New Friends in Sierra Leone

Dear Friends in Sierra Leone,

We really liked seeing the pictures that you drew for us. We also loved reading your letter. Thank you for visiting our blog. You had to walk a long time to see it. We have some answers to your questions!

Our country is Canada. We live in the province of Ontario. Our town is called Crediton. The name of our school is Stephen Central PS. There are 15 kids in our class, and 160 kids in our school.

In school we learn math, science, art, gym, social studies, language, music, drama, and dance. In grade 4 we start to learn French.

Please tell us more about Digital Imaging. What do you learn about in Digital Imaging?

SEASONS:

We video conferenced with a school in Kenya Africa and we learned about your 2 seasons, the rainy season and the dry season. We read a book called, What the Animals Were Waiting For. This is a story about the animals in Africa waiting for the dry season to end and the rainy season to begin.

In Ontario we have 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall.

In Spring the snow melts and it rains a lot. New plants begin to grow like grass, flowers, and trees. Baby animals are born in the spring too. The average temperature in the spring is about 14 degrees Celsius. We have a celebration in the spring called Easter. On Easter some families go to church. On Easter a giant bunny comes around to all the kids houses to deliver Easter baskets full of treats and goodies. The Easter bunny hides Easter eggs and we get to find them.

In the summer it is hot. The temperature is about 28 degrees Celsius. It is very green and there are lots plants in bloom. We love to play outside and go swimming in the lake.

In the fall plants begin to die and leaves fall to the ground. The temperature gets cooler and it rains a lot more. We have a celebration called Halloween where we pick pumpkins and carve faces in them. We eat the pumpkin seeds and go out trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is when you dress up in a costume and go to houses in your community and get candy and treats.

In the winter it gets really cold here. The temperature drops to about -20 degrees Celsius. We get A LOT of snow. Snow is frozen rain. It is white and fluffy. We love to play in the snow. We have to wear a lot of clothes to go out in the winter. We wear boots, snowpants, coats, hats, mits and scarves. In the winter we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is a time of year to spend with family and friends. Some people go to church. Some people believe in Santa Claus. Santa Claus comes to our houses on Christmas Eve and brings all of the good girls and boys presents like toys, clothes, candy, money, and games. We eat a lot of food at Christmas time.

What kind of celebrations to do have in Sierra Leone?

LANGUAGES:

We have First Nations Tribes here in Canada. First Nations people were the first people to live in Canada. The languages we speak are English and French. In Canada we have many other people from several different countries. So in Canada there are many languages spoken.

ANIMALS:

Yes we raise animals here in Ontario. Many of us are farmers. We have horses, cows, dogs, cats, pigs, bunnies, ducks, chickens, geese, sheep, goats, and fish.

Some of the animals that live in Ontario are bears, moose, deer, beaver, birds, squirrels, owls, foxes, chipmunks, raccoon, bats, and skunks.

What kind of animals live in Sierra Leone?

FOOD:

We grow a lot of food on our farms. We grow foods like: peaches, corn, apples, tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries, grains, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, celery, lettuce, squash, watermelon, cabbage, spinach, cucumbers and lots of other fruits and vegetables.

In Canada we are famous for maple syrup. Maple syrup comes from maple trees. It is sweet and we use it on top of pancakes, waffles, and for baking.

Can you please tell us more about cassava, foo foo, and garie? We do not know these foods.

HOMES:

We live in houses made of wood and  bricks. Our houses have bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, and kitchens.

What kind of homes do you live in?

Thank you for reading our blog and writing to us. We are excited to get our next letter from you.

Your Friends in Canada,

Mrs. Cassell and the Busy Bees