Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 24/04) - Nearly 270 kids at Mildred Hall elementary school experienced a different way of life, albeit only temporarily, during the school's second annual Cultural Carnival last week.

The carnival, which ran from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, featured a host of activities from log sawing and nail pounding to Inuit and Dene games.

"It was a lot of fun," said Mildred Hall principal Yasemin Heyck.

"The kids really enjoyed it."

The carnival also gave students the chance to taste other cultures, literally, thanks to a cabane-a-sucre, set up outside.

"It was pretty popular," said Heyck said of the toffee eating area.

The carnival, in its second year, is an outgrowth of French Week, which the school normally holds at this time of year.

Aboriginal languages program

With the addition of an aboriginal languages program, Heyck said the school wanted to create a new event that highlights traditional and francophone pursuits.

Students in mixed age groups rotated through the series of nine events that included a snowshoe race, a bucket relay where kids completed to see who could bail snow the fastest and a toboggan pull.

"Mixing the younger kids and the older kids worked out really well," said Heyck.

"There weren't any behaviour problems and the kids had a lot of fun."