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Linden Band impresses at Kiwanis Festival
- February 26, 2009
The Linden Band turned in a great performance
for the Kiwanis Festival on Wednesday, February 25, earning
themselves a gold medal - the highest honour possible - and
a mark of 93% from the Festival adjudicator.
The band, composed of an instrumental section
and a choir, performed two songs by Canadian artists for the
adjudicator to consider: Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game
and Kathleen Edwards's Buffalo. With the instruction
and guidance of music teachers Ian and Lindsay, the girls
worked diligently on both songs in their rehearsals throughout
the school year, and their dedication certainly showed in
the final result.
The Kiwanis adjudicator who assessed the
performance, Richard Hoenich, is an accomplished professional
musician and conductor. He has held posts including: associate
conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; director of
orchestra activities at the New England Conservatory of Music;
and music director of the McGill Symphony Orchestra, who recorded
a Juno award-winning CD under his direction. He was extremely
impressed with the band's performance and seemed very interested
in purchasing a copy of the studio recording the band will
complete in March.
Congratulations to all of the band and choir
members, and to Ian and Lindsay, for their hard work and success!
Grade 7 students model green living - February
26, 2009
Linden's grade 7 students learned all about
the benefits of off-the-grid living through a recent art project,
in which each girl was charged with designing her own environmentally
sustainable school, co-op housing complex or retirement home.
Armed with recycled materials, extensive research on going
green and a list of important considerations, the girls built
models of their proposed new developments.
Here are some of the sustainable materials,
green energy sources and energy-saving measures students Alex
and Mikaela used in their projects:
- Recycled wood (particularly bamboo) for flooring and
interior structures
- Recycled denim for insulation
- Rain water collectors for storing water for household
use
- Geothermal heating and cooling system
- Solar panels and wind turbines for electricity generation
- Clotheslines in place of electric dryers
- Outdoor vegetable garden, allowing residents to grow their
own produce
Each student also added her own considerations
to her original list, focusing on those unique to the type
of building she chose to construct and the needs of its inhabitants.
As an example of the additional factors each student had to
take into account, here is Gwen's description of the elders'
home she designed:
"For my art project I chose
to make an elders' home. I focused on the special needs of
blind elders, and I chose to make my elders' home just for
blind elders. In each of the rooms I put a quilt with a different
object on it, which residents can touch to know they're in
a certain room. I also put a mechanical garden in it so elders
could feel and touch the objects to make them be able to feel
like a part of the building. I also put the objects in the
garden so residents can get a sense of where they are. I located
my elders' home at the harbour front so they can hear the
sounds of the ocean."
Look for some examples of these projects
at the Linden Art Show on Thursday, April 23, 2009.
Linden girls on ice... and snow - February
23, 2009
Even the bitter winter chill failed to put
a damper on the enthusiasm of our skiers, skaters, snowboarders
and tubers for Linden's annual Ski and Skate Day, held on
Thursday, February 19.
Students in grades 1-4 headed to the Harbourfront
Centre for some outdoor ice skating, while girls in grades
5-12 drove up to Horseshoe Valley Ski Resort in Alliston to
hit the hills, the cross-country trails and the snow tubing
park. The stiff breeze made it slow going at times for both
groups, but neither let it diminish the excitement out of
the day (or let it keep them inside!)
Elizabeth did a great job organizing the
skiing portion of the day, and Tonja and Christine had lots
of fun taking the girls to the rink. We're already looking
forward to next year!
Linden celebrates Black History Month -
February 13, 2009
Along with people
around the world, The Linden School is celebrating Black History
Month this February. In particular, we're learning about the
many contributions to society made by black women - and Linden
girls are doing the teaching.
In this week's all school, Tonja and Tulay
assigned each of our eight families a facet of society to
investigate, and asked them to find as many black women as
they could who have made a contribution in that category.
These categories included politics, art, music and entertainment,
science, acting and theatre, math, sports and literature.
The families then picked five of the women in the category
they investigated and made a poster about each designed to
teach other students in the school about their accomplishments
in their chosen disciplines.
Here are a few of the women our students
investigated:
- Mary Church Terell, an educator, political and community
organizer, and civil rights leader for gender and race equality.
- Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first African-American woman to
go to space.
- Euphemia Hayes, the first female African-American to earn
a PhD in math.
- Lisa Leslie, the first woman to complete a slam-dunk in
the WNBA.
- Dorothy Dandridge, the first black woman to be nominated
for a Best Actress Oscar.
The posters have been hung all around the
school, allowing students to learn about the women their family
did not investigate and displaying the incredible breadth
of ways in which black women have made their mark. The next
time you're here, be sure to look for them!
Thanks to the girls for their hard
work, and to Tonja and Tulay for organizing a very successful
and informative activity.
Medieval Persia comes alive at Linden -
February 10, 2009
On February 6, students in grades 5 and
6 brought Medieval Persia to life in the Linden gymnasium
for the school's annual Persian Bazaar.
In order to represent the diversity common
at Medieval Persian bazaars, the girls took on roles representing
a wide variety of people found there during this time period.
Each student gave a speech detailing what life for a person
in her role - whether that be a tanner, a food seller, or
a member of the Sultan's harem - would have been like in Medieval
Persia. The girls also told the story of Shahrazad, a character
at the centre of Susan Fletcher's Shadow Spinner, the
novel providing the inspiration for the bazaar.
The girls worked hard at making their costumes,
props and stalls look authentic, and they put a lot of research
and thought into their speeches. The result was a very convincing
recreation - with some delicious, authentic food!
Congratulations to the girls and Radhika,
the grade 5/6 English teacher, for a job well done!
Senior Art students take their work to
the streets- February 9, 2009
When art and history collide, it's amazing
what can result. Art students in grades 11 and 12 discovered
the places the record books can take them in developing their
site-specific art projects, which they recently installed
in the Yonge and St. Clair area.
Because the girls planned to install the
projects in the Yonge and St. Clair area, it was important
for them to have a firm grasp on the area's history before
developing a project to speak to it. So Sharon and her art
class went straight to the source: the City of Toronto archives.
There, students learned about how the area has changed over
the years, and about the significant events and projects that
shaped the Yonge and St. Clair we know today.
The students prepared for their projects
in a number of other ways. They visited the offices of Spacing
magazine, a publication devoted to understanding the political,
cultural and social issues that affect Toronto's urban landscape.
They also studied the work of artists known for similar projects,
drawing inspiration and guidance from their pieces.
Each girl's piece, in both the form it took
and the place chosen for its installation, combined the workings
of her imagination with the reality and history of the area
surrounding the school. Inspirations were wide-ranging and
unique: one girl meditated on the building of the streetcar
tracks on St. Clair West and the story of a woman who rides
the streetcar every day; another commented on the tuberculosis
outbreaks in the city's past and the ability (or inability)
of contemporary medicine to deal with this disease.
Emma, a grade 11 student, chose to tackle
the subject of homelessness for her project. She tied cloth
"characters" to a subway grate, where homeless people
may seek refuge and cold weather, and a tree overhanging Yonge
Street, harnessing the wind and hot air to blow the characters
into the view of pedestrians and drivers.
"People turn a blind eye to homelessness,"
Emma says. "The character ambushes them, forcing them
to take notice before they have time to put up a shield."
Annie (grade 11) used ribbons to comment
on immigration, and the flow of people moving into the Yonge
and St. Clair area.
"Each colour of ribbon symbolizes a
different person and the reason why they decided to come to
Canada," she says. The site she chose for her installation
was originally a railroad track, symbolizing the constant
movement of newcomers into the area.
The pieces are constructed completely of
biodegradable material, as an important part of site-specific
installations is that they leave no lasting mark on the environment.
And each girl knows that her installation may be ripped down,
or rained on, or blown away in the wind - but this is a natural
part of the process, and one that won't stop them from going
forward with future projects.
Science and Technology Fair educates and
entertains - February 2, 2009
Linden's annual Science and Technology Fair,
held on Thursday, January 29, once again displayed a range
of projects representative of the diverse interests of Linden
students.
All students taking science at the school
- from grade 1 through to grade 12 - complete a project for
the Fair every year. While most students select a topic of
their choice, certain grades are devoted to advancing students'
knowledge in specific subject areas; grade 8 students complete
a robotics project, in which they build and program their
own robot, while grade 11 students develop their knowledge
of biological systems by creating a creature adapted to a
specific habitat.
The resulting projects in every grade are
always fascinating - and this year was no different. Topics
addressed included: possible causes of osteoporosis in women
(grade 7); factors causing a cake to rise (grade 1); the effect
of serif and sans-serif fonts on memorization (grade 10);
and the chemistry of candy (grade 5). Rather than compete
to win a prize, each girl also got the chance to share her
findings with three "Willing Listeners", members
of the Linden community who volunteer to listen to students'
presentations and provide feedback about their work.
Thanks to everyone who came to see the final
results of our girls' hard work and creativity!
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