Welcome to one of the many blog posts that will come, amazingly written by a few students of École Lansdowne! We will be writing about our first week back from Winter Break.
To be honest, our first day back seemed difficult, we weren’t so used to waking up early in the morning like we regularly were. I can tell you that the majority of the class probably stayed up a little later than their usual bedtimes. Everyone looked tired, uninterested and bored, even the teachers! To be truthful, everyone seemed out of focus. Fortunately, we were able to push forward by starting a new project! It was a project involving our new year resolutions. We wrote about; two things that we want to learn about, one thing we can do to make everyday happier, one thing to make our school a better place, and seven ways to be kinder. Have you ever done something similar?
Another assignment we started on was our first copy for our French oral speaking contest. We each have a unique topic that we’re passionate about and show that interest by forming a speech. The classroom chooses two students to represent our class. We hope the best for our representatives!
Lastly, we had two guest speakers. We had 3 sessions with a Literacy Support Teacher for our school division, Mme Byman. She taught us how to improve our reading with a concept called: fluency criteria. She created an acronym called P.V.R and P.I.E. I love to eat pie; I wish it was that kind of pie! Too bad it isn’t! So P.V.R stands for pace, volume, and rhythm whereas P.I.E stands for punctuation, intonation, and expression. It helps us with our presentations, reading and just in general. We practiced our reading by using magazines to identify information by only using the visuals. We practically use these strategies all the time as of now.
The second guest speaker was an artist named Mr. ManyEagles. He taught us how to carve Soapstone, a rock commonly found everywhere around the world. We were all able to make fish heads, three letter words, pineapples, and whatever we could design on a small, rectangular piece of the stone. Overall, this activity allowed our creativity to roam free. Not only did he teach us carving techniques but shared his back story with how he had grew an interest into Soapstone carving.
The week changed drastically, in a good way of course. Compared to our usual weeks, this one was no different. Just a normal week in the class of 121 told by normal students. We hope you enjoyed reading!
-Avril G. & Kimberley R.