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Be sure to duck the flying balls in Dodge Ball or Secret Agent, just two of the games being played during morning recess Intramurals.
Offered for students in Grades 3 to 6, Intramural Sports provide our junior grade athletes with some extra sports opportunities during the week. Team names, created by the students, include The Balls Of Fury, Dream Team, The Electric Platypi and Bob. Games are organized and run by our student leaders in Grade 5 & 6 who even do the tough work of refereeing the matches and ensuring the agreed upon rules are followed.
Says Jake in Grade 5, one of the diligent refs during a spirited game. "It's hard being a ref because people would say I made the wrong call. So I just had to say, "That's my call and I'm not changing it!"
You tell 'em, ref.
They did it! Our two Grade 5 Robotics teams, the Robot Rebels and the Transportationators, both competed in the Lego League Challenge
held recently at Crescent School. The high energy Saturday was filled with excitement and challenges for both teams. "I feel we did pretty well in general," says Robbie. "Unfortunately, our robots didn't perform as well as we thought they would. It was just bad luck and a lot of pressure."
After the first round, the two teams were placed 5th and 12th and ironically were paired against each other in the playoffs. The Tranportationators emerged from that good natured contest, but were eliminated in the Final Eight. Nonetheless, both teams came away with awards. The plucky Transportationators won the Against All Odds Award while the Robot Rebels picked up a second place prize for Creative Presentation.
Both teams have spent the past two months, under the guidance of Chris and Pam, getting ready for the tournament. The students built and programmed their robots and did lots of collaborative problem solving in order to score as many points as possible on the big day.
There was also a research portion of the challenge to complete and then present to a panel of judges before the robot competition could get underway. The theme for this year's challenge was Transportation and for the research portion the class decided to explore travel safety and its evolution over time.
"Both teams decided to make a video to present our research," says Owen. "We wrote the scripts and shot and edited the movie. In my team's video (The Transportationators), we turned the school into a museum for all different forms of transportation and tourists were exploring the rooms to learn more about safety."
"The Robot Rebels video is based on the MTV' show, Cribs," jumps in Greer. "We are also touring people around. Sophia and Lucas are the hosts and they show people around their crib. In each room, there are team members who did research talking about their room and information in a funny and creative way. We show how the safety has improved over the years. Like with cars, they made seat belts and added roofs and now you can't even hold a handheld devices like iPods and cell phones."
Says Chris, "The students have demonstrated a strong sense of ownership and commitment to task through the roles they have taken on. This project constantly required them to come up with solutions... a wonderful life skill. I am amazed and inspired by the students' energy, excitement and creativity."
SRR stands for Safety, Respect and Responsibility and the new Mabin SRR Crew is a determined bunch of Grade 4, 5 and 6 leaders out to promote these shared values on the playground and throughout the school.
"I saw other kids in the past being playground helpers and I've always wanted to try it," says Alexandra in Grade 6. "It's fun. Sometimes it's uneventful, but that's a good thing."
"We get band-aids and ice if a student is hurt," adds Lily in Grade 5. "And if there's a problem, we help the kids work it out. We listen to both sides of the story and problem solve with them to find a resolution."
Respect is promoted by watching for students who are doing things well and then noting them on the special tree downstairs by the Gym. The tree was set up to celebrate those who are promoting safe, respectful and responsible behaviour.
The crew had two training sessions, one on conflict mediation and one on first aid basics, before taking up their role on the school yard at recess.
"Doing this is preparing you for challenges coming up in your life," says Sophia in Grade 6. "Like in your new school— if someone gets hurt, you'll know what to do. Or maybe you want to become a doctor?"
They're completely excited to take on this role," says Jill who, along with Lisa Grassa, has facilitated the initiative. "More and more students are asking to be trained to join The Crew.”
“We use our telescopes and look for clues. Yesterday we were looking for missing writing and we followed water drops on the ground," says Alexander.
Have a mystery to solve? No job is too small for our Senior Kindergarten Spy Club. Mystery notes, missing toys, a strange behaviour by the class printer or a mysterious object in the heating vent—leave it to the SK spy club to bring the truth to light.
"I think the symbolism of SK students being spies is absolutely fantastic," says Julie Binmore. "These kids are learning how to be learners — to be inquisitive, to let curiosity guide them and to work collaboratively while discovering that learning is fun and motivating!"
"I wanted to be in Spy Club because it looked like fun," says Déja, telescope in hand. "I wanted to spy on people," says Devon. "It's lots of fun. I never thought I could do a mission," says Aiden C.
Of course, every good spy needs good spy gadgets and this team is well equipped, having built their own telescopes and disguises and then borrowing a few magnifying glasses and headlamps from the Science lab. "We also have our own spy badges," explains Daniel. "To say we're real spies."
What's the most important thing about being a good spy? "Good spies find things that get lost," says Devon. "You have to help your friends," adds Aiden D. "If anyone gets hurt, you have to ask if they are okay."
"Every student in SK is now part of Spy Club,” says Julie. “We also have JK’s and students in Grades 1 and 2 clamouring to join up. I've also been observing a lot of sea creatures appearing in the kids' play at Choosing Time. I overheard juicy conversations and debates filled with questions and statements about what the kids think that they know about ocean life. Could we combine them? I think a spy/ocean life crossover is an exciting possibility!"
"It's very much a folk instrument," says Ian about the new colourful class set of ukuleles in the Music Room. "We are strumming chords and singing songs. Everyone can easily play a C chord and we sing, Sally Go Round The Sun."
A direct Annual Fund donation from a Mabin family and towards the Music program allowed for the purchase of a class set of ukes. "Every grade is having a chance to try them out," says Ian, "but it's really Grades 3 to 6 that are going to a deeper level, learning notes and chords.”
Our Grade 6 students are integrating with their Shakespearean studies and pretending the new instruments are lutes, using them to compose some Shakespearean themed songs.
"The students find it challenging, but they're learning quickly," says Ian. We asked Max in Grade 4 to clarify just how challenging. "I find it medium. It's hard to remember the notes, but we've managed to learn one tune in our class. I know the C chord and a few others. It's definitely fun!"
"We're making a whole human skeleton," says Lucas about his class Grade 1 bone study. "I made a skull out of tin foil, yogurt cups and bandages."
The bone rattling skeleton project in the Art Room is part of a larger class study of bones which began back in September. During an early Integrated Project Time, the students had a chance to explore a number of objects such as a cicada, deer antlers, a wasp, a human skull and shells. It was the skull that generated the most interest. Over the following weeks, various students and teachers brought shark teeth, a beaver jawbone and a mouse skeleton into the class, all of which the students examined closely, making observations and posing their questions. They wrote about the bones and even sketched them. In Art class, the students located the femur bone on their bodies and spontaneously constructed some 3-D models. But, it didn't end there.
"They all decided they wanted to work together and build a life sized skeleton of a child," says Bonnie. "It was amazing how onboard they all were. They are using recycled objects covered with plaster bandage. They've made a skull with a hinged jaw—they had to problem solve how to make that happen.They've done the spinal cord, the tailbone, the clavicle. Now they're working on the ribs and a hip bone. A few students are working on fingers. How to connect them all is another problem we need to solve."
"We might try using wires," proposes Cordelia. "I made a foot with toes. I made it with Gabriel and it was easy, but attaching it will be harder."
"I made a sternum, shoulder blades, part of the skull and a leg,"says Olivia R.
"There's so much learning going on," says Bonnie. "It's a really fluid process. When they're done working on one piece, the students buddy up and help out who ever is working on something else. We're going to be raising a generation of young doctors. Their vocabulary is amazing around what they know."
"They're definitely really excited about it all," says Sandra. "During a recent class crosstalk, I asked, 'How many bones do you think we have?' and everyone had their shirts up, counting their ribs. They are really engaged and doing a lot of problem solving. We're also incorporating it into math, counting out the bones in the hand and wrist."
What's next? “We want to work on the different joints with Pam in CSI and figure out how they work, maybe even construct them,” says Sandra. "And they're thinking about making brains," adds Bonnie, "and other internal organs."
How's this for a wild rice experiment ? After reading the book The Message From Water by Masaru Emoto which explores how water is deeply connected to people's individual and collective consciousness, the Grade 3 class decided to put some of the author's ideas to the test.
Taking two jars, the students added cooked rice to both and sealed them up. The class then decided they would say, "Thank You" each day to the rice in Jar 1. For Jar 2 they repeated the words, "You Fool."
"It's a crazy experiment," agrees Nolan. "We wanted to know what would happen to the rice and the water in it when we spoke to it every day. We wanted to know more about feelings and what the rice would feel like."
"We also added a third jar of rice which we just ignored," explains Calla. "We had to make some changes to the experiment because the jars were beside each other and so we were worried they were (over)hearing the message for the other jar. Maybe they were getting jealous? We had to move them away from each other."
So what happened? "The rice in the "You Fool" jar got pretty moldy," reveals Nolan. "And the rice in the "Thank You" jar was only a bit moldy. Just one grain was moldy. And the ignored jar was really moldy and sitting in a few centimetres of water." "It stared to cry!" says Calla.
"It does make a difference,"says Nolan. "In fact, I need to talk to the jars today. I forgot, but I'm going to do it right now!"
Says Sue, "The experiment let us discuss the effects of our words and actions upon each other. We are also beginning new experiments. The kids have come up with the idea of making rock candy and experimenting with that."
"We're giving positive and negative messages to the candy," says Calla. "And one we're just ignoring. We'll wait and see what happens!"
"My buddy was Lauren in Grade 5. She helped me get up on the monkey bars," says Carys in JK.
On a mild autumn afternoon, the whole school picked up and moved operations to High Park for a few sunny hours, a chance for our mixed grade Integration groups to get together and make some new friends.
Integration is a favourite time at Mabin, an opportunity for children of different ages to work and play together. Strong interpersonal skills are modeled by older children who act as group leaders and friendships are built across the grades to create a thriving school community.
Owen was my big buddy," exclaims Kalen in JK. "We ate lunch and played together." After a tasty picnic, the students chased a few soccer balls and frisbees before moving over to the giant "castle" playground for some real action.
The best part of the day? "When we all went down the twisty slide," decides a grinning Elijah."That was really,really fun!"
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