West Rocky View County-based French immersion academy Elbow Valley Elementary School is celebrating French Culture Week with a commemoration of all things Francophonie from around the world from March 6 to 10.
The week-long event will include discussions of Métis peoples, Ceinture Fléchée (a notable symbol of Métis culture and traditional piece of clothing), hockey, ice mazes and Le bûcheron (French-Canadian lumberjacks).
The week is slated to include cultural lessons and fun activities, including the creation of a colourful ice sculpture.
Alanna Berger, assistant principal of the school, said the event is an annual celebration that has been held at Elbow Valley Elementary School for upwards of 10 years. She added the event is usually held during the first week of March.
“I was hoping for a little bit of snow and not too cold weather so we can be outside to do all the lovely things that we have planned,” she shared of her hopes for this year’s iteration.
She said each day during French Culture Week, the entire school (both French immersion and English-learning students) will be included in plenty of fun events to celebrate French culture.
“This is just a way to establish community and understanding about our French immersion students and the French culture around Alberta,” Berger shared.
She said dressing up is a big component of the week-long celebration and each day there will be a different theme in place.
Students will be encouraged to dress in red and white to celebrate Canadian heritage, their house colours to represent each of the “house teams” in the school, dress as a lumberjack in honour of Le bûcheron, wear Ceinture Fléchée in celebration of Métis heritage, and to don their favourite hockey jersey.
On Monday, students heard a presentation from Francopholie, a French singing group.
“They're very engaging and the kids had a really great time,” Berger said. “They do the fiddle and play the spoons and do some really authentic French-Canadian music, so the whole school will attend that in the gym.”
Thereafter, students will be bringing colourful ice blocks from home to recreate an ice maze outside the school, like the practice in Quebec City where Canadians create large-scale ice castles, said Berger.
Some of the other cultural lessons throughout the week include learning about Le bûcheron, French-Canadian culture lumberjacks, and the Métis.
“Le bûcheron were the French people in Quebec – the lumberjacks that paved the way for the people,” Berger explained. “Le bûcheron is kind of an icon, I would say, for the French Canadians. It's just kind of a way of life passed down from generations.”
Rocks and Rings school curling program will also be paying a visit to the school to teach the students about the Canadian tradition of curling. Finally, on Friday, students will be partaking in a maple sugar shack outside to taste one of Canada’s greatest delicacies.
Berger said the event is a “wonderful” way for students to see French is beyond the walls of their school.
“It gives them an opportunity to see there is French culture all over Canada, all over Alberta, and all over the world, and we just try to help them to understand that French goes beyond the walls of the school,” she said.
-With files from Masha Scheele
