Back to Mystery Class Map Back to Today's Update

Introducing Mystery Class #8 Sarnia, Canada 42.9667 N, 82.3833 W Learn about our flag     "Bienvenu", "Welcome", "Boozhoo" to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada!     We are Grade 3 and 4 students of Cathcart Public School and we hope you learned a lot about the world trying to find us. As you can see, we had a lot of snow when the Mystery Class Project began. By the time you meet us, we hope that our winter coats and boots have been put away until next year! Do you remember the first photo back on February 4th? That was our class playing in the school's front garden after a big snowfall!   Our School We have about 450 children attending from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 in both English and French programs. Our school colours are red and white, and our team mascot is the Cougar. We do a lot at our school like participating in beach clean-ups, raising and releasing Monarch butterflies, and helping set a Guinness World Record in cup stacking! Our City We live in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, which is on beautiful Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes. A lot of ships pass by on their way down the St. Clair River to Detroit. You can cross over to the United States from our city to Port Huron, Michigan on the Bluewater Bridges. The Bluewater Bridges link Canada and the United States There are actually two bridges, one for traffic going east and one for westbound trucks and cars. Each span is designed with a different structural design. The first bridge took 10 years to build and uses a truss design. It was opened in 1938. The second span only took 5 years to construct and is an arch. In 1990 the twin bridges were officially reopened and together they make the largest capacity bridge crossing the U.S.-Canada border. That's a lot of traffic! Laker carrying Grain Canadian Coast Guard ship Before pioneers settled here, Sarnia was a place of gathering for our native First Nations people. It was an important crossing that was part of a travel route forming an Anishinaabe trade network that stretched over the entire continent. To recognize the long history of gatherings of First Nations peoples, the Souls Memorial was unveiled near the bridges in 2003. That's why we started by greeting you in three languages. French and English are our country's two official languages. "Boozhoo" (say it boo-JU) means welcome in the native Ojibwe language.   The Souls Memorial About 70 000 people live in Sarnia and there is a lot to do here. In the summer you can play golf, soccer/football, tennis or sail. In the winter, lots of kids skate and play hockey. Our city has a hockey team called the Sting, and sometimes players graduate from there and go on to play in the NHL. Some of our famous citizens include Mike Weir who plays professional golf, and Steve Molitor, a boxer, as well as James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty on the original Star Trek television series. Chris Hadfield, the astronaut, went to school in Sarnia and our airport is named after him. Astronaut Chris Hadfield Sarnia Sting players The second Prime Minister of our country, Alexander Mackenzie, is buried in one of our cemeteries. He headed the government of Canada from 1873 to 1878. Alexander Mackenzie The most important industries in Sarnia are the petrochemical and oil industries. Most of the plants are located in an area called Chemical Valley. If you go there at night, all the buildings are lit up and it looks like an alien city! Chemical Valley towers Another very important industry is tourism. We love to have people visit us! Sometimes they come to boat and fish or just to lie on the beaches. They might come to watch our Canada Day Parade on July 1st which is our country's birthday. Or they might come to listen to great music played by live bands during Bayfest. Canada Day Parade on July 1st Bayfest Bayfest rocks with artists like the Black-Eyed Peas, Kid Rock, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Aerosmith (lead singer Steven Tyler is now a judge on American Idol)! The weather here is milder than most weather in Canada. Winters are cold with snow, but many other places get a lot more than us. The summers are warm and humid, averaging 25 degrees Celsius. Lake Huron helps to keep our temperatures warmer after the summer but also keeps the winter chills longer, too. Sarnia is in the province of Ontario which is also home to the cities of Toronto, Niagara Falls, and our nation's capital, Ottawa. Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. Although Canada is the second largest country in the world, the population is only about 34 million, probably because a lot of Canada to the north is cold and rocky. Canada has a lot of different landscapes. There are flat prairies, fertile farmlands, old mountains that have worn down, high young mountain ranges, forests, and lots of water. The western-most province of British Columbia even has both a rainforest and a desert! Although the head of our government is our Prime Minister, we still recognize Queen Elizabeth as our monarch. So many Canadians are excited about the royal wedding! Would you like to learn more about us? We'd love to hear from you! You can email our teacher, Mrs. Zottl.