Baseball Burns and Hockey Bruises...

And just like that we're back again after another busy week!At the beginning of this week it seemed like maybe summer had finally arrived in Webequie. Just as we all got our hopes up it snowed again, only to hit 20 degrees and sunshine by Friday and today (Saturday)! We are having wonderful May-long weather today and hopefully tomorrow too!We were able to cover a wide range of topics in our classes from grades K4-10. We covered more on emotional health, coping strategies and started moving on to sexual health, touching on topics such as puberty, the reproductive system, and emotional changes with grades 5 and up! We continued talking about emotions and caring/not caring behaviours with grades 1-4. On top of our planned lessons we had the chance to join in on quite a few gym classes, which allowed us to practice are hockey and soccer skills with our ever sporty grades 4s, 5s, and 9s. To our surprise they didn't think we were half bad!! The students are so good at hockey and we quickly learned (the very hard way) not to let your legs or arms get in the way of their shots on net - we've got bruises to prove it. In our smaller morning class we made Me Trees as part of a lesson on self-esteem with Lakita and Jocelyn.While this week was filled with SO many giggles (we did teach puberty after all!) and good memories, one of our favourite in-the-classroom lessons was Wednesday's coping strategies lesson with our grade 4 class. This class is very unique and fun, but we've had some difficulty thinking of really interesting activities for such an energetic group so this week we were determined to find the right mix of listening and doing to help them enjoy the class! We had talked about different kinds of emotions, why we experience them, and touched briefly on how to manage them in a previous lesson. Wednesday's lesson was meant to go into more depth on strategies for coping with difficult emotions (sadness, anger, grief). We split the class into two groups, one table was tasked with brainstorming ideas about unhealthy ways to deal with our emotions while the other worked on healthy ways. Once a student gave an good suggestion with an explanation they moved on to join the other group to contribute there. The students were up and moving and came up with some EXCELLENT ideas about how to deal with our emotions in healthy ways. They also easily identified behaviours that aren't so healthy. They loved being able to move around the classroom to contribute a new idea each time. Following the creation of unhealthy vs. healthy lists we as a class made birdies (aka cootie catchers) and under each flap students put their own favourite coping strategies (like going for a walk, playing sports, etc.). The students absolutely loved being hands-on and were really into the activity and the meaning of the lesson. They all wanted to keep them and a few even stayed into lunch to finish theirs! It was so great to see our grade 4s participating happily in the activity and we are very proud of them for the ideas they came up with, the way they worked together, and they're dedication to finishing the small project of making birdies!! We are so happy to have established a good rhythm with this class and already can't wait to join them next week in the gym and the classroom!!After-school continues to be one of our favourite parts of the day because we've been busy playing any sport you can think of (frisbee, soccer, soccer baseball, baseball, hockey, a mix of frisbee and soccer, basketball, broom ball). This week we held another Girls Club where we made friendship bracelets and had some yummy cookies baked by yours truly (okay only JJ made them, Carly couldn't keep away from the batter!), bananas and peanut butter and carrots! Following that we opened the gym in the evenings twice this past week for girls-only gym time! We had an absolute blast and it's great to have the girls join us in the gym to play hockey, soccer, and soccer baseball. We absolutely cannot get enough of this funny and talented bunch and already can't wait to for next week's girls-only gym time - they've asked us to bump it up to 3 times a week! We've also been joining in on the baseball games that take place right after school. While our students think we're pretty good at hockey and soccer, they quickly learned we are NOT so good at baseball and have continued to get a good giggle out of our efforts. Carly's hit the ball once when up to bat, and has yet to catch when out on the field. Practice makes perfect right?Yesterday afternoon the school participated in a Mocc-Walk around the community that ended in snacks and refreshments out at the Teepee. There wasn't a cloud in the sky yesterday so it was great to start the long-weekend with an afternoon outside with our lovely students, followed by another evening game of baseball. Today we are nursing our minor (if you were smart like JJ and wore sunscreen) and major (if you were not so smart like Carly and didn't wear sunscreen) baseball sunburns, as well as the remaining hockey bruises that litter our unsuspecting legs and ankles. As it's the long weekend we don't have school on Monday so today has been quite the restful day for us, but we are looking forward to getting back to work lesson planning (and yes- back to the baseball diamond) this evening, Sunday and Monday! We are now half-way through initiative and are taking advantage of every minute of every day by going with the flow in true Webequie fashion and enjoying all the time we get to have with our absolutely amazing students in this absolutely lovely community.Ta-ta for now,GeeGee and Kaylee (our names this week according to Leland and Leo)