LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - A fall camp at Ekhali Lake gave junior high students and teachers from Thomas Simpson School the chance to learn more about cultural teachings and each other.

Michael Neyelle, left, shows Tyler Lafferty, Ivor Cli-Norwegian, Sara Amundson, Golia Cazon and Brendan Hardisty how to skin and cut up a rabbit during Thomas Simpson School's junior high fall camp at Ekhali Lake. - photo courtesy of Thomas Simpson School

Forty students along with nine teachers and special needs assistants spent from Sept. 9 to 10 at the lake located outside of Jean Marie River. The camp provides cultural programming for the students but also fosters a sense of solidarity between the students in Grades 7, 8 and 9, said Steve Nicoll, who teaches language arts, health and sciences at the junior high level.

During the year many of the junior high courses are taught in multi-grade classrooms in part so the older students can provide assistance to the younger ones. The camp helps build a foundation for that interaction, Nicoll said.

The camp is also important for the staff because it lets them get to know the students in a setting outside of the classroom.

"So much of what we do is a social relationship," Nicoll said.

"You have to really know them."

By getting to know the students and their personality you learn who they will work well with and what teaching strategies they will respond to, said Nicoll.

Teachers and students interacted at the camp while rotating through a series of activities that included traditional plant gathering, checking snares, hunting moose, tea boiling, geo-catching, beading, handgames and making dreamcatchers. Hart Apples, Michael Neyelle and Edward "Chicky" Cholo taught the cultural components.

"Everyone had a great time. I can't imagine a better time," Nicoll said.

For Michael Gast, a Grade 8 student, the highlight of the trip was the scary stories that Nicoll and a few students told around the fire on Thursday night.

"The little kids got really scared," Gast said.

Gast, 13, also enjoyed checking the snares that were set along a trail leading off of the highway. Although his group didn't find anything another group snared a rabbit that was brought back to the camp and eaten.

Being at camp at the same time meant that people in different grades had to interact more than they do at school, said Gast.

Classmate Tia Hardisty agreed that at the camp you get to know the other students as well as the teachers more.

"They let loose and talk," said Hardisty about the teachers.

Hardisty, 13, enjoyed picking high bush cranberries and cleaning a fish, something she'd only done once before. She also like helping Fawna Erasmus, a special needs assistant who ran the kitchen at the camp, prepare meals.

"It was fun and we learned new things," Hardisty said.

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