Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Our last adventure of the year!

Explaining our challenge...

Who can build the tallest structure? 

Incredibly hilarious drama games!!


Thursday, June 11, 2015

Our travel info for next week

Here is our schedule for getting to and from Pender this week:

Thursday morning: 
6:30am water taxi The Graduate leaves Salt Spring (with Phoenix students)
7:20am water taxi The Hawk leaves Galiano
7:30am water taxi The Hawk leaves Mayne
7:55am both water taxis arrive on Pender


Returning on Thursday afternoon:
4:05pm ferry leaves Pender
4:30pm arrive Mayne Island
5:25pm arrive Galiano Island


For Phoenix students:
5:12pm water taxi leaves Pender
6:35pm arrive Ganges




Thursday, May 21, 2015

Salt Spring Campout Adventure

Our campsite 
Dinner!

We need big pencils for all the big learning we're doing!!


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Exploratories on Salt Spring

Check out these awesome exploratory options our OIMY students had to choose from. It's great to see learning that involves our community experts!: 

Drawing with Donald- Whether you are new to sketching or an avid artist, Donald will guide you through drawing techniques that will have you drawing creatures from our environment with great detail and ease! (Donald is a well-know Salt Spring artist. This is his website).

Surviving with Island Escapades- Jack Rosen from Island Escapades will be leading you on a survival hike, teaching about what to harvest and how to survive off the forest feast. Can you make shelters, get food and survive in the wilderness?

Aboriginal music and hip-hop dancing- This is a unique opportunity to explore the 'Then and Now' of aboriginal music. This exploratory showcases young the brothers; Wesley Hardisty (age 19, a recent GISS grad, and an amazing young violin player) and his brother Brendan Hardisty (age 17 and a dancer- including modern hip hop),  This workshop will have you listening to different styles of music, watching different styles of aboriginal dance and comparing them to the more modern rock and hip hop. They will also be teaching you some hip-hop moves as well!

The Ruckle Ramble- Most have done Geocaching, but few have done the Ruckle Ramble. This challenging hunt will give you a series of coordinates to which you will have to find to answer a question and figure out where the final geocache is hidden! If you like Geocaching but wish it was a bit more challenging, this is the exploration for you!

The Ruckle Ramble is being led by Michelle Spencer, who also organized - with our Phoenix Students - the entire OIMY campout adventure over yesterday and today!

Thank you very much Michelle and our Phoenix crew!!


Monday, May 4, 2015

Salt Spring Overnight!

Our next adventure is an overnight on Salt Spring Island!

Here are all of the travel details:

Water taxi on Wednesday, May 13th to Salt Spring Island:
8:10am depart Mayne
8:20am depart Sturdies
8:50am depart Port Washington
Arrive Ganges at 9:30am

(Grade 8s orientation at GISS is from 10am-12pm!)

We'll be travelling home Thursday, May 14th on the Queen of Nanaimo out of Long Harbour:
3:15pm departs SSI
3:55pm arrive Pender
4:30pm arrive Mayne
5:25pm arrive Galiano

Here is the "What to Bring List" for our overnight adventures.

See you all next week!




Monday, April 27, 2015

Thank you Galiano!

We had a great, but slightly soggy adventure on Galiano last week. Thank you again to our Galiano student leaders for organizing and creating excellent POD challenges!

For those in the cooking sessions, Allison offered to give you the recipes for the amazing creations you made; you can access them here.

Below are pictures of the Grade 6s building simple solar powered machines, chef's-in-training sampling their wares, a great geocaching crew, and an amazing art group.











Monday, April 13, 2015

OIMY at Galiano

Here are our travel times for our next OIMY session: a one day adventure on Galiano!

6:45am Phoenix depart Ganges on the Scholarship (arrive Galiano 7:22am)
7:05am Pender departs on the Queen of Nanaimo
7:45am Mayne departs on the Queen of Nanaimo
8:15am ferry arrives on Galiano



2:30pm Everyone walks down to catch the water taxi at 2:50pm
Arrive Mayne 3:00pm
Arrive Pender 3:35pm

Arrive Ganges 4:10pm


Our day will use the regular schedule: POD challenges and Science lessons in the morning, Exploratory selections in the afternoon. (Exploratory selection sheets coming to a school near you!)

Here is the "what to bring" list for our one day adventures.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Thank you Mayne!!



Art Exploratory with Liis

Grade 7s hard at work

POD challenge: Capture the Flag




Sunday, March 1, 2015

OIMY on Mayne March 5th

Here is our schedule for OIMY on Mayne this Thursday, March 5th:

Phoenix leave aboard the Scholarship at 6:45am
Pick up at Galiano at 7:25am
Arrive at Mayne at 7:37am
Walk up to Mayne School

Meanwhile, Pender boards the Queen of Nanaimo at 7:05am arriving at 7:30am and meets our Mayne Island Community bus to transport to the school.

8:40am Welcome and check in
9:05-10:05am POD challenges run by Mayne OIMY students
10:05-10:20am Recess
10:20-11:40am Science based lessons
11:40am Lunch
12:30pm Exploratories
2:00pm Closing circle
2:15pm Clean up and leave school

Everyone (except Mayne) walks to the water taxi dock and meets the Scholarship at 2:50pm
Galiano arrives in Sturdies at 3:00pm
Pender arrives at Pt. Wash at 3:35pm
Phoenix arrives in Ganges at 4:10pm



Thursday, February 5, 2015

OIMY Adventure on Pender

Our next session is coming up next week Wednesday (February 11th) on Pender Island!

Here is the schedule for the day:

6:30am water taxi The Graduate leaves Salt Spring (with Phoenix students)
7:20am water taxi The Hawk leaves Galiano 
7:30am water taxi The Hawk leaves Mayne 
7:55am both water taxis arrive on Pender, students take the bus with super driver Lenore! 

8:50-9:05am Welcome to Pender

9:15-10:15am Pods led by Pender Grade 8s

10:15-10:30am Recess

10:30-12:00pm Academic science activities

12:00-12:45pm Lunch

12:50-2:10pm Fine Arts Exploratory (Art, Choir, Theatre Games, Cooking, and Knitting.  All of these activities are led by a local expert, except for cooking which will be led by Cam.

2:10-3:30 Physical Activity Exploratory (Basketball with incredible coach Tim, Dance with local dance instructor Alia, or Disc-Golf at the local Pender course; described as "one of the most unique disc golf courses in the world")

After school opportunities include enjoying the lovely snacks create by our cooking crew, basketball with coach Tim, or having some quiet time to visit with new friends. 

5:00pm Water taxis leave Pender
5:25pm The Hawk arrives on Mayne
5:35pm The Hawk arrives on Galiano
6:35pm The Graduate returns to SSI with Phoenix students

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Thank you Galiano!

Thank you Galiano for a wonderful OIMY session last week! You were excellent hosts. Thank you especially to our Galiano OIMY students who planned an led our POD stations first thing. You demonstrated excellent leadership skills and were very thoughtful in your planning. Also, a huge thank you to our local expert volunteers Lisa and Tania for leading two incredible exploratory sessions for our students: cooking and geocaching!

Success! Cache found!

Also, is anyone missing a jacket? This might have been left behind on Galiano. 


Monday, January 26, 2015

Our First Galiano Adventure

This Wednesday (Jan. 28th) is our first Galiano OIMY date! Here is the schedule of events:

7:30am depart Ganges
8:15am depart Pender
8:45am depart Mayne
8:55am arrive Galiano and walk up to the school

9:20am Opening circle: announcements, review schedule for the day
9:30am POD group adventures led by our Galiano students
10:30am Recess
10:45am Science activities: Grade 6s with Melissa, Grade 7s with Liis Graham, and Grade 8s with Michelle.
12:05pm Lunch
12:45pm Exploratories: Cooking with local chef Lisa, Geocaching with local expert Tania, Ultimate with Jess and Michelle, Art Adventures with Liis, or Photography with Melissa.
2:15pm Closing Circle: review day, info about our next session on Pender
2:30pm Walk down to catch the water taxi at 2:50pm

Arrive Mayne 3:00pm
Arrive Pender 3:35pm
Arrive Ganges 4:10pm

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

OIMY Dates and Places for Term 2 and 3

Here are our upcoming dates and island locations for our OIMY program:

Jan. 28th on Galiano 
Feb. 11th on Pender
March 5th on Mayne
April 23 on Galiano

These sessions will be one full day on each island and will start with activities lead by our OIMY host students, then an academic block focused on science (and part of your science program for these two terms), followed by an exploratory block (your choice) and then a closing activity. 

Next are our overnight adventures:

May 13-14 on Salt Spring Island
June 18-19 on Pender

These will follow a similar schedule as our one day adventure (pods, academic and exploratory blocks), but will also include games and activities similar to our last gathering on Saturna. Also, our Salt Spring adventure will include an orientation session at GISS for our grade 8 students. 

Transportation times to follow in the next blog post. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact your teacher or principal.