Today, Richland students highlighted their scientific and inquiry learning talents at our ‘Science Inquiry Festival.’ Explorations included: the life cycle of a frog, butterflies, sensory organs, simple machines, food chains, moving bodies, and chair constructions. Congratulations to our students for their hard work and dedication to their remarkable projects!
This week, our PK children practiced threading beads onto very fine fishing line. At first they found it quite challenging: “The hole is so small!” declared Matthew. “It’s hard to fit,” added Sebastian. However, the children demonstrated great perseverance and, soon after, were able to proudly display their threaded beads on their classroom door.
Threading and beading assists children with the development of their fine motor skills and is a great activity to train the muscles required for manipulating a pencil. It also helps with math (shape, colour, pattern), problem-solving skills (What comes next? How many do I need?), visual perception (selecting the correct bead from an assortment) and hand-eye coordination (eyes and hands working together).
On Friday, May 25th, the Richland Community participated in our 8th Annual Meagan’s Walk, honouring the memory of Meagan Bebenek. For this fund- and awareness-raising event, we welcomed special guests, Denise Bebenek, mother of Meagan, and her wonderful team from the Meagan’s Walk Foundation. As a community, we enjoyed a walk around the Richmond Hill community, followed by a special video performance, featuring images from past Walks at Richland, and heartfelt student quotes about the importance of this event.
Our Grade 5/6 students recently wrapped up their inquiry into space and astronomy through creative and unbounded presentations! Students took on topics from Black Holes to the Sun and everything else in between! They presented models, Prezis and other online presentations and some even did experiments and demonstrations! Here is just a taste of the fantastic knowledge that came of their inquiry – from Sara and Ashley, who took on the topic of Parallel Universes in the form of a documentary video!
This week, Richland Academy’s U-12 soccer team went to Wismer Park, Markham to compete in the outdoor soccer tournament. They played 6 games in the tournament and finished 2nd in their group overall. The team played extremely well during all of their games and were respectful to all of the other teams. Great job Richland and great job U-12!
Prepared by: Grade 6 student, Krish K.
Some of the SK children began to take manipulatives from the light table, and ‘present’ them one by one to the butterflies in their butterfly habitat.
They spent ten minutes, patiently testing, which manipulatives the butterflies reacted to, and sorted them into two piles. “These are the non-reactions…” shared Annie, “…And these are the reactions,” joined in Alexia.
Their conclusions were that: the butterflies were attracted to other ‘butterflies’ (feather-made butterfly manipulatives), and not to the artificial flowers and leaves that were also offered. They then suggested, that real flowers and leaves could be collected from the butterfly garden, for further ‘testing.’
