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How we got the four seasons

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there was a great and powerful god named Iceis. She ruled the entire universe. One day, as she sat in her great big royal blue armchair, she thought to herself, “I have to create a planet on which humans can live in peace and harmony.” Then she thought maybe she could put her humans on one of her already marvelous planets. Every time she had a planet in mind though, she always found something wrong with it. Mars was just too hot, Pluto was too isolated,= and Venus was just too small. Iceis decided she would have to make a whole new planet.

She spent the entire night trying to figure out what should be on this perfect world of hers. Iceis had to make sure the world would meet all the needs of the humans. It must have healthy food, fresh water and materials that the humans could be able to build tools with. There now were hundreds of crumpled pieces of paper all around her chair. Every plan she drew had at least one imperfection and just wasn’t up to her standards.

Iceis worked from the time she got up until the evening and then finally she was pleased with her work. She had constructed a spectacular planet. She thought the humans would be very pleased with it. Only one thing was missing now. What was the weather going to be like on this planet?

Iceis sent letters to her four friends who new all about different types of weather to help her fix this dilemma. First, she sent for her good friend Winifred, who loved snow and cold weather. Next, Augustus, who like cool weather and fallen leaves. Then, Tulip, who adored flowers and new life springing every where. Lastly, Sonny, who enjoyed the heat and sunny days. She told them to all meet at her house to discuss the issue.

Iceis told her friends her idea, and they all agreed it was a wonderful planet. When it came time to discuss the climate, that’s when the argument broke out. Everyone was yelling about how hot or how cold the earth should be and whether it should have snow or rain all the time. Finally, Iceis silenced all her friends. She said to them, “I’d called you all here because I want to hear each and every one of your points of view. How about we speak one at a time? Winifred you go first.”

Winifred cleared her throat, “Well,” she started, “I think that your new plant should have a cold climate all year around. There could be white, fluffy snow all the time. The humans would really enjoy that, don’t you think? They could do many things like skating, sledding and have snow ball fights every day. I love those things and I think they would too.”

“What!” Augustus bellowed, “The humans would find that too cold I think. They would probably like a nice cool climate. That wouldn’t be too cold for them. The scenery would be much nicer for them. All the tree could just be losing their leaves and be turning vibrant colours like red, orange and green. The humans could make huge leaf piles and jump in them. They would find that very amusing.”

“If you want to hear my opinion,” Tulip said in her sweet and quiet voice, “I think that the world would look beautiful if every day the humans would wake up and smell the fresh scent of flowers and look out their windows and see vigorous and lively colours like purple irises, pink petunias and blue morning glories. It would rain a lot and they could jump and play in the puddles for a past time. That would be great right?”

“It would be great, but do you know what would be even better?” Sonny said in a cheery tone, “It would be even better if it was hot all year around! The humans could do so many things for enjoyment. They could swim, play sports and tan. They would love it. It would hardly ever rain and never snow, so they would always be enjoying the outdoors. Every type of life species would feel comfortable in this weather. All the plants would be in full bloom too! It would be lovely.”

Iceis thought about what each of her friends had said for days. Finally after a considerable amount of thinking, she sent a message for all her friends to return to her home so she could tell them her conclusion. Iceis told them her marvelous plan. She said, “I loved each and every one of your ideas. They were all great. At first, I thought I only had to pick one idea, but now I’ve realized I can use them all!”

“Now how are you going to do that?” Augustus interrupted.

“You see,” said Iceis, “it’s very simple. For part of the year, it will be very cold and snowy. That will be called winter. For another part of the year it will be cool and all the leaves will be falling off and changing colours. That is going to be called autumn. Then it will be spring, when all the flowers are springing up from the ground. Lastly there will be summer. The hottest of all the weather changes. The humans can go swimming and it will almost always be sunny.”

“That’s a great idea!” said Sonny, “Now everyone can be happy.”

“But what will these four changes be called?” Asked Tulip.

“I think I will call them the four seasons,” replied Iceis.

And that is how the four seasons came to be.

Brianna Ryan, 13, is a Grade 8 student at St. Elizabeth Catholic School in Bowmanville. This is the full text of a speech she gave in school.

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St. Elizabeth a whirlwind of activity

Apr 24, 2007 By: This Week staff

May 5, 2006

CLARINGTON -- Last June was truly a special day for St. Elizabeth Catholic School principal Jonathon Bibby.

The school head, who has been principal at St. Elizabeth for the past three years, had one of the proudest days of his life -- and he got to share the moment with the entire school.

A British subject, Mr. Bibby took the plunge and became a Canadian citizen. And he took the opportunity to share his experience with the students and staff he works with every day.

"We had a full citizenship ceremony for 25 new Canadians -- myself among them. It was one of the proudest days of my life," he said.

The principal had come from Manchester, England, way back in 1981 but decided to take the plunge recently.

He was able to join his big moment to the Grade 5 curriculum teachings on citizenship -- a teacher even in one of his most personal experiences.

But then again, Mr. Bibby is equally proud of his 750-strong student body and the group of staff and teachers that make up St. Elizabeth.

Built in 1998, the school is a feeder facility for St. Stephen's Catholic Secondary School.

The focus at St. Elizabeth, a junior kindergarten to Grade 8 facility, is squarely on student literacy and numeracy. And, says Mr. Bibby, who started teaching at St. Elizabeth when it opened its doors in 1998, the school can also depend on a very strong parents' council to help with school events.

The principal also gives credit to the school's athletic teams. They fly like their nickname namesakes, the Eagles.

"We've had a lot of success in recent years with our boys and girls basketball and volleyball teams," says Mr. Bibby.

While sport has its place, the school also has plenty of time for involvement in other activities. Take, for instance, the choice of school play this year: an ambitious production of The Jungle Book, a classic and fan favourite if there ever was one. Another recent production was Oliver.

The latter is appropriate because it's fair to say that, at St. Elizabeth C.S., you can "consider yourself, a friend."