Star Wars Day at James Kennedy Elementary

May 9, 2017

May 4th was not just another day at James Kennedy Elementary. It was Star Wars Day. Children and teachers came to school dressed up as their favourite characters and took part in a school wide celebration.

In the morning, students assembled in the gym for a presentation. At the same time, a class of pre-school students gathered in the library for a robot coding demonstration. They programmed different types of robots to do actions such as moving, talking, changing colour, and dancing. Children were very enthusiastic as they entered commands, and problem solved routes.

The demonstration was put on by Saju Abraham of Left of the Dot and resource teacher, Ann Pimentel.

JKE classes were judged on their Star Wars spirit with a costume contest. Winners were awarded a magic show for their class, with winners in both Primary and Intermediate divisions.

Adult coding classes took place in the later morning, with parents of students coming to learn how to create their own game. They came to discover what their students will be learning in class, since coding was recently added to the BC Curriculum. Programming was done in Scratch.mit, with the help of teacher Ann and Saju.

At lunch, students were visited by Darth Vader, who made his way down the halls and into classrooms. With a student helper, Vader made many stops for photo opportunities.

Afterwards, there was a robot demonstration put on by students from Walnut Grove Secondary. They showcased their award-winning robot, that they designed and built at their school. The robot was built to be able to pick up and move objects while keeping balance. It operated by remote control, but had a pre-programmed idle mode, which one student designed. The robot recently won the VEX Robotics competition in BC.

The day ended with an assembly and showcase of student programming followed by a showing of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”. Students displayed video games that they designed themselves to the assembly.