Friday, May 29, 2009

La Poule Maboule

The students in the Primary and Junior rooms performed versions of "La Poule Maboule" ("Chicken Little" in French) to the great delight of their appreciate audience. Madame Cooper did a wonderful job of putting this show together and at the end, it was nice to see several younger audience members join the performers for a goodbye song. Well done!

Primary Room:


Junior Room:

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Zz Week for Kindergarten




As we near the end of the school year, the Kindergarten is nearing the end of their lessons on the alphabet. In celebration of the letter "Zz" they went to the Zoo and saw lots of animals including Zebras. Upon returning to the classroom, the children put together their very own Zebra Zoo display for everyone to see.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Girls' Week

Last week was a bit unusual in the Junior Room because all the boys were out of town. Of course, the logical response is to pack in a few educational field trips. The girls spent the latter part of the week visiting several important places: the McMichael Gallery to round out thier learning about the Group of Seven artists, Kleinberg to visit the rock shop, and the Royal Ontario Museum to learn about rocks, habitats and much more. Reports suggest that the girls had a great time.


Fe Fi Fo Fum!

As part of their continuing exploration of fairy tales, the Playschool has created a giant beanstalk that is now growing near the coat hangers! The children have had a great time helping the stories come alive in their classroom. Of course, this is masterfully blended with the current focus on plants, growth, flowers, beans and other such relevant material. The students were able to work together artfully crafting a huge paper beanstalk and also plant real "live" beans of their own! Playschool = Awesome.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Feather Brain Fans



At the close of this year's Silver Birch reading program, the students in Grade Three voted for Feather Brain by Maureen Bush as their favourite book. As part of their follow-up activities, our youngsters corresponded with Mrs. Bush via email and also made a paper mache dinosaur according to the specifications indicated in the book. Last week, they were able to travel downtown where they actually met with Mrs. Bush and presented her with the dinosaur. They had a wonderful time getting to chat with their favourite author up close and personally. Mrs. Bush had an effect on our children, and evidently they made an impression on her as they are mentioned on the author's own blog! (http://maureenbush.com/wp/2009/05/17/just-alice/) The awesome experiences at Olivet just keep on rollin'.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Hickory Dickory Dock...


The Playschool is working through a unit on nursery rhymes. One of their recent favorites was Hickory Dickory Dock and as part of the experience the children were able to make clocks and hang them alongside the "grown up clock" in the classroom. Let's hope this doesn't represent too much of an invitation for mouse-friends! Stay tuned for other fun nursery rhyme projects.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

What's New?



Sandy Bradfield has put her design magic to work again and produced two very fine new banners now on display in the southeast corner of the school property. The school-specific banner features four of our former students. The "What's New" banner asks a common question and provides a good resource (www.newchurch.org). It also ties in with the program that Rev. Cooper has been providing after church on the first Sunday of each month to discuss "What's New About the New Church."

Friday, May 8, 2009

Broader Horizons : Metal Masterpieces


The most recent session of our Broader Horizons after school program has seen the students produce some very impressive work through a process called copper tooling. I encourage you to visit the library and see the work displayed along the window sill. The image above is one of the several pieces you would see.