“All rise, Judge Smith presiding!”

Have you ever thought about what it’s like to be in a Canadian court? Well, today we (Catie and Rebecca) will tell you all about it so that you’ll be ready for a real case someday! We have just recently been working on a unit in Social Studies about justice. We have been focusing mainly on court. In this post, we are going to share with you what we have learned.

Court Members and Their Jobs

Everybody in the court has an important role to serve justice to the citizens and their community. We are going to define and explain what their jobs are.

1. Judge-The Judge is one of the most important people in the court. He/she makes the decision if the accused is innocent or guilty, and listens carefully to the people in order to make the fair decision.
2. Court Clerk-The Court clerk prepares the court’s schedule, and reads the charges of the accused. The court clerk also asks everybody in the case to swear on their religion to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
3. Crown Counsel/Attorney-The Crown counsel/Attorney is the lawyer for their province or territory. They represent society, and ask the witnesses questions and to tell the Judge the truth about what happened.
4. Investigating Officer-The investigating officer investigates the crime, and collects evidence. He/she also helps the Crown prosecutor.
5. Accused-The accused is the one who has been charged with committing a crime. He/she has the right (in most places) to remain silent and let their lawyer (the Defence counsel) speaks for them.
6. Court Reporter-The Court reporter records everything that is said in the court room during trial. He/she sits close to the witnesses to hear exactly what they say.
7. Defence Counsel/Attorney-He/she is the lawyer who works for the accused. He/she makes sure that the Judge hears the accused person’s side of the case, so the Judge can make a fair decision.
8. Court Officer-The Court officer/sheriff is responsible for keeping everybody in the courtroom safe during trial. Another thing that he/she does, is bring in accused at the right time.

Important Things in the Courtroom

Now that you have learned about the important people in court, we will teach you the important things, in the courtroom to make the trial run smoothly.

1. Closed Circuit Television-This item is used to show evidence for the accused (under 18 if it makes it easier for them to explain).
2. Coat Of Arms-Used as a very important symbol.
3. Canadian Flag-The flag is another symbol used to represent Canada. In other countries, people use their flags for the same reason.
4. Prisoner’s Box-This is used to hold accused if they happen to be in custody (jail) at the time. This is where the Court Officer would bring in the accused.

   All of these things and people, help make the courtroom FAIR. The Judge listens carefully to everybody, the Jury are unbiased and have no connection whatsoever to the Accused or the Witnesses, the Crown Counsel/Attorney defends the law while the Defence Counsel defends the Accused. Each one of these jobs and people are very important in making the procedures fair.

  We really have learned so much about court and justice in Canada, and it’s only been a few days! We really hope that you have learned as much as we have about this important topic. We couldn’t have learned all of this without this website. Thank you so much for reading this post, and we hope that you will visit Huzzah again soon! Until next time… this has been Catie, and Rebecca on Court and Justice. See you soon!

Photo Credits

Courtroom One Gavel by lambdachialpha
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

Valley View Brings You Roald Dahl’s… Willy Wonka!

Hello, and we’re your reporters here today, Rebecca, Chelsea and Catie. Today we are going to tell you about the wonderful event that happened just before Spring-Break! Our class got on their white costumes that looked very over-sized, and made us look like big, fat… MARSHMELLOWS! We looked incredibly silly, but it was definitely worth the laughs!

It turned out to be a brilliant performance for the night, and a large success for our VVOPPA (Valley View Organization to Prevent Poverty in Africa) cookie fundraiser! The goal of VVOPPA  was to raise $1 000.00 in total, and we raised $1 050.00! Now, back to the performance, our class didn’t get to see all of the show, because we were back in the classroom getting ready, and of course, goofing off! We occupied ourselves playing… LOOMPA TWISTER! Mrs. Snowden brought in a wolf documentary as well. Right before our performance, we played silent ball.

Several students from the class were actors in the performance including: Michael G, Daniel C, Rebecca, Haley, and Michael T. We were all very proud of their performances and hard work, they all did a great job!

Show Time!

As we entered the dark gym full of actors and audience members, and we started to sweat because of the hot lights beaming down on our faces and all of the body heat in the room. (It was VERY hot in there!) One of the actors had just finished there song, and then our music cued. The first people walked on to the stage, and followed by them was the rest of our excited classmates. The choreography was full of movements that took lots of teamwork to perfect. After the song was finished, we marched our way to the risers awaiting our next song.

We had to wait for the next scene to be over, before we could perform our next song. It wasn’t long before our song started, and by then, we were all full of energy and excitement… again! After that song was finished, we were all very excited because next up was the finale! The song was very upbeat so all the oompa loompas finally got to smile and not be so serious for once! All the grade fours and sevens joined in too, and made the song so great with all the effort and energy they put into it! After that was over there was a roar of applause and all the actors took a bow, and left the stage. Willy Wonka was over and we all got to celebrate our hard work, we could finally get out of those sweaty costumes too! Everybody had a great time and the hard work was definitely worth it!

Hi Readers,

Today you get to learn some recipes from the unique minds of our class. Here are some recipes for you to try and enjoy. Are you feeling like having some Fruit Salad? Try Austin’s Recipe! Or maybe your thinking you want some Japanese Sushi, try Nicholas’ Recipe! There are a lot more recipes such as:

• Catie’s recipe on Mini Pizzas
• Chelsea’s recipe on how to make Rice Crispies
• Daniel’s famous Smiley Face Bagels
• Daniel W’s Recipes
• Devan’s Apple Crisp
• Julian’s instructions on How to Put an Eggo in a Toaster
• Kris’ Recipes
• Maxs’ Cheese and Summer Sausage Panini
• Michael’s Intense Nachos
• Rebecca’s recipe for Nachos and Cheese and Toasted Almonds

These are our recipes. We hope you enjoy trying them! Send us a comment telling us what your favorite recipe is.

Have you ever had a class election?

Our class has. Different people had different roles in our election. There were five people running for three seats. Another role was campaign manager who helped with promoting the person running. Different parties put up signs all around the classroom and one party even had a video to present.

When it came down to voting day more roles were added to keep the election fair. One of them was the Returning Officer whose job was to keep the voters’ privacy. For example if someone was looking at someone else’s ballot the Returning Officer would escort them out of the polling station.

Another important role was the Poll Clerk. His job was to make sure people only voted once. For example once the Returning officer handed the voter his ballot the Poll Clerk would make him sign on the voters list then he would cross out his name. When the voter returned to put his ballot in the box the Poll Clerk would sign his name on the voters list to show that the voter had submitted his vote.

Many people tried to disturb the privacy of the voters but it was dealt with.

Someone tried to put up political advertising at the polling station, but he was stopped by the Returning Officer because you can’t influence the voters.

Someone tried to spy into the voting booth, but the Returning Officer put a stop to that, too!

An unregistered voter (Mr. Green, our principal) tried to vote but was not allowed to. He was not between the age of 9 and 13 and was not a resident of Huzzahnia!

One voter tried to vote in another person’s place but the impostor was taken away!

One candidate threatened a voter to get his vote, but the Returning Officer called the police and he was taken away.

All in all it was a superb election and everyone had fun!

As Queen of the Universe and Supreme Ruler of Huzzahnia,

I declare that I will occasionally provide opportunities for direct democracy, through secret ballot or show of hands, and I may also grant some decision-making power to the directly elected class council. But it depends on how I am feeling.

This is my official Toadstich which grants me amazing powers, most notably, hp 500, which comes in very handy.  My royal sword is a great comfort to me.

This is my Mythl: please note my Queenly Power. It helps me keep my head while all about me others are losing theirs.

These wonderful playing cards are the creation of Daniel and Kris. They developed the concept for these cards back in grade 3 and are reviving it now. I am thrilled, and look forward to reading their blog post on the topic soon.

…you HAVE TO keep it!

Our Class Council elections are over, and soon we will have a guest post or two about the process. Students made campaign promises–some serious, some not. One student who was elected had promised that if she was chosen, she would run around the school yelling…

…and so she did!