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Outdoor Education Reflection

1. What do you remember best from Outdoor Ed this year? The thing I remember best from outdoor ed this year is the canoe trip that our class took on the river. I remember this the best because I learnt the most during this trip. I learnt how to work as a team as we were tested with the strong winds, heat, and rapids. I learnt to communicate with my team and tell the stern if I see any rocks, strainers or sweepers. I also learnt how to tell which is the best path by locating a v created by the water. This v shows a safe path for the canoe to travel through. This trip taught me many lessons such as; trips don’t always go to plan, how to persevere, and how to improve based on my mistakes. 2. What challenged you the most from this past year in Outdoor Ed? What challenged me the most during this year was organizing the “Frostbite Games” at the beginning of the year. The “Frostbite Games” was a mini Olympic Games that we set up for the Grade 7 and 8s. This challenged me the most becau
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Whole Day River Canoe Trip

A) What I did well One thing I did notice I did well was that I persevered and kept hopeful throughout the day even when I was tired and aching from paddling. I also improved my j-stroke throughout the day and learned how to help the stern stir the canoe. I also did a good job of spotting the hazards and communicating with my partners. B)  What I need to improve I need to improve rafting up and slowing down. At some times we had a hard time stoping at the side of the bank and turning back into the current. C) What I really enjoyed I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful sand banks that reached up very high. I also enjoyed taking breaks and talking with my canoeing parteners and classmates about the rapids and the scenery. D) What I found difficult and why I found the length of the trip difficult because it got me really tired and exhausted. This made it difficult to stay positive and have the strength to paddle on. E) Would I recommend canoe excursions in the future? Why
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Canoe Day Gear List

On June 8th our class is taking a 6 hour canoe trip. We should bring: - shoes (ones that will stay on your feet and protect your feet) - windbreaker jacket (to keep us warm) - sunscreen (more than SPF 25) - bug spray - hat - sunglasses (make sure to strap them around your neck/head) - change of clothes/towel (in case you fall in) - water bottle - food/snacks (make sure to put in ziplock bag) - bail bucket - rope - whistle
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Wetland Interpretation Day

1. What worked in my station? -What really worked at my station was the repetition of questions. This reminded the students of the main points and helped it stick in their heads. The games also gave the students a picture of what we were talking about. The activity where we put the tarp over the children really gave them a picture of what the earth would be like if lots of greenhouse gases were in the air. 2. What didn’t work at my station? -The only one problem we had at our station was that the kids didn’t remember the names of the gases or where the gases came from. 3. What was a difficulty I didn’t expect? -I didn’t expect that the kids would be so distracted after lunch. At some points it was hard to keep them from wondering around and talking. 4. Were there outstanding students at my station? Why? -Yes there some outstanding students. I think that was because they were more interested in the wetlands and about learning and teaching more. 5. What could we do be
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Interpretation Day with Mr. Miller

On May 18th, Barret Miller came to our school to help our outdoor ed class prepare for this week. This week we are interpreting to grade 4 students at Rivers Wetland Centre of Excellence. Many people in my class were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to hold the students attention. They were also concerned that they wouldn’t be able to explain the concepts to the students. Barret Miller helped us forget those worries by giving us helpful tricks and ideas to keep our audience’s attention. He told us that we could show biodiversity using jelly beans. We could fill one jar with colourful jelly beans and another with black jelly beans and ask the students which jar they would rather eat. Most kids will say they want to eat the colourful ones. The colourful jar represents the wetland with lots of plants and animals and the black jar of jelly represents an ecosystem with not many types of plants and animals. We also reviewed our topics that we will be presenting this week. On Monday my
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Interpretation with Mr. Miller

Tomorrow Mr. Miller will be doing a presentation on interpretation for the Grade 10 Outdoor Ed class. We are having this presentation to prepare us for the interpretation we are going to give to the Grade 3 and 4 classes that are coming to the wetland on May 29th and 31st. For this presentation the class is preparing questions to ask Mr. Miller in relation to the interpretation we will give. I will be interpreting greenhouse gases and the water cycle to the students. For the greenhouse gases part, I will ask these questions; -How would you explain the complex subject of greenhouse gases to a Grade 4 student? -How can I get the students to care about the greenhouse gases they are producing? And how can I suggest they reduce their contribution to greenhouse gases? For the water cycle part, I will ask this question; -What can I do to help the students understand evaporation, since it isn’t really something that they see?
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River Water Canoeing

On May 14, the Grade 10 Outdoor Ed class went canoeing on the Saskatchewan River with instructor  Jack Coulson. We started at the dam by placing our canoes horizontal to the shore to load up. This time we had 3 in a canoe instead of 2, so that the canoe would be more stable and we could have more power. In my canoe Femke sat in the bow, Noah sat in the stern and I sat in the middle of the canoe. The first thing we did was learn to ferry across the river. We did this by starting horizontal to the shore and paddling upstream, this caused the canoe to move straight across the river. We then followed Mr. Coulson to our first rapids. The first rapids were steady so we all easily flowed through.  A few times during the trip we rafted up so that we could talk about how to get through the rapids. One canoe got stuck in a strainer, so we saw what can happen if we get stuck and how to deal with that. We then carried on, another canoe got struck on a rock while going through some rapids. We then
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