Student Council’s Legacy Project
This year at Ramsay School, the Student Council members decided to create a legacy project using chairs as canvases. Students were inspired to ‘leave something behind’ for future students to enjoy and use. A few other student-created projects at Ramsay School inspired this idea. First, we thought about the idea of legacy and then wondered about creating art that would ‘age well’ and inspire other kids, staff and families. We needed to choose themes that matter! After that, we spent a lot of time designing using symbols, colors and quotes. When we were ready to put our plans to action, we got some help from parents to sand our chairs and then got started painting and creating. Each of us wrote an artist statement about our chairs and ourselves, as artists. Enjoy!
Sincerely, Student Council 2021-2022
“Be Kind! Stay Kind!”
I would like people to know that I chose kindness over every other theme for my chair because kindness is one of the most important things on Earth. On my chair, you see two hands embracing - different skin colors coming together as one. On the back of the seat, there is a HUGE heart that symbolizes love (all different kinds!) for everybody, so no one is left out. Kindness is for everybody.
My favorite part of the chair is that there is a tiny (secret) message on the bottom of my chair. The secret message says… actually, you’ll find out when you sit on it. On the side of my chair, there’s another message that says “Friendship is the key to life!” The word key is an actual key, which is pretty awesome.
When people look at my chair, I want people to think that kindness IS the key to life. I hope people share kindness and make more and more and more of it so that there is enough for everybody. Nobody should be afraid to walk up to a person and be kind to them. Nobody should be bullied and if you are, the trick is to try to make a friend with them – show them - the bullying isn’t going to work.
Sincerely,
Hazel
“Dive Deep!”
We would like people to know that we really love the ocean and thought it would be a great theme! Knowing that Aria was moving to Australia we thought the ocean would be an awesome way to remember her at Ramsay School. Whenever we look at our beach chair, we will think of our time working on it together.
It was really challenging agreeing with each other throughout the process! There were some arguments about how we were going to do things, like the sunset (lots of fuss about that). We are proud of being able to come together and fixing up things that we didn’t like.
We really hope you like the color of the ocean, how we added all the details and especially, the coral.
Sincerely,
Aria and Atong
“Keep Calm and Gobble On!”
My chair is in remembrance of the Ramsay Turkey, named, Turk. Turk came to our community during COVID when we were all stuck inside. He brought light into our lives and changed Calgary during this time. I think that we need to remember Turk because my mom was the owner of Turk’s Facebook group and it gained thousands of members! Because of this group, I was able to learn more about Turk and his story. Turk became a part of Calgary’s history. When we noticed Turk, he was in Ramsay so that’s how he got his name. Because this is Ramsay School, he belongs here and deserves to be remembered.
I would like people to notice the painted Turk on my chair and know that Turk brought the city together through its darkest times. I chose to draw Turk flying and a bunch of his feathers around him. Down below, you’ll notice hands reaching up for those feathers. That represents Turk leaving us, knowing that he changed our community. Everyone wanted to keep a special piece of him.
On top of the chair I included a photo of Turk in front of the Saddledome (one of his most famous images) and I think this is one of the most important parts of my chair. There are lots of hearts on the chair to represent that Turk enlightened our hearts! I chose the quote because it was the one from the t-shirt sales that were donated to the Calgary Food Bank.
Sincerely,
Magnolia
School Progress – Grow Your Mind!
First, we would like people to know that there was a lot of teamwork to create this chair. We chose the idea for our chair because it represents our school and how all of the learning activities we do have made us who we are right now. Another reason we chose to do this chair is because we wanted to thank our school for giving us the opportunity to do this art and to show our gratitude around this legacy project.
We decided to use school supplies to represent our school and the people in it. We fit nine different supplies on our chair. One of our favorite parts is probably the text book because it takes up so much of the chair and it’s one of the first things that we did. We also love the test tubes with all the bubbles. The bubbles show how much knowledge we’ve learned at school and that there are still many years to come.
I am most proud of how well Seb K and I have worked as a team. We probably would have had to take twice the time to finish it if we were on our own. We are also proud of how we were able to take an old brown chair and create this awesome piece of art. lt took SO MUCH time to do, but we were able to perfect each part of it so it looks really good.
When people look at our chair, I hope they are reminded that school is a place for learning and a place to grow their minds! We also hope that people know that we did this project as our choice. We decided to do this and I hope it inspires other kids to become a part of Student Council in future generations. Lastly, we hope that people are able to see that even though there’s a few mistakes on our chair, and it might look bad in a few spots, school is a place to make mistakes and try. You can too!
Sincerely,
Sebastian & Lawrence
Wonder
I really loved being able to paint a chair that many people will be able to see! I hope you enjoy my chair and I hope it will be at Ramsay School for many years. And, I hope you will enjoy sitting on it! My chair is based off of a book called, Wonder. The main character of the book is a boy with a deformed face. At first everybody thought that he was weird but eventually everybody realized that it’s okay to be different. I hope you realize that it’s great to be different and that’s what makes you special.
Sincerely,
Jane
Reach for the Stars
Hello! As a group, we decided to create a space chair because we had been learning about Sky Science in Grade 6. We loved painting the background galaxy because it was fun. I liked using the bubble wrap. We wanted to paint the planets, but we then we ended up using images to modge podge. We added paint to the images to make it look less realistic since that wasn’t the look we were going for. We would like people to know that this was quite a challenging project and was a long process. The quote we used is, “Reach for the Stars” because you should always chase and follow your dreams.
Grow Your Own Way
We really like the way that this chair canvas worked out. In my opinion, this chair was easier than the other chair because it didn’t have quite as many details. We loved the insects and things we painted on the chair. The quote for this chair is connected to our other quote, but reminds us that ‘you need to do you!’
Sincerely,
Rhyan, Heba and Isana
Traveling Chair!
The theme of my chair is all about traveling because the more you go to new places, the more you learn! I like to travel and I would love to see everyone have a chance to travel the world and learn new cultures and languages. I know two languages – English and Portuguese. On my chair, you will see an airplane flying around the globe, words in different languages on the legs and flags of the world on the top.
The flags of the world are my favorite part because they show that everyone belongs here. The most challenging part was putting all the little flags on but I’m happy with how it looks. When people sit on my chair, I want them to dream about where they would like to travel to!
Sincerely,
Maria
Student Council Raises $500 for Pandemic Pets
This year at Ramsay School, our Grades 4-6 Student Council voted to take action around supporting the Calgary Humane Society, as their first “action” to support the community. Students researched issues in the city and then brought their ideas forward. Based on the fact that the Calgary Humane Society has been deeply impacted by the return of “pandemic pets”, the students wanted to be able to help out!
Next came the brainstorming around how to fundraise. Student Council reached out to a contact at the Calgary Humane Society to ask. In the end, the students came together to create crafts and “Covid-19 friendly” goodies that they sold at our Winter Craft Sale.
Students raised $500 thanks to the generosity of our school community. This money will be donated to the Calgary Humane Society.
The members of Student Council look forward to their next action which will support our school community! We are very proud of this example of Ramsay School’s student agency and leadership. ~ Mrs. Scarrow
Ramsay School's Minecraft Submission to The City of Calgary
We are incredibly proud of the work that our Grade 4/5 and Grade 5/6 students and teachers have completed in the City of Calgary Minecraft Challenge. This project has allowed students to engage in many inter-disciplinary learning outcomes and has also deepened students understanding of the following CBE Result Statements:
- Citizenship in Learning: I can design something that meets the needs of the community.
- Personal Development through Learning: I can persevere through challenges; I can collaborate and work effectively with my group members.
- Character in Learning: I can stay on task.
In order to learn about the CBE’s Minecraft Challenge, students attended two live sessions and got to do a scavenger hunt through the Minecraft Calgary world. Students were impressed with Olympic Plaza and the Calgary Public Library design in the Minecraft world where they learned what their goals were for this project, and “met” Mayor Nenshi, Elder Saa'kokoto, Chief Superintendent Usih, and the head of the Calgary Public Library.
Students were guided by 4 pillars that the judges would be looking for in CBE student’s designs: a place to Connect, Gather, Work, and Play. Students examined real public spaces (like Rainbow Trout playground) to see how they fit this criteria.
Throughout the process, student designs had to change and they needed to persevere through many challenges (including tech problems). After learning how to make a good pitch, students shared with the class and then with the school community to select Ramsay School’s submission to the contest. Congratulations to Jane, Lillian, Callie and Kimberly for their awesome work around designing the CRC Café! We wish them luck in the contest.
Truth and Reconciliation at Ramsay School
On September 29th, all students and staff were invited to wear orange for Orange Shirt Day as we celebrate the notion that at Ramsay School, “Every Child Matters." Our school is incredibly proud of the work that teachers and students have begun around truth and reconciliation and we would like to specifically thank both Ms. Paradis and Ms. Roland who, alongside their Grade 1/2 students in just a few short weeks, have taken a lead around this work which was shared virtually within our school on September 29th. As you are already aware, September 30th is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The new federal national day directly responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action No. 80 and CBE's Education Plan where we have committed to “acknowledge and support the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action." The intention of the day was to recognize and honor residential school survivors, their families and communities. Please see Ramsay's Commitment to TRC work for the 2021-2022 school year.
The Tree in Me: How are we Resilient as a Learning Community?
The past 18 months have taught us at Ramsay School that we are resilient. To honor and deepen our understanding of resilience and land-based learning, our teaching staff has chosen to begin the year with the school-wide anchor text: “The Tree in Me" by Corrina Luyken. This text connects to the idea that we can bend with adversity but still remain tall, especially when we have a supportive ecosystem that remains interconnected. Parents and community members, thanks for being our roots!
Below is a quick snapshot of each Grade Team’s beginning of this learning...
