss how the true God of heaven and Earth is so good and so much kinder and  loving and righteous than the gods we read about in our story who are not real.  The children will be bringing home a copy of this story before the end of the week.  We are continuing to practice singing the songs from the Easter program.  We really appreciate that so many of you are using the links on Google classroom to sing them at home too.  It is a lot to learn.  This week we hope to learn the second and third stanzas of the Resurrection hymn for Memory work.  When you study with your child, you will probably notice that Mrs. deBoer has worked hard to help them learn the song already. It’s a lot to learn and they are doing very well.  We will probably have them sing the song in pairs or groups when we assess them on Friday.  (Preparing for a program is hard work, but good work too. The children love the songs!)

Memory work:  Stanzas two and three of the Ressurection hymn.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJrUEVKGXTQ)

Spelling words:  fun, here, new, off, old

Grade 2

Hello! Welcome back after the March break! It’s always so fun to hear of the students’ adventures during the break! What a blessing that we could also experience such beautiful weather during the latter days of the week! Grade 2, wasted no time in delving right back into business. We finished learning about the martyr Polycarp who confessed God’s Word before others. Our attentions have now turned to Martin Luther in his work as a translator. Grade 2A completed their Social Studies unit on Zimbabwe, while Grade 2B continued to explore the States of Matter in Science. A new Language Arts unit was also started. This week, we reviewed nouns (proper and common) and verbs; we also began to look at conjunctions. 

That’s all for this week! Have a blessed weekend! BV/RG

Grade 3

Welcome back!  The students came back refreshed and ready to tackle another session at JCS.  We thank the Lord that we may continue to serve Him at school in freedom. In our Math classes we continue to work with money.  Ask us to add some money in our head and to give the correct change as well.  Science is all about making heat!  Ask us about the experiments that were done in class.  We continue to work on our Barbara Reid art work.  Ask us about tactile texture.

Words:  question, that’s, threw, through, vacation

Hymn 37:1,2; Text:  Exodus 20:7-11

Easter Song:  See What A Morning

Library books in the LIBRARY bag on Thursday.

Mission $ and Spelling Dictation on Friday.

Please bring in food for the SPRING FOOD DRIVE. Thanks.

Grade 4

Geography Challenge: Congratulations to Claire, Geneva, Sophia and Arli who placed highest in round of the Geography Challenge this past week. These four girls will move on to compete against the top 4 students in Grades 5 and 6 in the gym on Wednesday afternoon (1 pm). Parents are welcome to watch this event as well. Recorders: just a final reminder to let the Grade 4 teachers know if you need to order a recorder through the school. They are $10 each. We hope to put in the order early next week and we will begin learning to play the recorder once the school’s order has come in. Have a blessed weekend. KO/YF

Tuesday: Grade 4B Math Quiz (Division)

Memory work: Hymn 35:4

Upcoming memory work: Hymn 22:1/Matthew 6:19-21

Spelling words: lesson, presents, blossom, sign, secret, it’s, person, science, biggest, sudden, present, bottom, picnic, that’s, favourite

Grade 5

We are looking forward to our final Geography Challenge on Wednesday, where the students from Grades 4-6 that placed first and second in class will compete against each other. Parents are welcome to come and watch! More details are elsewhere in the Chronicle. We are continuing to learn about the events leading up to Jesus’ death, and we stand amazed that He was willing to suffer so much for our sake. In Social Studies, we will be having another quest on Thursday about the kingdoms of Ancient Egypt, their art, and the scripts they used. We started bucket drumming this week, and the students are doing well with it so far! Devotions for next week are as follows:

5A – Dylan, Tu. Cohen, W. Nolan, Th. Aubrey, F. Teagen

5B – M. Evelyn, Tu. Reece, W. Tara, Th. Lilly, F. Victoria

Have a great weekend! RK/KV         

Grade 6

We had a good start this week after our refreshing break. Along with continuing to practice the songs for the concert we have begun to discuss many new things. Some of them include learning about how Islam started, the life of Jamie, Awasin, and Uncle Angus in their beautifully described landscape of Northern Canada, and also about matter. Ask the students to tell you what they have learned about in Science this week. As we study more we are constantly amazed at our powerful and amazing creator. Next week, we look forward to the final round of the Geography Challenge. Representing Grade 6 are Chloe, Keagan, Dylan, and Tyson. You are welcome to join us at 1:00 in the gym on Wednesday. Have a blessed weekend. IdV, CVA

Grade 7A

While the March Break was refreshing, it was good to return to our training this past week. We transitioned from Bible History to Church History and began where we left off, with the Reformation in Europe. This time around our attention shifts from the Holy Roman Empire to the Swiss Confederation. We learned what made this Confederation different from surrounding empires/kingdoms, and how the LORD would use this collection of Cantons to further His church gathering work. In Science we’ll learn about energy transfer systems and put our knowledge to use building our own. After working with basketball in P.E., our next unit will be badminton. We bid adieu to Mr. D. Bethlehem who has been with us for the past five weeks. We trust he learned much about the teaching profession and wish him all the best as he returns to class at the C.C.R.T.C. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Our first week back from the break has been a good one! We have moved from Bible History into the life of Ulrich Zwingli, looking at how the reformation took place in Switzerland. We have also come back to studying vocabulary words, after a short break to focus on the speech contest. In Math we hope to wrap up our inequalities unit next week with a test. Have a great weekend! AL, MJ.

Grade 8

We have begun a unit on geometry in Math. Students are working towards real world knowledge and application regarding surface areas, perimeter and volume. It will be a busy few weeks until the concert.

Tues: Shattered Quiz Ch. 1 – 11

Wed: Bible Test End of Christ’s Ministry, Math Quiz Perimeter and Surface Area (acc. math)

Thurs: Math Quiz Perimeter and Surface Area (regular math)

Memory work: We are working on concert songs.