Keeping P.A.C.E. | November + December 2021

THE PACE OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

As we write this blog we are both reflecting on the past (hoping you all had a wonderful winter break and holidays) AND looking forward to all the exciting changes coming in 2022. 

We are so grateful to have spent the first half of the school year live and in-person with most of our students. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the school year. Let’s jump into some highlights:

NOVEMBER + DECEMBER  HIGHLIGHTS

Our AP Biology students are learning some important concepts through experimentation. The students were collecting data and calculating the rate and extent of diffusion through cell membranes.

Our Grade 1s conducted a science lab to learn more about our sense of touch and how it sends messages about what we are touching to the brain. In this experiment, the Grade 1s blindly reached into a box to feel werewolf skin (fake fur), spider legs (twisted pipe cleaners), zombie brains (Jell-O), and worms (cold spaghetti). Then, they described the texture of the 4 objects and took guesses of what they could really be before the big reveal!

To complement our Characteristics of Living Things Unit in science, the Grade 1s visited Round the Bend Farm! It was a fun-filled day of scavenger hunts looking for different parts of plants, identifying living and non-living things, and using our senses to observe our surroundings. The students trekked through a forest to a corn maze, fed a variety of farm animals, got to see pumpkins of all shapes and sizes and so much more! Each of them even brought home a gourd! Let’s just say it was a ‘gourd’ day!

Our grade 9 computer science students wrote the Beaver Computing Challenge (BCC)! The BCC is held by the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing. The BCC is a problem-solving contest with a focus on computational and logical thinking, and its questions are inspired by topics in computer science.

Our grade 3s made their own tangram sets in Logic class! The Tangram is a deceptively simple set of seven geometric shapes made up of five triangles (two small triangles, one medium triangle, and two large triangles), a square, and a parallelogram. When the pieces are arranged together they suggest an amazing variety of forms, embodying many numerical and geometric concepts!

On November 17, some of our grade 10 and grade 12 students participated in the Canadian Intermediate and Senior Math Contests. These contests are held by the University of Waterloo and are designed to give students the opportunity to have fun and to develop their mathematical problem-solving ability. Good luck to all participants!

P.A.C.E. held its annual awards assembly to celebrate the outstanding achievements of its students during the 2020-21 school year. Congratulations to all, well deserved!

Our grade 7 and 8 music students watched a live video performed by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra followed by the featured musician delivering a brief lesson in music terminology and background on their own instruments. It was inspirational! We are grateful to have learned from Shane Kim on violin, Camille Watts on flute and Steven Woomert on trumpet.

The P.A.C.E. Concert Band is composed of music students from grades 9, 10 and 11, as well as a select group of students from grades 7 and 8. On December 6th, members of the band recorded a performance for this year’s virtual P.A.C.E Winter Concert, which was presented on December 8th to all P.A.C.E. students and staff. The band performed classic winter holiday theme songs, along with concert band arrangements ranging from movie soundtracks, Pop and Jazz.

After 2 years of little to no performing, Mr. De Lara and his students were so grateful to have the experience and opportunity to rehearse and perform music once again!

SETTING THE PACE

We have had a very successful close of 2021. As we embark upon 2022 we are invigorated, solution-minded and up for thinking outside the traditional box! January and February will host: 

• January 13 – Caribou Math Contest (grades 1-3)
• February 16 – Canadian Computing Contest (grades 10-12)
• February 17 – CPR Training (grade 9)
• February 21 – Family Day (school closed)
• February 23 – Cayley, Fermat and Pascal Math Contests (grades 8-11)
• February 25 – Term III Begins