This morning, our elementary chapel service was led by the Chapel teachers. After singing O Canada, saying the Lord’s Prayer and listening to the Land Acknowledgement, the teachers led a time of musical worship with “Shine on Me“. This is a song inviting Jesus to shine on us and to help us be a light for Him.
Next week, we will be having our second House Team Day of the year. Several Grade 8 students and Mrs. Bolton helped generate some enthusiasm for the big day that will take place on February 18th. As it will centre around the Winter Olympics theme, the Grade 8’s performed a mini torch relay to the front of the gym. Mrs. Bolton explained that everyone will be competing/ enjoying activities in mini-teams and rotating between stations. There will also be a House Team point announcement to see who will be receiving the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at this point in the year.
The speaker for today’s STEM focused chapel was Mr. Bailey, playing the role of Dr. STEMicus. After introductions, he led the review of the “Armour Up” sub-themes.
Next, he walked the students through the different stages (e.g. review of materials, hypothesis, experiment, analysis) of this week’s experiment which involved a boomwhacker, some fur and a ping pong ball. At each stage, the audience had a short period of time to discuss each step with their seat partners. Then, they finally watched the experiment play out and observed how the ping pong ball moved when the boomwhacker was close, but not touching it.
Mr. Bailey explained that when the fur was rubbed on the boomwhacker, it deposited negative electrons from the fur onto the plastic tube. This caused the boomwhacker to be negatively charged. When the boomwhacker was close to the ping pong ball, some of the negative electrons jumped to the ball. When both items are negatively charged, the ping pong ball repels and moves away when the boomwhacker approaches it.
The Chapel Teachers and some Grade 8 volunteers then led the audience in singing “Fishers of Men” – a traditional children’s song about to grow in Christ so that we can share our faith with others.
After the singing, Mr. Bailey discussed how we can use the information from the experiment to grow in our relationship with God. He focused on Ephesians 6:10-12 – our theme passage. He explained that we need to be intentional in our actions – just like intentionally charging the boomwhacker with negative ions to repel the ping pong ball. We need to be intentional about putting on the armour of God to help us grow (and repel evil). That means we need to
- Talk to God – with honest and sincere prayers
- Listen to God – by reading the Bible so that we are familiar with how He wants us to live in this world
- Do what He says – by being obedient to God’s will – which is not easy – can be counter-cultural
Mr. Bailey also shared many “how to” tips (e.g. How do we pray? How do we develop good habits of reading the Bible? and How do I do what He says?) which were supported by Bible verses.
After the message, the Chapel Teachers and their Grade 8 helpers then led the singing of “Every Move I Make” with lots of actions.
The service concluded with the recitation of the benediction before the students were dismissed to start their academic day.