Week 4 in Fort Prov: Bison, Bon Fires, and Beautiful Waterfalls!
It has been another busy week to wrap up our first month here in Fort Providence! We started the week off with a relaxing and productive Victoria Day at home, before diving into Spring Camp with the K-1s on Tuesday. Spring Camp was full of hide and seek, hair braiding, and paper planes this week! Highlights included teaching the students Stella Ella Ola/Stella Stella Ola, which proved to be a point of contention – after some hard-hitting research Wikipedia says that while Stella Ella Ola is the version most common and prominent, Stella Stella Ola originated in Vancouver, BC. On Thursday despite the rain, Wayne showed the students and ourselves how to gut and filet a fish that was caught by the net set out on the river earlier that week. We definitely enjoyed warming up in the tent and working on some crafts with the K-1s this day while it was raining, and also indulging in some comfort food – breakfast complete with eggs, sausage, pancakes, and hash browns; hot dogs; and barbequed chicken!
In the classroom this week, we focusedon hygiene with the grade 2-3s and did our favourite handwashing activity –glitter hands – with them, which they loved! We began speaking about healthyrelationships with the grade 4-5s and discussed healthy vs. unhealthy vs. abusiverelationships. We introduced consent by playing a fun game of “Apples andBananas” where students were divided into two groups and were given differentsets of directions to follow. Sometimes the Apples walked towards the Bananasuntil the Bananas told them to stop verbally, and other times they ran! Tospice things up even further, sometimes the Bananas were only allowed to usebody language without their words to let the Apples know that they wereinvading their personal space. We all agreed that the round where everyone feltthe most comfortable was when the Apples asked the Bananas for permission everystep of the way! We also began to talk about puberty with the 4-5s, which weare looking forward to continue with next week! In the 6-7 class we reviewedour lessons on healthy relationships that we taught at Spring Camp last week,and also taught a lesson on consent. On Friday, we decided to have anotherQ&A session with the boys and girls separately as we have found this to bethe most effective way to engage the 6-7 class in particular. We were able toanswer lots of amazing questions about topics such as mental health, substanceuse and misuse, and sexuality. We can’t wait to talk about sexual health withthis class next week! The high school students were on their annual Ottawa tripthis week, which we are excited to hear all about next week when we hope toteach lessons on substance use and misuse and mental health!
We were both incredibly excited to haveour first bison sighting on the commute to Spring Camp this Tuesday! Annelisesaw a bear for the first time ever this weekend! Even though it looked reallycute, we were grateful that it was through the window of a car. On the samedrive, we also had a groundhog sighting which was super cool. In other wildliferelated news, we learned that the birds we have been calling “giant crows” areactually ravens, lol.
Our evenings have been spent at theYouth Centre as of late, lending a hand with supervision from 4.30 to 8.30after school! Both of us have loved being able to spend time with our studentsoutside of the classroom. Lots of bracelet making, drawing, video games,Snapchat filters, and slime-related-shenanigans have filled our time there!
On Saturday night, we had finallyrecovered from our jam-packed week and were excited to watch the Raptors moveon to the NBA finals all the way from Fort Prov #WeTheNorth (literally)! Manythanks to Grant and Kyle for preparing a delicious meal of hamburgers on thebarbeque (Emily’s first ever entire burger, at that!). After the game, wecontinued the party with Grant, Kyle, Kristen, and Mel, all teachers, and a bonfire. Kyle and Emily provided the musical entertainment, with Emily on guitarand Kyle on the mandolin.
After a lit Saturday night, we woke up brightand early in anticipation of a day trip to Lady Evelyn Falls and Kakisa withCharlene, one of the support workers at the school! We have had our fingerscrossed all year that we would be able to get a ride to Kakisa to see the Fallsin person, and were over the moon it was finally becoming a reality! We had agreat time hiking through the gorgeous boreal forest down to the Falls, whichwere a site to behold. We loved getting to experience the Falls with Charlene,our favourite 2000s throwback and selfie queen, and are so appreciative thatshe took the time out of her weekend to take us. We will let numerous photos wetook do the talking!
Upon our return from the Falls,Annelise spent some more time outdoors as she was brought (dragged) to theMackenzie River to watch Sharon and Kolleen jump in to the freezing watersafter they came knocking on our door. Next week we are looking forward totalking about topics such as puberty, sexual health, and substance use andabuse in the classroom! We are also incredibly excited to have the opportunityto join in on the grade 4-5 boat trip over the weekend. That being said, wewill be off the grid, so expect a blog post with all the details when we returnTuesday night! It will be Annelise’s first time camping, so it shoulddefinitely be an interesting experience!
Catch us chasingwaterfalls,
Annelise & Emily