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 John Calvin School community as we bring another short week of learning and teaching to completion in his service at the school. It looks like we are in for a beautiful day, after yesterday’s indoor recess day; although the children didn’t seem to mind too much. May the Lord continue to provide students and staff with all they need for their daily work during the busyness of the second half of the second term. 

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. In particular, we think of the relatives in our community of Mr. John Tenhage from Brampton. He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 90.     

What a beautiful afternoon and evening last week Wednesday and Thursday as we were able to hold our first school concert in 2+ years.  The students did a great job presenting Christ the King Conquered the Cross.  We are thankful for the musical talent in our school and community, and the work of our accompanists and director.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

The Spring Membership meeting is planned for Wednesday, April 27 in the gym.  I think this is the first time we’ve been in the gym for a membership meeting since November, 2019.  We hope to see everyone there.

A few matters for your attention:

*This past Wednesday was Office Administrator’s appreciation day.  Oops!  I was informed by a parent that the official day is actually next week Wednesday, April 27.  Oh well, I guess we get to celebrate it twice☺. It doesn’t take away from the fact that we very much appreciate the work of our office administrators, Mrs. Elgersma and Mrs. D’Addazio, for all that they do on a daily basis at John Calvin School. We are not sure if the day extends to secretaries of the board or any of its committees but we do know that they do a lot of valuable work as well. So, on Wednesday, take a moment and tell them how much you appreciate them. 

*Dr. Jongsma continues with his six weeks of observation and participation in the teaching/learning process at John Calvin School.  Next week he will be spending time in Grade 6B with Mrs. deVisser.

*The annual Spring Food Drive for West Lincoln Community Care wrapped-up last week Thursday. The school collected 434 pounds of non-perishable items. Thank-you to everyone who participated in the drive. 

*Hike for Hospice:  We are planning to once again participate in this annual event, this time in the form of a whole school hike; like we did pre-covid. A staff ad-hoc committee has been in communication with McNally House. At the kick-off assembly this past Tuesday, Ms. Amanda Black from McNally House gave a short presentation about the hospice and why it’s a good project to fundraise for. She also fielded a number of good questions from the students. Pledge forms for the hike went home this week with the students. We encourage all participants that the pledge sheets be filled, and don’t hesitate to seek out the support of your neighbours—they are often quite willing to give to such a cause and in this way it doesn’t always come out of the same pockets.   

 The hike is scheduled for the afternoon of May 6, the same day as the Open House.  Those who are participating in the walk are encouraged to wear their John Calvin School t-shirt or a McNally House t-shirt received from a previous walk.  Parents and grandparents are also welcome to join us on the hike, but no pets please.  Our school community has raised substantial sums for this cause over the past number of years and hopes to do so again.  This will be the 13th year that JCS will be participating in the Hike for Hospice, D.V.

*Speaking of the Open House, it is scheduled for Friday morning, May 6, from 8:00 – 11:30.  A lunch will be served for the grandparents/seniors by the Ladies Auxiliary beginning at 11:30.  

*Baseball practices (tryouts) for the boys’ and girls’ teams were scheduled to begin this week but field and weather conditions prevented that from happening. We will try again next week Monday and Thursday. Once again, students in grade eight will be given first opportunity to play on the school baseball teams.   

Reminders:

*The April issue of the News and Views will be distributed on Sunday. 

*Please continue to be wary of ticks. A few have been spotted on the school grounds. 

*Just a reminder that 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.

*Mid-term progress reports (by request):  Parents, if you would like to receive a mid-term progress report about your child, please contact your child’s teacher on or by Friday, April 22 (today).  The progress report is designed in the same way as the one you received in November.  Requested reports will be sent home on April 28.  

*Curriculum PD Day next week Friday, April 29.  Students can enjoy a day at home while the staff will be busy with professional development work, i.e. Mathematics, follow-up to the School Culture presentation which was given at the combined staff/ed com/board meeting at the end of March.

*What follows is a note from Mrs. Joelene Ravensbergen in regards to guitar lessons at JCS for 2022-2023:

Hello parents, Registration is now open for guitar lessons at school for the 2022/2023 school year! Please contact Joelene Ravensbergen for more information. Call/text (905) 719 5797, or email trueblueguitarstudio@gmail.com

Have an enjoyable weekend all and a peaceful Sunday.  Until next week Thursday, D.V.         G. Hofsink

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

Praise God from whom all blessings flow for another week completed at JCS and in the kindergarten classroom. We have almost learned all of the letter sounds in the alphabet and will be working on learning cluster sounds. Look for an explanation of a cluster sound in your child’s agenda. In math we have finished our unit on addition/teen numbers and will be transitioning into learning all about subtraction.

This week’s plans:

Monday: special helper – Kensie

Tuesday: special helper – Abigail

Wednesday: BROWN DAY and LIBRARY DAY Thursday: special helper – Merri

Friday: no school

Grade 1

What a treat it was to watch the children sing and sing at our concerts last week!  We are back to our regular Memory Work schedule.  Now, however, in both classes the students have their very own Books of Praise.  These are real treasures for them.  Any time there is a spare moment in grade 1A, the books are taken out, scanned for songs that students know and singing commences even while others are finishing their assignments.  Lots of fun!  We are approaching the end of the third unit in our reading program.  This means that both classes will soon embark on an assessment lesson.  The children were quite excited to take their Phonics books home when we completed all of the activities.  Please encourage your children to read you the stories that come home with their completed reading pages. 

Memory Work:  Psalm 99:2, Isaiah 53:6 (both for April 28)

Spelling/Sight words:  give, me, over, saw, want

Grade 2

This week in Grade 2 we focused our attention on the book of Acts for our Bible lessons. We started the unit with the story of Pentecost and the work of the apostles in the early Christian church. In Math we have been working with four digit numbers! We’ve been comparing numbers in the thousands and looking at what number comes before, after, and in between! We are also wrapping up our Science unit on Matter! The students have really enjoyed the experiments in this unit! Please check your child’s agenda to see when the test will be next week. Have a relaxing weekend and a blessed Sunday! RG & BV

Grade 3

Christ is risen from the dead! With this beautiful truth we continued our work in His service. In our math lessons we are working on multiplication and regrouping. Lots of hard work!  Continue to practise your time table facts, grade three. Penguins, penguins, penguins!  We are working hard on our posters, and we see the work of our Creator in making these beautiful birds that can adapt to their surroundings. Art is all about patterns!  Ask us about our teacups! We will finish up our Science unit with a test this week.  Check the agenda of your child.  What is heat?  Please take the time to study the notes with your child.  Thank you. We shifted to Church History and are learning about a man named Rev. H. deCock. We celebrated Mrs. Poort’s birthday with singing and cupcakes!  (April 17) Congratulations dear lady and may the LORD continue to bless you and keep you in His care.  Thank you, Mrs. L. Schulenberg, for baking the yummy cupcakes! On Tuesday afternoon, we had an assembly regarding the upcoming McNally Walk. May the Lord bless our efforts in supporting this important cause.

Words:  impossible, independent, lovable, thought, were

Psalm 43:1; Text:  Deut. 18:18

Library books on Thursday.

Mission Money, Memory Work, and Spelling Dictation on Friday.

Grade 4

Grade 4A and 4B will have a Bible Test on Thursday, covering the unit on Daniel. That same day, Grade 4 looks forward to going on our trip to the Fledderus Farm. Don’t forget to wear rubber boots and bring a lunch that is easy to eat outside.

Spelling Words: invisible, jewels, giant, somebody, idea, scamp, closet, noise, princess, lonely, shut, suddenly, surprised, owned, period

Memory Work: Hymn 22: 2 / Daniel 2: 20-22

Upcoming Memory Work: Psalm 79: 1

Grade 5

We hope you all had a wonderful time commemorating Christ’s death and resurrection last weekend. We had a good, short week in Grade 5. We started our Science unit about space, and the planet projects were introduced. There should be a paper outline of the project in your child’s agenda. The work for this project needs to be done at home. As stated on the paper, if you do need to buy things for the project, the items should all be able to be found at the Dollar Store; this project should not cost a lot of money to make. Grade 5A wrote their Unit 5 Bible test today, and Grade 5B will be having their Bible test on Unit 5 on Wednesday. After that, we will move on to Church History for the remainder of the year. Our Church History units follow nicely after our last Bible unit; we’ll be starting by talking about Pentecost, and then carry on with life in the early church. Grade 5A will be having their Chapter 8 Math test on Tuesday. We hope to see many of you at the Membership meeting on Wednesday!

Devotions for next week are as follows:

5A – M. Audrey, Tu. Dylan, W. Cohen, Th. Nolan

5B – M. Reanne, Tu. Evelyn, W. Tara, Th. Reece

Have a great weekend! RK/KV

Grade 6

Today both classes have written their last test on the Church History unit. It was quite a journey through the times of the  expansion of the Muslim faith, the Crusades and the people who devoted their life to God by living and working in a monastery. Starting next week, we are back in the time of the people of Israel and we will tell and hear the stories that are written in the book of Numbers. We are all looking forward to that as well. Science has also come to an end. We will start Social Studies and hear more about the Indigenous people of Canada. That is also very interesting and this ties nicely in with our Novel Study “Lost in the Barrens”. For memory work, we will learn the first part of Psalm 90, a song by Moses the man of God. We hope that you enjoy the words of this song as well as you recite and sing with your children.” God is and was our dwelling place” We are safe in Him. This is a great message to teach and share. In Math, many necessary concepts are becoming very familiar and that is fitting for students who are heading towards grade 7.We hope to see you and your family during Open House on Friday May 6. Please support your children as they try to find sponsors for the ‘Hike for Hospice’ on the afternoon of May 6. May you have a blessed weekend. CvA/IdeV

Grade 7A

We’ll wrap up our Church History study of Ulrich Zwingli and the Reformation in the Swiss Confederation next week. Our focus will then switch to Bible History and the divided kingdom, Israel against Judah. We’ll play handball in P.E. and remembert he rule of 3, 3 seconds and 3 steps. As we continue our Independent Study, we’ll move from our white paper and annotated bibliography to thinking about whom to interview. We’ll design and build a simple but efficient device to harness and transform energy in Science as we continue with energy transfer systems. Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

While the week started with snowy weather it has finished with beautiful sunshine. A classic southern ontario week! In 7B we continue our study of the war of 1812 in History, Handball in P.E. and how our calling as Christians in Genesis 2 and Romans 3 connects to our Natural Resource use in Physical Geography. In art we have continued working on Printmaking and hope to begin carving our lino designs next week. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J and Mrs. Ludwig

Grade 8

This week has been our first “normal” week in a while, after the business of preparing for the Easter concert. We look forward to preparing for the last few tournaments of Grade 8 and our last months of John Calvin School. Some events that are coming up include the Gauss Math Contest, Baseball Tournaments, Track and Field. Keep an eye out and be sure to ask your children if there are any updates for practices. In science students are finishing up their hydraulics project this week, where they are creating a model. We are moving to Church History and have now finished up our essays on the 5th or 6th Commandments. Have a great weekend! Mrs. Tesfaye & Mrs. VanAmerongen

Memory Work: Philippians 4:4-7; Psalm 51:6