Category Archives: Safety

Taekwon-do “Black Belt Attitude”

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FOCUS!       SHOW RESPECT!      SET GOALS! 

You might think this is the front page of a School Planner, but it was actually part of a Martial Arts lesson on getting better grades in school!  Recently, we had an exciting visit from Mr. Reinelt of Triumph Taekwon-do and he introduced us to the “Black Belt Attitude“! 

We learned about listening with your eyes, your body, and your mind!  Respect is one of the most important parts of Taekwon-do and no one… NO ONE… uses Taekwon-do if they are just mad at someone.  It is for self-defense only.     Some of the steps to improving yourself are to: focus, be organized, set goals, try your best, and use teamwork. 

Mr. Reinelt showed everyone how to do a proper “snap-kick” and then we had a competition between 2 students to see who could kick the most high kicks in a minute!  It was a tie!   We practiced our jumping up and ducking down by trying to escape the DREADED YELLOW NOODLES! Oh my!  Then we practiced teamwork in a game called Pass the Pizza!

It was a LOT of fun and laughing but we learned a lot too! Maybe some of us might even join Taekwon-do!  It would take a LONG time to become a 6th degree Black Belt like Mr. Reinelt though!!!  http://www.triumphtkd.com/instructors.html

 Here we are in action!

 

 

Going on a Bear Hunt!

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There’s a bear over there… where?… THERE!!!

After seeing that LIVE bear in Nestor Park, we were inspired to learn more about the American Black Bear.  Thanks to Mrs. Boekhout’s neighbour, a big STUFFED bear came to visit our class.  He looked exactly like a real bear cub! (One of our custodians even borrowed the bear to give the teaching assistant a big fright, after he got a fright himself, when cleaning our desks after school!)

It was really interesting to learn the “bear facts” about this local wildlife.   We think we know why the real bear came to visit Nestor… there are lots of blackberries growing along the park edge, and he was probably trying to fatten up for his winter (partial) hibernation.  (Those are the same plant that Mrs. B. feeds to our walking stick insects!)  The bear we saw was almost as long as our whiteboard! (one and one-half meters) and probably had 4 cm. long claws!  By 6 months old, cubs weigh as much as we do in Grade 2! Most of us knew that bears are omnivores (eat meat and plants too), like humans, but we also learned that they are plantigrades, like humans… we both walk flat on our feet.  Bears are strong, run fast, swim well, and like to climb.  The famous white “B.C. Spirit Bear” is actually a kind of black bear!  Black bears are not all black (isn’t that funny!), they can be blonde, cinnamon, and brown too!

We also learned about BEAR SAFETY.  If you see a bear, don’t run away and don’t approach it.  STAY CALM! Speak softly so that the bear doesn’t get a surprise that someone is there. Back away slowly.  Get indoors.

http://www.bearaware.bc.ca/bears/index.html

Even though bears can be dangerous, we were still glad that we live in a community that values and welcomes nature!

Thank you, Mrs. C., for sharing YOUR bear with us!
We really felt he should have a name though.  Our classroom teddy bears are named StrawBEARy and BlueBEARy, so we decided to call your bear BlackBEARy, of course!  We hope you like his new name!