Millarville Community School

Millarville Community School is located in the Hamlet of Millarville in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Situated in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the southwest portion of the province of Alberta, this Hamlet has a population of approximately 60 people.

This ranching community is more than 100 years old and is slowly and gradually changing to an acreage community. It is such a beautiful rural community, full of traditions that span many generations of families who have attended this school. Several families have three generations graduating. Currently in the year 2000-2001 there are 200 students from grade 8 to Kindergarten. Some can be seen walking across the road but most of them are bused. Even though the community is changing the traditions are as strong as ever.

Families are a tradition at Millarville Community School

The grade ones studied the family this year and they wanted to share some of the stories that they collected.  The teacher asked the parents to tell about a time that that they shared with their child.  When the stories were brought to school, the teacher talked to the kids to see if they remembered the story the same way that their parents did.  Here are both sides of the story.

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A Tradition !

told by the Grade one teacher

The Millarville School Christmas concert is a family tradition. This tradition has been going on since 1952 when the first concert was performed at the old school.  This was a very small concert as the school was very small.  In 1979 the school was fortunate enough to have a gym built and the first concert was held in the new gym.  It was very exciting.  There was not a stage and so the kids performed on the floor of the gym for the first few years. Eventually they built a portable stage for the performers.  There were no entrances on and off of this stage and many children had to brave the cold snowy night as they went outside of the gym and through the snow and in the door at the other side of the gym just in time to knock the snow off of their boots and run onto the stage.  Each year there is a musical performance by the grade 1,2,3's and this year was no exception.  It is a tradition.

The Christmas musical "We Were The First" was performed by Grades 1, 2, and 3 students under the direction of three teachers; Mrs. Patterson, Mrs. Thorne, and Mrs. Irving. Students were organized into two play groups so that each night a new cast of characters performed. Mrs. Patterson arranged the accompaniment with the aid of computer technology.

The story was about a group of animals that journeyed to the manger to see the new baby King. At the beginning of the story, a rabbit family hears the news of the child as it is announced to some shepherds. They also hear the shepherds discussing what gifts they should take when they go to see the baby King. Following the star,the rabbits decide that they should also go and take their gift of fur. As the rabbits journey on their way, they meet various other animals- sheep, geese and camels. Each group of animals is invited to join in the journey to the manger, each taking their own special gifts of wool, down, gold, incense and myrrh. When they arrive at the manger, the animals find others there - a cow, goat and hen. These animals had given gifts of hay, milk, and eggs. A donkey, who was also there helped carry the baby’s mother to the manger in Bethlehem. As the animals gathered around the manger, two small doves fluttered down from the rafters. Their gift to the baby was a soft lullaby. The story ends with the animals celebrating the fact that they "Were The First To Visit The King."

Getting Ready for the concert was:

• Busy, fun, exciting, scary because we were going to see a bunch of people that we didn't know
• Using the bathroom as a change place was fun and silly because we don't usually go in there to change our clothes
• We knew that our moms and dads would be watching us
• Kind of scary because we had never done this before

Our Favorite parts:

• I liked it when the angels were singing, because they were pretty and I was one of them.
• I liked singing the solo part it felt really good.
• I liked being a cow because I had big red antlers instead of horns and I think I looked very funny.
• I liked being a sheep because it was fun.
• I like it when the doves sang because it was very special to me because I was the very last animal to sing.
• I liked being the rabbit because rabbits are cute.
• I liked singing the song with the geese. It was a pretty song because Baby Jesus was poor.
• I really liked being the golden star.
• I liked when the dove sang because the Baby was born and it was a very special song.
• I liked getting to dress up to be a special character.
• I liked wearing the itchy costume.
• I liked wearing stuffing in my tummy.

Performing for parents:

• It was scary because I couldn't see them.
• It was fun when everyone laughed when the geese went HONK! HONK!
• I wasn't scared because I do it a lot.
• It felt dark and scary when we first went into the gym.

So much fun to do a different concert every year…it would be too easy if we did the same thing. It will be easy now that we have done a concert in grade one.

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