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River Kayaking

10/21/2013

 
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Hi parents. Our final two days of kayaking are coming up this week. Half the students will be kayaking the river on Tuesday and the other half on Thursday. No more than 8 students will be on the river at a time. Some students will need to be in the second group on each day, which will only finish at about 3:15. We will make sure any students with after school sports or commitments are done at the regular bell time. Please email me tonight if your son or daughter has a scheduling conflict and I will make sure they are in the first group. Feel free to have your son or daughter phone or text you at break tomorrow to let you know when they will be at the river, if you would like to see them off or finish. We start at the Vedder Bridge and get out at the Lickman road parking lot. Students who do not kayak will be doing a PE run at the river and back to the school.

In other news. We are extremely happy with how well our three day trip on the Flora Loop trail went. We have a large amount of great pictures of smiling faces we would like to start posting on this website. There are still four people who have not handed in a photo release form. As soon as we have those we will post some pictures with faces in them. I have attached the photo release form below and I will remind those students about the form tomorrow.

Finally, we will begin working on our next fundraiser for the Bowron Lakes trip shortly. More info to come. Ideas we are looking into include a bottle drive and possibly selling Purdy's chocolate. If you have other ideas or are willing to help in this endeavour, please let us know.

photo_release_form_2013.pdf
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Oct 16-18 Multi-Day 

10/9/2013

 
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Hi Parents

Our culminating trip for Term 1 is coming up on Wednesday Oct 16. It is a two day trip along the Greendrop Lake, Flora Lake loop trail.

Attached to this post you will find our trip information package, including a meal planning guide and gear list. Students need to pack for cold weather, and likely some snow. All details are in the package. Students received this package in class today as well.

We also have a full day hike on Friday, which I mentioned in the previous post.

lindeman-flora_trip_package.pdf
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Extended Days This Week

10/6/2013

 
Hi Parents

Please check the calendar for our trips this week. We have two kayaking trips and a full day hike. All three trips go past the bell schedule. This is how we had to schedule the kayaking to fit with our kayak instructors schedule.

Monday: Kayaking on the Sumas Canal. This will be the students first experience with moving water. We are finished at the canal by 3:00 and will be back at school by 3:30. It is especially important that students check the weather and dress accordingly on this day. No cotton should be worn and a warm fleece and rain shell are essential on top. There is low risk of any tipping on this trip so we just want  to be warm and dry. Non-cotton gloves are also essential.

Wednesday: We will be walking to the Vedder River Bridge for our first river kayak session. Students will not be doing the full river run but will be working on eddie turns and ferrying across the river. We will be using small groups (1/4 of the class at a time) Students must dress warm and bring layers to the river. 1/2 the class will go for a PE run by the river while the other half do their river sessions. Students must bring running shoes as well as shoes that can get wet this day. Warm fleece layers and rain shells are essential. Packing a towel is also a good idea as there is a bigger risk of tipping when learning these skills. Students who have after school sports will be in the first group in order to get back to the school by the end of the day. The sessions will be done by 3:00 and we will be back at school by 3:30.

Friday: We will be doing our second full day hike on this day. Students will be studying how elevation affects the ecosystems of the Flora Lake Ridge Hike, near Chilliwack Lake. In order to complete this hike and get some teaching in as well we will be meeting at school at 7:15. We will be home by 5:30.

We realize it is a busy week but we are simply trying to take advantage of the warmer weather we have left.

Thanks
Chris and Jason

Film Festival Bake Sale

10/4/2013

 
We wanted to thank all of students and parents who helped with our bake sale this week. Whether you supplied baking, attended the movie night, or just drove students around, we appreciate it. We continued selling the baked goods at school today, and will be selling the remaining cookies this Monday. To date, we have raised $320 dollars. Thank you!

In case you did not know, we are fundraising for a 3-night canoe trip at the end of May on the world famous Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit. Last year we finished our canoe unit with a one-night canoe trip. We want to expand this trip. However, a trip to the Bowron Lakes takes us beyond the budget we established last year. In order to keep the academy fees the same year-after-year, we will fundraise the difference.

This region in the Caribou mountains also fits very well with our spring units in Social Studies and we are working on the logistics of a visit to Barkerville. Chris and I did this trip with our families this summer and we loved this beautiful place. The planned dates for the trip are posted on our calendar. They are May 23 to May 28.

Thanks again. It is great to have so much parent support. Please feel free to email us any questions.

Jason and Chris

A successful Warm-up camping trip

10/3/2013

 
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Hi parents. 

Our first trip up to Lindeman Lake was a good one. Students came well prepared and the weather was foggy but not rainy last night. We took a while, but all groups set up their campsites and cooking areas, cooked their own dinners, and then cleaned up. It was a big job and it was fairly late after all that, so it was tent time for all around 10:00. The next morning, all the groups showed what they had learned the night before and were much quicker and efficient at lighting their stoves for breakfast. It was nice to have blue sky for a campfire knot lesson and a quick ecology hike to the end of the lake. 

We tried to send out a message on our twitter and facebook pages using our gps satellite but now I am seeing it did not send. I will try to remember to do that earlier in a open area on the next trip. Sometimes the signal does not work well in the forest.

Thanks for having your kids well prepared. There is still much to learn but that is what experience is for.

Chris and Jason

P.S. Bake sale volunteers we are at GW Graham at 6:30 to get organized. $7.00 if you are staying for the shows.

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