Students and salmon: Howay learning at Hume

For some of the excited kindergarten to grade 2 students from FW Howay, the bus ride alone had them all aflutter.

Afterall, it was a real fieldtrip: a first since the pandemic. And it included a school bus ride! All for a morning of learning about and engaging in nature at Hume Park … particularly centred around the release of young salmon fry that the some of the students had been caring for and monitoring in class.

To start the four classes gathered in a circle, as Ms. Roz (the Indigenous Support Worker at Howay) blessed the event and the fish with a smudging, and then led the group in a salmon song.

Then, divided into learning and activity stations, they rotated through … eagerly waiting for their turn to venture into the shallow sections of the Brunette River and release the fry, one cup at a time, into the water (assisted by Mrs. Martins, with Ms. Roz drumming and singing along with each released salmon).

The kids laughed as they clambered down the little embankment. They waited patiently, learning about how to take a bit of the water into the cup, to help transition the little swimmers into the river. And then they each took a turn participating, waving goodbye as the fry quickly swam off.

In the end, it was a beautiful spring day, filled with excited young voices piping in answers to the questions being asked … marking the end of a class project, a memorable moment along the learning journey of some students, and the start of an adventure for a bucket full of salmon fry.