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

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 Five Field Trip to Westminster Abbey

In April we traveled to see the Benedictine Monks at Westminster Abbey. We learned that monks teach the high school kids how to train to become monks as well as seminarians. We also learned that Benedictine monks were the only order of monks that existed in the Middle Ages. Our class also took part in the prayer service. At the prayer service, we listened to a very spiritual hymn. Inside the church were beautiful stained glass windows, which our class drew. Afterwards, to stretch our legs out, we took a walk through the forest, which led to a sunny field where we could look down and see the Fraser River. We started to walk back, and saw a statue of our Immaculate Mary. We also walked to the church to see the old graveyard. Our class picked flowers and laid them on the gravestones. Our class had a wonderful time at Westminster Abbey.

Written by a Grade Five Student

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