Grade Five Explores the Camosun Bog

Photos taken by Grade Five Students

Over three weeks this term, the Grade Five class has been visiting Camosun Bog as part of our Science and Math curriculum. On our first visit, we explored the bog, then sketched and took photos of the various plant, insect, and animal species, such as ferns, moss and lichen, spiders, and even a squirrel making his home in a birdhouse! We prepared for our second visit by splitting into groups of two and constructing cardboard grids which we took to the bog, and placed on the forest floor. Then, we plotted the species located in the grid on a piece of graph paper. For our third visit, we identified the different species on a handout and took even more photos! This is what one of the students had to say about the trips:

“ It was very fun making the grids and going to the forest!”

We learned a lot at the bog, like how to plot a piece of land on a grid and how to identify different species. Going to Camosun Bog was a very fun and educational experience and I hope that we can go there again!

Written by a Grade Five Student

Grade Seven visits the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra!

When we walked into the lobby of the Orpheum, we saw numerous classes from other schools, all there to see and hear the symphony!  The show started off in the setting of a living room and kitchen with a man snoring on the couch. The phone rang, and he discovered he was “late” to perform at the Orpheum. Trying to cover this up, he invited the orchestra over to his house. He began to talk about how you can make instruments out of everything and he makes a shaker out of a soda can, some tape and rice. The symphony played songs like Sabre Dance, Xylophonia, Mission Impossible’s Theme song, a bass solo and a cello and piano duet. There were also some kids who came up on the stage to play some of the handmade instruments. All in all, it was a really cool and interesting show, which I would recommend to everyone!

Written By a Grade Seven Student

The Annual ICS Christmas Fair

Many of our neighbours and friends joined us for our famous Old Fashioned Christmas Fair this Saturday from 8:30 am to 1 pm, and experienced one of the best attended events in Vancouver.

The Fair started with an amazing pancake breakfast with Santa at 8:30 am, followed by a plant sale, kids games, craft room, bake sale, silent auction and much more…

Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket(s) for our Christmas Fair Raffle (BC Gaming event licence# 87951) and for supporting our school!  

Spirit Day 2016

On November 5th, 2016,  many members of the Grade 7 class attended Spirit Day, an event organized and hosted by the CISVA to get participants excited about receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, and awaken the Holy Spirit in young and old alike.

This year, the event was held at Pacific Academy in Surrey.  We sat in a huge auditorium and got to listen to some music from WAL, a Catholic pop/rock band. We also got to follow the story of 6 people who ran the Amazing Race. We listened to them teach us how to pray and to love God, and to remember that we have strength in Him, hope in Him, and that we are alive in Him. That was the theme for Spirit Day 2016. During our general sessions, a Catholic comedy duo, Apex Ministries, performed for us.

Their performances were hilarious and taught us about God and how He loves us. We were lucky enough to have Archbishop Michael Miller lead Mass which was attended by a total of 1400 people (Communion took a long time!). After Mass, the participants shared a delicious dinner together and then we had one more general session filled with singing, praising, and jokes. In my opinion, the best part of the day, was Apex Ministries. They had me laughing non-stop, and they taught me that whenever I pray, God is listening.

Written by a Grade Seven Student

Cross Country Stars!

Many of the students of ICS participated in a Cross Country meet on Wednesday, October 5.  Grades Two through Seven took part in a fun run or a race for their grade.  Everyone did a fantastic job and finished the race strong. ICS placed 15th out of 34 schools and we received two gold medals and one silver medal. In addition, our Grade Seven team members came 3rd in the overall aggregate. Bravo Team ICS!

Cross country is a a challenging sport. Competitors are crammed in at the start line,  and once the staring gun sounds, each runner finds his/her place. After what feels like far longer than it is, many runners start thinking “When will this be over?  When will we see the finish line?” Finally, you hear the cheering crowds as you approach the finish line.

It was so much fun, cheering our schoolmates on, watching the Grade Twos take part in their first Cross Country meet, and feeling the satisfaction of crossing the finish line. We had a great meet and everybody should be proud of themselves for completing this challenge!

Written by a Grade Seven Student

Grade Six Student Researchers

A trip to the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library in September inspired these words of thanks from the students in Grade Six to our host librarians . . .

Learning to use the mircofilm reader in Special Collections

Reading historical maps of Vancouver

A quiet moment . . .

Searching for books . . .

Reading historical Vancouver newspapers

Searching for books . . .

“I had a lot of fun but I really liked the historical maps, they were so fascinating. It was interesting how in different time periods, the maps changed.”

“I liked the index cards better than Google because there was only one card for each event that happens instead of ten gazillion different websites with all sorts of strange things that don’t even have to do with what you looked up.”

“My favourite part of your tour was when you showed us the microfilm reader and explained how old newspapers crumbled over time as well as describing how scientists took photos of all the newspapers ever produced!”

“I am very grateful to the librarian who worked downstairs in the kids section, for showing us how to take and and put a book on hold.”

“I would like to thank the librarian for teaching me how to use one of the VPL computers. With that new knowledge, my friend and I found some information and printed it. We printed documents about Japanese Canadians such as information on the Asahi baseball team, the relocation of Japanese Canadians, and about Japanese Canadians themselves to share with our class.

“I especially liked learning how to find a book using the Dewey Decimal System. Now, it is so much easier to find what I am looking for.”

“My favourite part by far was using the microfilm reader because it was amazing to zoom in on all of the little pictures and see newspaper articles from years ago.”

Due to popular demand, the Grade Six class will be making a return visit to the Special Collections Room at the Vancouver Public Library to engage in some more research around the topic of citizenship and justice . . . stay tuned!

Care for our common home

“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.   In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.  (Extract: Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis On Care for Our Common Home.)

In Laudato Si’  Pope Francis addresses “every person living on this planet” and makes an appeal for inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path.

The CISVA (Catholic Independent Schools Vancouver Archdiocese) heard this call and our theme for this school year is Care for our Common Home.   As a school and as individuals we will reflect on some of the themes of the papal letter, namely social and ecological justice, and will explore ways of taking action.  We invite you to do the same in your families and communities.

Resources

Video message from Pope Francis
Archdiocese of Vancouver Resources
Top Ten Takeaways from ‘Laudato Si”
CAFOD: Resources

Class of 2016 Graduation

On June 28th, the Grade Seven class of 2016 graduated from ICS. At 10:30 am, the school held a graduation assembly for them. The graduating class included 22 students, most of whom have been at ICS since Kindergarten. All of their families were in attendance and had the chance to view a slideshow of the years this class spent at ICS, to hear a bit about the accomplishments of each student from their Grade Seven teacher, and to listen to some speeches from the graduates about their experiences at our little blue school. One of the graduating families had been at ICS for 22 consecutive years, talk about dedication!

A special moment of  the graduation ceremony was when one of our Musqueam families bestowed a blessing upon the graduates and shared words of wisdom as they leave our little blue school. All of the Musqueam students were invited to participate, lending extra voices to the already beautiful chanting and drumming.

Although the graduates have gone to many different schools, their hearts will always be at ICS. Good luck to all of you as you go out into the world! Don’t forget to come back and visit.

Written by a Grade Six Student

Thank You Ms. Ryan!

At the end of our 2015-2016 school year, Ms. Ryan retired after teaching at ICS for over 30 years. Ms. Ryan’s tenure at ICS saw several generations of students and she even taught  children of her former students.

To say thank you to Ms. Ryan, we had a special Ms. Ryan Day on her last Friday. In the morning, we went to church because Ms. Ryan had a very close relationship with God and regularly took her students to Mass every Friday. During lunch period, the whole school was allowed to go out to Chaldecott Park and play on the fields and playground – a testament to Ms. Ryan’s wise philosophy that children are meant to have fun! At the end of the day, we held an assembly to sing a song for her, and present her with two gifts.

The first gift, from primary, was a book called  “101 Things To Do When You Retire” – we are certain she will be able to keep very busy with the variety and number of suggestions she received! The gift from intermediate was a memory book of days spent with Ms. Ryan – art lessons, science lessons, and special activities that Ms. Ryan shared with us. To round off Ms. Ryan Day, there was cake for everyone. Ms. Ryan will always hold a special place in the hearts of the ICS students, staff, and community at large and we wish her all the best.

Written By a Grade Six Student

Ellen Schwartz Visits Grade Six

On Tuesday May 24th, Ellen Schwartz, a New Jersey born author who now lives in Burnaby, came to Grade Six to talk to us about some of her experiences in writing and to share her latest book, Heart of a Champion, with us. During her visit, Mrs. Schwartz assigned us some writing in which we would need to compose a scene inspired by one of the many paintings we have learned about in our art history studies. When we completed writing the scene, Mrs. Schwartz read and edited each one. She visited us one week later to individually conference with us. Since then, we have been working on using that scene in a story… stay tuned for the final results!

We anxiously await the start of the 2016-17 school year because Mrs. Schwartz will be back at ICS to lead a Writer in Residence Program with our Intermediate students – how lucky we are to have such an opportunity! To learn more about Ellen Schwartz, visit her website at:

http://www.ellenschwartz.net/

Written by a Grade 6 student