Road Trip Home

We can’t believe our project is already over! We‘ve got some final stories to fill everyone in on as well as some special thanks to our friends in Pickle Lake that we miss very much!Our last week of teaching was short but sweet! The weather had warmed up, and the kids were definitely ready for summer! There were still a few lessons to get through with our classes, so we’ll fill you in on what we did! Our kindergarten classes were learning about Teamwork, stressing the ideas of collaborating ideas with one another, and how more hands make hard work a little bit easier! On the other hand, our 1,2,3’s were learning about Sportsmanship! We played some inspiring videos from amateur and professional athletes, showing how important sportsmanship is throughout every level of sport. Our last day was spent playing some of our favourite games out on the playground and in the sun. Are we ever going to miss our 1,2,3’s! Our last week in the 4,5,6 class gave us enough time to finish up with a lesson on Smoking which included how detrimental it is to our health as well as how easily one can become addicted to these substances. We did an activity to simulate what a smoker may feel like after doing exercise; we had everybody up and moving for a full minute and then trying to breath into straws to imitate what it feels like to  have restricted breathing. In our last lesson we made some goals for the future with our 4,5,6’s. We taught hem what a S.M.A.R.T goal was and how to go about achieving their goals. We had some of them setting goals to get more work done in class time, so we hope that in our follow up with the teachers we see some completed goals!Our 7,8’s also finished up with substance abuse and peer pressure, learning about the negative impacts that alcohol and smoking can have on our bodies and how our decision-making can influence our lives and health. Similar to the 4,5,6’s we think these lessons are extremely important in making decisions in the future. Our high school students finished up their projects and we got to see some presentations on our last day! Presentations ranged from posters on Smoking, to power points on Healthy Relationships and we even had a group make a Video about different types of Substances and their affects on our health. We were very proud of the students that followed through and finished up the project, they did an excellent job and made their health educators very proud! After the presentations we had the entire class (and Mr.Grant) in the gym playing dodgeball for about 45 minutes. It was great to see them all having so much fun and also trying their best to launch dodge balls at their math teacher!Our final sports club after school got competitive with an indoor soccer game! Although the weather was lovely we kept sports club inside to stay away from all the mosquitoes! We have been lucky to boycott them for 5 weeks of the project thanks to our extended winter! Mother nature was looking out for us.On Friday morning, the 6,7,8’s headed to Toronto for a class trip! They have worked very hard for the past 3 years fundraising money in order to reduce the costs to send twelve students to Toronto. Ms. Allen hosted a final car wash/fundraiser at the school on Thursday night, which made for a fun last day at Crolancia. We enjoyed some BBQ food, a clothing swap, and washed about 10 cars. It was a very successful fundraiser and we were glad to spend some more time with the kids! Our last day on Friday was a P.A. Day for the students. We headed to the school to play some soccer, soccer baseball and hang out with the kids on the playground. It was great to see them all one last time before we left on our road trip home! We enjoyed a goodbye campfire with Brent, Kayla, and Andrew before calling it a night. We have so many people to thank in Pickle Lake for our wonderful experience. First, we would like to thank all of the teachers and staff at Crolancia that have made our teaching so enjoyable over the past 6 weeks. From early mornings at breakfast club, to afternoons and evenings for girls night/boys night/sports club we couldn’t have done it without all of your support!A very special thanks go to Lucy and Roy for the warm welcome and hospitality over the past 6 weeks in Pickle Lake. We would also like to wish Lucy and all of the participant’s good luck this Saturday with Relay for Life, which she has organized for Pickle Lake to participate in for the first time! We know how much it means to her and how much of a huge success it will be. There is so much support from everyone and it will be a great event for many more years to come! Another big thank you goes to Brent and Kayla. They were our main contacts for Pickle Lake and we could not have had anyone better to show us around and look out for us.Lastly, we owe a huge thank you to all of the students at Crolancia. Thank you for listening, participating and allowing us to be part of your classroom and community over the past six weeks. We’re going to miss all of our friends from the kindergartens to the grade twelves. We wish you the greatest summer and all the best next year! Thanks for reading one last time. #WeTheNorth,J^2