May 14, 2012

General

·         It’s a special week this week as we remember Christ’s Ascension on Thursday. A special Ascension/Pentecost Assembly is scheduled for next week Thursday, May 23rd at 2:00 in the church.

·         School will be closed on Friday the 18th, on account of the Professional Development Day and on Monday ( Victoria Day).

·         May 25th is Sports Day, weather permitting: today there will be a Sports Day Pep Rally!

·         For the Grade 7 students, Thursday is ‘Grade 8 Day’. We are excited for them as they will have their first taste of high school routines!

·         Wishing you all a pleasant, safe and relaxing long weekend.

·         Bottles!  Bottles!  Bottles!  Mrs. Onderwater still needs 12 plastic bottles that are quite flat on one/both sides.  Salad dressing bottles or BQ sauce bottles are great sizes and shapes. Shampoo bottles, hand lotion etc.  work as well.     

·         Wacky Hair Day is on Wednesday! Be creative as you can!

Kindergarten

·         We will be going to EVL nursery on Wednesday this week.  We are very thankful that even with the sunny weather they were able to get us in for a field trip despite it being their busiest season.  We have enough drivers, we just need permission forms returned on Wednesday morning. They will be going home today.  Please sign them and return them :)

·         The team your child is on for Sports day will be in their agenda.  Please find a t-shirt in the appropriate colour for them to wear on Sports day.

·         What we are up to this week:

·         Bible: the Easter story

·         Math: Numbers 11 + 12, money

·         P.E.: Sports day practice

·         Science: Plants and Animals

·         Language arts: sight word poems, review of letters and sounds and news of the day

Grade One

·         Our memory work for this week is John 3:16

·         Bible stories: Jesus Ascension

·         Thank you very much to the parents who drove for our bowling field trip.  We had a great time!

·         Bottles!  Bottles!  Bottles!  Please  check “General” for details.

Grade Two

·         Bible: The Lord's Prayer, petitions 3-6

·         Memory Work: Romans 8: 31b-32

·         Reading Workshop: Synthesizing; distinguishing between more important ideas and less important ideas.

·         Spelling: Vowels with "W:" blown, brown, crawl, crowd, drawn, drew, howl, knew, raw, screw, thrown, town

·         Writing Workshop: Writing letters

·         Math: Perimeter and Area

·         Science: How matter can be changed

·         P.E.: Sports Day Prep

·         Art: Design, to achieve focal point.

·         It sure feels like summer, doesn't it? Have a wonderful week!

Grade Three

·         Memory work: No memory work.

·         The Spelling words are due in two weeks Friday, May 25th.

·         Bible: Paul’s Missionary Journeys Continued (Acts 19 through 23)

·         Reading: Novels by Beverly Cleary in Literature Circles

·         Socials Studies: ABC – Australia, Brazil and Canada a comparative study

·         Math: Introduction to Fractions

·         P.E.: Sports Day activities

Grade Four

·         Memory work:  John 4:35-36

·         Church History: This week we hope to begin looking at the mission work in Brazil.

·         Math: Working with fractions – equivalent fractions, improper fractions, ordering fractions

·         Language Arts:      We plan to begin our final novel study of the year, “The Borrowers.”

·         Science:  Discovering the pond –  The interconnectedness of the pond

·         Socials: Beginnings of New France – Samuel de Champlain, mission work in New France

·         Please spend a few moments with your child discussing proper courtesy and respect.  I have noticed an increase in pushing, shoving, name calling, and general disrespect for property and people.  I’m not suggesting it is rampant, but I do think the same message from you as from yours truly may help bring the focus back to self-sacrifice instead of self-promotion.  Let’s nip it in the bud!

Grade Five

·         Reading:  Call It Courage ~ chapter 5 ~ Homeward

·         Math:  Measurement, Money

·         Science:  Muscular System and the Nervous System

·         French:  Quiz on Wednesday

·         Bible: Events surrounding Ascension and Pentecost.

·         Church History: the persecution of the church in France after the Reformation: the migration to the Netherlands: Huguenots.

·         Memory Work: Hymn 42:4

·         Writing: learning to write a speech: research (continued), specifying sub-topics, putting together an effective introduction. 

·         Health and Career Education: Identifying the differences between peer pressure and peer support.

·         Social Studies: Our final unit of this year is an opportunity for students to learn about Canada’s amazing geography & natural resources. Students will be able to describe the major physical regions of Canada, describe the location of natural resources within BC and Canada, including: fish and marine resources, forests, mineral, energy resources, explain why sustainability is important and analyse environmental effects of settlement in early BC and Canada.

Grade Six

·         Have a great extra-long weekend!

·         Bible: Students will get one more class to work on their ‘David on the Run’ representations and then will present them on Tuesday. We will finish the unit off this week with a timeline assignment of Saul’s reign. Students should expect to write a quiz in the following week. 

·         Memory Work: 1 Samuel 12: 22 and 24 is to be recited on Wednesday.

·         Math: Comparing and ordering fractions and percent.

·         THE PLAY: Practices have gone very well this week! Students should now start working on memorizing their lines and thinking of a costume they can wear and props they may need. Each student is responsible for their own costume.

·         Science: We will finish up with switches, there will be a check-for-understanding for conductors, insulators, and switches and then we move on to series and parallel circuits.

·         PE: Track and Field practice continues

·         Art: Final Robert Bateman piece will be started

Grade Seven

·         Reminder: Victoria Trip planning meeting to be held this Thursday, May 17 at 7:30 in the grade 7 classroom. If you are unable to attend please let J. Scholtens know since he is running the meeting and organizing the Grad Trip. 

·         We are still waiting for several permission slips for the Trinity Western field trip (Gerrit, Levi, Josh S., Josh V., Albany, Meghan, Luke) and several highschool papers (Evan, Levi, Justine, Corina, Caitlin, Josh S., Jordyn, and Alice). Please return these promptly.  Grade 8 Day is this week Thursday.

·         Church History:  Test on Wed. May 16

·         Math:  Geometry

·         Socials:  ancient Rome

·         Science: new unit on the Earth's crust   (Thank-you to those who sent in supplies for our experiments!)

·         Art:  our Greek-style plaster masks are just about done!  They are beautiful!!!  Take some time to drop by the school and have a look.     

·         Reading:  novel study of the Bronze Bow

·         Memory Work: Lamentations 3:21-26

May 7, 2012

General

·         A parent forwarded a YOUTUBE link to me, (http://youtu.be/my6URgTeNa8)  in appreciation of the attention memory work receives at Credo, and in acknowledgement of the effort it takes at home from parents: “…This video is about a man who has memorized 14 books of the Bible. He recites scripture as if it were told (like he says at the beginning of the video). The purpose of his speaking engagements is a fundraising for the Wordsower organization. I was thinking about memorization at CCES, and sometimes it can seem a lot of work. This man recognizes the value of memorization of Scripture and that memorizing is diminishing in our culture.” Thank you for sharing! Since remembering plays such a significant role in faith development – let’s take this encouragement to heart and give memory work the time and attention it deserves.

·         Three Grade 7 students participated in the Quad School Speaking Contest last Friday. Luke Van Bostelen, Caitlin Sikma and Sienna Nordeman, you did Credo Elementary proud! Congratulations to Sienna who took home the first prize! Well done! A thank you goes to the in-school judges, Mrs. Nicole Vanderveen, Melissa VanPopta, Mr. Hoff, pastor Souman – and to Mrs. Karen VanDelft who was part of the jury panel last Friday: your involvement in this school event is much appreciated.

·         Well, we have come to the end of our Rice Raiser campaign at Credo.  The students were challenged to "raise the roof" with their donations.....which they did!  We are still counting up pennies and nickels, but the students have raised well over $600, which will be matched 4:1 for schools in Sudan.  That means $3000 worth of meals can be purchased.  At $.5/meal, that also means we helped provide 6000 meals! Throughout the past three weeks we also collected: 150 food items, 29 bags of rice, and $225 worth of gift certificates for the food bank!   

·         Bottles!  Bottles!  Bottles!  Mrs. Onderwater  still needs many plastic bottles (shampoo, lotion, dish soap etc.) that are quite flat on one/both sides.  She needs at least 32 and has collected 3 so far. 

Kindergarten

·         What we are doing this week:

·         Math: measurement, the number 11

·         Language arts: Rhyming, letter review, sight word poems, news of the day

·         Art / Journaling: Mothers day card and craft

·         PE: sports day practice

·         Bible: the Easter story continued

·         A reminder that this Wednesday is Kindergarten day for next years K students and our class has the day at home.  We do have school on Friday!

·         Since we are not here on Wednesday, we will do library on Friday instead.

·         A note about the little yellow books: please return them in the labeled plastic bags so we know whose book is being returned.  If you have misplaced the bags, please label a sandwich bag to use.

·         Congrats to those who have read 200 times!  Please keep reading and recording at home!

Grade One

·         Our memory work for this week is Hymn 49:1. 

·         Bible stories: Jesus Death and Resurrection

·         Bottles!  Bottles!  Bottles!  Please  check “General” for details.

·         Thanks so much for those of you who lent us the flower punches.

·         Scholastic flyers have been sent home.  The order will be sent out on Friday.

Grade Two

·         Bible: The Lord's Prayer

·         Memory: Psalm 86:4, due Monday, 4/14

·         Reading Workshop: Fix-Up Monitoring

·         Spelling Words: R-influenced words: care, charge, earth, floor, heard, search, square, starve, their, there, thirst, verse

·         Writing Workshop: Writing to Inform

·         Math: Perimeter and Area

·         Science: Interactions between solids and liquids

·         Art: Design to achieve balance

·         P.E.: Sports Day Activities

·         Music: Reading the Treble Staff

·         Please check with your child to make sure they have a pair of outdoor shoes and a clean pair of indoor shoes. Have a great week!

Grade Three

·         Memory work: Acts 13:48 (due Friday May 11th)

·         The Spelling words are due Friday, May 11th.

·         Bible: Paul’s Missionary Journeys (Acts 13 through 16)

·         Reading: Author Study – Mem Fox

·         Socials Studies: Budgeting and Advertising

·         Science: Plants – Review

·         Math: Motion Geometry and Introduction to Fractions

·         P.E.: Sports Day activities

·         Art: Symmetry

Grade Four

·         Memory work:  Hymn 76:4

·         Church History: We begin a short unit about present day mission work. This week we focus on the work within BC.

·         Math: Working with fractions – comparing fractions, fractions of a set, equivalent fractions

·         Language Arts: Writing – As I wrote last week, this week we hope to complete our comparative study of two animals.  It is taking a little longer than I expected but it seems we are all having a good time.  I think the final product will be impressive.

·         Science:  Discovering the pond –  The pond food chain.  (food pyramid)

·         Socials: Beginnings of New France – Samuel de Champlain, explorers and the fur trade in the east.

·         Thanks to those of you who came along on the bike trip.  We all got a little wet but I thought all in all, it was a good day.  Hopefully you all had fun as well.  Thanks again.  Remember – bike safely!

Grade Five

·         Reading:  Call It Courage ~ Chapter 4 "Drums"

·         The students are enjoying this survival book. Mafatu is becoming courageous and believing in his abilities.  Foremost on his mind is gaining the favor of his father.  He desperately wants his father to be proud of him.

·         Science:  The Skeletal System ~TEST on WEDNESDAY ~ there is a review sheet coming home.

·         Math:  Fractions ~ TEST ON THURSDAY ~ there is a review sheet coming home.

·         French:  Birthday calendars due on Friday ~ most students are done.  We will be moving on to french instructions for part games.

·         Art:  Aboriginal Masks - we will be decorating and colouring

·         Bible: I AM statements of Jesus, from the gospel of John.

·         Church History: Students will have a look at the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dort. This will conclude the lessons on Guido deBres.

·         Writing: writing a speech: picking the topic and starting the research. Some students are still putting finishing touches on their picture story book – and will benefit from completing this project at home.

·         Health and Careers: taking responsibility at home and at school.

·         Social Studies: this week we will conclude the unit of the Gold Rush.

Grade Six

·         Thanks for the donations of the Rice Krispy squares! We raised $193 for Rice Raisers.

·         All the students did very well on their speeches. Congratulations to Ben, Ava, Austin who were the top three from grade 6 and performed very well in the gym against the grade 7 students!

·         Bible: Students will be working on a representation assignment about friendship based on Jonathan’s and David’s friendship. We will also see David on the run.

·         Memory Work: continue to practice 1 Samuel 12:22 and 24. It’s due on May 16

·         Math: The Transformation Geometry Test will be returned early this week. Students will be taking them home to get signed, please ask your child for theirs. We have started the next unit: Fraction, Percent, Ratio, Rate.  We will work on equivalent fractions, mixed numbers, improper fractions, ordering and comparing fractions.

·         THE PLAY! Students were given roles on Friday and this week we will be starting with practices – all of Act 1 and the first 2 scenes of Act 2. I am looking forward to this and the level of excitement is pretty high right now. Please encourage your child to learn their lines at home. Just a note, that all the L.A. time is being devoted to the play this month.

·         Science: Conductors and Insulators

·         PE: Track and Field activities continue

·         Art: Students will finish up their Bateman Travel pieces 

Grade Seven

·         Congratulations to Sienna Nordeman, the winner of the Tri-school Speech Competition. Way to go Sienna.  We are very proud of you!   Congratulations also to our other finalists:  Caitlin and Luke.  (Actually all of the speeches were very well done and all students should be congratulated for their great efforts!)

·         Church History:  the King James Bible

·         Math:  probability

·         Socials:  ancient Rome

·         Science: new unit on the Earth's crust   Please note:  we need steel files, emery papers, and sand paper for Science!!!

·         Art:  Greek-style plaster masks      

·         Reading:  novel study of the Bronze Bow

·         Memory Work: Lamentations 3:21-26

April 30, 2012

General

·         This is the final week of the Rise Raiser fund and awareness project about (world) hunger. Thank you for  your involvement in increasing appreciation for ‘daily bread’ and thinking with your children through the challenges of hunger and world famines.

·         Please continue to remember Ms. Vanderhorst in prayer: she is scheduled to receive surgery on Tuesday May 1st.

·         This is the week of speech contest! In class, in school, and quad school contests are being held Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. You are encouraged to come out to Yarrow Canadian Reformed Church at 7:30 on Friday May 4th!

·         RICE KRISPY SQUARE SALE ON WEDNESDAY! $1 per square! Help fight hunger.

·         Mrs. Onderwater is still looking for many plastic bottles (shampoo, lotion, dish soap etc.) that are quite flat on one/both sides.

·         Grade one needs to borrow about 6 flower punches.  If we could have yours for a week please send it to school.

·         “Oliver”:  A big thank you to both “Olivers” in grade 6, the pick-pockets of grade 7, and the orphans of grade 5. All of you were impressive in portraying the story of Oliver, with special mention of Michael Jacobi and Ethan Sikma.  A big thank you to the parents as well, for making sure each young actor was present at the theater at 6:30 for five evenings in a row (the dress rehearsal and the four performances). The play was a wonderful experience. We thank the Lord for giving us this opportunity to share our many and varied talents with each other.  Jane deGlint

Kindergarten

·         A big thank you to the moms that came in on Friday to make pancakes.  They were delicious and the students (and teachers) really enjoyed them.

·         No Kindergarten this Friday

·         What we are doing this week:

·         Letters: Review, sight word poems, beginning and end sounds, rhyming

·         Math: Capacity, sequencing

·         Bible: the Easter story (finally)

·         P.E.: Sports day practice

·         Science: Plants

·         A reminder to bring in environmental print (April Kindernews)

·         The little yellow books are coming and going, please keep this up!

Grade One

·         Our memory work for this week is Hymn 44:1. 

·         Bible stories: Jesus Death and Resurrection

·         Congratulations to the grade one students who have read 200 times already this year.  Well done!

·         Grade one needs to borrow about 6 flower punches.  If we could have yours for a week please send it to school.

·         Please  check “General” for more important requests.

Grade Two

·         Bible: James 4-5

·         Memory Work: We'll continue working on Psalm 34:5.

·         Reading: Fix-Up Monitoring

·         Spelling: the ɔ Sound: because, crawl, draw, pause, sauce, soft, song, taught, thought, walk, watch, yawn

·         Writing: Writing to Explain How

·         Math: Linear Measurement, Area, and Perimeter

·         Science: Liquids, Gases

·         P.E.: Soccer Skills

·         Art: Texture

Grade Three

·         Memory work: Hymn 35:2 (due Friday April 27th)

·         The Spelling words are due Friday, May 4th.

·         Bible: Review the stories of the Early Church (Acts 1 through 12)

·         Reading: Conclusion of Novel Study – Homer Price

·         Science: Plants – Review

·         Math: Measurement – volume and mass

·         P.E.: Sports Day activities and California kickball

·         Art: Symmetry

Grade Four

·         Memory work:  Hymn 15:3

·         Bible History: Judah’s  kings,  Ahaziah –Hezekiah,  Quiz Wednesday

·         Math: Transformational geometry (quiz tomorrow)  Working with fractions

·         Language Arts:      Writing – This week we hope to complete our comparative study of two animals.  This will be put into a poster presentation.  We are having a good time learning about the variety of animals in God’s world as well as how to write proper paragraphs.

·         Science:  Discovering the pond – Micro-organisms in the pond,  the pond food chain.

·         Socials: Beginnings of New France – Samuel de Champlain

·         This Friday we hope to go on a bike trip.  Please keep an eye on your child’s agenda for possible reminders about this.  For those of you who volunteered to help I will call if I need you.

Grade Five

·         This past week was a busy one for the grade 5 students.  They were involved in the Oliver play and did a wonderful job!  Many were a little tired, but they worked hard to complete all of their assignments.  Great work Grade 5s!  This past week we also had the pleasure of having Mrs. Janny Klein come in to show us some real bones and talk about the skeletal system.  It was fabulous.  Here's the plan for the coming week . . .

·         Reading:  Call It Courage ~ chapters 3 and 4

·         Math:  equivalent fractions, ordering fractions, changing fractions into decimals

·         Science:  Skeletal System

·         Art:  Aboriginal Masks

·         French:  Calendar and months

·         The Ice Cream Sale raised $140 for Rice Raisers.  Thanks for your participation.

·         Bible: Jesus and Nicodemus, the man born blind, and the 10 lepers.

·         Memory Work: Hymn 36:1 and 2. Please discuss this week’s memory work in context of the conversation Jesus and Nicodemus had about spiritual rebirth.

·         Church History: The Belgic Confession – a continuation of the story of ‘protestants’.

·         Language Arts: The next  unit is on presenting: writing a speech.

·         Social Studies: Gold rush – continued. 

Grade Six

·         Just a reminder about the rice krispy sale on Wednesday, please send the squares to school on Tuesday, pre-cut. Any containers they come in will be returned on Wednesday. If you have any questions, please contact me. Thanks!

·         Bible: David and Goliath, Saul’s jealousy and attempted murder, David and Jonathan’s friendship

·         Memory Work: The new text is 1 Samuel 12: 22 and 24, it will be due on May 16

·         Math: There will be a TEST on THURSDAY on the Transformation Unit. We will review today and tomorrow in preparation. The new unit is Fraction, Percent, Ratio, and Rate.

·         Language Arts: We have finished with the reading of ‘The Breadwinner’ and the students are just finishing up the final writing activity for it. The rough copy of this will be DUE on FRIDAY and then students will be typing it up in computer class. - Our play production practices will begin this week! Thanks to all those who have returned their sheets, your support in this is great. We will be reading through the play this weeks and on Thursday evening the students will need to cast themselves in their top three choices and they will find out their parts next Monday. Also, next Monday will be the start of the drama part; we will have a stage area taped on the ground in the classroom.

·         Grammar: No sheets due for Friday. We will be moving onto the proper use of commas and apostrophes.

·         Writing: Speeches are being practiced for the last time in class today! Students will be presenting their speeches in class on Tuesday morning. The in-school contest (top three from grade 6 and grade 7) will occur on Wednesday and the quad-school contest (top three from each school) on Friday in Yarrow.

·         Socials: You have probably heard that there has been a switch in teaching assignments. Mrs. Diane Vanderboom is now teaching Socials (when Miss Vanderhorst normally taught Science) and I am teaching Science.

·         Science: current electricity and switches

·         PE: high jump

·         Art: Bateman around the world scenes 

Grade Seven

·         Thank-you for all the positive support and comments that I have had taking over for Miss Vanderhorst.  The class certainly misses her and I have some big shoes to fill.  Pray that we will have a good conclusion to this year and be able to complete the curriculum.  Our prayers are with Miss Vanderhorst this week as she begins her tests today and has the operation tomorrow.  We bring her to God's throne and ask for a speedy and complete recovery. 

·         Some things we will be busy with this week:

·         SPEECHES:  tomorrow is the day!  Please listen to your child and practice with them tonight.

·         Church History:  we have begun a new unit on the Puritans

·         Math:  mean, mode and median

·         Socials:  ancient Rome

·         Science:  test, May 3

·         Art:  Greek-style plaster masks

·         Reading:  novel study of the Bronze Bow

·         Memory Work:  Tested on Fri. May 4 - Philippians 2:5-11