Visiting the School in Bella Bella, British Columbia

31 May 2010

In last week’s Cast Your Vote, you decided that we should visit the school in Bella Bella and ask students questions you provided.  I am happy to report that we had a great visit to the school in Bella Bella.

As Dave and I walked to the entrance of the school, we noticed rows and rows of bicycles.  These bicycles were decorated with brightly colored streamers.  When we walked inside, none of the students were in the classrooms.  All of the students and teachers were outside on their sports field.

We quickly learned that this was “Sports Day”.  It happens once a year.  Every grade participates.  They had a bicycle parade in the morning.  Then the field was divided into stations, so teams of students would rotate through all sorts of activities.  The activities were things like soccer, shot-put, high jump, balloon popping, nail pounding, long jump, and face painting.  It looked like a lot of fun!

Dave interviewed about 15 students.  Here is what we found out:

What do you do for your birthday?

They have cake and blow out candles.  They invite their friends to birthday parties. Their celebration is very similar to what we do in the United States.

What do you do for fun?

They like to play X-box 360, ride bikes, go fishing, and play outside.

What is your favorite food?

Students’ favorite foods were Chinese food, pizza, meatballs.

What is your favorite animal?

Half of the group said dogs and the other half said cats.

The Bella Bella school was a very nice place.  They have a Cultural Center right inside the building!  Most of the students are Heiltsuk, which is the First Nations group of people native to this area.  All of the teachers work to blend Heiltsuk traditions with their teaching.  The average class size is 15 students.  The school is currently monitoring a Sandhill Crane nest.  They get live video from a camera near the nest.  Apparently the eggs will hatch any day now.  They are also planning to set up a camera near a river, so they can observe the Grizzly Bears feeding during the salmon run—right in their classrooms!

Thank you for suggesting that we talk to students.  We had a lot of fun at “Sports Day” and the students enjoyed answering your questions.  Did you see some similarities to between what the students in Bella Bella like compared to what you like?  Are there any differences?