Académie de la Capitale IB World School

💤 Rehearsals Day 2 & The Ultimate Pajama Comfort! 🎸✨

Day two of our schoolwide rehearsals is officially underway as we countdown to the big Celebration of Learning tomorrow!

To balance out the busy rehearsal schedule, today is our annual favourite: PJ Spirit Day! Wearing our coziest pajamas makes the whole day feel a lot more relaxed and comfortable before everyone dresses up in their formal school uniforms for the concert tomorrow.

Today, our main focus was fine-tuning all of our incredible musical performances. From the violins, cello, and guitars to the piano and bells, our beautiful yard has been filled with the sounds of our students' hard work and talent. 🎻🎹🔔

We are also incredibly happy that the weather forecast has turned out to be wrong so far! We’ve enjoyed beautiful sunshine all day so far under the big tent, and we are holding out hope that this gorgeous weather continues for the big show tomorrow. ☀️🙏

See you all tomorrow for the AcadeCabaret and Awards! 🏆🎶

🎸 Rocking Our Spirit Day & Celebration of Learning Rehearsals! 🎤✨

The countdown to our Celebration of Learning (AcadeCabaret & Awards) has officially begun! Today marked our very first day of schoolwide rehearsals, and the energy across the school was electric as we get ready for the big show this Thursday.

To kick things off in style, today was also our Music Icon Spirit Day! Our beautiful yard was filled with students and staff dressed up or wearing merch of their favourite musical legends, setting the perfect creative tone for the hard work and practicing ahead.

Our students even pitched in to get our outdoor stage area ready for action, working hard to clear all the sticks and debris from the grass so our performers have the perfect space to shine.

Over the next two days, our students will be busy polishing their performances and fine-tuning every detail to showcase their incredible growth, talents, and academic achievements. We cannot wait to bring it all together on Thursday under the big tent outside! 🏆🎶

💖 Generosity & Lifelong Learning! ✨

Today, J.M., grandmother of M.R. and N.R., came to visit us to deliver the annual donation that she and H.B., the boys’ aunt, make to AcadeCap. We are grateful for their continued support.

She expressed how much she appreciates AcadeCap and the experience her “deux grands garçons” are getting here. When she compares it to her high school experience in the 1940s and her children’s experience in the 1980s, she is overjoyed by the opportunities M. and N. now have. Both the academics and the social life are enriched, well-rounded, and balanced. In her words, they learn by living the learning; in pedagogical terms, we would call that experiential learning.

She was particularly impressed with the end-of-year trip to Alberta. Every day during the trip, she would read the printed itinerary and search the web for all the wonderful destinations our students experienced. This alhlowed her to relive the trip she made to Alberta as a young woman nearly 67 years ago. Learning never stops! 🏔️💬

🚀 8 Weeks of Summer Camp Fun—And Spots Are Still Available! ☀️🪢

Looking for the perfect summer adventure to keep your child engaged? We have 8 full weeks of incredible summer camps lined up at AcadeCap from June 22nd to August 14th, and there is still space to register!

Here are some of this year's weeks:

🪐 AcadeCamp (iSTEAM) | Ages 4–5 & 6–9

This year, our iSTEAM campers are launching into the universe with space exploration themes!

- Life in Space (Week 1): Train like an astronaut and design space survival systems.
- Rockets & Propulsion (Week 2): Experiment with pressure and launch a real rocket prototype.
- Colonizing Space (Week 4): Team up to design model habitats for Mars or the Moon.

💻 AcadeCoders (Coding) | Junior (8–10) & Coders (11+)
Campers problem-solve and create using cutting-edge software and technology.

- Game Design (Week 2): Step into the shoes of a game designer using Scratch and the 3D Godot Engine.
- Web Wizards (Week 3): Learn the building blocks of the web by coding a website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Robotics (Week 4): Wire circuits and program LEGO Spike and Dash Bots to solve missions.

🏃‍♂️ Plenty of Outdoor Fun with Athletiks!
It is not all screen time and lab work! Our campers spend plenty of time outdoors with our Athletiks programme, where they get active and learn a brand-new sport every single week.

📝 Secure Your Child's Spot Today!
While we still have space available across our 8 weeks, spots fill up quickly. Contact us directly or find all registration forms right on our website!

🔗 Register here: https://www.acadecap.org/camps/

Take a look at some of our past summer memories to see the kinds of hands-on building, experimenting, and team play our campers dive into every day!

📝 Wrapping Up Finals Week: Celebrating a Multitude of Talents! ✨

With Friday being tomorrow, we are almost at the end of finals week here at AcadeCap! 🎓📖

Taking tests and other final examinations is a skill. At their best, they help students practise the focus, organization, recall, and resilience they will need later in school and in life. Testing also boosts long-term memory retrieval, helps students identify their own strengths and areas for growth, and teaches valuable time management.

At AcadeCap, we believe this preparation should begin gradually and thoughtfully throughout the entire school year. This ongoing practice teaches our students across all grades how to work under pressure and show what they know through a diverse multitude of assessments. Throughout the year, they experience a wide variety of challenges, from math contests, running races, and science fairs to hands-on inquiry projects, demonstrating their knowledge and skills in many different manners:

In the PYP Years: From a young age, students are progressively exposed to cumulative assessments. This is always done in ways that are age-appropriate and not overwhelming, building familiarity, confidence, and healthy learning habits rather than pressure.

In Middle School: By the time students reach these grades, more traditional sit-down exams are no longer unfamiliar or anxiety-provoking. They have already had years of practice retrieving knowledge, organizing their thinking, and showing what they understand across a broader body of learning.

In High School: In their later years, students are fully ready for a balanced mix of classic exams, final presentations, and in-class demonstrations. Each format assesses essential skills: knowledge, reasoning, communication, independence, and the ability to perform under different expectations.

In this sense, assessments do more than just measure learning, they are deeply formative, both academically and in the development of essential life skills.

Congratulations to all! 🌟💪

❤️ Skipping for a Cause: Our Annual Jump Rope for Heart Event! 🪢✨

This week we did one of our favourite end of year traditions, our annual Jump Rope for Heart event! It always gets our hearts pumping and us sweating. Our students have been practicing different skipping skills leading up to today, and it was wonderful to see it all come together.

We kicked off the event by watching an educational video from the association, where students learned about the importance of heart health, nutrition, and staying active. To give their efforts a personal connection, students shared and wrote down their own reasons for jumping, all while working hard on their fundraising efforts.

Then, it was time to show off their skills! The students rotated through different stations, taking on challenges like the helicopter, the snake, and double dutch.
Since it was a very hot day today, keeping hydrated with plenty of water was a top priority. Of course, the absolute best part of the morning was cooling down with some well earned freezies! 🧊☀️

Thank you to our amazing community for supporting our fundraising, and well done to all of our jumpers for showing so much heart today!

There is still time to donate and help us reach our goal of $2000! 🎯❤️

🏆 3rd Place Nationally: Science 7/8 Triumphs in Let’s Talk Science Challenge! 🔬

We are proud to celebrate our Science 7/8 team for winning 3rd place overall in the virtual nationwide Let’s Talk Science Engineering Design Challenge! With schools across Canada competing, organizers noted that this year was "very competitive" (more than 3000 participants), making this national achievement especially impressive.

Taking on the roles of young engineers and environmental problem-solvers, our students designed a biomimicry-inspired product to help a fictional town facing real-world issues. They looked to nature for solutions to tackle flooding from heavy rains, overheated playgrounds, and poor air quality near schools.

Along with their innovative design, students completed the Ultimate Quiz, covering physics, chemistry, biology, environmental and earth sciences, math, and engineering technology, as well as a Spirit Award component celebrating teamwork and creativity.

Our team shone in every part of the competition, demonstrating curiosity, innovation, and strong scientific thinking. Their national 3rd place finish is a testament to their hard work and collaborative spirit.

Congratulations to our Science 7/8 students, you’ve made our school proud! 🌍✨

Celebrating Our DELF Candidates! 📝✨

Earlier this week, some of our Upper School students took on the challenge of the DELF (Diplôme d'Études en Langue Française) examinations, testing their French language skills at the Junior B1 and Junior B2 levels.

Demonstrating great dedication, these students chose to spend many of their recesses preparing and studying in addition to their regular French classes.

After each exam, students reflected thoughtfully on their experience, discussing with one another and their teacher which sections they found most challenging, what skills they would like to strengthen, and how they can continue to improve. Their growth mindset, resilience, and maturity have been wonderful to witness.

We are very proud of their hard work, commitment, and willingness to challenge themselves. Félicitations!

The DELF program at AcadeCap is entirely optional and is offered to students and families who wish to pursue this internationally recognized French-language certification through Alliance Française.👏🎯

(Please note that not all candidates are pictured, as students were focused on their examinations throughout the testing sessions.)

🥋 Little Ninjas, Big Skills: Leveling Up in Jiu-Jitsu!

Our Early Years students have been doing incredible work on the mats! They have been practicing their foundational Jiu-Jitsu skills since the beginning of the year, and it is amazing to see how much they have improved their physical literacy, control, and focus. 🌟

Here is a look at some of the impressive skills they have been mastering:

Stances, Movement & Balance: Using games like Ninja Assassin and hoops on the ground as reference points, students are learning to move forward, backward, side-to-side, and switch sides of their fighting stance. A major focus is keeping their hands up, they love reminding each other to "squish the marshmallows in their armpits" so their arms don't flare out like "chicken wings"! To build core strength for front kicks, they practice balancing a hoop on their leg in a high "chamber" knee-up position, even passing it leg-to-leg with their peers.

Dynamic Rolls, Breakfalls & Striking: They are practicing front somersault rolls directly into a self-defense stance, followed by controlled palm heel strikes, jab-cross combinations, and front kicks. They also practice drop-knees into powerful stomp kicks onto shields. Safety is our top priority, the children have progressed to standing back breakfalls, knowing exactly how to tuck their chins to protect their heads, spring back up quickly into a safe guard position, and stand up safely from their breakfalls.

These are just some of the many foundational skills they have been working on and steadily integrating into their self-defense techniques.

Beyond the physical movements, mat time is a wonderful place for curiosity. We love discussing their great questions about how to do a move, why we practice a technique, and how to behave in different scenarios. 🥋✨