December 9, 2019

Emmanuel - God with Us

It seems everywhere we go at this time of year, Christmas carols are

playing. To drive to appointments or to shop for groceries to the strains

of "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel" seems out of place. But on

second thought, no, actually, it's quite appropriate.

As Christ-followers, we believe that God created and is sustaining

everything in all creation. In the large decisions of life, and in the

nitty-gritty of the daily routines, we understand "God with us".

Matthew, in his Gospel, stresses the fulfilment of the prophecies of the

Old Testament and begins and ends the book (see Matthew 28:20) with

promises that God is with us. Emmanuel - One of the most comforting of all the names and titles of Jesus. God with us.

Emmanuel indicates Jesus' role, bringing God's presence to man. God is gracious to His people by sending the

Messiah. When our sins made it impossible for us to come to Him, God took the outrageous step of coming to us, of

making Himself susceptible to sorrow, familiar with temptation, and vulnerable to sin and pain and the messiness of

(Source: blueletterbible.org, faithgateway.com)life, in order to cancel sin's claim. Take comfort. God is with us.

C. Verbeek, Principal

Tuesday - Stephen B., Gr.1

Thursday - Hailey T., Gr.1

Sunday - Kole M., JK

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

Pizza Fundraiser: We have the opportunity to order fresh, locally made pizzas, which are great to have on hand in

your freezer for the Christmas break. These pizzas are thin crust, 60% whole wheat, no salt, no MSG, no grease or

preservatives in the crust. They offer a large selection and they are very good! WCS will have a return of 20% on our

pizza sales! There is a pdf copy of the order form attached to today's parent link and paper copies will come home as

well. Please return your order forms to the school, accompanied with payment, by tomorrow, Tuesday, December 10.

We are only able to accept cash, cheque or debit payments. Orders without payment will not be placed, cheques can be

payable to Woodstock Christian School. Orders will be available for pickup on Wednesday, December 18 between 3 -

3:45 pm. Please make arrangements to pick up your pizzas during that time frame. If you have any questions, please

contact Cora Kroondijk @ (519) 449-3708 or bckroondijk@gmail.com.

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Scholastic: PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE. Scholastic

is due tomorrow Tuesday December 10 (NOT Dec. 12 as

stamped on flyers). Sorry for any confusion. Thank you for

your continued support in the scholastic program.

Electives: In February 2020, Woodstock Christian School

hopes to offer electives to our junior and senior students. If

you have any ideas for electives, or are considering leading

an elective please email g.hiemstra@woodstockchristian.ca

with your ideas by Thursday, December 12, 2019.

From the WCS Library: Book Fair 2019 was very

successful, thanks to you! We are so pleased that clear profits

amounted to $660.00 for our library. We will get this amount

back in books for our students to enjoy and read. Thank-you

so much for supporting the Book Fair! Thanks to Cindy

Armstrong and Ann Shiekoff, our vendors, who brought

great material to sell. Mrs. Dieleman, WCS Librarian.

WCS School Life Team Christmas Celebration: School

Life invites students and staff to dress in Christmas colours

and festive clothing on Friday December 20 . Wear red,th

green, silver, gold clothing, festive hats and scarves, or ugly

Christmas sweaters! Thank you for your participation, WCS

School Life Team.

&WCS fifth through eighth grade actors will be presenting these

two Christmas dramas which will take place on:

December 11 at 9:30 a.m. (Matinee),th

December 12 at 6:30 p.m. (Evening) & th

December 13 at 1:30 p.m. (Christmas Tea Matinee).th

Rehearsals are taking place now and excitement is building!

Plan to join us for one of the showings.

Be sure to invite your grandparents or grandfriends to the Christmas Tea!

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Skating: Our first grade through eighth grade students will be going skating on Friday, December 20 and you are invited toth

join us! For insurance purposes, there are additional guidelines for 'on ice' participation that we must honour. Everyone - meaning

all students and all adults - must wear helmets (bicycle, hockey, other), gloves/mittens and skates while on the ice. Boots,

strollers, helmetless heads, and gloveless hands will not be permitted on the ice. Our buses will transport the students. The first

group of students - grade 1 to grade 4 - will skate from 1:15pm - 2:05pm. The second group of students - grades 5 through 8 -

will skate from 2:15pm to 3:05pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Christmas Break: Our Christmas break is approaching quickly! Thank you parents for entrusting your children to us at WCS,

and for all of your love and support for WCS throughout 2019. We would love for you to join us this week for one of our

Christmas Drama performances, and, next week, for skating and our Christmas Chapel (led by our KG classes). The Christmas

break is from December 23-January 3. School re-opens on Monday, January 6, 2020.

Student Support - Mrs. Bulthuis: Thank you for all the

warm birthday wishes last Friday! A huge thank you to my

room parent, Mrs. Bigham, for spoiling all the groups with

delicious cupcakes! This week, we are gearing up for our

Christmas program. As the student body will be watching the

performances Wednesday morning, the grade one literacy

group will update their book bags on Thursday this week.

Wednesday - return book bags (gr. 2 and 3)

Thursday - return book bags (gr. 1)

Friday - spelling test (gr. 1, 2, 4 7)

J.K. - Mrs. Westerveld: Welcome to a new week! Thanks

to Mrs. Buruma who assisted us when our Gingerbread Man

escaped last week! Please have your costumes ready and at

school for Tuesday. Thanks to Mr. Perea Melendez and

family who are helping create some of our costumes. For

show and share please show your costume and talk about how

you got it ready. Have a great week.

Tuesday - Have costumes at school

Wednesday - Library

Friday - perform at Christmas Tea

- show and share

S.K.1 - Miss Body: Welcome to a new week. An exciting

week of performances showcasing the amazing talents of our

students.

Tuesday - Library

- Scholastic Due

Wednesday - Christmas Drama performances 9:30 am

Thursday - Christmas Drama performances 6:30

Friday - Christmas Tea

S.K.2 - Mrs. Poort: This week our helper is Desmond. This

week we are continuing to finish our Christmas craft with our

buddies. Continue to practice sounds books at home. Show

and share this week is bring something blue or red. Sight

words: red, blue; sounds: w, ng.

Tuesday - Library

- show and share

Wednesday - Matinee

- baking

Friday - Christmas Tea

Grade 1 - Mrs. VanderPloeg: Welcome to a new week! It is

performance week at WCS! Check your emails for an update

about what is happening in Grade 1.

Monday - Phys. Ed

Tuesday - Library

- Happy Birthday to Stephen!

Wednesday - Show&Share: Alissa & Josiah & Keziah

Thursday - Phys. Ed

- Happy Birthday to Hailey!

Friday - Spelling Test

- Christmas Tea (Primary Choir performance)

Grade 2 - Mrs. Horinga: Welcome to another week. This

week we are spending time reading and reflecting on the

Christmas story. Our spelling focus this week is th, sh, wh, ch

digraphs (combination of two or more letters that make one

sound). We have a trip to the Woodstock Museum next week

Tuesday from 12:45 - 3:00 if you would like to come along

please send me an e-mail.

Wednesday - Library

Friday - Seniors Tea: singing with primary choir

Grade 3 - Mr. G. Hiemstra: This week hopes to be a

regular week for us except for listening to the senior students'

plays and having the Christmas tea on Friday. Next week we

have skating. If your child doesn't have skates, please look for

a pair between now and then.

Friday - Spelling Test

Grade 4A - Mrs. VanAndel: Welcome to a new week grade

4! Keep reading your December book!

Tuesday - bring gym clothes

Wednesday - watch Christmas plays

- library: return books

Thursday - bring gym clothes

Friday - spelling test

- memory work: 1 Samuel 3:9,10

- singing at Grandparent Tea

Grade 4B - Mrs. Hickey: Welcome to a new week. The

junior choir will be singing at the Christmas Tea on Friday.

Wear the purple WCS shirt. Keep reading for December's AR

test. Don't forget to practice spelling words and x tables.

Tuesday - Phys. Ed. (gym strip)

Wednesday - Christmas Drama performance @ 9:30 am

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- Library

Thursday - Phys. Ed (gym strip)

Friday - Mem. Work: 1 Samuel 3: 9-10

- Spelling Test: Lesson 13

- Christmas Tea (wear WCS purple shirt)

Grade 5 - Mr. A. Hiemstra: Welcome to the 2 last weeknd

of school before the Christmas holidays! Students have been

excited when learning about genre and the elements of a story

during each of our language arts classes because the

knowledge gained will help us write a stellar story. We will

eventually make this story into a movie. We have picked our

genre: mystery. This movie will be played for many to see, as

a fund-raiser event, and we hope it will generate many

donations for Lagosette Christian School in Haiti! More

details to be sent home after the Christmas break.

Monday - Gym clothes for P.E. class: WCS shirt and

WCS shorts

Wednesday - Music: bring recorder

Thursday - Music: bring recorder

Friday - Gym clothes for P.E. class: WCS shirt and

WCS shorts

- Spelling: Workbook Lesson 14 + Test

- Memory Work: Matthew 28:18-20

- Science Quiz: see highlighted notes

Grade 6 - Mrs. Dam: We pray for safety and success for our

triple ball players at today's tournament. Also, we eagerly

anticipate our drama performances later this week!

Thursday - Memory Work: The Lord's Prayer based on

Matthew 6:9-13 plus the following as the

closing: "For yours is the kingdom, and the

power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Language: - We are writing a mystery story. Planning

sheets and rubrics were given to students today.

- Mystery novel "Hidden door" poster is due on

the 18 . Students should be working on theirth

final draft at this point in time.

- Spelling test #10 is on Wednesday. This will

be our last one until the new year.

- We are continuing with our study of "My Side

of the Mountain". Students should be finished

reading to ch. 16 "Trouble begins" by the end of

this week.

Math: - Geometry test will be on Friday December 13.

Review sheets will go home tomorrow. Students

need to be able to name, measure, and draw

angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals.

- We continue working on our "Tiny House"

project. Our goal is to be finished before the

Christmas break.

- Our next unit will be on divisibility and prime

numbers.

Creation Studies: Congratulations to our gr.6 Junior

Astronauts! They have completed a challenging

coding task and have successfully sent messages

to the International Space Station! They will

receive certificates indicating the date, time and

ISS location when their messages are used. We

continue to pray that we will be selected to host

a Canadian Astronaut at the end of the program!

Grade 7 - Mrs. Racicot: Please refer daily to Google

Classroom for grade 7 homework, assignments and tests.

Grade 8 - Mr. Schaafsma: Thank-you to Mrs. Branderhorst

for joining us on our walk to Caressant Care on Friday, we

appreciate your help! This week we are looking forward to

the WCS Christmas productions on Wednesday morning,

Thursday evening and Friday afternoon. This Friday the grade

8 class is hosting our Senior Friends for the Christmas Tea,

please bring your purple shirts to school. Be sure to check the

Google Classroom for any assignments or homework.

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 9 Triple Ball Tournament

11 Christmas Drama Matinee - 9:30 a.m.

12 Christmas Drama Evening - 6:30 p.m.

13 Christmas Tea & Drama - 1:30 p.m.

17 Board Meeting

18 Prayer Group - 8:30 a.m.

Pizza Lunch

20 Christmas Chapel - 8:30 a.m.

Skating

23 - Jan.3 Christmas Break*

January 6 New Year’s Chapel