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On the last day of Bike Everywhere Month, yesterday (May 31st), I went on a trail from Wolseley, which is currently is a popular "cycling and walking route"- meaning that it is closed to vehicle traffic from 8am-8pm - to Westview Park, which is better known as Garbage Hill. I feel like this could be such a great bike route to show our city, and I am hoping that what I saw was the beginnings of an active commute trail being created from one point to the other. A few years ago, my family rented bikes and rode through some of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and into Sausalito. As we passed, we saw the Ghirardelli Factory, and lovely streets. It's great to have chances to see special spots, and it was really clear where to go to see these spaces, because the bike infrastructure is there, Here, there are so many people who are looking to go on adventures with their kids, and while I was on this ride, I saw a man and his child who stopped to ask me if there was a trail from where I had come. I replied "Sort of... If you keep next to Omand's Creek, it becomes more of a path that I hope will be a true bike path soon... " Here is where I started, the bike/walking street: Like many areas in Winnipeg, this beautiful area is known for natural cathedral-like arches of its Elm trees. Winnipeg is home to the largest urban elm forest in North America... From there, I glide down to Omand's Creek, which in this spot seems quite well taken care of.... Then overtop of the train tracks to Wolseley West which I didn't realize was there until I went over those tracks with a bike group one year! You can pass the old, historic St. James Church, where many of my ancestors are buried. But I didn't go as far as that (it's quite close, to go see though, and on a weekend like Doors Open Winnipeg that would be a nice destination). I stopped and went over the just-finished Empress street, with a walkway that is still being built, and I hope is meant to also have a bike trail added... ....because the views of the city are pretty neat there... all the way to downtown one way.......and all the way out west on the Transcanada Highway in the other direction... If you look in that above picture with the sidwalk, and hopefully a bike trail being added, you can see a little bridge that goes across Omand's Creek... that is a little park that was landscaped in the 90s to have a nice space for wildlife (lots of marsh birds) and a return of prairie plants that would have grown there in the past. People don't really notice this area on Empress, right next to Polo Park, but seeing as it is right next to this huge destination mall area, it would be so great to continue to bring beauty to it. In San Diego, they have this ability to have destination businesses in harmony with beautiful plants, trees and sights. Landscaping and beauty can be added anywhere and I hope that is the plan here as there is a lot of construction going on and it's exciting! As I continued along, the lovely bike path sort of ends. Here is the end of it... at St. Matthews. Then it actually does continue on the other side, I learned on the way back, but it seriously starts at the doorstep of this beer store, which is odd: Seeing as there was a sign further back about the little parkland area near the bridge (in the photo above), and that the parkland was made in the 90s, it makes me wonder if this beer store came after that, and is sort of where this little trail should be... but the trail can be moved over for this brief spot. Here the trail becomes lesser, but I could see Garbage Hill so I just went with it. There was still a narrow trail, but not an official one... and I do have to say, the sounds of the marsh birds were always present... would be so nice to take care of this creek for the animals that use it all along... it's been built over and some people don't even know it's there... I think people might think it's just a ditch... but it's a little creek. And then here you are at Westview Park, AKA Garbage Hill, where you can see downtown, and ride or walk up and down... it's a nice view, and a great spot for a sunset :-) And there you have it! My little exploration of what I am hoping will be built into a nice little trail from either Wolseley or Wellington Crescent, or even all the way from Charleswood, because that hooks up through Assiniboine Park... Anyway this could be a nice way to see some different sites in Winnipeg, in an area that people frequent...
You know me, les amis! You know that EVERYTHING becomes a song to me in class, in the hallway... EVERYWHERE! So while I'm out and participating in Bike Everywhere Month (click HERE for the link), you know I must have music in my head the whole time! Well, you are right! I do! It's either music that I'm making up, or songs that pop in my head while I'm out... and while I was out on this bike ride on some cool streets where people aren't allowed to drive their cars right now, songs were popping into my head the whole time! What songs pop into your head? There will be a Flipgrid for this! Your parents know how to access Flipgrid, as they have gotten emails from me about how this works, and I'm looking forward to you telling me what songs pop into your mind when you are riding your bike or walking! The Flipgrid is called Sound Walk, Sound Bike Ride! Here are the songs that popped into my head while I was out for my bike ride, and the names of the songs in case you want to hear the original versions: Of course, nature has its own amazing sounds, and there are a lot of cool sounds in your neighbourhood to hear while you are out walking or riding your bike, and it is lovely to just experience those sounds, like the spring birds (check out our Symbaloo link on this website if you want to find out which birds you heard), the wind... I often hear people playing instruments in my neighbourhood. I bet they can hear me playing songs that I record for you! And also, I went outside on Music Monday and sang the Music Monday song at 11:30am! I think I entertained a delivery guy next door haha! Anyway, here is a book about going on a sound walk, and hearing all you can hear. It's called The Listening Walk, by Paul Showers! I definitely have to get this fabulous book for our classroom: What do you hear when you are out for a walk or bike ride? Check out Flipgrid to share, if you would like!
In a previous post, I had shared a Music of Nature Scavenger Hunt! Did you try it? What did you find? You can write in the comments below, or email me with the email link above, or share in Microsoft Teams... lots of ways to share! Regarding the music of nature... listen to what I heard on a bike ride in Assiniboine Forest! Good thing I have Bird Songs and Frog and Toad Calls on Symbaloo to try and find out what I was listening to!! Years ago, I created this video of one of my favourite sounds in the world: the ice melting on Lake Winnipeg... it sounds like little ice cubes in a glass... but EVERYWHERE... It's such a lovely sound... you would have to turn the sound up, but nothing compares to hearing it live: Regarding the music of nature... listen to what I heard on a bike ride in Assiniboine Forest! Good thing I have Bird Songs and Frog and Toad Calls on Symbaloo to try and find out what I was listening to!! It's these kind of sounds that inspire creating music by so many composers... for example, Vince Ho, who created the Arctic Symphony, or Terje Isungset who is so inspired by water, that he creates instruments out of ice! Of course, we have also been inspired by nature to compose music... in music class! We create music based on the sounds of water, the movement of polar bears, and here is a link to music that students created from a poem about a stream, that they collaborated with composer Harry Stafylakis to have a piece created for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 2019! What an amazing experience! Check it out HERE. TedEd has created Earth School, with 30 days of challenges. Check it out here: Then you can go to their link by clicking HERE and scroll down on the page until you see their daily challenges, which look like this:
The Earth Day mic drop of the day... The Lorax read by Wes Tank, as a rap. "Wes Tank raps Dr. Seuss' classic children's book "The Lorax" over Dr. Dre's legendary hip hop beats for "Still D.R.E.", "California Love" and "Lil' Ghetto Boy" with much due respect to the flows and styles of Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Daz Dillinger. All words and illustrations belong to Dr. Seuss. All instrumentals belong to Dr. Dre. This cultural mashup was created by TankThink for edutainment purposes." Earth Day is on Wednesday, April 22nd, and many organizations have decided to celebrate all week, so it is Earth Week! On the right of this page, you can see our @ESGEnviroClub Twitter feed where I will be sharing environment ideas all day! I have made a video so we can sing together. Check it out below! You can show me the 'instrument' you found or created in your house out of everyday objects or reusable items in the Flipgrid video response: Grade 1/2 click HERE for the link. Please email Mme Jennifer for the password! Grade 3-5: the Flipgrid link is in Microsoft Teams for our school division. If you aren't sure how to get there, your parents got an email today, with a video that explains everything... can't wait to see your creations! Here is a fun activity to experience the music of nature! Go on a sound walk! What do you hear as you are going on your walk in your neighbourhood with your family? This link (click HERE) is a Sound Scavenger Hunt to enjoy! Look what other schools around the Louis Riel School Division are doing for Earth Day today! Click HERE to find out more! Check out this fantastic Earth Day Choice Board from Alex Mandaliti of the WSD!
Taken directly from the earthday.org email... "Because Earth Day Network has three ways you can participate with 24 hours of action, a global digital surge and a full day of livestreamed content with Earth Day Live. Make sure to visit earthday.org for all of your Earth Day needs! More from the EarthDay.org email:
"With 24 hours of action, we’re featuring a new action every hour on April 22. These are actions that you can take, right now and from your own home to continue our collective fight for the planet. From committing to vote, to contacting your representatives, to making diet changes—tune into earthday.orgevery hour of Earth Day and join millions of others worldwide as we take action for our planet.Make your voice heard in the global digital surge by participating in the social media storm. We’re flooding digital platforms with messages of hope, optimism and action to keep environmental action front and center in our collective global conversation. Join in from wherever you are with the hashtag #EarthDay2020. And we’ll be hearing from partners and thought leaders across the climate movement on the Earth Day Live livestream. Join us for video messages from former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, actor and activist Zac Efron, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, media personality Van Jones, Grammy Award-winning musician Ricky Kej, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and more. Earthday.org is the hub of Earth Day activities. Make sure to keep visiting the website for our daily challenges as we count down to April 22nd!" Check out activities for Environmental Education at Home by clicking HERE! |
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