Earth Day may mean many things to many people, but for the Grade 3 class from St. Michael’s School in Fort Frances, this one undoubtedly will be remembered as a day in the country.
April 22 has come to be recognized as Earth Day in Canada—an opportunity to reflect on the state of our planet and what we can do to maintain it. And the best way to appreciate it is to get right out and touch it.
At least, that’s the way St. Michael’s teacher Jean Bujold looked at it.
“It’s a good hands-on experience and an opportunity to learn in a different setting,” she said.
That different setting was the Manitou Rapids reserve west of Emo, where the class spent the mild, sunny day learning things one wouldn’t find in a classroom.
The 25 students were greeted by Liz Bombay, child resource co-ordinator for the Rainy River First Nations, who left them with a thoughtful message.
“We’re doing this so you, your children, and your children’s children will have a chance to do this themselves,” she said. “The theme today is individual responsibility and personal action.”
With that, the group was split into six teams and were taken a short distance from the gymnasium to a creek, where RRFN watershed program co-ordinator Martin Nantel assigned them the responsibility of assessing the creek’s health.
Nantel was assisted by Bujold, Bombay, RRFN recreational director Selina Haltom, project officer Damien Lee, Genny Sadewasser, tree specialist Rick Neilson, Pauline Hyatt, and several parent-volunteers.
Next came a session on how to identify various trees in the area—a task made more difficult by the fact the leaves are not out yet. Neilson gave the children small branches of several different species, then they were off to try and identify them by themselves.
All the while, the group was accompanied by a yellow Labrador retriever that had decided a day with a group of children was better than sleeping in the yard.
The children apparently agreed—even though the dog did interfere somewhat with the next phase of the program.
The students then were given an explanation of the value of wetlands to the ecosystem by Haltom, who used a series of buckets and sponges to show how swamps, and the plants they support, filter the water we eventually use in our homes.
The dog took this as its cue to attempt to eat one of the sponges—much to the delight of the children.
Next, the teams competed in a sort of relay race in which they had to saturate a sponge with water from one bucket and then transfer its contents to an empty one a short distance away—in effect, mimicking what takes place in wetlands.
This little game was followed by lunch back at the gymnasium.
“It all began last fall,” explained Bujold of how the outing came about. “We [the Grade 3 class] responded to a competition regarding recycling in Rainy River [District], so we all wrote letters outlining our reasons for recycling.
“That’s when Damien [Lee] contacted us and invited us out here for Earth Day.”
After lunch, the children engaged in an art challenge, in which they painted symbolic logos on cotton material, before going out for the second part of the schedule.
They spent the afternoon conducting a landfill audit, attending a composting workshop, and participating in a recycling sorting race. At the end of the day, each child was presented with a prize and sapling to take home and plant.
Bujold said the outing was an outstanding success and intends to make it an annual affair.
“Yes, absolutely we’ll do this again,” she remarked.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
