On Sunday night, Canada celebrated a great game and a big anniversary.
It was the 100th anniversary of the football championship that decides which team takes the most important prize in the Canadian Football League (CFL) — the Grey Cup.
Across the country, and all over Toronto (where the game was played last night), Canadians were cheering for the Toronto Argonauts or the Calgary Stampeders.
At noon on Sunday, fans converged on Varsity Stadium in downtown Toronto for a “fan march,” a big parade of Canadian football fans.
The Argos’ mascot, Jason, bounced around the crowd giving people high-fives. The Stampeders’ mascot, Ralph, made his way through the mostly Toronto crowd. But it didn’t matter who you were rooting for–the real celebration was about the game itself.
“The only play is the next play,” the coach for the Argos told his team before the big game.
At the same time, in the other dressing room, the coach for the Stampeders reminded his players that, “one word — team — is why we’re here.”
Other Canadian icons were at the game. David Johnson, the Governor-General of Canada, made the ceremonial first kick.
Canadian singers Burton Cummings, Gordon Lightfoot and Justin Bieber performed for the crowd.
In the end, the Argos won the game, 35 to 22; they won the Grey Cup.
And, it could be argued, so did all of Canada as Canadians everywhere came together to celebrate a special day of football.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
The two coaches each gave their team a pep talk before the big game. Each coach gave advice and tried to inspire the players. What do you think their words meant? Do you agree with the coaches?
Reading Prompt: Responding to and Evaluating Texts
This year marks the 100th Grey Cup in Canada. How do you think the 100th Grey Cup was different from the first game?
Junior
Make judgments and draw conclusions about the ideas and information in texts and cite stated or implied evidence from the text to support their views (OME, Reading: 1.8).
Intermediate
Evaluate the effectiveness of both simple and complex texts based on evidence from the texts (OME, Reading: 1.8).
Grammar Feature: Commas
Commas can be used to separate an idea that interrupts a sentence. For example, “Commas, a common punctuation mark, are used in several different ways.” In this sentence, the information about commas being common punctuation marks is an interruption in the flow of the sentence.
Read the article and identify sentences where commas are used in this way.
