Power Out in Pickle

Hey everybody!The last week or so has been fun filled and super busy, but we will update on all of the fun!Friday May 3^rd we took off on a camping trip after school with Brent and the Canadian Junior Rangers. All four of us drove up in the van packed with warm clothes for the weekend. There were about 20 kids from both Missabay and Crolancia, and the Lac Soule division of the Canadian Junior Rangers joined us. Before we could unpack, one of the kids accidentally locked our van with the keys inside of it (great start, we know). An adult supervisor came to our rescue and got the door opened up. Brent and Kayla helped us set up our military tent (which was HUGE and all ours for the weekend). We helped start a camp fire and had a relaxing night after dinner. Dinner was our first (but not last) experience with military rations. These are called MRE’s which stands for Meals Ready To Eat. They are nutritious (and mushy) meals prepared in heat proof bags placed in boiling water for about 20 minutes. They contain all the nutrients you need, however they don’t quite compare to Martha’s home cooked meals. They do come with some delicious snacks (See: Pop Tarts and Soldier Fuel). We fell asleep early but not for long because it was a very cold night and we made the rookie mistake of not wearing enough layers to sleep.We woke up and warmed up with a nice fire and some coffee (some = bottomless cups). After breakfast the kids had a couple of lessons to rotate through. We taught a lesson on substance abuse as a part of the rotation and had some interactive activities to go with our lesson. Following our teaching rotation, we joined in on the next set of activities! We had a GPS navigation module to work through with the kids and had to collect puzzle pieces at each of the points. It was a ton of fun and by the time we got back we were hungry! One of the adults cooked up some moose he had hunted (which was delicious) over the fire, and we had another MRE! That evening we had a night navigation which Elaine and Jenna went through with some of the kids. We were fortunate to see the northern lights for about two hours that evening. The green and pink light lit up the night sky and we were all awestruck. Definitely a northern experience we will never forget! We all fell asleep with a few more layers on that night in hopes to have a few more hours sleep and keep a bit warmer. The next day we packed up the camp and headed home to Pickle Lake. Another fun weekend full of experiential learning! We focused on mental health this week with our junior and intermediate classes. Specifically, we talked about self esteem and stress, and ended off the week with a fun activity where we all made stress balls together. Here is a picture of our intermediate class!We started a nutrition lesson with our primary classes talking about our four main food groups and how to make a healthy meal! They all made their own plate and coloured on food they would eat to make a healthy dinner (one kid drew fire on his plate.. not sure what food group that is).We ended off our week with girls night Friday after school! We had minute to win it stations, nail painting and bracelet making, cupcake decorating, followed by a delicious dinner! All the girls really enjoyed the activities and we had a ton of fun as well! Girls definitely run the world!!! This weekend we went on a road trip to Dryden (about 3.5 hours) and got a ton of groceries that will hopefully last us a while. After buying a mountain of food that needed some freezing, it only made sense that the power would go out for the next day and a half. Brent invited us over for dinner where we made do with a barbeque and a camp stove. It was a nice Sunday night in Pickle, definitely no complaints! Monday school was cancelled for the four of us due to the power outage (Pickle Lake style long weekend). We all participated in an outdoor workout in the lovely sunshine and then headed to Brent’s for some breakfast and helped out with his new backyard project (see the final project in the picture). It was a ton of fun and we got to get a bit messy in the dirt!This week we are focusing on Nutrition all of our classes and a health project with our High School students. Looking forward to another great week! HUGE congrats have to go to Aaron for being accepted to University of Toronto for a Doctor of Medicine!!! #WeTheNorth,J^2