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"!

A Time to Share . . .

On Thursday, February 23rd, ICS held its annual Student-Led Conferences. This is a much celebrated event at our school as our students have the opportunity to share their learning with parents. The students demonstrate their understandings, skills, and knowledge through hands on activities, written work, and reading. This year, each of our students had the opportunity to teach his/her parents about our school “Be-Attitudes” by posting ideas about how to live out the following tenets:

Be safe
Be respectful
Be responsible
Be like Jesus

What do parents have to say about student-led conferences?

“I was happy to see my son present his most excellent work.  This was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was him showing us a piece of his ‘underperforming’ work.  The point was to explain how he has made efforts going forward to make his work better.”

“I learnt that children at ICS immerse themselves profoundly in specific topics and analyze these topics from the perspective of all their different subjects. This in-depth study is done as opposed to gleaning many different topics in each individual subject rather superficially. The intent of this method is that kids will learn how to research and dissect a topic from multiple viewpoints and have a more meaningful understanding in the end. Personally, I can see as a result of this method, my son has a new appreciation for a topic he previously thought very little of. I’m happy he is learning to see things from different points of view- a great life skill!”

“We LOVE the student-led conference.  Our son gets an opportunity to teach and show us what he has learned in the term.   He is always so excited and proud of his accomplishments, and we enjoy listening to him as he walks us through the subjects.  It is just him and us.  This is such an important day for increasing our son’s confidence in himself and his abilities.” 

What do students have to say about student-led conferences?

“Student-led conferences are important because it gives your parents a hands-on experience of what you have been doing in class, such as the enchanted forest, you can describe it but it is better if they can see it for themselves.”

“I think my parents enjoyed observing how many ‘in the field’ projects we really have been doing and how that helps us learn. . .”

“I really like student-led conferences because I love to see how interested and happy my parents are with my school work.”

“I enjoyed seeing my grandma walk around the class and look at everything. It made me feel proud of what I did.”

“I think student-led conferences are important because it’s good for your parent(s) to know what’s going on, what you are learning, and how you're doing in school (plus they won’t nail you with questions at the end of the day!)”

A Visit to the Museum of Anthropology

On Thursday March 2nd my class went to the Museum of Anthropology at UBC for a field trip. It was amazing! There was a dance with hoola hoops. The lady that did the dance made many different animals with the hoops. The costumes were beautiful -it was so fun!

During the Museum of Anthropology field trip we saw the different exhibits. Our guide, Liz told us all about the Museum and a few interesting stories. I liked looking at the Musqueam masks. My favourite part was watching the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival. It was a great day!

Written by a Grade 6 student

Grade Six Visits the Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre

As a part of our of learning about citizenship and justice, the Grade Six students are looking at the case study of the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. Our studies have included looking at the cultural heritage of the Japanese in British Columbia. In addition to wearing traditional garb and learning Japanese dances, the students learned about the first Japanese immigrant to British Columbia, the process of interning Japanese Canadians, and the conditions under which they lived during internment.

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!

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

Grade Six Responds to Picasso’s Work

On June 15th, the Grade Six class of ICS went to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery to look at the Picasso Exhibit. I asked some classmates what they thought about his work . . . One person said that Picasso “puts his emotion onto canvas.” Others said things like “He has a very unique style that no other artist bothers to use.” I personally think that Picasso’s work is unique and fun to look at, but I wouldn’t like to actually own one. Another question I had for classmates was “Why do you think Picasso was inspired by African masks and statues?” Almost all of the responses were like this one, “Because they had different shapes and forms that Picasso seemed to like.”

At the end of the exhibit, we were all able to recognize that Picasso was an extraordinary painter with an extreme set of skills. Having the chance to look at his work was an amazing opportunity. At the end of the day, after seeing many Picasso paintings, I asked around the class to see which one was most appreciated. People said Guernica because it showed the emotions of all the villagers who lived in Guernica.

Reflecting on Guernica . . .

Bust of a Woman (Dora Maar), 1938

Learning about Picasso and the Spanish Civil War

Written by a Grade Six 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!

Author Mentor Ellen Schwartz Visits Grade Six

Grade Six has had a three year working relationship with local author Ellen Schwartz. Our most recent workshop sessions with her included a sneak preview of the editor’s notes on her latest novel, Heart of a Champion, the story of Vancouver’s historic team of Japanese Canadian baseball players. Mrs. Schwartz shared the tribulations and triumphs of editing and revising a beloved piece of writing. Next, she lead the students through an exercise in fiction writing. Our very own ICS authors toiled over their writing pieces for several days and then  the writing was sent to Mrs. Schwartz, who became our Editor-in-Chief, returning to meet with each student the following week to conference and provide a “critical review” of the writing.  What a strong contribution Mrs. Schwartz has made to our writing program and to each student’s ability to live a “writerly life”!

Dear Mrs. Weaver and class
 
Thank you so much for the photo and card, and for your kind words. I had a great time working with you and reading all your funny, scary, spooky and true stories. Good luck with your writing, and remember: strong nouns and verbs!
 
All the best,
Ellen Schwartz