Winter Carnival Proceeds to Support Covenant House

In December, the Grade 7 class went to Covenant House to help sort out donations. Covenant House is an organization that helps youth aged 16-24 who don’t have a home or family to take care of them. All the money collected from the carnival will help Covenant House with their expenses and what they need in order to support the youth they help.

If you weren't able to attend our carnival, or if you want to relive the fun-filled day, keep reading . . .

As I walk through the gym doors, I see a million different colours. Basketballs are flying crazily through the  air and then being chased. Kids are playing games, their pockets stuffed with candy and a cookie in their hands. Everybody is excited and can’t wait to try every activity. The photo booth has Christmas lights strung from a piano bench, the ice fishing station has a green screen and a fishing pole to take pictures with.

People are singing along to the Disney music. Everything looks like a lot of fun and the money that is being brought in is all going towards Covenant Houses’ new building. Right when you walk in, you see a beautifully decorated booth with bowls of multi-coloured icing and rainbow sprinkles. The vibrant reds and greens of the toppings look perfect when layered on top of a tasty sugar cookie. When I look the other way, I see people throwing basketballs and a  line a mile long with kids waiting patiently for a chance to shoot the balls and get a candy cane reward. Behind that, there is another station with kids standing in front of it. They are holding poles with strings and a magnet on the end. As I look closer, I see a kid pull up his pole and triumphantly take a little fish off the end; the ice fishing booth looks exciting.

Across from that, the snowflake booth has little white pieces of paper strewn all over their table and kids are laughing while they cut out different kinds of snowflakes. At the back of the gym, there are tennis balls and soccer balls, tunnels and tables all set up into an obstacle course. Kids are throwing, running, and jumping with others cheering them on. Finally, in the back corner, there are camera flashes and people holding silly props against their faces to give them a moustache or a funny pair of glasses. There is a black background and Christmas decorations around the bench. All of the booths have a fun and exciting look to them and every little detail makes it look like the perfect Winter Carnival.

“Sometimes, it’s good to be picky”

Last December 6th, 2017, our Grade 7 class had the opportunity to visit Covenant House’s donation room on Drake St. in downtown Vancouver. There we helped sort through the many donations that Covenant House received for the holiday season. There were so many donations to go through, that we were told to be very picky and only keep the items that we would use ourselves.

Before going to Covenant House, we all had some ideas about what Covenant House was. We thought of it as a place to accommodate homeless youth and help get them off the streets. We thought of it as an outreach program that gives youth aged 16-24 food, clothes, and education and job opportunities.

After about one and a half hours of sorting through donations, we had some new thoughts about Covenant House and the donations that they received. Here are some of the things we learned and thought:

“Right now, Covenant House has 58 beds and they aren’t at max capacity!”

“People donate many things that are of no use or are bad quality.”

“A lot of people are in need and we need to help them.”

“So. Many. Donations.”

“They are very picky when it comes to keeping clothes.”

“Covenant House helps other charities by giving those charities the things that they do not need.”

“I know after visiting Covenant House that they treat homeless people to the best of their ability.”

“Sometimes, it’s good to be picky.”

“Donations affect everyone.”

As we begin the year 2018, let us remember to be generous and think of those in our communities that need our help.
 

Grade 6 bakes for Chalice

The Grade Six class held a bake sale mid December to raise money for Chalice. Chalice is a Catholic charity that supports community initiatives in 15 countries through the sponsorship of children and elderly in need. ICS has a personal connection with Chalice, as almost every year, we are visited by Deacon Ron, who works with many of these communities and shares their stories with us through pictures, video clips and artifacts from their communities. We look forward to his visit in January 2018. 

Chalice has been recognized by MoneySense Magazine as one of the best run Canadian Charities for the past six years and we are proud to be putting our efforts into supporting the needs of those less fortunate than us. If you wish to learn more about Chalice, please visit their website: chalice.ca. 
 
The Grade 6s say, most enthusiastically, "Thank you for your generous support"!

Kindergarten creates sock gift bags

Thank you so much for all the warm winter socks you recently contributed to our class collection. The Kindergarten students created the gift bags pictured here, which were distributed to needy recipients at St. Albans church throughout December. The guests at the cold weather shelter this past weekend were very grateful for these gifts.
 
Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
From the ICS Kindergarten Class

Hear ye! Hear ye! The IC Times!

We are excited to announce that we have a new club at Immaculate Conception - the Newspaper club. 

The first edition of The IC Times was published at the beginning of December, under the guidance of Grade 5 teacher Mr Formosa, and the editor in chief is Daniel G (Grade 7 student). Many students, from Grade 4 to 7, contributed articles ranging from culture and literature to what the various classes have been up to in the past few months, and a feature story on Christmas traditions.

Enjoy!

Join us at our Old Fashioned Christmas Fair

Saturday, December 2, 2017
8:30 am – 1:00 pm
Immaculate Conception School Gym & Parish Centre

We are counting down the days to our Old Fashioned Christmas Fair.  There is something for everyone:

• Pancake Breakfast and pictures with Santa
• Baking Booth & Cake Walk
• Games Room for Kids
• Handmade Quilts
• Craftmaking for Kids
• Silent Auction
• Wine Raffle
• Toonie Table
• Book Room
• Christmas Wreaths
• Christmas Marketplace (new this year!) 

See all the details here.

Also, like and share our post on Facebook to get the word out. See you Saturday!!! 

Walkathon funds support schools in Vietnam & Haiti

Every year, we send some of our Walkathon money to help schools in Haiti and Vietnam. These photos show children from Ling La Parish in the diocese of Kontum in Vietnam.  

These children are extremely poor and are unable to go to school because their families cannot afford it.  The pastor of the parish works together with the sisters to organize an education program, and this past summer, 120 children from Grade 1 to Grade 7 attended.  With the money we sent them last year, they were able to buy books, pencils, and some food for lunch for the students.  Father Nguyen Minh Hoang, the pastor, had this to say:  “On behalf of the poor in the parish and the students, we would like to thank you, I.C. School, for your generosity. May God bless you and your school.”

1… 2… Chow & Cha Cha

On Saturday night we held our annual Chow & Cha Cha – an evening filled with good food, live music, much laughter and dancing.  It was another great school community event that highlighted how much we value our wonderful families.  After a delicious pasta dinner we screened the world premier  of “A Day in the Life of ICS”.  This short movie, created by a talented group of Grade 5 and Grade 6 students,  illustrated how the funds we have raised over the last few years have been used for our children’s benefit (and also to support local and international outreach – the list is long!). Some serious square dancing and socializing followed the movie…

Thank you to all who helped make this another fantastic event!

Grade Five Explores Chinatown

On our visit to Chinatown we saw some very interesting buildings and monuments, including the Sam Kee Building, the world’s narrowest building! It is approximately 4’11” in width (1.50 meters). We also saw the Chinese Freemasons Building, every Chinatown in the world has at least one of these. The Freemasons were basically the Chinatown police back in the day.

Many years back, when there was a lot of racism against the Chinese, there were clans that people belonged too. For example, if I had the last name Lee, I would belong to the Lee Clan. They made buildings for these places where people could talk in their own language and play Chinese games such as mahjong together. Each Clan building had its own special meeting room usually located at the top of the building.

We talked to Bill Wong, an immigrant from China who right now is 93 years old. He told us what it was like to be an immigrant to Canada at the time and told us a little about his life.

For lunch, we ate at Jade Ming Dynasty and had some golden fried noodles, rice (of course), sticky rice, some stuffed eggplant, shrimp dumplings, BBQ pork rice rolls and mushroom tofu rice rolls.

Written by a Grade Five student

Racquets + shuttlecocks + fun = badminton

Badminton season is now over – but oh what fun was had by all!  For the last few months during P.E. classes Grades 4 to 7 learnt the terminology, the rules and the moves!  The Grade 6s and 7s also had extra practices before and after school and participated in the CISVA Badminton competition.  This competition was a wonderful opportunity for students to represent our school in three separate divisions of Singles, Doubles, and Mixed Doubles.  Well done to all the boys and girls who participated.  Congratulations to the students who went through to the Zone finals last week.

Now its time to lace up those running shoes – track and field starts this week!