Students at Rendell Park Elementary School ended the week of Valentine’s Day with some winter fun. The annual Carnaval de Québec-style carnival came to the school for staff and students to celebrate Canadian culture.
The event featured a number of games and activities for the school to take part in. From hallway curling to scooter races, mindfulness activities and an indoor snowball fight, to toffee-on-a-stick and beaver tails to eat. Sheldon Gallagher, principal of Rendell Park Elementary School, sees it as a great way to break from the normal school day schedule.
“It’s important for our students to have the opportunity to recognize our French culture. Also, it’s a great way, especially when the weather is not great, to keep our kids active and have a good time,” says Gallagher.
The event has been held at the school for a number years, however the especially cold weather this year has kept much of the activities inside. An indoor recess was held amid today’s frigid temperatures and activities like the snowball fight were adapted to use socks.
Carnaval du Rendell Park is spearheaded by a French teacher at the school, Scott Lyons. He admits that while the weather hasn’t co-operated very well, the Carnaval must go on. He believes the exposure to bi-lingual culture through a French-Canadian event will leave a lasting impact on his students.
“I believe that the more cultural things and languages you expose kids to, the richer their school experience is. I do also know that learning different languages helps them with their mother languages, and classes and other subject areas as well,” says Lyons. He says that the kid’s favourite parts were hot chocolate, beaver tails and toffee poles.