Long Weekends & Limbo !!
Hello Eager Readers,
Though this week was short, we have so many adventures and events to recount!! This past week, we taught Tuesday to Thursday, as Monday was a holiday and Friday was a PA day (we will get to that later). We can’t wait to tell you all about everything we have been doing with our classes and out on the land.
With the older grades this week, we did some review Jeopardy, as well as got into some more serious mental health topics. With our 4/5 class, we also did a similar review Jeopardy and spent time focusing on the topic of bullying and teasing. The students seemed to really have a blast with the Jeopardy games, and we were happy to see how much they remembered from previous lessons!
In the mornings we continued business as usual at spring camp on the land. This week we had the privilege of working with the grade 1/2 students. Similar to last week, we spent time discussing bullying, teasing, dealing with emotions as well as basic hygiene. We played some games after our lessons and discovered that when using a large stick from the woods, LIMBO can be a very easy and hilarious game for all participants (see photo below)!
Another wonderful experience we had at camp this week was the special opportunity to gut and prepare fish ourselves! With the help and guidance of some experienced teachers, we were each given our own fish to prepare nothing but a knife and our bare hands. This was challenging in many ways (fish are VERY slippery), but such an incredible cultural learning opportunity. Once we successfully gutted the fish, we were offered to take it home for dinner! We are so thankful for this and it was such a unique meal because we had helped prepare it ourselves!
On Thursday evening of this week, we went for a lovely stroll with our favourite doggy, Paddle, and the two students from Play Around the World (PAW). PAW is another organization from the University of Alberta that sends students to facilitate active and fun play for several months of the summer in Fort Providence. So…. as we were innocently walking along, we happened to pass one of the homes where a birthday party was going on. We had heard about this birthday at school that day (good news travels fast!) from many of our excited students. As we walked by the party, some of our students emerged on their quads (four wheelers) laughing away and squirting us with their water guns. It was a hilarious moment, we tried running away but we all ended up lauging and going along with it.
After a very busy week….FRIDAY ARRIVED! This was a special day as it was Meighan's birthday. We had a little celebration and enjoyed perhaps a little too much cake….
We enjoyed a 4-day long weekend due to 2 Professional Development (P.D days). We were fortunate to both take part in a 3-day Mental Health First Aid For Northern Peoples course. The course was run by Naomi (a mental health and addictions counsellor in the community) as well as another counsellor (Mark) from a neighbouring community. We learned a lot during these three days, and we hope to use our knowledge gained to aid in our teaching and future endeavours.
On the final day of our weekend, we were lucky enough to go to Kakisa, a 40 person neighbouring community of Fort Providence, located around a 45-minute drive away. There, we saw Lady Evelyn Falls and enjoyed lots of fresh air (we even took a selfie or two…)
As the weeks wind down, we are starting to wrap up some classes (Noooo!). We are stoked to be taking part in the Grade 6 overnight camp on Resiliency that runs from Saturday to Wednesday night.
This week we have begun puberty, sexual health, consent as well as STI’s/safe sex. We are busy planning and wrapping up but we can’t wait to tell our readers all about it!!
Until next time,
Xoxo
M&E in Fort. P
