Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Yesterday's Small Snow Festival


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This blog's long tradition of not knowing what's going on continues with Shikaoi Elementary School's snow festival yesterday. (The pattern continues today, discovering only fifteen minutes before work ended yesterday that my classes for today were cancelled.) Yesterday morning, after two classes, I noticed all my students putting on all their winter gear and going outside. The reason this did not strike me as odd at the time was because it was morning recess. However, soon the teachers were putting on mitts and scarfs too. Now I knew something was afoot!

Before lunch, Shikaoi Sho Gakko held a small snow festival completely organized by a group of grade five and sixes. It was not a very serious event, and seems to have been more aimed at getting the students outside and running around on a beautiful day, filling their lungs with the Shikaoi's fresh air. (The only thing I would change, and that the images can't represent, it the cold wind.) The snow was melting and perfect for snowballs, which automatically made me a large target (so I stood by the principal and vice-principal - good idea). The small pictures are of some of the students that organized the event.


The students were split evenly into seven teams so that each team had a mix of grade sixes to grade ones. There were two events; one, a sled relay, where the grade four-five-and-sixes pulled the one-twos-and-threes and a second race to build the highest pile of snow in ten minutes. The tallest snow mountain was impressively tall. I think the event was very fun because everyone was in high spirits. I'm glad I always keep my small Sony camera in my backpack. Seeing kids having that much fun together - that much joy - keeps the heart warm and fuzz. The students had all the teachers smiling with their antics. Again, there is a way to expand every image on here so click away.

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