Creative Dance Elective - Student perspective


What an incredible blessing supporters are to Timothy Christian School!

- Supporters who pray for the school.
- Supporters who volunteer faithfully at Timmy’s Place.
- Supporters who donate money so that the school can buy items like chrome books, ukuleles, a high jump mat, lego kits, alto recorders and so much more.

Recently we invited all supporters to join us for a special chapel time.

It was a chance to praise and worship God together.

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It was a chance to hear from students as they shared what they are learning and how supporters make a difference.

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It was a chance to see what students learned during electives. Thanks to supporters who volunteered their time and skills the students had a chance to learn about dance, drumming, wood working and other great things.

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After chapel there was a chance to visit with staff and students.

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It was a chance to say thank you and to let you know what a blessing your support is to the school.

If you want to find out more about supporting the school check out the [Support Us](/dedicated-giving-program/) tab on our website.


Thank you, Supporters!!


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I believe that journal writing is the perfect differentiated activity to do with a group of students – everyone can write something at their own level. Journal writing in Kindergarten in no exception. After learning all the letters and sounds we are now putting what we know into practice.

Take a look at what it looks like when we work in our journals. You can see concentration and thinking going on. You can see students using classroom resources like alphabet charts and the word wall to help them in their writing. You can see students able to chose to write about whatever they want 🙂

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**What do four and five year olds chose to write about?**

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This student wrote about how she likes to walk on the balance beam during gym class.

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This student decided to write about ducks because she likes ducks!

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This student wrote about when she was a baby and called the police!

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This student wrote about a poem we read called “Alligator Soup.”

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This student wrote about how he likes his mom because she plays with him 🙂

It is amazing to see students work hard and try to get their ideas down on paper. They are allowed to write about whatever they want and whatever they chose to write about is honoured. I never write the correct spelling after as I don’t want them to be hindered by having to get it right. My hope is that they will try and not be afraid to make a mistake. As you can see they are trying and are succeeding in sharing their ideas and growing as writers.

And as a teacher journal writing helps me to see what my students know and what they need to work on.

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I know that this student knows how to write a sentence and now needs to learn how to put spaces in between her words.

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I know that this student is able to copy words correctly from the word wall (like, eat) and that she knows what letters make the long e sound.

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I know that this student can express her ideas through pictures and is able to figure out some of the sounds in a word.

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What a joy to see my students writing and to be excited about writing. How wonderful that God created us to continually be able to learn and grow!


Journal writing in Kindergarten


Build a Box Drum Elective

by Naomi – Grade 7

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Have you ever done an elective? I am learning how to drum, as an elective this year . I chose this elective because lately I have been always hitting out beats as we sing. So I could learn a better rhythm and timing for this, I selected the Build a Box Drum elective.

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We have built a cajon (box drum) and now we are staining it. The first week we were introduced to our leaders and we built the frame of the drum. To start the next session, we practiced drumming on the desks. We also glued the front of the drum on. In the next elective session we again started with drumming but this time we got to use our drums! We had to do it first because we started staining. The next time we met we finished doing the base coat. On Monday we will be putting the finishing coat and stenciling a design on with tracing paper.

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We have learned 4/4, 8th and 16th timing beats. Why don’t you try 16th timing? Use a surface by you. Hit farther away, 1. Then hit the edge of the table three times, e-and-a. Do this three more times. You now have completed a 4/4 bar, in 16th timing.

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In my elective, I have two group leaders, Mr. Dave Verburg and Mr. Mike Luchies, who are both excellent leaders. Mr Verburg has taught us how to drum and helped us build our drums. Mr. Luchies has helped us to build our drums and has brought humour to our group because he often jokes around. Because I know how to drum I can now use it to bring joy to others life with music.

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Build a Box Drum Elective - student perspective


Friday was Pajama Day – a favourite dress-up day here at Timothy Christian School. By 9 o’clock in the morning everyone was in the gym, ready to sing praises to our God. Students in Grade 6-8 did an amazing job as they led us in worship.

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After a time of praise and worship it was time to play….teddy bear relays!

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In our Kingdom Building groups we had a great time running with teddy bears between our knees, moving teddy bears with pool noodles and carrying lots and lots of teddy bears.

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How do pajamas and teddy bears help us to build the Kingdom of God?

- Cheer: voices were lifted high in order to cheer for a common goal – getting that teddy bear across the line!
- Co-operation: students from 4 years old to 13 years old all working together.
- Mentors: teachers joining in to model team work and sportsmanship – you should have seen how adept some teachers are at jumping with a teddy bear between their knees!
- Joy: a chance to come together to create memories of joy and wonder.

We thank God for every opportunity we have, large or small, to build his kingdom.

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Kingdom Building in Pajamas!


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One of the winter electives that students got to choose is Littlebits, run by Mr. Bylsma. Many of you are probably wondering what littlebits are.

Mark explains, “Littlebits is when you put little electronic pieces together. The pieces fit together with magnets. With the variety of pieces that we have, we are able to create things like light switches, fans and more! The fun part is that we have to figure out how to make it work. In our first session, we got to play around with the pieces to familiarize ourselves with them and how they work.”

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The next time, Mr. Bylsma challenged them with building a railroad crossing.

Thomas explained that they were challenged to build it in pieces. “We first built the circuit for the lights.” Not only did they have to get the lights to turn on, they had to adjust settings on the circuits to get the lights to blink alternating. Next, they had to build the circuit for the arm.

Thomas said, “We had to put the two circuits together- where the lights had to come on first, and then have the arm come down 10 seconds after. As we were putting the circuit together we forgot how the circuits went and ran into problems. So we had to go back and start again. In the end we were all successful. Mr. Byslma even brought a model train and track for us to set up our product to see how it would all come together.”

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The next challenge – constructing a bicycle!

Mark’s thoughts about the elective, “Littlebits is fun! I want to be an engineer. I like to make things and make things work, so I thought that this would be a great elective to be introduced to it.”

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Littlebits Elective - students' perspective


Recently Timmy’s Place held their Annual General Meeting and Appreciate Dinner. What a wonderful event!

Timmy’s Place is a Thrift Store operating out of Morrisburg. They support the school through financial contributions and other donations.

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Throughout the year they have provided us with lots of fun things – craft items that the Kindergarten students love to create with, small gloves so we could dissect owl pellets, and donations of coats and mittens for the school in Pikangikum.

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We appreciate all the work that the wonderful folks at Timmy’s Place do each day. We were honoured when they asked us to be a part of the Appreciate Dinner. Our Grade 6-8 students were privileged to lead in a time of worship and song before the meal.

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Timmy’s Place is a blessing to the school and to the community. If you are interested in finding out more about this special place please check out their website: <http://www.timmysplace2.com/>

How wonderful it is to see the Kingdom of God at work in the faithful volunteers at Timmy’s Place. You are appreciated!!


Timmy's Place - we appreciate you!


By Aisylnn (Grade 6)

When Friday came Grades 3-8 were excited and could hardly wait until Electives. Somehow we survived and at about 2:00 pm we were off to our various stations. French cuisine was at the Williamsburg CRC and we had supplies plenty.

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At the church we set up and got ready to work. The first thing we did was make Gâteau au Yaourt or yogurt cake. We were given our own bowl, polka-dotted spatula, oven mitt, and recipe book. One by one we received our ingredients, dry then wet, mixed them and poured them in our prepared pan and in the oven. After the cakes were in the oven Mrs, Luchies, our Elective leader, got a snack together. The snack consisted of cheese, 3 types Dutch, Marble and Jalapeno. There were also crackers, parmesan chip crackers, grapes,bologna and a bacon like meat, and sparkling lemonade. During our break we tidied a little and learned a little bit about meals in France. We soon started another recipe, this time we made Tartes aux Fruits or fruit tarts.

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There was a mini pastry shell and we put melted chocolate and let it cool, then we put pudding on top with a strawberry or raspberry. After those were made we hurried to clean up. When we were done cleaning we hurried back to school. I am having fun in French Cuisine because I love making things and I want to get better at baking. The girls with me in French Cuisine also enjoy this elective and I am glad I can be part of it.

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French Cuisine Elective - a student's perspective


My Perspective on the Electives

By: Tyrel (Gr.8)

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Electives are a new thing we are trying out this year. We chose from 6 different workshops/classes. I decided that I would pick Outdoor Education. The first class we did involved walking through the golf course and getting fire wood for, well you guessed it, a fire. We of course had a flaw though (as all our classes have had already:)), the lighter was not working and we needed to cook our bannock! So I decided to try to get it to work and I tried this while Mr. Johnson was getting a better lighter. I actually got it to work (because of the brilliant woodsman I am!) and I noticed that Mr. Johnson was still getting the lighter so I ran to get him. By the time we were back though, the flame was gone. But we did in the end get it to work and have somewhat cooked bannock.

Now as you might have noticed there isn’t much snow on the ground and we decided we would go snowshoeing on our second week. In the end it worked out, and we were able to go but there wasn’t much snow so it was interesting to say the least. Now I think that these elective are a really fun way to learn and a great way to get to know the gr. 3/4/5s. Even though I will be graduated next year, I encourage the teachers of Timothy Christian School to keep this great and fun program going throughout the years to come.

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