Many thanks to all the people that voted on the Spaghetti Bridges.  At last count we had 26 votes submitted.  The graphs below show you how many votes each bridge got and for which position.   To find out the final results watch to the end of the video.

[Show as slideshow]

[Show as slideshow]

On Thursday January 26th we hosted our 1st International Day at Aspengrove School and what a great success it was! This event provided us with a wonderful opportunity for the school community to acknowledge and celebrate our diversity, making explicit one of the key features of our Primary Year Program ( PYP) – International Mindedness. Students, parents and teachers celebrated our own Aspengrove cultural diversity and learned about each others’ cultural backgrounds and connections. Amazingly our little school represented 33 different countries:

Through games, music, flags, traditions, crafts, storytelling, costumes, languages, food and many other aspects of culture we were all reminded of the great number of commonalities and differences we have within our school. The highlights of our day are too many to list, although they do include our International parade, the lunch time multicultural feast, having our own personal Aspengrove passports and flying with “Aspengrove Air” to many exotic destinations.

What an amazing day!

Grade 7 have just finished building and testing spaghetti bridges.  They used the MYP Design Cycle to guide their efforts.  During the Investigation stage they learned about Bridge Design.  During the Design stage they designed and tested a number of different bridges using computer simulation software.  During the Planning and Creation stages they carefully planned their use of time and resources and documented the creation process using digital cameras.

We have created a webpage to showcase their bridges.  At the bottom of the page is a form you can use to vote on which bridges you think are the strongest.  Have fun!

GRADE 7 SPAGHETTI BRIDGE PAGE

Make sure to visit Mr. Ohly’s Blog for pictures of Gr 11 figuring out the quickest way to make a cup of tea so that it reaches drinking temperature the fastest?

Due to weather/road conditions and the forecast for heavy snowfall to continue throughout the afternoon and into the evening, Aspengrove School and its offices will be closed effective our dismissal time today of 12:30 pm.  There will not be out of school care provided today.

The Aspengrove Early Learning Centre will be closed effective 1:00 pm today.

We are asking families to please make arrangements to pick up their children by the dismissal times noted above in order to allow for all members of our community to travel home during daylight hours and arrive safely.

One day in Jr. Kindergarten, Clark discovered that he could see his own shadow and the shadows of the stars on the floor.  Over the next few days when the sun came through the window in the afternoon, Clark would go to the window and explore his shadow and all of the different shapes that he could make.

This year Aspengrove School students have had a wonderful time watching Advent Calendar greetings from schools in different countries.  Our contribution will be watched by students around the world on December 17th, but we wanted to give our school community a sneak peak.  Happy holidays!

Our Grade 3 class recently shared their time and talents with the senior residents of Nanaimo Traveller’s Lodge.  Christmas crafts, reading of favourite Christmas stories and performances on the piano were all on the agenda during the visit and a great time was had by all!I

When interviewed, some of the Grade 3′s shared that their favourite part of the day was making oranaments and hanging them on the tree together, reading a Christmas story to a senior, having cookies and milk together and practically everything!

After the visit, the Grade 3′s were asked to  reflect on their visit and write their reflections in their journals.  Some of their reflections said:

“I went to Nanaimo Travellers Lodge.  It was fun and cool because we got to make Christmas decorations with the old people.  I played pinochle and I read a book.  I had fun doing stuff with them.   We had cookies and the cookies were really good.  I read ‘The Night Before Christmas’.”

“When we went to the Nanaimo Travellers Lodge yesterday to build community I felt like I found a new home because some did not have family beside them.”

“Yesterday I went to the Nanaimo Travellers Lodge. We e left the school and met in front of the NTL and then we got inside.  It smelled like the doctor’s office.  The first thing we did was an art project.  There was sprinkles and we painted little shapes.  Then we read stories to the old people and we shared cookies with them.  I read ‘The Night Before Christmas’.  It was very fun reading stories to them.  Then we moved to a different room and some of us played Christmas songs on the piano.  I did ‘Deck the Halls’, Sydney did ‘Rudolph’ and Leo did ‘Jingle Bells’.  After we did everything we got candy canes.  It was very fun at Nanaimo Travellers Lodge.”

Our Primary Choir made several stops today to entertain the community and spread some Christmas cheer!  Stops included Berwick on the Lake and Nanaimo Seniors Village retirement residences as well as Woodgrove Centre where the choir sang Santa a song on their way to performing in the singing Christmas tree!

We are so proud of our Aspengrove Movember team! Team members include teachers: Lee Kneisz, Michael Vincent, Phil Macoun, Robert Ohly, Dustin Orser, Curtis Labounty and Claude Therrien. Total pledges to our Team received from our community totalled $226.15 and we’d like to thank all those who pledged towards this worthy cause. The Aspengrove Movember campaign culminated in an old fashioned straight razor shave and hot towel treatment for team members at SportsBarbers to congratulate them for their commitment to the campaign. Well done Mo-Bros!

Click here for Movember pics