All that remains from Festival du Voyageur 2017

A huge thank you to all parents who drove students to and from the Festival du Voyageur!

Our Grade 4, 7 and 8 students had the pleasure of attending Festival du Voyageur this year; our Grade 5 and 6 students were away at Winter Camp and will have to wait until next year.

It was actually pretty chilly on the day of our fieldtrip! However, due to the unseasonably warm weather the week prior, many of the snow sculptures melted and their remains were cleared away except for a few.  There was one sculpture at the entrance that was originally something else but it was reshaped into graceful forms, behind our students:

The sculptures in the international snow sculpting contest were all gone, except for one.  Our guide and host said that they were not sure why that particular sculpture survived intact.  We had to get our picture with it! It had an amazing shape...

Here it is:

 After all is demolished and gone, all that remains is the cross of Jesus Christ.

If you're curious, you can see an earlier picture of this sculpture--it is in the second photo in a CBC article dated Feb. 18, so you'll have to scroll down the article to find it.  You'll see it if you look in the upper left hand corner of the second photo.

Melting snow sculptures: CBC article

Please enjoy photos from three activities our Grade 7 and 8 students enjoyed: Fort Gibraltar A, Winter Trading Camp and Red River Heroes:

Lunchtime!

Our humourous story is chosen to be presented at "Red River Heroes".

A jumbo Connect-Four game in the outdoor playground

Finally, our weekly question that students have never tired of: Où est le drapeau français?

Voici l'indice:

This past week we also enjoyed a taste of Festival du Voyageur foods. Photos from that event are in the previous blog entry along with a recipe for bannock.  The pea soup recipe is in the blog entry prior to that.  Next week I'll post a photo of a surprise guest in our French class who dropped in this past week!  

Bonne fin de semaine!

Mme Christensen

Hé Ho! C'est le Festival!

I would like to thank all parents who supported our Festival du Voyageur celebrations here at the school by preparing bannock, volunteering to serve pea soup and bannock, for helping their children with their costumes and for driving students to and from Voyageur Park for our Festival du Voyageur fieldtrip. A recipe for bannock is found after these photos; a recipe for pea soup is on last week's blog entry. 

It was a very yummy and fun week...please enjoy our photos.

BANNOCK 

3 cups of flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ cup of fat (shortening or butter)

1 ¼ cup warm water

STEPS

• Mix all dry ingredients together.

• Make a hole in the middle and add fat.

• Pour water on top of the fat.

• Blend mixture together.

• Divide the dough into two balls.

• Flatten each ball into 1 cm thickness.

• Punch holes in both with a fork.

• Cook in well-greased frying pan for 20 minutes (or bake in a 400 degree oven 15-20 minutes until golden on the bottom). 

Festival du Voyageur field trip photos will be in our next blog entry.

À bientôt!

Mme Christensen

Powered by Pea Soup...and Bannock

This week will be a whirlwind of fun and hard work!

The Festival du Voyageur has begun!  This week our whole school will be enjoying a taste of pea soup, bannock and maple syrup.  Thank you to the many parent volunteers who have made this possible.  

If are not are able to make it to the Festival du Voyageur as a family to taste some of the French Canadian delicacies, why not try some at home? Here is a recipe for pea soup that was posted on this blog in previous years:

Pea soup

1 pound dried split peas, approximately 2 1/4 cups (I used green split peas.  Sort through and check them as occasionally there are small stones that need to be removed!)

8 cups water

1 large onion, chopped (about one cup)

1 cup finely chopped celery

1 smoked pork hock (I purchased some from Miller's Meats; one ham bone with a bit of meat on it is an alternative)

3 medium carrots

1/4 tsp pepper
1 heaping tsp or more of summer savory

salt and maple syrup to taste

Rinse the peas.  Bring peas and 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pot or Dutch oven.  Boil uncovered two minutes; remove from heat.  Cover and let stand for one hour.

Stir in onion, celery and pepper.  Add pork hock/ham bone.  Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender.

Remove pork hocks/ham bone.  Remove meat, cutting it in 1/2" pieces.  Stir meat and carrots into soup.   Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer until carrots are tender and soup is of desired consistency, adding salt to taste.

Students, don't forget to dress up in your best tuque and plaid shirt Wednesday. During chapel we will be singing the Voyageur song. Will the "oui, oui, oui" or the "non, non, non" voyageurs be the loudest?

Enjoy this Festival du Voyageur promo:

Festival du Voyageur

Why do we have the Festival du Voyageur? Here's some historical background from the National Film Board:

History of the Voyageurs

Now for the hard work I mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry. The Grade 4-6 students are reminded to bring a photo or a drawing of the person that they are featuring in their projects. Grade 7 and 8 students need to complete and bring to class a drawing or prototype of their invention to class on Thursday, Feb. 23. All students will be working on the good copies of their written work.

Finally, où est le drapeau français?

Voici l'indice: 

Bonne fin de semaine!

Mme Christensen

Festival du voyageur...coming soon to a school near you!

Hé Ho! It's me again!

This familiar face popped up on our bulletin board recently! Permission slips were passed out to the Gr. 4, 7 and 8 students who will be attending Festival du Voyageur this week. Please remember to bring in your permission slips on Monday. (Our Grade 5 and 6 students will be at winter camp and will attend Festival next  year.)

Upcoming events during Festival du Voyageur are:

We will be needing 3-4 parent volunteers to help rewarm and distribute pea soup along with bannock and maple syrup to all classes on Tues. Feb. 21.  Please indicate on the form sent out this week if you are able to help. We are also looking for a couple parent volunteers per class to bring bannock that morning.  Students greatly appreciate and look forward to this event.  Merci beaucoup!

We will be all dressed up and singing our "Voyageur Song" at chapel on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

This week, Grade 7 and 8 students have been working hard on the rough copies of their "Dragon's Den" invention projects. We have been reviewing the imperative form of verbs so that we will be able to write instructions to go along with our inventions.

 Grade 4, 5 and 6 students are working on the rough copy of their project describing an important family member in their lives.  We have been practicing vocabulary and brief phrases that describe physical appearance.

Finally, où est le drapeau français?

 Voici l'indice:

Bonne fin de semaine!

Mme Christensen

Go, Go, Go; Allez, Allez, Allez!

We completed our January calendar this week!

This past week the Grade 4, 5 and 6 students came across the verb "aller" in the story we read about a family's trip to Vietnam.  Grade 7 and 8 students will be using this verb extensively as they work on their invention projects this week. We all enjoyed this video in French , Spanish and English which will help us remember what the verb "aller" means!

Allez, Allez, Allez!

Grade 7 and 8 students, please remember that you must bring to class your ideas for your invention project as we are starting our work on the rough copy on Monday.

The Grade 4, 5 and 6 students have been learning/reviewing vocabulary on the parts of the body in preparation for their project.  Here is a good site online that reviews this vocabulary through games. My favorite is "whack-a-word".

Vocabulary games/activities: Le corps humain, level one

Finally, la grande question: Où est le drapeau français?

(Indice: Il est près du bureau de Mme Christensen.)

À lundi!

Mme Christensen