Spring News!

Dear Parents,

We hope you are enjoying the surprisingly warm weather that we've been granted this first week of our March Break! As we gear up for our final term of school we are happy to announce that our JK's have already met their end-of-year grade-level expectations in both language and mathematics. We will be spending the last couple of months of school re-inforcing those rapidly developing reading skills and pushing forward with some new concepts in mathematics.

Our SK's are also right on track with their reading, writing, and math skills. We have assigned several pages of math homework for the SK's to practice all the addition skills that they have been learning over the last several months.

Ever since the New Year, all the kids have become somewhat rusty with their weekly memory verses...especially the French ones! We encourage you to continue to practice these with your little ones...even just once a day for 2 to 3 minutes will really help them hide these words in their hearts forever.

Last but not least, we are pleased to announce that Rock Community Christian School will be moving forward with a new school year in the fall! We will be accepting enrolment in the near future for JK to Grade 1. Grade 1 and SK will be four days a week (Tuesday-Friday) while the JK class will continue twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our Preschool will also continue to operate in the fall as well. Stay tuned for a school information session that will be held early this spring where you can ask all of your questions.

God Bless you all and see you all next week at March in Motion!

In Christ,
Teachers Jen and Jean

Notre Pere - The Lord's Prayer in French

Dear Parents,

As of this week, our children will now be learning the Lord's prayer in both English and French as part of their daily recitations. They will be learning the English version in the King James Version, which may sound a little challenging at first, but we are going through the prayer line by line and explaining the meaning of each verse one at a time. We will be sending handouts of the English version home in the homework folder on Thursday. In the mean time, if you wish to view the full words to the Lord's Prayer, click here: The Lord's Prayer.

The French version will seem quite long and difficult at first, but as in all of the other French memory verses, we are confident that the children will learn it in due time with just a little bit of practice.

The French version of the Lord's prayer is available to hear on the audio player on the right margin of this site where it says, "Notre Pere". Please refer to this often to help your child hear the correct pronunciation.

As in all of our other memory verses, we are planting seeds now that will bear fruit for the rest of their lives. It's okay if your child does not fully understand the prayer now. If they can commit it to memory now, the words will minister to them for the rest of their lives.

What a blessing and privilege it is to see our children being planted and growing in His Word.

God Bless,

Teachers Jen and Jean

Field Trip to Reptilia - Friday January 15, 2010

Hello Parents,

Just a final reminder that our Winter Field Trip to Reptilia will take place this coming Friday January 15 at 10:00 a.m. The class and zoo tour will last a total of one hour and a half so that we should be finished by 11:30 a.m. Please check Reptilia's website at http://www.reptilia.org/ for location details.

Our trip will begin with a one-hour interactive class where a zoo keeper will provide a fun and interactive lesson about different kinds of reptiles and the students will have a chance to ask questions and touch live snakes, alligators, and other live animals. The class will be followed by a guided tour of the Reptile Zoo and an opportunity for all the students and parents to explore the zoo and check out their favorite animals including 2 live Nile Crocodiles and a White Alligator!

Just a reminder that the cost per person is $9. For those parents who have not yet done so, please remember to bring your cash payment for the field trip to school no later than this Tuesday. Parents and younger siblings are welcome to join us. Children 3 years and under are free.

Also, Parent-Teacher interviews continue this week right after school at 2:30 p.m. This is our opportunity as teachers, to provide some more detailed feedback on your child's progress and to give you an opportunity to ask us any questions you wish.

Looking forward to more great interviews and a wonderful field trip!

Sincerely,

Teachers Jen and Jean

Praise the Lord for an amazing Christmas Play!

Dear Parents,

Welcome back and Happy New Year! As we look forward to another wonderful year of learning and memories with our children, we just want to take a moment to praise the Lord for blessing us so abundantly with such an awesome first semester of school and by topping it off with such a wonderful Christmas Play! How can we move forward without first celebrating such a memorable event with some pictures? Here are just a few to bring a smile to your face as we remember how adorably everybody looked and performed that night...Thank you, Lord for continuously bringing smiles to our faces through our blessed school!

Gratefully looking forward to a blessed New Year,

Teachers Jen and Jean

Extra-Curricular Drama Program and MOPS

Dear Parents,

Christmas is just around the corner and as you already know, our children are bursting at the seams with the desire to perform! We are planning a wonderful Christmas play for them to prepare, but due to the lack of class time available to practice, we are setting up the drama program as an extra-curricular activity that will take place on 4 Fridays in November and December. The dates have been marked on our school calendar here on our website. They are November 6 and 20, and December 4, and 11. All of our kids who are currently attending public school should be available on those dates. This program will run in conjunction with MOPS so that those of you with younger children that are preschool age can also come out and have fun preparing a fun Christmas performance. The cost per person will be $30 and will be payable on the first date of the class. The class will run from 10 am to 12 pm followed by lunch time. For the purpose of planning, please indicate as soon as possible whether your child will be participating in this program. Let the show begin!

Teachers Jen and Jean

One special note: The school calendar has also been updated with dates for our upcoming Christmas and March Breaks, as well as our next school field trip in January. Thank you!

Memory Verses Now Available to Hear!

Dear Parents,

As you can see on the side margin, the audio versions of all of our children's memory verses in both English and French are now available to help you practice with your children. Just click on the beginning letter of the verse of your choice to hear it recited. You can scroll down the list for the latter verses of the alphabet. Enjoy!

Teachers Jen and Jean

Homework Reminder for Parents

Dear Parents,

We had a very adorable Picture Day today...thank you for dressing up your little ones in such adorable little outfits. Each one of them was very excited and happy to be photographed. Our photographer, John Christianson was getting quite creative with the individual and group shots and will be preparing the photos for the parents to view over the course of the next couple of weeks. Once photos are ready, we will update you with details on how to order pictures.

Just a reminder to parents that the purpose of homework assignments is so that parents can assist their children on perfecting and reinforcing the handwriting and math skills that they are learning in class. Please ensure that you sit with your child and encourage them to use proper formation, particularly with handwriting homework. We noticed in the past couple of weeks that homework has been coming back to school obviously done by the children alone. We do encourage you to encourage your children to do the homework independently (where they hold the pencil themselves) but that you are still there to supervise in case of sloppiness or error in letter formation.

Please also continue practicing memory verses with your children on a daily basis. This week's memory verse, John 3:16, is a particularly long one in both English and French and will require a little bit of extra time. The French memory verses are just about ready to become available here on our web site within the next couple of days so please stay tuned for that resource as well.

Thank you very much and God bless you all,

Teachers Jen and Jean