Week 3: Sleep Lessons and Volleyball

Welcome back to our blog!!!This week we started off in the classrooms teaching about sleep benefits, and tips to get a better nights sleep. This was the most requested topic from our student surveys and one that adults stressed to us as well! It's nearly 24 hours of sunlight here right now, so you can imagine how easy it is to stay up all hours of the night without darkness telling your body it's time to shut down. We found the students very receptive and also very curious - they asked so many questions about dreaming, and also wanted to know more about John and I (for the last time, we are not dating, and we are not related!). With the younger kids, we ended the lesson by drawing our bed time routine. With the older students, we ended our lesson outside, playing an active game called Dog Get the Bone, which they were all very into! We always stress the importance of getting active during the day whenever possible, which is why we like to end our lessons with some exercise and fresh air.We also went on the radio station, 103.9, to talk a bit about ourselves and what QHO is doing in town. Tommy is the best radio host and we had a lot of fun on air with him - it was so cool to see how the radio station is run and all the hard work that goes into it!We went for lots of walks, as usual, this week, and discovered the Fort Good Hope Youth Centre. We were walking home from the river, and saw a door open with a bunch of bikes in front, so we decided to go in. Apparently, the recreation coordinator just got the youth centre running in the past couple of weeks for the students to hang out in on PD days, and on the weekends!There was pool, a foozball table, a basketball arcade game, an area for arts and crafts, couches to watch movies on, computers, and healthy snacks. We stayed and played with the kids for a while, which was really fun to get to know them outside of the school. This discovery shows just how important it is to explore the community, in order to find new ways to connect with the students. Of course, we couldn't resist stopping on our way home to pet our favourite puppy, Silver, and play tag with the kids at the park.This weekend there was a big volleyball tournament for the whole town. Each team has to be made up of a mix of men and women, an elder, and a youth. Megan took a bench seat watching the games (due to lack of coordination), and helped out in the kitchen selling food to fundraise for the Minor Hockey team. John joined a volleyball team in the non-competitive division (called Betty and the Jets!) who won 2nd place, as well as most original jerseys!You can see the team in this picture, all wearing face paint and bandanas, and Megan dressed as Mr. Bean who ended up being the team mascot!Everyone found this hilarious as the whole team ran out and danced to Bennie and the Jets. The tournament ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday for over 10 hours each day, and it seemed like the entire town was in attendance either watching or playing. It was a super great way to get to know some new community members and to have fun after a long week.Next week, we are planning a healthy cooking class for the grade 3-6s. We will be making recipes with ingredients from the grocery stores that are more affordable, and still healthy. We are also starting to teach about healthy relationships and consent in the older grades, and peer pressure in the younger grades. As always, stay tuned for more dog pictures!Megan and John