Seb's class have been reading the book "Paddle to The Sea" over the last few weeks. It's about the adventures of a little carved wooden canoe called Paddle who journeys along a river from central Canada making his way towards the sea. To accompany the story and help bring it to life in their imaginations each child carved their own little cottonwood canoe. Last week to celebrate finishing their reading of the story the class decided to have a celebration during which they would each launch their canoes into the Bow River and let them head off on their own adventures and perhaps even make it all the way to sea! The class made colourful felted flags for the parade to the river's edge where Isobel and I and a few other parents joined them for the ceremony. Seb's teacher read an excerpt from the book and Seb and a few others played their recorders while we sang a special song the class had written for the grand occasion. Then one by one, each child launched their boat out into the river and we waved each one off on it's journey. Oh and each canoe had been given a name (Seb named his Sandy) which was written on the bottom of the boat along with the words "please put me back in the water", just to help them along their way. It was all so sweet! Now Seb and I keep talking about where we think Sandy might be now.
