General News
“Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.” Eph. 6:11
We are back after a glorious Easter weekend. The school week has flown by and we have had a wonderful time of learning and enjoying each other’s fellowship this week. We had a delicious pancake lunch on Wednesday, and were introduced to the McNally House “Hike for Hospice” forms that should go home soon. We are looking to raise $20,000 this year. Every little bit helps. Students who raise more than $50 will receive a T-Shirt. Remember to have your child fill in the form correctly. As Mrs. Poort stated, McNally House will not know who to send the charitable receipt to if it says “Opa and Oma”. We look forward to a beautiful walk on May 1st, which is also the date for our Open House.
The chess team, consisting of Evan Baartman, John Bosscher, and Judah Gansekoele did well at the chess tournament in Fergus. Our Defenders team placed 7th out of the 14 schools participating. We thank Mr. Breukelman for his diligence in coaching the chess club this year! We also thank Mrs. Jongsma for coordinating this Chess Tournament.
Looking ahead we are in the midst of getting baseball practices ready. Tryouts start on Monday–another signal that we are approaching the end of the school year.
On the staffing front we are pleased to announce that Miss Danielle Aalbers has accepted the appointment to teach at the grade 3 level next year. She will replace Miss Oosterhoff who is heading off to ACRES next year. We wish them both blessings in this transition. We also have appointed Mrs. Maria DeBoer to the grade 6 level, teaching as a co-teacher with Mr. Joosse. She will replace Mrs. VanAndel who will be looking forward to retirement next year. Finally, we are happy to announce that Mrs. Rhonda Kelly has accepted the role of second VP at JCCS. She has been deeply committed to the school for quite a few years already and is looking forward to sharing her talents and skills in an administrative capacity, and hopefully to keep Mr. Joosse and myself in line!
This week we also hope to celebrate some staff birthdays. We congratulate Mrs. Poort with her birthday on Friday; we wish you God’s continued blessings in the upcoming year. On Saturday Mrs. Breukelman will follow with her birthday. We thank her for her work that she does here and I’m guessing that she will spend her Saturday surrounded by family. May God bless!
I believe that is all for the week!
JVI
Mon – Board Meeting – Baseball tryouts after school
Tues – Ed Comm Meeting
Thurs – Baseball tryouts after school
Friday – Mrs. Poort’s birthday
Saturday – Mrs. Breukelman’s birthday
Classroom News
Kindergarten
We were happy to be back at school after a long Easter weekend. We have started to see some letters come back to school for our alphabet party and they look great. A reminder to have them back on Wednesday for our party, we can’t wait to see what everyone comes dressed up as. On Wednesday, we enjoyed a yummy pancake lunch thanks to the Ladies Auxiliary! We are happy to see some warmer sunny days and enjoyed our P.E time outside this week. We are continuing with subtraction in math and will be moving onto teen numbers soon. After hearing about our Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection, we will be jumping back into the Old Testament in 1 Samuel. We continue to practice our concert songs with Grade 1 each week and the children are doing a great job learning and singing them. That’s it for this week, we hope you have a wonderful weekend! MV/DV
Grade 1
It was such a joy to hear the students share stories from their long Easter weekend. What a blessing it is to have families and friends to spend that time with!
In Science, we began exploring what different materials things are made from. The students were especially surprised to learn that paper comes from trees, and that marbles are made of glass—which comes from sand! It was wonderful to see their curiosity and excitement as they made these connections. Even man-made materials such as plastic come from resources given by God.
In Bible, we learned about the visit of the Queen of Sheba and then discussed the more sobering account of Solomon’s idolatry, including the consequence of the kingdom being divided. These stories prompted thoughtful discussions about faithfulness and obedience to God.
Grade 2
This week Grade 2 thought that it was neat to learn that Nate the Great’s favourite food is pancakes – and they also got to enjoy them for lunch together on Wednesday! In L.A. we are working our way through our novel study together, trying to predict who stole Annie’s picture of Fang. In Math we have been working with double digit subtraction and regrouping. We have been busy crossing out tens and trading them to ones! Please help your child to practice at home. We are finishing off our unit about the work of John Calvin, after revisiting the stories of Easter last week. Thursday afternoon we had an assembly about McNally House, which brought up a lot of questions from our class. Looking forward to the weekend. Have a great weekend!
Grade 3
It’s been another short but productive week.
We finished our Bible unit with a test. Please check your child’s agenda for the results.
In our math classes, we move on to measurement. But, don’t forget to continue to practice your multiplication facts, grade three!!!!
We thank the Ladies Auxiliary for a yummy pancake lunch on Wednesday! What a treat in the middle of the week!
Science is all about strong and stable structures. Ask us why the form and function of a structure is important. Ask us to name some structures in our neighbourhood.
Psalm 61:1
Text: Psalm 23:4-6
Please check your child’s agenda for the spelling words.
Grade 4
This week Wednesday we had pancake day. Thanks so much goes out to the Ladies Auxiliary for cooking all those pancakes and serving us. It was a sticky delicious meal!! We also had the McNally House assembly where we were reminded of the work that is done at this house. A form will be going home with the youngest family member for fundraising for this important cause. The Grade 4 students are working hard at learning all the concert songs. Thanks to all the other teachers who have been helping us learn. Grade 4A will be having a Bible text next week Wednesday. The review will come home on Tuesday. Both classes are working very hard trying to learn all the steps necessary for long division. The current struggle is remembering how to do division when zeros are part of the quotient. If you as parents have time in the evening, every student would benefit from doing 2 or 3 long division questions every evening. Have a good weekend. FR/JB
Grade 5
We enjoyed the delicious pancake lunch on Wednesday – thank you, Ladies’ Auxiliary! After much hard work, we were able to finish and present our dioramas for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe this week. The students produced some really cool finished products! Next week, we will be moving back to A World of Literature, where we will discover more about the amazing worlds in God’s creation through the stories we read. Both classes will be starting Chapter 8 in math next week, where we will learn about integers and fractions. 5A will be having a quiz on Ancient Egyptian art history, scripts, and the 3 kingdoms on Wednesday. 5B will be having theirs on Thursday. 5B will also be having a recorder quiz on Friday.
Devotions for next week are: for 5A – Julia (M), Hailey (Tu), Reid (W), Avery (Th), Lily (F), and for 5B – Shawn (M), Shepherd (Tu), Taryn (W), Elias (Th), Phoenix (F).
Have a wonderful weekend! CDV/KV
Grade 6A
In a nice connection to current events, this week Gr. 6A began a new unit on Earth and Space systems in Science this week. We started with a study of Nebulae, the birthplace of the stars and then turned our attention to Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors. We look forward to continuing this study, and find ourselves marveling at how our God not only knows the number of the stars but knows them all by name! How great is our God! As the weather turns so does our focus in PE. Basketball will soon be in our rearview mirror and we turn our attention back to Cooperative games. We look forward to time outside playing ball! Something else worth noting is an upcoming field trip to Crawford Lake on April 30th. If you are interested, please reach out to teachers. Chaperones will have to pay their own way. Have a blessed weekend! CVA MJ
Grade 6B
Bible/Church History: We’ll be turning our focus back to Genesis over the next few weeks.
Math: We’ve taken our study of fractions a step further, and we now explore multiplying and dividing fractions.
L.A.: Having wrapped up Underground to Canada, students will spend some time with a creative writing assignment.
French: We’ll be looking at how we can describe our houses, and writing floorplans for each of our houses in French!
Science/Social Studies: Having learned about different areas of the U.S.A.; we will now look at how Canada trades with our neighbours to the south.
Art: Students have begun some work with proportions, and we’ll practice these skills some more over the next little while.
Enjoy your weekend!
BK
Grade 7A
We sprung right back into action after the Easter weekend. As stewards of creation, in geography we learned how we can use renewable resources sustainably. We also learned about the status symbol of shark fin soup. After rehearsing our radio plays and timing our sound effects just right, we are ready to record them. The challenge will be finding a quiet place! We’ll probably apply what we learned in math as we take up the challenge of problem solving and probability. In science we’ll work with solutions and mixtures. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Students are working with a partner to learn about how Solomon’s temple was built. Next week we will hear about his palace. In L.A., we have finished our radio play recordings and we are listening to them as a class. We will now be reading non-fictions selections in the coming weeks. There will be a history quiz on Wednesday; students can begin studying on Monday already. In math, we will be reviewing a few concepts from previous lessons, just to refresh our skills with some of the past topics. Have a great week! RK
Grade 8
It was another productive week in Grade 8 as we continue to march toward the end of the year. This week, we began the exciting tasks of choosing our graduation text and designing our Ottawa logo! Looking ahead, it will be a full week, including quizzes in Science and Math. Students should also prepare for a History test on the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 toward the end of the week. Baseball practices begin next week—something for the students to look forward to!
Other than those highlights, we will be carrying on with our regular programming. Enjoy your weekend!