October Thanks, Tricks and Treats!

The month of October for the 9s has flown by and we are now coming down to the final week of the month where the theme of Halloween will be taking over campus. The monthly theme from a wellness point of view is Self-Care. Our plan with the Self-Care theme is to provide an opportunity for students to build confidence and reestablish any sense of lost control by looking inward to their habits and approaches. Each 9 will complete a "Wellness Platter", to help them establish a routine that works for them personally and academically.

The wellness plan is done in advisee groups and the 9s will be checking in with their plans throughout the year.

Thanksgiving Community Dinner was a time to reflect and express our gratitude. The House Challenge that Mr. Doland had all houses do was a video of the boarders in each house expressing their gratitude in as many ways as possible. A neat addition was seeing which house could say "Happy Thanksgiving" in as many different languages as in the house.

Mr. Rodford's famous turkey hat posing with Tayte, Julia and Danae

We had House Games #2- The games included Soccer, Cardio Pictionary and Billiards.
"It was quite fun, I played soccer and we played well.. I didn't keep track of the score though".
 - Grade 9s

HOUSE CUP STANDINGS
Barnacle: 111 points
Bolton: 67 points
Harvey: 109 points
Symons: 91 points
Timmis: 112 points
Winslow: 73 points

 Preet and Michelle focused on the foosball!

Julia and Danae with their soccer game faces on!

WE Day in Vancouver
An inspirational event that teaches and encourages youth to make a difference in the world. The event features celebrity performances and guest speakers, including Chris Hadfield, Marlee Matlin, Henry Winkler, Silken Laumann and 2015 SMUS grad Ann Makosinski. Check out the article on the SMUS review and the link to photos from the event. It was attended by both the Middle and Senior Schools.
We Day Inspires Students to Be Leaders, Difference-Makers

The first School Dance 
Happened this past friday, (October 23rd). "I went to the dance on friday with Abby and Paola. It was pretty fun everyone was crowded near the front. A lot of jumping and dancing, the music had a great beat and fun to dance to".
     - Michelle M

Impromptu Grade 9 Service 
There was a bonus Friday night activity yesterday for a group of grade 9 boarding boys. Mr Farish was doing some prep work in the new SMUS community garden space when the following boys, en route to Hillside for food, wandered by, saw us working on the greenhouse and offered to help out. They ended up staying to help for an hour and put it almost entirely back together!

• Peter Gituma
• Garry Gu
• Alvaro de Junco
• Ken Huang
• Jack Luo

Building Dinners this past week allowed for the student's to spend some time with other boarders and houseparents. "Throughout the year the boarders in each house get to head out on the town for a dinner out. It is a great way to see the city, and experience some of the local food".
- Mr. Daly

October 9 Time Activity - Epic Escape 

This activity forces the 9's to think outside the box, work in teams and really embrace the challenge of being locked inside a room and having to solve riddles to escape. My favorite part was seeing them put their heads together and use each other's strengths to solve each riddle. The expressions on their faces when success was achieved was priceless. The fastest escape was Bryant's team - Michelle. W, Wilson, Julia, Taevon and Jack. They will receive a prize next month. Below are some highlights from the group:

"It's tricky, but the best part was getting to use the tools in the room to solve the puzzle" - James Chen

" I really liked it, it was really fun. The clues were really good and I would do it again!" - Deon Lam

"TEAMWORK" - Shalese Jordan

"Tricky but fun, the best part was when you hear the lock unlocking... the sound of success!" - Tate Robinson

"It's hard but it helped me to learn teamwork" - Emilio 

"Thinking in a different way makes the experience pretty cool" - Michelle M

"Epic Escape was a unique experience, it is a riddle type game that involves using clues to get out of the room.  There was a lot of teamwork involved and we had to use everything we found, even the littlest thing was useful! It was cool to see how everything was linked and that one thing lead to another. In the end we had one clue left, and could not figure it out. We found one at the beginning that we disregarded and realized at the end we needed it".
- Michelle M

Halloween and Saturday Activities.
Note from Mr. Driscoll - This weekend sees the convergence of Halloween and Saturday Activities.
We will still be running our full slate of Saturday activities in conjunction with those that will be occurring for the entire community Saturday evening, (The Haunted House, Fireworks and Howlapolooza are not mandatory for students to attend, however any students not signed out on overnight leave will be required to stay on campus for the evening). Those students who have signed up to perform or assist with Howlapooloza will be excused for the afternoon sessions. While the evening events are not mandatory please do encourage the students to support their peers.

Looking forward to the week of Halloween!

Click Here for 9 Time October Photos