As the days grow dark and the cool air settles in, Yukoners begin to turn their attention from campfires to pumpkins, embracing the spirit of Halloween. The City of Whitehorse bristles with spooky events for all ages. One of the largest and most-sought-after Halloween fixtures is the annual MAD Haunted House, presented by the Music, …
The lazy days of summer will soon come to an end, for teachers and students alike.
When discussing the global plastic pollution, things can often seem bleak. That is not the case at Yukon Montessori School, where, in Kelly Scott’s Lower Elementary class, the future looks bright. Very bright.
It’s the nature of short Yukon summers for Yukoners to seize every moment and they perhaps forget about things like contributions to the food bank.
Students from Holy Family Elementary School wrote, performed, and produced their very own CD.
Breakfast is brain food. According to the Breakfast Club of Canada approximately 60 per cent of learning happens before lunch, making it even more important to get some food in their bellies first thing in the morning.
In the hyper-sensitive world of childhood, an ill-chosen word can sometimes have a devastating impact, even if no harm is intended. I’m not talking about the kind of taunting, bullying talk that was unfortunately common on the playgrounds of my youth and is still far too prevalent today. I mean a casual, harmless remark – often …
Apple crumble is as close to a perfect food as I’ve ever found. It can be breakfast just as easily as it can be dessert or even dinner. It’s fast to prepare, and when it comes right down to it, pretty healthy.
Ross River musician Dennis Shorty grew up in a musical family that spoke Kaska and performed at social events. Now he is sharing his love of the language through the musical duo he formed with his wife, Jennifer Froehling, is called Dena Zagi, meaning “people’s voice”. In August, they toured in Germany with their first …
The emptying-out of Yukon’s schools signals the official start of that much-anticipated annual ritual: the Summer Holiday. We all know the narrative arc of that story. For the first little while, the kids are bursting to be outside every moment of the day, burning off the pent-up energy held hostage inside the classroom for months. …
According to Darwin Murray, after sitting in a desk all day, it is fun to get up and run, play games and meet new people before heading home from school. Tuesday after school, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., an enthusiastic group of children from Grades 4 and 5 participate in a Skookum Jim Friendship …
Whitehorse resident Dianne Homan knows people make the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage for many reasons. So on March 15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., she and the Yukon chapter of the Company of Canadian Pilgrims are hosting an informal presentation about “the Camino experience” at Hidden Valley School. Located in western Europe, the Camino …
The student population studying for finals are fascinating creatures. Next, there is a dietary shift in students, where once semi-nutritious meals are replaced by caffeine and variants of sugar. The date of the finals attack can be characterized by the temporary nocturnal ability students will gain 1-2 days before the exam. These extra hours are …
As children are once again back in school — practicing their writing skills by reporting on the topic “What I did last summer,” — it is a good time to reflect on how effective the opportunities for family-related memory-making were over the past couple of months. This is also a good time to think about …
September has the ability to feel more like the start of a new year than January. People migrating home after their summer adventures and the return of the cool weather, brings a sense of something new and of settling back into normal. September is also (most obviously) the beginning of the school year; school always …
A question that pops up every now and again is, Would students be better off without a summer vacation? This stance claims that the luxurious two-and-a-half month summer break should be replaced with shorter and more frequent breaks throughout the year, since the summer break’s original purpose – of collecting the harvest – is no …
When Kyley Henderson was in elementary school her mother, Elaine, encouraged her to draw, and one year a drawing of hers was used in the Robert Service School yearbook. Elaine, who is herself a landscape painter and sculptor, says that she always encouraged Kyley to develop her art as a kid. Kyley remembers her mother telling …
School’s out for the summer, which means that summer camp is IN! An exciting new day camp is taking centre-stage this year in Whitehorse – specifically, it is taking the stage at the Frantic Follies Theatre, home to the Frantic Follies vaudeville revue. For almost 50 years, Frantic Follies has been delighting Whitehorse audiences with …
Looking for a busting, bawling, rocking good time that’s also for a good cause? Then head out to the Gr8ful Spud on May 28th for a fundraiser for the Gyan Jyoti School Building Society. The Gyan Jyoti School Building Society is currently raising funds to build additional two new classrooms in Kalimpong, West Bengal, India. …
Several months ago I walked into a beauty salon for advice on a skin problem. Kayla Dewdney appeared from the back of the shop. She looked at my skin and offered her advice. It worked! Today I made an appointment with her for a facial, which involved lying down during the treatment. I felt very good …
Experienced readers know that words make a world within a story come alive. However, for early readers, sometimes they need the world around them to help the words on the page come alive. The Family Literacy Centre at the Canada Games Centre has just the ticket: Reader’s Theatre, an interactive tool for learning to read. …
I have an idea that would really put the Yukon on the world map: let’s build a True North Queen School. Tourists and Yukon students could spend few weeks at the Queen School, named after the wealth of history Rendezvous Queens study in order to be ambassadors to the Yukon. If we built a True …
Students in rural schools can miss out on a number of things in terms of course offerings and opportunities. There are specialty programs in the city that attract a number of rural students to spend time in Whitehorse. Our daughter, for instance, spent half of her Grade 11 year attending the Music Arts and Drama …
Destiny Clennett, 13, was one of eight students from Northern Lights School of Dance (NLSD) to attend the 13th World Congress of Dance and the Child International (daCi) in Copenhagen, Denmark in July. I was five when I started dancing, and ballet was my first dance class. It was fun and exciting. When I was …
On the first day of kindergarten I didn’t know what to expect; playtime was now scheduled between certain hours and, in order to sit in the circle with the other kids, you needed to pass the test of finding your name. These were hard times in the eyes of a five-year-old. However, I got used …
My dad figures it’s more common for adults to go back to school these days. This is compared to when he went to college for the first time when he was 33. In the ‘90s. He says, “These days, people don’t stay in the same career.” He had a wife (my mom), four kids (a …
As the famous Alice Cooper song says, “School’s ouuuuuut for the summer!” But for kids of various ages whose passion is music, classes are set to resume next Monday, when the Yukon Summer Music Camp begins. The week-long annual event offers instruction in a wide range of musical forms and styles, for students of varying …
Whoever said learning can’t be fun has never been part of the Chickadees program in Whitehorse. Designed for toddlers aged between three and five, this pre-school definitely puts the cool in school. At this joint kids get free playtime, story creation, painting, crafts, fieldtrips, and the ever-sopopular circle time. If these perks aren’t enough, there …
Jazz has come a long way over the decades. What started as a call-and-response song though the cotton fields of the south, has now become an uptempo beat familiar to most. In edition to its evolution, it has sparked the creation of many sub-genres: Latin jazz, classical jazz, funk, b-bob, acid jazz, and vocal jazz, …
Like those who attended the first Sex Pistols concert, I too like to take credit for discovering something revolutionary: the iceberg. In 1996, I attended Grade 9 at the now-defunct Christ the King Junior Secondary on Nisutlin Drive in Riverdale. As the days of spring took hold, it was not uncommon for me to walk …
Two teams of Yukon students will travel outside the territory this spring after strong performances at the Destination Imagination Yukon tournament on February 28. Destination Imagination (DI) is an extracurricular program where teams of students solve openended challenges and present the solutions at tournaments. Alex Gray is in Grade 5 at Hidden Valley Elementary School. …
Before working on my school’s float, I didn’t think school spirit mattered or even truly existed. I thought it was a thing that teachers loved talking about. But working with my fellow 2015 F.H. Collins grads on our school’s float made me realize how it important it truly is. Waking up early on a Sunday …
‘Road-schooling’ is the concept of using travel, either by itself or in concert with a curriculum, to educate a child. It brings learning to life and is grounded in the belief that learning is all around us, waiting to be explored and embraced. We began our road-schooling journey 18 months ago when we decided to …
My son came home from work a few weeks ago with a sad look of his face. When we asked what tragedy had befallen him he replied, “They’ve torn down my playground.” Well, it was true; the Robert Service School got some new playground equipment this fall. Why this fall instead of during the summer …
Christmas – when presents take precedence and work is cast under the bed and forgotten. Youth and adults alike put off assignments until the final day before their return to school or work. Everyone recognizes the strain of procrastination. Be it an essay, a load of laundry, or simply booking time off so we can …
They’re getting down and dirty in Dawson City – dirty actions of the gardening kind, that is. Dawson City Community Gardens, now in its third year of existence, is alive and thriving with more people joining every year. “It’s about coming together to develop relationships with the garden, each other and the community,” says Derrick …
