The News and Views of Greens and Blues: Countdown to Christmas

Tofied and Ryley School reports by Rebecca Hellekson

The atmosphere at both Ryley and Tofield schools was festive and sparkling with excitement as the school work for 2015 wrapped up to be replaced with the joy of Christmas. This is one of my favourite times of year because the entire school shifts into a place of cheer and Christmas merriment.

Here at Ryley, we had a plethora of activities to get everyone in the Christmas spirit. We started off with door decorating, where we all split into our squads and tried to out-Christmas the other groups. The competition was stiff, with some great designs surfacing like Rudolf, Christmas presents, and a flurry of handmade snowflakes.

In the end, Miss. Mack’s squad pulled ahead with their artful rendition of a fireplace and a snowy night. They will get to celebrate their creative accomplishment with a pizza party. The rest of the squads still got to have fun though, as later in the week we decorated Gingerbread houses in our groups.

Ryley got into the spirit of giving with different drives to help those in our community. Kylie Nelson,
Rebbeca Hill, and Kayla Lowe in grade seven also started a clothing drive for those in need. Some of the donations are being distributed to shelters in Edmonton, and some are being sold, with proceeds going to the Stollery Children’s Hospital. They had over two boxes of donations. We also had our annual treat of hot chocolate and cookies, which raised $70.00 for the Christmas hampers.

Tofeild saw the return of the Reindeer Games, and it was a tight race right down to the finish. Mr.
Forstbauer put up a good fight, but in the final round of this clothes pin stealing game came down to Megan Sly and Avery Tessier, and Megan came out victorious.

We got the entire school pumped up for the holidays with our annual winter showcase at Ryley, a school wide event where those members of our school who are musically inclined show off their skills before break. The showcase was organized by Rockers Haven leader Miss. Sykes. The school was serenaded by Austin Baker, Chanelle Gamble, Katie Cameron, Cody Weight, and myself. The main event, however, was a group carolling extravaganza topped off with the staff singing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas.’

The halls here at Ryley were filled with Christmas and school spirit as we all dressed up for spirit week.

There was a red and green day, a plaid day, a formal day, and (my personal favourite) an ugly sweater day. It’s always fun to see how the teachers and students choose to show their colours.

The Sr. Girls basketball team in Tofeild has had a wonderful start to their season. They played in the Vegabonds Charity Tournament in Vegreville, and their first home league game will be February third. The senior boys played in Wainwright and won 106 to 43. They also placed 8th in the Forestburg tournament against 16 teams.

The Sr. High Rebels Basketball teams were slated to play their home openers last week, but inclement weather put an end to that.

The Jr. High teams did get in their first games however, and they were filled with excitement. The Tofield girls took home the win with a 53 to 10 sweep against Viking, and the boys played equally well to end with a 43 to 29 point lead. In Ryley the boys performed exceptionally well against Round Hill, ending the game with a 64 to 25 point win. The Rebel girls put their all into a close game, but lost to the visiting team 33 to 38.