The First-Ever SEL & Equity Fair
Eugene Reimer Middle School and Blue Jay Elementary have teamed up for the first-ever Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Equity Fair. Eugene Reimer Middle School students have been hard at work inquiring about what would make the world an even better place for kids. Grade 7 students concluded it is to help younger students connect with their emotions.
Mrs. Sidhu’s class created a SEL and Equity Lunch Kit geared towards helping students connect and relate to others by understanding themselves and their emotions better. They then organized and held their first-ever SEL and Equity Fair on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.
Students shared their emotions through personal narratives and discussed effective ways of self-regulating their emotions. Beginning in September 2021, students worked diligently to create lunch kits with a focus on Social-Emotional Literacy and Equity. Student designed interactive SEL Equity Lunch Kits and then with the participation of Reimer staff worked together to hold an Equity Fair. This allowed students to demonstrate their learning and pay it forward to their future Reimer classmates from Blue Jay elementary school. These students attended Reimer for the day and participated in interviewing of special guests with questions focused on emotions and equity. Each student took part in a variety of hands-on activities to explore their thought on emotions including designing apples of intersectionality, creating a cookie about their adult connections at school, and designing sunglasses to teach others how they see things and hear each other's stories through our emotions.
Students additionally participated in a Milk Moustache photo booth that built cultural bridges as many people from diverse cultures have experienced a milk moustache. The Milk Moustache activity was just another creative and artistic way to allow people to connect on similar experiences. Special guests interviewed at the SEL and Equity Fair included Assistant Superintendent Nathan Ngieng, several SFU professors, Mayor Braun, and Chief Constable Mike Serr as well as many more special guests including our esteemed School Board chair Stan Peterson. Guests shared the strategies of how they deal with their emotions as well as stories that shaped their own personal narrative with students and staff.
Mrs. Sidhu's goal was to have these special guests share with youth how they self-regulate their emotions, especially when faced with challenging situations in life. Students learned how similar we all are as well as how to continue to celebrate our differences. This reflective process was an authentic and meaningful exercise that helped our students to better understand who they are and what they stand for.
Eugene Reimer students were proud to share this SEL and Equity Lunch Kit project which connected and strengthened our relationship between Blue Jay elementary school and our surrounding community. We felt this was especially important at a time when self-care is most needed. What better way to learn than to have students teaching students how to self-regulate in a world that is always changing.