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
Another week has flown by. The school moves through its paces and we are working toward May’s events. Things like Open House, Hike for Hospice, the School Concert, and Baseball are on our minds. We are thankful for the events and the challenges that this puts on us as we seek to armour ourselves and develop our talents to the best of our abilities in service to God and our neighbour.
On Tuesday Mrs. Ravensbergen will celebrate her birthday. We wish her God’s blessings and guidance in the upcoming year. We give thanks for the work that she does here each day. Also on Tuesday, we will be hosting an Early Years Morning. We look forward to seeing you all there. The event starts at 9:30.
On Wednesday the board will host a Membership Meeting in the gymnasium. The meeting will start at 8:00. We look forward to seeing you there as we continue to work toward the mission of educating covenant children to the fear of His Name.
Excitement is building as we prepare to welcome you to our Annual Open House this Friday! This special day offers a glimpse into the vibrant learning taking place in our classrooms, where students grow in knowledge while exploring God’s promises woven throughout every subject. Together with parents, we are grateful to nurture each child’s learning journey, and we deeply appreciate the continued support of our school community in this shared mission. We warmly invite parents, grandparents, and friends to join us and experience all that JCCS has to offer. Our doors will open at 8:00 AM, with a recess break from 10:00 to 10:30 AM. At 11:30 AM, we are especially pleased to host grandparents for a delicious lunch in the gym, kindly prepared by the Ladies Auxiliary
Following the Open House, students will participate in our Hike for Hospice event. All students are asked to wear either their JCCS shirt or their Hike for Hospice t-shirt. Parents and grandparents are warmly invited to join us for the walk. Classes will depart in the following order: Grade 5 at 12:20, Grade 6 at 12:25, Grade 7 at 12:30, Grade 8 at 12:35, Kindergarten at 12:40, Grade 1 at 12:45, Grade 2 at 12:50, Grade 3 at 12:55, and Grade 4 at 1:00. Please continue fundraising as we work toward our goal of $20,000. Be sure to collect all money before submitting pledge forms, and ensure that all names and addresses are filled in correctly (no informal names such as “Opa & Oma”). Don’t forget to complete the t-shirt order form, including size selection. Pledge forms and collected funds should be returned after the walk.
We look forward to this week with all of its busyness. What a blessing! May God richly bless you through the proclamation of His Word this weekend.
JVI
Mon – Baseball after school
Tues – Mrs. Ravensbergen’s birthday, Early Years Morning
Wed – Grade 8 to Toyota/Buist Farm, Membership Meeting
Thurs – Grade 6 to Crawford Lake, Baseball after school
Friday – Open House and Hike for Hospice.
Classroom News
Kindergarten
Kindergarten enjoyed another mostly sunny week at school, we’re thankful for the changing seasons and seeing more signs of Spring each week. We will begin our next science unit on Plants next week as we finished up our Properties unit this week. We hope you enjoyed the monsters the students made! On Wednesday, Grade 8 helped us with our art in the afternoon. Be sure to check it out when you visit next week for the Open House on May 2, we have a fun morning planned for all. A reminder we will do the McNally walk that afternoon and we would love for parents to join if you are able, let us know if you can make it. Don’t forget, KA will come to school on Friday and not Thursday. We continue to practice our concert songs each week and it is sounding so beautiful, thanks to Grade 1 and 3 for practicing with us. We will be reviewing and reading our “Ox and Man” book in LA next week. The students are very eager to strengthen their reading skills. We hope you have a great weekend and a blessed Sunday! MV/DV
Grade 1
This week we wrapped up our unit on the Divided Kingdom in Bible and began a new church history unit, Characters in Church History. We learned about Peter in his role as a preacher, and the connection to Acts 2 has tied in beautifully with the songs we are preparing for our Ascension/Pentecost program. In Language Arts, we have started our fictional unit on Green Fern Zoo, and the students are already very excited to read and explore stories about zoo animals. We have also begun assessing “tricky words.” Once students reach mastery, they can give back their word rings and will receive a certificate to celebrate their achievement. On Thursday and Friday, Mrs. Poort, Mrs. Gansekoele, and Mrs. Boersema were all out for training on Acadience assessments. These tools help us identify students who may be at risk for reading difficulties and track their progress over time. A sincere thank you to Mrs. Vanderee, Mrs. VanBrederode, Mrs. Muis, and Mrs. Joosse for stepping in so capably while we were away. The special highlight this week was each student receiving their own Bible to use at school. This is a Bible that will travel with them through the grades and eventually be theirs to keep. The joy in their faces as they read along during morning devotions—sometimes even aloud—has been a real gift. This is what it’s all about.
Grade 2
By the time you read this, Grade 2 will have used their detective skills to crack the case of the missing stapler. Mrs. Schulenberg and her helpers provided us with a delicious pancake lunch – thanks so much! Detective Day was a great way to wrap up our novel study of “Nate the Great.”
In Bible, we are hearing about how the apostles spread the gospel, starting in Jerusalem and then going out to lands farther away. Now that we have finished “Nate the Great,” we will be going on to our next reader in CKLA. In science, we are looking at air and water in the environment around us.
We look forward to welcoming many of you in our classrooms at next week’s Open House. Please remember to collect pledges for the McNally Hike for Hospice. Enjoy your weekend and wishing you a blessed Sunday!
Grade 3
Hello again!
Measurement is what it’s all about in our math classes. Ask us about centimetres, metres, kilometres, inches, feet…etc!
Please continue to practice those multiplication facts, grade three.
We continue to learn about strong and stable structures. Every structure has a form and purpose. We also talked about natural structures made by God and man-made structures. Ask us to name some of each type.
Looking forward to seeing you all on Open House and McNally Walk next week, Friday!
Hymn 77:1,2
Please check your child’s agenda for the spelling words.
Grade 4
Both classes have now wrapped up the math unit on division and have begun learning about fractions. Our next unit in science is Habitats. One of the projects that the students will be working on is a triorama. Students will be assigned a habitat and then they design and create a triorama. Students are invited to bring items (such as sticks, miniature trees etc.) from home that would be helpful for them to create these trioramas. Next week we look forward to Open House and the McNally Hike for Hospice. Please continue to fundraiser for this very worthy cause. Both grade 4 classes are looking for volunteers to walk with us. If you are able to come along with us for the walk, please let either Mr. Reinink or myself know. Have a great weekend. FR/JB
Grade 5
We enjoyed our time at Guido on Wednesday and are thankful that they invited us to watch the play and provided us with lunch! Thank you also to the bus drivers who got us safely there and back. Now that we’ve wrapped up the last Bible unit, both classes are moving on to church history. In Bible, our last lesson was about Jesus’ ascension, and we will be moving right on to Pentecost and life in the early church in church history. 5A will be having a Unit 8 math test on Tuesday, as well as their 3rd quiz for Ancient Egypt. We look forward to welcoming many visitors on Friday! In the afternoon, we will have our Hike for Hospice; please remember to dress for the weather andwear a JCCS shirt or McNally House shirt! Parents, please also remember to check that your child is ready for their scheduled devotions! We appreciate your assistance.
Devotions for next week are as follows: 5A – Autumn (M), Avalon (Tu), Levi (W), John Paul (Th), Eden (F); 5B – Quinn (M), Landon (Tu), Gabriel (W), Veda (Th), Payton (F).
Have a wonderful weekend! CDV/KV
Grade 6A
What a beautiful time of the year for the students to enjoy playing outside. On Friday we look forward to welcoming guests into our classroom and Hike for Hospice in the afternoon. If you are able to walk with the class Friday afternoon, let us know via the agenda. We have wrapped up our study of Joseph and his family in Egypt and turned our attention back to Church History. Here we have begun to study the forerunners to the reformation, starting with Peter Waldo and the Waldensians. We have also wrapped up our Science unit and will transition back to Social Studies and the Age of Exploration. Have a blessed weekend! CVA MJ
Grade 6B
Bible/Church History: We have jumped back into Bible history where we are exploring how God’s covenant to Abraham continues through his son Isaac.
Math: We look forward to the close of another unit in math. We’ll work through some review questions and tackle a test in the coming week!
L.A.: As we wrap up our creative writing projects, we look ahead to the start of a new novel; Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat
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: We have been able to explore and see God’s marvellous creation through a few lessons on space. We stand in awe at just how insignificant we are compared to the expanse of the galaxies, and yet we are in the personal care of our Great Father!
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4
Enjoy your weekend!
BK
Grade 7A
Next week we’ll close out the month of April by beginning our John Calvin unit in Church history. We started the year with Martin Luther and the beginning of the Reformation, moved on to Ulrich Zwingli, and now we come to the quiet, timid frenchman. We will start foundations in personal finance in math. We’ll follow a financial literacy curriculum set out by the Ramsey group. As we prepare for track and field, we’ll fine tune our “j” approach in high jump as we master centrifugal force. Enjoy your weekend.
Grade 7B
Have a great week!
Grade 8
It has been a busy and productive week in Grade 8 as we move quickly toward the end of the school year. This week, we kicked off baseball tryouts and practices, wrapped up our cooperative game presentations, chose our Ottawa T-shirt colour and logo and our graduation text, and completed several quizzes and tests.
Next week promises to be just as active with several major events on the horizon:
- Wednesday Field Trip: We will be visiting the Toyota Plant and the Buist Dairy Farm. This trip is a fantastic practical tie-in to our current Science and Geography curriculum.
- Friday Events: We look forward to seeing many of you at the Open House and participating in the McNally Hike for Hospice.
In addition to these events, our regular classroom programming continues, including a Bible Test and a reading comprehension quiz on Tuesday.
Enjoy your weekend!