Ottawa Christian School Builds in Barrhaven

You may have noticed there is a new building going up in Barrhaven at the corner of Strandherd and Cedarview. In June 2009, Ottawa Christian School began construction on their new 38,000 square foot facility with 15 classrooms. “When you look at this beautiful facility taking shape it is easy to imagine the wonderful educational  moments about to take place! This isn’t just bricks and mortar, this is a place where children are nurtured in faith and grow in knowledge”, said Wafa Martin, OCS Board Chair.

Although the school looks much the same from week to week from the outside, the inside is being transformed from a concrete slab to recognizable rooms as work continues on the interior walls and ceilings with the installation of the drywall and duct work. Paul Triemstra, Principal at Ottawa Christian School remarked, “The building has come to that stage where you can really imagine what the classrooms will look like with students and teachers in them.”

The faithful team of John Van Zeumeren, Stephen Rolston, Lew Triemstra and Paul Triemstra has been gathering weekly to oversee the many details and decisions of the construction process. Recently, the team was presented with thank you notes that contained blessings and words of praise from OCS students who are looking forward to moving into their new school in June 2010.

To follow the weekly progress of Ottawa Christian School, visit www.OCSchool.org.

Grade 3/2 muffin sale mentioned on CHRI

Below is a clip from CHRI when Brock talked about the Grade 3/2 class who sold muffins to raise money for Haiti.

OCS school clip - Grade 3/2 Muffins

OCS students get involved in supporting Haiti

During morning devotions on Wednesday, January 13, one day after the earthquakes in Haiti, Ottawa Christian School’s grade 2/3 teacher, Grace Sontrop, discussed the disaster and how many of the people there were suffering. Their prayer was that the people of Haiti would receive help quickly. As the class continued to talk about the disaster, Sontrop could feel the student’s sense of helplessness.

“As a teacher, I wondered in addition to prayer, how I could encourage the students to help in a tangible way,” explained Sontrop. As she spoke to the class, she asked a simple question, “Can we help?” and the whole class agreed, “We can do something!”

So a personal letter was quickly drafted and sent home asking for help. “With Monday being a PD day at OCS, we decided that we would all bake 1 dozen muffins to sell during snack time on Tuesday to the other students. Then that money would be sent to help the people of Haiti,” explained Sontrop.

On Tuesday, the students set up “shop” in the kitchen and sold muffins throughout their recess time. Meredith, a grade 3 student at OCS, said, “I feel excited when I give stuff away.” A grade 2 student exclaimed, “I like giving people money!” By 11:00 a.m., the students collected $284.42, which will be sent to World Vision to help Haiti.

To read a similar story, go to the OASC news webpage.

Mom’s Day

MOM’S DAY

Approximately 75 moms joined the students for chapel and a photo presentation at Mom’s Day on Thursday, January 14. After the students were dismissed to their classes the moms enjoyed fellowship and coffee, tea and yummy home baked goods (thank you Mrs. Dykstra). Then it was off to the classrooms where the moms were greeted by enthusiastic students. Thank you for coming to Mom’s Day.

Intensive French FAQ

Q. How INTENSE is Intensive French?

A. Students in Grade 6 spend from 50-80% of one half of the Grade 6 school year and from 15-20% of the balance of the year participating in IF. The program continues with strong French instruction in subsequent years.

Q. What is the difference between IF and immersion?

A. The goals and outcomes are different. IF students are constantly involved in activities which develop listening, speaking, reading and writing in French. The focus in on learning to communicate in French and not on learning subject based content in the French language. As a result students benefit from the interactive teaching method seeing the practical value of what they are learning.

Q. What happens to the rest of the curriculum that is “compacted”?

A. The compressed curricula of the different subjects in Grade 6 (e.g. Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts) are covered in the second half of the school year. By reducing the number of resources used to accomplish the same goals students will not have “extra work” to do in order to meet the required learning outcomes.

Q. What about the struggling learner?

A. Cooperative leaning and project based learning are essential parts of IF. This highly interactive multisensory approach to French language learning can often assist the struggling student and be a positive learning experience.

Q. Where did IF originate? What are the outcomes of students?

A. We encourage you to visit www.mmecarr.ca for a fully outlined analysis of the IF program.  We welcome visitors to our school to observe our IF classroom. Bienvenue!