General News
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…, Luke 1:46b-47
It has been a busy first week of October. If you were to look at the thermometer you might think that we were still in the midst of summer. It was nice to enjoy this beautiful weather while witnessing the changing of the colours. The grade 5/6 classes enjoyed an outing to St. John’s Conservation area where they could challenge themselves to a run as part of their Phys. Ed. Unit. The Kindergarten classes could enjoy a trip to the pumpkin patch and the grade 7 classes enjoyed learning about geography at the Wainfleet Beach. The weather was wonderfully accommodating.
The soccer tournament this past weekend was enjoyable. We were blessed with wonderful weather and camaraderie. There was a lot of positive feedback for hosting at Southward Park. The boy’s and girl’s teams played well but did not take any hardware home. The soccer teams however are challenging staff to a game on Wednesday at lunch recess. I’m sure youth has an advantage in this game.
The first of our cross-country runs will have been completed by the time you read this. We have quite a diligent group of students from grades 5 – 8 who are practicing regularly for these runs. The next run will be on Thursday, October 12 at Southward Park. The walkaround starts at 10:00 with the races starting at 11:00. Mrs. Kelly and yours truly have been coaching these runs.
On Thursday ACE (Assisting the Child with Exceptionalities) will be hosting an evening on Mental Health in our schools. You will have seen advertisements for it in the bulletins, social media, and church social. It is being hosted at Grace Christian School and will start at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday will be our first Professional Development Day for the 2023-2024 school year. We hope to work on several things including the science curriculum and learning about classroom accommodations. For students, however, it will be a day off!
This is Thanksgiving weekend and it is good to contemplate the many things that we can give thanks for. God has again richly blessed us this year. We have been able to provide reformed, covenantal education to our children. We could work together as students, staff, and community on so many projects. We give thanks for these opportunities. May God be magnified in our lives as we also give thanks for the bounty that he has blessed us with.
Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving weekend.
JVI
This week:
Monday – Thanksgiving
Tuesday – PD Day – No School for students
Wednesday – Staff vs. soccer team game at 12:30
Thursday – Golden Horseshoe Cross Country run
Classroom News
Kindergarten
This week was a very exciting week in kindergarten. We went on our first field trip to Warner’s Ranch and Pumpkin Patch. Thank you so much to Mrs. Apperloo who drove the bus for us and the moms who accompanied us on the trip. The students learned all about pumpkins, played on the playground, went on a hayride and visited the farm animals. Each student also took home 2 pumpkins! On Thursday and Friday we wrapped up our science unit on senses by baking cookies. Ask your child all about the baking experience. We will be taking a break from science and will be doing our first unit on social emotional learning where we will learn all about emotions, feelings and strategies for how to deal with difficult emotions. We also will be spending some time next week talking about Thanksgiving and how richly God has blessed us. Enjoy the long weekend everyone! Here’s a look at next week:
Wednesday – combined day, library day
Thursday – Special Helper: Andrew
Friday – Special Helper: Rosa
Grade 1
This afternoon we could have our Thanksgiving assembly. God has blessed us with all that we needed this past year and He continues to provide. May we give thanks for the Greatest Gift of all, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The children are learning about Jacob and Esau in Bible History. It is so neat to see the great joy on the faces of the children as they learn to read words from the CKLA program. Way to go, boys and girls! Did you get to do some words at home with your child? Shapes like rhombus, trapezoid, triangles, ovals and such keep us busy in Math class. In Science we have begun a new unit about Living Things. Ask us about it. Have a wonderful long weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!
Grade 2
This week was a warm one! The students enjoyed starting a new reader in Language Arts, and are looking forward to reading some new tales! In Math we continued with adding and subtracting, looking specifically at fact families. We are coming close to the end of our first Science unit. This week we learned that our hearts and stomach muscles are examples of involuntary muscles! We’re thankful that God made these muscles so we don’t even need to think about them, they just work! In Art we explored lines again and used them to fill in turkeys! I’m sure many of these turkeys will be hanging up in homes just in time for Thanksgiving! Hope you have a restful Thanksgiving long weekend! MB & BV
Grade 3
We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 107: 1). We are thankful for the first month of school behind us and all the learning that has happened so far. In the short week ahead of us, we hear about God’s calling to Abram, we will continue to work on addition, and we will focus on geometric shapes in art.
Spelling words for Friday: 3A: getting, was 3B: flute, boat, sail, seal, cone, tape, meat, cube
Memory work: Psalm 19: 1 and Genesis 3: 15
Grade 4
Happy Thanksgiving! We wish you and your families a wonderful weekend reflecting on the Lord’s faithfulness to us. We pray it is a restful time, and can’t wait for a full, short week next week.
We have finished up our unit on rocks and minerals in Science and will move into our first unit for Social Studies learning about our vast and beautiful country – Canada! We are working on different writing projects, including creative writing stories (4B) and brochures (4A&B). It’s neat to see the different forms of writing! Grade 4B will have a Bible quiz on Friday about the stories of King Saul and David. Please continue practicing your musical notes, grade 4A! That’s all for now – enjoy your weekend.
Mrs. VA & Mrs. T
Monday: Thanksgiving Day
Tuesday: P.D. Day – No school!
Wednesday:
Thursday: Library
Friday: Music quiz (4A&B); Bible quiz (4B); Spelling Test; Psalm 130:2, 1 Samuel 15:22; Bring mission money.
Spelling Words: No spelling words this week.
Grade 5
This past week, grades 5 & 6 enjoyed a morning away at St. John’s Conservation Area in Fonthill. The weather and the trail conditions were perfect, and the students were well behaved. We received positive comments about them from others using the trails, and they were pleased to see that the kids were out running!
We look forward to a short week of school, which includes a day at the cross-country meet for some students. We wish them all the best as they compete!
Devotions for the week are as follows: 5A – Allison (W), Luke (Th), Isaiah (F), 5B – Corbin (W), Micah (Th), Meghan (F). We hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving weekend! RK/KVL
Grade 6
It’s crazy to think that this weekend is already Thanksgiving Weekend! We have had a great start to the school year and are already into a number of quizzes in Science, Church History, and our first Math Test. This week, we could enjoy some time outside in God’s Creation running through St. John’s Conservation Area. It was a treacherous trail but students all did very well. Next week, we look forward to a shorter week with Thanksgiving Monday and a P.D. day on Tuesday. Next week Thursday, the Cross-country runners will be making their way to Southward Park for their run. More details will follow next week. We wish everyone an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend thanking the LORD for all the amazing blessings that He gives us each and every day! TB/CVA
Grade 7A
In History, the King of France has a problem; what to do with the colony of New France? We’ll learn about his decision next week. We will design and construct a table out of cardboard in Science and test them to see which one has the greatest structural efficiency. After heading to the beach this past week to construct and test our watersheds, we will move on to landform patterns in Physical Geography. In Bible we learned that when the LORD regretted making Saul king, that it was not a mistake but rather a sorrow. We will learn who the next king of Israel will be. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
There was lots on the go this week in Gr. 7. In Church History we began a study on the Reformation and the conditions in Europe at the start of the 16th century. In History we began digging into the significance of the fur trade as well as the historical importance of the birch bark canoe. On Thursday we enjoyed a wonderful day at the Wainfleet Public Beach constructing our own river systems and testing them out. It was warm and beautiful out and most of the rivers flowed as designed. Speak with them about flood plains, meanders, tributaries and deltas and see what they recall! With many absent on Friday for holiday or cross country we had a much quieter today and because of the number of students gone, will move the History quiz to next week Wednesday. This is also when we hoped to have a Geography quiz so we will move that to Friday. I also notice a Math Test and French quiz for Wednesday so students have lots of heads up on how busy that day will be. In the meantime have a blessed long weekend! On behalf of the Gr. 7 staff, Mr. J
Grade 8
Wishing everyone a blessed weekend with family and friends. RT, AL