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 parents, grandparents and other supporters of John Calvin School on this cool, overcast morning (it’s looking like a nice day for a brisk walk though) as we bring the first week of teaching and learning in May to a close.  It is a special day because it’s the first time we’ve been able to have an Open House and Hike for Hospice (at least in this manner) since May of 2019.  We are looking forward to an exciting day as many of you are planning to visit the students and teachers this morning and then, this afternoon, a number of you will be joining them on the Hike for Hospice in support of McNally House.  Speaking of McNally House, Mr. J. VanOmmen, a member of the SpringCreek congregation, is currently in palliative care at McNally House making our Hike all that much more relevant.  

Due to puddles and mud on the path, a change has been made to the Hike for Hospice route; it is in bold:  Station Street to St. Catharines Street (we will cross to the right side of the street at the Canborough Street lights); we will turn right at the Townline traffic circle and follow Townline to Rock Street; we will turn right on Rock Street and follow it to Canborough Street; we will cross at the Canborough lights once again and then head back to the school via St. Catharines and Station Streets. Grade departure times are as follows (remember that Grades 5-8 walk twice):

                                Grade 5 12:20                      Grade 1 12:50

                                Grade 6 12:25                      Grade 2 12:55

                                Grade 7 12:30                      Grade 3 1:00

                                Grade 8 12:35                      Grade 4 1:05

                                Grade K 12:40

Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary for providing coffee and snacks, and the delicious lunch that the grandparents and seniors could enjoy.  We thank the Lord for His blessing on this special day and may he continue to provide us with all we need for our daily tasks during this busy time of year.  Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who need the comfort, encouragement and guidance of our Heavenly Father in a special way.     

Thank you Property Committee and Granite Park for re-screening and grading the ball diamonds, and preparing the jumping pits for sand.  Much appreciated. 

A few matters for your attention:

*Thanks again for participating in the Hike for Hospice to raise money for McNally House.  You may return the money collected at anytime next week.  Please see the note elsewhere in the Chronicle for the return procedure for the money collected. 

*The staff had a productive PD Day last week Friday as we wrapped up our review and revision of the Mathematics curriculum, and came up with some action items from our discussion on School Culture. 

*Dr. Jongsma continues with his six weeks of observation and participation in the teaching/learning process at John Calvin School.  Next week will be his final week.  He will be spending time in Grade 8A with Mrs. Tesfaye.  We hope and pray that his time at JCS has been productive and helpful as he prepares to take over as principal at Bellstone Christian School.

*Practices continue every Monday and Thursday after school from 2:50 – 4:00 until tournament time on May 28. The tournament is scheduled to take place in Dorchester which is about 20 minutes on this side of London.

*Grades 7&8 will be writing the annual Gauss Math contest next week Wednesday, May 18.  

*Please see below for a message/request from CARDUS regarding participation in a research project that the organization is carrying out.

McNally House Walk Notes:

*Please collect all money before handing in the pledge forms.

*Please fill in the correct names and addresses (no Oma or Opa).

*Please fill in the T-Shirt form ($50.00 in pledges for one t-shirt).

*Do NOT return pledge forms and money until after the walk.

Reminders:

*Pet Show and Tell:  We would like to remind parents that if their son or daughter would like to show and tell a pet, they need to contact their child’s teacher at least a day or two in advance.  Bringing in a pet the day of does not allow for any preparation on the part of the teacher.  Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.

*It’s that time of year again, so when you are outside please continue to be wary of ticks.  Recently, we’ve been finding them on students again.

*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.

*You are invited to join us for the Ascension/Pentecost assembly planned for Friday, May 27 beginning at 8:15 a.m. 

     Have a wonderful weekend, an enjoyable Mother’s Day, and a blessed day of worship.  We’ll be in touch again in a week’s time, the Lord willing.          G. Hofsink

Below is a message from Mrs. Joanna VanHof on behalf of Cardus.  Cardus would appreciate a number of responses in this call for research participants.  If you can help out, that would be great!

Participants Needed: How Do Middle-Class Families Afford Independent-School Tuition?

Many middle-class families in Ontario assume that they cannot afford independent-school tuition for their children, and that public schools are their only option. They think that independent schools are only for families with very high incomes.

Think tank Cardus wants to help change this assumption by publishing case studies of middle-class families in the independent-school sector. Our primary purpose is to encourage other families to consider whether they too could afford it, by offering detailed examples of how some representative families are doing it.

If your family is willing to participate, a Cardus researcher will interview you about the educational and financial choices you’ve made, how you arrived at those choices, and how you feel about the financial trade-offs you are making. You will need to be able and willing to confidentially share information about your household income and expenses (for example, from tax returns and credit-card or bank records).

This is a descriptive project only; we will not be making any judgments, moral or otherwise, about how you allocate your resources. Cardus will keep all information confidential and will not publish any information that could identify you or your school.

The project will be done in May and June 2022. The time commitment on the part of each family will be about ten hours.

If you are willing to participate or have questions first, please contact Lisa Richmond at Cardus, lrichmond@cardus.ca or (289) 659-4631. Please respond by Monday, May 16. Thank you.

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Classroom News

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Kindergarten

By the time you read the Chronicle, Open House will have, the Lord willing, taken place. It was a very busy morning in the kindergarten classroom as both classes were at school to enjoy the Open House.  Thank you so much to all of the grandparents, uncles, aunts, moms, dads and other special people for coming to the school to see a glimpse into the life of a kindergarten student!  We also will have completed our McNally Walk around the neighbourhood.  Please bring the money that you have raised for the McNally House to school next week.  

Next week, we will continue our subtraction unit in math but this week, we will be using edible manipulatives to enhance our understanding of the subtraction concept. In Language Arts, all of the students have learned all of the letter sounds in the alphabet!  Way to go, kindergarten!  You have worked so hard and your hard work is paying off!  Many of the students are able to read short words and all of the students are working on reading a book!  The students, also have started to write their own stories complete with a beginning, middle and end!  I can’t wait to share these stories with you!

Here is the schedule for next week:

Monday: Special Helper: JJ

Tuesday: Special Helper: Kyla

Wednesday: Combined day

Thursday: Special Helper: Gabriella

Friday: Special Helper: Rebecca

Have a great weekend everyone.  JB/SV

Grade 1

We have been welcoming Miss Vanderveen to our classrooms several days each week as she gets a bit of a taste of what it is like to teach grade1.  She has been helping us with marking, catching students up on their work and will eventually teach a few lessons.  Both classes went through a spate of assessments this week. While marking Science tests this week, Mrs. deBoer noticed how well the students were able to write answers… in complete sentences even.  A nice reminder of how very far the children have come in their reading and writing.  This is being written before the Open House and the Hike for Hospice.  The weather forecast seems almost perfect for this tomorrow.  Hopefully it is a big success.  Please encourage your children to collect and hand in their pledges next week .  We will be completing the Bible unit about the Remnant of Judah next week and so we will probably have a test on Tuesday or Wednesday.  The children worked hard on their Mother’s Day ‘presents’.  We hope you enjoy them.  Happy Mother’s Day!

Memory Work: Hymn 4:1,  Revelation 7:17  (both on Friday)

Spelling/Sight words:  sharp, shark, start, fern, spoil, crawl, because

Grade 3

We’ve finished our penguin posters! Well done, girls and boys!  The facts, pictures, and decorations made them come alive. We finished our multiplication unit with a test and now move on to division again. What is a community? What are the three types of communities? We just started a unit in Social Studies on this topic. Ask us how the Lord used Rev. H. deCock in His work of gathering a church in The Netherlands. What happened in 1834? 

Just a reminder to take responsibility for studying for spelling dictations and memory work; and it’s also important to be ready for Bible Reading and Prayer and book reading to the class. This also demonstrates responsibility, Grade Three. Thank you for coming to our Open House!  What a blessing to be together and enjoy each other’s company!  You all get an A for your work and participation! We thank the Lord that we could complete the McNally Walk.  May He bless our efforts of raising money for His glory and the benefit of our neighbours.

Psalm 80:7; Text:  Joshua 24:15

WORDS: almost, also, always, impossible, independent, lovable, thought, were, weather, whether, whole, hole

Library books on Thursday.

Mission $ and Spelling Dictation on Friday.

Grade 4

We hope that everyone had an enjoyable Open House and McNally Walk today.

Thursday: Grade 4B Science Quiz — Organisms and their Habitats (Grade 4A has a Science quiz the following Tuesday)

Spelling Test: moved, special, move, blue, parents, movie, sold, true, son, threw, won, pictures, eight, through, aunt

Memory Work: Psalm 11:1/Philippians 2:8b-11

Upcoming Memory Work: Psalm 46:1

Have a blessed weekend. YF/KO

Grade 5

It was wonderful to have so many visitors in our classrooms today! We also enjoyed our hike this afternoon. Hopefully lots of pledges have been collected and will come in next week! Grade 5A will be having a Chapter 9 Math test on Tuesday. Grade 5B just wrote their Chapter 8 test yesterday, and we will be starting Chapter 9 (Add & Subtract Fractions) on Monday. It sounds like many students are getting very far on their planet projects! Please continue to remind your son or daughter to continue to work on their project, and not to leave it till the due date. There was a change of plans for our method of transportation to the Science Centre; hopefully all of you saw the second note that was sent home this week. We would like to have all responses from parents who want to come with by this coming Tuesday, May 10. We will let you know which parents are coming by the end of next week.

Devotions for next week are as follows:

5A – M. Charlize, Tu. Cedric, W. Georgia, Th. Augie, F. Gideon

5B – M. Joshua, Tu. Grayden, W. Dayna, Th. Austin, F. Trevin

Have a wonderful weekend! RK/KV

Grade 6

At the time of writing the Open House and McNally walk have not taken place. However, we hope that both were enjoyable experiences. We are thankful to be part of a community that supports each other. Thanks to the ladies who organized the refreshments. Thanks to the board members for their efforts. May the LORD continue to bless us and may we appreciate His blessings. In both our novel discussions and our social studies lessons on the aboriginals, we noticed again how God so richly provides for the world in His creation. We can indeed learn from the past and see how the natives used the items found in nature resourcefully and did not misuse or waste it. In the current event story that we read and discussed, we were reminded how to look after our environment. Have a blessed weekend. IdV/CVA

Grade 7A

What a blessing for us to work at a communal/parental school! This was especially evident on Friday with the “Open House”. Next week in History we will learn about the Rebellion of 1837; what led to riots and armed conflict in the streets of Toronto between citizens and government? In Science, something’s cooking in the oven…. as we end our Thermal Energy and Heat Technology unit. With Smaug now dead the Lonely Mountain and its treasure are free for the Dwarves, and anyone else to take, more about, “The Hobbit” next week. Farewell to Dr. Jongsma as he leaves grade seven for grade eight next week, we trust he enjoyed his brief stay. Track and Field practice continues with running events; “Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter” Enjoy your weekend.

Grade 7B

Thanks to all those who took a few minutes to swing by our classroom and visit us today. This past week we continued working on our lino cuts for our printmaking unit. In P.E. we began preparing for the regional track and field meet by learning how to compete in the high jump. In geography we discussed renewable resources and how we use them. Lord willing we could enjoy a beautiful Hike for Hospice. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J and Mrs. Ludwig