Christmas at PDC

I will like to take this opportunity to wish all my students and parents the Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year...see you all in 2012!


Here are a few pictures of class 303 getting ready for the holidays:

Notre étoile de la semaine

Alexia est notre étoile de la semaine!
Alexia aime manger de la pizza, lire des romans de la petite patineuse, chanter (surtout au Glee Club) et jouer avec sa petite soeur!  Plus tard Alexia aimerait être une vétérinaire pour pouvoir aider les animaux.   Alexia nous a montré son affiche pleine de photos de sa famille et de sa meilleure amie Marisa!  Continue ton excellent travail Alexia!

Le Village Iroquoien de la classe 303

Nos maisons longues sont enfin terminées!
ça ne nous a pas pris beaucoup de temps, on les a terminées en un coup d'oeil et on s'est amusé beaucoup!  
Voici quelques photos de notre petite aventure:

Notre étoile de la semaine

Sacha est notre étoile de la semaine! 
Sacha aime manger de la pizza, écouter des films de Harry Potter (comme moi:)), lire des romans de Magic Tree House, faire de la planche à neige et jouer au hockey avec son ami Zack!  Plus tard Sacha aimerait être un policier pour pouvoir bien nous proteger.  Sacha nous a montré aussi la belle planche à neige qu'il a eu a Noël l'année passée! Continue ton excellent travail Sacha!

Notre Village Iroquoien

Bonjour a tous,
On a finalement commencé nos maisons longues pour notre petit village Iroquoien!  On s'amuse beaucoup et on travaille très fort.  Je suis fière de tous mes élèves, ils ont tous bien travaillé aujourd'hui.
Cliquez sur le link pour voir quelques photos de notre travail:

L'étoile de la semaine

Rachel est notre étoile de la semaine!  Rachel aime manger du pâté chinois, faire de la natation, lire des romans de Nancy Fancy et Hello Kitty comme moi!  Rachel aime beaucoup son lapin Bugsy et ses deux frères Morgan et Ronan! Continue ton excellent travail Rachel!

L'étoile de la semaine

Marco est notre étoile de la semaine!  Marco aime manger de la pizza, jouer au hockey avec son père, et lire des romans Lego avec son meilleur ami Luca.
Plus tard Marco aimerait être un mécanicien et réparer des belles voitures!  Marco  continue ton excellent travail!

The Top Reason to Give Soda the Boot …

Hello there,

I hope you are getting ready for winter, as it seems to be creeping up on us.  During the winter season, we tend to forget to take good care of ourselves.  We tend to overeat and not do enough exercice.   I'm one of those people who will watch what I eat so I don't have to be on the treadmill for hours:)  It can be quite tricky since I really enjoy a good meal.  

I always ask myself this "is this really worth eating...or drinking?"  

Soft drinks or sodas are one thing I try to stay away from.  Let's face it they are not good for anyone, especially our children!

Here is a good article I got from a parent and I would like to share it with you...Happy reading and stay healthy!

The Top Reason to Give Soda the Boot …

Some of you reading this are undoubtedly thinking, how bad could soda really be? From my perspective, there is absolutely NO REASON you or your kids should ever drink soda. If you were stranded in the middle of a desert with no other fluid available, then maybe, but other than that … none, nada, zip, zero. No excuses.
From a health perspective, drinking Coke or any soft drink is a disaster. Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year, not to mention increase your risk of diabetes by 85 percent. The primary reason why soda is so dangerous to your health?
Fructose.
The fructose content of the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used in many popular soda brands has been sorely underestimated. Around 100 years ago the average American consumed a mere 15 grams of fructose a day, primarily in the form of fruit. One hundred years later, one fourth of Americans are consuming more than 135 grams per day, largely in the form of soda.
Fructose at 15 grams a day is harmless (unless you suffer from high uric acid levels). However, at nearly 10 times that amount it becomes a major cause of obesity and nearly all chronic degenerative diseases. Instead of consisting of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose, many soda brands, including Coke, Pepsi and Sprite, contain as much as 65 percent fructose, nearly 20 percent higher than originally believed.
According to one study, the mean fructose content of all 23 sodas tested was 59 percent -- higher than claimed by the industry. When you consider that Americans drink an average of 53 to 57 gallons of soda per year(depending on the source of your statistics), this difference in actual fructose content could make a huge difference in your health. 

The Down and Dirty About Fructose

The American Beverage Association and other front groups will try to persuade you that fructose in high fructose corn syrup is no worse for you than sugar, but this is not true. ABA also claims there is "no association between high fructose corn syrup and obesity," but a long lineup of scientific studies suggest otherwise.
For example:

• Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children's Hospital did a study of the effects of sugar-sweetened drinks on obesity in children. He found that for each additional serving of a sugar-sweetened drink, both body mass index and odds of obesity increased.
• The Fizzy Drink Study in Christchurch, England explored the effects on obesity when soda machines were removed from schools for one year. In the schools where the machines were removed, obesity stayed constant. In the schools where soda machines remained, obesity rates continued to rise.
• In a 2009 study, 16 volunteers were fed a controlled diet including high levels of fructose. Ten weeks later, the volunteers had produced new fat cells around their hearts, livers and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. A second group of volunteers who were fed a similar diet, but with glucose replacing fructose, did not have these problems.

Fructose is also a likely culprit behind the millions of U.S. children struggling with non-alcoholic liver disease, which is caused by a build-up of fat within liver cells. Fructose is very hard on your liver, in much the same way as drinking alcohol.

• Liver burden number one: After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver—ONLY your liver can break it down. This is much different than consuming glucose, in which your liver has to break down only 20 percent, and the remaining 80 percent is immediately metabolized and used by the rest of the cells in your body.
• Liver burden number two: Fructose is converted into fat that gets stored in your liver and other tissues as body fat. Part of what makes fructose so bad for your health is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar. For example, if you eat 120 calories of fructose, 40 calories are stored as fat. But if you eat the same amount of glucose, less than one calorie gets stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!

Fructose metabolism is very similar to the way alcohol is metabolized, which has a multitude of toxic metabolites that, if consumed in excess, can lead to non-alcoholic liver disease. For a complete discussion of fructose metabolism, see my comprehensive article about this.

Diet Soda is NOT a Safe Alternative to Regular Soda

If you think you're better off drinking diet soda, think again. In fact, if I had to choose between the two, I'd take regular soda over diet. Instead of fructose, diet soda contains artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame or sucralose (Splenda). With all the research now available on aspartame and its various ingredients, it's hard to believe such a chemical would even be allowed into the food supply, but it is, and it's been silently wreaking havoc with people's health for the past 30 years.
Just to refresh your memory, aspartame has been linked to the following health concerns, and Splenda is associated with many similar problems:

Lymphomas, leukemias, and brain cancer	Asthma
Neurological symptoms including headaches, depressed and anxious mood, seizures, memory loss, hallucinations, and dizziness	Visual changes
Weakness and fatigue	Joint pain
Sleep disorders	Weight gain and diabetes
Abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea	Rashes and hives

étoile de la semaine

Giovanna est notre étoile de la  semaine!  Giovanna aime faire du Go-karting, jouer avec sa famille et son chien, et lire des romans de Thea Stilton!   Souriante comme d'habitude, elle nous a présenté son affiche, et son chien Blacky!   Excellent travail Giovanna!

Halloween

Hello everyone,

It has been a very busy couple of weeks,  exams, activities, putting together our portfolio, and simply just having fun!

Here are a few pictures of Halloween at PDC…we looked pretty scary...enjoy!

Notre étoile de la semaine

Notre étoile de la semaine

Luca est notre étoile de la  semaine!  Il nous a présenté son affiche, ses belles photos avec sa sa famille, son chien Bella, et son Schtroumpf.  Comme d'habitude Luca a fait un beau travail.

Nos citrouilles d'Halloween

Hello there,
It has been a very busy couple of weeks.  We are working hard, learning so much, and having fun!
Our Citrouilles are finally finished!  We started with some flour, some glue, news paper, a balloon, and lots of patience and this is what we got:

Notre étoile de la semaine

Alessia est notre étoile de la  semaine!  Elle nous a présenté son affiche, ses belles photos avec sa soeur Serena, et la coccinelle que sa grand-mère lui a apporté de l’Italie!