Category Archives: Uncategorized

This past week, we were lucky to have three visitors drop by Saints to share their passions, interests, and expertise with the boys!

Author Visit: Lisa McMann

On Tuesday, the author of “The Unwanteds” series came by to discuss her work and tell the boys about her seventh and final book in the series. The boys excitedly listened to her presentation, asked an array of questions, and then got the chance to have her sign their books. Check out Lisa’s books here: http://www.theunwantedsseries.com/

Coding Workshop: Tech Up Kids

Rita, Anushka, and Ross from Tech Up Kids visited on Friday to help a group of 13 boys refine and continue to develop their computer games, which they are building using the platform Scratch. Games were improved, bugs were de-bugged and was fun was had by all!

Human Library: Professional Musician

On Tuesday, Anna Webber, a professional jazz musician from New York City, visited as the most recent installment of our Human Library. Many budding musicians from Saints signed up to talk with Anna and listen to her play her 94-year-old saxophone. Listen to more here.

Today the library hosted the Self-Inquiry Program Sharing Day; an opportunity for boys who have been working on self-directed passion projects to tell the world about what they’ve been learning. Projects had a huge variety of themes: remote control cars, the solar system, locks, Rube Goldberg Machines, the Titanic, trading cards… and the list could go on…

The boys excitedly presented their projects to parents, classmates, teachers, and each other for the better part of the morning. Once the final visitor departed the boys were exhausted, but it was that good kind of exhausted – the kind where you are proud of what you have accomplished, but you now need to sit down for a bit! A big thank you to everyone who dropped by!

Shunki Reitaisai Festival (March of the Samurai)

Red Envelopes

Doruma Dolls

On Wednesday, we were lucky to have Eric Fraser join us as the latest Human Library installment. Eric is a Burnaby native who not only is the starting safety for the BC Lions, but is also a certified pilot. Among the collection of souvenirs that Eric brought with him were his helmet that he wore when he played in college for the Central Michigan Chippewas, game worn jerseys from all of the teams that he has played for in the CFL (Calgary, Ottawa, BC), and the football that he intercepted for a touchdown versus the Montreal Alouettes.

The boys were very excited to meet with Eric and asked him all sorts of questions about his football career and his experience as a pilot. Here are some of things that we learned during Eric’s visit:

-When pilots learn to fly, they are not allowed to use a GPS. They have to figure out where they are only by using paper maps.

-Judging from the number of injuries that Eric has experienced, being a football player can be a dangerous job!

-Football helmets have “pumpable” air pockets inside of them that allow the helmet to fit the head as securely as possible.

-According to Eric, the feeling of taking off as the pilot of an airplane and making a big hit on the football field are about the same.

-After a big play by the visiting team, 105,000 people can become very quiet (as Eric experienced while playing against the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor).

Attention Grade 4! Please go to these links to start exploring the topic of adaptation:

BBC: Adaptations