Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Mission:  The mission of Immanuel Christian School is to prepare students to meet the challenge of the world and culture they live in as young and growing Christians.  Thus, students are taught the skill of discernment in the light of God’s Word, the practice of stewardship for creation, the required commitment to a life of Christian service, and the beauty of witness through modeling God’s love in a broken world.

School’s email address:  immanuel@amtelecom.net

Principal’s email address:  icsprincipal@amtelecom.net

ICS Website:  www.immanuelchristianschool.net    519-773-8476

Check us out on Facebook:   facebook.com/ICSAylmer     

         Twitter:  twitter.com/ICSAylmer

LDCSS Website:  www.ldcss.on.ca   519-455-4360

Christian Education Foundation (endowment fund): www.ldcef.org

Upcoming Events

May      16  JK/SK to Children’s Museum in London

             17  Science Fair at Redeemer (rescheduled)

                   Friday Family Fun Night Dinner

          18   Annual Golf Tournament at Pine Knot

             20  Victoria Day Holiday – no school

             22  Chapel 8:55

             23   Gr. 5-8 Health Unit Presentation 1:15-2:15

             24   Notes of Joy; LDCSS PD day

             27  Track & Field Day rescheduled (also an

                 extra JK day)

             28   Regular JK classes all day, Orientation for new      

                    JK for Sept 8:30 – 12:30

             29   Chapel 8:55

             31   Gr 1-4 to African Lion Safari

                    Gr. 7 & 8 to U.W.O. all day

 June      1   Touch a Truck Event 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

             2    Participation at Tillsonburg C.R.C.

                 5    WD Track & Field in Strathroy (6^th rain/heat date)

                 7    A.R. Goals due; LDCSS Fine Arts Festival

               13   ICS P.D. Day, LDCSS Study day – no school

               20   ICS Grad

From the Principal's Desk:

Here at ICS, we believe in intentionally linking the classroom and the world. Our mission statement declares that we are to "prepare students to meet the challenges of the world and culture they live in as young and growing Christians." Sometimes we bring the outside in (like the chicks we have had recently in our primary classes), sometimes we walk out into town (like the recent Pitch In community clean up), and sometimes we hop on buses and take off for a field trip! While every season is good for a field trip, with spring weather we often have more in May and June. Using the student fund (which was bolstered by improved chocolate bar sales) and some education budget monies, our field trip funding was increased this year to $32 per student from the previous $12. Including the real transportation costs (mileage and driver wages) gives teachers flexibility to plan their field trips, with an ability to do more local-area trips or fewer further-away trips. If class trips exceed the school funding, parents will be asked to subsidize trips (such as the gr7/8 grad trip). I am pleased with the increased field trip emphasis, and I look forward to even more, local area, excursions, tied into current units of study next year. Field trips this year include:

- gr 1/2 visit to London OPP safety village

- gr 1/2 visits to Chateau Gardens to connect with the residents

- whole school to Aylmer Evangelical Missionary Church for the Getty Concert, praising God in song

- gr 5/6 to Aylmer Baptist Church to study their solar panels

- gr 5/6 to St Thomas Airport to study aircraft and helicopter flight

- gr 5/6 to Elgin OPP-sponsored "Racing Against Drugs" to display their ability to make God-honouring choices

- gr 1-4 to Wolf Theatre in London, celebrating dramatic arts and sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary

- gr 5-8 to LDCSS for annual play, celebrating dramatic arts and sponsored by the Ladies Auxiliary

- gr 7/8 to Aylmer Cemetery to reflect on the cost of our freedoms

- coming up May 16: JK/SK to London Children’s Museum to learn while playing

- coming up May 31: gr 1-4 to African Lion Safari, Cambridge to God's African creatures

- coming up May 31: gr 7/8 to UWO to study Lego robotics (parent drivers still wanted!)

- coming up June 14: gr 5/6 to UWO Western Days to discover and delight in science and phys ed workshops

- coming up June 14: gr 7/8 to Canada's Wonderland

Field trips are only a success with parent / family volunteers to ensure safety - thank-you to those who have volunteered to come out and help in this way! You will also notice volunteer opportunities for the ICS track and field day on May 27, and for the ICS concession at district track and field on June 5. Grandparents and older siblings home from university are also most welcome! The staff and students are excited to be in the home stretch of the school year, and we look forward to these many special events that are an essential part of an "innovative and exceptional" education program at ICS!

in Christian instruction,

Keith Cameron, Principal

Praying for our Families:  Last week we prayed for Jason & Sheri Weesjes and Len & Jane Weverink.

Praying for our Staff:  This week we will pray for Mr. Cameron.

     Our Christian sympathy goes out to Jan & Aartje Noorland, Sebastian gr 8, in the passing away of Jan’s Dad in the Netherlands.   

     May God comfort the family, provide healing and give them travelling mercies as they fly to Holland for the funeral.  

Track and Field: 

The professional body for youth sport in Ontario (Ophea) has recently announced safety changes for high jump, requiring a bigger landing area for school events, and an even bigger one for competitive events. This is a safety and liability issue. As a school, we feel it is important to continue to teach high jump. We have ordered the replacement crash mat as part of wider safety upgrades resulting from our phys ed curriculum review earlier in the year.

We have rescheduled the track meet to Mon 27 May (rain date Wed 29 May) to ensure track availability at East Elgin Secondary School. Ms Pieters and Ms Buma are currently seeking volunteers for event supervision and recording.  A sign up form is found at the end of the Journal.  We celebrate all achievements, and we continue to emphasize that each student is called to do their personal best in all events. We use pre-determined achievement benchmarks based on age to award ribbons. Selected students will represent ICS at the district meet - typically 75% of the school population is involved, so there is no school that day for those not competing, nor for SK and gr 1 who do not compete at that level yet. 

Note: All our track and field volunteers will get free lunch tickets (1 pizza, 1 drink, and 1 freezie).  Volunteers may purchase extra items also.  As soon as we have our volunteer list finalized it will be sent home with your child.  Thank you, Ms. Pieters, Ms. Buma

Pizza Lunch: The Auxiliary needs three more volunteers for the ICS Track and Field Day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

We also need about 10-12 people for the Woodstock District Track and Field Day on June 5.  These will be 2-3 hours shifts running the booth and bbq/preparing food.  Shifts will be 9-12, 11-1, and 1 until finish of day.  If you can help, please call 226-316-0409 or send a quick e-mail to bett@amtelecom.net.   Thank you!

Transportation:  Because Friday May 24^th is a PD Day for LDCSS, Mrs. Tesselaar’s bus will be leaving 20 minutes later in the morning.

School Drive Update:  Thank you to all the supporters of Christian Education!  To date, we have received approx $63,500.  If you have been missed please feel free to drop off your donation envelope at the office.  We at ICS continue to value and appreciate the prayerful and financial support within our local and extended community.

JK Orientation: Our new Junior Kindergarten students for Sept. 2013-2014 will have their orientation day on Tuesday, May 28 until noon, alongside our current Junior Kindergarten students who will stay for the full day.  Some new, young students may be riding our buses that morning.  Invitations were sent home to all the new JK’s involved.  We look forward to having them with us.

Reminders:  Meat, Baked Goods and Epicure Orders due tomorrow (please no late orders).

                        T.R.I.P. pickup tomorrow, Thursday, May 16^th.

                       

                        GIFTS Program: June 30 is the deadline. If you have completed your hours please send in your form. 

                       

                      Yearbook:  Business Card $40, ¼ page $60, ½ page $100, Full page $160, Inside Cover $300 

                                             – deadline end of May.

                 

                      Recycling: We are collecting sandwich bags, any brand and type of plastic sandwich or food bag 

                      as well as plastic food storage containers.

                        Mom's the Word! Treat Mom to a night out - no cooking, no cleaning!  This month’s Friday Family 

                        Fun Night is to celebrate and thank the Moms, Grandmas, Sisters and Friends in our lives.  Enjoy a 

                        hearty dinner of Pulled Pork Buns, Cheesy Casserole, Beans + Fresh Salad on Friday, May 17 from

                        5pm-7:30pm in the school gym. Cost is Adults $8 and Children (12 + under) $5 and all proceeds go 

                        directly back into the school! Delivery to Heritage Place and Takeout is also available.

Congratulations to Amanda DeJong, Kira Saarloos and Grace Vording for their success in the Canadian Schools Creative Writing Contest.  Their short stories have been chosen to be included in the top group of entries.  The stories will go to the final competition to be judged in the fall of 2013.  Super work!

Science Fair: Jordan Hiemstra, Sebastian Noorland, Megan Ypma and Matthew Cameron will travel to Redeemer University this Fri May 15 to compete in the rescheduled Ontario Christian Schools Science Fair. A schedule was sent home yesterday. We will depart really early (Mr Cameron is leaving his home at 6 am), aiming to arrive at Redeemer for 7:30 am. If you had a banquet ticket booked last time, it has been re-booked. Please advise Mr Cameron if your child requires a ride home.

ICS is hosting a Touch A Truck June 1^st from 10a.m – 3p.m.  We are need of many volunteers to help run this event, from parking attendants, cleanup crews etc….  Please contact Dean Mantel by email dmantel@eastlink.ca or by phone 519-282-3115.

Surplus IT Equipment: ICS has replaced our lab 12 and 24 port switches with newer 48 port switches, resulting in much faster computer internet connections. The maintenance committee is currently replacing the lab cabling to take advantage of the new switches. We have a surplus 12 port switch and a surplus small-business 4 port router to go to a good home for a very small donation. Please speak to Mr Cameron for details.

This Thursday, Nicole Clark Cover Girl Workshop for Gr 5-8 Girls:  Working with our health unit and area public and separate schools, we have agreed to host a workshop by Nicole Clark entitled, "How to Get Kung-Fu Self-Esteem!" for grades 5-8 girls on Thursday May 23rd from 1:15 to 2:15 (http://nicoleclark.com/).  Former Elite model, Nicole Clark, shares how she kept her strong self-esteem no matter what the media told her.  Nicole presents an interactive workshop for girls to share their feelings about body image and pressure from the media to conform.  Girls also learn to DECODE ads and shield themselves from being bullied by the media. Bullying is directly linked to media and Nicole addresses this critical topic.  Immunize girls against media manipulation and help them build their self-esteem muscle.  Parents are welcome to join us as we host area gr 5-8 girls and discuss an important challenge of our modern culture, and one we already discuss with our students in a Christian context in health class and devotionals, among others. 

Notes of Joy: Save the date! Our annual music recital for our students is Friday, May 24th. Sign up sheets are now posted on the Student Centre board.

We are looking for someone to take care of our pop cans:  After many years of service the Noorland family is going to pass on the job to someone else.  We thank them for the many years of service they did this for the school.

This involves picking up the bags of pop cans from the red bin beside our Newspaper shed at Martin’s Lift Truck Service (old location) and eventually bringing them to the re-cycling depot. This is emptied out on a every 2 week basis, cans are stored at your place, or wherever you have a storage location and then when there is a truck load drop them off at Zubicks in London or at Force in St. Thomas.  (This project with get you all your 25 volunteers hours at once.)   If you are interested please let the office know.  The money raised goes to the Auxiliary.  We usually collect an average of $1000 per year so it is definitely worthwhile for us to keep this fundraiser going. 

FROM THE CLASSROOMS:

JUNIOR / SENIOR KINDERGARTEN – Mrs. Groeneweg

Some of the things we have done in Kindergarten:

                Bible: Elijah and Elisha

                Math:  SK- All About Number: 20, counting by 5's  

                          JK- All About Numbers 6 - 13

                Review letters and sounds, sight words

                Show and Tell:  JK - Tuesday, May 21

                                        SK - Wednesday, May 22

               

GRADES 1 and 2 - Ms. Pieters

Memory Work: for Wednesday, May 22 is verse three of See, the Conqueror Mounts in Triumph

You have raised our human nature on the clouds to God's right hand;

there we sit in heavenly places, there with you in glory stand.

Jesus reigns, adored by angels; man with God is on the throne!

Mighty Lord, in your ascension we by faith can see our own.

Spelling: Spelling Dictation for Friday, May 17

Grade 1: book, good, look, wood, took, take, stood, stand

Grade 2: which, where, there, before, after, over, again, inside, outside, under

Grades 1, 2, 3 and 4:  Students in Grades 1-4 are looking forward to their Field Trip to the African Lion Safari on Friday, May 31.  A big thank you to our bus driver, Mr. Doug Walters for his willingness to drive us to the Safari!  We will need some adult volunteers to accompany us on this day.  Grades 1 and 2 will require 3 adult helper and Grades 3 and 4 will also require 3 helpers.  Please let your child’s teacher know if you are able to help out by next week Tuesday, May 21.  In the event that we have more helpers than are required, we will make use of the “volunteer draw” system.  To help cover the cost of the Safari us, please have your child bring $2.00 to school by next Tuesday, May 21^st.  We are hoping for a sun shiny day!

GRADES 3 and 4 – Ms. Buma

Congratulations:  We would like to wish Ben Weesjes a very Happy Birthday.  Ben will be turning 9 years old on Friday, May 17.  Happy Birthday, Ben!  May God richly bless you in your new year of life!

Fri. May 17 – Spelling Dictation:  Grade 3 words are:  useful, quietly, slowly, careful, careless, quickly, useless, worthless, fearful, fearless, joyful, smarter, fastest, funniest, happiest, speedily, especially

Grade 4 words are:  quiet, quite, angel, angle, already, all ready, desert, dessert, weather, whether, pitcher, picture, loose, lose, aisle, isle, dairy, diary, they’re, their

Fri. May 17 – Grade 3 end of unit Math Quiz on Multiplication and Division.  Example:  (105 x 6 = 630) and (49 ÷ 3 = 16R1)

Memory Work:  Wed. May 22 – Song:  We Are the Church – Verse 4

At Pentecost some people received the Holy Spirit

and told the good news through the world to all who would hear it.

Refrain:

I am the church!  You are the church!  We are the church together!

All who follow Jesus, all around the world yes we’re the church together.

Words and Music:  Richard Avery and Donald Marsh

© 1972 Hope Publishing Co.

Student of the Week:  This week’s Student of the Week is Megan Friesen.  Next week:  Hayden Guenther.

GRADE 5 and 6 – Mrs Drop

Social Science:  Ask your child about some of the amazing Greek inventions we have learned about in class! We have started our final group "museum display project" which will be presented in class next Wed 22 May. Parents are welcome to join us for the presentations, or to view them later in the board room. We will enjoy our Greek potluck meal on 22 May at lunch.

Prepare for spelling dictation for Friday, May 17.

 Language Arts:  Please complete the Underground to Canada novel study activities in your duo tang by Fri., May 17. 

Memory Work:  Psalm 128:1 & 2

GRADE 7 and 8 – Mr. TenBruggencate / Ms. Jones

Tech:  we have completed our unit of study on social media and blogging. One tweet from our Twitter work is reposted to our ICS webpage.  Our blog even linked in with a teacher from Halton Hills Christian school! The student blog entries and comments for topic 6 were quite good, and may be seen at: http://icstechblog2013.blogspot.ca/. One insightful post (there were many) on our online Christian footprint is repeated below:

It is hard for some people to demonstrate Christian faith online, as well as in person. We are worried about what other people will think about us, but we shouldn't be worried about what people think of our Christian faith because God is in charge. HE CREATED US. He created the person who mocks Christianity. Sharing the gospel with other people online will help them, because without faith in God, our lives are worthless. So, I will definitely try to demonstrate my faith online.  -NF:)

Memory work (for May 22nd) 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
For Grammar, Bible, and other daily homework, assignments student need to check  our class wiki space:
http://immanuelchristianschool.wikispaces.com/Ms+Jones+and+Mr+TenBruggencate

Le Français:  Un Quiz – La Grammaire – jeudi le 16 mai.  Students have the results of last week’s quiz.

ICS Track and Field Volunteer

Name: __________________________________________________

                (Please print name)

Please check times that you would be able to help:

                Monday, May 27                                                Wednesday, May 29 Raindate: (if necessary)

                Anytime _______                                                              _______

                      A.M. _______                                                                _______

                      P.M. _______                                                                _______

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Pizza Lunch:  Every student gets a free lunch (1 slice of pizza, a juice and a freezie).

                       Additional food items can be purchased by filling out the order form below.

Pizza Order Form – Monday, May 27

__________________would like to order the following:

     (child’s name)                                    

______ 1.00/slice

                                                                               

                ______ juice .50 cents

                ______ freezie .50 cents

                ______ Total enclosed

Parent Signature___________________________

Orders and money must be in by Thursday,

May 16.   No late orders please!