Busking, LCVI Road Race, All Science Challenge and Court Trials!

Busking, LCVI Road Race, All Science Challenge and Court Trials!

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“Levitate away from you, Levitate away from us….” These are beautiful lines heard murmuring in the air on the corner of Wellington and Princess St last week. The lines were from the original song “Levitate” written and preformed by Aaron Mason as part of his personal project. As part of his project, Aaron decided to write and perform songs and busk in the streets of Kingston so he could raise funds for the Joe’s Mill Music Lending library. He has already raised $220! Please look out for him on the streets of K-town tomorrow!
Last week students pushed their physical and academic limits in preparing for the LCVI 2.8KM road race AND at the All Science Challenge Quiz Game! Our 7/8 Lakeshore crew ran their best, and many of them came in the top 100 with over 3000 students across Kingston in attendance! At the All Science Challenge, our all female team of Claire Schleger, Quintyn Zuber, Megan Ding and Lily Naaman came in FIRST PLACE and won the gold medal! They rocked their knowledge in the categories of space, engineering, environmental science, physics, chemistry and more…congrats to these STEM focused ladies!
This week, our class danced all our worries away at the annual “Celebration of Dance” festival at Fort Henry! The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Taylor Swift was blasting from the speakers…and our class brought their best salsa moves! Special shoutout to Anders and Aaron who insisted they lead the dance celebration festivities next year! Just kidding!
Finally, we ended our week on a suspenseful, controversial, and  passionate note with our “Court Trial for the murders of Romeo and Juliet!” Our classroom was transformed into a courtroom, and the jury was carefully selected from the Grade 1 and 2 class. There was shouting. There were tears. There were shocking secrets revealed! The prosecution and defense teams had two weeks to write, prepare, and deliver opening and closing statements, witness statements, and ultimately, prove their opposing team WRONG! The students were incredible in their roles, and their characters came alive through passionate dialogue and memorable costumes! Special thanks to Chris (Noah’s Godmother) for lending us the costumes!
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Creative Comics

We just completed our art workshop about Comics. During this workshop we learned how to make our own comics. We had to plan out our story and and draw a rough copy for our comic.

 

 

 

We even got to explore using different inks so we could trace over our final copy. We practiced using a quill and an ink brush to draw a rock.

 

Some of us really liked using the quill and some preferred using the ink brush or a pen to trace over their good copy.

 

This was a really fun art workshop!

The Grade 3/4’s

It’s time to Run!!

It’s time to Run!!

It was another busy week last week!!

In Language Arts, we wrapped up symbolism in Romeo and Juliet by having a pot luck of all the foods that symbolize Love. We then presented this food to our classmates and described why they represented love. It was a nice way to end a unit and a fun way to celebrate the love of Romeo and Juliet.

In Science, we continued working on All Science Challenge units.

In Math, we split our week completing some lessons in our Saxon text book and then switching gears and having some fun. We began a Tetris tournament, using our spatial awareness, fine motor skills and reflexes, quick decision making and problem solving skills to try and come out on top. Unfortunately we are not quite finished yet, and the winner will be announced next week.

We had some very good work periods on our Heritage Fair projects. These are almost done and finishing touches are being made this week, as the fair is Thursday.

In music we prepared for our Coffee House at the Mansion. We had so much fun performing for friends and family. Everyone in the school did such a fantastic job!!

Another highlight of the week was competing at the Bayridge Road Race. We were resilient and persevered through this tough course of hills, and completed the race feeling accomplished and with a smile on our face. Thank you especially to Ms. Trish and Ms. Singh, and the other teachers who took us, because without them we wouldn’t be able to go to these events.

We completed our French Family Trees, and they are looking fantastic. It was fun to talk to our families and see the size of them in a visual format.

This coming week is another busy one as we have another road race and All Science Challenge to compete at. Check back in for more updates.

  • The Grade 5/6 Class
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Grade 3/4 Engineers

Grade 3/4 Engineers

For Science this term we have been learning about strong and stable structures. We have completed design challenges that had us build the tallest free standing structure, the strongest structure, and even a chair out of straws!

During our design challenges we saw how different shapes make a structure stable. We also talked about what made our designs successful and how we could improve our designs.

We used what we had learned about building shapes to help the Kindergarten class learn about 3D shapes. We had to help the kindergartens build different pyramids and prisms by only giving verbal instructions. We were not allowed to touch anything! This was one of our hardest challenges, but we did it! We think the kinders had a lot of fun. We know we did!!

 

We have really enjoyed doing the design challenges in class and becoming  Grade 3/4 Engineers!

The Grade 3/4’s

Concerts, Movies and the Joy of Long Distance Running

Concerts, Movies and the Joy of Long Distance Running

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The week began on Sunday with one of our very own students, Shaun Malik who organized a wonderful recital to raise funds for the Joe M.I.L.L. which is a musical lending library as a part of his personal project. He spent the last 5 months investigating how music can help people feel better and more emotionally positive. This event took please at the Waterford Kingston Retirement Residence. Shaun chose this venue in the month of December and found someone named Mari who helped him organize the event. Shaun also organized a bake sale which was right after the recital. He raised $534.10 and donate all the money to the Joe M.I.L.L Fund! Great work Shaun, we are proud of you!

 

In math this week the grade 7/8 class had their math presentations about financial planning. They have been working on them for a couple of months and they are now finally finished them with an excellent understanding of the financial world and how to save money for our future.

 

In Language arts this week, the grade 7/8 class had their symbolism presentations. Over the last couple of weeks, they have had to create a poster with 3 symbols that they think have a powerful meaning over Romeo and Juliet. One of the symbols had to be a character from the book and the rest of them had to be actual symbols from the book. There were 5 groups and they all presented on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, they were all creative and the drawings were very unique

 

In History this week the grade 7/8 class went to the Indian Horse movie which was at the Screening room. This movie was very powerful and made everyone think about the effects of Residential Schools on First Nations people. We also got to enjoy popcorn and candy, a special treat!

 

In Science this week everyone in the grade 7/8 class was preparing for the All Science Challenge, we prepared for this event by quizzing each other and completing worksheets. The one week countdown is on until this big event!

 

 

Also this week there was the Bayridge Road Race. The grade 7/8 ran to run 2.9 km and all the boys and girls completed the race and did very well! Raghad ran this time for the first time ever, and Shaun finished in 36 place and Kevin in 65th place! We were all exhausted but not too exhausted to enjoy ice cream sandwiches at the end of the race! 

By Shaun Malik

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Busy Month in Grade 5/6!!!

Busy Month in Grade 5/6!!!

The grade 5/6 class have had a very busy few months in the classroom.

One of the major things we completed was Science fair. We each completed a project on an area of scientific interest. This process took about 5 months to complete, including planning, making a hypothesis, experimenting, writing up procedures and conclusions, and creating the finished product. We learned a lot about time management, meeting deadlines, and seeing a project to completion from beginning to end. We took our projects to Queen’s University where we spoke about them with judges, the public and our peers. This was a tiring and long two days, but a very rewarding one as well.

We have also been preparing for All Science Challenge, focusing on different subjects like Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Environmental Science, Engineering and Mathematics. We can’t wait to compete next week and use our tools and new knowledge to answers questions and compete in a design challenge against other students in the Kingston area.

Last week, we had the opportunity to compete in the Fibonacci and Pythagoras Math Contests. Although the questions were very different than what we are used to (they were all multiple choice), we all felt really good about the test when we finished as we had been prepped and practiced a lot.

In Social Studies, we have been learning about free and fair trade among countries in the world. We wrote essays on Millennium Development Goals based on a chosen country and profession.

In Language Arts we have been studying Romeo and Juliet and learning about symbolism. To do this, we created shields on different aspects of our lives including our personalities and represented these aspects using pictures rather than words.

In French, we have been creating family trees and learning to write paragraphs about how people are related within the family tree, using the verbs être and avoir. On our family trees, we used pictures to show who our family members are, along with the written component.

In Physical Education, we completed a unit of dance and looked at different dances around the world. This included Salsa, and Bollywood dancing. Using the new moves we learned, we created dances in groups and incorporated these two styles together.

Since Cross Country and Track and Field season is upon us, we have also been focusing a lot on running and building our endurance to be able to run long distances.

Last week, the school also came together and participated in Pitch In Kingston. We filled a number of garbage bags with trash found in and around the school as well as on our route to the park. We felt very proud of doing our part to help the environment. We also wore hockey jerseys to school to show our support for the Humboldt Broncos tragedy.

We are in the final stretch of the school year and have a busy next few months ahead of us. Stay tuned for what comes next!!!

-Grade 5/6

Building Structures in Grade 1/2

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We have some budding architects in the Grade 1/2 class.  In studying structures, we discovered that triangles make great supports, stale marshmallows hold spaghetti better, and shorter pieces of spaghetti make a structure stronger and easier to move.  We discovered that  strong foundations allow us to build taller structures.  We had a great time designing and building structures outside as well.  Our next adventure will be making popsicle stick bridges.

Pasta for A Purpose- Came to Fruition!

Pasta for A Purpose- Came to Fruition!

After two months of planning, organizing and food prepping, the Grade 7/8 “Fundraising Four Course Dinner” came together as a beautiful evening on April 5th, 2018. The event was hosted at the Kingston Gospel Temple at the Fireside Room and all meal preparation took place in the kitchen on site.

All eleven students in class shared various roles in hosting, waiting on, cooking, clean up, performance, and public speaking at the event. We were grateful to have the help and support of Richard Louie (Parent at the school) who helped with the meal preparation and organization in the kitchen.

The students raised over $1100 and over 54 tickets were sold for the event! In light of hosting a challenging event, the students worked seamlessly together and supported each other in ensuring all our guests received the “five star treatment!” Guests commented on how professional the students appeared in their various roles and enjoyed seeing students step out of their comfort zone. Not only did our class enjoy cooking and baking, students were also meaningfully engaged in the event planning process and learned valuable skills such as: group decision making, creation of advertising and communication tools, presentation skills, collaboration, conflict resolution, and budget analysis!

The morning after the event, we reflected on the successes and challenges of putting together such an event and made a list of recommendations we would incorporate in the future. Perhaps, the largest marker of success, was that our very own Aaron Mason went home on the weekend and replicated the Chocolate Mousse dessert for his family!

This example of student-led event organizing provided our class with an opportunity and event we will soon not forget!

Ms. Singh

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A Busy Few Weeks!

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The Grade 1/2 students have been very busy this winter.  We enjoyed visiting Little Cat Creek and trying out the snowshoes!  It was lots of fun!  We learned about predators and their prey and followed tracks in the fresh snow.  There were lots of animals exploring and hunting at Little Cat!

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We had a great time celebrating Chinese New Year and the 100th day of school.  We made Lego projects that used 100 pieces of Lego, did 100 Math questions,  and wrote a journal entry about what we would be doing if we lived to be 100 years old!

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