Every year, the CAISL middle school students embark on an interdisciplinary unit that challenges the students in a variety of cross-curricular activities. The unit provides an opportunity for all three grades (6th, 7th and 8th) to work together on collaborative tasks.
This year's theme was the Olympics and the main focal points were to design an original sport based on the cultural heritage of the nation, and to "host" the other seven teams through providing educational videos, presentations, making tasty snacks and drafting a bid proposal. The last two days of the unit were geared towards each of the 8 nations presenting their opening ceremonies, including an anthem and a haka. After each ceremony, the teams got to participate in each of the original sports that had been designed.
Going into the last day, the spirit of the games was in force as the students fervently cheered on their colleagues whilst exhibiting excellent sportsmanship and fair play. The energy and atmosphere in the gymnasium was electric. Fans chanted for their teams as each event unfolded. It was a close run thing, all the teams collected a variety of medals in both academic and athletic events, but by the end of the ten days a winner emerged. The 3rd place team was India (Mr. João and Mr. Javier's advisories), 2nd place was Cuba (Ms. Ana Sofia and Mr. Hawke's advisories), and our winners this year were Mexico (Ms. Baer and Mr. Dulcinio's advisories.) In saying this, all of the students involved could be considered winners as all of our teams strived and succeeded in achieving the Unit's Goals.
By David Price, Assistant Principal for Middle School
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