Imagine our Habits of Mind, Body and Action were grains of sand in a sandbox.

Mixed in the sand are heaps of creative and flexible thinking, collaboration, clear communication, and persisting. There’s sharing what you know, listening to understand, finding humour and making the world better. There’s even some showing self-control in the sandbox, but those grains may be a little less numerous somehow…

Now imagine playing in that sandbox.

Thanks to our electives pilot, I don’t need to imagine it. I get to play in that sandbox. Every Wednesday five grade 6 students and I meet for the Modern Languages Mash-Up elective. With the full support of Rosetta Stone language learning software, each student is learning the third language of their choice. Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Italian and Filipino are now languages being learned at KCS.

The sandbox part of the elective is the video we made for the showcase. The students had learned they were required to make a multi-lingual video where they each speak their respective languages. The rest was up to them. Thanks to all the various Habits, we were well on our way to making a tale of global conflict at high sea. Though we all brought various skills to the task, none of us had ever done all we attempted for this project. One jumped at the chance to write the script. Another set to work on Garageband, composing the musical track that would capture the mood of our saga. A third suggested we use Lego to enact the story, an idea that was met with a resounding “YES!” (and resulted in the precipitate drop in showing self-control – Lego is a powerful temptation apparently). Two others worked on the visuals, from building the Lego ships to putting together the iMovie. Most of us, at one point or another, didn’t know how to do what we were trying to do. That’s when we most felt we were in a sandbox. And that’s when I knew my little group of students and I were honing our lifelong learning skills. Our Habits were getting a healthy workout.

Much has been said about the unprecedented challenges and opportunities inherent in the decades to come. If ever the world was straightforward, it is decreasingly so. Tomorrow’s workers will likely face pretty bleak sandboxes sometimes, where they don’t know what to do but they must act anyway.

Our students will bring the Habits to their sandbox, plus some special experience playing in it.

I’m not yet sure how our movie will be received. Our plan, is for it to go viral once it’s posted on our KCS YouTube channel. You see, dreaming big is also part of playing in sandboxes.

But if it doesn’t reach blockbuster status, the educator in me knows it was all still worthwhile. The Habits have value beyond the making of this video.  And playing in sandboxes has value beyond the playground.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

This afternoon a parent of a couple of boys at our school passed this eight minute video on to me.  Perspective is such an important thing to teach our children.  Keep the Kleenex handy.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/W86jlvrG54o

Sometimes, life seems unusually lop-sided. The week of February 20th, a four-day week coming off of our Mid-Term Break, life at KCS felt that way. It had way more than its fair share of wonderful.

Starting Tuesday, astonishing art adorned the foyer. Staff, parents and students arriving at KCS were greeted with grade 7 ‘memories’ sculptures and canvas painting in the style of Alex Colville, posters from the musical poster contest, Inuit art from the grade 2s, folk art in the style of Maud Lewis by the grade 4s, and biographies of our ‘Big Bad Musical’ cast. As if that wasn’t enough to look at, the KCS TV shared photos of our ice hockey club playing sledge hockey, our grade 8s playing with their grades 1 and 2 buddies, and many other beautiful moments from our Four Doors to Learning program.

Wednesday was our annual grade 4 Medieval Times Feast. Students, dressed as lords, ladies, dragons and jesters, entertained parents, other students, and faculty through skits, sword-fights, jokes, juggling, poetry-reading and ukulele-playing. The students’  family ‘coat-of-arms’, ‘stained glass’ and gargoyles adorned Canada Hall. A mighty feast followed, thanks to the generous efforts of many parents.

Thursday was our February “Wake Up to the Arts”. The foyer, already festooned in art, was now complemented with student curators and live music from students as well as music from our upcoming musical. Thursday also saw our U12 girls basketball team reach double overtime in the finals, earning second in the tournament. In the evening, parents, staff and faculty enjoyed ‘Pasta Palooza’, good company, and heart-warming speeches.

Friday started with the weekly ‘Free Hugs and High Fives’ from four grade 7s greeting all who enter. Starting at 9:00, the grade 6s enjoyed a speakers’ series where guests spoke of their successful careers, enticing students to consider their future role in a global marketplace. Meanwhile in chapel, the following took place for the rest of the school:

• Five students read ‘bricks’ for the Wall of Service
• Eight grade 2 students read about their ‘Acts of Kindness’
• Three grade 5s spoke about their ‘Turn Out the Lights Tuesday’ campaign
• Three grade 7s announced that last week was a record-breaking ‘Walk-to-School-Wednesday’
• Five grade 7s led our weekly ‘Compliment Friday’, which invited four students and a teacher to give public compliments
• The House Captains announced upcoming House Lunches, the House mascot names, and an upcoming contest, “Are you smarter than a House Captain?”

Honestly, where else was there a week like this?

School, just like life, isn’t always happy. It can be tough, frustrating, and even unpleasant. We can’t always shield students from this fact, nor should we if we could. What is important, however, is that children learn they can make a lot of goodness happen in their lives.  Happiness, and well-earned pride from making a difference, is in their control. This is a lesson infused in all the academics, arts, athletics and citizenship at KCS. And goodness, when squeezed into a short week, they pack a mighty punch.

Some of you may know this story already, as it happened back in August 2011. However, one of the columnists that I enjoy reading, Rick Reilly, wrote about it on the ESPN website recently. Such a great story. Watch the video, via the link, in the article if you get a chance. Share it with your children. A terrific message.

Doing The Right Thing, Rick Reilly, ESPN

Their eyes were wide as saucers. They screamed. They squealed. Their bodies jiggled with joy and laughter as they watched what their teddy bears got up to in the library over the weekend. The world has many places that are truly awesome. Last weekend, in the eyes of the grade ones, our library was one of those most special places.

Hartley the Bear, the host of the party!

During a Friday Pyjama Day, with Ms Hoggarth’s help, Hartley the Bear, the KCS library mascot, announced that he would be hosting a party over the weekend for the teddy bears of all the grade one students. The party would begin when all ‘their people’ left at the end of the day. Cameras were set up to capture the shenanigans.

You can see the results here. What you can’t see is the response of the grade ones when they watched their imaginations come to life. Of course, the teddy bears’ activity came about as a result of some human friends. It wasn’t real. But the wonder and surprise, the awe and appreciation, was real. It was a lesson that goes as follows: your imagination is valued, things you imagine can come true, libraries can be magical places, and school can have wonderful surprises that will make you smile with appreciation for years to come.

Thank you, Hartley and friends, for making this unforgettable experience happen. You are nurturing a Habit that is boundless in value. The awe and appreciation you have inspired reach far beyond the grade ones.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

If you don’t have tickets for next week’s production of The Big Bad Musical (March 1-3 @ 7 p.m.) you are going to miss out on an outstanding production.  I’ve been attending KCS musicals for the past thirteen years:  Aladdin, Annie, Fiddler on the Roof, Grease (the elementary school version of course!), The Sound of Music, as well as many others.  I can still remember watching my first KCS musical, Alice in Wonderland, with my daughter, Alyssa.  We marveled over the amazing costumes (especially the caterpillar) and the terrific sets.  But what I loved most was seeing and listening to the students on stage singing and participating in a production that would have terrified me to be part of when I was their age.  The last musical I was involved in was in grade 3.  I was a rock.  A piece of cardboard in the shape of a boulder was painted gray.  The teacher’s instructions were as follows:  “Derek, you are the rock in this production.  I want you to hold this up on the stage and crouch behind it.  The audience shouldn’t see you.”  My parents are still laughing about this one.

There are still a few remaining seats for Saturday night.  Don’t delay.  From the sounds of the rehearsals that make their way up to my office every Wednesday afternoon, next week’s shows promise to be another KCS hit.

Derek Logan
Head of School

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These posters are the finalists in our Big Bad Musical Poster Contest. See all of the entries on our Facebook photo album.