THE PACE OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

April showers bring May flowers and a ton of community engagement, exciting learning experiences and personal growth and development! From the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, a Science Odyssey, Badminton and French Speech Competitions to designing and building amusement park rides, we have been very busy bees! We cannot wait to see what’s in-store for the remainder of the year, but let’s recap some of March and April highlights.

MARCH + APRIL  HIGHLIGHTS

On March 3rd, 2023, P.A.C.E. competed in a French speech competition that took place at Branksome Hall at a regional level and was able to score first place in the core French category. P.A.C.E.’s representatives will compete once more on May 6th at a provincial level at Glendon campus. Best of luck to the participants.

Le 3 mars dernier, P.A.C.E. a participé à une compétition régionale d’art oratoire à Branksome Hall au centre-ville. Les deux élèves de P.A.C.E. Yustina et Lauren ont réussi à obtenir la première place au concours en Français de base. Les deux participantes vont représenter notre école à Glendon le 6 mai prochain au niveau provincial. Bonne chance aux deux participantes et à notre école!

Our grade 2s celebrated the end of their unit on Indigenous Studies! Students worked together to reach a common goal of brainstorming and recording facts about a specific animal. At the same time, they practiced group-work skills of listening and respecting the ideas of each other and took turns speaking as each student held the “talking stick”.

Our grades 1-5 students visited the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts for a cultural experience! Students saw the show Afrique en Cirque by Cirque Kalabante – a show that symbolizes the strength, agility and joy of life found in African youth. Students thoroughly enjoyed experiencing different African cultures through music.

For their Space Unit in Theme, our grade 3 students explored and investigated the effects that outer space can have on the growth of tomato seeds. With the help of their five senses, students used their investigative skills to observe tomatoes and their seeds. They created inquiry questions and made predictions about which pack of tomato seeds have gone to space, and how that environment might have an impact on the way the seeds grow.

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On April 12, the P.A.C.E. U12 badminton team competed in the SSAF North Qualifier. All team members are to be commended for displaying great sportsmanship throughout a tournament full of competitive matches. Special mention to:

• Phyllis who came placed second in the girls’ singles 
• Owen who placed second in the boys’ singles

And big congratulations to the following players who placed first in their division and went undefeated during the day:

• Ayden and Shawn in boys’ doubles.
• Michael and Marie in mixed doubles.
• Zachary in boys’ singles.

Good luck to all players when they compete in the championship tournament in May.

A heartfelt thank you to Mr. Rovet for organizing and convening this qualifying round, and to the coach, Ms. Pajak, for her time and dedication to the team.

Our grade 7 science students have been using their engineering skills to design and build amusement park rides in their Structure and Design unit. Students presented their projects to the class and discussed the forces involved in maintaining a strong and stable structure.

P.A.C.E.’s Science Odyssey proved to be a wonderful success, with students sharing their discoveries in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We had 80 exhibits, approximately 75 judges and a total of 400 evaluations! Parents, faculty members and senior science students volunteered their time to serve as judges. April 14th marked the culmination of months worth of work on the part of our burgeoning scientists who predicted, designed, executed and analyzed findings from a physical experiment or working model of their own interest. Congratulations to all on an outstanding celebration of the world of science.

Our grade 1s practiced their food vocabulary in French by creating menus for their very own restaurants! They had a blast practicing learned vocabulary in a creative and fun way!

From April 18-21, our grade 7s traveled to Quebec City to enhance their French cultural experiences as well as to complement the grade 7 History curriculum which deals with, among other things, “Building the Canadian Nation.” Students found the program to be challenging, enjoyable and memorable!

Our grade 8 science students embarked on a journey to space! The students spent 3 days at a space camp in Laval, Quebec, training to be astronauts by using simulators to mimic space walks, learning about the science behind surviving in space and conducting space simulated missions to Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The experience was out of this world!

SETTING THE PACE

What a fantastic couple of months! We have achievements to be proud of but still have work to do. As we look ahead to May and June, we are excited for: 

• May 1-12 – AP Exams (grades 11-12)
• May 3-5 – Albion Hills Overnight Field Trip (grade 5)
• May 9 – U12 Badminton Finals
• May 10 – Music Festival at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
• May 11 – U14 Badminton Finals
• May 11 – Chem 13 Contest (grade 12)
• May 12- Field Trip to Medieval Times (grade 4)
• May 17 – Gauss Contest (grades 7-8)
• May 17 – Jr. Reach for the Top Tournament
• May 18 – Field Trip to the ROM (grade 3)
• May 18 – Avogadro (grade 11)
• May 19 – Formal
• May 22 – Victoria Day (school closed)
• May 23 – Canada’s Wonderland Music Festival
• May 26 – U10 Track and Field Meet
• May 31 – Matilda Performance
• June 2 – House Day
• June 8-9 – Fire Safety Workshops (grades 1-8)
• June 14-20 – Final Exams (grades 9-12)
• June 19 – Year-end Field Trips (grades 1-8)
• June 20 – Last Day of School (school closed at 12pm)

Keep pace with what’s going on with our students with our bi-monthly blog updates. For an insider’s view into your child’s enriched learning experience, join the P.A.C.E. community on Instagram.