Grade Two Celebrates First Reconciliation

On Saturday, January 28th, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When we got to the church, we were early so we waited and prayed till everyone got there. When everyone was gathered in the church we started to sing the song “Father I have Sinned.” After that we started with confession. I was the fourth person to go up to the altar. First, I greeted Father Ken, then, I told him my sins. Together we prayed the Act of Contrition. Then, I said goodbye to him and bowed at the altar and I went back to my pew. I felt as light as a feather! Afterwards, once everyone was done we had a reception in the Parish Centre. I really liked the fruit and chips. Everyone looked so fancy in their nice clothes. It was a great day, one I will remember forever.
Written by a Grade Two Student

On Saturday, January 28th, I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We sang “Father I have sinned”. I had my confession with Father Paul. After we had a party to celebrate. My whole family was there. My heart was so clean. I felt different. I felt like my heart was happy, and I was happy too!
Written by a Grade Two Student

ICS Choir Sings for Bleinhem Lodge Seniors

A group of 15 ICS choir members braved the rainy weather, on Friday December 2, to Christmas Carol for Bleinhem Lodge seniors. The choir sang Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, Go Tell it on the Mountain and many more popular Christmas tunes for the group of seniors. Students had an opportunity to meet with the seniors after, and were treated with ice cream!

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.

Grade Five Explores the Camosun Bog

Photos taken by Grade Five Students

Over three weeks this term, the Grade Five class has been visiting Camosun Bog as part of our Science and Math curriculum. On our first visit, we explored the bog, then sketched and took photos of the various plant, insect, and animal species, such as ferns, moss and lichen, spiders, and even a squirrel making his home in a birdhouse! We prepared for our second visit by splitting into groups of two and constructing cardboard grids which we took to the bog, and placed on the forest floor. Then, we plotted the species located in the grid on a piece of graph paper. For our third visit, we identified the different species on a handout and took even more photos! This is what one of the students had to say about the trips:

“ It was very fun making the grids and going to the forest!”

We learned a lot at the bog, like how to plot a piece of land on a grid and how to identify different species. Going to Camosun Bog was a very fun and educational experience and I hope that we can go there again!

Written by a Grade Five Student

Grade Seven visits the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra!

When we walked into the lobby of the Orpheum, we saw numerous classes from other schools, all there to see and hear the symphony!  The show started off in the setting of a living room and kitchen with a man snoring on the couch. The phone rang, and he discovered he was “late” to perform at the Orpheum. Trying to cover this up, he invited the orchestra over to his house. He began to talk about how you can make instruments out of everything and he makes a shaker out of a soda can, some tape and rice. The symphony played songs like Sabre Dance, Xylophonia, Mission Impossible’s Theme song, a bass solo and a cello and piano duet. There were also some kids who came up on the stage to play some of the handmade instruments. All in all, it was a really cool and interesting show, which I would recommend to everyone!

Written By a Grade Seven Student

The Annual ICS Christmas Fair

Many of our neighbours and friends joined us for our famous Old Fashioned Christmas Fair this Saturday from 8:30 am to 1 pm, and experienced one of the best attended events in Vancouver.

The Fair started with an amazing pancake breakfast with Santa at 8:30 am, followed by a plant sale, kids games, craft room, bake sale, silent auction and much more…

Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket(s) for our Christmas Fair Raffle (BC Gaming event licence# 87951) and for supporting our school!  

Spirit Day 2016

On November 5th, 2016,  many members of the Grade 7 class attended Spirit Day, an event organized and hosted by the CISVA to get participants excited about receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, and awaken the Holy Spirit in young and old alike.

This year, the event was held at Pacific Academy in Surrey.  We sat in a huge auditorium and got to listen to some music from WAL, a Catholic pop/rock band. We also got to follow the story of 6 people who ran the Amazing Race. We listened to them teach us how to pray and to love God, and to remember that we have strength in Him, hope in Him, and that we are alive in Him. That was the theme for Spirit Day 2016. During our general sessions, a Catholic comedy duo, Apex Ministries, performed for us.

Their performances were hilarious and taught us about God and how He loves us. We were lucky enough to have Archbishop Michael Miller lead Mass which was attended by a total of 1400 people (Communion took a long time!). After Mass, the participants shared a delicious dinner together and then we had one more general session filled with singing, praising, and jokes. In my opinion, the best part of the day, was Apex Ministries. They had me laughing non-stop, and they taught me that whenever I pray, God is listening.

Written by a Grade Seven Student

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!

Care for our common home

“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”.   In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”.  (Extract: Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis On Care for Our Common Home.)

In Laudato Si’  Pope Francis addresses “every person living on this planet” and makes an appeal for inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path.

The CISVA (Catholic Independent Schools Vancouver Archdiocese) heard this call and our theme for this school year is Care for our Common Home.   As a school and as individuals we will reflect on some of the themes of the papal letter, namely social and ecological justice, and will explore ways of taking action.  We invite you to do the same in your families and communities.

Resources

Video message from Pope Francis
Archdiocese of Vancouver Resources
Top Ten Takeaways from ‘Laudato Si”
CAFOD: Resources