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 JCS school community on this fantastic, Friday morning at the end of a week of beautiful, sunny mild days. We thank and praise the Lord for the many blessings we received during the course of this week. God is good all the time and all the time God is good. May he continue to bless the work of the staff and parents as, together, they teach his covenant children about how he has revealed himself to us in his Word and in his creation.
What a huge turnout of parents, grandparents, seniors, high schoolers, and other members of the supporting community at last week Friday’s Open House. The students and staff had an enjoyable morning interacting with everyone and hopefully you did as well. It was great that we could get together for such an event after not being able to for the last couple of years.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who need the comfort, encouragement and guidance of our Heavenly Father in a special way; be it those who are sick, are dealing with difficult family circumstances, or who are grieving the death of a loved one.
Today, being Friday the 13th (and a beautiful one at that), do be careful that you don’t end up in Port Dover after getting swept along on a lake of motorcyclists.🙂
A few matters for your attention:
*Thanks again for participating in the Hike for Hospice to raise money for McNally House. Please return the money collected no later than Monday, May 16. Please see the note below for the return procedure for the money collected.
McNally House Walk Notes:
*Please collect all money before handing in the pledge forms.
*Please fill in the correct names and addresses, i.e. 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.
Thank you very much Mrs. Marg Feenstra, Ms. Grace Jonker, Mrs. Beth Stel, Ms. Judy Kingma, Mrs. Debbie DeBoer and Mrs. Yolanda Deboer for stamping our hands (and faces) during the McNally walk. We truly appreciated your help that day. Miss Kendra VanderLaan and Mrs. Minny Poort
Thank you Miss VanderLaan and Mrs. Poort for all your work in organizing the event. The JCS Admin Team
Thanks again Ladies Auxiliary for all your work in looking after coffee, snacks, the lunch for the grandparents and seniors, and the popsicles at the end of the Hike for Hospice.
*Today, Dr. Jongsma wrapped up his six weeks of observation and participation in the teaching/learning process at John Calvin School. He did so in musical fashion by bringing in a “do-it-yourself” pipe organ which he and a few classes built, took down, and then rebuilt. It was enjoyed by all. We hope and pray that his time at JCS has been productive and helpful as he prepares to take over the principal reins 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. The tournament schedule will be included in next week’s Chronicle.
*Grades 7&8 will be writing the annual Gauss Math contest next week Wednesday, May 18.
*Included with today’s Chronicle is the Protocol for Class Re-distribution. Please read through the document carefully. Class lists for the 2022-2023 school year will be developed in early June from the considerations, criteria, and procedures included in the document. The class lists will be emailed to parents on Friday, June 24.
*Please see below for a message/request from CARDUS regarding participation in a research project that the organization is carrying out. Please note the due date is May 16.
Reminders:
*It’s that time of year again, so when you are outside please continue to be wary of ticks and mosquitoes.
*With the onset of warmer, sunny weather comes the spring and summer wardrobe for students. We would like to remind parents and students of the dress code regarding shorts and tops as found in the Polices and Procedures section of the Parent Handbook.
*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.
*Victoria Day on Monday, May 23
*For Kindergarten parents: Just a reminder to return the Kindergarten registration form and student information form as soon as possible, and that Kindergarten Day has been moved to Tuesday, August 30.
*The School Spirit Team is planning a School Spirit Day for Friday, May 27. The day will consist of two parts:
1. All students will trace their hand on a piece of paper and write out their favourite Bible version it; then colour it and cut it out. The hands will be taped to the walls in the foyer to be displayed for the remainder of the school year.
2. Students and staff will be participating in Comfy Clothes Day which will conclude with a whole school movie afternoon in the gym.
*Teachers College graduation on Friday, May 27
*Year End Trips: Before we know it, it will be the month of June and all of what that month represents on the school calendar (after two non-event Junes). One of the exciting events is the annual year-end class trips. This year, Grades K-3 are planning to visit Safari Niagara on Tuesday, June 21 and Grades 4-6 are planning to travel to Wet ‘n’ Wild in Brampton the same day (along with about 600 other students from LCRSS schools; lots of fun). Grade 7 is planning to participate in a number of activities in Niagara Falls on June 17, and Grade 8 is looking forward to spending the week of June 20-24 at Wilderness Tours in Canada’s National Whitewater Park on the Ottawa River. Please stay tuned for more details about these trips in subsequent editions of the Chronicle. FYI, this year there will be no extra fees required from the parents for the Grades K-7 trips. The JCS Student Fund has sufficient funds to cover the entrance fees to all three destinations for all the children.
*You are invited to join us for the Ascension/Pentecost assembly planned for Friday, June 3rd (not May 27th as was previously mentioned) beginning at 8:15 a.m.
*Lost and Found: There are still lots of items in the box, even after last week’s display at the Open House. When you are in the school, take a moment and have a look in the hallway leading to the Learning Resource room. All remaining items will be taken to the GBF or Value Village at the end of the month.
Enjoy your weekend everyone; it looks like a beauty. The Lord willing, we’ll touch base again in a week’s time.
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.
Joanna VanHof
Researcher
CARDUS
p. 905-528-8866 x141
Classroom News
Kindergarten
We worked very hard in kindergarten this week as we continued to learn the concept of subtraction! Way to go students on picking up this concept so quickly! Next week we will be finishing our unit on subtraction and will be starting our final math unit on measurement – one of my favourite units to teach. In Bible this past week we learned about the life of Daniel and with that have concluded our Old Testament stories for this year. We will be starting to learn about the life of Jesus and some of the parables that He taught. The grass that the students planted last Friday is beginning to grow! Students are so excited to see the grass growing and to be able to identify some of the parts of a plant. Perhaps next week the grass will be long enough for the students to give it a haircut. Here is the schedule for next week:
Monday – SH: Allison
Tuesday – SH:Elise/Rebecca
Wednesday – combined day, library day
Thursday – SH: Corbin
Friday – SH: Hunter
Have a great weekend everyone! JB/SV
Grade 1
Grade ones are in the exciting process of learning how to decode multi-syllable words. It continues to be a joy to see every one of the children making progress in their ability to read. As teachers, we have really enjoyed working with our new reading program. This week’s spelling and sight word list has students working with two syllable words and reviews the ‘er’, ‘or’, ‘ar’ sounds and the long vowels made with the ‘bossy e’. We are continuing to move rather quickly through our Math lessons as well, completing four or more pages in our Math books many days. We have started our Church History lessons about the Church. Ask your children about some of the adventures of a little girl named Maria as she learns about why we go to church and how the minister ‘hears’ the Lord speaking to him. It was a glorious week for outdoor play and the children have enjoyed their recess breaks a lot this week. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to hand in the McNally House pledges. We really appreciate it when you let us know that a brother or sister has brought the money to school or collected on line. Just jot a note in the agendas.
Memory Work: Psalm 121:1, The LORD’s prayer.
Spelling/Sight Words: zipper, barking, perfume, morning, carpet, forest, border, today
Grade 2
How beautiful it is to close this week with warmth and sunshine! Grade 2, had a fantastic trip to Ripley’s Aquarium on Tuesday. We’re so thankful that after two irregular school years, we could resume taking field trips again. And what a trip! The students (and adults!) were awed by sharks, turtles, and fish swimming above us. We could witness jellyfish in different stages of their life cycles. We could touch stingrays as they swam by. Our God is amazingly creative! Back in our classrooms, we resumed learning about animal habitats and the life cycles of butterflies too. We are excited that our caterpillars are entering the chrysalis stage of their life cycle. We look forward to watching them emerge as painted lady butterflies. Enjoy your weekend! BV/RG
Grade 3
What a beautiful day we had at the Bird Kingdom. God has created so many varieties of birds; And the colours, wow!!! We may stand in awe of His works and praise Him for it. We also enjoyed a wonderful time having a picnic, a hike and seeing many things. Thank you Mrs. Eleanor Schulenberg, Mrs. Jolene Tenhage, and our busdriver, Mrs. LeeAnna VanIperen, for coming along and driving us to and fro. Reading about Mr. Popper and Captain Cook has us doubling over in laughter. Math is keeping us busy with a hard concept of division. We are doing outdoor activities in gym class and yes, some Track and Field practices are included. Wishing you a good weekend and blessed Sunday.
Memory work: Ps. 86:1 Text: Gal. 6:10 (two weeks)
Spelling words: receive, receiving, bird, city, cities,
Library on Thursday, Mission $, Memory work and Spelling test on Friday
Grade 4
Please look for a note regarding Medieval Day that will be sent home on Monday. This should be returned by Friday, May 20th.
Thursday: Grade 4A Science Quiz — Organisms and their Habitats
Friday Spelling Test: standing, married, wrong, decided, driving, ghost, easy, tonight, number, tired, island, living, frightened, waited, paw
Memory Work: Psalm 46:1 / 2 Timothy 3: 16, 17
Upcoming Memory Work: Hymn 50:1
Have a wonderful weekend. YF/KO
Grade 5
We have been so thankful for the beautiful weather this past week and spent our Phys. Ed classes outside. It was so good to be able to do this again! We would like the students to take a spare pair of socks since the grass is still very dewy when we go out for Phys. Ed. There have been many students without their JCS T-shirts and shorts and we ask that you please check to see they are taking them to school. The deadline for the planet project is this week Friday. We have heard great things about these projects and are looking forward to seeing them come to school! Grade 5B will be starting Theme 7 in World of Literature. They will also be having a math test, likely on Wednesday. Devotions for the week are as follows: 5A – Caleb (M), Tim (Tu), Noah (W), Paige (Th), Thomas (F), and for 5B – Jakob (M), Jasmine (Tu), Ryder (W), Brooke (Th), Ben (F). Have a great weekend! RK/KVL
Grade 6
We had an enjoyable time with our visitors last Friday and we hope that they also enjoyed their visit with us. The students were able to complete their walk for McNally House. Thanks to those who went walking with us. Please bring in the money that has been collected. We look forward to our outing on Wednesday to Crawford Lake. The park includes unique geological features, extensive forests, a rare meromictic lake and a 15th century reconstructed Iroquoian village. Since most of the activities are outside, have the students dress accordingly. The lunch will be picnic style so don’t bring microwavable foods. There is no need for extra adults to come along. Have a blessed weekend. IdV/CVA
Grade 7A
In “Foundations in Personal Finance”, we are moving from saving and budgeting to credit and debit; be sure to ask your child what they have learned and be prepared to share your experiences with finances. Thank you to C. Brasz who visited us to talk to us about the role and gift of the Deacons as part of our discussion about giving to others. The Rebellion of 1837 has our attention in History as we learned what drove Upper Canadians to armed uprising. In Bible History we will end our study of the divided kingdom and transition to John Calvin and the Reformation in France/Swiss Confederation. Ask your student what’s cooking in grade seven Science! Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
This week, we continued our Financial Literacy unit in Math class. Students were introduced to the concept of Saving and Budgeting, which included the importance of having a plan for their money, and the idea of interest (on savings and debt!), both simple and compound. We ended the week with visit from Mr. Brasz, who spoke to us about the work of deacons in the church. In Bible we continue to work our way through the Kings of Judah and Israel. There are a lot of new names coming at us, but it is interesting see how the Lord really does punish “the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,but show[s] love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” We have seen that after a generation or two of a king who does not walk in His way, He brings reform “for the sake of my servant David.” In L.A. our journey to the Lonely Mountain has finally ended, though the adventure has not! Thorin and Company must now face the dragon who displaced the dwarves so long ago. Enjoy your weekend! MJ, AL
Grade 8
What a beautiful week we could spend together at school! After a busy Open House and McNally walk last week Friday, the adjustment to a “normal” school week has been welcome. The warmer weather and sun shining has meant that some of our class time has transitioned to outside.This coming week, the regular math class has a Chapter 9 test on Tuesday. Grade 7 and 8 will be participating in the Gauss Contests on Wednesday. Students should expect a Geography test later next week. We believe that is all from Grade 8! Have a great weekend. Mrs. Tesfaye and Mrs. VanAmerongen
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
