General News
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,… You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23, 24b
We are heading into the March Break! We have been blessed with some beautiful sunny weather. The staff has had the opportunity to drive to school in the light as we see the awakenings of Spring. We bask in the comfort that our God preserves this creation until his return.
This week we honed our skills at the Great Geography Challenge on Wednesday. Students from grades 4 – 8 could meet at 10:30 for the junior division competition. 3rd place went to Leena, 2nd to Grayden and 1st to Gideon. Congratulations! These three winners went on to compete with the grade 7/8 classes for the next divisional challenge at 1:00. The competition was intense, with some tie-breakers being had. First place went to MacKenna, second to Jack, and third to Russell! Congratulations to all the students for this wonderful event.
On the HR front, we have some more news to share. While we have not completed all of our staffing arrangements we have hired three new individuals to join our team. Elisabeth Kingma will be joining the staff as an EA in April. She is completing her EA training online and looks forward to continuing her training while working at the school. Sarah Bontekoe hopes to join us as an EA in September. She is currently working at our neighbour school to the south. She may be familiar to some as she worked here for a while last year. Finally, Stephanie Tiggchelaar (nee Knol) will be joining us in September as one of the grade 7 teachers. She has recently completed her studies at Brock(B.A.) and Redeemer University (B.Ed.) We welcome all of these individuals to the school and pray that they feel welcome as they take on their responsibilities.
While not all staffing arrangements are made we will let you know that we have some shuffling in the grade 1 -3 division. Mrs. Gansekoele and Mrs. Poort will take on the teaching responsibilities for grade 1. Mrs. Blokker will work with one of the grade 2 and Miss Oosterhoff with one of the grade 3 classes. While there are more details to be worked out I think it prudent to share this information with you at this moment. May God continue to bless the work that is done by the committees as we plan things for the upcoming school year.
Immediately after our March Break the basketball teams will go into high gear. They will have some friendly exhibition games after school on Monday. The basketball tournament will be held on Friday at the Dofasco Centre in Hamilton.
I believe that is all for the week. We wish you a safe and enjoyable March Break!
JVI
Calendar
Monday – Basketball Exhibition after school – Girls to ACRES, Boys host
Tuesday – Board Meeting
Thursday – Early Years Morning
Friday – Basketball Tournament
Classroom News
Kindergarten
A short and busy week was completed this week in Kindergarten! A special thanks to all of the guest readers that we had over the last 3 weeks. The students thoroughly enjoyed each of the stories that were read to them! For the reading competition among the primary division, Kindergarten placed 2nd! Way to go, Kindergarten! We continue to learn the different letters of the alphabet and we only have 5 more letters to go! Once all of the letters have been learned, we can start to write our own stories! In Math, we have demonstrated an excellent grasp on addition. After the March Break, we will be learning all about teen numbers! Praying that everyone has a great March Break full of rest and relaxation. JB/SV
Grade 1
Happy March break! The students in grade 1 have been working hard these past few months and have earned their well-deserved break. Students have been showing a love for reading more and more since book week and we encourage them to keep reading during the break! When we get back we will be continuing Unit 3 in CKLA and practicing our long vowels. Our collaborative project with grade 8 for science is well underway, and the students love the weekly afternoons we spend with them. On March 31, we are going on a field trip to the Agape Valley Sugar Bush. If parents would like to come, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher.
Memory work (March 24): Hymn 36: 1 Text: Psalm 111:10
Spelling words (March 24): fun, here, new, off, old
Have a restful week! KK/EVG
Grade 2
This week in Grade 2 we wrapped up our Social Studies unit on Zimbabwe and will be switching back to Science after the March Break! Our next Science unit is called “Simple Machines & Movement”. In Church History this month we are learning about Martin Luther and Augustine. We will see how this ties in with our theme “To gather and care for His church God uses weak and sinful people from all times and places to: spread and explain His word” using translators and writers. After March Break we hope to begin our first novel study! Next month we will be having a Grade 2 Detective Day. Keep your eyes out for dress up day ideas for detective costumes. That’s all for now! We hope everyone has a safe and relaxing March Break! RG/BV
Grade 3
After a shorter week, the children and teachers are looking forward to the March Break. After the break we will begin another Church History unit. The children are thoroughly enjoying the story of Mr. Popper’s Penguins in reading class. In Science we continue to learn about heat and temperature. We have come to the end of our basketball unit in phys. ed class. Using ripped paper, we are creating penguin art. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday. We hope to see each other again on March 20th.
Memory work: Hy. 33:1,4 Text: Ex.20:12-17
Spelling words: another, confusion, I’m, question
Thursday is library day
Friday: Mission $
Grade 4
Grade 4B ended the week with some great work! As managers of a donut shop, they had to divide the large orders into the correct number of boxes. In the French restaurant, students had to seat a guest, provide a menu, and serve what was requested. Learning is so much fun! We wish everyone a safe and restful week off and look forward to having all the students return on March 20.
Memory Work: Hymn 42: 2, 3; Matthew 6: 19 – 21
Spelling Words (Review): caught, everyone, people, having, houses, doesn’t, knew, nothing, cherries, remember, cupboard, think
Grade 5
To celebrate the completion of the novel “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, the grade five classes got together to watch the movie. Everyone was very excited for this day, and we added to the fun by bringing our blankets and stuffed animals to watch with us. After the March break we will start the dioramas, so if there are any spare shoeboxes in your house, could you please send them to school? Thanks in advance! Devotions for the upcoming week are as follows: 5A Eliza (M), Hannah (Tu), Isaac (W), Jayce (Th), Judah (F) and for 5B Zachary (M), Zion (Tu), Addison (W), Claire (Th), Eddie (F). Have an enjoyable and restful break! RK/KVL
Grade 6
After the break we plan to start some new units. We will start to study Exodus, matter in Science, and ‘Lost in the Barrens’. The students enjoyed the geography challenge. Congratulations to the winners. May you all have an enjoyable break. TB/CVA
Grade 7
By God’s grace we were able to go about our work as we had planned since the Christmas Break; we are very thankful for that and don’t take it for granted. After the March Break we will continue with Ulrich Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation, begin learning about coding, and start a War of 1812 History project. Enjoy your Break.
Grade 8
Wishing all of the JCCS community and especially our students an enjoyable, relaxing and blessed March Break. We pray that you all get a chance to relax and recharge. We look forward to seeing you back on March 20 DV. RT, AL and MJ
