Life in Surrey, B.C.

Teacher's note: This is a blog post from a class that we blog with in Surrey, B.C. We have been blogging back and forth and thought it would be fun to compare our community of Yellowknife to life in their community of Surrey. Our class has looked at what makes up a community and have began our inquiry research into life in Yellowknife. We plan to refine our inquiry questions to answer their lovely questions about Yellowknife. Check back to see our response to Div. 9 and 10!

Life in Surrey! An Amazing Place to Live . . .

Our Community

We have been learning about the different features of communities and have been working in small groups to find out how those features look in our community.

Fun Activities To Do in Surrey

There are lots of fun activities in Surrey, like the Aquarium, the Greater Vancouver Zoo, pools, and parks. Surrey is near the ocean where people visit to go on picnics, build sandcastles, and play on the beach and in the water. You could have a picnic dinner or lunch at the beach.  There are many parks in Surrey including Bear Creek Park – our favourite!  In Crescent Park you can go walking all year long and enjoy bird watching. Some of our favourite activities include skiing and snowboarding on Mt. Seymour in the winter and canoeing and swimming at Crescent Beach in the summer.  What do you do for fun in your community? Do you have a favourite park?

All About the Landscape in Surrey

We have lots of evergreen trees and green grass in Surrey. We live close to the ocean. On the beach we see sand, rocks, and the water. The beach near us is named for the large white rock on the shore.  What do you see when you look out the window? When we look outside we see the Coast Mountains topped with snow. There are lots of paths and trails in our community. We have fertile soil and lots of blueberry farms. In the wild you can pick blackberries and huckleberries.  Do you grow any fruits or vegetables in your community? Do you grow anything we don’t have in our community?

Weather in our Community

Our weather is mild; it doesn’t snow very much in the winter and when it does snow, it’s not very much nor does it stay very long.  The weather doesn’t get very hot in the summer either but is warm.  We do get lots of rain all year long! In spring the flowers bloom and the grass grows fast. In the fall we have trees whose leaves change colour and then fall. We have four seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring.  How many seasons do you have? How cold does it get in your community?

Animals in our Community

Some of the animals in our community include the beaver, black bears, bald eagles, geese, and lots of fish including salmon and rainbow trout. A couple weeks ago we had a fire alarm and while we were waiting outside we saw two bald eagles circling above us.  Our school is next to Chantrell Creek and a beaver lives near our creek.  He has built a big dam.  Raccoons eat our gardens, get into our garbage, and are a nuisance in our community.  What animals do you have in your area?

Chantrell Creek - located just behind our school!

Transportation in the Lower Mainland

We have lots of types of transportation. Lots of people in our community use the skytrain. We use the skytrain so we can get from place to place quickly and efficiently. The skytrain opened in 1986 when Expo 86 was on. This was a fair that people came to visit. We have an Expo line that takes us to Vancouver from Surrey. When skytrains get to Vancouver they can travel to Richmond on the Canada Line. The Canada line is the newest line on the skytrain. We also have the Millennium line which takes us to Coquitlam. The skytrain works with magnets.

 

Ferries take us from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. There are two islands you can travel to. One of the places it goes to is Victoria. Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. They can also take us to Bowen Island and the Sunshine Coast.

We see cars everyday. We use cars to drive us to other cities. Cars are the most used type of transportation in Surrey. Trucks usually carry cargo.

Passsenger trains take us to different provinces. The Rocky Mountaineer takes us from Vancouver to Alberta.  The VIA takes us to Winnipeg and to the U.S. Trains used to be pulled by horses in our community. Now we use diesel engines in our trains.

Our roads are made of asphalt. We have roads because we have long drives to places in the Lower Mainland. Thank you for reading about our types of transportation. Thank you for reading our blog.

Teacher's Note:  this post was developed through an inquiry project by Div. 9 and 10.  After learning about the features of all communities the students spent two weeks learning about their community through questions they had developed.  They plan to share this information with a class in Yellowknife and hope to compare their community to Yellowknife.