Learning About the Marathon of Hope

DAY 8 on the Road to Nova Scotia
Thunder Bay ON to Kapuskasing ON (618.7 km)

4330.6 km in total from Yellowknife

This morning, the girls were very excited to be able to stop at the Terry Fox Memorial and Scenic Lookout, just east of Thunder Bay, ON.

Miss G's Journal

It's -20 outside.  -26 with the windchill.  Just thought you should know.

Miss G came home with a collection of school work on Monday.

I want to share with you her school journal.  I love it so much.

I used labels to record precisely what she intended to say in the journal, but I LOVE her phonetic spelling.

Today is Tuesday, September 18, 2012.

Santa is coming to town.

Why can't she write that in September?  Don't even pretend that your kids don't watch Christmas DVD's all year long! 

Like Riding a Bike...

Yesterday, we had a play date with some twin classmates in Miss G's class.

They brought over their bikes and scooters.

One of the bikes had no training wheels (taken off by their dad in anticipation of some two-wheeling), and after yesterday, Miss G's friends decided they wanted to have their training wheels back on. 

They were too frustrated.

It sparked some thinking...

This morning, Miss G announced that she had a dream that her bike had only two wheels and that she could ride her bike without her "little wheels."

"Mommy, can we take them off?" 

Miss A, is happy to have her little pink training wheels on... for now. 

So, after school, Daddy took off Miss G's training wheels.

We prepared her with how to fall, since that's a safety thing, and encouraged her to look straight ahead.

Her exact words?

"I know, I know, I know.  Let's go!" 

And do you know what? 

She DID know!

I swear, I think she learned to ride her bike in her dream, and just woke up with the confidence to be able to do it!

Here, Miss G is telling me that her bike is now Practice Bike.

Before, it was I Can Do It Alone Bike, and now it is Practice Bike.

On second thought, make that Practice Princess Bike. 

I couldn't freakin' believe it, but she rode that bike on her second try!! 

I hardly had time to grab my camera from inside before she was doing it!! 

"YAY!  I'm doing it!!"

We are so so so so so proud of her for being confident, determined and patient. 

Look at her go!! 

I'm beaming.

Seriously. 

My face hurts from smiling!

I got to help her out, and let me tell you, it did not take very long for her to be yelling,

"Let go, already!" 

As you can see, I didn't even get a chance to change out of my school clothes before helping out Little Evil Kenevil. 

She was so pumped! 

We are are so freakin' proud of her for making this decision all on her own.  

If you need us after school or on the weekend, we'll be in the court on the bikes!

Prepositions

Prepositions are special building block words in sentences.

Prepositions help to link the object (often a noun) or phrase to other words.

Prepositions define the spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence.

Some examples of prepositions include: on, in, over, under, during, about.  Apparently there are around 100 prepositions in English.

Prepositions are important.

So is enunciation of prepositions.

Case in point:

Last week, when Miss G was oh-so-very sick, she was most concerned to miss school on Wednesday, because every second Wednesday is her Show and Share day, and she LOVES Show and Share so much!

I assured her that her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. F., would let her do her show and share the next day, on Thursday.

Miss G thought about this long and hard, and finally decided that she would prefer NOT to do show and share the next day, on Thursday, but rather wait until the following week on Wednesday.

Clearly, Wednesday is an important day.

I digress.

Last Thursday was Miss G's triumphant return to Kindergarten, after that nasty nasty stomach bug was over.

Thursday turned out to be special for her, even without Show and Share.

Miss G's name was called out in front of a whole school assembly.

She is Student of the Month for her class!

It was so cute to hear her friends whispering to her (a stage whisper, of course... I could hear them from across the gym),

"Miss G!  Stand up!  They said your name!!  You're Student of the Month!"

Like a good girl, she stood up, and looked straight ahead, proud as could be while the other Students of the Month were called out.

After the assembly, Miss G got a certificate, and she was very excited to show it to Daddy when we got home from school.

A local restaurant gives each Student of the Month a $10 coupon, and we told Miss G how proud we were of her, and that we will take her to the restaurant for ice cream someday soon.

Then, I said, "We are so proud of you!  Go put your certificate ON the fridge." 

She heard, "Go put your certificate IN the fridge."

Maybe it was my enunciation.

Maybe it was the preposition.

Or maybe, all that talk about ice cream clouded her action.

The award is still in the fridge, in case you are wondering... waiting for our trip to the restaurant to cash it in!

Happy Earth Day!

Yesterday, when the girls came home, I had a new craft supply for them to explore to celebrate Earth Day.

Window markers!!

Complete with window-friendly stickers and templates... I'm not sure who is more excited-- me or the girls.

I mean, really?  Who doesn't love the idea of a big empty window for your blank canvas?

Crayola rocks!!

The girls had HOURS of fun drawing and tracing, and admiring how the beautiful sun makes the Earth look oh-so-beautiful outside the window. 

I would totally recommend these window markers to my teacher buddies and parent-friends...

HELLO!? 

Can you say,

Awesome way to practice

...printing?

...spelling?

...dictée?

...drawing?

At preschool, Miss A made this Earth Day caterpillar out of a reused egg carton.

She actually left without her caterpillar, but her teacher, Mme. C, chased us down to reunite Miss A with her caterpillar.

She was so proud! 

In Kindergarten, Miss G made the Earth with her very awesome and involved teacher, Mrs. F.

I actually found the whole Kindergarten class with Mrs. F in the school kitchen (seriously, the school kitchen had me drooling when I first toured the school... it has four full kitchen stations!).

She's an awesome teacher, and bakes with the students a few times each month.

The Maple Man

The Maple Man came to our school to visit and teach about making Maple syrup, and Maple taffy, and Maple sugar... mmmm.....

Because I am teaching Core French, I got to accompany a few groups of students to the Maple Man presentation on Thursday.

You might remember that Miss A was not feeling well on Wednesday. 

On Thursday, she was fine, until Thursday evening, when her fever spiked, and she started to vomit. 

That's why I'm home this afternoon (Friday) writing... Eli and I split the sick day. 

He took the morning, I took the afternoon.

Anyways, all of that is to say that Miss G missed her class visit to see the Maple Man on Wednesday, because I kept her home with her Sissy just in case she was only a few hours behind in the whole stomach bug appearance (as of now, she still has no symptoms).

So, when I brought a group of my "big kids" to see the presentarion on Thursday, Miss G's teacher suggested that I take her along, too. 

She said that all of Miss G's classmates had loved the Maple Man presentation, and she didn't want her to miss it. 

I didn't want her to miss it either. 

It was like bringing a little bit of l'Acadie to Yellowknife!

Miss G was tickled to get to join me and the "big kids!!"

Teacher friends and interested parent friends, please click on the link to the website for René Turmel (AKA the Maple Man). 

In English or in French, there are videos and all kinds of information!! 

I was totally impressed with the whole thing.

The Maple Man was sure to get as much of the French-Acadian flavour into the presentation as possible.

Wooden spoons, which all the kids got to try, a dancing wooden puppet, and an acordian.

Good times.

Miss G especially liked the partner Acadian dancing, to upbeat Acadian fiddle music, and she really liked being my partner. 

We two-stepped down past all the middle schoolers.  

And she was an enthusiastic jigger! 

The big kids are really sweet when little ones are around, and insisted that Miss G get to be first in line for some real Maple Taffy...

... from the Maple Man's own trees. 

Oh.  So very good!

Miss G was very impressed that this came from sugar water froma  Maple tree (and LOVED the video about tapping the trees, boiling the water, and seeign the horses work the land)... but, she wasn't about to eat it, lest it stick to her princess teeth. 

So, Miss G brought it to Miss A in preschool (who had a carpenter in visiting... he helped the kids build a new stool for washing hands in the classroom!).

As if she could get any sweeter.

And, she just said to me, "Mommy, I need to take a nap."

Poor Peanut. 

She's all snuggled in my bad with Patchy-Patch and Yellow (her blanket) for a nap.

She's much cuter when she is sick that Daddy.

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day!

Auntie Annie remembered, because she sent me a "Happy Pi Day!" text message early this morning.

It's a fun day for us Mathies.

It's March 14th.

3.14

Get it?

That's pi... well, it's pi rounded to the hundredths place because pi is an irrational number.

That means it cannot be expressed as a fraction with whole integers as the numerator and denominator, and the digits following the decimal go on forever.

To infinity, and beyond!

It's probably the most famous irrational number.

It's the ratio between the circumference and diametre of a circle.

Students ask me why mathematicians picked pi.

I tell them that mathematicians didn't invent pi.  They discovered it!

Otherwise, they would have chosen a much easier number to work with.

A ratio is a ratio after all... you can't mess with it.

Here are a few of my favourite books about pi:

Why Pi?

Sir Circumference and the Dragon of Pi

CBC did a cute article on Pi today, too.  Check it out!

Chicken of the Sea

This post has very little to do with Chicken of the Sea.

Except that I will always love Jessica Simpson for asking if tuna is chicken or fish.

I mean, I'm not a big fan of reality TV, but that was a television moment that is unforgettable.

Even if it was scripted, it's absolutely hilarious.

OK.  Back to my reality.

Last week, just before school was dismissed for March Break (which, is two weeks long here!), Miss A's preschool teacher asked me if I would like to take care of the class fish for the break.

Miss A LOVES the fish tank, so of course I said, "Yes."

Well, Georgio the fish was caught in the filter a-la-Nemo on Wednesday afternoon when I went to pick up Miss A from preschool, and he didn't make it to Friday, but...

The preschool shrimp did!

So, Eli and I dutifully transported the full fish tank and two shrimp, named Mater and Piston, to our house in a warm car.

Often, Mater and Piston like to hide in the fish tank.  (This is Miss G)

So, when I clean the fish tank, the girls get up close and personal with the shrimp. 

Miss A with Mater and Piston, the shrimp. 

Love.

The girls just love the shrimp.

And, the girls love the fish tank with the filter. 

It's pink.

Miss G began to comment about how much she was going to miss the shrimp when they go back to preschool.

In fact, she started in on Daddy the Friday kicking off March Break. 

Daddy's initial response was, "No. No fish tank."

Then, it slid to, "We'll see how these two weeks go."

So, Mommy moved in...

On Monday, I took the girls to the pet store, and they each got to pick out one fish to keep the shrimp company.

Miss G's is on the left.  His name is Fishie. 

He is more black on top, and is very fast.

She was very specific that THIS FISH, at the pet store, was hers, so the man working at the pet store had to work very hard to catch Fishie.

Miss A's is on the right.  His name is Fishy.

You can laugh.

It's all true.

I can't make this stuff up! 

The girls have taken on the responsibility of educating the fish, and they take this very seriously.

You will notice throughout the day a variety of books (turned to different pages), drawings, and toys lined up for fish school. 

The fish (and the shrimp) are a captive audience. 

The fish LOVE the digital photo frame.

I'm not kidding you.

I am telling you, I can't make this stuff up.

They are always in this corner looking at the pictures (unless, of course, another lesson is being conducted in front of the tank by one of the girls).

Just keep swimming!

(Oh, and Daddy has totally buckled, and we are getting a fish tank at the end of March Break... and we're likely adopting two more shrimp.)

If you give a family a fish tank, they will get fish!

I MADE SNOW!

Overnight, the air temperature was -40 degrees.

Without the wind.

Note that I did not say Celsius or Fahrenheit. 

It doesn't matter. 

-40 is where they both match up.

This morning, In my pajamas and down-filled coat (not my parka), to try a science  experiment that I saw done on You Tube about a year ago.

I mean, really... when you see an opportunity, you must take it!

I boiled a kettle of water and headed outdoors.

It was -35 degrees Celsius, at this point.

Later in the day we had a high of a balmy -25 degrees Celsius!  Toasty.

The boiling water, making contact with the Arctic-cold air, froze immediately .

I MADE SNOW!

Here is the video.

I feel very powerful.

Maybe I can control the weather?

Nah.  Probably not.

Oh, and might I just add...?

It's freakin' cold!