Kindness Kelly Zwack 3/4: April 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

Friday April 30

Friday April 30

Today we wrapped up our week of intensive study of the coulee. Our theme for the day was Taking Care of Mother Earth or Na 'a. We worked on our own Land Acknowledgements and did a coulee clean up to take care of our precious space.

We said our "See you soon" to Mrs. Derksen today as it was her last day of student teaching. It has been wonderful to have her here at Eric Harvie and we wish her well. Something tells us she will be back sooner than we expect as a substitute teacher at EHS!

Hats On! for Mental Health Day

On the first Wednesday in May, Albertans are invited to wear a hat to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. Participating schools will relax their hat rules and encourage students and teachers to build understanding by wearing hats to school.

We will be discussing the purpose and focusing on how to build good mental health in a child-friendly way each day next week. We will be sensitive and thoughtful in our discussions as we are aware many people are struggling during this difficult time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Mrs. Zwack via email.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

A HUGE THANK YOU for getting all your children to the drop off spot on time and ready!! We had a blast today adventuring through the Coulee.

We had lots of laughs, exploration, and movement!

Our big idea today was Human Versus Nature. We were looking at human impact in the coulee, as well as how the flora in the Coulee changes on the slopes and in different areas.

We walked.

We gave thanks and acknowledgement of the land. We rubbed some trees.

We walked some more.

Explored the sandstone cliffs.

Walked again.

We ate some lunch.

We walked a lot.

We had some free play, the students made a foot bridge.

We reflected on the path we walked.

We played Camouflage.

We walked back!

Whew! It was amazing to see all your students be so patient, adventurous, and collaborative. They are really showing their strengths during this time. Tomorrow we are going back to the Coulee for our last day of this immersive week!

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Today was a blast and your children should be very tired!

Tomorrow, On Thursday, April 29^th, we are meeting at the A&W parking lot at this location: https://goo.gl/maps/WzFgupLWHtuvtnZb8(51°06'29.1"N 114°14'22.9"W) between 8:20-8:30 am.

We are leaving and doing attendance at 8:30, please do not be late!!! We have heard rumors from your talkative children that they will be getting food from Tim's or A&W.. we will not be waiting for people, please remember that area is quite busy already, without the extra 54 children and cars that will be there in the morning! We will have a drop off spot with adults in a vest. Do not have your children running through the parking lot!

If you cannot get your child dropped off, you need to e-mail Mrs. Zwack TONIGHT before 7pm! See supplies list at the end of the blog!

We started off our day with a circle and acknowledgement of the land and a offering to Na'a for all the things we are going to learn today.

We found our sit spot and wrote 6 word poems about the Coulee. Students did a beautiful job of listening and writing from the heart!

With our focus of zooming in, we used a square to focus in on what is going on. They had to look at two different ecosystem zones and sketch what they saw.

We enjoyed our lunch basking in the sun by the porta-potty.

We did some Earth Gym using hills, streams, and trees as our equipment. We of course played camouflage in the morning. Mrs. Derksen was back today, which the students were happy about as Mrs. Zwack's camouflage skills are not as sharp 😉

We discussed the importance of soil and how its formed. We took some soil core samples and sketched what we saw. Then we used our squares and spoons and looked at soil and what is in it from the surface.

Please make sure you bring these items tomorrow:

Water bottles full of water -- most kids drank through 1 full bottle, and we will be walking a lot more, please bring 2 or more!
Sunscreen
Kleenex
Extra masks
Extra socks (!!! lots of people were walking wet today)
metal spoon (label please!) for small digging activity
Small plastic bag for any wet items
Comfortable clothing
Layers for all weather
Easy and "garbageless" snacks and lunches - all wrappers will be sent back home in order to "leave no trace" in the coulee.
Hat
Gloves (thin)
Good walking/trekking shoes or rubber boots (there are puddles, mud and the small stream to cross!

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Tuesday April 27

Tuesday April 27

We had a glorious day in the coulee today! We were blessed with sunshine and fresh air after a long week of online learning and isolation.

Our focus today was on "listening" to the land. We started by reading the book The Other Way to Listen to set our intention for the day.

When we arrived at the coulee we discussed the land acknowledgement that Mrs. Coulsen created for Eric Harvie School. We talked about why we do this as a way to pay respect and to show our understanding that the coulee is a part of traditional Blackfoot territory. Throughout this week, we will think about our connection to the land and will create our own personal acknowledgements.

Our first activity was to explore our environment and to collect bits of nature to make Nature Sundaes. We gathered leaves, twigs, berries, small rocks and other interesting natural items to create layers in our cups. We took these back to school and sketched our delicacies! We will return all of the items back to the coulee tomorrow.

We sat in our sit spots and recorded what we "heard". It was a quiet and reflective time to apply what we learned from our morning read aloud.

Lunch was lovely in the sunshine and we eventually found the porta-potty! After lunch we enjoyed a few games of Camouflage!

Our next task was to do some measuring using tape measures. We located a variety of things to measure and had to problem solve to figure out how to measure things that are not man-made.