Port Colborne

Well, I drove to Port Colborne first thing in the morning so I wouldn't be late for my... first class at 12:22 pm. Lots of planning time in the staff room meant I got to meet lots of new teachers. The 4/5s studying The Human Body and Canada's Habitat's made shoes out of card after listening to my Manitoba story.
"doodlydoo-doodlydoo-doodlydoo"
(flashback/dream-sequence music from Wayne's World)
"So back in Manitoba, in Grade 4, my french teacher was Metis. That was in Winnipeg. She told us that when she was in Grade 4 she got to do an exchange student thing with the Inuit from up North. Now, it's a lot colder up in the Arctic than it is, even in Winnipeg. Of course, no one knew what we were dressed as for Halloween, because we were covered in snow suits, but it still wasn't as cold as it was up in the Territories. When this exchange student girl came down to Winnipeg for the summer, she came with all her parkas and boots and everything she figured she's need for clothing. The poor girl was so sweaty in those clothes we didn't know what to do! She didn't have clothes to wear in Winnipeg!"
I had already told the kids a vivid little story about how water expands when it freezes, and how there is water in your cells, and if you leave your skin exposed in the winter in Winnipeg those little cells will all burst when frostbite hits, and that the radio traffic reports are always followed by frostbite warnings ("You have 20 minutes today before your exposed skin freezes, and you are listening to CJOB am). The kids in Port Colborne looked truly amazed that the Arctic could be colder than that, and that someone acclimatized to the climate of the Far North could be over-dressed in Winnipeg.
The month prior, the Port Colborne kids had been hit with a freak "weather event" that dropped Lake effect snow from Lake Erie all the way from Buffalo to Wainfleet, onto the trees' leaf covered branches, knocking out power for over a week in some places. Knowing a little bit about making your own clothes suddenly became more significant.
The 5/6 split made a huge mess making their own paper with gauze stretched on frames and a special blend of shredded newsprint, water and glue. Next week, the 5s will bring a picture of a provincial or territorial 'person of significance', and the 6s will do the same with 'persons of significance' from one of Canada's trading partners. I'll lead them in a little bit of cross-hatching technique so we can start putting faces on our own home-made $$$$!
In Honour of the latest election, I figured out this tune:
GAGEEDC
CDBAG
GGEEDC
FFED
GAGEEDC
CCDBAG
AFECEG
AFEDDC