Link: How to make maple syrup taffy pops...

...just like we have at the Festival du Voyageur! Students, you will need the help of your parents to make this.

Maple Syrup Taffy Pops recipe



We tried the recipe in French club this week and we can concur--the results are yummy!

First, we started with pure maple syrup...

...which was poured into a heavy saucepan.

We stirred...

...and stirred...

...and continued stirring until the syrup reached the "soft ball" stage.

We found the taffy to be a little firmer than what we had at Festival du Voyageur...

...but just as delicious!

Bon appétit!

Mme Christensen

Festival du Voyageur!

We kicked off our Festival du Voyageur Week on Tuesday (Feb.17) with a visit from none other than the Festival mascot, Louis laTuque!

On Wednesday, Mr. Badiuk did some special Festival du Voyageur music activities in his classes.  Students learned how to play spoons!

On a very cold and frosty Thursday, students from Grades 3 and 4 as well as students from Grades 7 and 8 went to the Festival du Voyageur. (Our Grade 5 and 6 students were at Camp Arnes.)  Be sure to check the Grade 3 and 4 teachers' blogs for their photos.  The photos below are of the Grade 7 and 8 students.

One of our students demonstrates how to prepare for the elements.

When all else fails, one can find the heating tubes in the Festival du Voyageur tents!

Our first venue was Fort Gibraltar where were learned about the various roles that different voyageurs had while working for the North West Company.   We learned about the roles of the 'hivernants' who were the tough voyageurs that signed a 2-3 year contract to stay in the remote interior of Canada to work for the North West Company.  The 'lard eaters' were voyageurs that had a much easier role, working between the Great Lakes and Montreal. 

Our favorite snow sculpture

Our second venue was the "Maple Forest" where we learned about how maple sap is extracted from the sugar maple tree and how maple syrup is produced.

We sampled the delicious results!

After lunch (and warming up!) we enjoyed the Festival du Voyageur playground.  We had fun posing in the cut-outs in the huge wall of snow, sliding down the snow hill and finding our way through a snow maze.

In our afternoon workshop, we learned about the fine art of trading.    

Students were divided into three groups, the First Nations people, the Métis and the Europeans.  Each group had a suitcase of goods to attempt to trade with the other.  It was a very good exercise in trying to determine the true value of goods based on their usefulness and durability.  Students learned that in trading, one must determine what goods to choose based on what one's needs truly were. 

Un grand merci to the organizers of the Festival du Voyageur for putting on such a great cultural event!

Finally, Friday was an action-packed day for the whole school with a dress up day, food tasting and gym activities.

For our voyageur/pioneer dress-up day,  all who participated had their names entered into a draw for a couple prizes. Please check the blogs of other teachers for more dress-up photos.

 Mr. Badiuk ran some Voyageur gym activities:

Team skiing gave us an idea of how the voyageurs had to work as a team in rhythm with one another to paddle their canoes efficiently.

The "Pillow Battle" was a favorite event!  In the winter, when the voyageurs were not working, they enjoyed "les concours du meilleur" (competitions of the best).  These were friendly competitions that helped them pass the time and have fun during the cold, long winters.

Please see the previous post for photos featuring the "taste of the Festival".  On Friday students sampled pea soup, bannock and maple syrup.  A recipe for pea soup is also included in the previous post.

Un grand merci to all the parents and teachers who helped to make our Festival du Voyageur week a great success for another year.  It could not have happened without all your help; what a great school community we have!

Bonne semaine!

Mme Christensen

Pea soup and bannock recipe

I would  like to give heartfelt thanks to the parents and grandparent who came to help warm and serve the pea soup, bannock and maple syrup for our students yesterday.  We have an amazing school community! Our Festival du Voyageur meal could not have happened without you! 

This voyageur heartily recommends the following:

Pea soup

1 pound dried split peas, approximately 2 1/4 cups (I used green split peas.  Sort through and check them as occasionally there are small stones that need to be removed!)

8 cups water

1 large onion, chopped (about one cup)

1 cup finely chopped celery

1 smoked pork hock (I purchased some from Miller's Meats; one ham bone with a bit of meat on it is an alternative)

3 medium carrots

1/4 tsp pepper

salt to taste

Rinse the peas.  Bring peas and 8 cups of water to a boil in a large pot or Dutch oven.  Boil uncovered two minutes; remove from heat.  Cover and let stand for one hour.

Stir in onion, celery and pepper.  Add pork hock/ham bone.  Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and cover and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender.

Remove pork hocks/ham bone.  Remove meat, cutting it in 1/2" pieces.  Stir meat and carrots into soup.   Heat to boiling; reduce heat.  Cover and simmer until carrots are tender and soup is of desired consistency, adding salt to taste.

Bon appétit!  A recipe for bannock is below:

Bannnock with pea soup is a perfect combination!

Bannock

There are many different bannock recipes but I like this one the best.  It makes a small amount of bannock.  

1 cup flour

1 tbsp. lard (or butter)

1tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Slowly add enough water (about 1/3 cup?) to create a dough, stirring with a fork to make a ball.  Knead dough a bit; form into a flat round about 3/4" thick.  Poke a few times with a fork.  Fry until golden or bake on a slightly greased baking sheet until golden.

Serve with butter (and maple syrup, as we did!) 

Bannock of course is great roasted over the fire. Our family has also roasted weiners over a campfire and then wrapped them with bannock dough, returning them to the fire to roast until the dough is golden.

One of the best hotdogs I ever had was when our family lived in northern Manitoba. Weiners were wrapped in bannock and then deep-fried and served at a birthday party.  This is a great treat to have occasionally!

Much thanks to the staff of our school who showed such great support, creativity and enthusiasm for Festival du Voyageur this past week.  Merci beaucoup!

Stay tuned for more pictures and news from our Festival du Voyageur week.  Please check other teacher's blogs for more pictures and news as well.

Bon Festival du Voyageur!

Mme Christensen

Joyeuse Saint-Valentin!

We will enjoy exchanging Valentine's greetings en français on Friday!

We have been having fun practicing how to describe the location of things using our prepositions "sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière" and "à côté de".  I've hidden a few objects related to the theme of Festival du Voyageur around the classroom for the children to find.

Où est la ceinture fléchée?

La ceinture fléchée est derrière l'ordinateur!

Où est la fourrure du castor?

La fourrure du castor est dans le bureau!

Et le mukluk et sur la chaise!

On another note, we've started carving our snow sculpture.  Today one of our young sculptors asked,  "Are blueprints really blue?"  Too cute.

Joyeuse Saint-Valentin!  Bonne fin de semaine,

Mme Christensen

Incognito.... and a snow sculpture update

The name of our unit in Grade 7 and 8, "Incognito" comes from the Italian language and means to be disguised. In this unit, we have explored masks from various cultures and discussed the materials they are made from, their purposes, designs and meanings.  Then we created our own masks, wrote about them and presented them this week.  Students then had an opportunity to ask and answer questions about each other's masks, exposition style. Our masks were our conversation pieces!

Having a fun moment posing with our masks!

Grade 6 students have been speaking about animals that they are afraid of (or not) and explaining why.  We enjoyed a short video about exotic animals that perhaps may have changed some of our views on lizards, snakes and arachnids.

Grades 3-5 students learned and practiced the prepositions "sur, sous, dans, devant, derrière et à côté de" in a fun song.  We practiced using these prepositions to describe objects that were out of place in an illustration of a very interesting and bizarre classroom!

The beginning of our version of "Noah's Ark"

This week students from Grades 3-8 will begin taking turns working on our snow sculpture during recesses and I will post updates. We are looking  forward to our Festival du Voyageur week (next week).  Thank you to all the parents for driving, chaperoning and volunteering their time and energies to make this event possible.

À la prochaine!

Mme Christensen