PAA 7, 8, 9 Outdoor Experience
This semester both 7/8 and 8/9 PAA classes have been learning about the following strands through the out of doors: Food Studies, Wildlife Management, Construction and Carpentry, and Clothing Textiles and Fashion. They have been using their class time to learn in, for, and about the out of doors.
On January 14th, 2011 both PAA classes embarked on a culminating outdoor winter experience at the Donald Trails to test their new found skills. Twenty Eight PAA students and four chaperones left the school at 9:00am Friday morning and returned to the school safe and sound one day later.
During those twenty four hours the students and staff were very busy. The group began the day by hiking all of their equipment to the designated site. This quickly became a learning experience on the importance of packing carefully and efficiently. Next, each small group piled snow for their snow shelter. Despite the cold temperatures all of the students were very warm after shovelling and ready for lunch. Following lunch each group set out on a geocache to find certain locations and perform a list of team building tasks. Once all of the students returned from the geocache it was back to work hollowing out the snow shelters and preparing them for the night. Later that evening the large group ventured out on a night hike to explore the theme of risk and trust. As the night came to an end each student crawled into their shelter and attempted to get a good night’s sleep. Upon awaking early the next morning and hearing the student’s accounts of the night I was assured that it was a character building experience. When the students returned to the school, each of the Grade Eight and Nine students completed a reflection project using Microsoft M
ovie Maker, which tied into their ELA 8/9 course.
This semester both 7/8 and 8/9 PAA classes have been learning about the following strands through the out of doors: Food Studies, Wildlife Management, Construction and Carpentry, and Clothing Textiles and Fashion. They have been using their class time to learn in, for, and about the out of doors.
On January 14th, 2011 both PAA classes embarked on a culminating outdoor winter experience at the Donald Trails to test their new found skills. Twenty Eight PAA students and four chaperones left the school at 9:00am Friday morning and returned to the school safe and sound one day later.
During those twenty four hours the students and staff were very busy. The group began the day by hiking all of their equipment to the designated site. This quickly became a learning experience on the importance of packing carefully and efficiently. Next, each small group piled snow for their snow shelter. Despite the cold temperatures all of the students were very warm after shovelling and ready for lunch. Following lunch each group set out on a geocache to find certain locations and perform a list of team building tasks. Once all of the students returned from the geocache it was back to work hollowing out the snow shelters and preparing them for the night. Later that evening the large group ventured out on a night hike to explore the theme of risk and trust. As the night came to an end each student crawled into their shelter and attempted to get a good night’s sleep. Upon awaking early the next morning and hearing the student’s accounts of the night I was assured that it was a character building experience. When the students returned to the school, each of the Grade Eight and Nine students completed a reflection project using Microsoft M
ovie Maker, which tied into their ELA 8/9 course.