Mr. Potter's Third Grade Class
Lakewood Elementary
British Columbia, Canada
A Prairie Boy's Winter
by William Kurelek

1. Winter is Coming

The colourful leaves start to fall from the trees. Some animals and birds go south for the winter. The bears go into hibernation. Some deer are killed by wolves. You can see better through the trees because so many leaves have fallen. The ground gets wet and soggy and fungus grows from the ground in the woods. Big yellow and black slugs are seen on the trails.

by Gordie and Mr. Potter

2. The First Snowfall

My friends Garrett, Taylor and Loganand I have snowball fights. When my friends and I see the first snowfall, we build snowmen and igloos and play snow angels and a bunch of other things. Once a snowstorm happened and when it was done we went outside and we got our boots on and our scarves on and then our coats. We went back outside again, Garrett, Taylor and Logan and my brother and I. We all went down a really steep driveway. Then we did it again, again and again, over and over again. It was really fun. Then after that was done we piled snow on top of each other. After a while my other friend came over and her name is Kelsey. It's really fun playing outside in the snow when we have some in winter. At the end of the day I wish that I could do that all over again. We always have lots of fun when it snows.

by Ashley and Taylor

3. Feeding our Animals

In 1995 I lived on a farm in Metchosin, close to Hans Helgessen School. We had pigs, chickens, cows, horses and a little white bunny that lived in the wild. Once the pigs got frost on them so much you could hardly see that they were pink. Sometimes after they ate they rolled in the mud but this time it was too cold for that. Instead they went in their house and went to sleep. The next day it snowed and I went in the pig pen and the pigs were asleep. The day after that I went to the pig pen and they were gone and we had a pretty interesting breakfast.
"DAD!" I yelled. He told me that they were sent away to be made into bacon and they gave it back to us to eat soon after that.

by Brandon

4. Winter Games

I make snow rabbits in the snow and it is fun. The snow is sometimes very deep. I can hardly play tag in the snow. My mom and dad do not like snow but my brother and sister and I like snow a lot. It is hard to walk in the snow. It doesn't snow a lot here. I play angels in the snow. That is a good game. I also make snow forts in the snow. The snow is very white and cold. I like playing games in the snow. It is hard to play in the snow sometimes but it is fun too. My gramma played tag in the snow with me but now she is tired she cannot do that anymore but I still like snow.

by Ranna and Josh

5. Rink Making

(This episode is about a prairie winter as Philip was brought up in Saskatchewan and wanted to describe how his family made their own ice rink there!)

In Regina my brother and I made a hockey rink. We shovelled the snow
until we saw grass. Then we put a little bit of snow back and then put on water with a hose. Then the next day we put water on again and then we could play. We had to make it smooth and we had to put some snow on to do this. You get a shovel and you go around with the snow on the ice to make it smooth. Then we played hockey on the rink, my Dad, my brother and me.

by Philip

6. Ice Hockey

I play on the Juan de Fuca Orcas hockey team. There are about twelve
people on the team and we play teams from Lake Cowichan, Saanich, Duncan, Sooke and Victoria. I play goal-tender and it is good. I get to stop lots of goals and we have only lost two games. Our coach is Darrell and he is a good coach. I really like playing hockey and I'll do it again next year. Winter it is the best time for a good game so we can go and win games.

by Gerry and Andrew

7. Trapping and Hunting

Hi! I'm here to teach you about how you should not hunt animals. I just
remembered when my dad took me on a hunting trip. On my first hunting
trip I asked if we were going to shoot any animals.
"No," said Dad, "Why?" "I asked because it is not nice to hunt animals." I said. Dad said, "Today I'm just going to show you how to hunt." So he did. "Dad," I said. "Yes." said Dad.
"Why are you teaching me how to hunt? I thought it wasn't nice to hunt animals!" "Well it isn't nice to hunt animals," my Dad said. "Then why are we doing it?" I said "Because when you grow up, if you don't have any money or food and you want to eat you will have to go hunt deer and things," my Dad said. So right then I started to notice that sometimes you have to hunt animals.

by Alysha

8. Hauling Hay

It was two days before Christmas and my brother and I had to stack hay in the barn for the horses. This was at my auntie's house. We had breakfast and then went outside and stacked, and stacked and stacked. We gave some hay to the horses and then we had lunch. After lunch we continued to stack the hay in the barn until we were tired. It was night time and we helped to put the horses in the barn and went to bed. The next day was Christmas Eve and we stacked more hay before going home to hang up our stockings.

by Chris and Mr. Potter

9. Skiing

The day I saw snow I ran outside to get my skis and went skiing. But there was one problem, the hills were too slippery and deep. When I was at the top I walked down the hill. I fell on my knees so my mom helped me up. Finally I could ski well but I still did fall a little. After lunch I went skiing again but this time I got to the bottom of the hill. Every day it snows I go skiing.

by Molly

10. Looking after the Cattle

Hi, my name is Leah and it is winter. In the winter we have to water the cattle. We have six steers and we have two feeding troughs. The steers sleep in a barn. We bring up the hose and sometimes we bring pails for the water. The steers have hay in the barn. We had to fix the barn up. They are all boy cattle. I like them.

by Leah