InStill Life!

Hello parents of Division 2!

I’ve finally managed to get myself logged on to our classroom blog !

Your kids may have come home to tell you about having eaten olives, feta cheese, bread , olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  This was to launch our InStill Life project.  Over the next few months this cross curricular project will include elements of Math, Social Studies, History, Geography, sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and even micro-economics!

The over-all goal is a simple one-we want to change the world!  Over the next several weeks, we will be learning about the economic, environmental and health benefits of local and sustainable agriculture.  This will include a field trip to a local farm as well as to the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Pizza Company for their “Farm to Pizza” program. During this time, we will also be learning about the history of Still Life paintings and eventually painting our own, using a pizza box from the aforementioned RMFC restaurant as our canvas.  The completed paintings will be put on display at the restaurant and be turned into cards.  The cards, in turn, will be sold by the students.  The funds the kids will raise will be pooled to make microloans to farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs in developing countries through kiva.org.  As loans are repaid, students will be able to lend them out again and again to support local agriculture and local economies in faraway places.

I urge you to check back regularly for updates on our progress.   Below you will find our first few pictures from our “Olive Day” launch!

I want to offer a huge thank you to the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Pizza Company for their support as well as Nikos Theodosakis from Theo’s Greek Restaurant in Penticton who created this program through his non-profit group, OliveUs.