estboro Academy's first winter in Old Ottawa South is shaping up as the school's best winter ever, thanks to our great location in Brewer Park.
The Academy's 94 students, ranging from Junior Kindergarten up to Grade 6, have enjoyed the Brewer speed skating oval and the hockey rink.
On January 24, the ice was the scene of a Midwinter Night's Dream skating evening, attended by some 80 children and parents.
And the school is only a few minutes away from Dow's Lake, where students, parents and staff created a snow sculpture as part of the Winterlude celebrations.
The sculpture, illustrating the theme "Make the World a Better Place" was a globe circled by shapes representing four key ideas: Learning, Caring, Helping and Growing.
The title was suggested by two Grade 3 children as part of a Millennium poster and slogan contest organized last December to foster social and environmental awareness among its students. The students brainstormed words to reflect the theme and finally settled on the four represented in the sculpture.
The concept came to life under the guidance of teacher Coleen Scott, who heads the Academy's creative arts program. "This sculpture was child-centred, not only in concept but in the way we designed and built it" says Coleen. "Because the children couldn't safely use sharp tools to sculpt, we created details using additive relief that could be shaped and attached by hand."
The planning and construction of the sculpture involved students from every grade. The children drewpictures representing the four key ideas, then simplified them into geometric shapes. At Dow's Lake, bundled in snow-suits and protected by rubber gloves, the children froze wet snow to make the shapes and used slush to "glue" them onto larger snow-structures formed by parents and staff.
The sculpture's creation also reflected the Academy's emphasis on involving families in school activities. "On the evening when we attached the shapes to the larger structures, we had 46 parents, children and staff working together on the site," says Coleen. "It was a lot of fun!"
In the days after the sculpture's completion, fresh snowfalls offered new pleasures. Westboro Academy's annual winter carnival took place February 11, with the children divided into teams for an afternoon of games in the snow. Snow forts were enthusiastically constructed and defended in the schoolyard. On March 3, the Academy held a ski day at Vorlage.
But, all that snow will begin to melt and although the children will regret the disappearance of the outdoor rinks, they'll head happily over for swimming lessons at Brewer pool and look forward to a blaze of color from over 300 bulbs they planted around the school last fall. We hope our neighbours in Old Ottawa South will enjoy our flowers too!
Westboro Academy is a private, co-educational school offering a bilingual enriched program from Junior kindergarten to Grade 6. For further information on our programs and registration, please call the registrar's office at 737-9543.