An exciting field trip to the West Coast is just winding up for 26 Eliza Archie Memorial School students, June 15-20.
Along with 14 adults, the children stayed in dorms at Jamie's Rainforest Inn in Tofino, where they all got a chance to go out on the ocean to experience whale watching.
Prior to leaving, school principal Barb MacLeod noted the students worked hard at raising money for the trip.
"The school took on selling beef jerky, chocolate bars and lollipops, and we made advertising buttons to order – we did very well with that."
The students also held a bottle drive and tooney bucket raffles and sold cedar wreaths and cinnamon buns, she said, adding their parents also got involved in organizing turkey shoot games and canteens at sports jamborees.
Leading up to the trip, the children studied whales both by reading and by learning with puppets, figurines, painting and making play dough models, she explained.
"We watched some whaling on a video, a historical account where they showed First Nations in canoes and how the whales would come right up underneath.
"It's an outdoor learning adventure. We can't do any of this here, so that is the whole point of picking this spot. It's a pretty big deal."