First day of school!

Today started out nearly cloudless at -24 °C with low winds (about 10 km/hour).  Until today it has been extremely cloudy, making it difficult for me to tell which direction is which.

Sunrise in Igloolik, 8:24 AM.

Sunrise in Igloolik.

Today was also our first day in the classrooms at Ataguttaluk Elementary School.  I forgot how much of what I know now I didn't know in grade school.  Take, for example, the word “atmosphere”.  A few of the grade sevens knew what it was and the rest of the school was clueless!  I realize there was a time that I didn't know that word either, but asking the kids questions was quite an eye opener.  (To all of my teachers and mentors: thank you for your hard work in taking me from that to what I am now!)

The kids start their day off at 9 AM with breakfast in their classrooms, which tend to be heavily decorated and look something like this:

Pat's grade 1 classroom.

We started our day with Leah’s grade 5 class.  O Canada came on, with the first third in Inuktitut, the second third in French, and the last bit in English.  Then came English announcements:

          "...and after school today there will be hockey in the gym."
          * all the kids cheer *

Then announcements in Inuktitut and a correction to the English announcement:

          "... sorry, no hockey in the gym after school."
          * all the students groan *
          "Today there will be girls' soccer in the gym."
          * all the girls cheer *

The grade 5, 6, and 7 classes will measure solar insolation (the amount of radiation that gets to us from the sun) with a pyranometer.  To give them a basis for their measurements, we taught them about solar radiation and what affects insolation.  The grade 5s were very energetic!  When we sat down in a circle to play a name game, all of the girls rushed over to sit next to Ashley or me.

After spending an hour with Leah's class, we travelled to Jeena's grade 2s.  The grade 1 and 2 classes will measure temperature over the next couple weeks and compare their results with the children at Pickering College near Toronto.  So today, in the half hour that we had each class for, we showed them a thermometer and ensured they understood that a lower number (or more negative) means colder and a higher number (or more positive) means warmer.

Jeena told her class that we needed to move the desks so that we could sit on the floor in a circle.  Within seconds (maybe even a fraction of a second) the kids were up and helping each other carry the tables to the outside of the room.  It was like watching a swarm of ants on speed demolish a moth.  They were a little shy, but very good listeners, and they thoroughly enjoyed the pictures of Eureka and Toronto.

After recess (yes, they get a recess despite it being super cold out, but they also get an extra five minutes to get dressed for it), we went into Pat's grade 1 class.  To introduce ourselves, we sat in a circle and told everyone our name and something that we like.  One boy said he liked playing with his brothers.
          Ashley: Are they other or younger?
          Boy: Well, I have one that's 4, and one that's 2,
                              and one that's 7, and one that's 11.
          Ashley (shocked): You have 4 brothers?!
          Boy (slightly confused): No.  I have 7.

Ashley showing Pat's grade 1s a picture
of a typical residential street in Toronto.

Then we headed to Meeka's grade 4 class for half an hour.  The grade 3s and 4s will be measuring wind velocities, so today we discussed how wind is created and the role that temperature plays.  This involved doing the awesome experiment I alluded to yesterday.  Niall filmed the demonstration, just for you.  Unfortunately, the internet is not good enough to load a video onto Youtube, so I will explain the experiment here and you can guess what happens.  I will post pictures of the results after doing the experiment with the grade 3s tomorrow.

The Experiment: We started with four bottles: two filled with hot water and two filled with cold water.  We dyed the cold water blue and the hot water yellow with regular food colouring so that we can see what is happening.

Adding blue food colouring to the cold water.

We put the mouths of one hot bottle and one cold bottle together (so that water can flow between the bottles) with the hot water on top and the cold water on the bottom.  What do you think would happen?  We put the remaining two bottles mouth-to-mouth with the hot water on the bottom and the cold water on the top.  Do you think the result would be different?  How?  Why?

In the afternoon, we had 1 hour with Tamie's grade 6s, 30 minutes with Yvonne W.'s grade 7s, a 30 minute spare, and 45 minutes with Caleb's grade 7s.  We were told that the classes were going to be 20-26 students, but the grade 4-7 classes were around 10-16.  By the end of the day, the kids grew restless.  When we asked the last class if they had any questions, one boy raised his hand and asked, "Mel, why are your legs so long?"  I wanted to reply with, "Because they're in my genes," but I wasn't sure if he would understand.  After school, which ended at 3:50 PM, we watched the girls play soccer for a bit.  Some of them have really good ball control!  I was quite impressed.

After school girls' soccer.

Niall, Ashley, and I walked over to the Co-op (like a grocery/all purpose store) to look at the sculpture one of the residents made out of stone and tusks.  This will be shipped out tomorrow to sit in the Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto.

Sculpture made from stone and tusks.

Fine detail in the bow.

Sedna (the "vengeful goddess of the sea") at the stern of the ship.

We walked up the hill to the high school, where they were learning to build igloos.

Landscape by the high school.

An igloo built by the high school students.

A bigger igloo with two rooms.  The first room is on the smaller side, but the second room has a 10 foot roof (at least).

Only one had a door.  Based on the igloo without the door, it appears that they build an enclosed structure, but deliberately keep a few blocks unsecured (to remove later to make the door).  I think I saw a poster at the school describing the steps to build an igloo, which I'll take a picture of tomorrow (if that is what it was).  The one with the door wasn't locked (can you lock an igloo?), so we went inside to have a look:

Inside the igloo.

Igloo walls from the inside.

(From right to left:) Niall, Ashley, and I inside the igloo.

In the evening we went to the community hall.  Loud "radio music" was playing and there were a lot of kids.  Some kids played foosball, pool, table tennis, or soccer, while others coloured and more still just hung out.  I took the liberty of sharpening the large box of broken coloured pencils, which managed to get me an admirer--a cute boy in a "Cut-the-rope" t-shirt.  One of the boys showed me how to spell my name in syllabics: ᒥᐅᓪ

A painted wall in the community hall.

Kids in the community hall being goofy (a.k.a. being kids).

My admirer.

A couple girls "convinced" me to come watch their dads and older brothers play hockey in the arena next door.

Inside the arena.  On the right is Roseanne (grade 11), who braided my hair.

Stretching on the ice.

Practising.

After the first few minutes of the game (enough time to see a good save and a neat goal), we returned to the inn.  Three girls played tag with us all the way back.