Mini Enrichment -BTS and Beyond

On May 6th to the 10th was the week where students in the grades 8-11 got the chance to experience a course in the university or college of their choice. My top 3 choices were “I wish I could build my own website”, “BTS and Beyond”, and “Write by the River”. My friend Caitlin and I, were both placed in the course “BTS and Beyond”, where we would learn Korean (hangul), and more about their culture, and K-POP. My sister Cherry, was placed in “I wish I could build my own website”, where she would learn how to build her own website using HTML & CSS and Javascript. All courses were $150.

Day 1: Today our teacher, E.J Mcgillis gave us an overview of the week. On Tuesday, we would go on a field trip to the Korean Culture Center downtown. On Wednesday, we would watch a film screening of a Korean movie and have a class discussion about it. We also learned the basics of Korean. How to introduce ourselves in Korean, the consonants and vowels of Hangul. Then, we also wrote our names in Korean using the consonants and vowels.

Day 2: We arrived very early because my mom couldn’t be late for her training at work. Today is was our field trip to the Korean Cultural Center downtown! We were given a presentation about Korea: Language, Flag symbolism, Traditional foods, clothes, and architecture and more. And then, those who wanted to, could try on traditional clothes. After we took some group photos, and we had a lesson on Taekwondo by an English master. After the lesson, we had to go back to the university for lunch. But we got vegetarian kimbap (a bit like sushi) to take home. When we got back from he university, we practiced introducing ourselves in Korean.

Day 3+4: We learned more Korean sentences like excuse me, how to ask for directions and more. On Wednesday we saw a Korean movie about 2 friends who became enemies. It was called The world of us . After watching the movie we had a class discussion.

Day 5: Today was the last day of mini enrichment. All the students in the class were devastated, but we were eager to make the last day the best. We started off with a calligraphy class from a special guest. She taught us how to use your weight to change the size of the strokes, then she showed us how to display our thoughts into the words we were writing. For example, the word “Bom” meaning Spring, she wrote them as if they were being blown away, because there is a lot of wind in spring. I thought that the Hangul way of writing “Bom” resembled a flower, so I drew it like a flower, with a stem and two leaves, and the “m” would be the vase. After lunch, we had student presentations. My friend Caitlin and I did a presentation about korean food: bulgogi, japchae, and more. Others did a random play dance, dance to GOGO by BTS, dance class of the chorus from Limitless by NCT 127, Korean Karaoke, and the barriers BTS faced before debuting. During the presentations, we got snacks and drinks to eat! After the presentations, we got our certificates, said our last goodbyes to each other and it was the end of the day. I really enjoyed the week and none of us wanted to go back to school 😦

GoCodeGirl 2019

March 2nd 2019:

I attended Go Code Girl at Ottawa University with my friend Lilian and my sister Cherry. We arrived at around 12:15. There were snacks prepared for all the participants: chips, crackers with cheese and ham, cookies, and drinks. To kick off the day, we had presentations from our mentors, who shared their stories of being a part of the STEM department.

After the presentations, we got split into groups. Our leader was Chantal. She brought us to a computer lab where we then worked on a magic 8 ball. We used python to script the magic 8 ball. We also worked on several python challenges until the day was done.

It was a very short event but at the end, I had a bigger understanding of what being in the STEM field can lead to.

Piano Examination 2019

On Friday, January 18th 2019 at 2:22pm I went to Bethany Baptist church for the RCM piano examination. I was in level 8 and was going to play 2 songs out of my etudes and memorize 4 songs out of my repertoire book.

First thing was technical. I think I did pretty well. In our “curriculum” we had major, minor harmonic, minor melodic scales. As long a dominant and diminished scales. The other ones I can’t seem to remember.

Then I would play all my songs. I think I did pretty well on that too. I was told to make sure to tell a story while playing them and changing tones.

Lastly was the 4 star/ear training. First I had to identify the major/minor chords then there was the playback and the sight reading. I did okay on the sight reading. Finally the examination was done and I headed home!

New Years Party

On Tuesday, January 1st, 2019 my family went to a friend’s house for a party. It was with all the parent volunteers in the “Thousand-word contest” hosted by our Chinese schools. When we got there we got to know the other kids there. Katie and Nina from our rhythmic gymnastics club were also there.

Their house was massive, mainly because it was newly built. First, we had our dinner, from meat to seafood, there was a wide selection. There was even a small family theatre with Netflix. We saw the movie The Imitation Game. It was about Alan Turing, the man who basically saved WWII by creating a machine with other smart people (including a woman) that could decipher Enigma.

I thought it was a good movie but it’s rated 3 stars. I suggest if you’re interested in WWII and drama/thriller movies you should go watch it on Netflix [not sponsored]

After the movie, we to go home and sleep. It was a great party.

Mount Cascade: Skiing

First of all, happy new year!

Today I went to Mount Cascade with my sister and my friend Amy. She had invited us because she bought tickets from Costco. We first went to the rental shop to get our lift passes and our equipment. We had gotten passes for 3 hours. I skied, and Cherry snowboarded. Since this was our first time from nearly a year, we started on the magic carpet as a warm-up. Then once we got used to it we went on the lift on our first mountain.

Cherry had hard trouble keeping balance on her snowboard and she fell a lot. We tried going on the same hill several times just to get used to it.

Sometimes we went to the cafe to take a break, as it was warm there. For lunch, we all bought poutine as the fries were similar to McDonald’s. When our time was up, we went back to the rental office to return our equipment. Then we drove back to Ottawa.

In From the Cold

On Saturday, December 15th, I went to my friend Jessica’s house to go to the Church near Parkdale. Jessica’s Jewish school: Temple of Israel were volunteering and she a group of friends to volunteer with her. In our group were Jessica’s cousin, Cherry, Suhur, Emily and me. 

When we arrived we met up with other volunteers from Temple of Israel. We all checked in and were handed yellow volunteer t-shirts as well as name tags. It turns out my friend Arielle from gymnastics, and a classmate Tyler were also there.

We were then taught what the different jobs were: Serving, and cleaning the scraps. The children and some adults were serving and the rest of the adults were in charge of the “harder” jobs.

The menu was very simple. The guests would start with a simple salad, then they would be treated with some soup, followed by the main course which had ham and eggs, and lastly dessert. The dessert looked delicious, it was a Neapolitan ice cream topped with chocolate sauce.

Entertaining the guests was a rather small band. It turns out the singer was my elementary school’s former principal: Kim Power. It was quite awkward seeing her not as a principal, my last memories of her was yelling at me for forgetting my backpack in the schoolyard… 

After serving the guests, we had to clean up. We sprayed the tables and chair with a liquid, and stacked the chairs. Overall, I think it was pretty successful, everyone enjoyed the food, and it went well.

Upper Canada Village

On Tuesday, June 26th, 2018, all the grade sevens at our school went to Upper Canada Village for the end of year trip. We were split into groups. This time, my mom volunteered, our group consists of

Madame Bell (because we have the most people in a group), Hillary, Cassandra, Jessica, Suhur, Emily, Sylvie, Lilian, Cherry (sister) and I.

The bus ride took more than an hour. I listened to some kpop on the bus (BTS, EXO). When we got there, we got into our groups, and we all got wristbands. Then we headed to the village. We explored the village learning many things about living in the 1860’s. We also saw how they made cheese and took a free sample of the smell of fresh bread. We learned how the dresses women had to wear weren’t that hot if you wore a cage. There were horse-drawn carriages and lots of their poop on the paths. Apparently, the poop would decompose and help the soil. For lunch, I bought poutine and had some chips I brought from home. The trip was a great learning about history trip that was also fun.

Monthly Piano Recital

Every 3rd Saturday of the month, our piano teacher invites us to play at a recital at a retirement home. The purpose is for practice, and for entertainment. The recital was from 2 to 3pm and there were many students there. My sister, Cherry, was invited to be the host. I had the job to make the program papers.

I was 4th to perform. I play 2 songs from the Royal Conservatory’s Piano Repertoire book. They were Gigue in D Major and Scherzo in B flat Major. It went well, and I find that it’s nice to participate because it’s nice to play for others who can enjoy it.

Girls’ Tier 1 Volleyball Tournament 2018

Wednesday, December 19th was the girls’ Tier 1 volleyball tournament. Our team consists of 10 players that were in grade eight:

• Rose (me)
• Cherry
• Suhur
• Hillary
• Sylvie
• Ella
• Sonia
• Andrea
• Meadow
• Rebecca

Cherry and I were the only grade 7 players on the volleyball team last year, so we were pretty familiar with all the rules:

• You had to receive a serve with a bump
• You can’t pass the blue line (boundary) on a serve
• 3 touches maximum per side
• You can’t touch the net or go pass the middle line
• Lifts aren’t allowed
• You play two sets of games and win once you get 25 points (cap at 27)

Our first game was against Broadview. The team chose me as the team captain. The referee would greet each teams’ captain then flip a coin. Whoever won would get to chose to serve or receive. If one team serves first in the first set, the second team would serve first in the second set. We lost the first set by a couple points and won the second set.

Our next game was against Sir Robert Borden. SRB beat Broadview, so we weren’t expecting anything too easy. Unfortunately, we lost 21-25 for both sets.

So in our pool we basically tied for 2nd with Broadview, but instead they put us 3rd. The top three teams in each pool advance to the finals, so we were going to play at least another game. (There were 4 teams in pool A and 3 teams in pool B). The next game would be against Pool A’s 2nd place team. It was Cedarview. We lost both sets 12-25 and 23-25. We were very sad because we basically lost and wouldn’t play another game, but we were really close and we had fun. I think the main part was learning from other teams.

Survivor Day 2018

On Friday, September, 28th 2018 it was the last Survivor day at JHP. This day was a day about teamwork, encouragement, enthusiasm and cheering for each other. Another day that fell on this day was Orange Shirt Day. To honour the real survivors of the Residential Schools. Many years ago, for generations, indigenous children from ages 5 and up were taken from their homes to be sent into residential schools. There, they were stripped of their culture and were taught many different things and not allowed to speak their first language. They were taught things like English, farming and more. When they got there, the girls and boys got their hair cut, and were given different uniforms to be worn throughout their school term. But that wasn’t it. Some were sexually or mentally abused. Most didn’t have a great experience. Some ran away. If they came home, they would feel left out, because they spoke a different language, and they looked different. Not only that, but the last residential school in Canada closed in 1996. We were told to wear orange because, at the residential school, a child got her orange shirt taken away.

So many people were wearing orange that day.

Survivor Day is a day, where all classes choose a team name and create a chant. The thing is that most teachers don’t tell their class the day Survivor day is to prevent pre-planning. But our teacher told us anyways because she likes to be organized with her dates. I didn’t pre-plan anything, but maybe Sonia did, for our team chant… To make things slightly harder, each class was given a bag, and you could only use the items in the bag.

We had until 8:30 to 10:00 to figure out our team name, create a team chant, put on face paint and decorations and create our poster. We first decided on our team name together. We were going to be the 8B Bubbles chosen between 8B Bubbles and 8B Supreme. The vote was 16 to 4. Credit to Kate for thinking of that name 😉 Then we split into 4 groups. Group 1 would make the costumes (they cut out bubbles to be put on our clothes), Group 2 would create the group chant (they made a rap and a chant), Group 3 would design the face paint, and Group 4 would create the poster.

I went into group 4 because I love designing posters. 🙂 I was in a group with Cherry, Lilian, Kate, Yi-Xiang, Tyler and Caitlin. The items in our bag that were given was a large green poster, some paper, markers, glue, and blue glitter. We were very thankful for the blue glitter because then we could decorate our bubbles on the poster with it. 😀 I will try to describe the design of our poster as best as I can. We had a bubble stick (the thing you blow the bubbles out of) and a big bubble being blown out of it. In the bubble, we put “8B Bubbles” and underneath we but “We’ll blow you away”.  Then, we cut out many bubbles and stuck them on. We put glitter to outline most bubbles. It was amazing! The makeup designers put some glitter in some peoples’ hair and used it as eyebrow enhancing and eyeshadow. The costume designers cut out bubbles to be stuck on our clothes using tape.

When it was 10:00 we all headed down to the gym. We started chanting “8B” in the hallways. Since the grade eights were the first to be called down, we were the only ones in the hallway at that time, one class even shut the door because of us! But this day was the only day where you could yell in the halls and use your outside voice inside. We all marched to the gym and sat in our sections. Then Ms. Wallis made sure all the classes were there and asked us to present our chants. I don’t quite remember our chant, but here it is at the fullest of my memory it’s inspired by a song by the Spice Girls.

Chorus:

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want

So tell me what you want, what you really really want

I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want

So tell me what you want, what you really really want

I wanna (ha) I wanna (ha) I wanna (ha) I wanna (ha)

I wanna really really really wanna win Survivor Day

We have got team spirit, and we came here to win it

The 8B bubbles are here and we are very lit

… (insert another line here)

(Chorus)

(Rap line)

(We are the best class)

We are 8B!

So once every class went through their chant, we all headed outside from 10:30 to 11:00 because it was recess.

At 11:00 to 11:30, we played capture the egg against EFI7/8A. They were the banana split (because they were a split class) and their chant was Havana by Camilla Cabello but they changed it to Banana instead. The game was the same thing as capture the flag but with footballs as the “eggs”. You had to run to the opponent’s side to get the egg and return it to your side. If you get the football, you must throw it and your teammate has to catch it on your side. If not, you put it back where you got it from. If an opponent touches you while you aren’t on your home side, you go to jail, which was marked by a hoolahoop. There was another hoolahoop to go in which was a safe hoop where you stay in there to take a breath.

From 11:30 to 12:00 we played Dodgeball against 7/8A in the gym. They were Mr. Shore’s 7/8A class. It was the normal dodgeball where if you get hit you’re out and if you catch the ball, the person who threw it is out, and your team who is in jail comes back in. So yeah, we played that for half an hour…

From 12:00 to 12:30 we went outside to play Sharky Waters with EFI7/8A again. Basically, you have many objects: wooden blocks, foam blocks, and a mat to go from one “island”  to another. You cannot touch the ground and only move on the blocks. You have to figure out a way to make sure everybody gets to the other island. This game was about strategy and teamwork.

From 12:30 to 1:00 we went to the tennis court to play Garbage Ball against 6/7A. They were HWA which stands for Here We Are. Garbage Ball is simple. One member from each team is the person who holds a basket on a basket on the other side of the court. Then there are 1 or more balls. If you have the ball, you can only take up to 3 steps. If you don’t, you are either defending or moving up to try and score a point. To score a point you need to get the ball into the basket which your team member is holding. The team member can move the basket around but must stay on the basket.

From 1:00 to 1:20 it was lunch. They had hotdogs for 2 dollars each, and white or chocolate milk for a dollar each. I had pre-ordered 2 hotdogs and 1 chocolate milk for 5 dollars.

Our lunch recess was from 1:20 to 2:00. We played soccer outside.

From 2:00 to 2:30 we had our last station. We played four corner soccer against 6/7A again. Basically, you have 4 soccer balls in the middle. Each class was split into 2 teams. One team at each corner. Then you choose who will defend and who will go up. The point of the game is the defend your pylon (at your corner) and knock the pylons of the other teams. It was very tiring.

From 2:30 to 3:00 we went back to the gym. There they were going to have the assembly and announce the winners. When everyone was quiet, we first went through all team’s chants again. Then, Mrs. Phalen announced the winners of the Student Council election we had last Monday. The winner for grade 6 VP was Hannah, grade 7 VP was Gwen, grade 8 VP was Shaheem, and President was… Sami! After that, Ms. Wallis was like “Okay, have a great day pumas!” and then everybody was laughing or booing. Then, she announced the winners. Runner-up was 7/8A’s Empire Shores, and for the winner, it was a tie. It was 8A Anable Victory and…. 8B Bubbles! The two classes jumped up and celebrated! I was happy because it was my first year winning (last year, as 7B Beagles, we lost 😦 ) But I’m glad this year things turned around! Congrats to 8A and 7/8A as well!