Tuesday 29 September 2009

Link with Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School

Our class has set up a link with a First Nations school in western Canada. It's a small school for members of the Penticton Indian Band, and is located in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. The school is called the Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School.

Some of the past pupils of the school were in Orkney this summer with their canoe family and the Spirit Dancer canoe. 3 members of our class (and Mrs MacNab) went out in the canoe, and Martyna and Mrs MacNab actually paddled with some of the Canadians who used to go to the Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School!

We listened to a recording of the canoe family singing The Okanagan Song. Everyone liked it and recognised the drums were keeping the rhythm for the singers.

We looked on Google Earth to find Penticton - and we even managed to find the school. Our link school won't be able to see Glaitness properly on Google Earth as there's a big cloud over it! We're going to send them photos and information though.

The 2 schools are on opposite sides of the globe!


When we zoomed in we could see that the nearest big city is Vancouver.


We zoomed in to Penticton ...


... and right in to see the school.


Mrs MacNab is now going to try to add the video of the Okanagan Song that we watched from Youtube. She's not sure if it will work.  Here goes.......




We're really looking forward to finding out more about the school and life in the Okanagan.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic work everyone! Google Earth is great!
    I've put the school in Penticton on the big map on the International Education blog page too.
    http://glaitnessinted.blogspot.com

    Miss Mackay

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  2. Wow guys this is really great to see. I Just passed on your blog link to the young people in the Canoe Family via facebook and hopefully they will leave a note on here as well.

    I know all of them sure loved being in Orkney this summer and we talk about it a great deal. Next week they will talk to other youth from across the province of BC about their experince and how much they enjoyed paddling over there.

    Matthew

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