Re-Living the Olympics...

Grade 5 has been a big year for Olivia!  The workload has increased, and the projects are more intense.  Add in sports, music and clubs and it's one heavy load for a 10 year old!  We are especially proud of Olivia this year.  She has shown consistent effort in everything she's done.  Olivia has to work really hard to get her good grades.  She has made the honour roll and continues to bring home great marks!  I know that many of us have kids that bring home great grades, but our girl really has to work hard for hers and it is her effort that matters most to us! 
This year the students had to do a history fair project.  This is similar to a science fair project.  The project was ongoing for months.  Olivia's teacher has been great and has prepared the students for every stage of the report with clear expectations and tools to get there.  The kids were allowed to choose whatever topic they wanted.  Olivia chose the Canadian Winter Olympics.  As the Olympics were held here in Vancouver last year, it was still fresh in our minds and still an interest worth researching.  Olivia knew a few people who had been involved in the Olympics so this proved valuable for the part of the project that required an interview!  (Thank you Mr.Collins for your generous donation of time and souvenirs!)  Olivia worked really hard on her project.  With the exception of some construction to hold up her Olympic rings on her display board (thank you daddy) she did the majority of the work all herself.  She was greatly rewarded when she found out that she'd qualified for regional judging.  12 kids out of 60 were chosen to set up their projects in a separate room for judging on history fair day.  Although she didn't make it to regionals, we still consider it an honour that she was considered.  As parents this experience has been a great tool to teach our child about striving for the best even if though she didn't make it regionals as she'd hoped to.  Way to go Livi..this has been just one of many milestones for you this year.  Keep up the good work!

For Olivia's 'creative element' to her project, she chose to wear her Olympic hoodie, a pair of 'authentic' moose antlers that were used in the opening ceremonies in 2010, and her creative table display included an Olympic coin collection, tickets from Olympic events, a mascot for the upcoming 2014 Olympics, a family guide to planning your time at the Olympics, a volunteer manual from the 2010 Olympics, a ski to sea highway pass for cars to travel to the Olympic athletes village, and several pictures of athletes in action!