Le Chandail de Hockey

I am a big Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and many, many of our students are also huge hockey fans, for quite a variety of teams.  Every year, the Stanley Cup Playoffs (les éliminatoires de la Coupe Stanley) is a big deal at school.  Each class is assigned two teams to follow during the playoff run, and they all look forward to being the winning team.

I always wear my Mario Lemieux jersey to school on the first day of the playoffs and read the Canadian classic “Le Chandail de Hockey” to the kids – a fine hockey tradition!  This lovely story, by Roch Carrier tells the story of his childhood love for the bleu, blanc rouge, and his hero worship of Maurice Richard.  Unfortunately, one day, there was a small problem with his new hockey sweater...  Please enjoy the video of the story (in English) from the National Film Board of Canada!

Our latest thought-provoking photo

We worked with the "Décris la photo" activity in class today.  I am always so impressed with insight the students show, and the questions they ask.  Today, the kids saw this photo:

This photo was taken by Margaret Bourke-White and was published in the February 15, 1937 edition of "Life" magazine.  It sparked some great discussion about the Great Depression, relations between people with different colour skin and whether or not things have changed today.  While the kids may not have used the word "irony" they certainly picked up on it, and their comments and questions reflected that.  Do you have any thought provoking photos that resonate with you?