Earth Week Legacy Project

Hey families & friends,

Although Earth Week has been over for quite some time, Senior OSC made a point of creating a legacy to leave behind in honour of the special occasion. As a group, we were invited by West Richmond Community Centre to go over and help add some colour to the Hugh Boyd artificial turf area. Located around the perimeter of the field are several cement blocks plain in colour. It was our job to add a spark to the blocks and 'bring them to life'. The children paired up and were assign one side of the block to do whatever they'd like.

We got our creative juices flowing, our paint rollers at the ready and away...we...went....

The inspiration for the block
was drawn from a spectrum of different techniques including tape painting, abstract painting, splatter painting and even the 'X-men'.

Overall, the project was a great success and it was really awesome to be able to leave behind something the kids help create. Now every time they walk by the art block they can say "hey, I helped create that", and I personally think that's a really cool thing to be able to say!

 

Best Regards,

 

Matt

Taking Time to Hear From Tyler!

Hello everyone!!

I’ll start by introducing myself. My name is Tyler and I have been working at OSC since December. I just graduated Kwantlen University with a B.A in psychology and am looking forward to starting my practicum at UBC for elementary teaching in September.

With the wonderful weather we are having it seems more and more kids want to be outside. Many outdoor activities involve playing on the playground, kicking a soccer ball around, throwing a frisbee, or working on cartwheels. Recently the kids wanted me to play the game sandman. This game is like tag but you are not allowed on the playground until you tag someone. Once someone is tagged they give you a colour, which you are then able to go on. For example if someone gives you yellow and the monkey bars are yellow you are allowed to go one them. Once all the colours of the playground are given out then the next person who is tagged is ‘it’.

I look forward to many more fun activities outside with the kids for them to teach me.

Take care,

Tyler

Staff Retreat

Hello OSC Families!

What a beautiful weekend we have had!  

Lately, we have had many creative art activities, and a popular one from this week was Monica’s Beanie Buddies! Each child was able to design and create their own beanie using felt, cotton stuffing, googley eyes, and glitter. With Monica’s help, the beanies were formed and sealed with a hot glue gun. Many of the kids chose to create their own doughnuts, and I must say, they looked very delicious!

 

    

"A tasty chocolate doughnut with

vanilla glaze and sprinkles"!

This past weekend the OSC Staff travelled to beautiful Loon Lake for staff development and training. We were very lucky to have such fantastic weather, which only added to the incredibly positive experience. The development sessions we participated in have gotten us all very excited for summer!

 

 

Upon our arrival on Friday, we began our West Richmond specific training, and on Saturday we completed joint training with Cambie, South Arm, and Hamilton. After wrapping up Saturday’s training, we headed onto the lake for some canoeing!

 

Over the two days, we engaged in many fruitful discussions about how to create the best experiences possible during OSC and Summer Camps. We are all very excited to develop and expand upon our new ideas for programming in the future months!

 

 

We missed seeing you all on Friday, though we are very excited to share our new ideas from here on out!

 Cheers,

Tatiana

Come visit Santa's Workshop ... in April!

Don't worry, we only built it
upside down once. 

    

Our new reading area!

Hey OSC families!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Easter weekend. We've also been blessed with some fantastic weather lately- the sun is shining and everything is bright, light, and airy... Spring is definitely starting off on the right foot!

Well, with Spring ... comes spring cleaning. At Gilmore, we've been doing some spring cleaning of out own! As you've all noticed, we are currently redecorating the spaces in our room for some fresh new looks. Carolyn and co. have kindly bought some new furniture for the kids to enjoy. The children were all extremely excited and gleefully offered to help put the furniture together. It's been a fun DIY project and it was awesome to see all the kids work together to achieve one common goal.

Where does this piece go?!

My favorite addition is the designated reading place. The couches look great, but that gorgeous bookshelf definitely takes the cake for me!

A massive thank you is in order for all the kids that have helped us put the furniture and decor together. They've created spaces that both kids and leaders can enjoy.

Someone call Jillian Harris! I think we've got some wonderful future additions to her renovation team!

Building with Keva in the new
building zone

Let's do some art!

We've got more additions coming so be on the look out!

Cheers,

Monica

Spring Break Recap

Dear Families and Friends,

With the sun glowing and the blue skies shinning, Spring has officially arrived!

This week, kids returned back to the regular school year routine which brought to a close to our Spring Break camps. Our two weeks of camps went swimmingly, filled with some awesome out-trips and some pretty stellar in-days.

Grayson learning how whales
hear under water

Whether it was exploring the Vancouver Aquarium, star-gazing at the Planetarium, splashing around at Sungod & Hillcrest pool or going bananas at The Great Escape, both the kids and the staff had a great time participating in some fun-packed adventures.

Personally, one of our favorite out-trips from the two weeks was Multi-Sport Day hosted by South Arm Community Centre. It was a great opportunity to interact with the other community centres and a chance to get to know some new faces. The day was filled with different stations for the kids to try out, cheers to be presented and medals to be giving out to the winners. Win or lose, West did their best and represented our centre well!

Drawing our versions of SEA monsters

To compliment our extravagant out-trips, the days spent indoors at Gilmore were loaded with new activities and games for the kids to try. Themes included OS-City Day, Iron Chef Day and even a Cowboys vs. Aliens Day.

One of the in-days that stood out was our Dragon's Den.  On this day the kids were tasked with creating their own products or businesses and then presenting them to our panel of "Dragons" in hopes to reach a deal and earn themselves some dragon dollars.

Overall, Spring Break was a great success and I hope everyone who participated felt the same way.

Best Regards,


Carolyn & Matt

Next up in the Dragon's Den ... OSC!

Hi all!

Today spring break officially kicked off with an amazing Dragon's Den in-day! To start off the day, the kids were shown a clip of children around their own age who appeared on Dragon's Den and actually got a deal! With excitement and inspiration, our kids soon got into groups and began to invent their own products, sales pitches, posters and presentations. 

They really got in to the activity and worked hard the entire morning on their projects.  After lunch the time for presentations began.  The OSC staff took on the roles of the Dragons and were all specialized in different areas such as The Food Baron, The Franchising King, The Digital Guru and much more!  Each group took turns coming up in front of the Dragons and the rest of group as they presented their creative ideas.  

Some of the products included a retinal scanner to keep anything from your front door to your home computer safe, an automated reusable tissue box called the Sneezie,100% healthy and organic candy called Candy Next, the incredible Stain Remover 2000 and the remote item-locator called Finding Fusion.  There were many more awesome products as well; each with their own unique pitches for the Dragons. 

By the end of the day each team had made some cold hard (fake) cash and the Dragons had earned a piece of each company. Afterwards the money that the kids had earned was put to good use in a surprise auction that allowed them to bid for prizes!

All in all, this Dragon's Den in-day was not only tons of fun, but also educational as the kids got to learn about things like profits, equity, royalties and all the thought that goes into marketing a product.  With all its success, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw another OSC Dragon's Den in-day in the near future!

Cheers,

Stuart

When Geese stop by for a visit!

Hey everyone,

The weather has been improving over the past week or so, and that means that we get to spend more time outside! Although we had a lot of our kids enjoying the sun and warm weather, we also had some visitors: GEESE! LOTS OF GEESE. They even interrupted our game of Capture the Flag by “tagging” Justin and Adrian. Take a look at the video we took of our flying friends.

If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the bulletin boards around the room lately, we have a board right by the door that is home to our annual challenge. This year’s challenge, Clash of OSC-lans, is a fun way to get our kids to practice teamwork and responsibility. This is an initiative to challenge the kids, as once we split them into their “Clans”, it is up to them and their teammates to make sure they are doing the required tasks to gain point for the day. We even integrated our new Grade 2 friends into the challenge on Tuesdays, as we offer them fun activities and games to help everyone bond as a team. At the beginning of this challenge, we told the kids that if all 4 teams reached a minimum points goal of 1500, there would possibly be a reward for all of them. I’m happy to report that as of March 5^th, all of our teams have reached our goal! Be on the lookout for some awesome stuff coming soon!

Take care,

Ryan M