Granville Island and the Writers' Festival

My goal is to write once a week but not always easy although there is always lots to write about.  A highlight last week was the Vancouver International Writers' Festival.  We have a fantastic writers' festival in Vancouver every fall and I try to take my class.  This year proved a bit of a challenge as we are on work to rule and are not supposed to have anything to do with money.  Unless you have parents who offer to take care of this or an administrator willing to do so, you aren't really able to take your class on field trips.  As a result no one has been on a field trip at our school this term.

The staff at the Writers' Festival offered to count the admission money, and we went by public transit so the kids brought their bus fare or bus passes or bus tickets.  It was a bit of a scene as 56 children put in their bus fare (do the math) but we made it via two buses down and a bit of a walk and the Canada Line and a bus back.  The rain held off and the day became quite beautiful.  We had a great session with Kit Pearson, Maggie de Vries, and Alan Cumyn.  Seeing and hearing real authors talk about their work is just so important to inspire young readers and writers.

The kids enjoyed lunch and some free time at Granville Island.  Kids in Vancouver don't have the freedom we enjoyed as children, and not many of my kids have spent much time on the island so they love it.  Most of them had been there on school trips previously so were familiar with the surroundings.  Our intermediate divisions went to a play last spring and then we had them do a scavenger hunt checking out the various businesses and activities on the island.  Both Clara and I have lovely kids so it was a great day.   I actually wished we had had more time as we had a beautiful though a bit of a rushed walk along the water and by parkland over to the Olympic Canada Line Station.  It's a beautiful area and would have been perfect for studying ecosystems.  Rain had initially been forecast and that would have made it a more challenging day. 

I am feeling sad that it probably is going to be a year without many field trips but again there is always the possibility of a bit of creativity...