Learning About the CPR by Sophia

This term I have learned a bit more about the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The railway was important because Alberta and Saskatchewan were not part of Canada yet, kind of like no-man's-land. So the CPR -(who also owned the steam boats)- decided to make a deal so that you could buy:

• a steam boat ride from England

• a train ticket from Newfoundland to Alberta/Saskatchewan

• and one acre of land for $2.50 as long as you worked the land.

The railroad was part of a promise to British Columbia to enter confederation. So, the rest of what was Canada at the moment said to B.C. at that moment, "You can be part of Canada and we promise to provide transportation between us and you guys."

In the video "BC's Early Years" I learned it was really, really, really hard to build the railway because they had to work with lots of explosives to level out the ground and make tunnels so that he railroad would be easier to build and the trains going on the track wouldn't have burn so much coal.

But this was very, very dangerous and most of the workers were imported from China. Unfortunately for every mile of track that was laid out, 4 chinese men died. Some of them died from explosives, some of them died from scurvy, because to remind them of home they ate only fish and rice, and some of them died of being worked too hard. They weren't treated well or appreciated or honoured. The white men thought themselves better than the Chinese, kind of like they did with the First Nations. Sad, isn't it?

I'm reading the Dear Canada book "A Ribbon Of Shining Steel" and it's the diary of a girl who lived while the CPR was still being built in Yale, B.C. and her father would be away for long stretches of time, like a week, and she would lay awake in bed every night hoping that her father hadn't died in the past few days. Her father would always come home telling stories of how more and more Chinese died and he thought it was so unfair they were treated so unfairly.

We are also reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "On The Shores Of Silver Lake" and the railroad plays a part in that book because Laura and her family have only ever been transported in wagons up until then, and the train is this new wonderful invention to transport lots of people and cargo over land so extremely fast that a journey that used to take a covered wagon a whole day of steady going, only 30 minutes. Laura felt nervous about going on the train because it was a new invention and there were sometimes minor/ major setbacks, like trains running off the tack and huge train crashes and people dying, so she was kind of scared of going on the train the first time and every thing was all right.

In that book her Pa is working at  the store for men working on railway grade and the railway grade is when you smooth out the land you're about to build railway tracks on so that the trains don't have to burn more coal.

The first transcontinental passenger train departed from Montreal and arrived at Port Moody at noon on 4 July 1886.  Now at our new house we live really close to Port Moody and my Papa and I are going to visit that train station at Spring Break.

By that time, however, the CPR decided o change up the location of the train station from Port Moody to Granville, which was renamed "Vancouver" later on that year. The first official train destined for Vancouver arrived on 23 May 1887.

We went to visit engine number 374 at the Roundhouse in Yaletown, the engine that puled the first official train destined for Vancouver.

It was cool and there were a few old geezers there and I didn't really understand what they were saying, but it seemed like a nice chance to talk to them and basically they just said what I already knew about the CPR, but it was kind of nice.

The CPR is important in Canada's history because it was kind of the reason that Alberta and Saskatchewan are a part of the country today. The railroad joined the country together. Whhhopie!!!!

P.E. by Sophia and Eleanor

This term we have really enjoyed going swimming on Mondays. 

 This term is so exciting for swimming because I am 8, 8, 8, 8, the lucky number eight!!!  That means I can swim alone, swim, swim, alone. I get be a mermaaaaaid. But not in the deep end. I don't like the deep end.

On Wednesdays and Fridays we go for walks, hikes or ride our bikes. I am wearing giant gloves and my red riding hood cape and I am on a hike on a mountain and it is zero degrees.

This is Rocky Point Park, the best place in the world, it has a lot of chemicals in the water, but I am not sick.

They have an awesome bike ramp there too! So cool, best thing in the world.

Sophia had a paper route too every Wed and Friday which is great exercise all around our neighbourhood. If it is really rainy, we will do dancing games or exercise games on our Wii.

Girl Guides Badge: "Heritage" by Sophia

• For my heritage badge I was asked to show I knew about several generations of my family thus the resoning for this family tree.

• I was also asked: How did you get your name? Find out the meaning of your first, middle or family name. If you could pick your own first name, what would it be? Why? What is a birthstone? Which one is yours?

My name is Sophia Joanna Jubilee Pallister. Sophia means wisdom, Joanna means God is gracious, and Jubilee means celebratory freedom. My mum named me Sophia because it was her favourite name. The reason why my Mum's first name is my second name is because my Mum's side of the family has a naming tradition where the first born son/daughter of the family has their second name be the Mum or Dad's first name. I am called Jubilee because in the bible, every seven years there was a year of rest, where nobody would do their hard, everyday work and every slave was set free and debts were forgiven, and the entire year was one huge party. My parents named me this because I was the 7th grandchild on my mum's side, I was born in my parent's 7th year of marriage, and I was born on August 27th.
If I could choose my own first name it would be either Ever or Kei (pronounced kee).
This is because I think these names are rare, and unique. Just like me. And a birthstone is a mineral or gem representing the month of your birth. I was born in August, so my birthstone is the peridot, witch is a light green gem. 

• I was asked to: Make a toy, cook a special dish or learn a game, song or dance that your ancestors might have enjoyed.

I made trifle, an English dish with my Granny, that she makes every year at Christmas. It mostly consist of cake, jello, and fruit, whipping cream, custard and sprinkles. She makes a different way from my auntie. It used to be a dish to use up all the leftover dessert ingredients, but now we do it as a family tradition. 

• Visit or find out about a National Park or National Historic site. Explain why it was created and how it is used today.

Me and Eleanor went to Fort Langley, a national history site that was the place BC was founded.In 1923, the Canadian government designated Fort Langley as a National Historic Site and erected a commemorative plaque near the storehouse. At this time, the site consisted only of the one building and 1-acre (4,000 m2) of land. From 1931 to 1956, the Native Sons and Daughters of British Columbia operated a museum out of the storehouse. Parks Canada took control of the site in 1955, and a joint Federal-Provincial program reconstructed three buildings in time for the centennial of the founding of British Columbia in 1958. In 1978, the site became a national historic park, and has consisted of 8.5 hectares (21 acres) since 1985.

• Read and aboriginal story (First nations, Metis or Inuit)

I have read two aboriginal stories so far: How Raven Stole The Sun & The Legend Of Lightning And Thunder.

• Discover a Canadian who has contributed to Canadian culture in the past or present. Create a story, song or poem about this Canadian.

I wrote this haiku about Bill Reid:

Just look at a log

Think about what it could be

Art in the making

• Visit a museum, historical society, historic building, cemetery or town hall to learn more about your heritage.

It's kind of hard to go somewhere to learn about my personal heritage because i'm mostly british so instead I learned about what aboriginal life was like.

Fine Arts

I am taking violin this term for FA (I believe in practicing violin and doing ballet at the same time)

And at x-mas Eleanor got a kitty pillow making kit and made the above

We also LLLOOOOVVE to draw so we also LLLOOOOVVED it when we got to draw our favourite totem poles at the MOA (museum of anthropology) 

Eleanor also drew this picture of Luara Ingalls Wilder to celebrate her Birthday this month

And I made this night gown this term too!

And Eleanor is taking piano lessons to top it all off
so basically we think FINE ARTS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Books We Loved This Term by Sophia and Eleanor

Some of my favourite books have been: "In A Blink" by Kiki Thorpe. it is chapter book that I was able to read all by myself, and it is about fairies, fairies, fairies! and girls go come to Neverland by accident and I really like this author because she is so cool.

I read another Junie B book Called "Boo...And I mean it!" It wasn't really my favourite, it was just an "ish - ish"  kind of book.

I have read a lot of National Geographic "Weird But True" and "Amazing Facts" books. By Eleanor.

We listened to the audio books of  "The Mouse and The Motorcylce,", "Runaway Ralph", and "Ralph S. Mouse" and "Ribsy" all by Beverly Cleary. 

"I like Ralph because he is adventurous, cool and has a mind of his own." -Eleanor 

"I find it very creative how Beverly Cleary associates Ralph's feelings to what an actual mouse would do if it were put in those situations."- Sophia

We listened to "Little House in the Big Woods" By Laura Ingalls Wilder and We did "The Shore of Silver Lake" by her too as a read-aloud. 

"I like how adventurous and outgoing Laura Ingalls and fascinating she is. I learn a lot about early American history from it. I liked hearing the stories of laura's grandpa and her dad and her cousins too." - Eleanor

"I enjoyed how it gives you a sneak peek into pioneer life and I like to think of how all these adventurous stories of people hunting bears and getting chased down by panthers and making cheese and butter and maple sugar home-made and stories of wonderful dances and the cosy woods are all true." - Sophia 

Sophia: The books I've read this term are "A Whole Nother Story", "Another Whole Nother Story", and "No Other Story" by DR. Cuthbert Soup, whose actual identity is the guy who wrote "Ice Age The Final Meltdown." I would highly suggest these books because  they are chock-full of adventure, romance, a desperate race through time and space, and unsolicited advice.



I've also read "Minion" by John David Anderson about a boy who is learning to become a villain, which is a companion book to "Sidekicked" which I read last term and is about a boy who is training to become a super hero's side kick and eventually a super-hero himself.

I've also read a book called "Braids, Buns and Twists! A Manual to 82 Fabulous Hairstyles" because I am planning to become a hairstylist and a bank accountant and maybe even a novelist when I grow up.

Rights and Responsibilities and Fort Langley by Eleanor

Right now I am talking about rights and responsibilities. I'll tell you the difference of this rights and responsibilities at this talk show. Wait, who said this was a talk show? I didn't even know it was a talk show.

Back to the point. A right is something that you SHOULD be able to have and do. Like you have the right to take out books from the library, but you have the responsibility to bring them back and take care of them. or, you have the right to be free and play on the playground, but you have the responsibility to pick up garbage on it and not leave garbage on it,  and also not climb over the fence, and follow the rules.

I went to Fort Langley,  and I played a piano and I wore some really cool old fashioned clothes, and I played Heart and Soul on the piano. I am in the Big House.

The Big House is the place where the guy in the big blue coat (who I am dressed up as, you can see in the picture) Gov James Douglas, he's declaring that British Columbia was a province - they were clinging to the rest of Canada, like a bug, like a moth to a wool sweater. I read the proclamation declaring BC a province.

Sorry my Mum cut off the gold in this picture but I got gold!!!!! Two whole great pieces Mister! That was where the gold rush was and I went crazy for gold!!!

This is Hazel with me in this picture, she is a very nice First Nations oman and she loved my bunny and it was really nice meeting her, she showed me how to make a barrel. And I really really liked it.

I asked Hazel about the rights and responsibilities of the kids who were at Fort Langley back when it started. We learned there were no schools, all of the kids did work, but they didn't carry yokes, man, I wanted to carry a yoke. There were no white kids there, because all of the white men married First Nations women  and so the kids were Metis, which means you are half white and half first nations.

Some of the things the kids did were, carved holes in stones with other rocks to make weights for fishing nets, and they helped their Mums and did stuff around the house and milked cows and things.

Here is Hazel holding Ittle, it was really cute. she told us about being taken away to residential school, where she had no rights, she was not even allowed to go to her brothers and sisters if they fell down or cried. She trieds to think more about happiness and hopoe.

Brownie Badge: "Swim! Skate!" by Eleanor

This past year I learned how to do inline skating. It was amazing awesome cool fun and nice, and I even got a certificate - blah blah blah, yeah, yeah yeah, you know what I'm talking about!

I also learned to swim this year too, and My Mum and my brother and my sister and I all went swimming on Monday. My best swimming skill I have learned is backstroke.

And today I did my first ever ice skating party with my school group!

A good skating skill I have learned how to do is skulling. It is where you skate backward and you make your feet go in and out and in and out.

This Thing Has a Snazzy Title! by Eleanor

Light! Amazingness! Guaranteed for FUN! And scientific!

This term  am learning about light. I love light. it is fun. This is me at Science World, actually making yellow and different colours. I can make blue, orange, purple all by light, taking away spectrums!  Its different from mixing paint because you can take away them. Like when you take away the yellow from yellow light you get a different colour.

And on something else there was this rainbow coloured dish cloth and when I turned the wheel, it changed the colour of the light which changed the colour of the dishcloth.

This is me having crazy fun and doing and things with reflecting mirrors!

This is me sleeping under the Christmas tree with the Chrsitmas lights. Ahhhh, LED lights, sooooo - fireproof. I'm glad we didn't out candles in our tree that night.

We have also done some experiments with light. We took some video of two of them but it didn't turn out.

The first one was when I taped a dime to the bottom of a bowl and then I tried to see the dime over the edge of the bowl, in the bottom but then Sophia poured water in the bowl and when the water was in, I could see the dime, but then the water went out and I couldn't.

I think it was because of the light reflecting through the water that I could see the dime.

The other experiment that we did was one where I took a plastic bottle and I poked a hole in it and then we filled it up with water and we turned out the lights,  and we shone a flashlight to the hole and the water which was spraying out into a bowl lit up. Chug! Chug! Chug! I was saying in my mind to the bottle. it was very fun yelling chug! chug! chug! in my mind. I learned that from the Madagascar penguins show where they chug egg nog.

 

Then just last week on a sunny day I was getting a glass of water and all of a sudden I noticed a rainbow!!!!!!

And cool stuff, the reason how the light went like that was because of the shape of the glass, it had rectangles at the bottom.  And then I burst into tears and yelled "I have found a way to kiss a donkey!!!" Just kidding, I didn't really cry or say that. but I did think it was superdy dupredy cool and  I liked how I could see the whole spectrum of light through that glass of water!

Brownie Badge: I Can Be by Eleanor

I imagine that I would be my favourite book character who is Junie B. Jones. She is a hilarious first grader with glasses, an amazing person, she thinks just hilarious things and talks to a stuffed animal named Phillip Jonny Bob, who is an elephant.

If I could be an animal, I would be a baby grey fluffy kitten, a housecat. I can act it out for my circle.

I did a charades game I thought of for my Mum and sister. I acted out the phrase, "water wheel", and they guessed it!

Brownie Badge: Water, Water Everywhere by Eleanor

- I tracked how much water I drank in a day and I drank 5 glasses of water.

- I tracked how much water my family used for cooking in a day and it was 8 1/2 cups of water.

- I have done a few water experiments lately. I did one on a super duper sunny day and I saw through my glass of water which had a hexagon bottom, I saw rainbow bits! it is so weird and cool!

- I also did a water experiment where I held a balloon under a tap and made a water wheel. It worked differently when the water hit the ballon at different levels the water got so high that the water from the tap could not reach the balloon to make it spin. But when I took some out it started spinning again and reached the tap.

Brownie Badge: Listen To This by Eleanor

Being a good audience means you listen and  you don't yell at the actors and you don't take out your phone, because the lights on it and the sounds on it could bother the actors. You sit quietly and you don't bug other people and if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything.

My sister and I did some skits about how to be a good audience and how to be a bad audience. Our videos won't load today, but I will show you them if you like.

I have seen a lot of plays and concerts with my Home Learners class. The best play I saw this year was James and the Giant peach. My favourite concert was the VSO. My favourite conductor is the bald guy.

Brownie Badge: Be A Chef by Eleanor

The simple meal I have cooked is spaghetti it is vey yummy. You eat it with tomato sauce and with the tomato sauce, you eat meatballs with it it's tastes amazing with the meat balls, we usually have salad with it too.

I made a list of ingredients for my Mum and I have gone shopping with her at the store. I am planning my birthday breakfast!

I have made stuff from my kids cookbook. Eggs in Frames, and Juicy Orange Rounds and Happle Bagel Sandwiches.

Here I am making Eggs In Frames.

Before you cook, you have to wash your hands because you might spread your germs you have on your hands, you might have picked your nose or spat on them or touched a hedgehog. You wipe kitchen counters and if you have to cut something you cut it on a cutting board or a plate, and when you're all done your food you have put it in the fridge and wrap it in tin foil or store it in a tupperware, or else it will go rotten.

The names of my favourite utensils are spatula, tongs, shish-ka-bob, macaroni spoon (ha ha) garlic presser and beater.

I use the stove for making soup, frying eggs, boiling water, and I use the microwave to heat up things or just a bit warm to make them hot, like milk.

I help make a lot of our meals, I make pizza from scratch every Friday and I design pizzas awesomely and I have to help with clean up every night except Friday.

Brownie Badge: Money Talk by Eleanor

Right now I want to buy earrings, I want to get my ears pierced on my 8th birthday, which is coming up on Feb 12. I have to save half the money for my earrings which cost $60, so I need $30.

My plan to earn the money is that I am doing chores, and doing the supper dishes to earn money. I also got some cheques at Christmas which I saved. I also help my sister Sophia with her paper route.

People keep money in banks and credit unions so that nobody steals it, to keep it safe. Also it's easier to bank and people use online banking for putting cheques into accounts, and paying bills.

I have opened a bank account and I am saving up my money. And someday I will kiss a mountain goat. Cara, can you tell me the status of where those mountain goats live? I wonder how much money it costs to kiss a mountain goat.

Brownie Badge: Aboriginal Peoples Of Canada by Eleanor

The name of some of the First Nations people who used to live near our home (and some still do) are the Musqueum, Coast Salish, Kwakwaka'wakw and the Haida people.

The name of an aboriginal folk tale was How raven Stole the Sun and Canibal.

This is me at a visit to the UBC Museum of Anthropology. I was sketching a picture of this statue. 

This is a bear statue and it was carved by Bill Reid. He is a famous wood carver from the Haida people. It is a bear. And in Haida culture a bear is almost like a human and they treat bears like a very special guest and if they kill a bear they sprinkle eagle feathers on it to show, like, respect! honour! we like this bear!

This is my drawing of the Bill Reid carving "Bear".

I  have used an Aboriginal invention, it is the toboggan. Amazing, Invention! Love it! Amazing for snow.

The Aboriginal game I like, doesn't have a name that I know. You have to crouch down in a squat and you do that with a bunch of other people, and you sing an Aboriginal song, if you don't know one just go, "ahhh nay nay nooo" or something, and the point of it is just for fun, and what happens is you jump on your toes while you sing the song and stay squatting, and the point is that you want to be the last person still squatting and if you fall over, you're out. Sorry, kid, you're out.