Olympic Spirit @ SES

The 'Olympic Flame' burns brightly at Squamish Elementary School.

Students sit in the gym to watch the torch relay. Can you see the torch bearer in the back?

The skeleton event. Where else could athletes hurl themselves onto a scooter board and fly down a school hallway while spectators cheer?

Our school held it's 3rd Winter Olympic Opening Ceremony today.

Our Olympic cauldron is an old lamp covered in tinfoil with tissue paper flames rising out of the top. Our torch is a flashlight covered in foil and tissue as well. The torch bearers wanted to run to the theme song from "Chariots of Fire", so we had that blasting from our delapidated old sound system as they ran their relay around the gym.

We sang 'O Canada', recited the Olympic Athlete's Oath, and had a guest speaker: Squamish's own Mae Palm who just happens to be an Ironman triathlete and ultra-marathon runner. And did I mention she is 70 years young?

After our Olympics were opened, the students competed in hockey, skeleton, bobsled, snowshoe (a new Olympic sport?), speed skating and free-style skiing. We have a couple more Tuesdays to hold sporting competitions so that everyone can participate.

We are excited to see the real Olympic flame pass our school on Friday, February 5th. Our closing ceremonies will happen the same day that the official 2010 Winter Games open in Vancouver on February 12th.

Go, Canada, Go!

Our town is getting into the Olympic Spirit as well. To check us out go here.

Things I Have Liked Today

Photo taken on top of Notre Dame Cathedral. Paris, France.

1. Getting together in Family Groups at school to decide the Olympic teams and torch bearers for our school's 2010 Winter Games.

2. Grooving to the hip hop dance troupe 'Project Soul' while they performed at my school this morning. And seeing some of my students up there dancing their little hearts out.

3. Eating the sandwich my husband made me for lunch...at recess.

4. Having a well-known math teacher demonstrate an addition/subtraction lesson in my classroom and having my students be well behaved in front of the 15 teachers who came to observe.

5. Drinking a 'manhattan' in the livingroom with my husband.

6. Eating leftovers for supper while watching the news on TV.

7. Curling up on the couch with my cat Daisy while watching American Idol.

Spring Has Sprung?

Fern fronds in the forest that surrounds Brohm Lake.

Although it has been VERY rainy here for weeks and weeks, the temps have been high for mid-January. Everything is so green. It feels as if spring is just around the corner, even though the calendar says it is months away. It makes me wonder how things will go for the 2010 Winter Olympics just 3 weeks from now?

Witch Hazel

One of my students brought some branches of witch hazel to school yesterday. I love its spidery, yellow, fragrant flowers. But those twigs made me stop in my tracks. I realized that I didn't know if my witch hazel shrub at home was in bloom or not. The one that grows right outside my front door!

I hurried home after school to look at my shrub. Sigh. Yes, it was in full bloom. And I hadn't even noticed.