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.
Good Friday morning on Thursday, school community, as we bring another week and another month of instruction to a close at JCS. Just like that it seems, 1/5 of the school year is completed. May our Heavenly Father continue to provide students, staff, and parents with all they need as they carry out the tasks that he has given them to do in service to God and the neighbour.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with those in our community who need the Lord in a special way.
Today, we gave special attention to the events of the Great Reformation that “officially” began on October 31 with the nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door of Wittenberg. Thank you Mr. Witten, Mrs. Ludwig, and Grade 7 for organizing the Reformation Day assembly and presenting your play about Martin Luther. At this time, it’s always good to reflect on the five themes of the Reformation: Sola Christus, Soli Deo Gloria, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, and Sola Scriptura which are still very much a part of our Reformed, Christian community today.
A few items for your attention:
*Here’s installment #6 of the service tasks carried out by the JCS Service Teams. This week we will look at the services provided by the Hospitality, Assembly, and Technology Assistance teams. The students on the Hospitality Team (Grades 6, 7, 8), serve as greeters at assemblies and as greeters and escorts at the annual Open House. The students in Grades 7&8 help out with setting up chairs and tables (as necessary) for the various assemblies that take place during the school year. The Technology Team is made up Grades 7&8 students and their task is to assist the staff I.T. team (Mr. Joosse, Miss VanderLaan and Miss Broersma) with setting up the sound system, LCD projector, etc. for assemblies and they help with servicing the Chrome Books when that is required. These are great service opportunities for students in these classes.
*Mission Money: We continue to encourage students to contribute what they can (usually about a loonie per week), so that we can maintain the support of our five sponsor children, three through CRWRF and 2 through Word and Deed. We encourage the students to give spontaneously and joyfully. Let us share generously from our abundance.
*Earlier this week we could welcome three student teachers from Covenant Canadian Reformed Teachers College to JCS. We hope they had a good first week and wish them all the best and the Lord’s blessing for the duration of their respective practicums at John Calvin School.
*Triple Ball: Guido de Bres Christian high school is planning to host a modified Triple-Ball tournament. They will host the boys’ and girls’ teams from the feeder schools, and Timothy Christian School will host the co-ed teams. We hope to send three teams, one in each division. Try-outs took place this week. Preference was given to grade eight students because of the impact covid has had on Grades 7&8 athletics during the past eighteen months. Practices will continue to take place on Mondays and Thursdays after school from 2:45 – 4:00. An occasional Wednesday lunchtime practice will be thrown in as well. The tournament is scheduled for Friday, November 26.
*The students and staff thoroughly enjoyed Hot Dog Day yesterday. Thank you very much Ladies Auxiliary for the delicious lunch. It was much appreciated!
*Today was our first School Spirit Day, 80’s dress-up day, organized by the JCS School Spirit service team. It was a lot of fun and really cool to flashback to a time when some on staff were toddlers, teens, or in their twenties while others were not yet born.
*Tomorrow is a PD Day. The staff will be attending the LCRSS Teachers’ Convention at our school, and the students get to enjoy a day at home.
*We received confirmation from the Royal Canadian Legion that students and staff in Grades 5-8 are welcome to participate in the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Smithville cenotaph on Thursday, November 11. The only stipulation for those in attendance is that they need to wear a mask/face covering. Even though the event is outdoors, physical distancing will be a challenge because of the number of people in attendance thus the requirement from the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #393 to wear a mask. We are planning to attend the event with approximately 24 students from Grades 5-8 (3 from each class) who are not mask exempt. They will be accompanied by a couple or three staff members. When at the ceremony, our school has been invited to sing two hymns, Amazing Grace and O God Our Help in Ages Past, and one of our students will be laying a wreath in behalf of John Calvin School. Parents are welcome to join us at the cenotaph provided they abide by the Smithville Legion’s protocols. The same day, there will be a Remembrance Day assembly in the gym beginning at 10:45.
For a small donation to the Royal Canadian Legion poppy fund, students will be able to receive a poppy on Thursday, November 11 to help in remembering why we pay attention to this important event.
Reminders:
*The annual Grades 7&8 Anchor Work Day is planned for tomorrow. All pertinent information was sent home earlier this month.
*Mrs. Apperloo, Bus #4, will be away from November 1 – 9. Mr. and Mrs. Garett and LeeAnna VanIperen will be driving Bus 4 in her absence. If necessary, they can be reached at 289-455-8811.
*Picture retakes are tentatively rescheduled for Wednesday, November 3.
*Please continue to collect pop can tabs to help support children who are in need of a wheelchair. Our bucket is located in the foyer by the offices.
*The Fall Membership Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 1.
Enjoy your weekend and have a blessed Lord’s Day. The Lord willing we will touch base again next week Friday.
G. Hofsink
Classroom News
Kindergarten
A short but fun week this week in kindergarten. Thank you so much to the Ladies Auxiliary for providing the students and teachers with a special hot dog lunch. The students absolutely loved the special lunch! This past Wednesday we also celebrated the colour orange. The students brought in orange day toys, wore orange and ate many orange foods. Thanks so much to Mrs. DeVries and Mrs. Schulenberg for providing an orange snack and drink for the students to enjoy! In language arts we have learned 4 letters. We are using these letters to make words. Students are able to decode CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words using these letters: m, a, t, and d. Please continue to practice these letter sounds at home with your child. Next week, we will be learning the letter sounds for o and c. In math we are learning all about the numbers 0-10. We are learning how to form these numbers and how to represent these numbers in various ways. In science we will be completing our unit on “Our 5 senses”. The students have loved exploring the five senses and how the Lord has designed our bodies in a way that allows us to explore the world we live in. Enjoy your long weekend and, the Lord willing, see you all next week. JB/SV
Grade 1
There will be a Social Studies test about Transportation on Wednesday Nov. 3. Soon we will be handing out our first reader in grade one. The children are becoming more and more proficient at sounding out words. Look in the backpacks for returned tests from this week. There were quite a few.
Memory Work: Psalm 93:1 (Nov. 5) Exodus 20:2-3 (Nov. 12)
Spelling and sight words: at, be, from, have, this
Grade 2
We’ve been busy in Grade 2 this past week! Our Language Arts unit called “The Green Fern Zoo” has come to the end, and so assessments are also being completed. We look forward to beginning a new unit next week. In our Science classes, we’ve begun a new unit in Investigating Healthy Living. We’ve started by learning that our bodies need fuel to keep warm and to provide energy. Over the last few years, the Canada Food Guide has undergone radical changes as a result of independent research groups that aren’t funded in any part by the food industry. One of the largest changes is when we see that the “Milk and Milk Products” group appears to be missing and water is promoted as the beverage of choice. It seems wrong to those of us who have been educated differently in our youth. However, on closer inspection, this group has largely been combined with the “Meat and Alternatives” group. It all falls under the new umbrella of “Protein foods”. Instead of teaching about a number of servings, we’ll be using the visual of a plate with half the plate being filled with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with grains and cereals and the other quarter with protein foods.
Our hotdog lunch was well appreciated by the students this week. Thank you to the ladies auxiliary and also to the parents for participating in fundraising endeavors! That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend! BV/RG
Grade 3
A short but sweet week has passed! The BIG news this week is that we had a wonderful trip to the Jordan Pioneer Museum Schoolhouse. Thank you parents for dressing up your children so well. Some pictures will be posted on Google Classroom. Ask us what we did. Thank you, Mrs. Trudy VanLuik and Mrs. LeeAnna VanIperen, for driving us to and fro safely. On Thursday, we had fun dressing like they did in the 1980s. Guess who visited grade 3A on Wednesday morning? Mrs. H. Buikema! Thank you for sharing your pioneer antiques and pioneer stories with us. Ask about going to the washroom in those days. Next week Wednesday, grade 3B will be hosting a guest speaker. On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Witten led us in the Reformation Assembly. Thank you for explaining to us what this day is all about. May we all continue to live by the TRUTH of the Bible. Finally, thank you to the Ladies Auxiliary for the hotdog lunch. Much appreciated!
Psalm 23:1; Genesis 49:10
Words: city, community, countries, exciting, getting, laughed, pretty, prettier, prettiest, schools, was, too, to, two
Library Books on Thursday.
Mission $ on Friday
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Grade 4
In Science, we have brought our study of Light and Sound to a close. We are now moving on to an exciting new unit called Rocks and Minerals! In Bible, we’ve also begun looking at the stories about David becoming king in Israel.
Monday: Grade 4B Church History Quiz
Wednesday: 4A/4B Math Quiz; 4B French Quiz
Friday: Spelling quiz: art, master, smart, sisters, bar, finger, bark, paper, part, barrel, sand, says, matter, because
Memory work: S: Psalm 20:1/T: Psalm 100:4-5
Upcoming memory work: Psalm 21:1
Grade 5
We enjoyed our hot dog lunch on Wednesday! Thank you very much to the Ladies’ Auxiliary for looking after that! Our first week with Miss Bouwman is already done in Grade 5B, and we look forward to the next three weeks with her! Grade 5B will be starting recorder next week! Many students have their recorders at school already, but if they don’t, please make sure they bring them by Monday. For both classes, if the students do not yet have a recorder, please get one ASAP. Grade 5A will be having a Chapter 2 Math test on Tuesday. Both classes will also be having a mid-unit test for Unit 2 in Bible on Wednesday. Duotangs for that will be going home on Monday and Tuesday nights. Have a wonderful long weekend and a blessed day of worship on Sunday. RK/KV
Devotions for next week are as follows:
5A – M. Audrey, Tu. Charlize, W. Ryley, Th. Jessica, F. Teagen
5B – M. Lilly, Tu. Victoria, W. Izabelle, Th. Mason, F. Tanner
Grade 6
This week, we changed subjects. Church History has become Bible Studies and Science made place for Social Studies. You will notice that your son or daughter is studying the map of Europe and wants to know everything about the Continents. Soon we will dive into business and do research on Canada’s trading partners. How interesting it is to see where the many different products come from. The students will turn many things upside down because they want to know how the shirt or the chair was shipped to the stores in Canada. Yes, Amazon does a lot, but we want to know more! We also spent time discovering the difference between October 31, Reformation Day and October 31, Halloween.. It is such a blessing to see how students, however young, seem to understand how important understanding grace is. The discussions in class are so helpful.
Next week we hope to be totally involved in our Novel Study: Number the Stars . We will start to discover how awful war is for the people who are persecuted. Everyone is looking forward to those lessons. We are thankful that normal lessons will resume and love the Math, Spelling and Phys.Ed routines on the 5 days of school, without any major interruption.
May you have a blessed weekend and rejoice in what the Lord has done through Dr. Maarten Luther in 1517.
CvA/ IdeV
Grade 7A
We’re moving very quickly through Chapter 4 of our New France History unit. At the end of the unit we’ll be introduced to the unit project which involves forming groups and choosing one of five tasks. This past week the students were introduced to the multi-stage fitness test, also known as the 16 metre “beep test”. They will record their results on Google sheets and track their improvements. Chapter two in Math has come to an end, next up, fractions and decimals. At the time of writing, we have not yet hosted the Reformation Day assembly and performed the play, “Martin Luther, I Presume”, trusting it went well….Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Today is a big day! After weeks of preparation Gr. 7 is excited to present their play for our Reformation Day assembly. They have practiced their lines, completed their rehearsals and the butterflies fill their stomachs. Well done Gr. 7! Preparations are also underway for the annual Anchor Work day. What a wonderful opportunity to serve those in our community while also serving our local Anchor community. Next week students will be constructing masks in Art, working on a project in History, and a quiz in Geography. Have a blessed weekend. Cheers, Mr. J and Mrs. Ludwig.
Grade 8
Wishing everyone a good weekend and for grade 8 a blessed Anchor work day. We are planning on wrapping up our short story unit this coming week.
Tuesday: 8A Bible Test, Accelerated Math Test
Wednesday: 8B Bible Test, Regular Math Test
© 2015 Canadian Reformed School Society of Smithville and Surrounding District
