Smoothie Moustaches, Girl Empowerment and Birthday Celebrations
And just like that, we have had another incredible week in Fort Good Hope! We can’t believe we have already been here for 3 weeks and are dreading saying goodbyes. But for now, we will share our adventures inside and outside the classrooms of CTS.
Our energetic and adorable kindergarten class loved our lessons on emotions and nutrition. They drew beautiful pictures of what made them happy, most including colourful rainbows, family and one moon heart (a very cute new invention). The munchkins had fun playing hide and seek, singing a song about healthy food and drawing yummy meals. We had so much fun with our grade ½ class again this week. In gym class, the students absolutely loved the relay races and began challenging classmates to see who could run, roll, do jumping jacks and spin the fastest. We had a small group activity making smoothies and talking about healthy eating and there were many adorable, pink smiles. Yoga was a great time for the ½’s to relax and lay down on the mat or stretch.
In our very sweet grade ¾ class, we had a really great lesson on emotions. We talked about the importance of listening to how we are feeling and talking to trusted people in our life about what is going on in our lives. Having the opportunity to listen to music and tune into their emotions proved really helpful for all the students making it clear to us that the lesson was valuable. We also had a lesson on healthy relationships and consent. The students began to understand characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships, the importance of asking permission and having the right to make decisions about their own bodies. We absolutely love our grade ⅚ class and entering the direct line of fire for questions galore. The students are so engaged and excited to learn! We taught lessons on respect and peer relationships and healthy relationships, abuse and consent. Both more serious lessons, the students were calm and focused and engaged with the activities.
Our 6/7 class is very fun and attentive! We had a lesson on self esteem and nutrition. The students had the opportunity to discuss societal pressures for male and female bodied people then write a self love letter to keep when they are struggling with maintaining positive self esteem and body image. In our grade 8/9 class, we facilitated a discussion on mental health, in particular, ways in which we can strengthen our mental health and practice self care. We touched on mental illness and provided detailed resources that students can access. The lesson finished with quiet time to write a positive, self letter about what they love and appreciate about themselves. We also had a energetic lesson on sexual health with lots of great questions.
Our grade 10 class is fun and participatory, full of answers and ideas. We had a lesson on substance use and peer pressure, talking about safe and responsible drinking as well as substance abuse and addiction. We provided a list of resources that students can access. We always really enjoy going into the grade 11 and 12 class because we always have lots of great discussions and laughs. Our lesson was on substance use and peer pressure. We talked about different substances and their short vs long term effects. The students practiced the recovery position before sitting down in a circle to talk about substance abuse and addiction. A really important topic with a focused and engaged class; a peer educator’s dream.
We love run club, especially when the sun is shining and the river is flowing! On Tuesday, we had another big turnout of runners, bikers and quad pushers. Our enthusiastic bunch ran to the church, back to the field for a workout with the younger ones and then on to the school for delicious mixed berries smoothies. They gobbled up the smoothies while sporting some very stylish, very cute pink moustaches. On Thursday, we had another fun running club ending up at the river skipping rocks and playing on the chunks of ice! We had a healthy snack of cheese and crackers to follow.
A shortened week due to a PD day, we had no lessons on Friday but we had our girls’ night for students ages 12 and above. We had a big volleyball game in the gym, made energy balls and homemade coconut face scrubs and played other fun games. While eating our delicious snacks, we had the opportunity to discuss empowerment after watched Powerless by Classified (we highly recommend watching the music video) and cyber safety. We felt honoured to hang out with such kind and resilient girls while we talked about what is difficult about being girl and reasons why we absolutely love it!!!
When we aren’t teaching, we are hanging out with students, getting more quad rides to the top of Old Baldy by very muddy paths, playing basketball and volleyball during rec time, picking up food at the Northern, beading and walking around town. We are also working on a project that involves intense sewing needles and seal skin but we can’t reveal exactly what we’re making because it might be a birthday present for a family member. An update on the washing machine and lice situation - shout out to Mo for pulling out some of our underwear to fix the lack of draining or spinning (whoo hoo) and we are hoping for a lice free week after treatment (fingers crossed).
On Saturday we celebrated Sophie’s birthday with a relaxing day before going to a party at the Arctic Circle with the staff from CTS and community members. It was a really fun time just hanging out, listening to music and eating food. Walking home, still light out, we strolled by the river. On Sunday we had an incredible adventure with Mo, Nikki, Chris and puppy Levi! We walked out by the airport on a gorgeous trail that led us to the river. The trees were so green, we were in awe by the beauty of Canada’s north. At one lookout we could see the town on one side and the cliffs of the river on the other. Once we reached the shore of the Mackenzie, we jumped on massive chunks of ice while sucking on crystal clear shards of ice. The river was full of ice flowing quickly past. The sun was shining, at 20 degrees C, we couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the long weekend.
Love, Sophie and Naomi